No other vehicles in sight, just the truck. No sign of where they might have gone.
Sang-mi sighed disgruntled. "I could have sworn...", she thought to herself as she continued to look around.
You hear a laugh inside the truck. Any relief you feel is immediately washed away by the sound of a car approaching, tires crunching in the gravel. You can see the glow of headlights over the traincars as it nears.
More than one car, actually...
Her eye widens in Surprise and she drops and rolls under the truck.
A line of vehicles starts pulling up, headlights beaming. Two SUVs and a sedan. Their headlights beam brightly in the dark, passing over you once and making you feel very exposed. You duck your head so the dark hoodie covers your face. They park around the truck, and figures start getting out.
You overhear them speaking Spanish.
After a few seconds a whispered echo in the back of your mind ... translates.
"There's no one here. B#%%& lied."
"She said they'd be here, she knew a lot of s%&&, brother."
"Check the truck."
The figures start approaching the truck you're under. As they pass in front of the headlights you can make them out more clearly. Hispanic men with a lot of prison tattoos. You think you recognize one from the farmhouse battle, whose face is completely covered in tattoos with a spiderweb tattoo on his chin.
They haven't spotted you yet, but they're about to open up the truck door. You're fairly certain Joan and Max are inside...
She will roll out the far side of the car and stand up.
"Whoa, guys, you scared me. I was just taking a piss... What's going on?"
She puts on a bit of the surfer vibe she learned from back in L.A.
Pretending to adjust her pants she walks around the rear of the truck toward the nearest dude to the truck.
Looking across the group she singles in on him.
"Got a spare cig bro?" She gestures like smoking a cigarette and attempts to get closer to him.
A few of them pull out pistols when you come out. They close in. Spiderweb-chin points at you.
That same whisper translates again.
"That's the b+*!&."
"Where's the rest?"
"Check the truck."
They don't respond to your questions, but the one you approached aims his gun at you (and you stop). Two of the men shine flashlights into the truck cab, aim their pistols inside and tap the glass.
After a moment the doors unlock and a terrified Max and Joan climb out.
The trainyard is a deep blue backdrop around the island of light cast by the surrounding headlights. Feet crunch in gravel and one of the girls is crying quietly.
Finally, Spiderweb-chin speaks up, in English (mostly). "Tie that puta up. Take the chicas too, they'll sell fast." He grins at you. Gold teeth. Yeah, you remember him.
That whisper in the back of your mind speaks up again, but it's not a translation, "You're f!~$ed now you f#&#ing whore. You're f!#!ing DEAD."
Two men grab the girls and start dragging them to one of the SUVs, and two more go to tie you up while the rest point guns at you.
Sang-mi rolls her eye and sighs. Putting her hands on her head she looks over at spider chin.
"What is dis? Amatuer hour? Do dah thugs with brains sit at home and send you mooks to do dah dirty work?"
She snears and speaks louder, "What are you planning huh? Abduct two WHITE GIRLS in Chicago belonging to an upstanding citizen!? You won't move s&$%! Every Man Hunter in deh Northeast will be hounding your sorry ass all the way back to prison Chinstrap."
She steps forward ignoring the pointed guns at her. "We both know why you're here... Nobody is going to notice a missing Korean immigrant. Let the two stupid kids go, they aren't worth deh hassle... Then let's go."
Spiderchin grins again, then speaks in accented english. "Damn. She was even right about those girls being important to you. You made one nasty enemy chica, whoever she is."
The two behind you start moving to ziptie your hands behind your back. Spiderchin aims a gun at you now too.
The girls are shoved into the back of an SUV.
Sang-mi snaps her wrist away as she drops in a defensive roll backward between the two men with the intention of using them as cover from the other gunmen.
She then raises with an uppercut on the man to her left then follows through with a turning sidekick aimed at break his ribs.
Or
"I need them to take shots but not kill me! The police will be called if shots are fired.
Plus Elliot must be on his way, I didn't call back yet and I'm late, he's going to be suspicious, he's going to come check.
Buy time! Make noise! Don't get shot again!"
They're ready for you (they won init). You evade the two of them attempting to grapple you with your Acrobatic roll. Surprisingly, Spiderchin doesn't fire on you, but several of the thugs do as he shouts something in Spanish at them.
One thug's pistol jams immediately, one misses--but one shot passes cleanly through your calf, shredding tendon and muscle.
The hit makes you stumble, but with lightning speed you grab one of the thugs, pinning his arm painfully behind his back and using him as a human shield as you uppercut and sidekick the other thug beside him, crumpling him to the ground unconscious with brutal efficiency.
Spiderchin shouts louder in Spanish, still not firing at you. One thug struggles to fix his jam and finally does so, but isn't able to attack this turn. The thug you have grappled struggles to break free, but only succeeds in hurting his own shoulder more.
