Week 27: Street Culture training

Ace contained his shock at the state of the room and he felt his left trigger finger twitch. His eyes narrowed as he smeekered to Xu "This pathetic wreck is a contact. Look at him. Is he really that valuable to you?"" Out loud he said "I'm learning from Yu, finding out how he does what he does. Is it important who I am as long as you get your money?" The venom in his voice was noticeable, but perhaps not to one as far gone as this one.

He's useful on occasion, Xu smeakered back, but you're right, he's not exactly the best I've got. Better get used to this, though - there's far worse than him out on the streets of Seoul.

Yi squinted at Ace, his eyes narrowing virtually to slits. "Yi doesn't think so," he said, slowly. "Yi has seen that look before. "That's not the look of the streets - that's the look of the Corporations. Which are you from, little agent boy? And don't think about trying to hurt me - Yi has some very nasty little things in his little jars, yes. All I want is to know who you -"

Yi's monologue was cut short by the knife that was suddenly sticking out of his chest and was then ripped downwards, disembowelling him with a very unpleasant sound. Xu was standing behind him, an expression of slight irritation and more than a little disgust on his face. Yi collapsed to the floor, coughing and retching, and after a moment of thrashing, lay still.

"Well, that was annoying," Xu said. "Guess the drugs must have been good to him today." he looked down at the body and shrugged. "In a manner of speaking."

"Oh. The UIG will want to confiscate these things then. I'll drop them a line when we have left. What did I do wrong?"

Ace looked over the terrible room one last time before leaving. Poison Yi wasn't listed on the bounty list and his face didn't bring anything up, so there was nothing of any real value in the room.

"Who are we seeing next then? And are you really sure you want me along after that?"

Xu looked at Ace with his head tilted slightly. "I wouldn't contact the UIG," he said, slowly. "Calling them in would only rile up every gang in the area. Far simpler if I just slip the word to one of the Ai-Jinn gangs and they'll come in and clear this lot up. Probably get themselves stoned out of their wits in the process, but never mind." Xu followed Ace out of the room, idly rolling Yi's body out of the way with his foot.

"As for how he worked it out..." Xu shrugged. "He got lucky, and probably wasn't quite as drugged up as we expected. If anything, I think the drugs were making him sharper than usual today. But someone like him...he always wants to know who he's dealing with, in case he can sell the information on later. Still, he was becoming a bit of a liability anyway. As for keeping you with me, how else are you gonna learn this kind of stuff? Can't improve if you don't practise, and that's why I'm showing you to low-level guys like Yi."

As they left the apartment, Xu paused to whisper something to the kid guarding the door. A few more bits of slip changed hands and the youth scampered off without a backward glance.

"As for the next guy - and the last one for today, I think - he's an information broker. Just about good enough not to be slaughtered by the gangs, but not good enough to actually be any use to anyone really important. He won't ask who you are - probably won't even look at you. He'll just try to work it out for himself and then sell on what he works out to whoever asks, provided they pay him enough. He goes by the name of Zuo of the Eighty-Foot Moustache, and no, I don't know why either. It's impressive, but nowhere near that long."

"Not the UIG, noted. If we were home I would call in a clean-up crew. I didn't know who else to turn to here. I'm not too comfortable with giving things to the Ai-Jinn, but if it is for the best. I have to say this guy didn't look anywhere near as good a contact as the first guy. And you are right, I defiantly need to learn how to handle myself in an old city. Put me in a Spire and I'd be fine. Put me in a WF open city and I wouldn't be too bad. Here I'm out of my element and I've spent most of my time in the city wondering around and finding nothing, or else hidden away behind high walls.

Ace followed Xu out of the apartment, being sure not to touch anything, and watched how he handled the boy. When he was done Ace followed him down the street, still practicing his walk.

"Interesting name, although it is a little pretentious. He might figure out who I am, though. My face was on the news the last couple of weeks, though they did mosaic that out. Do you think it’ll be ok?"

Xu turned and critically studied Ace's frame. "Should probably be okay, I think. Like I say, this guy isn't actually a particularly good information broker. He can pass information around, but he's not actually very good at putting it all together. And slouching like that should alter your frame enough to fool him. Anyway, we're going back to the back alleys for this, so follow me."

With that, Xu turned and started walking. "Oh, and remember not to turn too early into the corners."

Ace did as he was told. As time progresed he found that he needed to spend less and less energy on thinking about walking wrong/right and could take in the suroundings better. The alleys were dark, but that wasn't an issue to his augmented eyes. He stayed close behind Xu and memorised the route they were taking as they wormed their way through the back streets.

