First, thanks for all you guys who are still reading this... ( you know who you are
) I finally managed to do quite a bit of editing during Christmas... hopefully will be able to post the rest soon.
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Chapter 9.2 - The Beginning of the End (Part 2)
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With her ear peaked for any train that might be coming her way, Tara made her way down the tunnel towards her destination - an opening to the old underground sewage. "Sir? S-"
The blond almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, and found the high commissioner of the LCPD standing there, looking somewhat apologetic. "Sorry."
"You startled me." Tara signed in relieve before taking off her hood and ball cap - knowing that the high commissioner would not show his face unless he knew they were safe to talk. "Thank you for meeting me at such short notice."
"You sounded worried." He frowned. "Your cover..."
"My cover is still good."
Angel frowned harder. "Then why? You know how dangerous it is; if any of the gang associate sees you-"
"That's what I want to talk to you about." The undercover agent interrupted. "We need to stop the Yakuza."
"Yakuzi? Tara, your main concern should be the Mafia, not Yakuza."
"With a due respect, sir, they
are my concern. They're out of control. We need to stop them."
"Look, it's not the time-"
"The time to what? To stop one of the biggest crime family from blowing up the whole city? Or to stop them killing more innocent people?"
Angel stared at Tara for a long moment. "I heard a shooting between the Mafia and the Triad in the Chinatown, but I didn't realize it involved the Yakuza." Paused. "Or you."
"They were the one who set me up."
"Are you sure?" The glare said it all. "Tara, why would they-"
"Does it matter? We
have to stop them."
"We don't have any evidence."
"I witness a murder-"
"That's not enough, and you know it. I am not going to blow your cover for one murder that may not even reach the grand jury." Angel shook his head. "Look, I understand where you are coming from, but we only want the Mafia; leave the Yakuza alone."
"But-"
"This is
NOT a negotiation, Tara." Even under the weak light, Tara could see Angel's face rapidly darken. "This is an order." The blond opened her month, but was not given any chance to mutter even one word. "I don't want to hear another word from you, not on this. Understood?"
Tara bit her lips and nodded.
Angel signed, before pulling out something from his pocket. "Here."
Tara held out her hand, and Angel dropped two small listening devices into her palm. "Um..."
Angel signed, before pulling out something from his pocket. "Here." Tara held out her hand, and Angel dropped two small listening devices into her palm. "We know Tony is planning something big; we've already bugged his car, his house, his office... but we got nothing. We think he may have another meeting place." He looked down at his watch. "He should be leaving his office soon. Follow him, find out where the meeting place is and bug it."
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Tara went back to the surface, and quickly stole an old red bobcat before driving towards the Gentlemen's club. She managed to reach the place in 15 minutes, just in time to see Tony's Sentinel leaving the garage.
Carefully keeping her distance, the blond followed the Sentinel as it drove around the city, seemly not having a destination. Suddenly, the car shot forward and made a sharp turn, and it took Tara couple of seconds before she finally reacted and floored her car.
Weaving through the traffic, Tara caught up with the Sentinel, and watched it turning into the parking lot of a residential complex next to the El-Train station. She parked her car down the road, watching through her side mirror as Tony and two of his lackeys stepped out of the car and into one of the buildings. Quickly pulling the hook over her face, Tara stepped out of the car and followed.
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Tara slowly made her way up the stairs, her eyebrow rose on its own accord as she listened to Tony cursing in both English and Italian just about a floor above her; obviously the once feared Mafia enforcer could not even handle couple flights of stairs.
Peeking around the corner, Tara watched Tony and his lackeys stopped at the forth floor and headed towards the apartment at the end of the corridor. He did not even knock; whoever in the apartment seemed to have expected Tony, and opened the door for him before he voiced his arrival. Tara made note of the apartment's location, before continue climbing up towards the roof of the building.
Once Tara reached the roof, she quickly located the fire escape closest to the apartment and climbed down. Stopping at the patio just above the floor and quickly thanked whatever lucky star that was smiling upon her to have the apartment so close to the fire escape, she kneed and listened to the muffled voices of Tony and some unknown male from the half closed windows.
After about an hour, voices finally quieted down. Tara waited for couple more minutes before peeking into the apartment; it was dark and empty. Taking a deep breath, Tara carefully pulled open the window, and climbed inside.
The apartment was with a bit small with a big couch dominated the living area. There was an open kitchen on her right, and a bedroom on her left. With her trained eyes, she quickly spotted a good place to hide listening device - the wall socket right next to the TV set in front of the couch. Pulling out a Swiss knife, she unscrewed the plastic cover, and sticked the listening device in it before putting the cover back.
