When the remaining members of the multinational crime-fighting team took care of all the administrative matters necessary to cross the Mexican border, they immediately headed for the epicenter of Mexican drug crime: Ciudad Juárez. There, they just as immediately encountered one of Mexico's most notorious drug lords covertly smuggling more contraband into and out of the city: Servando Gómez Martinez, known as "La Tuta" ("The Teacher/Tutor") or "El Profe" ("The Professor"), making the trip from the former Aztec territory Michoacán to Juárez to plug the numerous holes left by anti-drug raid after anti-drug raid. There were another other drug lord making his presence felt before he got left as one of the "más buscados de Mexico" ("Mexico's most wanted"): Nazario Moreno González, also of the Michoacán cartel, the "Knights Templar". Unfortunately for Martinez, his getting left alone in charge of the Knights presented logistical challenges as well as the more obvious challenges of keeping other cartels going by "proxy", despite not always being on the greatest of terms with their leadership. Finding little, if any, resistance along the BRT and Public Bus systems, the team met Martinez outside an abandoned country club in the "Campestre" — the downtown neighborhood once loaded full of country clubs, only to see them empty out one by one due to the cartels' crossfire over the years. They spotted him just about to leave for the studios of XEPM-TV, home to the city's Televisa affiliate. Indeed, that was where four of the five men, minus Giunta, ended up, but not before the station got removed from the airwaves in dramatic fashion, as the station was in the middle of a news special on the city's slow recovery from all the drug violence when the beginning of the fight killed its signal:
"Con los recientes avances contra el narcotráfico aquí en Juárez, nosotros aquí en TuCanal queremos agradecer a nuestras comunidades por su vigilancia en contra de los líderes del crimen organizado en los últimos meses-...
The report only reached that far before a slide went up with the station's simplistic logo-just a "word mark", as those are referred to in television, and a slide reading "DIFICULTADES TÉCNICAS"-"TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES". Scangalore was the first of the task force members to notice Martinez almost singlehandedly sabotaging the signal, and he commented rather bluntly on the unfolding television signal sabotage:
"What'cha coin' tryin' to kill this station's signal so prematurely like that instead of lettin' yourself battle out of that corner ya just put yourself in like a real man?"
Martinez pretended to ignore Scangalore's little taunt, but what he couldn't ignore was Hannelman's presence in the TuCanal control room, commanding just as much of a presence simply by his Spanish fluency as Scangalore's toned body build overshadowed everybody else in the suddenly-evacuated newsroom. It was Yobito-san, however, who spoke up next:
"Why must you corrupted souls always destroy other peoples' livelihoods through such effective organized crime? Why can't you just accept that you live among these people instead of trying to take them down little by little?"
Finally feeling brave and bold enough to speak out himself, Martinez decided to crack a joke at the expense of Yobito-san, particularly his yakuza days, hoping that he wouldn't be the man in the room to escalate the simmering conflict any further:
"En las palabras inmortales del Rey Juan Carlos de España, "¿Por qué no te callas?" Tú posiblemente crees que yo simplemente voy a rendir en lugar de continuar esta batalla solo... Pero, en la ausencia de mis compadres narcotraficantes, tú puedes ver con tus propios ojos que yo estoy dispuesto a cumplir con mi mission de restaurar nuestras días gloriosos aquí en Juárez, también en mi base, Michoacán, y en este país entero! Con tú historia de cometer crímenes mas destructivas contra tu gente, pero también contra infraestructura en su ciudad capital, tú no tienes ninguna posición de hablar en contra de nuestras actividades!"
Yobito-san, suddenly taken aback by the perceived slight on his past, attempted to counter Martinez's insult, only to get interrupted in Spanish by Hannelman:
"Oye, Señor ******, tu nos puedes acorralar, pero no nos puedes romper nuestros espíritus... Todos tus compañeros del narcotráfico ya están encerrados por los restos de sus vidas! Por qué no lo puedes aceptar a sus destinos? Por qué tienes que continuar torturando a todas estas ciudades por tu sustento?"
That was the end of all the back-and-forth arguing-from there, it was all "fisticuffs", with Yobito-san, the subject of Martinez's insult, retreated outside the newsroom while Hannelman and especially Scangalore pummeled Martinez into submission. Once they did him in, inflicting massive blunt force trauma upon him and leaving his fainted body in the restroom in the hallway separating the control room from the newsroom. Giunta, hearing the commotion in the studios, finally caught up to the rest of the men, asking whether or not he missed anything "spectacular":
"So, what'd I miss wit' y'all knockin' dat drug dude out cold?"
Scangalore, pointing to Martinez's collapsed body: "Ya missed this..."
As soon as Giunta found out about the two men knocking Martinez back into the previous decade, Hannelman and Yobito-san suddenly relayed urgent information coming from somewhere near Osaka, Japan, where they originally met expecting to only have to hunt down Martinez, the remaining "most wanted" Mexican drug lord, through a broken radio transmission with a signal constantly breaking in and out from interference:
"This... Shinoda-san... Yamaguchi-gumi... We want you back... Yobito-san, before we find you... the same way... ended the Mexican drug lord's life... return at once... we will track your team... all reaches of the planet... the agent intent on destroying our organization (Hannelman)... the inner-city thug (Giunta, who jumped slightly when he heard himself being called such)... the Mafia man (Scangalore, who defiantly grunted instead of acting surprised)... all of you men..."
Yobito-san, rendered almost speechless: "How have they managed to find our position here, much less my presence here with all of you?"
"Whatever the case may be, we might as well return to Japan and find out what all of them are up to before they find us and follow through on their threats..."
"Do dat mean we 'bout to return to dat place wit' all da lights and stuff, and dose slot machine places wit' da little pinballs?"
