[Unit 34, 404 Yarrow Lane | 1305 Central time, Day 1]
"You know the drill," instructed Mendez as he stood in front of the door that hid Sui.
"The next two doors, you do it yourself," bantered Becks as he took two hefty steps back.
"You know I would've done it myself if I didn't get hit back there."
"And whose fault was that?"
"The guy that shot me, idiota."
Becks' kick swung the door open, hitting the wall beside it and forming a right triangle.
"Yo, Sui!" hollered Becks as he stepped into the room. "Where you at?!"
No answer.
The room Sui previously entered appeared to be his bedroom: There's a single bed tucked at the corner, a ceiling-high closet with sliding doors in front of the bed, and a long desk with a multi-monitor personal computer setup on top of it, complete with a sleek ergonomic mouse, comically oversized mousepad, and a headset decorated with pretty RGB lights. At first glance, Mendez guessed the room was a sanctuary for an avid gamer. Not that it's a bad thing, but Sui worked for a crime syndicate. He thought that his room would've been more... sinister?
Becks noticed an open window to his left as he strode further into the room. He instinctively turned to Mendez, who gestured him to take a look. After taking a peek into the open window, Becks shook his head.
No way he bailed through the window, affirmed Mendez acknowledging Becks' deduction.
The two men turned to the ceiling-high closet. It easily fits an adult inside and the sliding doors made for perfect camouflage since there's no way to peek inside the closet, unlike those wooden closets with segmented, blind-like swing doors. A nice and comfy hiding place, especially when one plans to hide from the men that barged into one's apartment with guns blazing.
Mendez turned to Becks and cocked his head at the closet's direction, gesturing Becks to take a look at the closet.
As both of them approached the closet, the door creaked behind them.
The door, thought Mendez acknowledging the noise it made. The door that formed a right triangle with the walls...
Wait, hesitated Mendez. Right triangle...!
In a split-second of realization, Mendez turned towards the door that made the noise.
Sui, swinging something at Mendez in a wide arc.
Mendez didn't have time to register what's being swung at him, but he knew for sure getting hit by it would've hurt.
But unfortunately for Sui, Mendez did have time to register a surprise attack, ducking accordingly and causing the swing to whiff above his head.
Becks however, didn't see it coming.
He took the blow square on his right jaw.
As Becks tumbled into the floor, Mendez readjusted his stance and readied himself for a brief tussle. Now Mendez had fully registered the weapon on Sui's hand--a black collapsible baton.
A back-swing from Sui. A back-step from Mendez.
An overhead hit from Sui. A sidestep from Mendez, which led to the baton hitting the closet's sliding doors.
Seeing the opening he made himself, Mendez drove a roundhouse kick at Sui's diaphragm, sending him staggering backwards.
Mendez was about to follow up his counterattack when he was interrupted by something, or rather, someone.
It was Becks, charging at the staggering Sui with fury.
"Cocksuckin' little piece of--!" yelled Becks as he tackled Sui into the wall.
Sui's impact against the wall shook the whole apartment as Becks continued his flurry of attacks against Sui.
"You mother--" barked Becks as he jabbed Sui's face for the fifth time, "--fucker!"
But at the same time Becks' fifth punch hit him in the face, Sui managed to swing his baton at Becks' rib, sending him to a kneeling position in pain.
As Sui dropped to the floor, he lost his grip on his baton. He reached his hand for his weapon--only for the baton to be kicked from his reach.
Mendez.
"Alright boys, time out!" he announced after seeing the two scuffle.
Both Sui and Becks shifted their attention to Mendez.
"I did not get my ass shot just for the two of you to kill each other, alright?" said Mendez. "I mean come on Becks, Sui here wouldn't be able to help us if he's DEAD, am I right?"
"Fucker hit me with that fucking stick, what the fuck am I supposed to do?!" retaliated Becks.
"Wasn't even going for you, you dumbass!" snapped Sui at last. "If it weren't for him going under that hit, you would've been just fine!"
"Then what, you expect me to just watch while you smack my source of income into oblivion?"
"I'm sorry, what? Your 'source of income'? You even know this guy?"
"I know just enough," argued Becks. "He kills people, big fucking deal. Your ungrateful ass would've been dead if it wasn't for him 'killing people'!"
"Alright alright alright, time for another time out!" announced Mendez yet again as he stepped in between Becks and Sui. "Appreciate you standing up for me and all Becks, but source of income? Really man?"
"Heat of the moment man, come on!" said Becks, which Mendez responded with a slight shrug before turning to Sui.
"Sui!" called out Mendez in a friendly tone. "Finally we're properly introduced. Took us what, five years?"
Sui breathed heavily, likely out of fatigue from the fight earlier. He clearly didn't expect it to go the way it did.
"This can't be you, can it?"
"Yours truly, alive and kicking."
Becks stood up, looming behind Mendez. "Hold up hold up hold up, what do you mean by 'five years'? Surely it didn't take THAT long for them Blackpoint dudes to try to kill you?"
"Thing is, they already did," sighed Sui. "The REAL Lucio Fernandez was shot in the head five years ago. He's supposed to be--no, he IS--dead."
"YOO--hold up, Lucio Fernandez?" asked Becks while turning to Mendez.
"Yeah, Lucio Fernandez, that's his name," answered Sui while gesturing towards Mendez.
Becks didn't let his gaze off Mendez. "You know this dead Fernandez guy?"
Mendez' expression didn't change in the slightest. "Of course I know him. He's me."
"Waitaminute, so which one is your real, REAL name again? Lucio or Rock?"
"It was Lucio," reiterated Mendez, "Lucio joined Blackpoint in 2004 when he was 19 years old and he got 'shot' 10 years later when trying to uncover a human trafficking operation under Blackpoint. He survived without any memory loss, changed his name, and decided to quietly retire until 5 years later when some inconsiderate hijos de puta with no regard for privacy decided to come and try to kill him again, and that's how he ended up here."
