At some point, Tom made the decision that the Dragon had nothing on the Triad. At least, not when you had pissed them off. He looked back over his shoulder at the motorcycles gaining on him and grunted, pressing down harder on the accelerator of the little black Toyota Spyder. The engine whined, but he managed to coax even more speed out of it as he roared down the Bangkok streets at breakneck speeds. Apparently Triad Lieutenants didn't like it when you boosted their car in the middle of a drug run. He cut a sharp turn down a tight alleyway, the tires shrieking in protest as the car slid several feet sideways before heading in the new direction.

"Heads down!" He shouted, ducking himself as bullets punched holes through the soft top covering the back seat, eliciting screams and terrified Thai babbling from the rest of the car's occupants. The woman in the passenger seat sat up and began screaming at him. Tom tried to ignore her, having no idea what she was saying anyway. Eventually he gave up, shouting back nonsense syllables. Apparently that satisfied her, or at least scared her enough that she shut up. He cut another corner and reached into his pocket to tug out a small metal ball. "Come on..." he growled at it, stuffing it back into his pocket. "Come on!"

Still, he had to find a way to ditch the prostitutes first. He cut into a parking deck, turning the car sharply as he entered and slamming on the breaks to turn the car longways across the entrance and block it. "Everyone out!" He yelled, not even bothering to wave a gun as the girls leaped out of the car as though it were on fire, which probably wasn't a bad assumption given the circumstances. The girls ran out the parking garage entrance while Tom made for the stairs and the motorcycles roared in behind him, bikers dismounting to chase after him.

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Some Hours Earlier

Tom fidgeted with his pistol, staring across the helicopter at the Illuminati agent. The agent stared back, their expression hidden behind the gas mask. In fact, Tom was the only agent not wearing a mask of some sort. The Dragon agent had a scarf pulled up high over his features, and even the Phoenician agent with them was wearing a balaclava and goggles. Suddenly Tom felt a bit under-dressed. He turned to look at the map again. On paper it was simple, it always was. They would move into the warehouse, incapacitate the targets, and take the artifact. Even the Triad was just a street gang, tough, but no match for four highly trained agents.

The Orochi chopper dipped suddenly, and Tom grabbed for the leather strap above his head to steady himself, earning a slightly derisive snort from the Dragon operative, who had just kind of swayed gracefully. Tom took solace in the fact that both the Illuminati and Phoenician agents knuckles were white against their seats,and gave the Dragon a shit-eating grin. That drop meant they should almost be there. Sure enough, a voice came over the com-link wrapped around his ear, letting them know that they had reached the target and were clear for drop.

The door slid open and the four agents dropped out, falling the twenty feet or so to the rooftop and landing with soft thumps. So they were all bees, good to know. The Dragon took the lead, this was their territory after all, slipping into the building from the rooftop entrance. The four of them ghosted through the building. Odd, there should have been at least a few guards in here if the artifact was here. Intel suggested that the Triad knew what the object was, they wouldn't just leave it alone.

they fanned out along the catwalk. The Dragon agent leaped the railing and fell to the floor in a crouch, drawing a katana and stalking towards the pile of crates in the middle of the room. The illuminati agent fidgeted, sparks crackling between her fingers as she moved towards the stairs. It seemed everyone was as tense as he was. Tom nodded towards the Phoenician agent, and the two of them split, each one readying their guns and taking a side of the catwalk to cover.

There was a rumble of engines from outside as several cars pulled up. The four were silent and tense for a several moments, but nobody entered the warehouse. The dragon agent pried the lid off the crate and lifted the artifact. The Illuminati touched it briefly before nodding. The Phoenician agent fired, splattering red across the Dragon agent's scarf as the Illuminati agent's head exploded. Tom hesitated, taking a second to parse what had happened, and a fire spread across his side. He raised his own gun and fired at the Phoenician agent, taking him through the chest with his first shot and putting a hole straight through the goggles with his second.

Car doors slammed and there were shouts from outside, the gunfire had attracted the Triad in the parking lot. Tom stumbled for the stairs. Focusing in on himself and steeling his side against the burning pain. He opened his eyes again and ran smack into the Dragon coming up the stairs. Tom looked past the man and saw the Triad streaming in through the doors. No escape that way. He stumbled back up the stairs after the Dragon, just in time to hear a voice in his ear yell, "The other four are dead, go go!"

Rat bastard.

Tom glanced back down the stairs at the oncoming triad, armed mostly with knives and cleavers, but there were still too many for him to take head on and alone. He spotted the artifact at his feet, the Dragon must have dropped it when they collided with each other. Tom grabbed it and dove for the window. Steeling himself against the coming pain as he shattered through the glass and fell two stories to the ground. He scrambled to his feet and limped towards a car, punching the window out and unlocking the door. He quickly spliced a couple of wires together to get the vehicle running and tore out of the parking lot, not caring that there were still four other passengers in the car. They wouldn't be far behind him.

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Now

Tom backed slowly along the roof. He fired a few shots towards the doorway, making those in the stairwell duck back behind cover. More were coming up the ramp though, and he was forced to refocus his attention on them, firing shots close enough to wing but not kill them. He fished the ball from his pocket again, still no dice. He held it clutched in his hand as he fired a few more shots. He was quickly running out of space to retreat to.

The sound of a helicopter distracted him, and he looked over his shoulder to see the Orochi transport swooping in. He kept backing towards it, turning back around to face the Triad and keep them at bay. He heard the door rush open behind him and turned to get a hand up into the transport. Instead he met the barrel of a rifle. Tom stared at the gun for a brief moment, taken aback as he fell backwards away from the helicopter. His hand started to glow. The rifle cracked, and Tom squeezed his hand against the ball inside it. He exploded into a cloud of light, rushing back to Agartha.