Day 264 - Thursday, September 11th

[papalobo]

[Max sleeps; has as he'd thought, he achieves nothing, and he's not even a small-talk source of comfort or somebody to soothe Ash's nerves before his two AM meeting with yet another Chinese teenager. Something about Chinese teenagers seems to always spell trouble for Ash, and now he's in a mess involving no less than four of them.

But Max doesn't move. If Ash comes to see him, setting that pill counter and the note about the smoothie, he may notice he hasn't so much as shifted a finger. Ash has had to turn to painting, but there's no need to lock that room before, or even for a long while after. The only one in this house besides him is a breathing corpse.

But Shawn's ready and waiting for him at one, prepared to be decked out a wires that Ling's likely to hang him with if he finds out about them.]

Comments

[jadedlynx]

You took a guy that invited you into his house and then kidnapped a guy who agreed to meet with you for a discussion. Stop acting like you're a victim.

[papalobo]

Is that what this sounds like to you?

[jadedlynx]

A little. You want to tell me why you took Wu out of his own house?

[papalobo]

No. I have twenty four hours before you touch me.

[jadedlynx]

You want me to touch you? I don't need you to be a masochist on top of everything else.

[papalobo]

[He raises a brow at that.]

I mean: I'm safe and have no need to provide information to keep you off of me, until then.

Does your mind always go right to the perverse?

[jadedlynx]

It was sarcasm. Don't have that a lot in Chicago?

[papalobo]

I've yet to see.

[jadedlynx]

Today won't be the day you see, either.

[ He can turn on his lights as they get a bit further in town. As they stop at a red light, he risks sending a text to Yut Lung. ]

A meeting with Ling went south. He has Wu and Shawn. I have him. Cops were called to Wu's house.

[venemoussnake]

You can bring him here. You don't plan to hold him at your place, do you?

[Yut Lung is a night owl, it seems.]

[jadedlynx]

I do. I'm not stupid. The second I get there, control goes out of my hands. Do what you can about the cops. I'll dig through his phones to check for information on Sing.

[venemoussnake]

Control, but also blood. You're trying to go clean. How much do you want to dirty your hands in all of this while living with an innocent man trying to recover and make it as a journalist? He isn't Eiji, but he's hardly in a state to survive that lifestyle any better.

[jadedlynx]

Who knew you could be a comedian. If I turn him over to you, the same amount of blood is on my hands. You're not getting him.

[ Keeping the phone away from Ling's eyes, Ash checks for the update on Shawn's location using the bug.]

[venemoussnake]

[It's probably not a surprise that Shawn is moving through Chinatown.]

[jadedlynx]

[ Not at all.

Soon, they're out of Chinatown and into Ash's territory, but he doesn't head for the bar. Max isn't the only person with multiple hideouts.

It's silent. He urges Ling inside with the gun; it's set up for hostages even if Ash hasn't used it. He never wanted to use it. But, Ling is chained to a metal chair that's bolted to the floor. He has a little arm movement, but it's very little.

Still silent, he retrieves a first aid kit. If the guy hurts either of them, he isn't going to take pity but for now, the better he's treated, the more likely Shawn and Wu will be treated well. Still wordlessly, he presses a painkiller to Wu's lips. ]

[papalobo]

What?

[His lips move but his teeth stay together. He feels he has the right to ask what he's taking, even if Ash can simply shove it down his throat if he's of a mind to. And really, he likely has needles he could use, at his convenience.]

[jadedlynx]

Painkiller. I won't beg you to take it.

[papalobo]

[His mouth opens. He'll take it.

He's comfortable with silence. Eventually, Shawn's bug stops moving, at the center of a shopping arcade that one has to get to on foot for the inroads being too small for a car.]

[jadedlynx]

[ He's left alone in the room as Ash goes into another to begin cracking his phones. There, he can also listen in on the bug without Ling knowing there is a bug. He'll make a plan once he knows a little more about what's going on. ]

[papalobo]

[It may be a relief that his phones only have a normie's level of encryption; even Max, if he bothers to, can set up a phone harder to break into, if only because he's worked with enough sensitive information now.

That the interface and messages are mostly Chinese is not likely a surprise, either.

On one phone, all of the contacts are cute animal face icons. That might be a surprise.]

[jadedlynx]

[ It is.

As he listens in on Shawn's bug to discover if they've taken the phone or just settled in, he starts the translation software. ]

[papalobo]

[On one phone, with animals filling in for contacts, the conversation continues the same theme.]

🦅: The 🐈 has been declawed. 🐇 located but not obtained.
🐕: There's no need to capture. How sure are you that the claws are removed rather than retracted?
🦅: Lives with an aged, decrepit 🐺 for the illusion of protection.
🐕: Focus on that. Be prepared to maim or kill.

🦅: Calling.


🐎: Baba Yaga unaccounted for.

🐎: 🐒 will not contact.

🙈: 🐈+🐉 believed.

🐕: We've overestimated the effects of music to lure out the dragon.

🐢: Find the old woman.

🐎: 🐒 will not contact.

🐕: 🐺 Unaccounted for.
🐢: No matter.

🐕: The old woman may be borrowed plumes. The 🐉 may be a 🦚.
🐢: There was cock involved, to be sure.
🐕: They're all whores out here, it doesn't mean anything.

[jadedlynx]

They thought I lived with Max for the illusion of protection? How cute. The dragon is more of a snake, but yeah, he's definitely a peacock.

And we're retired whores.

[ Is Blanca the old woman? That would be amusing under different circumstances.

Ash has the bug recording the conversation while he works on the second phone after none of the attempts to find out the contacts works. He needs to know what the situation is, or he'll only get taken out himself.

In the main room, the door opens, and another man, one from Ash's gang, comes in with a plastic bag. ]

[papalobo]

[Ling sits, unmoving, not taking his eyes off of a spot on the wall, even as he hears another man enter.

The second phone includes a string of Chinese conversations relaying that Wu wishes for him to call. Ling replies that he'll call but there's no record. Ling relays that there's a 2:00 meeting. There are orders to prepare a vehicle with bullet proof windows to guard.

There are confirmations of several chemicals being obtained. Ash will be familiar with them commonly being used to dissolve bodies, as well as to roofie a victim, but others don't translate, likely code names not in common enough use to decode.]

[jadedlynx]

[ Dissolve the bodies. His stomach drops. Wu.

He shouldn't have brought him into this.

He puts the audio he recorded from the bug into the lap translated and checked the news to see if Wu was possibly still in the house and unhurt. Maybe Ash was supposed to be the body that got dissolved.

Hopefully, Sing wasn't.

Next door, the man put the bag on the floor and started to pat Ling down for any kind of weapon or gun. Once they're gone, or if there are none, he walks to where Ash left the key to one cuff and undoes one before putting the bag into his lap.

It's a gas station burger, fries, and bottled tea. ]