Details. There were a lot of them, to hammer out. Things to clarify, resources she could bring to bear - here and outside. Finally, communication methods, ways to ensure that she would support them when he asked for it, for when they had the meeting with the Ghee Hin.
It was all too clear, later that night, that a meeting would be needed. If a war was to be started, so be it, but Arthur refused to commit his people to that kind of danger and death without at least trying to get to the bottom of it. To see if he could avert the attacks.
If nothing else, he could at least draw out the people at the top. He might not be the strongest, but that didn't mean he was a slacker. And when it came down to it, while he was still green-ish compared to some here, he was still more skilled, more trained than most who dared to come in.
He'd spent his entire life before, getting ready. To climb the Tower, without help, perhaps. Which, he figured, meant he was better, stronger than those who had expected help. Even if his own plans had been trampled over on the first floor, his training, his skills were still there.
"Tomorrow morning?" Arthur said, amused a little. "Fast, aren't we?"
Casey shrugged. "It has to be done. One way or the other." She hesitated, then leaned her head against the doorpost of his room. "You understand that I can't be there, right?"
"I don't," he said, surprised.
"Lam won't let me. It's not my fight, and I..." She sighed. "I can't take an active part. Not this close, not when I'm nearly out."
He stared into her eyes, seeing the regret lurking within. Yet, there was firm conviction too. "I get it. Don't worry."
"You do?" she said, surprised.
"I do." After all, Casey was, in the end, an ally. A business partner, someone they had used for her resources - and vice versa. Though there might be a real friendship in there, it was still tenuous. Hampered by her own needs, her own obligations. She was more than herself, and while committing to the fight might be within her own right, it had more effects than just a random individual joining did. It meant something. "Anyway, Ms. Wen will be there." A slight beat and then he admitted. "Or her representative."
"You're certain?" Casey said, carefully.
"I am."
He could see the question in her eyes, the desire to know more. But in the end, she wished him the best of luck and closed the door, leaving him alone. After all, declining to get involved, she'd already declined the ability to learn more. At least, for now.
To say he wasn't a little disappointed would be a lie, but it was only a mild feeling. Mostly, Arthur's mind turned to the morning. To how much rest he needed, how much he could refine in the time between, and what he would bring.
Everything else, well, that's for the day after tomorrow.
***
The warehouse they met in was similar - if smaller - than the one that the trio of gang leaders had sold to him. Approaching it, Arthur noted how traffic in the region had dropped, everyone who had any sense and nothing desperately urgently needed avoiding the area. In fact, the entire town seemed to be holding its breath.
It gratified him, a little, to realise how much an effect the Clan could have. Obviously, a gang war was nothing to be sneezed at, but the fact that others thought it might get out of control enough that they avoided being on the streets at all rather than the Durians being crushed outright, was a good sense of their strength. And importance.
Of course, it might also be because the UN and 66 were here, standing to the side. The 66 still had yet to commit, only bringing people to watch - a half dozen that Arthur made sure to point out as people not to be touched unless they attacked first. The UN, with their varied members, was at least coming in in strength, filling up one whole street.
Even if, at a glance, a bunch were hanger-ons paid to bolster the numbers for a day. Then again, that was the way these gangs operated. Core membership, the hanger-ons and the mercenaries, people who weren't all the way committed but were up for a little violence.
Said something about Climbers in general that there were a large percentage of them willing to throw down or just stand around and glare menacingly for a few stones.
Not that the Ghee Hin themselves hadn't paid for their own people, hadn't brought their own numbers. Arthur noted members of the 04 hanging out with them, much reduced in number, keeping to the edges. He met Baksir's eyes before the man looked away, as he stepped in and strolled to the makeshift wooden table seated in the center. A pair of rickety chairs, neither of them particularly nice or well-built set in front.
Obviously, someone didn't want to put out the nice furniture in case it got broken.
Not a good sign for peace.
"Boss Fang," Arthur greeted the man who was seated already. He took a seat beside the man, eyeing the too damn handsome man as he poured Arthur a cup of tea.
"Clan Head Chua." Fang Chien said. "You called a meeting?"
"I did. Wanted to know why you're trying to kill me," Arthur got right into it, figuring there was no point beating around the bush.
"You disrespected us."
"And then sorted it out later," he gestured downwards as he took the teacup and shifted it in front of him. "Or did you not get that message."
"Doesn't matter. You disrespected us - and you never came by to apologise to me. Shows you know nothing about the proper manners."
"That's about right," Arthur admitted easily. "Not a triad member. Never was involved with any of you. If you got things you need me to do, you should communicate. Talk to me."
"Or you could to us."
"We did. We had Eric and Leia talk to you, we had a meeting. You could have said it all." Then Arthur shook his head. "It doesn't matter, me being rude isn't the point. It isn't enough for you to want to kill me, not by itself. There's another reason, entirely."
"You're dangerous." He pointed to Arthur and then gestured to the people behind. "All of you." There was a shift and clatter of weapons, a low growl rising from Yao Jing. Arthur raised a hand, quietening his group without looking away from Fang Chien, waiting for him to continue. "You think a new Clan won't destabilize things?"
"Clans set-up all the time," Arthur said, crossing his arms. "There's a half-dozen already in Malaysia."
"All controlled by government or one of their people." He shook his head. "None of them like you."
"Independent?"
"Yes." He leaned forward, fixing Arthur with a glare. "You think we don't see what you're doing? Who you're going to pull to you, huh?"
"Who?" Arthur asked, though he knew that answer.
"If you don't know, then you're worst than rude. You bodoh lah."
"Sticks and stones and words are all just hurtful." Arthur sighed. "So, you must want something more than just insulting me. Otherwise you wouldn't agree to this talk."
"You already got the UN to help, you think we don't know? What choice do we have but talk?" Fang Chien said, angrily. "Getting outsiders involved."
"Didn't mind them when you were all pressuring us not to take more land, but now they're outsiders because they're working against you?" Arthur shook his head at the hypocrisy.
"Different lah. But you, you want to know what we want?" Not bothering to let Arthur to answer, he continued on. "You join us."
"Now who's the bodoh one?" Arthur waved his hand sideways, past the warehouse walls in the direction that the UN were holding. It also, conveniently, included the rest of the city which meant it consisted of the 66. "You think we can do that, ah?"
"Of course not." Fang Chien snorted. "If you had done it right, come to us properly, we could have avoided this. Now, you can either come to us anyway, and make the 66 angry. And maybe the UN. Or..."
Arthur didn't even bother asking what the or was for. This was the most frustrating negotiation he had ever been involved in. There was utterly no point to it, because he couldn't - wouldn't - just roll over and let the Durians become a subset for the Ghee Hin. Nevermind the fact that it was against what he promised those who had joined him - independence and working for the good of all, he wasn't going to tie themselves to a criminal organisation. Even if they were just a feeder group to start, he knew eventually they'd be asked to do more and more unsavory things.
So why bother with the meeting at all?
"I see..." Eyes danced, past Fang Chien to the men behind. The large number of men, but he realised, only a portion who he recognised. Only a portion who were members of the Ghee Hin. Suspicion had him reacting, pulling at the cultivation technique he'd secreted in his second dantian. "You..."
Too late, as Fang Chien opened his mouth. Flames leapt from it, even as the secreted technique snapped around him. Fractions of a second ahead, as flames crept over his face and hair and around his armour.
Silence, as he crashed into the floor, the table flipping upwards as Fang Chien chased after him.
Then, pandemonium.