GTA:Luo Yang

Chapter 7

The Eve of Battle

[WWEI Station Xiahou Dun’s Office 7:30 am.

“Honestly, I don’t see how anyone can not be pointing the finger at Wei International right now!”

“Heng, since I must play devil’s advocate….as always...”

“Comes with the turf, old man.”

“As I was saying, the objections to that statement would be either. A:-you’re paycheck is signed by Sun Jian and therefore you are obligated to be outraged by the destruction of one of his facilities and B:Cao Cao lost a son. This recent crime spree has taken a toll on both sides.”

“Well maybe the helicopter malfunctioned? Anyone bring that up? Planes go down all the time! What kind of malfunction causes an entire building to implode?”

Xiahou Dun picked up the remote and clicked the radio off. Every morning he sat in his office in WWEI studio and listened to the competition. Luo Yang Sunrise has the best ratings for any morning media outlet in the city, which always irritated him. Sure the statistics were in their favor, people commuting to work listened to the radio while housewives watched the morning news. But the fact was that the mayoral polls were seeing an increase in Yuan Shao support. That meant that the feeling was that Sun Media has suffered more of a hit. Figures, the Suns were always highly thought of whereas Cao Cao was usually thought of as a villain. People always loved to hate the incredibly successful.

With a tap of his fingers he lifted his company coffee cup to his lips and drank his rich Kona coffee, enjoying the smooth taste that couldn’t be found in any grocery store brand. As the liquid ran down his throat he stopped and thought about his options. Yes, orders were to bankrupt Sun Jian. But the key to that was in targeting everyone who had ties to him. With a flick of his rolodex he found the card labeled ‘Exterminating’ and punched in the numbers. Success in the news business always revolved around the right contacts.

“I usually deal with your boss.” The cool sweet voice of Dian Chan came through the receiver.

“Well I just want information. As usual.”

“On the Suns, I presume?”

“On all of their assets.” Dun looked down at his planner. He had a lunch date with Zhen Ji and Xu Huang at 11 am. They were going to have to do some investigative reporting and earn their keep. Enlisting Diao Chan’s assistance was simply going to give them an edge.

“Alright. You know the way it works. I call when I have something and set a price. I’m always fair about it, don’t you agree?”

“You terms are always fine. If it’s that good, I’m sure the boss wouldn’t mind digging change out of the couch for you.”

“Then, I hope we speak again soon.”

“As do I.”

“Morning, your Excellency.” Zhao Yun hid his grin as he dramatically checked his watch.

“Next time you’re late, I’m giving you hell.” Liu Bei brushed past the handmade chestnut desk that was soon to be his office manager’s sacrificial alter.

“Hi Yun!” Liu Chan chirped as he ran into the office and jumped up into a chair.

“Miss the bus?” Yun asked and reached behind him for the donut box.

“Dad woke up late.”

“CHAO! I have the Sun Times plans here, need them done by tonight!” Liu Bei hollered as he tossed the folder on the conference table and rushed into his office.

“Sure yell at me.” Ma Chao quickly emerged from his own office unable to resist the juicy file on the table. “You’re the one who’s late.”

“So what happened?” Yun asked, trying to occupy the kid as he typed some more entries into the fields of the spreadsheet he was working on. “Did Chao come over last night and hack your rooster to pieces with a pruning saw?”

“City boy.” Chao snickered as he leafed through the paperwork.

“Nope, Lady Sun came over.”

Yun stopped his typing and glanced over at Chao who also gave a curious look in the direction of the child. “Really.”

“Yup, and Dad sent me to my room. That means they’re together right? That’s what you told me. When guys like girls they want to be alone with them.”

“What?” Liu Bei materialized from his office and looked at the two young men jump.

Yue Ying rolled her office chair out into the main office and listened in. Liu Bei was beginning to get the little twitch over his eye that signified he was getting angry. The two roommates each reacted with a nervous chuckle.

“Hey Chan, I’ll drive you to school…better fuel mileage and all.” Yun jumped out of his chair and grabbed the kid by the hand.

“COOL! Can we listen to that “I like big butts” song?” Chan smiled as his favorite babysitter pulled him out of the office.

“And I need to get to class…” Chao lumped the papers back into the folder and grabbed his satchel out of his office before running out the door.

“The next time I ask those two to baby-sit, I’m calling social services on myself.” Liu Bei growled and walked over to coffee pot.

