Second Flag - le snippet

East Kowloon
UN Administrative District

The busy streets of Kowloon bustled with the activity of thousands of refugees going about the business of poverty. Massive pillar-like projects lined the tightly packed thoroughfare. Negligently stacked piles of refuse filled the district with the smell of decay and filth, providing an accent for the atmosphere of the rotting Hong Kong prison city. Torn down in the past, the festering spirit of the Walled City had been reborn as refugees fleeing the Korean Resumption flooded southeast Asia. China refused. The Phillipines were overloaded. All that remained was the staunch fortress city of Hong Kong. The finer points of politics lost meaning here.
	Despair filled the hearts of those that blankly trod their way through their daily lives. Postwar reconstruction adding yet another brick of heavy burden to the back of the masses. Masses that now resided here, as the last step towards settling into the mud as so many older bodies had long since done. Street vendors stood behind their simple wooden carts, eying the ocean-clad policemen that patrolled the trodden alleyway. A figure drifted slowly through the sprawl towards the Green Dragon Hotel, the building's title boisterously proclaimed by flickering neon signage.

	“You know, from up there, we're like two sapphire's blowing in the wind.”

	One of the officers removed her bright blue cap and sighed. She craned her neck at the elongated marquee. “I hate this job though.” Rika said. Her eyes were squinted at the bright afternoon sun as she stared upward.

	Her parter Saewoo turned to look at her and shook his head. “You hate every job.” he said.
“That's not true!” she replied. “I liked my old job. It had purpose. It had meaning.”
Sergeant Rika Makihara replaced her cap and adjusted it with a curt tug on the brim as she and Saewoo Lee made their way up to the front door of the old hotel building.
“I thought you wanted this job, Rika.” Saewoo said. He raised an eyebrow at his partner as she opened the door and beckoned for him to proceed.
“Just because I want something doesn't mean I have to like it.” she replied with a smile, before turning her gaze to the hotel lobby. “I'd drink piss in a desert, that doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy it.”
Saewoo shook his head. “I think you're confusing want and need. You want this job to fuel your alcoholism, and you need it to put a roof over your head.”
Rika scowled and turned to face Saewoo. “Tch. You're awfully shitty today.”
“I'm just telling it how it is.” he said, and glanced to the secretary who was staring at the both of them from behind her faded desk. “The secretary is eying us.”
Rika turned to look as well. “Well obviously, a couple of jiang shi just walked into her hotel, she's probably got her hand on a double barrel under counter.”
“I hate that name. I look nothing like a zombie.” Saewoo said, shaking his head.
Rika shrugged. “Zombies are hard to kill, I'm okay with that.” and began to walk up to the woman at the front desk of the hotel. “I'll get us a room” she mouthed back to Saewoo, and the man's eyes went wide as the girl strolled up to the annoyed looking receptionist. Rika smiled widely and leaned on the wood desk.
“Hi, I'm sergeant Rika Makihara.” She said sarcastically. “I believe I have a reservation for a room full of angry triad members?”
Saewoo pinched his temple and unfastened his holster with a snap.
The very next second, two armed men raced down the staircase to the left of the receptionist.
In a flash, Rika Makihara had whipped her service pistol from its shoulder holster under her blue windbreaker. Two soft cracks rang out as she fired twice from her internally suppressed Makarov PBK, and two bodies fell to the floor, almost in unison.
She slowly walked over to the bodies, rolling one over to its side.
“That was easy...” she began to say, before a thunderous bang split her thoughts. Rika swung around with her pistol drawn, but sighed with relief. A small dusting of plaster fell from the ceiling where the receptionist had fired a single shotgun blast. Saewoo stood motionless, and slowly lowered his pistol, a wisp of smoke trailing from its muzzle.
“Sorry about that,” Rika said “I should have checked her more thoroughly.”
“Yeah, you should have.” her partner replied in a gruff tone, pushing past her and unfolding his badge tab. “Attention!” he yelled casting his gaze out on the group of unfazed patrons who had been relaxing in the lobby a few minutes prior. “This is now an IDS investigation! Cooperation with law enforcement is required by interim law!”
“Hey Saewoo, tell them they're going to end up like those sacks over there if they don't tell us where Ren Chang is.” Rika interjected, waving her pistol languidly at the two dead bodies that laid bleeding on the floor, as she lit up a cigarette with the other hand. “You should probably also ask them if they speak English, buddy.”
Saewoo sighed and turned back to his partner, Rika. She shrugged in response, and took a drag from her cigarette. The smoke wafted up to the dull stucco ceiling. Saewoo cleared his throat and spoke up again, this time in Cantonese. The lobby was quiet for the most part, and Saewoo was prepared to give up, his arms out his sides, before a small Chinese woman slowly lifted her finger to point to the staircase that was now slick with Triad blood. A lone man stood at the top of the stairs, seemingly frozen in place with a large handgun gripped firmly in his hand.

	Time slowed down. Rika's limp cigarette fell to the floor. Saewoo spun around, his badge slowly dropping from his hand. The man on the staircase raised his hand cannon in slow motion, its single deadly eye affixed on Rika Makihara's clean blue figure. Saewoo's fingers curled around his service pistol. Rika's entire body tensed as if to pounce, her every fiber contracting with vicious intent.
“Gun!”
The world returned to speed.