Chapter 18

One good thing about being unemployed, I had a decent amount of time available to me. I worked things out with Tim, and each day after work he would come to my house and pick up things I had packed, then drive to Clint’s studio where my van was waiting. We would then transfer them there, and I would drive them to my new place. It was slow, but within 2 weeks almost everything but my larger furniture was in place.

Dire would park the van in the garage, then move everything upstairs. All the connecting doors were complete, so they could be moved from one to another out of sight of others. And it was nice having clothing for Dire in her place, and my clothing in my own place. But I could get from one to another in minutes.

Finally it was time for the furniture. John, Tim, and a few others came and helped me with a moving van. It only took 3 loads, and my old place was empty. Jean stayed behind and cleaned the place as the guys and I moved everything around and set it up for me. Then with hugs from all we had a bunch of pizza, then they all headed home.

And I went for a walk as Dianne with “Zhang”. A few came and talked to me, apparently I was a minor celebrity in the old neighborhood. Yes, I did live here now. Yes, I was still dancing and would be participating in at least some of the monthly festivals. Yes, my outfits were made locally by Madame Wu, she made them herself. Things like that.

And I realized how rusty and stilted my Mandarin had gotten. When I got home we changed forms, and I went in to visit Auntie Liling. And she promised to talk with me only in Chinese until I was fluent and comfortable again. And with that resolved, we went into Dire’s apartment.

I was now in the costume Auntie made for me, and I felt a bit silly. But costumes had become all the rage, and I took a drive around. I explored Chinatown, Little Italy, Broadway, Downtown, most of the city West of the river. I then had an idea, and after looking up an address was soon at a truck stop on the edge of town. $350 got me a dash mounted GPS, with 4 cameras. And an extra $100 had the kid that worked there install it for me. He then showed me how it worked, and how to make changes if I wanted.

I then repeated most of my route as I went home. I realized that I would need the GPS unless I only stayed on the main roads. And now with a camera, I would not only have evidence, I could ask others to help me figure out what I was seeing.

And on Monday, I realized I should visit Mutant Control again. I walked up with Fang, and were soon waiting deeper inside the building. The blue ID card was like a magic wand, wave it and you got in wherever you wanted.

Soon Ms. Smith came out and greeted me, and brought me to her office. I asked her what kind of help I could get, and she said at that time they were finally really getting organized. The Credit Union had been established, and although technically we were not “Government Employees”, the first board meeting of what was being called the “Paladin Member’s Co-Op” had been held. Half way between a union and a self-support group, they were also assuming control of the Credit Union.

“And expect a few changes soon. For example, there is a bill going through Congress that will increase the stipend to $11,000 a month, and dues to the PMC to be $1,000 a month. You will not see it, other than the taxes. But included is going to be health and life insurance, legal representation, and a slew of other features. And it seems that the current responsibility will be three 2 hour patrols a week. That is all you will have to do for the monthly stipend.”

“Wow, that’s not bad. What else?”

“Well, they have taken over part of the old Navy Base on the river, and they are building a regional complex there for us. Housing for any that want to live there, I saw the plan for the new office complex we will move to when that is completed, and a lot of other things. We will be sharing it with the Sheriff’s Department as well, as well as DHS and ICE, so that will make coordinating operations with other agencies easier.”

“That is great. Are they hiring anybody yet?”

“Actually, that is one of the rough spots. We are such a new organization that we have people doing 4 and 5 jobs. I am Doctor Tran’s assistant, I am the main liaison with Paladin class mutants, and I am the on-site coordinator with compiling data to send to Washington. Do you know anybody that needs a job?”

“Yes, me!”

The hiring process was fast and simple. Ms. Smith practically dragged us upstairs, and yelled at Dr.Tran he had an interview. I spent 30 minutes telling them what I had been doing, and I was offered one of her jobs, Paladin Mutant Liaison. “I am sure you will get a longer and prettier title soon, but this is what it is for now. I will order your office in a few minutes, when do you want to start?”

I thought it over, and asked if 2 weeks was fine. He said it was, and asked if I would work as Di or Dire. “Oh, Dianne Wong. I am working hard to keep both identities separate. Which reminds me, some of us were wondering if there are any kinds of self-help groups in operation yet?”

“Self-help? Like what?”

“Well, I am sure many are still in shock over that night. How to handle another identity if needed, how to get work, relationship problems. Or even how to let’s say ‘come out of the closet’. I told a few friends recently, and next weekend am going to tell my family. Is anybody handling that yet?”

“Yep, there is now. You are doing it, in 2 weeks. That sounds like exactly the kind of thing that ‘Paladin Liaison’ should be doing if you ask me.”

Great! I am not even working yet, and I have given myself even more work!

After I left, I gave Clint a call and asked if I could stop by. I removed the memory stick from the video camera in the van and asked him to go through it and show me what I missed. “Remember Clint, I am not very street smart. I have not seen anything in over 15 years, so many things I might not even realize I am missing.”

And as we watched, he pointed out a lot of things to me. What seemed like random graffiti were actually gang tags, and had a lot of information. “Di, look at this. I can tell you what gang they belong to, who made this mark, what direction their territory runs, and what drugs are sold locally. All in this single graffiti mark.” He then explained it to me, wow! I had no idea.

Then he stopped when I was passing through the Downtown area, when I commented that there were a lot of women on that street. He laughed, and I asked what was so funny.

“Di, what do you see here?”

