Description: Barely escaping the Circus of Terror with his life, Agent Little faces his most dangerous foe yet: The alluring Lieutenant Lita Luwanda of Delta Red. The special forces agent had faced Daniel in the past before, but now, she needed him. Agent Little is in a race against time as he hurries to reach the Narita in Nippon Japan. But what will our stalwart detective do when he realizes that the entire region has gone up into a violent explosion? Will he run away, to live another day? Or will Daniel Jack be... Fighting For Our Troops? BUY WAR BONDS! (The cover art shows Daniel in a burning building, chest naked and sweaty, holding up a collapsed I-Beam on his shoulders. Beneath him, at his feet, is a passed out Lieutenant Lita Luwanda, dressed in a strapless red gown. Behind Daniel are several Southtown PD officers dressed in WWII German Uniforms, bearing swastikas on their helmets as they fire their Thompson machineguns at him, the bullets just barely missing him.) (45 cents)
Daniel Jack was supposed to be having a quiet day.
His morning started well enough. He scheduled an interview with the Twilight Star Circus in Southtown. Working with the circus folk, he wanted to get deeper into their arson incident. An arson incident that didn't get investigated by the local PD. As well, the presence of Darkstalkers rumored to be part of the circus was also part of it. It was a good interview, and Daniel was getting important answers to his questions... when he got a phone call, from Lieutenant Lita Luwanda.
Now Daniel Jack was driving like a madman, straight to the heart of Narita.
The detective pulls up to the disaster site in his black sedan, where a police cordon was already in place. As Daniel pulls up to the checkpoint, the police officer immediately waves his hands. As Daniel Jack rolls down his window, the officer curtly states. "Hold it sir, we can't let you through-" "Agent Little. Interpol." Was Daniel's response as he flashes his badge. "You sure as hell can let me through, scuzzy." The officer pauses a moment, looking at the badge. He seemed reluctant; but ultimately, he waves Daniel through.
"Thanks, scuzzy, and tell Lita I'm in."
The detective tosses the badge on the dashboard, face up. Tightening his hands on the wheel, he drives through, looking around at the aftermath. It was like the site of a bombing run. Firefighters were still battling the flames consuming not only the initial building, but surrounding buildings with it. A triage center was set up in the center, where the victims were being treated. There were a few black tagged individuals, laying on stretchers. Their faces were covered with white sheets. The car comes to a stop, before the ground zero of the blast. Daniel Jack steps out of his sedan, and stares into the aftermath of what was left of the building. He slowly whips of his dark sunglasses, jaw slack, eyes wide.
"... Oh my god."
Lita has had an 'interesting' day. She was fighting someone who she still questions their sanity even after the fight. Part of her wants to have Howard Rust committed to an asylum. She doesn
Lita has had an 'interesting' day. She was fighting someone who she still questions their sanity even after the fight. Part of her wants to have Howard Rust committed to an asylum. She doesn't give into the urge since it would be poor form.
As she looks at the Southtown PD officer who had tried to get a date with her for the umpteenth time and she's rolling her eyes as hard as she can at this particular officer. There's another one trying to get a hold of her cellphone because of the pictures that she took of the scene inside. She's clutching on the phone as hard as she can. She still needs to make sure that certain people see them, including her crew in Delta Red and the person that's throwing weight around to get to this particular to scene.
She moves towards Daniel Little, with phone in hand. Her tone is neutral. "Agent Little. I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond to your call."
She glances at the building that was actually supposed to fall and then the building that didn't fall but had explosion damage.
Daniel Jack folds his sunglasses, before tucking them in his jacket pocket.
As Lita approaches Agent Little, he wipes his brow. "Don't worry about it. I half expected that you might be fighting the fire yourself." Daniel Jack digs one hand in his pants pocket, while he takes his other hand and just... gesture at everything around him. The police cordon. The firefighters. The fully demolished building. And finally, the building that WASN'T supposed to fall, that was outright damaged. "What the hell happened here Lieutenant?" He finally gestured towards the triage center, and more pointedly, towards the two men lying on the stretchers.
