Zemin trudged through the crowded streets, awash in the inescapable neon lights of the lower mining district.  The sun barely reached the bottom of these slums, penetrating the smoke and the steam and the thousands of overhanging hovels only in small quantities.  The district had once been a small mining community, complete with several enormous extraction platforms built to tear up massive swaths of the ground in search of valuable minerals.  As the expansion of Heishi continued to sweep across the planet and envelop other cities, the mining community became one of the cheapest places to live, attracting millions of impoverished citizens to settle there.  Slums began to spring up everywhere; on the decommissioned extraction platforms, on the polluted waterfront, and even in the deep canyons and shafts left abandoned by the fading mining industry.  Informal expansion continued exponentially, bringing with it waves of crime and poverty that crippled whatever shred of official governance was present in the first place.  The Heishi authorities - facing mounting military police casualties and skyrocketing levels of violence - declared the mining district closed to law enforcement of all kinds.  That was when the triads took over.  

The Zhao clan was the law in these subterranean alleyways and everyone knew it.  The peasants, addicts, metal-freaks, organ-rippers, street-cleaners, poachers, and prostitutes all stepped back to make a path for Zemin, lowering their heads to acknowledge her as she passed.  Respect was given to the triad before everything else, and in return, the triad kept the population in order and the district relatively peaceful. 

The streets became more sparsely populated as she neared her destination.  The crowds of rowdy civilians were long gone, replaced by patrolling groups of Zhao enforcers.  This part of the district had once been a commercial block, but the triad had bought out every single shop and pushed all the owners out.  Only one building still had the lights on now, the decrepit barracks that had housed military police in the days before the law withdrew to safer parts of Heishi.  Zemin walked up to the entrance and pushed the door open, brushing past the guards that waited in the foyer.  She made her way to the pub that had been attached to the left wing of the barracks, swinging through the gateways and finally coming to a stop in front of a table seated by six men.  

The person sitting at the head of the table regarded her for a moment.  He was an older man; completely bald and slender in figure.  His brow moved downward in a way so that it seemed like he was always frowning.  Unlike the others at the table, he was devoid of any implants or visible tattoos.  The man gestured to a stack of chairs as the other gangsters made room for another seat at the table.  “You met with the doctor?”

Zemin sat down and took a cigarette from one of the cases laid out on the table.  “Fixed me up in less than an hour,” She replied. “No problems.”

“Good.  You made sure civilians saw you on your way here?”

The assassin nodded, sparking a lighter and raising it to the edge of her cigarette.  She looked upwards as she inhaled, examining her adoptive father’s expression.  “I went through the open street, just like you asked me.”

Zhao Wu nodded.  He looked as calm as ever.  “Our appearance in these coming days should be one of uniform strength.  We will target the most lucrative businesses of the Kong family; the drugs, the gambling, the prostitutes.  We’ll disrupt their protection rackets and make sure people know that to side with them is to dance with a bullet.  We’ve been through this before; it’s not pleasant, but we’re more than prepared.”  The Dragon Head intertwined his fingers and laid them on the table.  “Everyone needs to exercise caution - the attack on the foremost Red Pole is far from the end of their attempts to hit our higher organization.”  He paused for a moment.  “That’ll be all for now.  Further orders will arrive by courier.”  The underbosses stood immediately, murmuring in agreement with the triad leader as they collected their things and began to file out of the pub.

Zemin blew smoke towards the ceiling and put her cigarette out, rising to leave with the rest of the gangsters.  Wu raised a hand and stopped her, pouring himself another glass of liquor as he waited for the underbosses to exit.  “I need to talk to you,” he said. “Have something to drink.”

The Red Pole mumbled an okay, walking over to the bar and retrieving a box of filtered water.  Anything that ran through the pipes in this ares of this city (or any area for that matter) was almost certainly filthy, so buying from private treatment plants was the only way to get the good stuff. She placed a straw in her carton and sat back down across from her father.

“This war isn’t going to be good for the triad.  We have our hands in many of the same pots that the Kong do.  Prolonged conflict is going to destroy a lot of infrastructure on both sides, it might even force the military police to get involved.  The Yan officers that are being slowly transferred into the department are unlike anyone else we’ve worked with; full of spit and ideology.  They refuse be bribed.”  Zhao Wu sighed.  He regarded his drink for a moment before pushing it away. “Things are changing against us.  We need to end this conflict so we can focus on adjusting to the new era.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to eliminate the Kong family,” Wu replied.  “All of them. Cut the head off the snake and all that.  They have a great many 49ers, but none of them are particularly loyal or influential.  You know what Kong is like, he keeps his power close.  If we kill him - and all his children - his organization should fall apart.”

Zemin raised an eyebrow.  “If it were only so easy, right?  How am I supposed to kill the most protected man in the mining district?”

“I taught you to be resourceful, did I not?  Those are my orders, and you will find a way to carry them out.”

The Red Pole nodded begrudgingly.  It seemed the matter wasn’t up for discussion.  “As you say.  I’ll get some men on it as soon as possible, and then attend to the matter personally.  It’ll get done.”

“Good.  One more thing before you go,”  The Dragon Head looked down at the table, suddenly overwhelmingly interested in the wooden grain.  “My son…  Your brother has gotten into trouble again.  With this war now started, I need him back here for his own safety.  As soon as possible.”

“Your son?” Zemin began to grind her teeth.  Zhao Dun was the only true child that the Zhao boss had ever fathered, his own flesh and blood.  He was also an idiot, and he did not get on well with his adoptive sister.  “Where is he?”

“He’s using again.  I caught him with enough product to kill a horse.”  Wu sighed heavily.  He was the most practical person that Zemin knew - if someone wasn’t pulling their weight, they were out or they were dead.  Unfortunately, that all seemed to fall away when it came to his blood.  Dun was an addict, everyone knew that, but he was still one of the most powerful men in the triad.  “He escaped his room shortly after, disappeared in the slums.”

Zemin furrowed her brow.  “And nobody has heard from him?  Is there a chance that Kong hit him?”

“If there’s one thing my son excels at, it’s staying out of sight.  Unless someone has combed through every wretched drug den in the district, I doubt he’s been found by anyone except his dealers.”  Wu shook his dead.  “Besides, the Kong triad would’ve already sent me his head if they had it.”

“So what do you want me to do?  Comb through every wretched drug den in the district?”

The Dragon Head sighed again.  That was answer enough.