The rest of the thugs seems to listen to Spiderchin and hold their fire.
There's a moment of tension as they all hold their actions...
If you're holding as well, there will be about 6 seconds of standoff silence and tension.
"10-31, shots fired!. Old town railway!" Sang-mi hissed from behind her hostage. It didn't matter if she had the right code, she knew (ateast she thinks she knows) that there would be a patrol car or cars in route to investigate.
"If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead. But now you don't have time to wait. You're running short on men too I hear.. DEA? Let deh girls go and I come willingly."
She spoke through grit teeth as the pain coursed through her leg. She could only hope Spider-chin would see reason.
Spiderchin seems phased by your words, looking around nervously--which makes his men nervous too. No one seems willing to risk taking the shot, which seems to confirm your thought of them being low on men.
But then he grins and orders something in Spanish, gesturing with his free hand, keeping his gun aimed at you.
The SUV with the girls in it starts its engine and begins to pull away...
Spiderchin cocks the hammer back on his pistol. "I want you alive, but ain't gonna shed any tears if we have to leave your dead body in this f*#&ing trainyard, puta."
If the dodge would have just worked, if her leg wasn't maimed, if the girls would have just f#+&ing been respondsible and gone home on time, then all of this wouldn't be a problem. She thought to herself as she stared back down the muzzle of the gun.
She was prepared to die.. after all, as far as she was concerned she already did. Dying however wouldn't solve this problem. She needed to protect those girls and the only way she was going to do that now was to submit. She smiled back at spider-chin ..
"Ha ha! Oooh you, you got me good. Well played. You, gotta admit, I had you scared dere for a moment right?" She calls out, releasing the hostage and putting her hands up.
Two goons rush up and ziptie your hands behind your back, and then your ankles together, clearly not wanting to take any chances after seeing you drop their friend instantly. You see them dragging his unconscious body to a car as you are yourself dragged away. Your leg hurts like hell.
They bodily throw you into the trunk of a car, and you see Spiderchin's gold teeth grinning down at you. "We gonna f%+% you up for Heysus, mi hermano." The last thing you see before blacking out is the butt of his pistol coming at you.
~~~
You have a few hazy memories of jostling around in a musty dark trunk, zip ties cutting into your wrists and ankles painfully, and the slick feeling of your own blood around your legs.
Suddenly you're being sprayed with cold water from a hose, and Spiderchin is laughing. "You got f&#$in' blood in my trunk, puta! You on your period or somethin'?" He seems to think that's hilarious.
Two thugs haul you out of the trunk bodily and drag you across concrete floor. You're in a very blurry, spinning garage. There's overhead fluorescent lamps that hurt to look at. Faintly you think you can hear the thumping of music through the walls. It smells like bleach. You have a hard time focusing on faces, but there's about six of the cartel thugs in the garage plus one giant bouncer near a metal door along the right wall, watching.
You meet his eyes briefly and feel unsettled. There's real danger behind The Bouncer's dark eyes--not the petty street thug danger of Spiderchin and his cronies. You feel relief when his gaze moves away from you, as he looks with disgust at the cartel thugs. The Bouncer is a huge man, fat and muscled with a big gut. His face is ugly, scarred and pock-marked.
The cartel thugs throw you down onto a metal chair and zip tie your wrists and ankles to it. Spiderchin leans down and grins at you. "Do you even remember Heysus? You remember my brother's face?"
You briefly wonder where the hell Elliot is. Surely he went to the trainyard? Maybe he followed you here? Maybe he's calling in the cavalry right now, or infiltrating himself for a daring rescue...
Or maybe you're on your own.
Sang-mi flicks her hair to the side and looks up at Spider-chin. She doesn't answer, letting her silence be her response. Her gaze shifts to around the room, blinking disoriented, and trying to get a grasp on the situation.
Your vision clears as you focus. The bloody water from the trunk is running to a drain in the concrete floor. There's... four thugs besides Spiderchin, and the bouncer, still watching. You flex slightly against the restraints, they're solid. Your leg hurts like hell and you feel a bit weak from blood loss. It's definitely a garage, and there's all sorts of work tools on the walls and shelves, jugs of bleach and gasoline. The windows are barred and have been blacked out with heavy paper and tape.
"Oh you think you're tough s*!~. You're gonna f!!+ing die here. I'll make you remember my brother," he takes out a switchblade, flicking it open, then kneels in front of you, his face a few inches from yours. "I'll carve his f+%%ing name into you and you'll die screaming it puta," he sneers and shoves the blade slowly into the bullet wound in your calf, watching you closely as he does.
The thugs nearby laugh.
maybe it was the smell, maybe the pain, maybe it was Spider-chin's smug attitude but like her blood, Sang-mi's better judgement was drained. She turned her focus on his face and stared hard for a moment, then her lip curled into a spiteful sneer.