"Are they... they couldn't be..."
"They aren't dead."
She pauses as she glances at the fallen guards as she gives him the rundown. "Two are in critical condition, One in a coma, one just woke up and is being interviewed by the Southtown PD. Only the guards were in that building."
She looks over to Daniel Jack and slowly shakes her head. "I just wanted to make sure the people inside were alive before anything else. Anyway, I managed to get pictures of the inside since the things that I saw in there didn't look exactly right."
"Well thank god for small miracles like you, Lieutenant."
Daniel Jack gives a sigh of relief as Lita gives the rundown. Having an expert like Lita on the scene was a miracle. She likely turned what would have been a lethal accident into only a dangerous one. As she shakes her head and explains, however, the detective narrows his eyes. Stepping in closer to Lita, he looks past her, the agent lowers his voice as he does so. "PD has been stonewalling Interpol at every junction, Lieutenant. I know that Delta Red doesn't have anything direct with Interpol, but I have reason to believe that... the local juristdictions have been comprimised." Daniel Jack looks around warily, before motioning a hand on the far side of one of the firetrucks, out of sight of the PD.
"Can you show me those pictures, and explain what you saw?"
"That's odd. They haven't been stonewalling me. They've been bending over backwards to assist me."
She has a feeling she knows exactly why too. That purse with all the mostly unwanted numbers she had found in her purse may have had something to do with it. She frowns a bit. And then she brings up that cellphone and moves through the gallery. "Scorch marks from explosions, the I-beam fall location, fallen ceiling that almost hit me and someone I was trying to get out of the building. My opponent kept it from hitting us. That scorch mark was from the explosion that hit the guards. I also took pictures of the documents that were near the points of explosion in case they might've yielded any info."
When she finally gets through all the pictures she puts her cellphone away.
"I made sure to at the very least send them to Delta Red incase they tried to clear the pictures from my phone."
They haven't been stonewalling her?
Daniel looks over Lita, analyzing her. And promptly, nods. Of course they wouldn't. As she brings up her cellphone, the detective studies the pictures carefully. Explosions. I beam fall location. A fallen ceiling. And her opponent... someone or another, keeping her safe. The scorch marks. Those scorch marks were key. And something on the documents... Daniel studies the documents carefully, narrowing his eyes. She showed him hers.
And now he would show her his.
"This is the situation I know so far" Daniel Jack starts pacing, his mind and mouth running fast. "I just finished talking with the Twilight Star Circus, and I can tell you straight up, the Yakuza was involved in the fire there. The Yakuza was captured at the explosion at the L'Amour, with an explicit link to the Yamaguchi. The Yakuza was almost certainly involved in the assassination attempt on my life. Wanna know what all three have in common, Lita?" Daniel Jack scratches the sutured wound on his face.
"All three were released on bail, and have refused any input from Interpol."
Daniel Jack shakes his head. "The shooting of an Interpol agent, and the shooter is released on bail. They weren't even pressing charges at the Twilight Star Circus; that's the only reason I was able to interview the people there. Add in a murdered LG official, another arson, and an assassination attempt on an author... every single one of those? A HitBit fight. And now, here we are, another HitBit fight? And what comes down?"
Daniel Jack mimes an explosion.
"The cops like you though. More miracles." Daniel Jack states flatly, shaking his head."But I'm betting you dollars to donuts that they want one thing. They want those pictures, and they want them to disappear. Maybe grab a dinner date with you in the meanwhile." Daniel Jack grits his teeth. "We need a correspondence between Delta Red and Interpol on this. I can get the ball moving on my end, and you can get the ball moving on your end. This entire thing is getting really god damned serious." Daniel Jack pulls out his phone from his pocket, glaring at it. And then, something occurs to him. "Lita, that phone has the HitBit app it, right?"
"... What's stopping HitBit from getting the pictures?"
