Chapter
2 Boss Crunch’s
Trap
Boss Crunch was in a foul
mood. Everyone in the room knew
that it was best to keep out of his way.
Unfortunately, he had summoned his senior henchmen and they had no
choice but to endure his presence.
“Two Goddamned women!” Crush said in
disgust. “Two
Women!”
You stupid bastards can’t handle two
women. Do you know how much money
those two have cost us in the last month?
Our operations are down by
50%.”
Crunch gave the assembled thugs a withering
look. “Well, it’s going
to start costing you if they are not
stopped. From now on no one gets
paid until operations return to normal.
And that means getting those two bitches out of the
way.”
The assembled goons shuffled their feet
nervously. This was serious
talk. Most of them had very expensive
spending habits. Finally one
of them spoke: “What do you want us to do
boss?”
“I want men posted on as many rooftops as possible and I want them armed
with rifles. There will be a
ten thousand dollar bonus for the man that puts a bullet into that oriental
bitch. As for the other broad
I have a plan for her too. This
is what I want you to
do…”
The
Jade Dragon was on her nightly
rounds. The city was quieter
now that she and Suzi had taken a bite out of Boss Crunch’s operation,
but there were still areas of his business that needed attending
to. One of these was Crunch’s
chain of brothels. These were
a little more difficult to deal with, as they could not be simply burned
down. The best way to deal with
them was to discourage the clientele.
To that end, she and Suzi had spent many nights photographing the
comings and goings of numerous citizens of
Slowly but surely, they were undermining Crunch’s empire, starving it
of revenue. Eventually he would
be too weak to hold off rival gangs.
Sun Lin perched herself on the edge of the roof overlooking what had once
been a prosperous whorehouse. It
was pretty quiet tonight. People
were getting tired of seeing their faces in the
mail.
Perhaps it was a slight movement that gave away the intended assassin or
perhaps it was some sixth sense, but Sun Lin spotted the sniper just before
he fired. It was a near
miss. The bullet passed so close
that it clipped her cowl. She
threw herself flat, pulling the reverse side of her cloak over
her.
A hundred yards away on a neighboring rooftop, the sniper
cursed. What had made the bitch
duck just as he was squeezing off a shot?
And where had she gone? One
second she was there the next she seemed to
disappear. One thing that the
hired killer could not know was that
the
Jade Dragon’s cloak was black on one
side. When she moved into the
shadows and pulled it about her, she could hardly be picked out in the
darkness.
Cautiously, the gunman
raised his head, straining to spot his
quarry. It was the last thing
he ever did. A spinning steel
ring about eight inches across sliced through his
forehead. It was another of Sun
Lin’s additions to her arsenal.
It packed a bit more of a wallop than the throwing stars, and could
be thrown farther. She had practiced
with it until she could hit a two-foot target at a hundred yards nine times
out of ten. This time luck guided
her throw dead center.
Keeping to the shadows where possible, Sun Lin swung over to the rooftop
to check out her victim. “A
hitman,” she thought. This
was a change of tactics on the part of
Crunch. “We must be getting
to him. Hiring hitmen is
expensive.” But now she
and Suzi would have to be more careful.
She wondered where Suzi was.
She should be close by, as they had agreed never to investigate anything
on their own.
Keeping to the shadows, Suzi Kendall, also known as the
Scarlet
Falcon
patrolled the area near the brothel, her camera at the
ready. “Not much business
tonight,” she
thought.
She looked up to
the tops of the surrounding buildings, trying to catch a glimpse of the Jade
Dragon. Sometimes she could see
her leaping from one rooftop to another.
It was reassuring to know that she was up there watching over
her. Suzi was still quite new
at the crimefighting game. She
was gaining in experience every week, but it was still a comfort to know
that
the
Jade
Dragon
was there to help her out in a
pinch.
She rounded the corner
of the building. She was getting
a bit far from her bike. It was
almost time to turn back and get it.
