8726/Unwelcome Cargo

From United Heroes MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Unwelcome Cargo
Date of Scene: 10 August 2019
Location: The docks at Port Newark
Synopsis: The war on child slave trafficking has just begun.. and two unlikely suspects may have just forged an alliance: Elektra and the Shadow.
Cast of Characters: Elektra, Shadow




Elektra has posed:
If there was one thing that could be said about ports, it was that they were lousy with undocumented cargo, and even more polluted with crooks and theives and others who made their living off of the misery of others. And while Elektra normally had better places to prowl, there had been rumours of a shipment of children's 'toys' coming in. A shipment that didn't check against any manifest she could find.

Mind, her contacts were less than when she ruled the Hand, but she knew how these things worked, and she had more than small suspicions that 'children's toys' was a codeword for something altogether less innocuous: namely, children to be sold into the various sorts of slavery that populated the underworld.

Sex. Drugs. Sweatshops. Training bodies to be discarded after they'd helped another learn their skills. She'd seen it all.

And this shipment she intended to stop.

Shadow has posed:
    Of course, nothing truly goes 'undocumented'; it's just that sometimes the documentation doesn't match what's actually in the containers. For various entirely-aboveboard reasons of its own, Cranston Multinational Shipping keeps a close eye on what goes in and out of ports even when it's not shipped by themselves -- after all, the more complete your understanding of the traffic patterns, the easier it is to spot an incipient gap in the market and fill it before a competitor can.

    Slightly /less/ aboveboard is that that information gets funneled into the information systems set up by the internet legend known only as 'Oracle' where it's correlated with other, less legally acquired data, to look for other patterns entirely -- such as which customs officers recently went on an expensive vacation or bought their spouse a new car, or matching money flows from known organized crime accounts to supposedly-legitimate warehousing and shipping enterprises...

    And with enough data, red flags start popping up. Enough of them that the Shadow has decided to investigate.

Elektra has posed:
Elektra doesn't follow flags. At least not the way Shadow might. She follows street rumours. Those still in her pocket. Things that don't add up - it's not jsut documents that say one thing but suggest another. It's places where lies don't meet one another and fill the gaps. Sloppy workmanship on paper. Someone who didn't know what the actual deal was. The foreman who brags about the extra money he's got. The trip he's going to take.

The little things.

And with the Foot clan openly recruiting children.. Not that Elektra believed they'd stopped this low yet, but the Hand had. She couldn't prove the Foot had. But she'd made a pointed message out of her own men for this sort of trafficking. Women. Children. People nobody cared about. People who even if they were on manifests as cargo numbers, livestock, didn't exist at home - they were literally chattel. Not quite born and bred to this, but when you had 5 daughters and too many mouths to feed, things happened. This was understood. People went missing. It was dangerous being a girl.

Elektra, herself, had been trained fighting just such cargo. She had no illusions about what those containers could hold.

Today, it was 18 containers on a ship that manifested 15. The uncounted ones were smaller, tucked underneath neatly tiered larger containers that at first glance seemed to occup the exact space they should.

They didn't though. A matter that only became clear on offloading. However, when you pay the dockworkers to come in and do a rush job overnight, who saw those extra containers? Or the nervous looking man who paced between them, gesturing to his two fellows to check numbers, and once the coast was clear, a quick peek inside before loading them onto transports to take them to a private docking facility, and later, likely, dispersement to a warehouse for auction.

It's how it was done.

Shadow has posed:
    No matter how late at night, the City that Never Sleeps will still have people with an urgent need to be someplace else, and its cabs ride at any hour -- and because of that, they're practically invisible as a part of the landscape, even this far out.

    "Busy place for this late at night," Benny muses as he turns a corner, just passing by. "... An' those suits with the guns look kinda nervous..."

    "And well they should. They're not having a good night..." The dark-clad figure in the back seat replies. "Drop me off at the next corner; I'll make my way in from there..."

    The cab slows slightly as it takes the next corner, and the sentry guard that had been looking at it shrugs as it drives out of sight, quietly hoping that that was the most exciting this night is going to be, and ignorant of the flickering shadows moving from cover to cover....

Elektra has posed:
Meanwhile, the cargo containers, the three of them now unloaded and sitting dockside, waiting to be inspected before placed onto the truck that will take them to the private facility, are getting a visitor. a visitor who is doing a manifest 'check' of her own.

Their boss, a certain Leo Chang, speaks in harsh Mandarin to his men, waving his arms at the containers. They're taking entirely too long to check them out.

