Vendetta Ch. 1 - The Snare
By Dare

Beijing, China
4 years later

"Get outta the freakin' way!"

The small-time crook called Donny Yinyang was not having a good day. Being not much more than a fence and courier, he knew he would get into trouble regularly, but not to such an extent.

It had all started with the job he was hired for today. The phone had rung in his little run-down flat, and he'd very grudgingly picked up. The person on the other end of the line refused to give their name, and the voice was somewhat scrambled, so he initially refused to take the job. That is, until they offered him ten thousand in American dollars.

As it turned out, the item was already in his mailbox, a brown envelope. The instructions were to take it to some fellow named Vega who would be waiting at a Buddhist temple.

It sounded simple enough, which made Donny very suspicious. When he asked for more details, all he was told is that the money would be waiting for him when he got there, and then the line went dead.

To be honest, Donny didn't like the situation. But for that much money, a little discomfort wasn't exactly the worst of his problems.

No, the worst of his problems happened when he neared the temple later that morning. In Beijing, people in black suits tend to stand out, and when he noticed a number of like-dressed people waiting for him, he decided to do the most logical thing and ran.

The "men in black" gave chase, and it was due only to his extreme familiarity of the Beijing streets that he was able to have eluded them this far.

Even so, he was now running frantically through the crowded marketplace, tipping over carts, and racing through vendors shops, trying to outrun the last of his pursuers. He had to admit, she was pretty good.

He ignored the angry shouts of the fruitseller whose watermelons he had just trampled, and headed left for an alley that was so narrow, you had to be right in front of it to see it.

At the end of the alley was a ladder which led to the top of the building. He wasted no time jumping onto it and climbing as fast as he could. once he go to the top, he resumed his mad dash. Luckily he was in a part of Beijing where a lot of the buildings were within jumping distance of each other, or at least their roofs were.

Taking the quickest of quick glances behind him, he saw that his pursuer was nowhere to be seen He had either lost her or she had given up. Since those two choices were both pretty unlikely, he kept running.

About ten minutes later, Donny was out of breath and finally began to slow down. Even if she had somehow followed him, he was only a few meters away from his hideout, and virtually no one knew where that was.

His hideout was a ramshackle old abandoned clock face above the Sunghwa financial affairs building. It had broken down years ago, and no one had bothered to fix it since, much less actually go up there. So, it was the perfect place for a small-time crook to lay low. Granted, the place was cramped, dirty, and stunk, but he usually didn't have to stay there for very long. He hoped that this little incident wouldn't be the first exception.

One second before he opened the door to his little hideaway, it flew open and slammed into his face. The impact wasn't enough to break his nose, but it did send him back. He skid to a halt by landing on his duff and lay there for a little while, the wind knocked out of him.

When he looked up, he saw his last pursuer was standing over him, hands on hips. Unlike her suit-wearing cohorts, she was clad in a black bodysuit with those oddly studded bracelets. Her dark brown hair was tied neatly back into a braid save for a few locks hanging over her forehead. Her deep, dark eyes were studying him with an air of bemusement and contempt.

Donny wiped the blood from where he had bitten his lip, and tried to smile in his most charming manner. He smoothed his short black hair back as best he could while struggling to a sitting position.

"Long time, no see, Inspector." he grinned.

"Not long enough, Donny." bristled Inspector Chun Li of Interpol. Somehow, she had found out how to intercept him. "You're starting to get predictable."

He smoothed his hair back. "A few weeks past thirty, and I'm already getting senile. I guess I haven't lost my boyish charm, though." He flashed that impossibly white smile. "I've still got young attractive women chasing me all over town."

Chun Li wasn't amused. Donny noticed more of her black-suited compatriots approaching from their hiding places.

"I don't suppose," he said, getting to his feet and then standing, "that we could do this without a fight?"

The barest trace of a smile crossed Chun Li's face. "That's up to you." "Fair enough." Donny conceded, as he dusted off his trousers, doffed his cap, and then threw a kick at her.

It was nearly impossible to live among China's shady underworld for most of your life and not learn something about fighting. Such was the case with Donny Yinyang. Though he usually found running a more appealing course of action to getting the tar beaten out of him, there were a few times in his life that it was either impossible to run or more profitable to hold his ground. While most of his fighting "style" was simple street rumbling and barroom brawling, he'd picked up some traditional kung fu in his youth, and found that what he remembered of it came in very handy at times.