In the shadows across the street something
moved. It was Sun
Lin. Suzi was a little surprised
to see her at street level.
The
Jade Dragon
preferred to strike from above. The
figure was moving stealthily, apparently stalking someone, so Suzi made no
sound. Instead she kept her eyes
open for trouble. She watched
from the shadows as
the
Jade Dragon
emerged from the darkness near the bottom of the building and headed for
the front door of the brothel. Suzi
was about to give their secret whistle when she saw something that made her
heart skip a beat. Right behind
Sun Lin, treading lightly, were several men dressed in black
clothing. It was quite apparent
that they were stalking her. Why
didn’t Sun Lin hear them?
The
Jade Dragon’s senses were so finely attuned that
it was almost impossible to sneak up on her, yet on this occasion she seemed
completely oblivious to the presence of the
ambushers.
Suzi shouted a warning
as she burst from her hiding place.
Too Late! One of the skulking
figures closed with the Jade Dragon and struck her on the head with a
blackjack. The heroine slumped
to her knees, clearly stunned by the
blow. But by this time,
the
Scarlet Falcon
had arrived. She slammed into
the first thug, her solid 135 pounds knocking him right off his
feet. Then without stopping,
she whirled on the second, driving her foot into his
midriff. The impact drove the
hoodlum back into the other four.
Suzi took advantage of the opportunity to draw a stun grenade from
her utility belt. In a single
motion she released the safety catch and tossed the bomb into the middle
of the confused pack of toughs. The
grenade exploded on contact with a loud
bang.
The grenade was intended to stun its victims rather than
maim. It made a loud noise and
sent out a concussion wave that was capable of knocking a man off his
feet. The blast sent the thugs
reeling. Immediately Suzi pulled
two more grenades from her belt. It
was time to finish off the goons and rescue Sun
Lin. But she never got the chance
to throw the last two bombs. A
heavy weight struck the back of her head.
It was a blow that would have knocked most women unconscious, but
Suzi’s inventiveness extended to the construction of her
costume. Strands of lightweight
metal were woven into the cowl, affording her head some
protection. As a result the blow
stunned her but did not put her out.
It did, however, drive her to her
knees. Twisting her head she
caught a glimpse of her assailant.
It was
the Jade
Dragon!!!
“Sun Lin,” she gasped,
“what…” She did
not finish. As the woman in the
green and black costume raised her arm to strike her again Suzi realized
that certain details of the costume were not
right. It was not the Jade Dragon
but someone disguised to resemble her.
She had fallen into a
trap!
All of these thoughts raced through her mind in the few seconds that it took
her attacker to swing the blackjack a second time at Suzi’s
head. Despite her somewhat confused
state, Suzi blocked the blow and caught her assailant’s
wrist. With a quick twist, she
bent the false Jade
Dragon’s
wrist back, disarming her and bringing a cry of pain from her
lips.
The
Scarlet Falcon struggled to her
feet. She was immediately knocked
flat again by the first man she had
attacked. He had overcome the
effects of Suzi’s surprise attack and had charged back into the
fray. Instantly, the remaining
thugs piled onto her. But it
was not that easy to overwhelm the six-foot tall
heroine. Under Master Zhou’s
training her already strong physique had become even more
muscular. It was like trying
to hold down a tigress. She used
all the weapons at her disposal, scratching, biting, and heaving her magnificent
body in an attempt to throw off her
attackers. She almost succeeded
in breaking away, but there were simply too many for
her. They finally subdued her
by each man grabbing one of her arms and legs and letting her struggle her
way into exhaustion. Then, as
her exertions weakened one of her assailants looped a length of rope about
her right wrist. Using his full
strength, he bent her arm behind her back and lashed it to her left
wrist. With her arms immobilized
and her legs still held, Suzi was
helpless. She could only lie
on the ground in helpless despair while her ankles were bound and she was
rendered completely powerless. She
had fallen into Boss Crunch’s trap.
Now she could only wait to see what fate the crime boss had in store
for her.
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