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The Company
Time: Thursday, July 7, 2011 (late afternoon).
Place: London, U.K.
Last Event: Reviewing the FSB intercept of Toru and Georgi's (staged-looking) video call.
At this stage, the Agents have to decide where to start their hunt. After browsing V's files on the "Red Army," watching the video conference between Georgi and Toru, and factoring in tips from their journalist contact and Iannis the Greek detective, nobody has any doubts that the Russians have a base in New York City while the Yakuza have one in Los Angeles. And while the two organizations ostensibly plan to meet somewhere in Wyoming (which isn't usefully specific, even if true), there's reason to believe that the summit will actually happen in Las Vegas. None of these locations are a sure thing, though – it's a tossup between the best guesses of people with agendas, a "soft" analysis of voice stress and microexpressions, and the words of two famously deceitful gangsters.
The eventual decision is New York City – Vinnie knows the place well, and the team is on the whole more familiar with old-style gangsters of European descent than with Japanese imports. In light of past difficulties with U.S. officials, the Agents decide to enter from Canada. The plan is to pose as "hippy" types headed to a summer festival, crossing into the U.S. at Akwesasne because they were nailed for marijuana possession at their last festival, and so are on a watch list. Playing on the Mohawks' anti-government sentiment (and, ideally, dealing with Mohawk smugglers) should accomplish the rest.
With that settled, it's time for a conference call with Chaturvedi. The Agents fill him in on their plans and ask him to book tickets to Montréal as soon as possible. Chaturvedi says that should be easy enough, given that everybody has a new face and identity, but warns that the Company won't risk moving equipment into the U.S.; the team will have to buy its electronics, vehicles, weapons, etc. on site. He promises to make sufficient funds available for this, and Anabel and Vinnie make a point of requesting enough extra to cover bribes. Chaturvedi promises to do his best, and then ends the call to go make preparations.
A couple of hours later, Chaturvedi calls back to say that he has flights booked for the following day ("You really don't want to know how much it cost."); the Agents are expected at Heathrow at noon. As well, he has placed funds in bank accounts accessible to debit cards associated with the team's false identities. With that taken care of, it's time to get packing. However, there's little to pack other than ID, clothing, and Wen's skateboard; hippy festival-goers travel with ratty backpacks, not fancy luggage, so anything bigger than a carry-on bag would be pointless (much to Anabel's chagrin). Nobody risks bringing anything suspicious, much less illegal – although Qoqa certainly bends the rules on liquor.
The flight out on Friday, July 8 goes uneventfully. By 16:00 local time, the Agents are headed into Montréal by cab. Once in the city, they immediately hit the shops to acquire "hippy" clothing – which means lots of hemp – along with matching jewelry, stickers, and so forth. Fortunately, there's a lot of choice in this regard, especially in the summer. A little asking around also turns up a tip on where to buy some weed for the purpose of strengthening the group's cover story; Anabel, Qoqa, and Vinnie hide this from Jili, who nevertheless promptly lights up. After that, everybody grabs a bite to eat and then crashes at the hotel booked by Chaturvedi.
On Saturday morning, the Agents get into role – with Anabel overseeing the costumes – and catch the bus to Cornwall. From there, they hike to the reservation, arriving in the middle of the afternoon. Good acting by all and Anabel's gift for social engineering soon get the group pointed to some men with boats who might be able to "help out." These guys obviously see "showing around hippy tourists" as useful cover for whatever they're really up to, but nobody pushes the issue. After a short boat ride, the crew is on the U.S. side of the reservation, Qoqa toting a bargain-priced carton of cigarettes bought somewhere along the way.
The whole team then fans out around town to seek cheap transportation options other than hitchhiking or taking a bus – specifically, second-hand vehicles. The choices in this department are either a frighteningly rundown school bus big enough for everyone, or two merely crappy smaller vans. Vinnie haggles for the vans, gets a good price, and pays cash. While Vinnie changes oil and inflates tires, the others buy snacks and drinks (including weak American beer), and carry on like a bunch of goofs with the munchies. Eventually, the Agents get on the road, leaving behind few doubts that they're a bunch of irresponsible, pot-smoking hippies having a rolling party.
At around 22:00, the Agents pull into New York City. At that hour, finding a place to stay that isn't miles from Manhattan is a challenge, but Vinnie knows the territory. He soon locates a small inner-city hotel that's vacant because the A/C is out. Under the circumstances, Anabel is able to swing a good deal on rooms for everyone. The establishment is hardly luxurious (Anabel spots some roaches), but it has beds and showers – it will do.
