Log:The First Rule of Kirin Fight Club

2019/10/01 Dark Horse Mechanica 1

This district is home to Colonial Bay's large Chinese community; as much Chinese as English is seen on signs and perhaps more Mandarin is spoken. Most famous is Ming Street, curving round from Beach Street to Wharf Street, always full of tourists, especially at its northern and western end. This is practically a street market, with hawkers extolling their wares to passers-by, and signs and banners advertizing everything from fresh duck to herbal supplies, restaurants and bakeries and other businesses. The Heavenly Dragon Palace and the Buddhist temple are among the more famous sights. But perhaps true Chinatown is south and west of Ming Street, where the tourists rarely go.

Dark Horse is seated on a building opposite the Dragon Palace, currently listening to a bug he has planted in the building. And eating a donut. He has his mask pulled up enough to reveal his mouth and jaw so he can eat. So far, the conversation has been boring. So boring that he's considering just letting the thing record and he can sort it out later.

It's muffled, almost like the sound of something concealed by sound cancelling tech, but there's something on the roof behind Dark Horse. Three or so meters, from the sound of it.

Dark Horse holds the donut in his teeth while he rolls backward and up to his feet with one of his flash bombs in hand. He crouches, looking in the direction that the sound came from.

The fringe outline of a coatwearing figure crouches in a defensive side lunge, extending its right forearm. There's a menacing reddish pink circular glow that looks like a laser charge down the sights of a barrel. As her system draws power, Mechanica's cloaking system drops, revealing her in a downward cascade of holographic panels. "Callate! Calm down!" she warns, which isn't helped by having a gauntlet blaster aimed at him.

Dark Horse relaxes when he sees Mechanica, and he pockets the flash bomb he was about to throw. He takes a hold of hte donut and chews on it a bit more. "You're the one who stirred hte hornet's nest a little while ago here. Mechanica, right?"

Her blaster powers down as Mechanica straightens up. "Maybe," she skirts a confession with a playful smile as she eyes Dark Horse up and down, seeming to check him out based on the flirtatious bodylanguage. But she's checking for additional weapons and toys.

Dark Horse doesn't seem to carry a lot of gear on him. A few small items on his belt. A few pockets. The obvious radio and climbing gear. No guns or anything of the sort.

Dark Horse finishes his food and pulls his mask back down into place. He chuckles quietly, "Surveillance was getting boring anyway, so it's nice for a change of pace. What brings you here?"

"Donuts. Really fitting the fed stereotype, eh?" Mechanica teases as she circles around Dark Horse so she can get a better view of his target. "I was here to find something I missed. But then I saw you and thought," she turns on her heel towards him and purrs out, "I could make a new friend."

Dark Horse shrugs, "I'm not on the fed payroll now. Back to my own devices and resources." He keeps an eye on her as she walks around, but he doesn't seem to be concerned at all. He seems remarkably relaxed now, given how he was just moments before. He chuckles. "Oh? What kind of friend are you looking for?"

The corner of Mechanica's mouth quirks in a pleased reaction to being off fed payrolls. Her body language is relaxed now, but graceful. "Not the type that helps you bury bodies. Don't worry. So...no longer on the federal leash? That sounds like a story."

Dark Horse chuckles. "Not really. Budget got shifted around. The task force was shut down. Not much else to it, honestly. It's nice to be here in the States, though. Going overseas for stuff can cramp the style, so to speak."

"And what style is that? You're not doing this for a paycheck now. So why -do- you do this?" Mechanica asks, taking slow steps closer with her hips swaying. "I have a feeling we may have some goals in common, depending on your answers."

Dark Horse takes a deep breath, trying to decide how much to share. Apparently he can be cautious at times...and flagrantly open at others. "I had a friend die, killed by the mob. Not the Triads, mind you. The Cangelosis. And not here in town. The family has other holdings elsewhere. So...it's a personal thing."

