Tang Huai Jun's career as security advisor, foreign affairs minister and de facto right-hand man to Niu Han Ting took him through some of China's most turbulent years as a world power. While rumours of corruption and scandal dogged his career, nobody argued that Tang got results. As part of the force that catapulted the Niu administration from shaky coup leaders to beloved cabinet-for-life, he himself often avoided the limelight; but his personal life and shady past were always a fruitful cause for speculation among curious citizens and conspiracy theorists alike.
The Three Harmonies Society, decried by many as a quasi-criminal organisation with Triad links, flourished under Tang to gain a reputation as an international trade association and chain of members' clubs that opened up links even to Australia. The gentle increase in diplomatic relations - culminating in the ultimately disastrous public appearance of Australian diplomats at the G8 - was often considered to be one of Tang's greatest triumphs (his mother being an Australian emigrée, it is said he always held the isolated nation's cause close to his heart).
”…attention to his beloved Hong Kong. As an economist, Tang always kept a keen eye on the international trade that is and was the lifeblood of a modern China, and in a world where security lockdowns increasingly made air freight impractical, was swift to champion the cause of port cities. While others in the Niu administration seemed overly obsessed with China's capacity to be self-sufficient in terms of basic staple foods, Tang always had an eye for the unusual, the extraordinary, the 'outside the box' - a characteristic which served him extremely well in the years of counter-Naki insurgency…” – A Short Biography of Elder Statesmen
Focusing with an intense effort, hand shaking bearly at all, Tang raised the million-yuan note to his nostril and inhaled the last line of white powder. To either side, overcome by the pace of the desperate celebration, world-class escort girls were slumped in exhausted, drug-addled slumber.
They had fought hard. Great victories had been won. He'd lost men - good men, who'd come with him from the docks - in the tunnels under the earth. The carefully-distributed chemical agent which turned six generals and two members of the Ministry of the Interior into puzzled, well-meaning but useless amnesiacs had also robbed the Naki of some of their most valuable resources.
He had a lot to congratulate himself on.
And now… now, things were not going so much to plan.
He unrolled the DNA scan readout and followed it with red-rimmed eyes. The results were unmistakable. Niu's sudden, magnanimous change of heart - his bluff refusal to listen to his closest advisor after years of counsel - made a sudden and horrible sense.
Everything had gone to hell.
He took another cautious swig of rum and listened to the foosteps in the hall. Slow, not cautious. Professional. They'd come for him at last. He thumbed the safety off the revolver.
A click from the door. It swung open; a dark silhouette, armed, leaned through.
“You?!”
“Looks like your end is nigh, friend,” smiled Billy Chao.
Twin explosions shattered the peace of the penthouse suite.