They spent a couple of minutes walking, and then Xu held up his hand as they approached another filthy alley.

"This is the one," he said to Ace, and then turned to the alley. "Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without," he said, and raised his hands to about shoulder height. Then he walked into the alley.

Zuo of the Eighty-Foot Moustache was not a particularly imposing man. His features were weak, his clothes were cheap and dirty and his teeth were stained a slightly disturbing orange colour. The only impressive feature was the moustache which, while not eighty feet, still hung a fair distance off his face, even it was somewhat thin and scraggly.

"Yu," he said, somewhat perfunctorily. "What did you want today?" His gaze took in Ace, and lingered for a few moments before switching back to Xu.

Ace assumed the strange phrasing was some sort of password, but as he had been told to stay quiet he said nothing. He also didn't raise his hands up like Lu, instead hanging them loose by his side so it was clear they didn't hold a weapon. He followed Xu around the corner and stood, leaning against a wall and trying his best to look board. It wasn't a very convincing expression as his genuine interest defiantly showed on his face and his eyes were too roaming for boredom.

"Just want an update," Xu said, his tone and stance one of casual boredom, which he pulled off much better than Ace. "Need to keep up with the latest gang movements, and I've got a couple of people I need to ask after."

"Money first, Yu," Zuo said, shaking his head, "and then you can ask all the questions you want."

With a token display of reluctance, and after a minute or so of haggling, Xu handed over a decent-sized bundle of slip, which disappeared into Zuo's pockets. The next couple of minutes were spent listening to Zuo detail gang movements and the occasional bit of street politics, finishing with the revelation that he knew nothing about people named either Han Yul or Ban So Tzun.

Then there was the sound of somebody failing to be stealthy in the street outside and a muffled thump as the not very stealthy person was hit round the head.

Zuo started and his face twisted with fear. "Shit!" he hissed, and suddenly there was a pistol in his hand, Kac-Shim by the look of it. "The Saffron Flame Clan!"

Xu's face waged a quick war with amusement, and just about won. "The who?" he said, drawing his laser pistol. And then badly aimed shots started hitting the brickwork around them.

Well now, this was more like it. Up to now things had been informative, but a little tedious and concentrating on walking strangely was getting quite tiresome. But now someone was shooting at them.
From the moment the first amiss sound was heard Ace had his hand on his Cougar, hanging on his belt under his hooded sweatshirt. When the bullets started flying Ace took cover behind an overflowing bin and looked up the alley towards the targets. Ace could hear the sound of four distinct sets of footfalls as they rounded the corner. Two of them hung back, firing the first few shots from behind cover, while a third stood at the opening of the alley and a forth ran towards them, screaming at the top of his lungs and waving a large butchers knife in the air. Ace drew bead on that one, his IFF drawing red boxes around the obvious targets, numbers flashing above their heads detailing range, estimated speed and a number of other factors. Ace’s facial recognition system not identify the thug as someone of note.

The charging man never saw it coming. The shots were silent, the tell tale flash of a muzzle in the gloom of the alley was missing. One moment he was running, the next there were three bullet holes in him, two in the chest and one in the head. His momentum bled out quickly as his body crumpled to the floor. Ace was calm and collected, his breathing regular as he drew bead on the next target, without missing a beat.

"Get him to cover, I've got the assailants." He smeekered calmly to Xu.

Got it.

Xu grabbed Zuo by the arms and pulled him to the floor with a sharp "Get down!" and then dropped down alongside him. Cover, cover...there was a pile of rubbish over there that ought to at least provide a hiding place while Ace dealt with them.

"When I give the word," he said under his breath to the shaken information broker, "you're going to get up and sprint for that rubbish pile. And then we're going to get down and let my friend here deal with your little problem. Ready? Go!"

The two of them rose from the floor and sprinted for the rubbish. Unfortunately Zuo was not the best runner, and Xu was forced to push him the last metre or so, ending in Zuo taking an undignified tumble into the pile.

Whoever these people were they had just made a big mistake.

With the primary threat out of the way Ace turned his attention to the remaining targets. Two were behind cover but one was standing in the open peppering Ace's position with bullets. His WF training was very clear about this. There were three non-agent targets. the best cause of action was to disable as many as possible, and for people who could feel pain a single well placed bullet was enough to stop all but the best trained assailants, and these people were clearly not the best trained. Rising up from behind cover Ace trained his pistol across the mouth of the alley, firing off three shots as he did so. Two of the shots hit their target, striking in the centre of the chest, the third hit the wall just to the side of the best covered gunman, who shied back away from the sound of bullet on brick and disappeared out of sight. The two who were hit collapsed groaning in agony, all thoughts of firing at the man they had come to kill sent far from their minds by the pain.