Mechanica is pleased with the answer, but tries not to show it. "I'm sorry to hear about your friend. But it does sound like our interests align." She motions about the area. "After all, you wouldn't be here if they didn't."

Dark Horse heads back over to where he was initially and crouches, picking up his coffee cup that was sitting on the rooftop. "So, what's your interest, then?"

Mechanica glances at the coffee as she follows, still keeping a little distance between them. Only two or so feet. She tries to spy a store name on the cup or donut bag if she can see one. "Call me a concerned citizen," she says easily as she crouches. "I watch out for the People. And the Triads, the Cangelosis, the Cartel, the Yakuza...they're bad business for everyone." Though her umbrella for that expands well beyond just organized crime.

Dark Horse apparently seems to like Jim Horton's coffee and donut shop. There are a couple of them in the area. "Ah...so, not exactly personal? Just business for you?" He stands back up and pulls up his mask to take a sip of his drink.

"Mmmm, a little personal," Mechanica underplays it. Growing up, the Cartel was everywhere. "Moreso with the Cartel and the Yakuza. But why stop there?"

Dark Horse nods. "Grow up here in Colonial Bay? Or are you a transplant like myself?"

Mechanica studies Dark Horse as he drinks, making notes of his jawline, level of shaving, whatever details she can pick up on. "Transplant. I grew up seeing what the Cartel did to people who upset them first hand." Based on her accent, looks, and that tidbit, it's easy to tell she's from central or south America. She squints a little at him, trying to make out his accent.

Dark Horse doesn't have any obvious scars. If he has any, they're covered. And he's clean shaven. Like...clean enough, that he likely shaved in both directions to get to to be smoother.

Dark Horse sounds like he's from out west someplace. But not California.

Mechanica starts thinking about Cangelosi activity out west. There's a few places they could have access to, which may also help link to Dark Horse's friend. Clean cut, though. Seems like a fed habit. Different compared to Daemon's 10pm shadow that he constantly sports. "Perhaps we can prove useful to each other," she says suggestively.

Dark Horse chuckles, and finishes his coffee, "Alright, I'll bite. How could we prove useful to each other?" He pulls his mask back into place.

Dark Horse pauses for a moment, as he hears some Chinese come in over the bug he's left in the Palace. Mechanica can just make out mumbling. He shakes his head and returns his attention to her. "They're ordering food."

Mechanica stands up and smiles sweetly. "Oh, I'm sure we could share information on common interests. I have my resources, as I'm sure you have yours."

Dark Horse nods slowly. "That's true, I do. There's something about your...demeanor that I find a little untrustworthy, though. That, and the whole 'sneaking up on me while trying to be invisible' thing."

"Mmmmm. I think you're just intimidated by certain types of women," Mechanica replies playfully. She holds her hands up halfway, palms forward and empty to show no tricks up her sleeve. "I don't know if I can trust you, yet, either. How about I scratch your back first. Call it...a sign of good faith," she flashes a smile, then lowers her hands. "Then, you can scratch mine. Fair?"

Dark Horse chuckles. "I've sparred with the Markhams. I'm not intimidated." He thinks about it for a moment. "Sure, fair enough."

Mechanica studies Dark Horse curiously after he mentions the Markhams. He doesn't look like he could stand up against them. "Mmm. But did you win?" she grins out of curiosity at this...well...dark horse opponent against the Markhams.

Dark Horse chuckles. "No. But I also didn't lose, so there's that."

Mechanica's eyes light up appreciatively. "Muy interesante. Perhaps you're more the Muscle than I took you for."

Dark Horse laughs, "Muscle. That's a good one." He glances down at the Dragon Palace again briefly, and then back to Mechanica, "So...what did you have in mind?"

Mechanica flashes her pearly whites and looks towards the building. "What do you need? I can get you access. Data. Muscle, for a price. Even some cover fire. Other things are...negotiable. What do -you- need. And if your beef is with the Cangelosis, why are you here? Following up on Ghost Dog's attacks?"