"Almost certainly? Without a doubt, your assassin was definitely Yamaguchi-gumi. And the odd thing about it was that when they were leading him into the car, it was suggested the assassin was in a dream-like state and he acted untouchable because he seemed to expect that he would wake up. After bashing his head and seeing blood, he lawyered up. Part of me wonders if it's some attempt at going for an insanity case."
"They were trying to get dinner dates before these pictures ever existed, mate."
There was a long suffering sigh. "I'm limited in my capacity since Delta Red doesn't have much in the way of jurisdiction beyond the fact I was involved. If I get attacked though, it becomes a potential international incident. If Delta Red gets put in an advisory role by Interpol however, we can take a more hands on approach in this though nominally, it would be Interpol spear heading it."
She glances at the pocket her phone is in and frowns. She frowns deeply. "Quite possibly nothing. But it doesn't mean they can make it disappear. It's already in Delta Red's hands and they have to get past one of the best computer experts not just in the United Kingdom but I daresay, the world to make it disappear. And that was the point of me sending it to them. Even if they have them, they can't disappear them, I'd say it's still a point for us."
"Bash his head in...."
Daniel Jack repeats the report from Lita. His eyes narrow significantly now, his mind snapping tight around that clue. In a daze, a dreamlike state. Something seemed... off. Daniel Jack didn't have the whole puzzle together, but he knew he had a piece. Maybe an attempt at insanity. But this... this whole thing seemed insane. Insane, and self-destructive. Suicidal. A piece of the puzzle.
But it was far from complete.
"We still gotta score a lot more points to win this game, Lieutenant. This whole things a damned mess. If it is the Yamaguchi, I'm betting an uphill battle if we can't discredit the local authorities... or find a way of putting it out of their normal jurisdiction. Yakuza is notoriously hard to pin down in Japan; unless we get like a weapons cache or something obviously linked to international commerce, Interpol has to wait for consultations 9 times out of 10. Hell, I think the only reason I got in here was because of you, for christ's sake. At this point, I feel like the only way -we- at Interpol can get any capacity is if we get Delta Red in an advisory role. Let me get the-"
And suddenly, the alarms on Daniel's phone goes off.
Daniel Jack just -glares- at his phone. "Are they serious? God dammit Lieutenant, I'm getting called to some port of Yokohama for my HitBit fight." Daniel Jack rubs his temples with his free hand "Okay, what I'm expecting is that something horrible is gonna happen to me, or the port, or -something.- That's been the pattern so far with these fights, you dig? You get this place secured. I'm gonna give a call to the Chief, he's gonna network over with your CO, and we can see if we can't get blanket support on this." He raises up his fist. "We're getting a hair's close to getting this stuff labeled as terrorism; once the T-word gets dropped down on all this Lieutenant?" Daniel Jack drops the fist.
"Ground Zero."
Her ears perk up when first Daniel's alerts go off and then subsequently hers go off. She glances down at her phone, then at his and gives him a sympathetic smile since she just got one too.
"My HitBit told me that I should head to Osaka and be on stand-by for my upcoming match."
She glances over at the building with police officers and fire fighters finishing up with the scene. She then turns back to Agent Little.
"I'll be about 3 hours away train from you which means we can't back each other up on this one. Either way, I still have a bit of time. I'm going to stick around and see if they can get footage and maybe see if we can get some clues."
"Osaka. Well. crap."
Daniel Jack's response was curt. This HitBit thing... it was looking like that, at some point, he needed to investigate WHY HitBit was the center of the Disaster Show. It was suspicious... but shut down the show early? And you wouldn't learn who was behind it. The show had to go on.
Daniel only hoped he would survive this play.
"Okay, we got each other's contacts. We can call the other if things go... weird." Daniel Jack backs up, holding up his phone as he heads back to his car. "I'm supposed to facing Mary Ryan. A local detective, heh. Just like my old days." Daniel Jack enters the car, and starts it up. Leaning out the still down window, he looks at Lita squarely on. "If I need some backup? Any backup?"
"I'll call you, you dig?"
And with that, Daniel Jack drives off...
Log created on 13:47:50 02/09/2016 by Daniel, and last modified on 19:27:02 02/09/2016.