At the Dragon of the Black Pool Restaurant, Egg Foo Chow tells us that Lao Che runs a shipping business at the docks of Shanghai. The contact that can help us with more information is named Ran Goon; he can be found in a bar near the docks.

We depart, taking the zeppelin from San Francisco through to Hawaii, Japan and then finally Shanghai. On the trip, Goodwin works in the lab for most of the time; Gabriel sleeps; Slate reads.

The group’s pilot, Tom “Tailspin” Kennedy, tells us a bit about his history and his plane that we previously didn’t know. He was a pilot in World War I, and was shot down over Germany. He was held prisoner in a hole for several months, but eventually was able to break out and stole a plane, flying himself to safety. The plane was an experimental aircraft that had several enhancements, one of which was night vision. This is the plane that Tom still has and is attached to the zeppelin.

When we are within hours of Shanghai, suddenly several planes fly by us. Slate and Gabriel run to man the ship’s guns, and Tom launches off in his plane to fight them off. Goodwin uses a gadget he created, the Fantasmic Pulser, to create an obfuscating cloud around one of the planes. The pilot, blinded, loses control and crashes his plane. We shoot down the other two planes, and Tom notices that the planes have the upside-down pyramid symbol on them.

We land and look for the bar that Ran Goon frequents. After a while of searching and unsuccessful attempts at talking with the local folk, we see several people being tossed out of the front door of a nearby bar. They are all nursing their wounds on the sidewalk. The guy who manhandled them saunters back in the bar, laughing; he is a short, stocky man with a red face and permanent grin. He looks just like the photo we have of our contact.

We walk in and find him back at the bar, drinking. We ask if he is Ran Goon, and he says that he is; apparently he speaks English. Gabriel immediately challenges him to a fight, and he laughs and agrees. Goodwin, who speaks Mandarin, tells Gabriel how to insult him properly in his own language. Slate tells Ran that if he beats Gabriel, he will drink for free for the rest of the night.

Gabriel takes the first shot and knocks Ran down hard. He gets back up but misses Gabriel badly, smashing through a table and falls down. Gabriel picks him up by the scruff of his clothes, and Ran doesn’t seem to be fighting any longer. Goodwin notices that he might have some internal bleeding.

Slate tells Gabriel that we need to take him back to the zeppelin. Goodwin uses his medical machine on him; after a moment he is healed and is sober, which is very disorienting to him. We begin asking him about Lao Che, and he explains that he runs an import/export business which is legit, but he also runs opium. Ran also knows the layout of Lao’s facility. He has been doing work for Egg Foo Shen who will send him money to do miscellaneous tasks, and after he does them he blows all of it on liquor.

Lao has two docks on the water, and two gates that are large enough for trucks. The warehouse has a high fence, and a two-story office building attached. There is a secondary warehouse and a crane for loading cargo onto his ships. He also owns a hangar at the airport.

We ask Ran about the upside down yellow triangle symbol, but he is not aware of any group with the symbol.