Log:Busting Haoran

A List of Questions 2019/10/16 	 Night Marshal Mechanica

10

The unlikely duo of El Vaquero (Night Marshal) and La Bandita (Mechanica) arrive in Chinatown, scoping out a chinese restaurant from the shadows an alley across the street. The doors are closed and the restaurant is empty, save for one table with five men in the back. The lights are on, but the sign at the front has been flipped to closed.

Night Marshal tilts his head, "So, the guy's in there?"

"From my last update? Si." Mechanica focuses on the small security camera on the interior of the restaurant, hacking into its feed. She raises a palm an projects an image of the feed that gives a closer look of the men.

Night Marshal nods. "Can you make out what they're saying? And translate it if it's in Chinese? I'm afraid I don't really speak the lingo."

Mechanica turns on the sound, at low levels. They are all speaking in Chinese. Mechanica sucks on her teeth briefly. "I haven't installed any translation software. And I don't speak it, either. English? Check. Japanese? Hai. Spanish? Claro que si. But not Chinese."

Night Marshal sighs. "I should learn it at some point. But I reckon I ain't got the time for that. At least we might hear some names and pick them out."

Mechanica doesn't have an ear for Chinese. She's struggling to make out anything. Night Marshal manages to pick out a few words. "Char siu bao" "Haoron" "Pride" are the few words he can identify.

The waiter, or maybe the restaurant owner, is yelled for and comes out with a fresh pot of tea to serve to the table. He looks uncomfortable, but also deferential.

Night Marshal nods. "I'm tempted to go in there, but I suspect that with five of them, it'll turn into a fight. I heard his name. And Pride's."

"You think they're just going to talk nice with you, Vaquero?" Mechanica asks in amusement.

Night Marshal shakes his head, "Unlikely. All the more reason to not have that many of them around.

Mechanica inspects the claws on her free hand as the feed stays up in her other palm. "Bueno. We wait for them to leave, then?" she asks with a sly smile. "How will we kill the time?"

Night Marshal nods. "I think waiting for them to leave seems prudent." He continues listening ot hte discussion coming in over hte microphone. "I'm not sure. Probably something that isn't too distracting?"

Mechanica chuckles quietly to herself. "I have some research I need to do on some other jobs. But it shouldn't be too distracting," she says. Her mind is already on other crime threads she needs picking up on. She goes quiet and opens another pane near her other hand and starts looking through lines of code.

Twenty or so minutes later, the men in the restaurant finish up their meal and stand up, not even being served a tab, nor paying. They start heading for the back door.

Night Marshal furrows his brow. "They're all leaving together, huh? What do you want to do? Tail them for a bit?"

Mechanica snaps shut her side-pane. "We're just looking for the one so far? Tail them to the back alley. I think we could take them. Or we could wait for them to split up."

Night Marshal nods slowly. "Might as well send a message at the same time." He starts to hurry around, making his way toward the back alley as quickly as he can.

"Alright. I'll have your back." Mechanica starts to fade out of sight as she moves along after him. The pair quickly get around to a side alley to get to the back. The Triads haven't left yet. They're talking by the back door, half of them are in, half of them are out. There's some discussion with the owner that seem mildly threatening and uncomfortable for the owner, who is practically groveling now to appease them.

Night Marshal tries to climb down into the alley without them noticing. He can't really get down there superfast, though.

Not super fast, but super silent. There's a garbage bin big enough to hide behind at the bottom.

Mechanica is dropping down quickly and silently her own way. Night Marshal can catch a glimpse of the fringe of her cloak as she catches up with him.

Night Marshal draws his pistol in one hand and waits until the men get close before stepping out. "We need to have a word."

As the men finish piling out, they all freeze. Except for the restaurant owner, who ducks back inside to hide.

Haoran laughs and says in English, "Halloween's come early." The other four men are defensive, but have an air of nervousness about them. It's a showdown!

Night Marshal nods. "I reckon it has. The Assistant DA's home looked like a slasher flick." He pauses a moment. "I know about the list."

Haoran's smug look falls to something colder. "Don't know anything about that," he denies.

Night Marshal chuckles. "You lie horribly. You know that, right?" He takes a deep breath. "I'm sending you a message. Keep pushing this, and I'm going to beat you down. Hard. Not just the organization. But you five. Personally."

Haoran looks to his friends, making eye contact, before looking back at Night Marshal. They may not be convinced yet. "Seems to me, you're outnumbered," he says as the others start reaching into their jackets fast for their guns.

Night Marshal already has his gun in hand, but his arm practically leaps to aim at Haoran.

Night Marshal makes a point of shooting Haoran before hte others can react. At least his bullets are non-lethal. Though they may not know it.

Haoran's drawing his knife while the others are going for guns. He shouts and drops, falling on his back and rolling onto his side, falling unconscious.

Mechanica quickly decloaks to Night Marshal's left, crouched and pointing her blaster at the guy closest to grabbing his gun.

A stunning blast, broader than her usually laser, causes another Triad to drop.

Two down already, the other three turn to run.

Night Marshal isn't inclined to chase them, either. They have a couple of people to question now, which was the real goal.

Seeing Night Marshal letting the others go, Mechanica lowers her blaster and stands up from her crouch. The trio turn a corner and keep going. "Facil," she says in spanish with a grin.

Night Marshal nods. "They might be back with more help. We need to question these two quickly, or get at least the leader here up on the roof to question. That'll make it a little more private.

Night Marshal holster his pistol and sees how awake Haoran is. "Wakey, wakey."

Mechanica looks at the size of Haoran. Then at her less than impressive physique. She's skinny, not superbuff. "I think I can get him up there," she points to a nearby roof. She starts tapping out on her gauntlet and around the corner, a wave of black tiny microbots swarm to surround Haoron.