Chun Li dodged the kick by dropping to one knee and whirling a leg in a wide arc to sweep Donny off his supporting leg. He let out a grunt as his tailbone impacted with the ground again, but quickly rolled to his feet.

One of the men in black began to rush forward to take him down, but Chun Li gestured for him to stay back. She wanted to handle this one personally.

Donny threw a punch, which she intercepted, and then grabbed his wrist, twisted his arm behind his back, and then slammed a foot into the back of his knee. The leg buckled, sending him back to the ground. He got up again and came back for more.

While obviously lacking the rough savvy of the two-bit thief, Chun Li's training in both classical wu shu and military hand-to-hand combat more than made up for it. She most likely had enough skill to knock Donny out, or perhaps even cripple him, but neither of those alternatives were desirable to her at the time. Instead, she was utilizing the "soft vs. hard" philosophy of tai chi chuan, by simply responding to Donny's attacks with evasion or retaliation. But soon she decided that she was wasting too much time.

As he charged her again, Chun Li simply stepped out of his path and as he passed her, spun and slammed her heel into the back of his head. Donny hit the ground again and stayed there.

She ran back over to where he was groaning, and turned him over on his back. After a second his eyes focused, and he brought his hands up as he grinned that same grin again.

"All right, all right." he said, with a little less chuckle to his voice. "I give. You win."

"The jig's up, Donny." Chun Li said. "We know why you were going to the temple. We want the item, and we want to know who sent you."

"Easy, Inspector, easy." Donny entreated. "You'll get no more fight out of me."

"Then start talking."

"Okay, okay. They aren't paying me enough to mess with you lot, anyway." Then, he dropped his voice. "But, what do I get out of it?"

Chun Li looked at him incredulously, astounded at his gall. "What do you mean?"

"I mean compensation for my services, beautiful. If this little piece of paper," he pulled the envelope out of his pocket, "is important enough for Interpol to chase down harmless little old me, then it's gotta be worth something."

Chun Li grabbed him by his ratty shirt collar and yanked him close. "How about, we get the envelope, you get to keep your teeth?" she growled in her most threatening tone.

Donny just chuckled. "You know, you really shouldn't try this sort of intimidation tactic on really big guys. For one thing, it doesn't work. For another, you look sorta cute when you're angry."

Chun Li felt her cheeks grow red from embarrassment and indignance as she heard Donny's remark invoke snickering from the men behind her. She was getting mad enough to follow through on her hollow threat until he unceremoniously pushed the envelope into her hands.

"Ah, what th' heck." he grinned. "I'm just a sucker for a pretty face. You gonna let me up?"

Chun Li silently let go of his shirt, and the two got up. She handed the envelope to a waiting suit. Donny straightened his clothing, grin intact.

"I guess we're done here, right?" he said.

"No so fast, Donny." Chun Li said. "We want the name of who you were supposed to meet."

He sighed, and turned to the Interpol agent next to him. "Women. They're never happy. But what are ya gonna do, right?"

Not so much as a chuckle this time. Donny nervously laughed and cleared his throat. He could see the Inspector was getting impatient.

"Spill it. Now."

"All right. The man I was supposed to meet was-"

Phht! Phht! Phht!

Chun Li's eyes widened in horror as suddenly, three bright red spots blossomed on Donny's dirty gray shirt. He looked down at the blood, then at her. His mouth moved as if to say something, but nothing came out as he sank to the ground.

Chun Li instantly scanned the horizon, looking for the sniper among the roof tops.

There! "Fire!" she screamed, pointing at a building about a hundred yards distant. Even now, she could make out a red and black suited form beginning to run. The Interpol operatives pulled out their high-powered handguns and began to shoot.

Meanwhile, Chun Li ran to where Donny had fallen. He was still alive, but his breath came in shallow gasps and his face had taken on a ghastly pallor. A worm of blood trickled from his mouth and nose.

"Donny!" she cried. "Donny!"

No response. She began to shake him.

"Don't you die on me, curse you!" she yelled. "Don't you die!"

He struggled to open his eyes, and when he did, he smiled. Even in his death throes, Donny managed to grin that same grin she hated.

"Why, Inspector," he croaked, "I didn't know you cared."

"Of course." Chun Li managed a sort of cocky, sad smile, while holding in her tears of desperation and helplessness. "You're my favorite hobby. What else am I going to do every month except chase you down?"

Donny seemed to actually think this over. Then he smiled gravely and said, "Maybe you should try the opera?"

And then he breathed his last. He died.