Still, it's not the craziest thing I've seen or weathered, not by a long shot.
I suppose I should introduce myself, the way I did to the others. It is only polite. My name is Li Ying Shu, though I go by just Li. It's all that's needed when you're as powerful a crime lord as myself. I trade in weapons and opium, and Jack Brady's a good friend of mine. She's a tough gal, and stubborn, no doubt. Besides, her connections with the New China Army have given me a nice means of revenue. Paramilitaries always need guns, and I don't trade 'em unless they're damn good weapons. Besides, Brady's "friends" had some run-ins with the Order themselves. They needed the power I could give, and my... expertise in the matter, and hey - anything for a friend. I might be a criminal, but I'm loyal to those who are loyal to me.
When I entered to meet with the group, I found a motley crew of four. I recognized Muuzaji and McCloud, two people I've hired on as shippers before, but the other two - a gorgeous Shanghainese dame with hair like shining black jade, and a weary-looking Arab who looked like he hadn't slept in ages - were unknown to me. I learned later these were Madame Xu Mei-lin and Mahmoud Sabri, and that they had seen things that could turn your hair white. They all had. I didn't believe it at first when they said a friend of theirs had become some sort of creature and run off, but it should have been my first clue something was amiss. They said their associate, Mr. Mu, had taught them some sort of spell, and I believed it - old superstitions are alive and well in Shanghai, though I put little stock in them. Then they said they were after Ho Fong, and my interest was piqued. From there, we were contacts, and that's about when the trouble really began, I think.
Brady joined us not long after that, and she had news. Her contacts at New China had found out where Ho Fong's base was, and we knew a thing or two about the Order - just enough to get them into the base and deal with the inevitable fallout. They had traced Ho Fong's patterns during his little excursions on his yacht, the Luxuriant Goddess, and discovered he made frequent trips to an otherwise unremarkable volcanic isle known as Grey Dragon Island. They also knew that the shipping junk, the Dark Mistress, also made frequent trips there. There was a known tribe of natives that lived there as well, supposedly degenerate-looking and rather aggressive, but little was known about it otherwise. That meant only one thing - we'd need to see for ourselves what was there, and that meant obtaining men, planning what to do, and observing the island.
Meeting with Brady's contacts proved incredibly fruitful in that regard - they had guns of course, but they also had men, a parcel of five or so who agreed to go with us. Their leader, Choi, was a strong, silent type of lady, and between you and me, I think Brady and her had a little something more than just friendship going on... but hey, that's really none of my business, anyhow. Choi proved to be an excellent commander, and plotted out our plan of attack expertly. The idea was to first observe from a safe distance, as various ships that had passed through that area had been assaulted by people believed to be Order members. This suggested a substantial number of them on the island, meaning we would need to take caution or risk being caught. To possibly allay this, McCloud suggested we sneak aboard the Dark Mistress as stowaways. From there, we'd need to assay the island proper to decide what to do next - maybe even shanghai the ship if it came to that.
That settled, all we had to do was wait for the next morning to sneak aboard the Dark Mistress. The rendezvous on the docks proceeded as planned, with the stealthy approach onto the ship - disguised as cargo crates - also proceeding as planned. The ship sailed into the seas, bound for the island, moving at incredible speed - faster than any of us had ever seen. Safe in the bowels of the ship, all we had to do was wait, perhaps capture the ship ourselves if we could. There were only five crewmen and a captain, and we greatly outnumbered them.
It was foolproof... or so we thought, until one of those damn New China rebels fucked it up for us. The idiot decided, apparently, in the dead of night, to sneak into the crew's cabin and murder one of the crewmen. Thought he could do it silently. He could not, and the rest of the crew heard their colleague die and awoke. We only discovered we were in trouble because the rest of the New China types woke us up to tell us so, and a guttural voice which we soon realized was the captain uttered something in angry Chinese...
"Intruders! Spread out... see if there are others!"
We sat tight, unable to do much as the crew remained on high alert. Eventually, we had no choice once the rest of New China leapt into action, and before we knew it chaos ensued. Absolute panic on the deck, bullets flying. We had no choice but to engage. Let me tell you, those crewmen were ugly motherfuckers if I ever saw them. Bulgy-eyed, flaky-skinned, fishy-smelling freaks. But they fought like hell, and without much effort a few of 'em met their end from our bullets. About the time the captain bit it, the remaining two crewmen surrendered, realizing the fight was pointless. The ship was ours, and between McCloud to navigate and one of the New China men steering, we were right back on track again.
This was when we found out a few... things about the ship. Things that were rather abnormal indeed. It began with the engine room, a sort of steam ship we thought at first. There was a coal bin, but it was empty of coal, and there were no fire pokers to ensure that coals would be moved evenly. And the doors of the engine itself were heavy-looking, a dull grey metal rather than black iron. McCloud thought to open the door as we peered on, and as his hand rested on the door, he said something rather curious.
"There's not any heat coming from inside." He looked to us in confusion. "And the door... I'm pretty sure it's made of lead. Look, you can see where my fingernails marked it."
Indeed we could, and we soon realized something wasn't right. How could a ship run without coal or steam? It didn't make any sense... until McCloud pried the door open ever so slightly, and a strange greenish glow was loosed.
"Guys," he said, peeking into the container. "There's some sort of glowing... chunk of rock in there?"
"Perhaps it is radium, yes?" asked Mahmoud, stepping a bit closer. "My wife, she takes small amounts of it for the ailments she has. It has such a glow..."
Then McCloud stepped back, and we noticed something odd - where he had peered in with his face slightly close to the crack of the door, there was a red line on his face, from the eye down. It was as if he had been sunburned. He then complained of feeling slightly ill, and rapidly shut the door.
"Your face," I replied, motioning, and he soon realized what I meant. "Whatever is in there, it's clearly dangerous. It just burnt him. Don't touch it."
None of us bothered the door again, and nobody's messed with anything in the engine room aside from the controls for the ship. Whatever was in there, it made the Dark Mistress move like a shark through the water, with incredible speed and making amazing time. At the rate we're traveling, we'll be to Grey Dragon Island in no time. I just hope there's no more setbacks, and that what awaits on that island isn't something infinitely more dangerous than a few degenerate crewmen and a strange glowing rock.
-- Li Ying Shu, Lord of the Underground (June 7th, 1928)