The Shadow of the Underworld

Hong Kong City never sleeps. Even at 11:52PM, the narrow streets are packed with vendors raucously attempting to compete for space. Cars crawl by on the traffic-congested roads, and busses pollute the air with their nauseating fumes. One street vendor shouts in the native tongue of Cantonese, as a young, dark-haired youth snatches a fruit from his stall. And behind him, looming over the packed street, Poseidon Towers proudly stands, giving off its astonishing laser light displays, just like the other skyscrapers that make the City’s nighttime skyline famous. But what the locals, walking below on the streets of Hong Kong City, don’t know is that tonight, something quite extraordinary is about to happen…

“Conrad Psych is Hong Kong’s richest businessman. His net income for the last financial year was something like HK$302.7, Billion. And to think we complained about our budget! Anyway, the main thing is, Psych’s got a major problem: Darius Blake, criminal mastermind and the meanest, deadliest piece of work that’s ever come our way. They call him the ‘Shadow of the Underworld’; he rules the black markets. I’m talking empires of criminal businesses, weaponry that’s as good as a rival to the military’s, and power that’s almost strong enough to take over the government. Bottom line is, last week Monday, our surveillance unit detected rogue activity in Downtown Hong Kong, near Poseidon Towers. Apparently a gang had been attempting to enter the building silently from the rear; the quiet side of the building. Luckily, a police patrol vehicle was crawling along the same area, and managed to nab the gang. They’re being held for questioning in the Downtown station.”Jeff Wordsworth leaned back in his high-back leather chair, and looked down the long, mahogany table, at his team. He waited while they absorbed all this information. A few seats down, Agent Jim Lincoln raised his hand. “Sir – Jeff – what has all this got to do with Psych?” Jeff laughed silently. “Lincoln, it’s got everything to do with him! You see, the gang that was caught last Monday, was spotted attempting to break into Poseidon Towers. Blake owns every gang in Hong Kong’s underworld. So, we think that it was no co-incidence last Monday when that gang tried to break into Poseidon Towers, because it’s owned by none other than Conrad Psych himself. We think that Blake wants something that Psych has.”“Well… what is it, then?” asked Jim.“That’s what we want to know! Three days ago, the Hong Kong police sent in their very best to try and uncover what the gang was after, and to try and catch Blake, but to no avail. It seems Blake is too clever, too quick, for the law. That’s why we think it’s time for STEALTH to take action. That’s why we want to send in our very best. That’s why we want to send in you.”

And so, one day later, STEALTH Agent, Jim Lincoln, found himself outside the east perimeter wall of Poseidon Towers, dressed in a matte-black jacket and jeans, carrying a black backpack with an assortment of gadgets. He scaled the perimeter fence, and landed silently in the car lot of Poseidon Towers. Stealthily, Jim crept across the tar ground; he didn’t need a flashlight, for there was a full moon, and Hong Kong City’s skyline was lit with the thousands of volts of light from the many skyscrapers.  As he reached the main entrance of the building, Jim opened his backpack, and took from it a strange looking, small box, with clips at one end and wires protruding from the corners. He carefully attached this box to an alarm system that was wired to the main doors.

He activated a switch on the strange box, and from a side of the box, a compact LCD screen scrolled into view. The screen switched on, and, in six different frames, showed Jim the vistas of the entrance hall security cameras. He had full control of them now.

At the moment, there was no activity; so Jim carefully opened the door, and crept into Poseidon Towers. The atrium of Poseidon Towers had a large, high, dome-shaped roof, and in the centre was a spectacular fountain; a transparent diamond inside a circular frame, with water pouring over it. Jim walked over to the elevators, and selected “DOWN”.

His plan was simple: infiltrate the building’s research laboratory, in the basement. STEALTH had received a lead that what Blake was looking for was somewhere there.  The elevator doors slid open gently, and what Jim saw next took his breath away. In front of him, there was a large room, completely white, with a circular table in the centre, upon which were flat-screen computers. In the centre of the table, stood a large, diamond-shaped object, inside a circular frame, almost identical to the fountain in the atrium. The only difference was that this object was attached to the computers by fiber-optic cables, a soft, electric-blue light was emitting from its centre, and it was humming gently.

And what’s more, someone was already there, standing with their back to Jim. The tall stranger had short, jet-black spiky hair, and was wearing a long, dark-brown trench coat.Just when Jim though he had managed to sneak into the room quietly, the man began to speak, still not facing him.

“Know what this is?” he asked.

Jim didn’t answer.

“It’s a sub-atomic nuclear processor. It can power a whole country with just one charge. Psych’s been working on this thing for months now, but he hasn’t made the project public. If it gets into the wrong hands, drastic things may happen…” the stranger continued. “And I bet you want it, don’t you, Mr. Blake? Then Hong Kong City will finally be yours, isn’t that right?” Jim said.

Darius Blake laughed softly. “Smart guy. I’m impressed. And I presume you’ve been sent to find out what my gang was trying to steal, or to capture me?”“Very good, Mr. Blake. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do; I’ve hunted you down, and now I’m going to capture you. I’ve never failed yet.”  And with that, Jim lashed out at Blake with a round-house kick, or mawashi-geri, that he learnt from his training in the various martial arts.

Blake was caught off-guard; he didn’t expect such a lean, slight person like Jim to have such a devastating kick-force. He was knocked over, but managed to get up quickly, and delivered two solid punches to Jim’s stomach, but Jim wouldn’t give up so easily. He steadied himself, and lashed out once again at Blake, this time with a series of punches to his face and stomach, and then executed a perfect back kick, or shiro-geri.

Compared to Jim, Blake was physically unfit. He had spent too much time building his criminal empire that he didn’t bother to exercise much. Jim’s last kick knocked him out, and he lay unconscious on the ground, the nuclear device just meters away from him.  Jim had succeeded once again; millions of innocent people could’ve died from the misuse of the device, and Jim had just saved them. He truly was STEALTH’S best. Jim flipped open his mobile phone, and dialed Jeff Wordsworth.

“Blake is out. The machine was a sub-atomic nuclear device. Blake wanted it so he could have Hong Kong under his control. I’ve managed to neutralize him; he’s here at Poseidon Towers.”

“Excellent work, Lincoln. Or should I say, Commander Jim Lincoln. Congratulations, you’ve just been promoted! We’ll be there in ETA five-minutes, but before I forget, we just received a hit from Interpol; a new terrorist organization is plotting an attack in South America. We want you to find out what they’re up to…”