Darkness and Destiny: A Guardian Story

Chapter Four: The Waiting Game

Zhao Yunlan could barely breathe as he watched the dark figure to his left move closer to the group at the centre of the warehouse.  He knew he did not have to worry about Black Robe disrupting the transaction.  Over the course of the last year, the man had shown himself to be not only brave, but also intelligent.  He would always wait until the police had enough to make an arrest before he intervened.  Consequently, the detective was instead more concerned that his own people might get their hands on the guy and mistake him for one of the gang members.  If anyone was going to be the first to make direct contact with Black Robe, it would be him, Zhao Yunlan.

He looked around.  From his vantage point, he could just about make out two of his other three colleagues.  Their eyes were fixed on the transaction taking place.  They did not appear to have noticed the new arrival.  He breathed a sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the main show.

Shen Wei came to a sudden stop.  Out of the corner of his right eye he had spotted a slight movement, almost imperceptible.  Crouching down, he peered into the dark space behind a stack of pallets, willing his eyes to adjust.

Yes, it was definitely a person, carefully concealed from view of the group in the centre.  Male, he would say, although their features were obscured by the shadows.  Could one of the gangs have hidden people in the warehouse intending to ambush the others and make off with both the drugs and the money?  It was certainly possible, but unlikely.  The Tigers and the Snakeheads were rivals, but there was a tenuous peace between them, each acknowledging that if one made a move against the other, it would result in a bloodbath from which neither would emerge without significant losses.

That left only one option.  It was the police.  They must have heard about the deal in advance and, just like him, were here waiting for the money and drugs to change hands before they moved in.  It appeared that his presence was no longer needed, and he had no desire to stick around and risk being caught when the rest of the unit inevitably arrived on the scene.

Just as Shen Wei made the decision to simply slip away before he was noticed, the figure hidden behind the pallets raised a hand to his mouth.  The professor froze.  The man was holding a lollipop.

Shen Wei's mind raced.  The fact that it was Zhao Yunlan hiding in the shadows changed everything.  After all, as of recently they were part of the same team, and the professor was not about to leave one of his colleagues when he was potentially going to put himself in the middle of a very dangerous situation.

He started to take a step back further into the darkness, aware that if the police chief looked properly in his direction, he would be just as visible as Zhao Yunlan was to him, but it was too late.  The other man turned his head to the left.  Shen Wei could now see his handsome features clearly, and the detective's sparkling eyes were looking straight at him.  Before he could even think about what do to next, to his absolute amazement the man smiled at him and raised a finger to his lips.  Shush.

Shen Wei's mouth almost fell open in shock.  Instinctively, he shrank back further into the shadows and pulled his cap down even lower over his eyes.  There was no way that Zhao Yunlan had recognised him.  With a surgical-type mask in black over the lower half of his face, and a hat obscuring his eyes, only someone who had known him for years would have found him familiar.  He wasn't even wearing his glasses.  Having had laser eye surgery a few years ago, they were no longer necessary, but he tended to wear them during the day, as it gave him one more element of disguise when he went out as Black Robe.

Shen Wei thought quickly but carefully.  If Zhao Yunlan did not know he was looking at his new consultant, there were two options.  The first was that he had mistaken him for one of his police colleagues.  Unlikely.  A man with the police chief's intelligence and experience would know exactly who and where his team were in this situation.  That left only one possibility.  The detective had recognised him as Black Robe and was not worried in the slightest.  Analysis over, he took a small step forward and acknowledged the other man with a brief nod of his head.

Zhao Yunlan knew that he was taking a risk in making himself known to Black Robe, but he had obviously been spotted anyway, and he needed the man to know that he saw them both as being on the same side.  What he hadn't expected was that his gesture would be returned.  He allowed himself a small smile and forced his eyes back to the centre of the warehouse, where it looked as though things were coming to a head.

Sure enough, the leader of the Tigers moved forward with a briefcase just as the Snakeheads' representative motioned to someone behind him, who walked back to a car and retrieved a crate from the trunk.  From the size of it, it contained a lot of pills, with a street value of well in excess of three million yuan.  Still, it wasn't a particularly big transaction for gangs of this size and geographical reach.  What made this deal so important was the fact that it involved a new type of drug.  Very little was known about it other than the fact that it was highly addictive, and excessive consumption often led to bleeding from the nose and mouth, seizures, and, for the unluckiest, death.  Dealers had given it the name Phoenix, although Yunlan doubted that anyone would be rising triumphantly from the ashes of an overdose any time soon.  Instead, it was most likely a reference to the extreme high its users experienced after taking it.

His hand tightening unconsciously on the grip of his pistol, Zhao Yunlan waited for the proof they needed.  He did not have to wait long.  After what seemed like hours of talking, the actual transaction lasted only seconds, and one member of each group was walking back towards their respective vehicles, precious cargo in hand.  The police chief tapped his earpiece.

"Old Sheng!  How about we go now, while two of them have their hands full?" he whispered to his DIS counterpart, who was positioned on the opposite side of the warehouse.

"Roger that.  Now that they've made the exchange, it's as good a time as any.  B team outside, get ready to follow our lead.  On my mark. 3...2...1..."

Zhao Yunlan only had a brief moment to say a quick prayer that Black Robe kept hidden and out of danger before he unholstered his weapon and strode into the light, identifying himself as he did.  At that point, all hell broke loose.