Ying reclined in her chair and smiled, “So what did Lady Sun want?”

“She dropped off those sketches.” Bei could feel her scrutinizing gaze watching his face for any sign of weakness. Not a lie, she did drop off the sketches. It was just followed by dinner, dessert and sex on the couch. Dear god, did that really happen? So many things were wrong with that. Sun Jian’s baby girl, her peculiar collection of flavored condoms in her purse, his lack of objections, his son asleep upstairs…the list went on and on. But the worst part was he knew he would do it again if he had the chance.

“Did she drop anything else?” Ying raised her eyebrows as he turned to her with a nasty scowl.

“I expect this shit from those two kids but…. “

“Not from the girl who you lost your virginity to?” Ying giggled.

“I’m taking that as sexual harassment.” Bei grinned. “Let me call my lawyer…”

“Tell me Xuande!” Ying whined. “Please! Let the gossip start with me for once!”

“She dropped off sketches.” Bei looked up as Jiang Wei walked in with his empty coffee carafe.

Wei stopped in the doorway and dropped his glasses down to the tip of his nose, his characteristic way of scanning a situation. Where did everyone go? “Am I interrupting?”

“Nope, we’re just talking about Lady Sun and her secret late night rendezvous at the Liu house.” Ying winked at Bei as he rolled his eyes.

Wei refilled his 36 oz, carafe and whispered, “You can fire her. She doesn’t do anything all day, just IMs her husband and reads that smutty Redbook.”

“I heard that you little shit.” Ying stuck her tongue out as Wei repositioned his glasses and held his coffee close. “Go back to the lair with the precious.”

Wei pet the carafe and laughed. “Answer the phones will you, woman? I am doing important CPA things back here.”

“You don’t pull that off at all Buoyue. The ‘CPA’ kills just about any sentence.” Ying watched the young accountant return to his den and noticed the boss slinking into his office. “Hey, I’m not finished with you.”

Liu Bei smiled and pressed ‘1’ and ‘send’ on his cell phone, the office phone began to ring and he watched Yue Ying scoot her chair over to answer. Distraction completed, he jumped into his office and slammed the door.

“Yes, this is such a generous donation.” Zhang He mumbled sarcastically as he picked his way through the rubble and charred garbage on the lot that had been the home of the Sun Times since its creation. Now it was nothing more than an empty lot in the middle of downtown and the newest donation to the great city of Luo Yang. Leave it to Sun Jian to make this tragedy into something to boost his public image: cry for the loss of your people, whine about your freedom of speech and then make a charitable contribution to make yourself look better. All wrapped up into one beautiful explosion and have the insurance company pay for the new building you needed anyway. Zhang He wrinkled his nose as he stepped in something mushy, then he realized what it was. “Perfect, it even comes with a battered corpse.”

Sun Shang Xiang reapplied her lipstick before jumping out of the Wrangler and grabbing her briefcase. It was time to see how effected Liu Bei would be by their intimate relations. With her customary smile she walked in the main building of Shu Construction.

“NO NO NO!” Zhou Yu screamed and pointed his finger at the blueprints. “What part of ‘increase the square footage’ don’t you get?”

Ma Chao sat back in his comfortable chair as the annoying editor continued to whine. “And I can’t help but wonder why a man of obvious intelligence can figure out how to add. Let me review. You have a set amount of space because of your lot size, and then you have to take into account things like sidewalks and gaudy bronze statues of tigers and printing presses…”

“Gongjing, are you being an asshole?” Shang Xiang snickered as she walked in.

“Yes, he is.” Zhao Yun mumbled.

“I heard that, Mr. Secretary!” Zhou Yu snapped.

“Why are you here anyway? You’re just the editor, aren’t you?” Yun growled.

“Well our vice president still has a maladjusted nose thanks to him.” Zhou Yu stared at Ma Chao.

“Which he deserved.” Shang Xiang added. “By the way, nice work.”

Chao smiled as the woman patted his shoulder. “Thanks…”

“What is with all the screaming?” Liu Bei walked out of his office confused and gave a simple nod to Shang Xiang. He only hoped his true nerves didn’t show through and all of those stupid school plays back in high school taught him something about lying.

“Zhou Yu should go home.” Shang Xiang sat down at the conference table. “Let the wife braid your hair and bedazzle your silky robe.”

“You’re not helping.”

“Really? I thought I was being supportive. This is after all my project isn’t it? Don’t you have a newsletter to put out?”