Xu held Zuo down in the rubbish pile and smeakered to Ace, Get that last one - we don't anybody running back to their gang to give notes on us. I'll stay here and make sure nobody sneaks up on our friend.

Ace didn't bother replying. Before Xu had finished giving the order he had vaulted over the bin and sprinted over to where he had seen the last man run. He ignored the groans of the two men on the ground and turned the corner to see a figure retreating. The man ran quickly but in a panicked way. Before he could turn again Ace fired three shots into his back. The first two struck him in the back and threw him forward with a shout of alarm. The third struck him in the back of the head and left pieces of his brain, skull and face all over the alley. The fleeing target downed Ace turned around and promptly put a bullet in the head of each of the writhing men on the ground.

"All clear, Sir. Should we tell the Ai-jinn about this one too?"

Ace reached down and looked at the guns these people were carrying. KAC-SHIM, of course. Ace walked away in disgust.

Not until I know why this idiot had a gang on his heels, Xu replied, yanking Zuo up from the rubbish pile. The information broker was spluttering and there was something unpleasant and green staining his moustache.

"Well?" Xu demanded. "The reason for that was...?"

"I...don't know," Zuo exclaimed, making frantic gestures with his hands and staring wildly at Ace, all traces of composure gone. "I think they think I know something but I think I know nothing that I think would be a bad idea to know! Well...nothing to do with them, anyway."

Xu glared at him for a minute, and then stepped back. "Well, I expect you to find out why they're after you. It might be interesting. In the meantime...you owe me, Zuo. So get digging."

"Yes! Of course I will!" With that, Zuo ran, the sound of his footsteps echoing off the walls of the alleys.

Xu turned to Ace. "No offence, but we really should have handled that one differently."

"How? They were firing at us. The life of your contact was in danger."

Ace gave his Cougar a quick look over to see what its state was post-fire fight and changed the clip for a fresh one. Then he remembered that he was supposed to be acting, holstered the gun and slouched against the wall, a move that was now totally unbelievable.

"They were overenthusiastic gangers, started shooting before they realised we were there. If we'd waited a moment before shooting we could have found out they were after Zuo and just handed him over. As it stands, we might have just pissed off one of the Ai-Jinn gangs to save some idiot little tit who doesn't know when to stop poking his nose into things. Zuo really isn't an important contact, and it's never a good idea to antagonise important people you don't have to. Chances are he'll end up dead in another alley somewhere by sundown anyway - it's not like we can keep an eye on him all the time. Hopefully we should be fine, since none of them got away." Xu paused, realising that he was lecturing.

"Anyway, never mind. What's done is done. Showing you stuff like this is why you're out here. Let's get back home - think that's enough trawling for today."

Ace's expression went from happy, to confused, to crestfallen. The concept of not shooting them hadn't even occurred to him.

"I... didn't think about that. They were shooting us. I was trained to shoot back. I was trained to hit my targets. I didn't even consider.. handing him over. They were trying to kill him! Isn't that what we do? Protect people?"

Xu snorted. "Not even close. Our job is to make hurting people as profitable as it can be. People like Zuo...they're not worth protecting. The ones that might make something of themselves will make it through without our help and it's no business of ours what happens to the rest. The only person you should be taking care of is yourself. That's the law of the street." He shrugged.

"Still, can't blame you for shooting back under fire. And to be honest, it still went pretty well. You're a better shot than I am, that's for sure."

He started walking, heading back into the maze of back alleys.

"I guess I'm used to being the good guy." Ace considered Xu's compliment "I'm not that good a shot, and they were unmodified. Actually I was always something of an underdog when it came to shooting practice. Most of the others used bigger guns and were much better shots than me, but then my speciality was extraction, not assault." Ace went quiet and thoughtful for a little bit as they walked. "Are you still sure it was a good idea to bring be along. That's 2 out of your 3 contacts dead now. Although I suppose the last one wasn't my fault...” Ace went quiet again until finally they immerged from the maze of backstreets onto something resembling a main road. “Thank you anyway. It was good spending time with you today. I think I’ll make my own way home from here"

"Don't worry," Xu said. "Like I say, they were minor contacts - nobody important. And who knows, Zuo might surprise me and come up with something interesting, though I doubt it. And Yi was getting to the point where he was no use anyway. Hope that this has been useful, at least."

With that, he inclined his head, turned and walked off without a backward glance.