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The Company
Time: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 (wee hours).
Place: Tokyo, Japan.
Last Event: Infiltrating Toru's tower.
After Zhang reports glimpsing surveillance cameras in the corridor outside the apartment where the Agents are holed up, the team decides to seek an alternative route to the penthouse. Given that they've infiltrated Toru's building and beaten one of his men without triggering any obvious reaction, it seems safe to assume that they still have stealth on their side. Thus, they opt to try the slow, dangerous climb up the outside of the tower. The plan is to have Zhang – who is by far the best climber – make his way to the upper stories and then anchor a line for everybody else. Without further ado, the squad exits via the balcony.
The fearless, tireless Zhang makes his way up the side of the building at an impressive pace, exploiting balconies and window frames as much as possible. He reaches the floor below the well-guarded penthouse level in under an hour, averaging a storey every three minutes! As he climbs, the other four remain in shadow on the protruding third-storey roof, watching for signs of life in the apartments overlooking the area. However, the only excitement is the sudden appearance of a climbing line from above. Far overhead, Zhang gives the thumbs-up.
Few people worldwide are Zhang's match at urban athletics, but every Agent is a highly rated climber. The knotted rope lets them make the climb in roughly 10 minutes apiece – although the feat is certainly tiring. Wen goes up first, followed by Anabel, Qoqa, and finally Vinnie. Vinnie finishes reeling in the climbing line a little over 90 minutes after Zhang kicked things off. The whole team is on the balcony below the penthouse level by about 03:00.
There are no lights on in the apartment beyond the balcony's glass doors, and it's quiet, too. However, LEDs winking in the darkness tell Vinnie that the entrance is wired with sensors, while warning stickers bear the logo of a high-end manufacturer of security systems. Vinnie tells his colleagues that it would be simplest to find an occupied unit – ideally, one where somebody wants a little air on this warm July evening – as that would eliminate the need to bypass alarms. The alternative of mantling up onto the roof is considered and rejected; the last time the group visited Toru, they saw armed guards patrolling a rooftop garden that would offer no useful cover.
The stealthy Zhang gets the task of reconnoitering the balconies on this level. Qoqa lends him a laryngeal mirror from her medical pouch, for peeking around corners surreptitiously. Zhang ditches his heavy rope bag and prowls down the row of adjoining balconies. Three units along, he happens upon an apartment where the doors to the living area stand open, allowing bright light and loud music to pour out into the night. Peering in, he sees that the place is expensively furnished, and that someone – it looks like a young woman – is sitting on a sofa playing with a cell phone.
Zhang glides back to the others and informs them that he has found their way in. The whole team sneaks over to the open door. Stealing a glimpse inside, Anabel recognizes the woman in the room: Toru's daughter, Asuka! The last time the Agents interacted with the girl, she was so incensed at her father having used her as bait in his machinations against rival human traffickers that she betrayed him to the team, warning that Toru had sold their files to the CIA. Anabel knows an opportunity when she sees one, and signals that she's going in alone.
Asuka is thrilled to see Anabel and not fazed by the fact that she entered through a 20th-storey window . . . not after the daring rescue the Agents pulled off on their last visit to Tokyo. Before long, the two are gossiping and Anabel is gesturing for her associates to join them. Asuka is even happier to see that Anabel has backup, and proceeds to explain that her own father is holding her captive here. To hear her tell it, after the team rescued her, Toru kicked her out of the penthouse and set her up down here. It's a lovely prison, with great furniture and a good sound system, but it's still a prison – the door locks from the outside.
The Agents press Asuka for exploitable details. It's quite clear that she's very, very unhappy with the fact that her father trades in sex slaves – unhappy enough that she would like to see him pay. When asked why she would want that shame, she promptly replies that she isn't even certain that Toru is her real father. The group also learns that Asuka knows little about Toru's security arrangements: "Um, he has lots of men and cameras all over?" As far as Qoqa and Anabel can tell, the girl is telling the truth.
