The survivor

Seventy-Six

Striker and Felicia met Delbert Ibarra at Strike Force HQ. Ibarra, Vancouver’s only Mexican cop, was the Inspector in charge of Strike Force, the city’s best covert surveillance unit. For five years now, Strike Force had been massing up piles of information through Project Pacific — a joint task force initiated to identify the numerous unknown entities of the ongoing Asian gang warfare.

The information Striker and Felicia now had was straightforward. The gunmen were somehow linked to the Shadow Dragons, which was something of a feeder gang for the Triads. And the most likely division of the Triads they were dealing with here just so happened to be the most powerful faction — the 14K. So the goal here was simple: find some pictures of these guys. ID them. Then find the link to the school.

The photographs of Project Pacific were their best bet.

‘Haven’t looked at these for months,’ Delbert Ibarra said as he removed a thick folder of photographs from the cabinet.

Striker nodded. ‘Let’s just hope they got something we can use.’

He waited impatiently in the corner of the Strike Force projector room while Ibarra — Taco Del, to all those who knew him — went through the surveillance folder for Project Pacific. Felicia, the more reserved of the two, sat tilted back in one of the office chairs.

‘How long was Project Pacific?’ Striker asked.

Ibarra unconsciously patted down the sides of his handlebar moustache, grown for the undercover operation he was halfway through. He flipped through the folder, looking at the dates. ‘Sixteen months. Sixteen long friggin’ months.’

‘What exactly was this project?’ Felicia asked.

Ibarra continued picking at the handlebars of his moustache. ‘Multi-jurisdictional surveillance project, set up by a coalition of deputy chiefs. Goal was to gain information on the growing diversity of Asian youth gangs. We had the Strike Force working in two teams, twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week for almost a year and a half. Burned everyone out. Caused a lot of transfers when the gig was up.’

‘Fed money?’ Striker asked.

‘What else? God knows, we couldn’t afford that. Most of the information we got never went to charges. But it’s been a valuable resource for the IHIT and the IGTF.’

Striker nodded. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and the Integrated Gang Task Force were in the public eye a lot nowadays. He looked at the file, saw how thin it was. ‘That’s all you got?’

Ibarra laughed, his entire face lighting up. ‘These are just the reference numbers — the entire file is on the database.’

‘We’ll want to see that then.’

Ibarra started the nearest computer and initiated the log-in sequence. As he did so, Striker studied the man. At five foot ten and one hundred eighty pounds, Ibarra was of average height, average weight. He had brown eyes, shaggy brown hair, a bushy brown moustache, and a face people would forget after ten minutes — which was exactly why he had been known as the Surveillance God for the past ten years.

The computer booted up, and Felicia joined Striker and Ibarra at the row of terminals. ‘We need pictures,’ she said.

Striker clarified: ‘Of suspects only. No vehicles or institutions.’

Ibarra used the mouse to navigate through the subsystem. When he found the folder he was looking for — Project Pacific — he craned his neck and gave them both a quick look. ‘This is related to the Active Shooter at Saint Patrick’s?’

Felicia nodded. ‘We think so.’

‘How?’

‘It’s convoluted,’ Striker said, and left it at that.

Ibarra let his stare hang on Striker for a few more seconds, then turned back to the computer. ‘I’ve given you the okay to see this stuff, but you still got to be logged in the book. Procedure.’

Striker nodded like he didn’t much care, and Ibarra opened the search menu bar. ‘Can I narrow this down for you?’

‘Shadow Dragons and Triads and anything connected,’ Striker said.

Ibarra did a double-take, as if he didn’t believe they could be involved, then just shrugged and ran through the subdirectory. When he found the folder labelled Triad Syndicate, he opened it up. There were three more folders inside: Triad Divisions. Triad Associates. Triad Feeder Gangs. He got up from the computer and offered Striker the chair.

‘These are all photos,’ he said. ‘Most of the jpegs are named. The ones with generic numbers are listed in the file folder. You’ll have to cross-reference them to see if their details match. I’ll be in the other room, just grab me if you need something.’

He left the room.

Striker sat down in the chair Ibarra had deserted; Felicia pulled over another one and joined him.

The computer screen was tinted with soft blue and white, and showed the three folders Ibarra had navigated. Striker opened the folder labelled Triad Divisions. Within it was a long list of subfolders, all countries — Canada, the US, China, Hong Kong, Australia and more. When Striker searched through them he found even more subfolders and directories, breaking down into states and provinces, then cities.

None had what he was looking for.

He cycled back to the original page and opened the folder labelled Feeder Gangs. Like the other folder, this one broke down into countries and then cities. Striker clicked through the subsystems until he found a folder named Vancouver and the Surrounding Lower Mainland. He opened it up, hoping to see a listing for the Shadow Dragons, but was not so lucky. Inside the folder, in page-long lists, were a series of jpeg images. He scrolled through them with the mouse.

‘Jesus, there must be thousands,’ Felicia said.

Striker nodded. ‘All the more reason to get started.’

He switched the view settings from List to Thumbnails, and the computer started making loud grinding noises as the hard drive loaded the images. One by one, they popped onto the screen. Slowly, methodically, he and Felicia went through every one of them, maximising and ruling them out. The process was slow, arduous, and after forty long minutes, Striker’s eyes were irritated. It was another twenty minutes before he found anything valuable. He clicked from one photo to the next, then made a soft sound that got Felicia’s attention.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘Weird scars on this guy’s torso. Left side.’ Striker thought of the Medical Examiner’s findings of their headless shooter, White Mask.

‘Shrapnel wounds?’ she asked.

‘Might be. And there’s some kind of tattoo on the neck. Left side.’ Striker sat forward in the chair and narrowed his eyes. ‘A dragon maybe.’

Felicia rolled her chair nearer to his as Striker maximised the photo.

On the screen was the colour image of an Asian male, mid-to-late thirties, with a long angular face. His height was difficult to guess, but his build was average, lean. He wore white shorts, a pair of black-and-gold wraparound sunglasses, and looked like he was walking along a beach somewhere. There was water in the background.

Striker looked at the scars all along the man’s side. They were thick and long and uneven, and looked as if they’d been splattered there. Like specks of white spackle. Striker felt a surge of adrenalin. He looked at the tattoo on the neck. It was left side, and it was long and somewhat cylindrical. But the detail was poor, difficult to see.

He magnified the image over the tattoo.

Two times, four times, six times, then eight… and Striker felt the breath escape his lips as the image became larger and more distinct. The tattoo looked like a seahorse on the man’s neck, but Striker knew it was really a dragon. Red and gold. The tail trailed down the left side of the neck, the head looked back across the shoulder.

Striker panned in on the chest, left side. There was a number 13.

An overwhelming sense of excitement flooded him. The caption under the jpeg read: Tran Sang Soone, and Striker read the name several times, as if disbelieving the words.

Tran Sang Soone.

He had found White Mask.