Dark Horse nods. "My 'beef' is with the Cangelosis, but any organized crime is a problem. The issue here is tryig to deal with them without upsetting the balance. If Pride's organization is taken out, Lee will take over. At the moment, they're pretty balanced."

Dark Horse chuckles, "Then again, if I get to punch Pride himself again, that would be just fine. Some nostalgia there."

"Pitting them against each other. Take them both out, another crime family comes in." Mechanica's eyes narrow faintly. "Death by a thousand cuts of compromises. So why not just leave them to their own devices?"

Mechanica smiles thinly at the mention of punching Pride. "Got that close to him? Hmm. Which would you say is the lesser of two evils. Pride? Or Tim Lee?"

Dark Horse shrugs, "I don't know Tim Lee personally. I know Pride is pretty sadistic. Or at least he used to be. I'd lean toward taking Pride's organization out first."

Mechanica taps her chin with a claw. "So why not work to wipe him out? Tim Lee comes to power. Or another family steps up. Bit by bit, take out the greater of two evils until it's something you can live with."

Dark Horse chuckles. "That's part of what I'm doing here. Trying to get something that's working acting on. I need a target. Something that Pride's running that's worth taking down. A drug operation would be ideal, if I could nail down a location."

Mechanica cracks a smile. "That, I may be able to help with," she offers.

Dark Horse nods. "Well, if you can find a target, that would be good enough. How would you go about it?"

Mechanica saddles up next to Dark Horse as she starts routing through the back door she made in the NSA Surveillance database. She traces local text messages in the area and crossreferences those with known connections to organized crime, or any burner phones. "How's this for starters?" With her palms pressed together, she spreads them out diagonally from each other, a large holodisplay appearing between them. It seems gesture controlled. Several windows pop up in a tiled formation, some in english, some in Chinese.

Dark Horse takes a look at the messages, and he's able to read the Chinese without any difficulty. "Mostly pretty benign stuff. This one here is a message about...huh." He pauses, clearly recognizing something. "I helped shut that down. What the hell? Why is the fight club up and running again?"

Mechanica peers in closer, then glances to Dark Horse as he looks confused. "That sounds juicy. Tell me more," she implores, impressed at his skill with languages. She wonders what else he's skilled with.

Dark Horse grumbles. "This is what happens when I go away for an extended time, clearly." He scans a few more messages. "Here's one about a shipment. With a coded location and time. I can figure that one out too." He pulls out a PDA and makes a couple of notes. He glances toward Mechanica as he makes notes, "The Kirin Fight Club is something Pride has run...a couple...well, now THREE times. It's basically an underground meta fighting ring. I went undercover to fight in it a few years ago. Most metas in there only have like one power or two. We're not talking the major bruisers like Wild Bull, either. Just enough of a power level to keep the fights interesting."

In her eagerness to study the texts for anything in english, Mechanica brushes up a bit against Dark Horse's side unless he pulls away in time. "Muy interesante," she smiles at the information. "Sounds like I already found you a lead. Show me which symbols refer to the fight club, and I can search deeper for you."

Dark Horse doesn't actually move away. He doesn't seem to have a problem with her invading his personal space. He points out a few characters, "These three here. Well, and these two. The latter looks like an abbreviated version of the same thing."

"I'll do separate searches," Mechanica says. With a thought, she's executing a find search on all the data she's accessed and expanded the search limits beyond the phones she selected. Anything in the city and any phones connected with the word. The holodisplay shuffles around as expanded search results come up, while others minimize. "The ones at the top are from...heh...alleged associates with Pride's organization."

Dark Horse nods and looks through the notes that have come up. "Looks like they're being more careful this time around. A tryout, and a background check. I had appropriate docs made up back at the time, but I think they wouldn't meet this level of scrutiny. This one here..." He points to the upper right, "...is from someone claiming to be a talent scout. That could mean any number of things. Prostitution, for one. Or it could be someone finding people to fight in the ring. I'm leaning toward the latter, based on context."