Asked about the whole princess-in-a-tower situation, Asuka fills in the details. Toru's men aren't allowed to harm her, but they are permitted to hustle her back to her apartment if she escapes – which she has, a few times, because they sometimes forget to lock the door. She can't get far, as the elevator down requires a key card that she doesn't have, and there's always a man posted in the corridor outside. If she calls for anything, it's brought to her. On the rare occasions when she leaves to shop, get her hair done, etc., it's with an escort, and always during daylight hours.
Taking these details into account, the Agents formulate a plan: Vinnie will unlock the apartment door. Asuka will then run out into the hall, acting spoiled and angry, shouting as she vandalizes the place with some spray-on hair color that Anabel spotted on her dresser. The important thing – and Anabel has Asuka repeat this part back to her to be sure the girl understands it correctly – is that Asuka gunk up as many security cameras as she can before the guard escorts her home. Asuka says that she'll make rude gestures at the cameras, spit on them, and then blast them with Ruthless Red and Icy Glitter.
The Agents' part in the plan is to hide near the door and grab Asuka's escort when he returns her to her apartment. Anabel decides that she'll take a gamble and remain in plain sight, clad in very little. When the guard sees her, she'll present herself as Asuka's friend or "playmate," and attempt to convince him to join the two of them for some naughtiness. Asuka finds this touch amusing, and promises to play along with it.
Without further ado, Anabel strips down to nothing, Asuka selects a couple of cans of brightly colored spray, and Vinnie picks the high-quality key lock from the inside. Asuka then bolts out the door and starts making a racket. After a couple of minutes of this, there's the sound of a man arguing with Asuka, followed by the clang of a metal can ricocheting off a wall. Shortly thereafter, Asuka appears in the apartment entrance with a menacing thug, his face a Ruthless Red color. His blush deepens when he sees Anabel.
The Yakuza heavy freezes up for an instant, trying to decide which weapon he's going to draw – the one concealed under his jacket or the one stowed in his trousers. In the moment it takes him to decide, Wen and Zhang jump him. Zhang goes high with his tonfa, while Wen goes low with a kick to the groin. Their victim doesn't stand a chance.
Vinnie shuts the door while Anabel gives Asuka a pep talk and distracts her from the violence. Qoqa, Wen, and Zhang drag the unconscious thug into the room and search him. He proves to be armed to the teeth, with an MP7 submachine gun under his jacket on the right, a USP holstered on the left, and pepper spray, a spring baton, and a folding knife in various pouches. The Agents waste no time relieving the guard of not just his weapons, but also his clothing. His suit looks like it should fit Zhang, who might be able to pass as one of Toru's boys for long enough to jump them.
While Zhang is putting on the goon's suit, Asuka hands Anabel, Qoqa, and Wen some of her clothing. None of it is a particularly great fit, but "Asuka's crazy girlfriends, here despite our security" is a better bet than "Dangerous secret agents dressed in dark outfits, here despite our security." While everybody is changing, there's a heavy knock at the door, followed by shouting in Japanese: "Ichi, get out here now!" Anabel lets her clothing fall to the floor and goes to open it in the nude. Vinnie, the only one not in the middle of a costume change, is already there.
Anabel opens the door and does her sexy best to distract the man standing there. This guy looks like an older, tougher customer, but he still isn't sure what to make of the beautiful brunette standing there making bedroom eyes at him. The diversion gives Vinnie all the time he needs. He pulls the gangster into the room by his necktie and cuts his throat. The whole thing is over in seconds, and Vinnie hastily tears the heavy's suit off before it gets all bloody. This reveals weapons similar to the first fellow's.
Before long, the three female Agents are dressed in Asuka's girly club clothes, while Vinnie and Zhang are dressed in the guards' suits and concealable body armor. Qoqa does her best to make sure that nothing is obviously bloody, while Anabel adjusts fits as well as she is able. Then Wen checks and distributes weapons: Anabel and Vinnie each get a USP, and keep the knives they brought with them; Wen and Zhang take MP7s, and hold on to their brass knuckles and tonfa, respectively; and Qoqa carries the USP Compact taken off the man downstairs, along with her knife. Anabel and Zhang each take a can of pepper spray for good measure.
