The drive to Chinatown is uneventful, except for the forecast of an 80% chance of rain tonight. The parking lots are fairly full with tourist cars and even the small section reserved for hotel shuttles is rotating them in and out at a good clip. Three KE officers man a small security station just this side of the main entrance, providing a semblance of civil order and watching out for the occasional pick-pocket. It is easy to mix with the small crowds of people moving under the large and ornate sigh announcing that one is about to enter "Seattle's Largest Ethnic Cultural Center". Chinatown is everything that is stereotypical of what a western society would expect to see.........meaning it is all eye candy and fake; something to lure tourists in to spend their money and leave. There is a real Chinese society here, but it is not on the main streets, but hidden well behind the facades and down the narrower streets and alleyways.
Yours is not the only drone in the area. You see numerous commercial drones advertising one service or shop or another as well as delivery drones bustling from the various competing shops, sending their goods to the customers that prefer to shop in VR. You have some knowledge of the Triads that are rumored to control the lives of the ethnic Chinese here and can recognize some of the hidden signs of which one controls which restaurant, bar, strip club, and store. You suspect that none of the businesses here are truly free of this influence and there must be a symbol somewhere, even if you do not notice it right off.
Finding the store front with Pacific Antiques is not hard. Pausing outside, you can look through the glass window at the normal array of tourist souvenirs; ivory (probably fake), jade (also probably fake), and gold (probably a thin coating) items that are marked as authentic and imported all the way from China (probably made in the back of the store). The doorpost at the right has a small engraving bearing the mark of the Octagon, one of the three main syndicates and one you just happen to be on at least so-so terms with. Entering, you hear the sound of a small bell herald your arrival and you see a shop that seems to go beyond the normal knick-knacks and might actually be antiques. There is even some furniture off in a smaller showroom to the left. As you move to the front of the store, you note that a pretty Chinese woman is helping the first of a line of three customers. She looks up at you when you enter and nods at you with a smile. While you wait your turn, you notice the price tags on some of the items and would snort your coffee through your nose if you were drinking any. Either these are really good fakes or perhaps the genuine thing. That or the owner does not really want to sell any of this stuff, which is certainly not the case since at least three customers seem willing to pony up what must be some serious nuyen.
Two men enter the shop after you do and move about. They are not Chinese and seem to be talking about an anniversary gift of some kind. The one man asks the limit and the other tosses out something in the range of five figures. The first nods and says he is in the right place. There is still one woman in front of you when an oriental gentleman steps through the beaded curtain that separates the main shop with what is likely the rear work area. He comes to you and bows low, asking how he may be of assistance. He is perfectly straight faced as he indicates that you are expected and would you please follow him?
