Wiping the Slate Clean

Jakarta’s port erupted in flames. Feng Bao stood atop a shipping container, his leather coat billowing in the acrid wind as his mercenaries fanned out below. The docks, once a lifeline for Black Sorrow’s covert supply runs, now groaned under the weight of Nine Dragons flags snapping in the smoke-choked air. A fishing trawler, its hull stuffed with crates of antibiotics and ammunition for the coalition, listed in the water, its crew facedown on the deck with zip-tied wrists.

“Burn it,” Feng Bao ordered, his voice a gravelly monotone.

A mercenary tossed a phosphorus grenade into the hold. Fire bloomed, devouring medicine meant for typhoon-ravaged villages in Sulawesi. The crew’s captain, a grizzled man with a Black Sorrow tattoo peeking above his collar, spat at Feng Bao’s boots. “The Rapid Lion will tear your throat out.”