Mechanica taps the name with a claw. More like spears it. She drags it to the center screen and taps a few things on the custom interface. "Let's see what I can pick up on this person," she says, cross-referencing the United Earth Criminal Database with her computer link for information.

Mechanica's teeth are slightly clenched, tension in her jaw at the mention of prostitution. It almost just looks like concentration if not for Dark Horse's keen attention to detail noticing it coincided with that word being dropped.

The person in question is named Zhao Wei, and is from the west coast. He has been tried in the past for smuggling people into the country, but nothing stuck.

Mechanica pulls up the dossier she collects for Dark Horse to view, and tries to find recent pictures. "Did they smuggle metas for this fight club?"

Dark Horse nods. "Quite possible. Then again, this is from a few years ago. So, he likely moved on to similar interests. Rounding up 'talent' inside the country, instead of from outside." He seems to notice Mechanica's tension. "So...I think I see at least one thing you take personally. Was it the mention of prostitution?"

Mechanica's eyes end up being her tell as she blinks a few times, trying to moderate herself before looking back at Dark Horse. "You're very observant," she says too carefully, which just confirms Dark Horse's suspicions.

Dark Horse nods, not pressing any further. "My guess is...this guy likely focuses mainly on finding fighters. But he might have someone else working for him supplying other folks for Pride's network. That's a guess, mind you." He pulls out his PDA, "No local address, though. I guess when he's in town, he has someone put him up or he stays in a hotel."

"Maybe someone on his contacts list. He'd have to communicate to them somehow to arrange it, right?" Mechanica asks, finally controlling the tension in her jaw to relax it.

Dark Horse nods. "Wait...that name. I know it." He points to another name in the messages still up with Wei's name attached. "That cinches it. He was in contact with Youth. One of Pride's lieutenants."

Mechanica starts pulling up any communications linked to Youth. "I could put an alert on this so we can know when he's making plans with Wei," she offers.

Dark Horse nods. "That's worth doing. If you come across the name 'Asia', that's also worth noting. She's another lieutenant. Or was."

"A common word, but...they'd be connected with these. Let me try." Mechanica starts attempting a search for the name in connection to their current suspects.

There's a couple of mentions of 'The usual location' or 'usual fee' in communcations between Youth and Wei. But nothing solid. Dark Horse translates a couple of the messages, "These have been left vague on purpose. Almost like they knew a hacker might be able to access their communications." He chuckles quietly.

"Well, they don't want to leave evidence if they're arrested and their phones are confiscated, either," Mechanica grins. "They've gotten smarter. We may just have to wait and see. Perhaps we can find what cell towers their phones ping when we know the days he's in town."

Dark Horse nods. "This last message was from a couple months ago or so. Based on the pattern, he's here every three months. So...likely in a few weeks, Wei will come through town."

Mechanica smiles at the information they dug up. "This is some important news. I couldn't have understood the messages without you. See? Just like that, we became 'friends'," she purrs sensually.

Dark Horse remains close, turning to face her, "I suppose you're right. I didn't have access to this level of information. Thanks for the help."

Mechanica smiles more. "Mmm, de nada. It's what friends do." The way she says friends sounds like a euphemism the way she says it. "You'd better start recruiting friends to have them ready to move on this when the time comes. Or...you mentioned going under cover and the background checks being tight. Do you plan on trying to go in again?" she asks conspiringly.

Dark Horse thinks about it. "I'm not sure yet. I was able to hold my own in the ring against the people I fought last time. But I don't know what it's like now. I think we'd need to know more information about it. This guy is going to be a key to that. It might pay to try to go undercover just to a point and then ghost on them."

"These contenders. They're willing?" Mechanica asks curiously. "Perhaps we can replace one of their vetted candidates with a plant. But they'd have to study and know what the candidate knows."

