Grant awoke to find himself sitting in a folding chair with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He felt cold and sore all over with a foul taste in his mouth. He became aware of the fact that he was completely naked. The five men that ambushed him in the restroom weren't there but four Chinese men in tank tops surrounded him. He was in what appeared to be an unused garage. The kind found at dirty gas stations.

"Look I think you mistook me for some kind of porn star," said Grant, noticing the camera on a tripod in front of him. "I don't want this on my resume."

"We want to know what you've uncovered so far about the Taiping treasure," said one of his captors. He had a sophisticated tattoo on his forearm.

It all clicked together for Grant and he eyed the men staring at him.

"Ahh your like competition," said Grant with a chuckle. "You want the treasure too. Don't tell me you heard about it at Frankie's presentation too."

"Our employer did," said the one fingering the handle of a wrench dipped in a pot of hot coals. "Now we aren't so civilized and patient so tell us what you know so we can get this over with quickly."

"Lick my balls," said Grant.

The man rolled his eyes and took out the wrench before tapping it twice on Grant's thigh. The searing pain caught Grant off guard and he yelled loudly in agony.

"That was sample yes?" said the torturer. "Next time its your balls. Tell us and you get to keep your hands and eyes."

"How about you uncuff me so we can talk like man to man," said Grant.

One of the men, who wore a beanie, pulled out a small pistol from behind his back. "I don't piss around kid. Cocky American gets cock blown off in my book."

"Hey I'm not the brains of the group," said Grant. "Frankie is. I can take you to him."

The pistol clicked. "Ok balls go," said the man in the beanie with a sigh.

"Wait wait wait!" Grant cried, struggling in his chair. A shot rang out and a searing pain exploded on his shoulder.

"Tsk, cruddy ass pistol," side the man, looking down at his gun while his companions laughed. "無用的東西."

But Grant wasn't the only one who had been shot. Grant stared at the growing stain of red on the man's tank top. The pistol fell from his hands as he looked down, having noticed it as well before collapsing on the concrete floor.

"What the shit?" said the one who had burned Grant with the wrench.

A tall slim woman wearing black jeans and a denim jacket stood at the door several meters away from the torture scene. She was holding a small revolver in her hand. Grant was no expert but her stance seemed to indicate that was well trained.

Grant's captors started to run and the lady yelled something at them in Chinese but they ignored her. Four more shots rang out and the men dropped. One of them writhed on the ground in pain, clutching his ruined shin.

The lady quickly got Grant out of the chair and told him to take his captors' clothes. Grant quickly did as he was told, slipping on some loose cargo pants and took a jacket that was on the floor.

"Lin Xiulang," she said to Grant. "I called it in. They will clean up this mess. You have to come with me."

"What the hell are you some kind of super spy?" Grant asked as he followed her out of the garage. He quickly put on the sandals he had taken off the guy with the gun.

Lin motioned him towards a black sedan. Grant got into the passenger seat and was driven out of the alleyway they had run out into in a flash.

"I'm undercover police," said Lin. "I followed those guys after they were sent out to extract information from you. Some foreigner brought you to the garage, someone who wants you dead."

"I'm after a Taiping treasure," said Grant and explained his expedition to her. "You need to take me back to my hotel."

"No you owe me first," said Lin. "You see my cover could be blown with what I did tonight to save your ass. The local boss I'm spying on is having a dinner party tonight at a fancy restaurant. Details later but in short I could use a hand. We need to move fast."

"I'm going to stop you right there," said Grant. "I'm just a college student ok? Just this afternoon I was having a grand time with my friends and eating KFC. I'm not interested in getting involved in China's crime scene. I've seen enough Hong Kong Cinema."

"Shut up and cooperate," said Lin as they drove over a bridge. "I could turn you into the mob if you like. I saved your life and your balls, don't forget."

Before long Grant was at the entrance of the North Road Restaurant, a five story fancy place located downtown. Lin bought him a suit before arriving and also handed him an earpiece for communication. Lin herself had changed into a divided dress with Chinese designs. He had rarely seen women look that good with short hair.

"Ok so what do I do?" Grant asked through his communication device.

"Boss Wu is meeting with the head of another gang, Boss Gao," Lin explained through the earpiece. I kill eliminate them in one go when they meet in to talk in private. Boss Wu collects rare artifacts. I think he wants to gift one to Boss Gao."

"This is fucking nuts," said Grant as he stepped into the dinner party. He stood out like a sore thumb, surrounded by Chinese men and women eating authentic Chinese food that smelled delicious. He didn't look so authentic and some looked at him as if he were some curious zoo attraction.

"Pardon me white boy representative from...high tech company," Grant said, improvising. "Yeah we are partners with the manager of this restaurant haha! Man what the hell am I saying..."

"There are a lot of people in this restaurant," said Lin through the earpiece. "Keep your eyes open for Boss Wu. I think he will be wearing a red suit today. Boss Gao is a man in his sixties. Not sure what he will be wearing but I heard he is a man of small stature."

"You speak pretty good English," said Grant, shoving his way past some guests laughing and talking with cocktails in their hands. He admired a clear fish soup being placed on a table to his left.

"I am an educated woman," said Lin with a hint of pride.

"Hold on I gotta use the restroom," said Grant. Lin let out a sigh from the other end. "Make it quick. I'm going to try and use my charms to get myself into the private sector. This restaurant is secretly owned by the mob. They got offices out in the back that rarely see the light of day."

