Chapter 70: War Breaks Out

TL: LittlePeach

The penthouse floor of a fortified apartment complex.

A man picked up his phone.

Brrrring.

Click.

The call connected.

-Hello?

“Boss. It’s Yang Zhenghu. I’m calling to report the results of the business briefing.”

-Ah, good. I was just wondering how it went.

The moment Yang Zhenghu spoke in his courteous voice, Zhang Hai answered from the other end of the line as if he’d been waiting for it.

“Of the ten organizations that attended the briefing, five have completed verbal agreements to cooperate with the operation.”

-Hm. Fewer than I expected.

“It seems that before they even weighed the profitability, they judged the risk they’d have to shoulder as too great.”

-Tsssk.

“On the other hand, all ten organizations responded positively to the Irobuchi-kai’s narcotics business.”

-Oh ho. Is that right?

“From where they stand, dealing drugs seems to whet the appetite far more than dealing people.”

-That works out better for us, actually.

Zhang Hai let out a thin laugh, sounding considerably relieved.

At his reaction, Yang Zhenghu nodded with satisfaction.

-No hitches with the supply of product, I take it?

“As it happens, the Irobuchi-kai completed their move-in today without incident. Nearly all of their equipment is inside the complex as well.”

-When do they say production starts?

“They said it would take about another week before they’re fully operational. Since it takes time to turn out new volume, they’ve airlifted product from the Philippines to put on the market until then.”

-How much?

“Roughly fifty kilos, from the look of it.”

-Hey. That’s nearly two hundred million dollars at street value, isn’t it?

“It is.”

-Impressive capability. Thanks to the Irobuchi-kai, we’ll be able to breathe a little easier for a while too.

“Yes. I’ll keep the situation here in Cambodia in order so everything runs without a hitch.”

-Good work.

Having finished his report with a swell of pride, Yang Zhenghu allowed himself a gratified smile.

Then, as though catching his breath, he changed the subject.

“By the way, have the findings on the Dandong hideout come in? I figured you’d have reached the site by now, so I thought I’d ask.”

-Haaah....

The sound of a long, heavy sigh came back through the phone.

And no wonder. Zhang Hai’s schedule these past few days had been brutal.

All the more so because he simply could not believe that the hideout he’d poured his heart into building in Dandong had been smashed apart by an unidentified attacker, and had gotten on a plane himself to confirm the devastation with his own two eyes.

-Frankly, I don’t know. For starters, it doesn’t look like the Hongmen Society’s work.

“...Is that so?”

At Zhang Hai’s words, delivered with a click of the tongue, Yang Zhenghu’s eyes widened slightly.

He had been taking it for granted that the Hongmen Society was behind it, which made the answer all the more startling.

-At first I figured those Hongmen bastards had finally sent their people all the way to Dandong to get a hand around our throats. What with Le Wei’s last phone call and all, I had it investigated very carefully. But once I saw the state of the site, no....

“Then....”

-This isn’t the Triads’ way, at the very least. And it’s sure as hell not the Hongmen way. I can’t even guess where the hell this one crawled out of.

The Hongmen Society wasn’t the culprit?

While Yang Zhenghu stroked his chin and sank into thought, Zhang Hai’s deflated voice went on.

-Since I’m already here, I’m thinking of meeting the Kowloon Society’s Dandong branch chief and getting some help. I’ll have to start by digging into that name, Zhang Chen.

“Understood. In that case, Boss, how would you like us to handle the Irobuchi-kai matter?”

-Hmmm.

“Because as it stands, we’ve snatched the Irobuchi-kai security contract that the Hongmen Society has handled all along, right out from under them, with no warning at all. I worry they’ll take it badly later, saying we took the food off their table.”

-Tsss....

At Yang Zhenghu’s words, Zhang Hai too let out a heavy, low groan.

An uneasy silence hung over the line for a while.

-Don’t worry too much. The Hongmen Society may be hot stuff inside Cambodia, but we’re the Shanyuan Society. This isn’t something beyond us.

Then, as if to wash away the unease, Zhang Hai barked out a short, hollow laugh.