Dark Horse nods. "Previously, they were willing. I'm not sure if that's the case now. We'd need to know more. Maybe find one of them and talk to them. One of the guys back when went by 'Steamroller'. I'm not sure if he's still around. But if I can find him, he's working talking to about it."

"It might be a bit of both. Some coerced. Desparate. Some just wanting money. Sounds worth looking into him. Did he go by any other names?" Mechanica asks as she tries to search a recent address for Steamroller.

Dark Horse thinks about it. "Probably? I didn't bother getting another name, though. He was trying to beat my head in at the time."

Nothing turns up. Clearly it was an alias.

Dark Horse considers his options. "I have a few contacts. I'll start there."

Mechanica nods and ends the search on Steamroller. "Perfect. Since I don't think I can track him my way. You'll just have to hit up your people."

Dark Horse nods. "I can't think of any other immediate steps to follow. If something turns up for communcations, we can try to find out what's going on with Youth and Mr. Wei. Any other options you can think of?"

"Hmm, aside from bugging our suspect's homes, vehicles, and devices?" Mechanica muses as her cyberware's radar sensor activates, picking up radio activity in the area. "Orrr...was that what you were already doing?" she smiles knowingly.

Dark Horse nods. "Yup. Well, I had bugged the Palace. But if I have other locations to try, I'll go with those. So, yes...homes, vehicles, and the like."

Mechanica seems intensely interested. "How'd you manage to get in so close? Ah, undercover...riiiight," she grins.

"I may have someone who can help you with getting all those bugs set up," Mechanica suggests. "If it's too much work for you."

Dark Horse chuckles. "Undercover if I need to. Disguise if I have to. Or just...sneaking around." He thinks about it. "Who's the other person?"

Mechanica grins. "Someone who's good at getting in and out unnoticed. I think she'd like to be your friend, too."

Dark Horse tilts his head. "Give me a name, at least. I know I have a reputation of being cavalier about stuff, but I still like to know who potential allies are."

Mechanica studies him for a moment as she decides whether to tell him. "Have you heard of Zero?"

Dark Horse takes a long moment to search his memory. "I...think so. The name sounds familiar."

Mechanica flashes a smile. "If you knew her, you'd remember. She's hard to forget," she chuckles. "Her outfit is, hmm, much more revealing."

Dark Horse laughs, "Maybe? Again, I'm not sure. I can check my notes when I get home."

Mechanica laughs at his answer. "You'd have to be a eunuch not to recall her," she winks.

Mechanica adds, "You'll see once you remember her...-if- you worked with her before."

Dark Horse shrugs, and smiles, though it's barely visible under the mask. "That good looking, huh?" He stops for a second. "Kind of reminds me of a brief sparring bout with Lorelei. That one didn't go as well."

Mechanica grins broadly at that. "She's not Lorelei pretty. Who is?" she smirks. "But she's quite the flirt. Interesting. You tied with the Markhams, but lost to Lorelei."

Dark Horse gives her a wink, "I'll let you wonder why that was the case." He shrugs a bit. "I think I need to find out where the listening devices need to go, first. If I have too many to cover, I can let you know. How would I get in contact with you again?"

Mechanica steps up to Dark Horse slowly, reaching up a clawed hand to...cup his cheek? She's actually reaching to cup the half-headset attached to his mask if he'll let her.

Dark Horse lets Mechanica touch the headset. "Making a change or something to it?"

"Just tuning you in to my encrypted channel," Mechanica smiles as the circuits in her glove glow. She lowers her hand and smiles. "Now you can get in touch via radio," she says quietly, her voice also heard over his earpiece.

Dark Horse nods. "Thanks." He makes a note of the radio band being used so he can switch to it when needed.

Mechanica smiles and steps back. "I hope you manage to dig up more information," she says as she deactivates her holodisplay.