Stanglehold

In latter-day Hong Kong, a policeman goes missing. The department is dumbfounded by the disappearance until they receive a ransom call from an unnamed source. The kidnappers request that a single officer appear at Kowloon market. Lee, the chief of police, believes this request to be a trap and plans to send in a squad. One officer, Jerry Ying, disqualifies himself from this role, claiming that an appearance as an officer will blow the cover he's used to infiltrate a Triad group called Dragon Claw. Instead, Inspector Tequila Yuen decides to go to Kowloon alone, despite Lee's order for him to bring a team. Once in the market, Tequila is attacked by a number of triads, proving Lee's hunch correct. After dispatching the attackers, he discovers the missing officer's badge, only to find a bullethole through the center and a photograph of the dead officer. While engaging in a standoff with the triads, Tequila receives a tip that the officer was assassinated by a group called the Imperial 9s, located in Tai O. While in Kowloon, Tequila stops in at a teahouse owned by the triad group Golden Kane, where he orders his usual tequila. At one of the teahouse's tables, the Imperial 9s are making a deal with Golden Kane regarding forged passports. Upon the Golden Kane representative's revelation that the man sitting at the bar is a cop, the I9 representative panics and shoots the Golden Kane representative. Shortly afterwards, the I9 is dispatched by Tequila. Enraged that the cop had broken up the deal, the Golden Kane bouncer Kwong Fang attacks Tequila, only to be gunned down. After emerging from the teahouse, Tequila informs his superior that he's going to go to Tai O to investigate further. He also mentions that during the deal he overheard that the Imperial 9s are working under Dragon Claw.
Upon arrival in Tai O, Tequila asks a local fisherman if he knows anything of the triads' activity. The fisherman responds that Tai O is under I9 control, but that Golden Kane is trying to capture it. He also says that the Dragon Claw leader, James Wong, is currently residing on a boat in Tai O. Tequila tracks down Wong and is introduced to his two top men, the "large enough to have his own street address" Dapang and Jerry, the undercover officer who Tequila had personally trained and worked with in the past. Wong reveals that the Golden Kane assassinated the officer and pinned it on his I9s. Tequila, knowing Dragon Claw to be one of the oldest and largest triad groups, asks why Wong hasn't struck back. Wong's reasoning is that Golden Kane has allied with a Russian mob group based in Chicago, the Zakarovs, who have kidnapped his daughter Billie and granddaughter Teko. The Zakarovs plan to hold them for ransom for a slice of Dragon Claw's territory in Hong Kong. Since Wong can't directly move against the Zakarovs, he asks Tequila to go retrieve his family. He needs a man who isn't affiliated with Dragon Claw but cares enough about Billie and Teko to risk his life for them, and who else but Tequila, the husband of Billie and father of Teko? His hands tied, Tequila agrees to go find them. Immediately after the deal is settled, Golden Kane strikes against Dragon Claw's base in Tai O, and Wong charges Tequila with blowing the place to pieces so he can escape. Since this is in police interest anyway, Tequila agrees, planting C4 charges on his way out of Tai O.