Editing Sergei Chou

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| name                = Sergei Chou
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| othernames          = 
| affiliation         = [[Capellan Confederation]]
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| position            = 
| profession          = Broker
| parents             = 
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}}
'''Sergei Chou''' was a resource broker operating on [[Solaris VII]] in the 3050s.

==History==
A well-known figure to the [[Solaris City Constabulary]], Sergei Chou was a broker of underworld agents operating in [[Solaris City]]. Chou also negotiated the deal to secure services of [[Dancing Joker|the Assassin]] to kill [[Archon]] [[Melissa Steiner-Davion]].<ref name=AoR-C38>''Assumption of Risk'', "Chapter 38"</ref> Chou and the Assassin had developed an extensive plan in case the Assassin was ever captured to assist in escaping the authorities.<ref name=AoR-C25>''Assumption of Risk'', "Chapter 25"</ref><ref name=AoR-C32>''Assumption of Risk'', "Chapter 32"</ref>

In [[3056]] during [[Ryan Steiner]]'s residence on Solaris VII, Sergei Chou was hired by the [[Free Skye]] movement via Ryan's aide [[Sven Newmark]] to provide covert surveillance of [[Katherine Steiner-Davion]] and [[Galen Cox]] during their visit to Solaris. On 13 April 3056 Sven Newmark used a pay [[visiphone]] to call Chou, requesting to speak with "the Florist" though Chou indicated he was out and that he would take a message instead. Pressing on, Newmark requested a bouquet of flowers be sent to ''il Capo'' for [[Kai Allard-Liao]]'s upcoming title defense, Chou understood and responded that this would be a five thousand [[C-Bill]] service with Newmark advising him to charge the Moonbeam account before ending the call. In truth the coded message was a request for Chou to hire somebody to assassinate Galen Cox and for Chou's computer hacker resources to break into and raid the bank accounts of Moonbeam, one of Free Skye's shadow corporations used to provide such payoffs to deny complicity for the assassination.<ref name=AoR-C38/><ref name=AoR-C24>''Assumption of Risk'', "Chapter 24"</ref>

On 16 April 3056 after his return to Solaris the Assassin advised his [[Intelligence Secretariat]] handler [[Curaitis]] that he would need to meet with Sergei Chou, a figure he had mentioned during his interrogation sessions following his capture, to secure a rifle for his upcoming job and provide him a file titled SLAP with ballistic specifications. With the cold-eyed agent resistant to the request, the Assassin pressed that he had to personally meet with Chou otherwise the later would know something was amiss and that [[Archon-Prince]] [[Victor Steiner-Davion]] would allow it.<ref name=AoR-C25>''Assumption of Risk'', "Chapter 25"</ref>

On 19 April 3056 Sergei Chou met the Assassin in person at a Mongolian barbecue restaurant on the border between the [[Black Hills]] and [[Cathay]], engaging in a conversation in English with a smattering of Italian that he needed a rifle and 50 rounds of ammunition, also including series of prearranged code words and covert signals developed by the pair that the Assassin had been taken and needed assistance in escaping. After agreeing to assist, Chou pocketed the optical disc containing the specifications for the bullets as well as the Assassin's chosen escape plan and left, fully aware he was being tailed by Intelligence Secretariat agents.<ref name=AoR-C26>''Assumption of Risk'', "Chapter 26"</ref><ref name=AoR-C32/>

On 24 April 3056 Sergei Chou met a final time with the Assassin in the backroom of the Red Hart Tavern and Grill to provide him with the [[Loftgren Supreme Model 150]] rifle and its specially prepared ammunition, again conversing in a mixture of English, Italian and Chinese to covertly signal that everything was in order with both the equipment and the escape preparations.<ref name=AoR-C30>''Assumption of Risk'', "Chapter 30"</ref>

Later that night at the [[Solaris City#The Armored Fist Hotel|Armored Fist Hotel]] in Room 807, the Assassin killed Ryan Steiner.<ref name=AoR-C31>''Assumption of Risk'', "Chapter 31"</ref> As per the escape plan outlaid by the Assassin and with both men under heavy surveillance, Chou had subordinates bribe a member of the hotel's housekeeping staff to secretly hide a [[needler]] pistol and two ammo blocks underneath the bed in room 807 as well as hire a young punk kid to sight and prep the rifle as well as wait in Room 827 to assist the Assassin in disguising his appearance to escape from the hotel. In truth per the Assassin's instructions Chou had selected the punk to serve as fall guy for the hit against Ryan Steiner, with the Assassin swiftly dispatching him to match the pre-prepared suicide note written by Chou's forgers.<ref name=AoR-C32/>

After reaching the street, the Assassin saw the next stage in his escape, with Chou's men having hung a series of colored banners on the street poles, the colors and stripes matching those painted on the shell casings of the bullets. But where the Intelligence Secretariat agents would recall the bullets and try to follow the literal colors of the banners in the wrong direction, the Assassin instead was following the Italian words for the colors as a key to either compass points or street names to guide him as previously arranged with Chou.<ref name=AoR-C32/>

As he reached the final stage the Assassin secretly cursed as Chou had selected a location with a direct color equivalent, ''The White Hatchet'', the establishment's sign being a Steiner Blue fist clutching a short white axe matching the last bullet's blue and white painted casing. Luckily for the Assassin with only agents from the [[Isle of Skye]] likely to speak Italian and fear of infiltration by Free Skye would preclude them from being involved in the hit against Ryan Steiner, Chou's misstep went unnoticed and the Assassin was able to successfully adopt the appearance of Buddhist monk and escape the Intelligence Secretariat dragnet.<ref name=AoR-C32/>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Assumption of Risk]]'' (novel)

[[Category:Capellan Confederation Characters|Chou, Sergei]]
[[Category:Solaris Games Characters|Chou, Sergei]]