"Scangalore, shut that guy up before he blathers on even more..."
"Will do..." slaps Giunta across his face
Determined to fight off the other criminal syndicate threatening their lives, the four men took the same path out of the city as they took to find it in the first place, via the BRT and Public Bus systems, and crossed the Mexican border back into El Paso, Texas to head back to Osaka via Los Angeles to start their newest fight, against the biggest yakuza clans, which would become either a defining moment for law enforcement, or a major blow to public safety worldwide, given the expansionist policies of most of the yakuza clans in recent years...
BONUS: with the return of the MLB vs. Japan offseason series, here are both leagues'/shall I say, countries' rosters for the exhibition games to be held "across the pond" this & next week:
MLB:
"Con los recientes avances contra el narcotráfico aquí en Juárez, nosotros aquí en TuCanal queremos agradecer a nuestras comunidades por su vigilancia en contra de los líderes del crimen organizado en los últimos meses-...
The report only reached that far before a slide went up with the station's simplistic logo-just a "word mark", as those are referred to in television, and a slide reading "DIFICULTADES TÉCNICAS"-"TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES". Scangalore was the first of the task force members to notice Martinez almost singlehandedly sabotaging the signal, and he commented rather bluntly on the unfolding television signal sabotage:
"What'cha coin' tryin' to kill this station's signal so prematurely like that instead of lettin' yourself battle out of that corner ya just put yourself in like a real man?"
Martinez pretended to ignore Scangalore's little taunt, but what he couldn't ignore was Hannelman's presence in the TuCanal control room, commanding just as much of a presence simply by his Spanish fluency as Scangalore's toned body build overshadowed everybody else in the suddenly-evacuated newsroom. It was Yobito-san, however, who spoke up next:
"Why must you corrupted souls always destroy other peoples' livelihoods through such effective organized crime? Why can't you just accept that you live among these people instead of trying to take them down little by little?"
Finally feeling brave and bold enough to speak out himself, Martinez decided to crack a joke at the expense of Yobito-san, particularly his yakuza days, hoping that he wouldn't be the man in the room to escalate the simmering conflict any further:
"En las palabras inmortales del Rey Juan Carlos de España, "¿Por qué no te callas?" Tú posiblemente crees que yo simplemente voy a rendir en lugar de continuar esta batalla solo... Pero, en la ausencia de mis compadres narcotraficantes, tú puedes ver con tus propios ojos que yo estoy dispuesto a cumplir con mi mission de restaurar nuestras días gloriosos aquí en Juárez, también en mi base, Michoacán, y en este país entero! Con tú historia de cometer crímenes mas destructivas contra tu gente, pero también contra infraestructura en su ciudad capital, tú no tienes ninguna posición de hablar en contra de nuestras actividades!"
Yobito-san, suddenly taken aback by the perceived slight on his past, attempted to counter Martinez's insult, only to get interrupted in Spanish by Hannelman:
"Oye, Señor ******, tu nos puedes acorralar, pero no nos puedes romper nuestros espíritus... Todos tus compañeros del narcotráfico ya están encerrados por los restos de sus vidas! Por qué no lo puedes aceptar a sus destinos? Por qué tienes que continuar torturando a todas estas ciudades por tu sustento?"
That was the end of all the back-and-forth arguing-from there, it was all "fisticuffs", with Yobito-san, the subject of Martinez's insult, retreated outside the newsroom while Hannelman and especially Scangalore pummeled Martinez into submission. Once they did him in, inflicting massive blunt force trauma upon him and leaving his fainted body in the restroom in the hallway separating the control room from the newsroom. Giunta, hearing the commotion in the studios, finally caught up to the rest of the men, asking whether or not he missed anything "spectacular":
"So, what'd I miss wit' y'all knockin' dat drug dude out cold?"
Scangalore, pointing to Martinez's collapsed body: "Ya missed this..."
As soon as Giunta found out about the two men knocking Martinez back into the previous decade, Hannelman and Yobito-san suddenly relayed urgent information coming from somewhere near Osaka, Japan, where they originally met expecting to only have to hunt down Martinez, the remaining "most wanted" Mexican drug lord, through a broken radio transmission with a signal constantly breaking in and out from interference:
"This... Shinoda-san... Yamaguchi-gumi... We want you back... Yobito-san, before we find you... the same way... ended the Mexican drug lord's life... return at once... we will track your team... all reaches of the planet... the agent intent on destroying our organization (Hannelman)... the inner-city thug (Giunta, who jumped slightly when he heard himself being called such)... the Mafia man (Scangalore, who defiantly grunted instead of acting surprised)... all of you men..."
Yobito-san, rendered almost speechless: "How have they managed to find our position here, much less my presence here with all of you?"
"Whatever the case may be, we might as well return to Japan and find out what all of them are up to before they find us and follow through on their threats..."
"Do dat mean we 'bout to return to dat place wit' all da lights and stuff, and dose slot machine places wit' da little pinballs?"
"Scangalore, shut that guy up before he blathers on even more..."
"Will do..." slaps Giunta across his face
Determined to fight off the other criminal syndicate threatening their lives, the four men took the same path out of the city as they took to find it in the first place, via the BRT and Public Bus systems, and crossed the Mexican border back into El Paso, Texas to head back to Osaka via Los Angeles to start their newest fight, against the biggest yakuza clans, which would become either a defining moment for law enforcement, or a major blow to public safety worldwide, given the expansionist policies of most of the yakuza clans in recent years...
BONUS: with the return of the MLB vs. Japan offseason series, here are both leagues'/shall I say, countries' rosters for the exhibition games to be held "across the pond" this & next week:
MLB:
Team Japan, A.K.A. "Samurai Blue":
No comments:
Post a Comment