"Where's Heiricht?" The zeppelin's first officer inquired of the Bosun. "we need him up in the nose to help handle the mooring cables."
"dunno, sir, I ain't seen him since last night, he was pesterin' that jap beauty for a kiss and all. Maybe he and her..."
"If he's tomcatting with the passengers again I'll have him up on charges with the cap'n!" The first officer fumed. Heiricht had been a problem in that respect ever since the ship had started frequenting Asian ports. But...
"Wait a moment, Chappy," the First said. "There weren't any female passengers from Japan this time out, me and the Cap'n were talking about how odd that seemed; Yokohama's usually all et up with women wanting to escape to Europe or the americas. Only thing we got from them this time was a meatbox headin' for burial at sea here on the Station." he frowned. Now that he stopped to think, two other crewmen had come up missing as well, thouh they had never been found.
"Ah." The Bosun sucked his teeth for a moment. "Well, then, maybe she's a stowaway, and He's missing 'cause he got too close and she whacked 'im?"
"Could be," the First said thoughtfully. In any case, we need to use teh Station's telegraph to send word back about the people who've come up missing."
A shadow that belonged to nothing in sight detached itself from the shadows of the girders of the mooring tower cast upon the debarkation stage by the early morning sun. it slid back among those other shadows as a knot of paassengers from Manchuria and Russia strolled past on their way to the Customs desk below, then slipped down among the girders below, and slipped into teh deep shadows at teh tower's base. Unnoticed,and melded with this darjker shadows, the shapoe disappeared until it coalesced in anothe rpool of shadow just on thwe other side of the terminal fence. The strikingly beautiful form, of the Eurasian girl who emerged wore a close-fitting bodystocking-like outfit that covered all, but suggested much, a balaclava-like hood covering her face. Wen she she removed teh hood, and it's integral veil, she revealed a face that could have passed for Chinese or Japanese, her slanting almond-shaped eyes and perfect skin completing the picture. In teh blink of an eye, she t=stood wearing not teh skintight coverall, but a sheath-like dress and high heels. where the katana or other accoutrements had gone was impossible to determine; perhaps they were in her tiny clutch purse? She looked as unarmed and beautifully defenseless as a debutante out slumming for the first time. She deftly adjusted her hair and dress, and then set off in search of her contact, for she, Merovingia Harper-Chen, though a supernatural creature, was also an agent iof teh Imperial Japanese Army.
As for Heiricht and teh two crewmen, they soon turned up in different crates in teh hold, all within feet of teh coffin that was marked for delivery to teh Imperial palace, The Swing club in the Pond's Chinatown. The other two crewmnen were dead as doorposts, but no mark onbe them save two punctures in teh neck; Heiricht was apparently driunk - but also bore teh two -puncture mark. In sickbay later, he was found to be anemic, and suffering from horrific delusions of a beautiful monster who drank his blood even as she had her way with him...
Beautiful and seemingly innocent, With a walk that would make a dead man drool, Merovingia set off for Little Peking and teh Imperial Paqlace Club, and was soon indistinguishable in the early-morning swirl of commerce and skullduggery.