One second passed. And then two. Did Sui.exe just stopped working?
"Look, we're in a bit of a hurry here, so let me just snap you back to reality, alright?" proposed Mendez. "Fernandez got shot in the head, true. I believe he was shot..."
...Mendez raised his forehead towards Sui, exposing his hole-like scar on his forehead...
"...right here, correct?"
Sui's eyes widened. His mouth dropped open, definitely mouthing 'what the fuck?' under his breath. He took small backsteps without even realizing it, for he was utterly and most definitely shocked. But Mendez did not relent with his explanation.
"Now, if you'd taken ballistics training, you'd know that worst place to shoot someone is at the forehead. The bullet coulda' bounced off the skull and missed the brain completely. Small chance I know, but chance nonetheless. That's what happened to Lucio, to me. Now that we're clear on that, can we--"
"--no fucking way..." Sui managed. "We... they killed you..."
Sui didn't pale, although he might as well have been. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. Mendez, however, was not too impressed. Or amused, for that matter.
And with that, Mendez gave Sui a slap across the face.
"Can you please get it together?" said Mendez following the slap, which somehow straightened Sui. "Besides, I'm not just here to make a surprise comeback reveal. I need your help."
Sui gulped--hard. There's still shock in his eyes. But he seemed to have managed it now.
"Help?"
"Yeah. Becks, get the laptop."
***
"So you want me to crack this laptop open?" asked Sui as he sat Wedelton's laptop on his long desk.
"Pretty much, yeah." replied Mendez.
Sui punched some keys into the laptop. Becks noted that the way he typed didn't look like he's guessing or probing the password, it's almost as if he already knew the password before the laptop was even turned on.
Also, the password spelt 'sch3h3r4z4d3'.
"Fucking hell man, we were so close!" expressed Becks in light dismay. He then turned to Mendez. "If only we--"
"--tried that one earlier, we would've gotten in and won't have to go through all these trouble, yeah," said Mendez finishing Becks' sentence. "But there's no way we could've known, you know that? I mean what if instead of 'sch3h3r4z4d3' it's 'scheher4z4d3'? Or 'scheheraz4d3'? Or--"
"--yeah yeah yeah, I know," dismissed Becks. "Still, how the hell does Sui get it on the first try?"
"I keep the passwords of everyone in the office," replied Sui as the laptop screen lit up, displaying its desktop. "Makes for excellent leverage, especially when they try to take my takeout dumplings without asking. Ain't no way I'm gonna let that fly."
Becks shrugged in response to Sui's confession. "Thanks for the heads up."
Mendez, Becks and Sui spent the next five minutes navigating the laptop trying to find useful intel. Occasionally they ran into messages with contacts on encrypted channels, but nothing that points to anything useful. Then again...
"What are we looking for anyway?" asked Sui.
"Hit them where it hurts, find where they're conducting their operations," answered Mendez. "We already know that they are still doing the skin trade, but we need a location on that plus others that we haven't uncovered yet. We do enough of that, that should draw the attention of the big guys up top, and that's when we strike."
Sui gave Mendez a puzzled look. "You're telling me all this as if I'm not part of them anymore. Which I technically, you know, still am."
"Sui, my friend," replied Mendez. "The second they tried to make you shoot yourself, you're no longer Blackpoint. And the second we stopped them from doing that, you're with us now."
Sui shifted on his seat uneasily, hesitating.
"You scare the shit out of me Mendez," Sui said at last. "but I know for a fact that you scare others that are after me too."
"Yo, are you in or not?" pursued Becks, agitated. "Lot easier for the two of us now that we got the password--"
"--I'm not in," stated Sui. "Yes, you saved me, and yes, thanks for that, but I just don't see us on the same side, Mendez. Besides, you bitch-slapped me."
Mendez hung his head in slight disappointment. "Ah, such a shame. Also, sorry for the slap."
Becks clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Well, we did get what we came for," said Mendez finally. "Guess we gotta head back to base now."
"And where is this 'base'?" asked Becks.
"66 Lumina Road," announced Mendez. "Cafe Aurores."
"Aurores? That cafe on the hook, right?" asked Becks. "What's so special about it?"
"Well for starters, I own the place," replied Mendez quickly.
"And what about homeboy over here?" noted Becks referring to Sui. "He knows where we're headed to next, you sure he won't send another batch of Blackpoint cucks our way?"
"Well if that happens, I'll just chalk him up the list," threatened Mendez nonchalantly. He then leaned towards Sui, his eyes dead-fixed on Sui's, and with a menacing smile said "But I'm sure that won't happen. Right, Sui?"
Sui's response was a nervous gulp. But that's all Mendez needed.
"Right. Thanks again for the hack," he said as he gently tapped Sui on the jaw.
The two men left Sui's apartment.
As they descended the flat trying not to trip over the bodies of their earlier victims, Becks posed another question to Mendez.
"You sure leaving him just like that? A loose end like that is gonna bite us in the ass later, know what I'm sayin'?"
"Rock and a hard place," answered Mendez. "Blackpoint wants Sui dead. If he calls a bunch of Blackpoint guys onto us..."
"... he'll let them know he's still alive, I know that. But what if it's an anonymous tip? That won't lead them to him."
"But it sure will lead us to him. Keep in mind that this is the guy that lives in the same address as his corporate spreadsheet even though it's a shell company susceptible to cop raids 75% of the time. He's got nowhere else to hide."
"So you think he'll join us sooner rather than later?"
"Hopefully sooner," said Mendez as he approached the building's entrance door. "Besides, he knows where to find us."