In one of many supposed restrooms Grant noticed that it was surprisingly empty. None of the stalls were occupied and only two men were at the urinals. One was definitely a civilian guest judging by his plain clothing and weathered look. The other was a bald muscular man in a suit. A close inspection while urinating beside him told Grant that this was a mob guard of the restaurant. Grant ducked into one of the stalls after urinating and began making puking sounds.

"Hey could I get some help in here please?" he choked out.

Sure enough the guard went into the stall to check on him.

"Sir?"

Grant threw a wad of toilet paper he had wet in the bowl at the guard's face, blinding him. Grant went for the man's gun sticking out of its holster and jammed it into the man's ribs.

"Get me to the artifact room safely or you get a one way trip to the underworld," Grant snarled.

"You dead meat man," said the guard. "I'll take you but you will never go out alive."

"Shut up and take me there alright. Do you wanna die?"

"Not really."

"Ok then I guess we have an understanding then now move it!"

The guard led Grant up some fancy wooden stairs and past some equally fancy looking doors that were watched by a stern looking guard. Grant didn't catch the Chinese that was exchanged between the two men, which made him nervous but he calmed himself when he remembered that his hostage couldn't know that Grant was not fluent in Chinese.

After a few painfully tense minutes Grant was alone in a room that resembled a display room in a museum. There were many display cases on tables nicely spaced apart. Grant had to admit it made the mob look rather cultured and high class.

"Boss will kill you if you steal anything," said Grant's hostage.

"Yeah yeah," said Grant, he smashed the butt of the pistol against the guard's head, knocking him out. To avoid getting caught, Grant dragged the man behind a bushy plant that sat in a dimly lit corner of the room. Just as he put his gun away he heard the clicking of shoes from the other end of the room. To his relief it was Lin.

"How on earth did you get in here?" Lin demanded.

"Long story," said Grant. "So what now?"

"We wait for the two bosses to come in," said Lin. She took out her revolver and took cover behind a sofa propped up against the wall.

Grant examined the artifacts. "Hey he's got a head from one of the terracotta warriors in Xian. And this dagger belonged to one of the princesses of the Tang dynasty."

"I'm not interested in those right now," said Lin irritably. "The police will confiscate them when they raid this place later."

Familiar Chinese characters caught Grant's eye as he passed over another display case. Quickly darting his eyes back he saw that the characters for taiping were written in ink on a very old looking book.

"Lin come here I need you to translate this. The notes besides this artifact are written Chinese only."

"Not now, find somewhere to hide."

"Please?!"

Lin groaned and cautiously made her way over. Grant pointed to the book and she began to translate the information card set beside it.

"Journal of a Taiping rebel captain named Jiang who survived the fall Tianjing. Found in 2017."

"Holy shit," said Grant. "Help me break this case open."

"If you do that you'll set off an alarm," said Lin. "Now hide!"

Grant sighed and ducked behind the display case farthest from the door which Lin came in from. Lin resumed her position behind the couch. They waited for what seemed like hours but at last the door opened and in stepped an authoritative looking man with an elderly gentleman much shorter than he was. They were flanked by three tough looking guards.

The authoritative looking one was identified as Boss Wu by his red suit. He showed the elderly gentleman, who must have been Boss Gao, the artifacts in the room.

As soon as the two mob bosses were close to Lin and well away from the door, Lin burst out from behind her couch and starting yelling things in Chinese.

Clearly both bosses were not interested in going down without a fight because Boss Wu and his men reached for guns at their waists, prompting Lin to open fire. Boss Gao, who was standing in front of Boss Wu, absorbed the first shot and cried out in pain as he fell to the ground. The bullet passed through Boss Gao's body and then struck Boss Wu, who twitched and stumbled back when he was hit. The guards started shooting wildly in their panic and Lin screamed, collapsing where she stood, blood spurting from her right leg.

"Son of a bitch!" Grant grunted and he drew the pistol he had taken earlier, unloading on the three guards. Shooting an actual firearm was a lot harder than it he remembered from past experiences and Grant blinked rapidly from the muzzle flash and recoil. He was hardly aiming at all, shooting in the general direction of his intended targets. Lin had recovered and emptied her revolver at the guards.

"Lin!" Grant cried, pointing at the door. Another guard had just stepped in and ducked out when he saw the massacre that was playing out. Grant had squeezed off a shot but it was too late.

"Are they dead?" said Lin, struggling to get up. She looked pale and her face was covered in sweat. Grant peeked over the display case at the bullet riddle corpses piled against the wall.

"Yeah their dead now let's get the fuck out of here!"

"We cannot use the door," said Lin. "They will be coming up that way."

"Let's use the door to the offices. Maybe we can navigate out that way or something."

"That sounds like walking into a dead end," said Grant, smashing the glass of the case that contained the journal. "I vote we go out the window."

"You're insane," said Lin, gripping a display case for support and dropping her revolver. "We are on the second floor. We'll break our bones even from this height."

"Grant shot the window and then threw a vase through it to widen the hole. He looked through the mess of an opening he had made.

"Ok it doesn't look too bad," he reassured her. "I'll carry you."

"I am not going through that window," said Lin. "Just leave me. Your work here is done."

Grant could hear men running up the stairs. "Ok window it is."

Grant picked up Lin with a grunt and with all the strength he had, dived out the window, his shirt ripping on a jagged piece of glass on the way out. As they fell a small group of people suddenly walked into view directly below. Though Grant was sure he had hurt them bad crashing into them. He was glad something softer had broken his fall.

"Sorry!" he said to the groaning guests on the pavement. He picked up Lin who was moaning loudly now and ran as fast as he could away from the restaurant.