After washing up, Anabel, Lev, Qoqa, and Wen head out to do some late-night clothes shopping, as neither respectable travel wear nor hippy duds are ideal for going out and shaking down gangsters. Canal Street proves to be up to the challenge. Anabel picks out something for everyone (and has Lev carry it all) – and much as with the vehicles and accommodations, being willing to accept second-best means getting a great price. There's a quick dumpling run to Chinatown for Wen, and then the shoppers return to the hotel.
It's after midnight on Sunday, July 10 when the group is once again united. Although it's late, Vinnie wants to do some preliminary work in Little Italy, while Wen would like to see what she can arrange in Chinatown. Vinnie chooses Lev for backup, while Wen picks Zhang. The four of them head back down to Canal Street, while the other six catch up on missed sleep.
Vinnie wracks his brains to remember a suitably "connected" establishment where he could believably stop in for a coffee in the wee hours and perhaps make contact with the local Mafia. He happens to know such a place, and drags Lev over there. Outwardly, it looks like any other café, not some stereotypical Cosa Nostra hangout. It soon becomes evident that Vinnie knows what he's looking for, though.
Within minutes of walking in the door, Vinnie manages to strike up a conversation in Italian with one of the patrons, and promptly brings up i russi maledetti. Vinnie's mark genuinely seems to like him, for whatever reason – and more important, the man clearly detests the Russian mob. When Vinnie lies that he's from the Old Country, come to deal with Russians who messed with the wrong man's daughter, the guy actually believes it! Vinnie soon manages to parlay a casual conversation over coffee at three in the morning into an earnest offer to meet a friend-of-a-friend who can sell him the firearms he'll need for his one-man war on Russia. A phone call later, Vinnie has an appointment to meet a man in Jersey at 06:00, the only caveat being that he comes alone – no Lev – and brings cash. Vinnie wouldn't normally walk into such a situation, but he used to do this for a living and trusts his instincts here, so he agrees.
Given his success so far, Vinnie also asks his new friend whether he has heard anything about a Russian bigwig in town – some kind of "ghost" who scares even the Russians. The man has no information on that, however. He seems to hate the Russians on principle, mostly. Vinnie gets the general impression that the guy isn't terribly highly placed, and may well be taking advantage of the situation to show some boss somewhere how good a salesman he is.
In Chinatown, meanwhile, Wen spots a knot of men sitting in an alleyway to escape the heat of a restaurant kitchen on a warm July night. Some are gambling with decent-sized wads of cash, suggesting the right kind of people to approach about real gangsters. Unfortunately for Wen, they refuse to take a short, slight "girl" seriously, and ignore her. They're willing to hear what Zhang has to say, though.
Zhang isn't new to dealing with crooks, but in his former life, he mostly arrested them. When he inquires about weapons – which the team needs, after all – the gamblers initially assume that he means something more archaic than firearms. One of the men unrolls a cloth bundle which proves to contain almost every kind of hand-to-hand combat weapon a person could easily conceal: brass knuckles, knives of all sorts, collapsible batons, tonfas, cleavers, hatchets, and even butterfly swords, slashing wheels, and chain whips. Zhang realizes that these could be useful, buys a good selection, and then asks about guns. After a pause, the weapons salesman tells him to go a few doors down the alleyway, knock, and ask for Tong.
Wen and Zhang take their leave of the gamblers and walk up to the address they were given – an unremarkable back entrance to some business that's closed for the night. Knocking and asking for Tong results in shouted Chinese from inside: "Give the girl that bag of knives and tell her to step away from the door." When Zhang and Wen comply, the door opens and a burly Chinese man with a gun thrust through his belt gestures for Zhang to enter.
Things go bad almost immediately, though. As soon as the door shuts, Zhang realizes that he's in a small room with three armed men who don't look especially friendly. He calmly explains that he's just here to buy a couple of handguns, which leads his hosts to declare that anybody who comes down here at 3 a.m. with an underage girl in tow (and thanks to her surgery, Wen does look about 15), looking to shop for weapons, must be a pimp – and they don't like pimps. The thugs make it clear that they believe that Zhang has money, which they'll be taking from him. One of them points a pistol at him, while the other two keep their hands menacingly near guns stuck in their waistbands.
To be continued . . .