Descending from honorable pasts was all well and good if you felt the need to keep such traditions alive. But for Yun that hadn’t been an option. She’d never really been one to follow her families rules. Her father was a good cop. Her father before him an even greater one in her eyes. But grand-da was gone from this life and there were only stories to tell. And stories were always grander as time passed.
Yun remembered her grand-da telling her stories amongst a bunch of old dusty books. It was her favorite place in all of the house. It smelled like grand-da even though he was now long since gone. But the stories he told lived on. But Yun would never be one of those heroes. No she knew she was the opposite end of the coin.
She was an officer of the law. Just like her father, and his father before her. But before Yun could dawn the badge she’d fallen and fallen far. Rules weren’t her strong suit. And when someone tells you not to do something your first instinct is to do it - not ask why? Or maybe I shouldn’t. Yun followed her first instinct and did it.
Sadly that one little rule - don’t steal. Bit her in the butt at an early age. Her mother had said she had always had sticky fingers. Even as a toddler. Yun was good at removing people from their possessions. Except this time she stole from someone she shouldn’t have. He had looked innocent enough. He was old even then. His hair graying, Chinese by the look of him, his eyes had the murky color of blindness. An easy mark.
Yun found her hand in his pocket and had taken the contents and was halfway back home when two men grabbed her and dragged her kicking while their hands muffled her screams of protest. Even as she struggled they held on tighter, they dragged her into a room similar to the one that her grand-da used to tell her stories in. This one was more impressive and it wasn’t dusty - it was perfect. It didn’t smell like grand-da at all.
The men let her go and she tried to make a run for it but they barred her way. The old man spoke. “Yun Kao, stop.”
The voice made her obey. It wasn’t that he was forceful but she knew that tone. The way he spoke, like her grand-da. But he didn’t know him. Didn’t know her. He knew her name though - how?
“You think I let you take the tracker without knowing you, child? We’ve been watching you for some time. Daughter of Yi Kao, Grand-daughter of Yung Kao. Child I know more than you may think. Sit. Have a drink.”
Yun opted to stand, but she was thirteen. The man standing at the door picked her up and sat her down and handed her the drink that was poured on the table in front of her. “Drink.”
Was the only gruff word out of his mouth.
Yun complied only because she felt she had no other option. It was sweet and fruity but held a bitter aftertaste of whatever chemical they had used. Yun’s eyes flicked up to the old man. “A little truth serem as they say.”
“Why did you steal from me Yun Kao?”
he asked. His words sinking deep inside her skull and pressing for an answer.
“You looked like an easy mark.”
“Is that the only reason, dear one?”
He asked. His voice was soft and soothing.
She nodded. “That’s all. Easy. I could sell or ditch whatever I found - either way - easy.”
He grinned at her and waved off the thugs in the room. “Good. Child. We have much to discuss. Unless you’d like me to remove your right hand for stealing from me.”
Yun snatched her hand into her lap and shook her head. “Talking is good.”
She said. And that was precisely what they did - talk.
But it wasn’t always talk Yun did. She learned, and watched and she became better at pilfering. Not just things, but information too. She was 13 and in the city of the Ascendancy she went pretty much unnoticed. Everyone looked a like in a huge city. If you knew what to do you could blend in anywhere - even in the high dollar fancy places. Yun became Sheng Lo’s top information gather when it was outside of the precinct. It had turned out Lo’s connection were all over the CCDPD. He wasn’t just some gangster making it big time. No he ran between the mobs and the gangs and the corporations. Lo was the middle man - cleaning up messes for a hefty price. And Yun was helping him make a profit on the criminal underground.
She only had one person who got in her way - Lei Lo. He was the only son of Sheng and an idiot too. He was idealistic and had irrational goals for The Syndicate and his father knew it. Sheng didn’t precisely say it but he was grooming Yun to replace him. Her fingers were everywhere. And when she joined the CCDPD Academy Sheng Lo held a grand party. And when she graduated top of her class he threw an even bigger one.