“Lady Sun, would you be interested in joining us for karaoke night at the Sleeping Dragon Inn tonight?” Ma Chao completely ignored Zhou Yu pointing at the blueprints and tapping his finger.

“That sounds great!” Shang Xiang smiled seeing Yu’s head begin to throb.

“We have a band, Chao plays guitar, I sing, Jiang Wei has bass and Pang Tong takes the drums.” Yun explained. “We’re the karaoke machine….we get free booze for it.”

“And many, many phone numbers.” Jiang Wei lifted his coffee mug in a mock toast to Zhou Yu who was digging his fingernails into the conference table.

“Sounds wonderful!” Shang Xiang grinned, these guys were adorable and they seemed like fun.

“And if you ask nice, Liu Bei will sing some of his musical show stoppers.” Yue Ying winked at the boss. “Ask him for his solo from Singin’ in the Rain.”

“So what’s the problem?” Gan Ning looked around at the site and slurped his hot chocolate.

“Dead whore, beaten like the rest of them.” The officer scratched his head and put his hat back on. “Why we waste our time with fuckin hookers...bitches know what they’re in for. Should be investigating crimes that happen to people who aren’t the rejects of society.”

“Mmm.” Ning shoved a donut in his mouth. He hated the beat cops they were always so opinionated and bitter. “That the guy who found the ho?” Ning spit pieces of bakery delight as he spoke.

“Yup. He’s one of those...” The cop lowered his voice and flapped his hand around, “homos”

“Yippie.” Ning walked over some crumbled concrete and twisted rebar.

“Hello detective.” Zhang He stared at the disheveled man. How disgraceful, no wonder the streets were a crime riddled hell.

“Don’t look at me like that; I’m not your type.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Wentai….are we going to retaliate?” Huang Gai looked over at his old friend as his baby, the EMD SD70M-2 diesel locomotive pulled out of the rail yard. The 16 cylinder turbocharged 2 stroke engine smoothly pulled them and the load of steel destined for the new bridge towards the east.

Sun Jian sighed and leaned against the cab wall. The expensive new engine was Gai’s pride and joy and he was happy that his long time friend finally got the damned thing. It had taken years for Jian to break down and buy it, he was a media mogul not a railroad baron, but the old engines they had were always in the shop. Sun Media was growing and they needed a dependable transportation source for the mill. It was a nice train, but all he kept thinking of was the hefty price tag and the 5000 gallon fuel tank. “That’s what we would have done back then. But this is now and Luo Yang isn’t what it used to be.”

“We’ve been playing this game for years Jian.” Gai adjusted some controls and looked back at the track in front of him. Nowadays there were all kinds of computer programs that ran these trains but where was the fun in that? “It’s been push and shove for what, twenty years? The pushes are becoming more forceful as time goes on.”

“So what are you saying? You want to take care of this the old way? That’s not an option. This isn’t just you and me versus Cao Cao and the Xiahou brothers anymore. The empires have grown as have our rosters. We can’t just go wail on them in the street like we used to.”

“Those were the good old days weren’t they?” Huang Gai grinned as the images from the past flooded back. Then they were simply trying to run Sun Times after Jian’s father retired. It was more difficult than it seemed, the cranky old staff members didn’t want to take orders from the new young paper tycoon. Jian tore thorough them like a cyclone and most of the ancient reporters and editors packed away their old ribbon typewriters and left. It was a turning point of the Times, and Jian ushered in a new era of modern reporting, something that had been dominated by WWEI. Cao Cao did not take the competition kindly and used the influence of his father’s estate to try and pressure the paper out of business. To answer the challenge, Jian and Gai had driven up to Xu Chang for a discussion outside of the gates of the then less lavish Wei Palace. Gai never thought that Cao Cao would step outside the marble pillars, but he was wrong. Yes, that night they had all gone home bruised and broken, but Jian had made his point clear. The Suns weren’t going down without a fight. Through the years they had some mishaps, but nothing on the scale of the events earlier this week. The tension that had been mounting was finally about to blow and it worried him. In the beginning there wasn’t much to lose, the paper was already in the red, but now….now there were the kids. Now Sun Media was a self-supporting empire and Sun Jian had a lot to loose.

“Helping Yuan Shao into office isn’t going to do anything but give Dong Zhuo more time to plot against us.”

“I agree. But it’s a start.”