-We’ll sit down with them soon and set up a negotiating table. We just carve off a slice of the share we got from the Irobuchi-kai and call it a commission.

Zhang Hai soothed Yang Zhenghu in a considerably more relaxed voice.

An offer to hand over a percentage stood a good chance of being accepted by the Hongmen Society, so Yang Zhenghu, who had been mulling it over, nodded as well.

“Shall I arrange a meeting with the Hongmen Society separately, then?”

-No. The Chongqing Society boss’s birthday banquet is coming up soon, isn’t it? Triad figures will be swarming the place, so we can pull them aside there and sweet-talk them about the misunderstanding.

Ever since Le Wei died and the Dandong hideout was smashed to pieces, a corner of both men’s minds had been occupied by the unspoken dread of all-out war.

War with the Hongmen Society.

Even for the Shanyuan Society, which had bathed in blood for decades, that was no easy decision.

“In that case, I’ll find a way to unload the firearms and equipment we stockpiled out of an abundance of caution, even if we have to dump them cheap.”

-Yeah, do that. We did blow good money for nothing, all that fuss about getting ready for a war.

“The Hongmen Society’s firepower is nothing to sneeze at, so it was an unavoidable expense on our end.”

But now that there was no need to see blood after all, he felt lighter, as if a clamped throat had opened up.

Zhang Hai seemed to feel the same way, letting out a rueful laugh.

-All-out war.... Out of the question. Absolutely. What do we stand to gain from coming all this way to some far-off country just to lock horns with the Hongmen bastards and bleed each other dry? Business, in the end, gets settled like gentlemen, through conversation.

“You’re quite ri....”

That was the exact moment.

KA-BOOOOOOM!

-...? What was that noise just now?

Yang Zhenghu’s body, phone still in hand, floated up into the air.

Along with a monstrous roar that shook the entire building, the penthouse’s enormous plate-glass windows shattered and blew outward in every direction.

Concrete dust drifted down from the ceiling like snowflakes, and the countless furnishings set out on the display cabinets slammed to the floor all at once.

Swept up in the blast, Yang Zhenghu’s body tumbled grotesquely across them.

-Yang Zhenghu? What’s going on, Yang Zhenghu!

Zhang Hai’s frantic shouting burst out through the receiver, but the man who was supposed to answer had been sprawled across the floor for some time now.

Boom! Bang!

KA-BOOOM!

Explosions of unknown origin went off in chains all across the apartment complex.

Blasts chasing one another’s tails, giving no room to breathe.

-Don’t tell me....

As though sensing some vague catastrophe, the call was cut off soon after.

Then, brrring.

As if unwilling to let go, Yang Zhenghu’s phone rang a few more times.

Brrrrrrring....

But in the end even that, before long, stopped entirely.

*****

The two veteran agents of the Cambodia dispatch squad had left for Sihanoukville right after the business briefing, and had been gone a while.

The only ones left in Phnom Penh were me and Sparrow No. 10.

Brrrring.

Click.

-T-Team leader? You need to get over here fast, f-f-fast, right now?

Sparrow No. 10, who had made the fourth-floor café of the Aeon Mall right next to the Shanyuan Society apartment his new surveillance post, was putting out an emergency call.

When I got to the Aeon Mall, the scene was something else.

Bang! Ka-blam!

KA-BOOOM!

“Aaaaaaaah!”

“I-is this a war or something?”

Inside the building, people were screaming and running or hiding.

I made my way past them to the fourth-floor café, where the staff had all fled long ago as well.

“Oh boy.”

I looked out the window, and the spectacle just kept getting better.

The Hongmen Society had ringed the outer edge of the Shanyuan Society apartment complex in layers with a fleet of modified trucks from God knows where, and were firing off rockets and grenades at random.

Explosion after explosion, blast after blast.

Crimson flames shot up, swallowing the black smoke whole as they rolled and surged.

The tremors were faint but strong enough to reach the terrace of a department store café.

Slurp.

“...Team leader. What is that you’re drinking?”

“Mango juice. It was sitting abandoned on the table up front.”