"You will do nothing! You are a whimpering pup a part of a failing cartel on it's deathbed! I am here not because you are talented, all deh talent in your gang is dead! She! Is why I am here and you grovel for a chance at revenge! You are nothing to her, you are nothing! Now get your face out of mine! Your breath reeks like a b@%$* in heat!" The shouting is nearly a run-on sentence.
She pauses to breath before continuing, "You want to know about your brother? He was a warrior, he died in battle, you dishonor him with your actions! You do not deserve his memory!"
Her head dips from the head rush of anger and she tries catch her breath.
Spiderchin's face darkens and his sneer contorts in fury. He starts swearing in Spanish and punching you in the face until the chair you're tied to falls back, and he lands on top of you, punching down at your face.
Just before you lose consciousness, Spiderchin's weight is suddenly tossed off of you and you see The Bouncer standing over you. The thugs all look at eachother, unsure what to do.
"St. John wants to talk to her," The Bouncer says in a bored, disgusted tone as Spiderchin scrambles to his feet and pulls his pistol, aiming it at The Bouncer, who seems unphased.
"Lay a hand on me again and I'll blow your f#&#ing head off, I don't care who you work for," Spiderchin spits. His lackeys seem less sure, and haven't drawn their weapons yet. The Bouncer, however, ignores Spiderchin and tips your chair back upright, slowly dragging you out by the back of it.
"I'm not f$~!ing done with her, don't f!$#ing walk away. I'll f@#$ing shoot you in the back you m%~&+@ f*+@!#!" Spiderchin continues swearing, trying to brandish his pistol as aggressively as possible. "This wasn't part of the f$%!ing deal!"
The last thing you see before the door closes between you is Spiderchin staring at you with boiling hatred.
~~~
The back two legs of the metal chair squeal on grey tile as you are dragged along. You're facing away, so you're not sure where you're going. The hallways are dimly lit with yellow fluorescent overhead lamps. It looks like the back halls of some grocery or market, the type with 'employees only' signs. The Bouncer doesn't speak as he drags you, but you can smell his body odor, sweaty and greasy. A twinge of pain in your calf reminds you that there's a bullet-hole with a switchblade still lodged in it there. The restraints are digging painfully into your wrists and your fingers are numb. Finally The Bouncer stops in front of an office door and knocks. You hear a pleasantly resonant voice from inside: "Come in." And there's a click of the door unlocking.
The Bouncer drags you inside and turns your chair around.
"Thank you Frederick. No trouble from our guests?"
"Nah," The Bouncer replies.
The office you find yourself restrained in is lavishly decorated with antique furniture, including a large grandfather clock, and smells faintly like cigars. Sitting at a meticulously polished, imposing, deep red mahogany desk, is a rather plain looking man with a bald head and brown beard. He reminds you of a taxi driver, or farmer.
Beside him, is a woman. The Woman. Vibrant red hair like flames, porcelain skin and red lipstick in an elegant but form-fitting green dress. She isn't wearing the masquerade mask like last time you spotted her, and her features are unearthly in their crisp perfection. Dark perfectly shaped eyes with vibrant green irises. She doesn't look real, like she was sculpted or painted too well. She smiles a little, seeing you. "Had a feeling I'd see you again, but I'm afraid I was just leaving," she turns to St. John and kisses his cheek. He grimaces but accepts. "Take care, love. Think it over," she purrs to him before straightening and walking past you to leave, giving you a small smile.
"Want me back at the garage, boss?"
The Bouncer is somewhere behind you, a little too far to see by turning your head.
"No need."
He seems calm, unworried. Steady as a calm sea. And he seems to be assessing you. He wears fairly plain unassuming clothes, despite the warm finery of the office.
"Unbind her hands," he says past you.
You feel large meaty hands pawing around your wrists until they find and snap the zip-ties.
St. John then watches you, assessing.
Sang-m is caught off guard by the first strike, and only barely manages to turn her head for the following flurry. The only saving grace being that the punches are wild and angry, he would inflict more damage if he calmed down. Her only thought is to keep her head turned, protect the one good eye, even as her head bounces against the floor.
After, as the bouncer drags her away, she begins to laugh "Aow Aow Aow!" she mocks as she disappeares behind the door.
----
Inside the lavish room she makes little eye contact with the woman. Sang-mi's uneasiness around her is clearly visible. She remains quiet during the twos interaction.
As the bouncer releases her hands she cautiously reaches down, taking out the switch blade in her leg and uses it to cut free her feet. Afterwards she lifts the injured leg up and rests it over the other knee and cuts the pant leg on that side off at the knee, using it to bind the wound. She does this in the manner that Mark taught her, and all the while she watches St. John in silence.