“Doing things the right way doesn’t mean much when the other guy doesn’t play by the rules.” Gai glanced over at Jian’s thoughtful expression.

“I like to think we’re better than them…I like to think the money hasn’t gotten to us too.”

“He’s going to try and take us out. We need to be prepared, there’s too much at stake.”

“You’re not talking about preparations.” Jian glanced out the window as the digital ‘whistle’ blew and they moved through the crossing. Cars began to line up behind the protective barriers and he let his head rest against the window. Cao Cao had raised the stakes, no matter who sent that helicopter down into the Chang Jiang, and he was a very serious threat. His methods were well known and if war was declared then his family was in danger.

“No, I’m not. People died in that building, our people. No insurance policy or personal appearances at wakes are going to make up for that. It’s only going to get worse…and closer to home.”

“I know.” Jian thumped his head against the glass and then sighed. “You must have something in mind.”

“I do.”

Zhang Liao played with the simple brown grocery bag he was carrying in his left arm and made sure the DVDs that he was trying to sneak in weren’t showing. As the elevator reached the penthouse floor, the reassuring tone sounded and the doors slid open. As he took the first step onto the landing his froze.

(BANG!)

“AHHHHHH! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!”

Liao put the brown bag down and pulled his pistol out in one swift movement. The scream was Lu Bu’s and there had to be something extraordinarily traumatic to make his voice waver like that. Plus, the shot was definitely not from the Desert Eagle. Safety off, he swiftly sidestepped to the door and swung it open. As his pistol raise he saw another pointed at him.

“No…no..” Lu Bu whimpered cradling something in his arms.

Diao Chan looked at Liao and put her Sig stainless steel, pearl gripped P229 semi-automatic pistol down. “Hi Liao.”

Liao looked at Lu Bu whining on the floor and realized that he was holding a little black box that resembled a PS2. “So..what’s with the shooting and hollering?”

“SHE SHOT THE GAME!”

“You make six figures, just go buy another one.”

“Why?” Liao asked hesitantly. He knew they could get kinky, but this was weird even for them. Slowly he put his gun away after clicking the safety back on.

“He’s been playing that fucking Drakengard forever. All I hear, day and night is ‘The goddess!’ or ‘Could that be the goddess?’. I’ve had it with that shit.” Chan looked down at Lu Bu who was trying to pry the disc tray open.

“But I had to keep playing. I had to unlock all the endings and that meant I had to get all the weapons. ALL OF THEM!” Lu Bu finally opened the disk tray to find the disk shattered. “And now…it’s broken.”

“The memory card is fine.” Liao plucked the small cartridge out and smiled.

“Which is why he can play it over at your house.” Chan tapped her foot.

“Oh pumpkin…you can be so mean.”

“I’m going to work.” Chan threw up her hands and headed off to the bedroom.

“Pst…I have a consolation DVD.” Liao ran back into the hall and retrieved his bag. Quickly he pulled it out and flashed to cover at his friend.

“Nanmans Gone Wild, volume four!”

“SHHHHH!” Liao kicked him. “I don’t want it to get shot up.”

Lu Bu crossed his legs and sat Indian style with a stupid grin on his face. “May need to borrow that one overnight.”

“How many demeaning words are there?” Yuan Shao used his pen to count the number of derogatory remarks that Gan Ning had thrown at his son.

“Amazing how you have an endless storage capacity for vile remarks, but none for retention of knowledge regarding you job.” Zhang He sat in the chair in front of his father’s desk and stared at the disinterested detective.

“Go put on a goddamned dress and let me work.” Ning growled. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are…”

“He’s my son.” Yuan Shao looked up at the man he was rebuking, “And you should be thankful of that. An ordinary citizen would have sued the department and if my memory serves me right you were already responsible for that once before.”

“What the hell is that?” Sun Jian looked at the awkward van in front of him.

Huang Gai bounced out of the back and jumped down in front of him. “Dodge Sprinter.”

“I remember that in the old days we used to have a Charger.”

“Yes, and we weren’t going grey then now were we?”

“Hmmm.” Jian fiddled with the baseball cap he had on and looked in the back of the van. Sure enough Huang Gai had all the materials they needed to topple the WWEI broadcasting tower and effectively shut down their studio for a few days. It was nothing overly destructive, but it would get the point across and no one would get hurt.

“You should tell Taisci Ci about this, shouldn’t you? I mean it’s sort of his territory.”

“I don’t want anyone else involved.”