Chapter 495

Freedom! The sweet, sweet air of freedom.

Arthur took a deep breath, stretched. Acted like he was entirely uncaring – but the overhang that helped stop rain – a continual problem in tropical Malaysia – from pouring down on those entering or exiting the police station also meant that anyone trying to shoot him would need to be at near eye level. And he’d done a quick scan as he was exiting, checking for potential problems.

Just in case.

“My apologies for taking so long to get you out,” Cynthia Kong said. She rubbed at her face when he wasn’t looking and Arthur felt a flash of empathy for her. She likely had been dragged awake soon after the shooting as his main point of contact in the government.

“Not a problem,” Arthur said. “Not your fault.”

“I… yes.” Silence, before she coughed. “My driver will be coming soon. We can drop you off?”

“We have it from here.” Jan, lounging by the side with Yao Jing, interrupted Cynthia before she could continue. “We’ll get him back.”

“Car?”

“Coming.”

“Ah…” Cynthia shifted from foot-to-foot, darting glances at me. It took me a moment to realise they were suspicious glances, which meant that she definitely knew more was afoot than just one shooting. No surprise, since she had more information on-hand than the investigators. Not that we had informed her about the other two assassination attempts, but to think she had no sources of her own would be foolish.

“It’ll be fine,” Arthur said with a smile. “I’m sure the polis will find them.”

“You’re sure…” Suspicion in her voice, which was understandable. No one trusted the police to do their job properly in Malaysia, not unless a lot of bribes were being given. And the jobs were easy. Hunting down an assassin willing to take a shot at a Climber, the Head of a Clan in fact, was many definitions away from easy.

“Ya lah,” Jan replied. “Go lah.”

Waving her hand at the car that had arrived, Jan shooed Cynthia into her vehicle. It helped that our own arrived moments later, so the three of us clambered into the vehicle being driven by Eric, my Senior. Once within, the blacked out windows of the minivan helped hide our presence from everyone else, and almost meant that we had more than enough space to store necessary equipment.

You’d think that Climbers would be more interested in things like limousines and expensive sedans; but since many of us wielded melee weapons and carted around armour and other equipment for training on the regular, storage space was actually more important than luxury in many cases. As such, minivans and trucks were the vehicles of choice, with the minivan being the Clan’s preference. For one thing, we could stick a lot more people within, and for another; the weapons we had weren’t exposed in the bed of the truck.

Not that vehicle manufacturrs hadn’t shifted to deal with the changing demands of Climbers. Luxurious trucks and minivans meant for Climbers had showed up, the Americans heavily modifying their own monster trucks with lockdown beds and other safety features while Chinese and, yes, Malaysian car manufactures going for the minivan by choice.

“New clothing?” Arthur asked, spotting the big duffel bag. He searched within and extracted a shirt, using the baby wipes to clean off the blood on his shoulder and back and then a towel, before he dressed. Putting on a shirt was easy, the rest of his armour, a little trickier. “What do we know?”

“The girl might be a freelancer,” Yao Jing said. “She ran out the hotel, got herself a carshare and then, changed twice more. After that, she got on a bike and has been on the highway going north since.”

“Penang?” Arthur muttered.

“Or maybe Thailand,” Jan said.

“Whose watching her?” Arthur asked then shook his name at the names offered. They weren’t names he could place, though they sounded vaguely familiar. For all the boasting that Cynthia might have done about his memory, the explosive growth of the Clan – both of wannabe Climbers and new graduates exiting the KL Tower – had pushed even his Eidetic Memory trait to the maximum.

He kept meaning to have more regular meetings with individuals who were being introduced, but with ten or more new members each week; the Clan was exploding in size. Not all of the newcomers would actually graduate, of course; many just came for the training but the numbers were still staggering.

In fact, his Sifu was busy complaining about the extra workload. Even his senior students were hard pressed to keep standards up, since a large portion of what newcomers were paying for was the physical training portion.

Not to say the growing and extensive library of the various floors in the KL and now Kuching Tower were not without its benefits, but much of that information could be found online if you knew where to look. Just like Arthur had sourced his information, with so many years, the old Towers were rarely a complete suprrise.

Surviving them just wasn’t easy.

“Alright, well, keep an eye on her. Hopefully they meet.” Sadly, they had no way of tapping her phone, or otherwise listening in on conversations. Well, beyond the fascinating use of a variety of listening devices that could be purchased to point at individuals to bring conversations closer, from laser-pointer ones to just radar-enabled work. But tapping into a phone itself was significantly harder, and not something the Clan had the expertise to do.

Yet.

“And the sniper?” Arthur asked, curiously.

“Mel, Uswah and Leia are watching him,” Jan confirmed. The Clan had needed three teams on standby to do the watch, with each of the aforementioned members of my own party with another member of the Clan with them. They also had another trio of pairs waiting to take over in a few hours if necessary. “He nearly lost them twice. If Uswah hadn’t tagged him with her Skill…”

Arthur grunted, understanding. Uswah’s Yin abilities were somewhat different than his, but one of them ‘Shadow Companion’ allowed her to leave it latched onto someone’s feet and allowed her to track them. That it was weightless, made of shadows and basically, could only be spotted under bright light at the right angle made it near perfect for her to use as a tracking method. Only problem with it was that it would fade soon enough, if she did not renew it on the regular.

“What is he doing now?”

“Resting in the Mandarin Oriental,” Yao Jing said.

“Oh…” Arthur frowned, pausing in getting his armour together. “Calls?”

“We boleh listen to him. We are looking for a way to tap the call but…” Yao Jing shrugged and Arthur understood. If he used a burner mobile or even just a normal mobile, there was no way to tell how he called. They would be lucky if he used the hotel’s lines, since then they might be able to get the information that way, but anyone smart enough to try doing what he was doing probably was not that careless.

“So, boss. What do we do? Wait or…?”

Arthur frowned, debating what their options were. If they chose to take the assassin, they might be able to interrogate them and extract information on their attackers. On the other hand, if they let them run, it might lead them to their prey too.

After all, professional assassins were mostly a Hollywood invention. There just was not enough business out there for a third party, freelancing sniper. Especially one that could be trusted to keep their mouths shut. It was much more likely that the man was a hitter, one of the men tapped in an organization for such activities.

Which meant even capturing and identifying him would lead Arthur and his people much closer to who was involved. On the other hand, just because they had some proof by association, it was not real proof. Waiting for him to meet up – if he did – might be the better call.

A hard question to answer in the end. Which was why, of course, they threw it at Arthur to answer. The joys of being Clan Head after all.