A
dead man with a kris in his back is found floating in San Francisco Bay….
The
New Defenders are at their Rocky Mountain HQ, now contaminated with the ichor
of the plant monster destroyed last issue. As a hazardous waste disposal team
goes through the place, the heroes must wait outside in the snowy cold. Angel
suggests they take a vacation to one of his other properties around the world
and the others offer suggestions with Warren choosing San Francisco as they can
relax and also visit Patsy and Daimon Hellstrom who live in the area. They are
dropped off in the downtown area and Warren reveals he has three homes in the
city so Iceman spins Valkyrie’s magic sword to decide and so they head for
Warren’s Nob Hill condo….
Not
far away in Chinatown, a gravely wounded man drags himself to the offices of
Cutlass and Typhoon, oriental exporters, where the proprietors Oliver Cutlass
and Kwan (Typhoon) Tai-Fung rush to his aid. But then a brick smashes the
window, followed by a kris killing Martin their client. Typhoon sees a ninja
rappelling down the wall; Cutlass dashes down to the street to see the
assailant jump into a waiting car and drive off. Cutlass calls for a cab to
follow that car and the crazed cabbie takes off before Cutlass can get inside,
leaving the hero to cling to the cab’s roof in high-speed traffic….
The
Defenders settle into Warren’s condo when they spy the cab zooming by with
Oliver Cutlass on the roof. The cab gets close enough to the car for Cutlass to
jump onto it but Angel swoops down and “rescues” Cutlass. The angry importer
complains to Angel who decides to right his wrong by stopping the getaway car
only to see it smash into a garage door. Cutlass is angered even more by the
fact that they let the bad guys escape by leaping out of the car before the
crash. As the heroes take umbrage at Cutlass’ rude treatment of them, Cutlass,
speaking quickly, puzzling things out in his brain, ties Martin’s murder to the
Pajusnaya consignment and tries to phone his wife Typhoon but there’s no
answer. He knows where she has gone, though…
…to
the rooming house of a punk named Swifty who is fleeing town so he doesn’t get
killed like Martin and Thompson (from page 1). Typhoon draws a gun, insisting
on protecting him…and then they run into a band of ninjas. As they threaten
Typhoon, the Defenders arrive to combat the bad guys. Cutlass takes a bullet to
the shoulder as Swifty tries to climb over a wooden fence, only to find more
ninjas on that side. Iceman freezes the bad guys in a block of ice and then the
good guys discover that Swifty has been stabbed with a kris, his dying words
being, “Treasure Island…”.
Meanwhile,
Beast is chatting with a bunch of students at another college campus when he
spies an elderly man who looks familiar. Told that it is Professor Frye, Hank
grows excited and leaps over to chat with him. As Beast gushes over the
scholar, the students are more impressed with Professor Frye….
Back
to San Francisco, DEA agents led by Agent Ozu arrive on the scene to find
Cutlass and Typhoon; the detectives and Ozu are old frenemies and the DEA man
wants to take them back to headquarters to ask some questions. Typhoon pleads
with Ozu to let them go, punctuating it with a knee to Ozu’s stomach and the
Defenders help Typhoon and Cutlass get away over the rooftops….
At
the waterfront, the heroes burst in on local mobster the Fat Man, Cloud in her
gaseous form having hidden in one of the ninjas’ lungs to follow them. So
Typhoon and Cutlass demand to know what the deal is with the Pajusnaya consignment
that led to the murders of three of their clients. The Fat Man explains that
the shipment of Russian caviar (for that is what Pajusnaya is, though usually
spelled Payusnaya) actually concealed a shipment of cocaine—and the three
clients were plotting to steal the drugs for themselves. The Fat Man orders his
gang to attack and the Defenders easily defeat the gang but Cutlass explains
that there is more to the story; Typhoon extracts the bullet from her husband’s
shoulder with her teeth and it is revealed to be a tracking device. The two
importers dash along with the confused Defenders following…
…to
the San Francisco Bay Bridge at Treasure Island where a transfer is to be made.
But the DEA arrives to arrest the bad guys with the cocaine. Agent Ozu removes
a wrapper to reveal the cocaine inside the caviar. And that’s when Cutlass
leaps forward to reveal that the wrapper is actually computer tape containing
top secret defense information, to be sent back to the Orient as trash. Cutlass
unmasks Ozu as a member of the Outer Mongolia KGB and the importers are thanked
by the big boss. Cutlass thanks the Defenders for their aid but the heroes
decide to depart….
Meanwhile,
an assassin named Manslaughter is hired to kill the Defenders….
For the special marvelite in you