[Jake's POV]
The Golden Koi mahjong parlor was unrecognizable by the time I returned.
The smell hit me first. Sawdust, sweat, and gun oil. The air was thick and warm from too many bodies packed into too small a space, and cold from the gaps where the windows used to be.
Ethan had executed the defensive protocols flawlessly.
The heavy steel shutters on the ground floor windows were locked and bolted. Metal on metal. You could see the fresh scrape marks where they'd been dragged down. The main entrance, a set of double glass doors, was gone. In its place: heavy wooden tables flipped on their sides, sandbags stacked three high, dragged in from the alley and still damp from the rain.
The thirty Golden Koi soldiers were distributed throughout the building.