He invited all the players. Anyone who was anyone and they all mixed and mingled in his house and there was no blood shed. No guns. No knives. Nothing, not even a cut finger on a dropped champagne glass. There wasn’t even the slightest shove as everyone raised their glass to Yun’s achievements. Sheng was proud. But he had a two tasks for her.
The first was easy - give a ‘good’ cops a ‘good’ warning as to what happens when you try to leave The Syndicate. Yun remembered when the man’s partner got his warning. Apparently it didn’t stick with him. He needed a second dose of it. Shooting him was her first option, she didn’t want him dead. And she did it face to face. There was no pretense to it. Yun took him aside down a camera-less alley way and shot him with only a fews words. “Consider this a warning.”
The next time won’t be so pretty.
Yun made an anonymous phone call and he’d be right as rain later. But he got his warning and Yun wouldn’t have any qualms about carrying out further warnings. But it really was a shame to lose human life. She still was a cop after all.
But the second task was much easier. Lei Lo needed to have an accident. He was a good cop too. Couldn’t have two good cops shot at the same time. No, Lei went missing that same night. Never seen again, until his body washed up from the river with the classic cement boots from the mobster movies. It was Yun’s warning to the rest of the groups they worked with. Don’t mess with them. There really was no way to seal the deal with the classic head of a horse in your bed with Lei Lo - maybe some other day.
It wasn’t for another few years that Sheng took sick. Everyone thought he was lying on his death bed when he gave Yun The Syndicate. It was supposed to be temporary until he got better. But no one believed he would. So life went on. Yun took over. She profited. Made more money in those few months than the three prior to that.
But Sheng got better. Some say he was poisoned, others say it was cancer. But Yun knew it was far more dangerous - he’d had a rare heart attack but had survived. He had been remanded to bed rest and relaxation. No one was allowed to see him. And none could. Sheng had been high up in the Himalaya mountains in a private retreat relaxing. Bringing his blood pressure down and getting older as he did.
When he returned he did so as an adviser to Yun. He was her most trusted voice. And he would be until the day he passed from this earth. And much like the celebration he’d given Yun when she graduated Yun would celebrate his passing with the same grand gesture. But Yun hoped not too soon. She didn’t want to lose her second father.
Yun remembered her grand-da telling her stories amongst a bunch of old dusty books. It was her favorite place in all of the house. It smelled like grand-da even though he was now long since gone. But the stories he told lived on. But Yun would never be one of those heroes. No she knew she was the opposite end of the coin.
She was an officer of the law. Just like her father, and his father before her. But before Yun could dawn the badge she’d fallen and fallen far. Rules weren’t her strong suit. And when someone tells you not to do something your first instinct is to do it - not ask why? Or maybe I shouldn’t. Yun followed her first instinct and did it.
Sadly that one little rule - don’t steal. Bit her in the butt at an early age. Her mother had said she had always had sticky fingers. Even as a toddler. Yun was good at removing people from their possessions. Except this time she stole from someone she shouldn’t have. He had looked innocent enough. He was old even then. His hair graying, Chinese by the look of him, his eyes had the murky color of blindness. An easy mark.
Yun found her hand in his pocket and had taken the contents and was halfway back home when two men grabbed her and dragged her kicking while their hands muffled her screams of protest. Even as she struggled they held on tighter, they dragged her into a room similar to the one that her grand-da used to tell her stories in. This one was more impressive and it wasn’t dusty - it was perfect. It didn’t smell like grand-da at all.
The men let her go and she tried to make a run for it but they barred her way. The old man spoke. “Yun Kao, stop.”
The voice made her obey. It wasn’t that he was forceful but she knew that tone. The way he spoke, like her grand-da. But he didn’t know him. Didn’t know her. He knew her name though - how?
“You think I let you take the tracker without knowing you, child? We’ve been watching you for some time. Daughter of Yi Kao, Grand-daughter of Yung Kao. Child I know more than you may think. Sit. Have a drink.”
Yun opted to stand, but she was thirteen. The man standing at the door picked her up and sat her down and handed her the drink that was poured on the table in front of her. “Drink.”