“Well, I see a lot of women, teens to early 30s. I remember looking for a club or something, and did not see any. And they seemed to just wander around a lot.”

“Oh my. No Di, those are prostitutes. And some of those guys are their pimps.”

“What, really? I mean, I thought hookers dressed in little dresses, with like fishnet hose and fur jackets. And pimps wore big hats and drove big cars.”

“Nope, only in movies. Whenever you see a lot of girls around, look at them. If they are looking ahead of them, they are just walking more than likely. If they are looking into cars and trying to make eye contact, they are looking for dates. That is, they are looking for customers.”

He then replayed that section again, and sure enough I saw it. I was largely ignored, but they were looking inside the other cars. And they were dressed a little slutty sometimes, but not that different from other gals I had seen.

“And these guys on bicycles, those are their pimps. That way they can move around quickly, and hide quickly. And because of the impound laws the most they risk loosing is a cheap bicycle.” He let it play again, and I saw 5 or 6 guys over and over, all on bikes. “Drug dealers do the same thing, especially runners or couriers. They have very little drugs or cash on them, in case they are arrested or robbed. The couriers and runners go to and from their stash locations to deliver drugs or pick up cash.”

He then had me slow down, and had me look at one of the groups. “Notice this. The skin, how they are a bit jerky when they move. How some talk to themselves or even yell. Those are addicts. Methamphetamine, crack, most have the same symptoms. You have to be careful with them, they are very unpredictable. Some will attack you for no reason, or if they think you have $5 so they can get their next fix.”

Wow, I missed a lot! Several drug buys, hookers everywhere, even what may have been 2 kids preparing to mug somebody. It was 2 gang members following what looked like a college aged kid with a backpack. He even rewound the video to show me where they likely jumped the kid.

“Do not feel bad Di, these are things everybody learns to look for growing up. You were far to young to realize this when you became blind, so you have no idea. But every time you go out, do this. This is a great idea, I am going to suggest it to everybody who is a Paladin. Then we can go over it as a group, and teach each other what to look for.”

I left, and went back through the same areas again. And now I was seeing a lot more. Yes, those were prostitutes. I even pulled over and watched for about 30 minutes as 4 talked to guys in cars then drove away, probably to handle their business. Then when others returned, getting out of the car and walking again as the guys drove away.

I even looked closely at the last one. Yea, that was indeed a woman in her 40’s that pulled over, and a girl that looked to be around 20 climbed in.

And I recognized the pimps. They would pull up and talk to one or two girls, as the others moved away. And each seemed to have their own blocks. Either walking back and forth on the same side of the street, or moving across each time.

I paid more attention to the gang tags, and was starting to recognize some in an instant. Mostly on corners, but some in the middle of the street. Other tags I learned to recognize were the non-gang ones. Those I was told I could largely ignore.

I also noticed that most of the hookers were white, with a few Hispanic and 1 or 2 Asian ones. I then moved over to the old Downtown area, this was more run down. This time, most of the hookers were black. A very few Hispanic, and 1 or 2 white. No Asians at all. Near the docks, they were almost all white. It seems that they had divided up the areas. Competition? Territory? Maybe the gang that controlled the area controlled this? I had no idea, more questions for Clint.

Then I drove through Chinatown. No gang tags. No prostitutes. No pimps or couriers on bicycles. Now that I knew what to look for, I was actually seeing a lot more. But what I was seeing a lot of was massage parlors. There seemed to be 1 or 2 on every block.

I got home, and made a call to Uncle Don. He said he would be glad to meet me, and asked me to meet him in the basement. 20 minutes later I was standing there when he walked up. We hugged and I kissed his cheek, then asked if we could talk about the area. He said sure, and I at first asked him why I saw no hookers outside, like I did in other areas of town.

“Ahhhh, ok Di. Here, follow me up to the street, let’s take a walk.”

Indeed, the massage parlors were 90% prostitution houses. “If the sign is in English and it says massage, it is really a brothel. If it says massage in Chinese, it is likely legitimate. And here, look down there.” He pointed to a woman about my age standing near an entryway smoking a cigarette half a block away.

“Now she is a working girl. The brothel is upstairs in that apartment building, both floors. The lobby is where the girls hang out if they do not have a customer, the guy picks one and they go to her room. That girl is trying to spot guys that might be looking for dates. Down here, none of the girls walk around. If they did that either the police would stop them, or we would.”

“So you own the prostitution here?”

“Not really. A lot of girls now work out of their homes, finding dates on the Internet. Or in the local newspapers. And we do not care about them at all. And it is not that we own it, we control it you might say. We set rules, we keep it clean. Girls get a disease, we take care of them. They become pregnant, we take care of them. And I mean that! We get them well, or find work for them and either help find somebody to adopt the baby, or daycare while she works. They work for us indirectly, we take care of them.”

I nodded. “So by looking, there is sex everywhere. It is just more discreet than in the round eyes neighborhoods.”

“Exactly! The same with our drugs. We sell small amounts, mostly opiates and powdered cocaine. No crack, no meth, no weed, mostly the levels that addicts need to support their habit and that is about it. Now I do have associates involved in the import business, but we then sell that to the wholesalers and retailers. We do not actually handle the product ourselves, we are more of a middle man. Pretty much every apothecary here dabbles in drugs, but unless they know you they will sell you nothing. But if they know you, say the right phrase and you might find a small bag of heroin in the pouch of dried bull penis you buy.”