Unfortunately for goon number one, one of the containers is facing towards open water, and not aligned with the other two, and drawing the short straw of Chang's wrath, he's dispatched to be the one to confirm both container number, and that the cargo inside is alive.

He's going to be disappointed. Rather abruptly so.

There's not even a soft thud of sound as one Elektra Natchios hits the ground from her perch on a nearby pile of containers, and she comes up behind goon one who shall forever be nameless now, and whispers in his ear in very precise and well exectured Mandarin - a native speaker wouldn't catch an accent, *This is for my childhood*. Which might be entirely more emotion or understanding than she's given to a kill before. Certainly the most personal of deliveries.

Alas, he's not proof against a broken neck. But were he, she has weapons for that, too.

His body takes an ungraceful slump to the ground, leaving goons two and three, and Mr. Chang, who really is not only an impatient man, but one who is getting more anxious by the moment: His truck should have been here ten minutes ago. Where was it?

Poor Mr. Chang. His people aren't the only ones with an understanding of how to manipulate digital records. Or, you know, things like stop lights. GPS signals. Things like that.

Shadow has posed:
    Out on the perimeter, one of Mr. Chang's sentries has the unhappy task of informing him that there is no sign of the truck anywhere, and one of Mr. Chang's loyal - and currently somewhat nervous - lieutenants raises their own radio to call the truck driver and ask him what the hell is taking him so long.

    The truck driver, for their part, consults their GPS and route map, which cheerfully informs him to take a left at the next intersection, and he's about five minutes from his destination... Which is the same it said five minutes ago. Stupid tech.

    Mr. Chang's response to the report is memorable... And it entirely drowns out the sound of aforesaid sentry taking a right cross to the face and falling unconscious.

    The Shadow takes a moment to drag the body somewhere it won't be found before making her way deeper into the unloading area. Those big floodlights make things slightly inconvenient... But even as they cast bright pools of light, they cast even deeper pools of shadow.

Elektra has posed:
The noise also drowns out any possibility of anyone noticing Elektra flipping to the top of the container that she'd killed goon one behind, and the night's shadows cover her passage atop it. It's not that there weren't lights on the dock, but for some reason or another these sorts of containers were always found in the darker corners of the place. Usually that suited everyone just fine. Tonight, however, that was going to work against them.

With Natasha's goon down, and Elektra's, that leaves one goon and Mr. Chang. And Mr. Chang, who still isn't done cursing the truck driver and his ancestors, has grabbed the log from goon two and slapped him across the face as though this all were /his/ fault for some reason, and marches towards the farthest of the three containers.

Goon three is given the unhappy task of standing there and waiting for the truck that is never coming. At least not soon enough to save them.

Sadly, or perhaps helpfully, Elektra is going to make his wait a very short one. She slips from the top of the container, and before said goon can ever cry out, she's taken careful aim with first one sai, and then with a low spin, the other. The first did the trick, but the second didn't hurt. Unless you were goon three, who in short order was past hurting at all.

Leaving poor Mr. Chang as the last piece in a who gets there first scavenger hunt. Then again, Chang actually paid attention to his training, and wasn't a fool. He might be a very angry, anxious man at the moment, but he was also a well armed man who knew how to throw not only strikes, but use those weapons.

He also had a gun. It had been Mr. Chang's experience that most people stopped when they saw a gun. Too many of them had seen Jackie Chan movies and took any martial stance as a challenge. But guns? They were pretty much the universal 'nope' signal.

Mr. Chang liked his gun for that very reason.

Shadow has posed:
    Of course, that fact about guns goes both ways. Something Mr. Chang has not consciously considered until the very distinct sound of a safety clicking off comes from just behind his head.

    "{Make no foolish moves, Cheng Huo, and you might not meet join your anscestors tonight,}" whispers a voice that brings up associations with some of the darker sides of Chinese mythology, the effect augmented by its near-fluent Mandarin...

Elektra has posed:
Well, that was disappointing. For Elektra, not Mr. Chang.

He's not *quite* convinced he should listen to the voice, yet. After all, he has some moves Jackie Chan hasn't seen. He's feeling fairly confident he can unarm one gun weilder. Confident enough he reaches up in a rather lightning fast little maneuver to grab at the wrist holding the fun whose safety has gone off, intent on twisting his body, letting body weight offbalance and disarming. Leaving him with a sum total of two guns and some not insignifacant martial arts moves.

That voice, though, it does send chills down his spine, but generally your worst nightmare doesn't negotiate, and really, has he anything to lose?