Was the only gruff word out of his mouth.
Yun complied only because she felt she had no other option. It was sweet and fruity but held a bitter aftertaste of whatever chemical they had used. Yun’s eyes flicked up to the old man. “A little truth serem as they say.”
“Why did you steal from me Yun Kao?”
he asked. His words sinking deep inside her skull and pressing for an answer.
“You looked like an easy mark.”
“Is that the only reason, dear one?”
He asked. His voice was soft and soothing.
She nodded. “That’s all. Easy. I could sell or ditch whatever I found - either way - easy.”
He grinned at her and waved off the thugs in the room. “Good. Child. We have much to discuss. Unless you’d like me to remove your right hand for stealing from me.”
Yun snatched her hand into her lap and shook her head. “Talking is good.”
She said. And that was precisely what they did - talk.
But it wasn’t always talk Yun did. She learned, and watched and she became better at pilfering. Not just things, but information too. She was 13 and in the city of the Ascendancy she went pretty much unnoticed. Everyone looked a like in a huge city. If you knew what to do you could blend in anywhere - even in the high dollar fancy places. Yun became Sheng Lo’s top information gather when it was outside of the precinct. It had turned out Lo’s connection were all over the CCDPD. He wasn’t just some gangster making it big time. No he ran between the mobs and the gangs and the corporations. Lo was the middle man - cleaning up messes for a hefty price. And Yun was helping him make a profit on the criminal underground.
She only had one person who got in her way - Lei Lo. He was the only son of Sheng and an idiot too. He was idealistic and had irrational goals for The Syndicate and his father knew it. Sheng didn’t precisely say it but he was grooming Yun to replace him. Her fingers were everywhere. And when she joined the CCDPD Academy Sheng Lo held a grand party. And when she graduated top of her class he threw an even bigger one.
He invited all the players. Anyone who was anyone and they all mixed and mingled in his house and there was no blood shed. No guns. No knives. Nothing, not even a cut finger on a dropped champagne glass. There wasn’t even the slightest shove as everyone raised their glass to Yun’s achievements. Sheng was proud. But he had a two tasks for her.
The first was easy - give a ‘good’ cops a ‘good’ warning as to what happens when you try to leave The Syndicate. Yun remembered when the man’s partner got his warning. Apparently it didn’t stick with him. He needed a second dose of it. Shooting him was her first option, she didn’t want him dead. And she did it face to face. There was no pretense to it. Yun took him aside down a camera-less alley way and shot him with only a fews words. “Consider this a warning.”
The next time won’t be so pretty.
Yun made an anonymous phone call and he’d be right as rain later. But he got his warning and Yun wouldn’t have any qualms about carrying out further warnings. But it really was a shame to lose human life. She still was a cop after all.
But the second task was much easier. Lei Lo needed to have an accident. He was a good cop too. Couldn’t have two good cops shot at the same time. No, Lei went missing that same night. Never seen again, until his body washed up from the river with the classic cement boots from the mobster movies. It was Yun’s warning to the rest of the groups they worked with. Don’t mess with them. There really was no way to seal the deal with the classic head of a horse in your bed with Lei Lo - maybe some other day.
It wasn’t for another few years that Sheng took sick. Everyone thought he was lying on his death bed when he gave Yun The Syndicate. It was supposed to be temporary until he got better. But no one believed he would. So life went on. Yun took over. She profited. Made more money in those few months than the three prior to that.
But Sheng got better. Some say he was poisoned, others say it was cancer. But Yun knew it was far more dangerous - he’d had a rare heart attack but had survived. He had been remanded to bed rest and relaxation. No one was allowed to see him. And none could. Sheng had been high up in the Himalaya mountains in a private retreat relaxing. Bringing his blood pressure down and getting older as he did.
When he returned he did so as an adviser to Yun. He was her most trusted voice. And he would be until the day he passed from this earth. And much like the celebration he’d given Yun when she graduated Yun would celebrate his passing with the same grand gesture. But Yun hoped not too soon. She didn’t want to lose her second father.