Free Critical Incidents: The ROK - Land of HAN (A Jack Gunn Mystery Thriller Book 1) by Thomas H. Ward Page B

weapons.
    Midori was a happy person, always smiling, and laughing, in a bimbo kind of way. She made small talk and asked me if I worked for the American Embassy like Ted. That surprised me, because Ted is not supposed to let that fact be known, for security reasons.
    “No, I don’t work for the embassy. We’re just friends.”
    She was very curious about what I did for a living and kept asking me questions. I told her I was a salesman for RCA. She wanted my name card, which of course, I didn’t have. I found out she was a waitress for the Golden Dragon and so was Keiko. It happened to be their night off.
    Ted and Keiko came back to the room after about an hour of dancing. Ted seemed disturbed and commented, “Let’s leave and go somewhere else.”
    “Why, what happened?” I asked.
    “While we were dancing a few guys kept bumping into me.”
    “Well, that’s dancing, Ted. It’s crowded.”
    Keiko commented, “No, they were doing it on propose. They wanted to start a fight. Let’s leave before there is trouble.”
    “Wait, I have to pay the bill,” Ted replied.
    “Don’t worry about the bill. It is our treat,” Keiko said.
    Outside, as we were walking to Ted’s car, we heard a voice behind us. “Gaijins. Hey gaijins, come here!”
    I told everyone to keep walking to the car.
    A man yelled, “Gaijin! You no leave until you pay.”
    Without looking, I could hear several voices behind us and footsteps. They were quickly approaching us. Standing next to the car, we all turned around. Three men were standing there in long black leather coats with the red bandanas around their heads. I glared at the man who stood closest to me, and glanced at the two standing behind him.
    I asked, “What do we owe you money for?” He had on aviator sunglasses, even though it was dark out. His hair was long, covering his ears. He was a skinny little punk trying to look tough in his black leather jacket and red bandana.
    “The whores. Gaijin take whores, you pay five hundred thousand yen.” he replied, while grinning. The other two dorks laughed at his comment.
    I did a quick calculation in my head. In U.S. money that was almost five thousand dollars. This guy is out of his freaking mind.   
    I wanted to wipe that shit-eating grin off his ugly little face. “What are you talking about,” I said, as I turned my head to look at Keiko.
    The other two men chuckled at my response. I could tell they were either drunk or had taken some kind of drug. They all moved in closer, within five feet, which was starting to invade my personal space.
    “He’s full of shit, Jack-san. We are not whores,” Keiko said, as she stormed up to his face.
    They started speaking Japanese very fast and I couldn’t follow what they said exactly. Keiko shook her finger in his face, and screamed something in Nihongo. I did manage to hear his name, which was Nakanishi.
    All of sudden this jerk, Nakanishi, grabs Keiko’s finger and bends it. I heard it snap as she dropped to her knees crying. Nakanishi laughed and said, “No wave finger my face, whore!”
    He looked at me and held out his hand. “Give money now. Me break gaijin fingers.”
    All this time Ted and poor little Midori just stood there speechless, not knowing what to do. I didn’t want them to do anything, so it was ok with me that they stayed out of the way.
    I said, “Ok, I’ll give you the money,” as I stepped up to him. He still held his hand out waiting for the payment. I stuck my hand out to shake his. “No hard feelings. Let’s shake.”
    He kind of looked at me like I was nuts. As he reached out to shake, I swiftly grabbed the thumb of his right hand and bent it back. Using all my strength I twisted it to the right, while at the same time grabbing his hair with my left hand, I pulled his head back. I heard his thumb snap, dislocating it, and Nakanishi yelped in pain.
    While still holding his hair, pulling his head back to expose his neck, I punched him in the throat with my