In Too Deep(150)

"Of course. Prepping a hit on people as protected as these people are takes either planning and patience, an overwhelming attack force, a shitload of luck, or a bit of all three. We don't have an overwhelming attack force."

Sophie chuckled. "You working by yourself isn't overwhelming at all. But the two of us working together, we can double our forces, and at the same time I was looking here at the first two hits."

"What about them?" I said, grudgingly admitting that Sophie had a point. Still, I wanted to start this damn war to clean up the city to protect her, not to put her into firefights with criminals.

"If you and I strike the first two targets on your list at the same time, we can increase the panic within the Confederation. Also, they'll start to doubt that it was Owen Lynch, because we can hit them where Lynch won't or can't. This first target, Han Faoxin, is the head of the local Chinese, right?"

"Yeah."

"But you note here that Owen Lynch doesn't know who he is. Of all the hits, his is actually the hardest because very few people know who he is. So if we take him and the second target, Illyusas Petrokias out at the same time, it turns the Confederation immediately against each other, and makes them unwilling to trust each other. Then their deaths can't be seen as either accidents or random chance."

I started laughing, causing Sophie to frown. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, your logic is totally sound," I said after calming down. "It's just that you made the same mistake that a lot of people do with Han Faoxin."

"What?" Sophie said, getting a little peeved. I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, and grabbed a chair. Sophie was right, I needed to bring her into the plan, and to let her know everything I knew.

"Han Faoxin is a woman," I said. I grabbed the wireless trackball for the computer and went into the file explorer. I quickly navigated to the profiles I had compiled over the years for the various criminals I had worked with, targeted, or were somehow related to either the Confederation or Owen Lynch. Pulling up Han Faoxin's file folder, I opened her personal profile.

"Han Faoxin, daughter of Han Gaotan, is the third generation of her family to control the Asian crime syndicate in the city. One of the things that made her control so different from her father's is that she's been able to cross the cultural lines that divided the various Asian groups. While the Yakuza aren't happy about it, being mostly locked out, she created an amalgamation of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, and independent Japanese criminal groups that gave her total control over anything coming into the city from eastern Asia. She doesn't have control of the Middle Eastern groups, but has a good working relationship with them. Considering how relatively young she is, she's been considered next in line when Sal Giodano retires for taking control of the entire Confederation."

Sophie looked closely at the picture I had of her, the only picture I knew in existence of Faoxin that tied her to criminal activity. "Is that.... is that you next to her?"

Blushing, I nodded. "Yes. Just before she took over from her father, Faoxin and I were.... well, it was complicated."

"How so?"

"This isn't the conversation I thought I'd be having with my fiancée," I said sheepishly. "I guess you could say that while Faoxin and I weren't exactly dating, I was more than a hook-up to her as well. Perhaps you could say I was one of her steady boys for about a year. She had a penchant for younger men."

"Really?" Sophie said with a smirk. "So she was the one who taught you all those ancient Asian bedroom techniques you use on me. I'm not sure if we should kill her, or send her a thank you card."

I groaned and shook my head. "Note to self, hold off on discussing prior partners until after breakfast."

Sophie leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Don't worry, I'm not jealous," she said. "I can see from the picture that this was years ago, you could pass as a high schooler almost. And since you and I came together, you've been nothing but a loyal, wonderful boyfriend and lover. It's not like I expected that either of us came into this as pristine virgins. Although I do have to say one thing."

"What's that?"

"Faoxin, she's quite beautiful. It's kind of good for my ego to know that I can tempt you away from such a beautiful and powerful woman. How old is she anyway?"

I laughed and stood up, pulling Sophie to her feet. "First of all, you are far more beautiful than Faoxin," I said, kissing her nose. "Not just on the outside, but far more on the inside. That woman is as evil as she is beautiful, trust me on that. Now, before we discuss anything else, we're getting some breakfast, and then we have to put in our daily appearance as Marcus Smiley and Sophie Warbird."

"So how old is she?"





* * *



That night, up on the third floor of what had come to be known as the Smiley Building, if such a grand name could be given to a four story converted warehouse in the industrial district near the docks, I started the more difficult part, which was prepping my hit. The key to my plan was using a mix of styles. If each of the four hits were done in my preferred manner, a long range sniper shot using a heavy caliber rifle, I'd leave too consistent a trail, one that could be assigned to an individual. That individual was most likely me, since both Lynch and the Confederation knew I was active in town again. That was the last thing I wanted. I wanted the Confederation looking at each other and Owen Lynch first.