Throughout all this, Asuka remains composed. Either she doesn't realize that the Agents are deadly serious and just killed two of her father's goons, or she truly hates the Yakuza men and is happy to see them die. Whatever the case, she doesn't fuss – she simply helps her rescuers prepare. Anabel convinces the girl to remain here until the situation upstairs is resolved, and asks whether she has a spare phone. Asuka digs out half a dozen phones and gives one to Anabel. They put each other on speed-dial, and Anabel promises to text Asuka once the coast is clear.
With that, the Agents head out into the hallway. It seems that Asuka pulled off her part of the plan flawlessly, as every camera lens in sight is dripping with sticky hair color and glitter. The way up is a stylish open staircase rather than the institutional kind typical of apartment towers. Zhang creeps upstairs to scout. Using Qoqa's mirror, he sees that there are two men hanging around near the top of the stairs, which emerge in an alcove at the midpoint of a long corridor. At either end of this passage are two more pairs of men, guarding a couple of closed doors.
Zhang rejoins his associates and reports the locations of the six men. After a brief, whispered conference, the plan is for Anabel, Qoqa, and Vinnie to draw their pistols and charge upstairs first, rushing the heavies at the top of the staircase and hopefully pushing them back out of sight of the guards at either end of the corridor. Wen and Zhang will follow immediately, using their submachine guns to deal with the distant targets. With that decided, Wen counts it off and the squad leaps into action.
The thugs at the top of the stairs don't stand a chance. The Agents' rush takes them completely by surprise. Anabel and Vinnie appear at a run and – out of a desire to avoid body armor – pump several rounds into the gangsters' gun arms. Even as Wen and Zhang move into position, the nearest Yakuza men are on the ground and surrounded by Anabel, Qoqa, and Vinnie, who are unloading pistols at point-blank range. It's less a gunfight than a brutal execution.
Wen and Zhang don't spend a lot of time thinking about this, though. They split left and right, firing long bursts toward the men at either end of the long corridor. Wen drops one of her two targets instantly with a bullet in the face. The other goon takes one in the arm. Zhang blazes away, too, but has less luck – he perforates walls and ceilings and doors, but not bad guys. As Wen and Zhang duck back into the alcove to reload, the two heavies Zhang was shooting at are pulling out their own submachine guns, while the survivor of Wen's onslaught is awkwardly drawing his pistol with the wrong hand.
Qoqa and Vinnie, searching the downed gunmen by the stairs, find loaded submachine guns and move to hand these off to Zhang and Wen, respectively. To cover this operation, Anabel leans out and fires her pistol at the men on Zhang's side, scoring a couple of hits on body armor and provoking some sloppy return fire. A moment after that, Wen is back on the scene with a loaded submachine gun, executing another gangster and putting his associate on the floor with a leg wound.
Seeing Wen shooting high with an automatic weapon, Anabel dives low and fires her pistol at one of the two remaining opponents, sending him to the ground as well. However, the man with the leg wound fires his MP7 along the floor, clipping Anabel in the arm. Anabel screams and tries to roll out of sight. Wen reacts to this by adjusting her aim and taking out the final Yakuza soldier in the corridor. For the moment, at least, the area is clear.
Qoqa drags Anabel out of sight and examines her wound. The injury doesn't look terribly serious. It seems that the dinky 4.6mm slug skipped along the floor, took a divot out of the fleshy part of Anabel's upper arm, and kept going. Qoqa slaps a haemostatic dressing on it, injects a local anesthetic, and tells Anabel to quit whining. This seems to work, as Anabel is soon upright and reloading her pistol.
As Qoqa works, Vinnie, Wen, and Zhang focus on getting guns and ammo off the two men who were guarding the stairs, and reloading the empty weapons. Four submachine guns would be more useful than two, and spare pistols aren't a bad idea, either. The three Agents take turns at this, two covering doorways while the third loads up. Before long, they all have loaded MP7s and USPs, and there's one spare of each. Just in time, too – the Agents hear shouts of alarm coming from elsewhere in the penthouse.
To be continued . . .