65 MUP: Chapter 64. Regrouping

"I found a new lead on the Hand's movements ..."

At this point, Ryan had barely started his plan of getting points from Tony.

On the other side, the Defenders had gotten some news first.

After nearly a week of searching, Matt finally discovered something new.

"To be precise, I found something." With several people gathered in Matt's office, Jessica spoke up and explained, "I went to my client's house, the one who asked me to look for her missing husband. I found some odd conversations and a nameless picture on the computer in his study. Following the clues and looking for evidence led me to the place where the picture was taken."

Following Jessica's words, Matt also revealed his discovery, "Recently, the illegal drugs in Hell's Kitchen have been in an odd state of oversupply. After some digging around, I found a large number of shipments being gathered in one place."

"New York Harbor."

Jessica and Matt concluded in unison.

New York Harbor, also known as Upper New York Bay or Upper Bay, is located in the northern region of New York Harbor within the New York Bay Channel, near the mouth of the Hudson River in Manhattan. It's one of the largest seaports in the United States and one of the largest in the world.

The clone, Ah Xing, came out again. Faced with the explanation from Jessica and Matt, it wore a bewildered expression, "Upper New York Bay? Where is that?"

Luke Cage spoke up, "It's a port."

Explaining to Ah Xing, he then expressed his doubt, "But why is the Hand gathered at the port?"

"I haven't found the specific reason. But from what I know, it should be related to drug transactions." Shaking his head, Matt was also somewhat bewildered by this. After the Midland Circle battle, the traces of the Hand's activities were hidden even more deeply. He only discovered the signs of their activities at New York Bay after an accidental opportunity.

Jessica: "Although we don't know exactly what the Hand is doing, I managed to find out that something big is gonna go down tomorrow night. There might be a transaction at the port."

"Is the source reliable?"

The news Jessica brought was certainly encouraging, but Matt was still cautious.

Shaking her head, Jessica herself couldn't guarantee it, "I also accidentally found out about it from an informant. I'm not 100% sure if it's real or not."

"..."

Jessica's answer silenced Matt for a moment before he looked up at the Defenders in front of him and said, "The next fight may be even more dangerous than we thought."

"Bullets have no eyes; there's no such thing as safety in a battle. Since I agreed to this, I'll fight to the end. I can't let an evil organisation like the Hand to exist," Ah Xing righteously said so.

From Jessica and Matt's words, Ryan felt that there were signs of a trap. But, instead of stopping it, he controlled his clone to oblige and join in.

Listening to Ah Xing's words, Luke raised an eyebrow. Still maintaining his steely expression, he said, "Since it was that difficult to find traces of the Hand, we can't give up just because we're worried about the danger. Moreover, we don't have any other leads. The only thing we know is they're going to appear at the port tomorrow night."

Luke's remarks revealed the Defenders' current dilemma. After all, they weren't a 'professional' team. They were a 'temporarily cobbled together' team. They were barely okay in the last battle, but for the rest ...

"If you guys aren't going, I'm going to go alone."

Joining the Defenders wasn't Jessica's idea in the first place, so when confronted with Matt's struggling behaviour, she immediately and mercilessly said so.

The words of the rest of the Defenders forced Matt to decide. Suppressing the uneasiness in his heart, he nodded and said, "Okay then. Tomorrow night, we'll head to the port."

Tomorrow may be an important turning point for the Defenders.

In the antique shop, looking at everything through the clone, Ryan raised his eyebrows. The expression on his face was somewhat meaningful.

　　...

The next day, late at night.

As the largest seaport in the United States, Upper New York Bay was bustling with activity 24 hours a day. A large number of containers were piled up at the port, waiting to be exported or delivered.

Bang --

With a muffled sound, Jessica landed on top of the huge container. She frowned and scanned the surrounding area, then said, "There's nothing here."

"Same here."

Eyes sweeping over the huge shipping containers piled up in front of him, and hearing the voice coming from the earpiece, Ah Xing said the same.

"It looks like the information was fake, the Hand isn't here." Walking through the rows and rows of containers, Luke couldn't help but feel suspicious.

"Impossible!"

Luke's words drew out Jessica's annoyance. Although she agreed to join the Defenders, she hadn't let go of her feelings about the previous fight they had.

She subconsciously whispered a word of objection, then frowned a little unconfidently, "Even if I got the news by accident, there should be some truth to it."

"You said yourself, you heard it by accident. Maybe your informant made it up? " Once again, without any gain, Luke was increasingly suspicious of the news Jessica got.

"Unless he thinks his head is harder than a rock, he wouldn't lie to me."

Even through the earpiece, everyone could feel Jessica's emotions. She was close to bursting out in anger.

"Wait a minute, I found something."

Noticing that the Defenders, a team that Matt had a hard time gathering, was almost falling apart, Matt's slightly dignified voice suddenly sounded in the earpieces.

"I heard some unusual rattling in the east end. It sounds like people are gathering, and... they're trying to stay quiet. That's not right. I don't think their dock workers ..." While carefully speaking, Matt headed towards the sound.

"Damn it! They found me. It's the Hand's people, they're all over here at the east end!"

Matt's discovery stopped Jessica and Luke's argument.

With Matt's urgent tone, the sound of intense fighting ensued.

'East end?!'

Hearing the sound of a battle in the earpieces, the three people at the port immediately stopped their search and ran towards Matt's location.