| Douglass Charles |
| Xian Kang |
| Bob Hack |
| McBain |
| Jacques Noir |
| Master Zheng Yi Quan | Dragon Kung Fu Master |
| Master Wong Jun Bao | Shao Lin Kung Fu Master |
| Philippe Tarare' | A Sorcerous Thief |
| Guillaume Tarare' | A Sorcerous Thief |
After destroying the Abomination, code-named Fido, in front of a warehouse near downtown Denver, our heroes largely returned to their homes. Bob Hack, after a long discussion with Alexander, elected to join the Dragons and become a member, much to the surprise of everyone else, and thus he flew to Hong Kong along with Jake, Alex, Yvonne and McBain. Douglass, for his part, returned to his Denver home, only to be rather conveniently summoned to Hong Kong the very next day, in order to discuss things the current situation with Lee Kwok.
When our heroes returned to Hong Kong, Jake, Alex and Yvonne were all sent on a small mission with Hsiao Tsing. McBain and Hack were teamed up with a gentleman by the name of Kang, who appeared to be an ex-Triad member who'd seen the error of his ways.
Kang, McBain and Hack all took off to a Shao Lin temple in the mainland, where they were asked to guard a small statuette of a Buddha, which was the centerpiece of the altar at this temple. According to Master Zheng and Master Wong, this buddha was an extremely important part of the temple's Feng Shui, and greatly increased the chi flow there. It also seemed likely that this Buddha could increase the chi flow in other places as well.
After discussing it, the three of them set up a guard plan. McBain made a sniper's nest at the front of the temple, and the other three took watch at an entrance. The plan, which immediately went awry, was to allow the thief to take the Buddha and find out where he was taking it and who he worked for.
Jacques Noir is a thief. Jacques Noir is an excellent thief. Jacques Noir, who only works once a year or so, depending on the job, took this job, because it sounded interesting and exciting. Really, it was simple. Go into a heavily guarded temple, take a jade artifact from a room that is always occupied, and make off with it. Except, he later finds, that at least one other thief has been hired to take this same artifact.
Jacques enters the temple. It's pitifully easy to take a single monk in his cell. Donning his wardrobe, he moves to take up position as a guard. There, he waits, hoping the other thief will strike and he can use the diversion. After a while he realizes that his partner, the other monk, is carrying a gun. Not something a monk would normally carry.
Thinking quickly, Jacques calls the alarm. "Thief! Thief!" The cry goes out, and the other thief panics. He fires a shot or two at Jackes, and then he grabs the buddha statue and runs straight for the front entrance, wasting no time. He's quick, and it looks like he just might make it, except for the brick wall in his way, by the name of Hack. Moving much more quickly than anyone would've guessed, the big man grabs the thief by the shoulders, lifting him a foot from the ground. His cowl is pulled away, and it's revealed: the man is not a Chinese monk, but in fact a frenchman. A frenchman with a Buddha and a gun.
Jacques, a master of disguise, easily fools everyone into letting him go off to find the missing monk. Instead of going there, he finds the sniper's nest that McBain had been using and settles in there. Kang goes out front, having heard an odd noise, and realizes that the temple is being assaulted by 30-40 gunmen. Avoiding a haze of bullets, he slips around their flank and finds their origin: A group of speedboats that were pushed onto the shore of the nearby river. He pushes their boats back out, cutting off their retreat. Upon returning, he finds that the monks of the temple and the gunmen met out front. The gunmen were victorious, and what remained of their number entered the temple. The whole crew prepared to do battle in the antechamber to the main altar, but Master Wong Jun Bao appeared. Moving with inhuman speed, he finished off the gunmen not only before they could fire a single shot, but before Kang, McBain or Hack could make a move. They watched, awestruck, as the last gunman fell, arms broken in several places. Many mental notes were made at this point.
The carnage ended, and the body count taken, proved that a mere dozen of the temple's monks survived. The gunmen had been quite thorough. The french thief was stuck in a cell until they could figure out what to do with him, and Hack and Kang were set to guard the Buddha from further attempts.
Jacques decided it was his last chance to move. Displaying amazing chi, he cut a hole in the ceiling above the Buddha, sent a rope down, hooked it and removed it while Hack and Kang were in the same room. It took them at least a minute to notice it was gone, and by then Jacques was nearly out of the building. Using clever misdirection, he was gone by the time they figured out what had happened, and the crew had to admit, ashamed, that after all that, they lost the Buddha anyhow.
