Kindred of The East - Age of Sorrow

[es0terika.livejournal.com]

• 

Honoured ancestors of Bishamon, a mysterious corporation from the West is trying to corrupt the Middle Kingdom and I fear there is little we can do to stop it.
For now I have returned to Nippon with my Wu, the Jade Hand. Allow me to explain how this has come to pass.

We left the lair of the wolf-men and retreated to the Bone Court. Fate seems to have put the aforementioned Pentex corporation in our way, and in our sights, but has provided us with few means to act against them. Thus far we had found but one name, Zhou Enlai. The only decision-maker we had been able to identify and he was not even in the direct employ of Pentex. Zhou Enlai was a Communist Party bureaucrat, the Provincial official for Planning & Construction. We would pay him a visit in Beijing, perhaps we would learn more, but if he was guilty he would die. After some deliberation we decided to tell the Bone Court as little as possible to avoid entangling them directly in the business of our Wu. Few questions were asked of our request to ride the dragon line between the Courts and soon after the ritual began.

We arrived in the Blood Court of Beijing, paying our respects to the Ancestors there upon arrival and stating our business as personal in nature. Soon after we ventured out into the great city of Beijing, the very centre of the Middle Kingdom according to the ancients of our kind. Much had changed since I last passed this way, and as we exited the old Forbidden City I saw that towers of steel and glass had sprang up as far as the eye could see rivaling even Tokyo in its modernity. Still, there was no time to waste and Pongreet set to work with Minsheo's spirit spider tracking down our target.
First we found his place of work, a tall building in the government district, but our nushi reported that his office seemed empty. Next came his home where the rest of his family lived. We watched it for a time deducing that our target must indeed be mortal man albeit a corrupted one. It emerged that Zhou was away on business and would return in a few days time. We made our plans accordingly.

After much discussion our plan, in the end, was a simple one. We would await his return and watch his movements, then when the time was right, we would strike without warning. We rented two vehicles, the first of which, driven by Meifeng, would appear to crash into Zhou's chauffeured car as he was seen exiting the building. Then, myself and Seshwayo would quickly and forcibly bundle our man into the second vehicle, driven by Pongreet, who would pull up in front of the building only seconds behind Meifeng. All went to plan at first and Zhou was thrown into the van, but we had failed to spot the building's armed guards who soon realized what was happening. We fled the scene under a hail of bullets as Pongreet was forced to lose a pursuing Police vehicle through the winding streets of old Beijing.

• 

When we reached our appointed destination, an empty warehouse we had identified the previous night, Zhou Enlai was thrown in side and the doors locked behind us. He cowered on the floor in what appeared to be honest fear. He just took the bribes and asked no questions, he said. Naturally this was not enough but when I raised my sword for the killing blow he presented his phone to us, pointing to a number he had been told to call if anyone ever asked about their arrangement. I paused, we were curious.
Claiming he knew nothing further I instructed him to make the call and ask for a meeting. A way to draw out another another agent of Pentex and move further up the chain. It was not to be however. As soon as he put the phone to his ear and the line connected his head exploded. Literally.
A sophisticated explosive device must have been implanted inside his skull, and from his manner at the time I would guess that it must have been done without his knowledge. I am convinced that Zhou Enlai placed that call in an attempt to save his own life rather than end it as a Kamikaze for his cause. But the number was no lifeline, instead both it and the bomb in the corrupt bureaucrat's head were just another method for Pentex to cover their own tracks. There was nothing to do but dispose of the body and leave the scene.

Knowing that if the Police were looking for us they would not stop with single car chase, we decided to leave. We resolved to return to Chongking if called in that direction, but first decided to leave China for a time while the heat from our actions died down. Slipping over the outer walls of the Forbidden city to avoid detection by the mortal authorities we returned to the Blood Court and from there rode the dragoon lines out of the city and to the relative safety of Okinawa.

Faithfully,
Yamamoto Shinzo of Tanegashima