“....”

“Want a sip?”

“N-no, thanks....”

Down below the window, near the street, there wasn’t a soul to be seen.

Not one curious civilian gawking, and not so much as a glimpse of the Cambodian police who by rights should have been rolling out.

‘The Hongmen Society really must swing some weight in Cambodia.’

Just how thoroughly had they been greasing palms, that bombarding the middle of the city was possible?

At this level, it went past law enforcement having collapsed and into the territory of law enforcement never having existed.

Slurrrp.

‘Sweet.’

Stirring up chaos really was the best.

One used car and one gas canister could produce a situation like this, so there was no need for me to go running around breaking a sweat to procure bombs.

All I had to do was suck on a sweet mango juice and take in the leisurely view of them thrashing about, trampling each other all on their own.

“Sh-shouldn’t we call the sunbaes right now and tell them to come back immediately?”

“You want to call them in to watch with us?”

“N-no, I....”

“Let’s talk it over slowly once they’re back. If we contact them now, it’ll just distract them and they might not be able to focus on their own mission.”

Soothing Sparrow No. 10, who looked ready to die of anxiety, I gave him an easy grin.

Slurp.

“All gone.”

“....”

“Anyway, if we keep watching from here, the sparks might land on us. Let’s clear out.”

“Y-yes, let’s.”

I tossed the empty cup into the trash can as I said it, and Sparrow No. 10 hurried out of the café like he’d been waiting for permission.

Taxis lined up in a row at the department store queue, apparently angling for a wartime windfall.

The two of us were about to catch one and head for the hideout.

“Ugh!”

“Wh-what’s wrong?”

“My stomach, my stomach, all of a sudden....”

“....”

The instant I clutched my stomach and doubled over, Sparrow No. 10 looked at me with utterly flat eyes.

I have no idea where that sparkling, wide-eyed respect he used to show me every time he looked at me had gone.

“Nngh. Must’ve been that mango juice I scavenged earlier. You go on ahead, agent.”

“No, but, that....”

“Uuurgh. It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s com....”

“Aaaaaargh! I-I’ll go on ahead!”

Sparrow No. 10 recoiled in horror, scrambled into a taxi, and fled the scene.

Once I’d confirmed his taxi was rapidly receding into the distance, I straightened my hunched back and started walking.

The pickup truck I’d prepared separately was parked in a corner of the department store lot.

“La-di-da.”

Anyway, there was no more time to dawdle.

Bang!

KA-BOOOM!

Because off in the distance, a fireworks show was in full swing, calling out to me like a temptation.

*****

The truth was, the Hongmen Society hadn’t intended to go so far as all-out war with the Shanyuan Society.

They had scraped together every RPG they had to open the attack, sure, but this was just a formality, a greeting.

They only meant to knock down the concrete outer wall of the complex with a bit of flair, blow apart a few guards with RPG warheads, and leave behind a warning not to get cocky on Cambodian turf from here on out.

Whoosh!

Bang!

But that was as far as it went.

The Hongmen Society members, who had meant only to deliver a light scare, were struck dumb by the counterattack that came flying out of the Shanyuan Society apartment complex.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Bang! Bang! Ba-bang!

Brrrrrrat-tat-tat-tat!

“Aaaargh!”

“Get down! What the hell, those are machine guns!”

Tremendous firepower poured densely out of every floor of the apartment building and off the roof.

The counterattack had blown miles past any formality, and the cold sweat came on its own.

“F-fuck! Why the hell are those bastards armed like that!”

“Captain! Those guys were clearly dead set on fighting an all-out war with us!”

“Wh-what? A war?”

“How else would they have this kind of heavy weaponry stockpiled?”

A war.

It was the last thing anyone had expected.

Flattened to the ground under a hail of bullets, the Hongmen Society officers broke out in cold sweat.

At this rate, they might be helplessly knocked down and killed off.

“Captain, what do we do?”

“...Fuck! Tell the reinforcements heading out to come in full battle gear!”

Contrary to anyone’s plans, this thing kept getting bigger.

*****

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