Master Wong, unconcerned with the Buddha, prepared a funeral pyre and prayed for the spirits of the deceased monks, and declared a three day fast in mourning. Messengers were sent to other temples to tell them of the loss, and to bring reinforcements should another wave of gunmen hit. The long night passed otherwise uneventfully, until Jacques Noir returned.
Noir explained to the Monk who met him at the front entrance that he wanted to see the foreigners responsible for protecting the Buddha. Immediately suspicious, McBain asked that he be escorted into the temple into a room that would be difficult to escape from. Noir refused and asked to meet outside. McBain agreed, not having much other choice. After a short meeting, where Jacques explained that he really wished to see Master Wong, but wanted to see them first in order to ease the trouble they would be in for losing the statue, Jacques went to see Master Wong. Jacques explained to Master Wong about his dream, and how the images from the dream returned to him when he held the Buddha in his hands. Master Wong determined that Jacques has 'good chi', and that he is inexplicably linked to this artifact.
Jacques took this in stride, not really believing or understanding, as he sat through the entire lecture on chi, Feng Shui, and the whole mystical universe thing. Master Wong told Jacques that fate had a path for him, and that he need not return the Buddha if he felt that he should not, but that he would appreciate it. Jacques, believing this story, retrieved the statue from its hiding place, and a lot of trouble was avoided.
During the interrogation of Phillipe, the french thief, it came out that the man was a sorceror. He cast some sort of a spell, shattering things made of iron (thus ruining some guns, but the steel swords appeared largely unaffected) and attempted to escape. He was recaptured, and regrettably, his throat was slit somewhere along the way. Rumor has it Kang was responsible, but no one is certain.
Over the next day, another attack did not materialize. A message came from Master Zheng requesting the presence of his people. Master Wong, for obscure reasons, entrusted the Buddha into Jacques' hands, asking him to take this to Master Zheng's altar and to keep it there. The four of them went, with Master Wong's blessing, to Master Zheng's island outside of Hong Kong.
In the meantime, Douglass Charles has been busy. He didn't meet with Lee Kwok, as he expected, but instead found two very interesting things: The first being that the oppressive magic in Hong Kong didn't bother him nearly as much as he expected, and two, the reason he was sent there is that they wanted his detective skills. An honest-to-god dinosaur, a velociraptor, appeared in a park in Kowloon. After mauling a number of people, it was shot down by unnamed gunmen and its carcass was taken. The Lodge have no idea where this beast came from or who took it, and the amateur film that was taken give no clues. Mr. Charles was asked to investigate this. He was told that if he fails this assignment, he could expect his Lodge dues to be rejected.
He set out onto the streets, using his vast resources. To his surprise, he ran into someone he knew there, a man by the name of McBain. McBain, apparently, had also been sent on this mission, by his own superiors. After a brief conversation, McBain and Charles agreed to join up, at least for this one mission. Since it's clear that anything that neither the Dragons nor the Ascended know about is dangerous.
Meanwhile, Kang and Jacques, using their own information networks, both turned up the name: Jila Enterprises. They appear to be a front company, but information is inconclusive. Recon of their office turns up a great deal of paperwork and some apparent DNA samples of the very same creatures. The conclusion the team comes up with is that the Jurassic Park story: Someone really is working on creating dinosaurs from DNA samples.
The four of them meet in a nice restaurant in Hong Kong--on Douglass Charles' expense account. Shortly into the meal, a gang of gunmen, lead by a frenchman named Guillaume assault, apparently gunning for Kang. After a short battle, in which McBain was mistakenly clubbed by Hack, wielding a bottle of wine as a weapon, and included a brilliantly executed maneuver by Jacques wherein he used a lobster to slide across the floor (Regrettably, he missed his target), the frenchman was captured by Douglass using a pair of nunchuku as a garotte.
It comes out that Guillaume is the brother of Phillipe, and that his entire purpose was to get vengeance upon Kang for his murder. Kang, displeased by this, attempts to kill Guillaume while Douglass has him bound, but Douglass dances away from him. Using a series of clever ducks and zigs, he gets Guillaume out the door, but not before absorbing a few bullets meant for the frenchman. He runs off, frenchman in hand, and has him interrogated.
A short number of days later, Kang receives the severed head of Guillaume, first class. With a note, "This matter is considered closed. No further action will be taken. -- D.C."