Just as Tara finished installing the first listening device, the front door opened. The blond immediately threw herself onto the floor, using the couch to shield herself. Her heart bumping loudly as the light went on and heavy footsteps moving closer and closer, until suddenly, the couch shifted.
Tara looked up, and found herself staring at the back of bold head - a very shiny, but very big, head.
The sound of "Jackass" coming from the TV, but Tara did not dare to move one bit as she continued staring at the head just above her. After almost a lifetime, the couch shifted again, and the man slowly made his way towards the bathroom next to the kitchen. The blond was feeling a bit perv as her ear peeked at the sound of the man peeing into the toilet, but knew that it was also time; she quickly jumped up from her hiding place, ran to the window, and threw herself back onto the fire escape.
She ran down the stairs without looking back.
Tara stopped when she reached the first floor, her back leaning against the wall, and took a deep breath. Her heart almost jumped out of her throat from all the excitement, but at least she had managed to install one listening device. Taking another deep breath, she stuffed the extra listening device into her back pocket. She was about to leave when she noticed something pink on the railing - a very pink panty. Without second thought, she picked it up...
Just as a head poked out from the window right next to Tara.
Tara jumped at the suddenly appearance of a woman (or woman's head, in this case), and the woman screamed at the sight of a person with hoodie and ball cup in return.
Especially when that said person had her pink underwear in his hand - of course, it could only mean one thing, at least to her:
"You perv! What do you think you're doing?"
Tara, having still trying to get over the earlier excitement, took couple of seconds before finally able to follow the woman's train of thoughts. "N-" She did not even manage to utter a word when the first bottle of fragrant hit her.
"Help! Help! Someone call the police!"
Tara tried to explain herself, but the woman would have none of this, and started picking up different items and threw at her. After getting hit by another bottle of fragrant, a comb, some nail polishes and box of feminine product, the blond finally got the message that she was getting nowhere.
So, instead, she ran.
Tara grabbed the sliding ladder and jumped. Under the weight, the ladder slammed down to the ground floor, but not fast enough as more things rained down towards the blond. The woman must have ran out of things to throw as one minute Tara was hit by another nail polish, and next minute clothing started raining down on her.
And most of them were woman's underwear.
"You freak! Help! Help!"
Tara quickly ran back to her car, and drove off like a madman.
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Turning the key and pushed open the door, Tara froze when she found the lights in the apartment was on. Hand tightened around the Swiss knife she had in her hand, she made her way down the short corridor, half wondering if it was Faith trying to give her another 'talk'.
The blond reached her small living room and froze again: Willow was lying on the couch, her green orbs staring intensively at the blond as her small kitten curing up on the redhead's stomach, sleeping soundly. "Hey-" A small frown appeared. "What's that smell?" She started looking around.
Anger boiled, and her face reddened with anger. "What are you doing here?" She grounded her teeth.
"I..." Willow paused. She sat up, gently moving the kitten away from her stomach, ignoring the soft complains from the ball of fur. "Hi."
"What. Are. You. Doing. Here."
"I- is that..."
The redhead raised an eyebrow, and pointed at Tara. The blond followed the redhead's line of sight, and found something red on her shoulder.
A red, very lacy-ish bra, on her shoulder.
Tara's face reddened again, but this time with different reason. She grabbed the bra and started pulling on it, only to find it hooked onto her shirt. It took couple of minutes, but the blond finally managed to pull the bar off and stuffed it into her pants' pocket, earning her a giggle from Willow. "So?" She crossed her arms, starting at the un-invited guest.
"I just want... I..." Willow signed at the fury still evident on Tara's face. "I don't want us to fight."
"I'm not stupid enough to fight against you,
Miss Yakuza. I'm pretty sure the head that was my passenger yesterday was a fairly clear message."
Willow threw her hands into the air. "I'm
NOT going to kill you! No Yakuza is trying to kill you! "
"Obviously the bullets didn't get the memo."
"What do you want me to do? Bomb the China Town? I've got enough C4 to level-"
"What?! How could you-" Tara shouted. "Stop trying to kill people!"
"I'm not! And for your information, if I want anyone dead, I don't need to 'try'!"
"Did you listen to yourself? You make it sounds like lives means nothing!"
"Not the Triad they don't. What part of Yakuza don't you get?!"
"No I don't! I'm not a monster like yo-" The blond halted, the words that were shooting out from her month finally reached her own ears, and more importantly, her brain.
"At least I am not under any delusion of what I am supposed to do." Willow said quietly, her green orbs dropped as her hands tightened into a fist. "If you can't accept this," she stood as she stormed towards the exit. "Maybe you should rethink your occupation."
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