cyphomandra

Foxx is presenting the mission – to capture Ash – to an assorted group of really solidly built minions. I also find it disturbing that he’s calling Ash “Aslan Golzine”, although as the adoption’s gone through (I presume after a lot of bribery) that is actually Ash’s name now. He shows them a film of a 14 year old Ash target shooting, which is certainly better that the other footage of Ash that’s shown up before, and then after the briefing Dino and Foxx have tea, and we discover that Foxx is a French mercenary. Also, he threatens Ash’s media contacts. Yut-Lung and Blanca show up, and Blanca sees Foxx and clocks him as military.

Ash talks to Cain. Ash is unhappy about the ease of the rescue of Sing’s gang, and raises the possibility of a spy. Cain’s guys burst in, announcing an attack on one of Cain’s hangouts by big guys in suits talking in a foreign language. News of more attacks starts coming in – Cain and Ash go to check out one of the places, but the guys come back with more ammo, killing off a number of nameless gang members, and they only get away when the attackers stop and retreat suddenly, where we see that Foxx is watching them from a distance. And then the police are back, investigating Frog’s death – although all they have of him is an arm (his husband identifies it in a weird moment that got me all confused, as either the author or the translator appears to be under the impression gay marriage was legal in California at the time (1985), although the police force are presented as mildly baffled but sympathetic to the bereaved, which I would find more encouraging if the dead guy were not an evil child molester). Blanca has managed to identify Foxx. A gang guy with a very unlikely headband updates Ash and Cain on the current widespread downtown attacks. Ash contacts Fly, his arms dealer, and places an order, before coming up with some basic plans that unfortunately do not stop more attacks from happening – in fact, Cain wakes Ash up to show him the dumped and disembowelled body of a guy from a Puerto Rican gang, left outside their hideout.

More attacks and establishment of Foxx as nasty and twisted. Sing tells Ash that none of the Chinese gangs have been hit, confirming Golzine and Yut-Lung are behind it, and Ash identifies the pattern of attack as being one used by French military against Cuban-backed rebels in Zaire in 1978 (once again I resolve to do more background reading). Ash then manages to ID Foxx and on pulling his photo recognises the guy from the bar and takes off to save Max. He arrives just as Max has come home to find Steve being attacked, and there’s a flurry of shooting that ends with Steve seriously injured and Max with a minor wound. The negatives, however, are safe, but Ash tells Max to go into hiding and put his family under armed guard.

Fly drops off the weapons. Ash briefs everyone and does a rather flashy display of bare-handed fighting against Cain and Lao that is not all that helpful for the others (I did wonder if he was checking Lao out, in the testing his loyalties sense) but he then offers to train them anyway. During the next attack, Ash hijacks the mercenaries’ communications and sends then into a trap. Irked by this, Foxx gets authority from Dino to be as rough towards Ash as possible, although not to kill him, in his next attempt. And Jessica shows up, having reacted really well to being told by Max to go into hiding (she has stashed Michael at her sister’s). They argue, loudly.

Ash plans to split everyone into groups - there’s a lot of intercutting between Ash and Foxx briefing their respective troops, and then they wait. And wait. Eiji brings Ash a nice hot mineral water (lots of weapons, not many other supplies) and Eiji gets Ash thinking about Foxx’s plan, and working out what it is. The confrontation starts, and there are lots of discussions about tactics that I’m not going to go into; however, although Ash has predicted the plan, he doesn’t necessarily have the resources to defeat it, as the mercenaries are just too numerous and too well equipped. Ash orders an evacuation, splitting them up again, saying they’ll meet in 48 hours. Max, Cain, Ash, Alex, Kong, Bones and some of Cain’s guys are staying, planning to fall into the trap so that Foxx doesn’t guess the others are escaping.

In the escape, Lao and another guy have a very suspicious conversation, and then Jessica says she’s going back to Max; Eiji follows her, and Sing follows both of them. Foxx guesses that the escape has happened and orders a full-on assault. Ash heads for the roof. Eiji and Jessica are lost in the tunnels, but Sing catches up with them. The last of Cain’s group left behind are escaping while Ash draws the others onto the roof and executes a lot of very fast impressive manoeuvres, bur Max, Bones and Kong get captured. Cain heads back to help. Foxx, holding a gun to Max’s head, orders Ash to surrender; and he does. This is the payback for Max's actions at the end of the previous volume - Ash can't not save him - but Ash's plans all seem to be revolving around his willingness to turn himself into a sacrifice for his friends.