Night Marshal nods. "That works. Perfect. Thank you." He moves to the wall and climbs it, using the cling grips in his gauntlets make it up the wall pretty quickly.

The microbots glide along the side of the building, carrying Haoran up it and depositing him on the roof before they disperse away like a wave. Mechanica climbs up seperately with her glassteel claws.

Night Marshal figures the other guy in the alley will wake soon enough. In the meantime, while Haoran is still unconscious, he searches the man.

Tony Haoran has on him...a wallet, a pair of sunglasses, and a smart phone. Concealed on him is a gun, a big knife, and two other hidden knives. Within the wallet is a small piece of paper with a list of names on them.

Night Marshal pulls the weapons and sets them aside, but where they cna be found later. He takes a look at the list to see if the names look familiar.

Mechanica looks over Night Marshal's shoulder. "What'd you find?" From having studied the list long enough as Carpenter, this does look like a partial list of the names.

Night Marshal nods. "A few weapons. And a list of names. A partial list from the full one. Carpenter's on it." He does some quick math to guess how many pieces the full list has been broken into. He shows the list to Mechanica.

Carpenter's name is at the top. There's a little dash next to it. The next has a check next to it. The other names are still unmarked.

Mechanica sucks on her teeth as she looks at the list. "You did say your friend was alright, si?" she asks as she looks at the list.

Night Marshal nods. "Yeah. Last I heard, he wasn't home when someone broke in."

"Well, lucky for him," Mechanica says after making a mental note of the list. "Looks like Haoran here might have circled back for him later. What do we do with him?"

Night Marshal notes the one with the check mark, "That's the one to worry about. Either this person is dead or has agreed to help them. One or the other." He narrows his eyes, "I'm tempted to drop this guy off the building, but it solves nothing. They'll just pick someone else to do the same."

"We could check in on him. Or make Haoran talk." Mechanica smiles like a cheshire cat. "Oooo, I like the way you think, Vaquero. They may pick someone else...or maybe it'll set an example."

Night Marshal nods to himself. "Based on this, we can probably drop him off with the cops. But we should question him first. Find out who ordered this."

Mechanica nods and paces around to Haoran's head, crouching down. She smacks his cheek a few times. "Wakey wakey." Haoran twitches and flinches at the light slaps, starting to rouse.

Night Marshal walks over as well, "We might need to keep his weapons in case that person was killed. Get a weapon match."

"Bueno. We turn them in along with this creep," Mechanica agrees. She may be a vigilante who does things her way, but she's willing to work with Night Marshal's way of doing things. So far.

Haoran starts to open his eyes, saying something in Chinese before he fully wakes up. He quickly reacts, trying to reach where his gun was hidden, only to find it missing.

Night Marshal looks down at Haoran. "This list. I reckon you were the one to visit Detective Carpenter's home, yeah?"

Seeming himself surrounded, Haoran scowls and puts his hands up slowly. "No speak english," he says with an accent.

Night Marshal snorts. "You spoke English just fine in the alleyway. You left evidence behind when you broke in. And if your buddy in custody rats you out...or second person on your list you spoke to testifies...or is dead, you'll get pinned for what you've done either way."

Haoran sighs as the dumb act doesn't work. "Alright, alright," he relents. "I understand." His eyes narrow at hearing his cohort's in custody. Thinking these aren't cops, he shrugs. "Fine. I was there."

Night Marshal figures Mechanica is likely already recording. "Who ordered this?"

Mechanica is indeed. She stays silent and watches.

Haoran gives another noncommittal shrug. "It has handed down the chain. Probably came from up top. I don't ask."

Night Marshal chuckles. "Who handed it to you, then? I can have another conversation with someone else as needed."

Haoran looks uncomfortable being pressed. "L-look, it came from one of the top guys. You should know who they are. I can't give names."

Night Marshal raises his hand...and discharges the taser on his gauntlet once, causing it to light up. "Either that...or we can make an example, to make sure no one else gets sent to try again."

Mechanica smiles like she wants to say something...but she IS recording, and wants herself left off of it.

Haoran gets twitchy just looking at the sparks from Night Marshal's gauntlet. "Okay, okay! They say they came down from Pride. I-I don't know if it's true!"

Night Marshal nods. "I get that. But who specifically told you. That person's name."

Haoran eyes the gauntlets again. "Lu Yifeng. He split the list between me an another."

Night Marshal nods. "Just the two of you?"

Haoran nods. "Just us," he affirms.

Night Marshal nods and says to Mechanica. "I think that covers what I wanted to ask. Anything you want to add?"

Mechanica frowns a little bit. She doesn't want to be on the recording, but... "What were your orders on the list?" she asks.

"Awww, come on," Haoran pleads to not have to say more.

Night Marshal turns his attention back to Haoran. "Spill it."

"Do you need a reminder?" Mechanica asks Haoran teasingly.

Haoran doesn't. "We...were supposed to approach the list members. Offer them pay to cooperate. Do favors when we needed them."

"Aaaaand?" Mechanica asks as she draws a claw over his cheek. Not scratching. Just to scare.

"....eliminate them so they wouldn't talk if they refused the cash," Haoran sighs.

Night Marshal nods as it confirms what they had believed was the plan. "I reckon that covers the last question I had."

Mechanica nods in satisfaction. She taps her gauntlet. "Recording stopped. -Now- do you want to throw him off the roof?" she laughs darkly.

Haoran panics. "Hey, heroes aren't supposed to do that! I told you everything!"

Night Marshal considers it. "I really, really, want to. But instead, I think we turn him over to the cops."

Mechanica sighs. "Fine. We'll do this the boring way," she says with an eyeroll. But when Haoran isn't looking her way, she flashes a smile and a wink to Night Marshal.