dr_kromm | The Company

On October 25, we had Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi" and "Dot"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson" and "Vicky"), and Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases). Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanov," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorov") was out of town.

Time: Sunday, August 8, 2010 (dawn).
Place: Tokyo, Japan.
Last Event: Returning to the hotel after meeting "Toru."

After a very long day, the Agents need some rest. The mysterious ship at the center of the Tokyo affair bears investigation, but it's some 10 days out of L.A. The matter isn't yet time-sensitive enough to justify rushing in sleep-deprived – especially not with a couple of injuries, however minor they proved to be after cleaning away the blood.

At around 15:00, the Agents rise, meet for coffee, and discuss the puzzle that confronts them. They're fairly sure that the ship has an illicit cargo – ostensibly women, or possibly drugs or weapons, but conceivably a decoy or even a trap. It isn't clear how many thugs are aboard for security, or who they serve: the Yakuza or their Filipino rivals. The crew themselves might be corrupt or merely doing their job. Word on the street is that gangsters on both sides of the Pacific have cops on their payroll, which makes tipping off the authorities risky . . . and in any event, odds are good that anything illegal will be transferred to smaller vessels outside U.S. territorial waters.

Ideally, the Agents would like to gather intelligence in order to fabricate a believable story for the media or the authorities, or at least before attempting to tangle with the ship directly. With just 10 days to act and their quarry on the high seas, though, such a plan seems doomed to failure. The only option that remains – that is, besides "let it make port and hope for the best" or "ignore the whole affair" – is a boarding action, which is both risky and technically complex. That's nevertheless the eventual decision, and consensus is that interception would be superior to pursuit. Steaming out of Canada, meaning either Vancouver or Victoria, would give the biggest advantage.

As it happens, this sketchy plan comes with a ready-made cover story. A significant number of activist groups who openly identify as "eco-terrorists" operate out of Vancouver. On numerous occasions, these people have directly intercepted large Asian fishing vessels on the high seas, fouling propellers and so forth in the name of protecting sharks, whales, or dolphins. They have craft with the speed and range for this kind of work, and aren't above breaking the law. And they use international crews, meaning that the Agents – hailing from nine countries and spanning the whole spectrum of skin colors – would look the part.

The Agents decide to use the evening to research possible contacts; they'll book their flights the next day. Everybody delves into Internet news items on eco-terrorist activities involving Vancouver-based vessels, sites run by Canadian ecological groups, and so on. On comparing notes, Anabel and Wen find a likely candidate: militant activist Stan Paulow. Popular, outspoken, and notorious for extravagant and sometimes violent operations . . . if anybody has the will and means to hook up a team of foreigners with a vessel on short notice, it would be this man.

Early on August 9, Chaturvedi and Vinnie make travel arrangements for the entire team under the false IDs the group used to enter Japan. They visit several different online and airport-based agencies; choose Air Canada, ANA, Asiana, JAL, and Korean Air to avoid U.S. connections; and are careful to put only one or two Agents on each flight. The Agents depart Tokyo throughout the day, leaving as soon as their expensive, last-minute tickets are ready. Everybody is in Vancouver by about noon local time on August 9, where their forged papers do the trick: "Welcome to Canada/Bienvenue au Canada!"

Since there's no time to waste in Vancouver, it's fortunate that all of the Agents are veteran international travelers – everybody managed to sleep on the plane. They pause only for long enough to book rooms in a midrange downtown hotel, checking in as they arrive and not letting on that they know each other. Then they get to work, each seeing to a task agreed upon in Tokyo:

• Anabel dresses up like a 21st-century hippy – hemp, henna, hair wrap, etc. – and then heads out to track down Paulow's associates. After the online detective work she and Wen did, this isn't hard. She's soon at their favorite café, flirting with a girl named Star. Star knows about a meeting that Paulow might be at this evening, and Anabel manages to finagle an invitation.

• Ben, who earned his MD in Canada, uses what he knows of the system to pick up all the medical supplies he can legally acquire. He returns lugging more gear than the team is likely to need unless things go terribly wrong. Better safe than sorry . . .

• Hamid purchases the parts he needs to build a transmitter and an antenna capable of jamming commercial shipping radar. Nothing he needs is illegal per se, but his entire day's purchases would advertise his intentions to anybody who knew what to look for; therefore, he shops at a dozen places, and is very careful to cover his trail.

• JB goes on a shopping spree at various camera shops, buying binoculars, cameras, a spotting telescope, and even some civilian low-light gear. As luck would have it, he stumbles upon a going-out-of-business sale, which lets him get good prices on a lot of these instruments.

• Jili loads up on sensors, buying an electronic stethoscope (to hear sounds inside shipping containers), a metal detector, and a temperature gun at three different stores. She also gets the parts she needs to build a radar locator. Like Hamid, she's careful to keep a low profile, just in case.

• Klas and Zhang swing past a number of mountaineering shops and expedition outfitters, which are numerous in sight of the mountains. They pick out all the high-quality climbing gear that the team will require to stealthily board a ship at sea, as well as glow sticks, survival beacons, and other incidentals.

• Lev visits the area's many outdoors shops to obtain knives. There's no law against such things, but he's careful not to buy dozens of them in any one place. He comes back with a wide variety of very nice hunting and survival blades.

• Paul uses his knowledge of both black markets and law-enforcement matters to get hold of as many sets of handcuffs as he can – preferably good-quality police ones. He comes back with an entire crate!

• Qoqa gets the job of provisioning the operation. She orders enough food for a dozen people to spend a couple of weeks at sea, and has it standing by for delivery. She finds an excellent deal on a case of vodka, too.

• Vinnie trawls the area's many marine, boating, and fishing supplies shops for three good-sized Zodiacs. He also picks up inflatable vests and wetsuits for everyone, plus a set of scuba gear for Wen. Since he buys everything legally and above-board, there are no hassles at all.

• Wen heads into Vancouver's sizeable Chinatown to make the needed connections for guns. Unfortunately, she has little luck – Canada is serious about firearms, so the hardware simply isn't available on short notice. She comes back with knives and tonfas, but weapons that shoot will require riskier options, most likely involving gangs.

By nightfall, everyone but Anabel has returned, and the group has everything it needs but firearms and of course transportation. Anabel is at a meeting where she'll hopefully be able to acquire a suitable vessel – temporarily or permanently – by making a large cash donation to Paulow's cause. Her angle is to pose as a wealthy U.K. activist whose organization needs a ship, no questions asked, for an "emergency intervention" in the Pacific. With more than €20 million in the bank, this shouldn't be too hard, if Paulow doesn't ask questions. When Paulow walks through the door, Anabel turns on the charm and gets ready to find out . . .

The Company

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