Likely. Or, if he didn't were it only the Shadow. Unfortunately for Mr. Chang, who really should have checked his horrorscope(sic) today, the Shadow isn't the only one with an interest in the man.

And while Elektra doesn't have a gun, she does have some rather exquisitely balanced throwing knives, amongst other things.

Her first blade pins his hand to his own shoulder.

From the shadow she's emerging from, her voice carries with an elegant, but dark lilt, "You get a warning because someone beat me to you. Move, and the next blade lands between your eyes. I really wouldn't consider calling my bluff."

Shadow has posed:
    Of course, Elektra's outfit is almost as distinct and well known as her choice of weapons -- not to mention her legendary lack of patience with people who insist on trying stupid heroics. The part of Cheng Huong's mind that isn't dealing with the agony in his hand and shoulder weighs the odds, factors in the unknown with the gun behind him, and decides that one foolish decision is all he's going to allow himself tonight.

    He sinks to his knees, placing the palm of his free hand on the ground in front of him - as much for necessary balance as it is a gesture of submission. "Wh-- what is it you want?" he asks in between gasps of pain.

Elektra has posed:
"I want you dead. Painfully. Terribly. Horribly. Slowly. Dead."

As she speaks, Elektra moves forward, sai drawn now. She might be very good with any number of weapons in the ninja trade, but the sai were hers. If anyone owned a weapon and made them their own, it was she, and they. The tip of one tucked under his chin as she hunkers down to be more on his level.

"Then again, dead men tell only one tale. And I believe your friend there might take issue if I deprive them of any fun. So, what say we agree you're going to carry a message for us, hrm? And should I find out that the message is not delivered, or it carries anything but the words you're given," She slips into Mandarin again, "I will hunt down anyone you have ever cared about, and when they're gone, I'll come for you."

It could be an idle threat, but then again, she'd not only made her living as an assassin, but she'd ruled the Hand as well. And if you knew that, you might also know she remained Black Sky.

With a flip of the sai up his cheek, dragging deeply enough to cut into the flesh, she stands, and nods to the other. "This ends," she tells him, slipping back into English. "Tell your boss they're done in the slave trade."

No, she doesn't imagine his boss will listen, but word will spread to others. Word that will do half her work for her. The men above Chang were always going to be a problem she had to deal with personally. Chang just meant the people below him would think twice, if not more, before blythely carrying out their orders. And if they did? Well, sooner or later the bodies piling up would make it a lot harder to hire anyone willing to do the dirt work, and their bosses would find her.

Elektra would be ready when they did.

Shadow has posed:
    Chang Huong glares up at Elektra, clenching his teeth around a retort that could make this woman change her mind about letting him live, a distant part of his mind trying to figure out a way to explain his total failure tonight to his superiors in a way that will let him survive the discussion... And then that voice behind him chuckles. "{And just in case her word will not suffice... Turn around, Cheng Huong. Turn around and face me...}"

    Painfully, awkwardly, Cheng does so... And freezes as he catches his first glimpse of what lurked behind him -- an amorphous shape, with two blazing blue eyes and a crimson maw grinning at him from the shadows, an image straight out of China's many hells, of things which devour the souls of the oathbreakers and the dishonored, leaving their shades to suffer endless torment...

    Mr. Cheng was not a religious man, nor a superstious one. But Cheng Huong can only scream in primal terror and attempt to scramble backward, only to stumble and fall when his hand still won't come loose from his shoulder. The impact drives the sai further into his shoulder, and the pain is enough to make him pass out into blissful oblivion...

    The Shadow looks down at the body, than back at Elektra. "Miss Nachios. I hadn't expected to see you here tonight... But it is fortuitous nonetheless. There are matters of mutual interest we should discuss..."

Elektra has posed:
"I may regret giving you that tidbit," Elektra drawls in an amused manner. "I wasn't expecting you, either."

There's an incline of head towards the other, and Elektra tucks her weapons away.

"I understand the necessity of many things. I will tolerate much. But there will be no more children. That ended with me."

Well, not precisely her, but her point was more that if she could stop another being made as she had been, her days would have been well spent.

"I imagine there are many matters of mutual interest we should discuss. I would suggest somewhere other than here." She smiles behind her scarf, though her words still carry that warmth afterwards, "You know my name. You'll know how to find where I live. I'll be expecting you."

And with that, she slips into the shadows herself, and disappears. Perhaps not with the grace of one who is naught but, and commands them, but she is still who she is and what she was. Much like she's said, she'll be waiting for the Shadow when she gets there. Likely with a beverage appropriate to the moment. As Shadow said, they had matters to discuss, and one of them was their relationship going forward.