BIA Ch. 132

It was a pretty and neat handwriting, as if printed. Among the impeccably neat arrangement of letters, the first thing that caught the eye was the phrase ‘cute little bird’. Little bird. Bran often called Isaiah that. It actually referred to a shrike, but it was an embarrassingly affectionate nickname that could easily sound like a term of endearment between lovers.

“Little bird…”

Just as expected, Mickey narrowed his eyes and muttered. Isaiah snatched the receipt from Mickey’s hand.

“Bran wrote this, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“He has a more romantic side than I thought.”

“Let me make this clear so you don’t misunderstand. The gift mentioned here is a corpse. My colleague’s corpse, at that.”

Mickey clamped his mouth shut with a gasp. Then he quickly picked up the chocolate and began unwrapping it with clumsy hands. While Mickey ate the chocolate, Isaiah read the message on the receipt once more.

It hadn’t even been three weeks, but it felt like three months ago, like a distant event. Was it because five days of memory had completely vanished?

Now, he didn’t feel much regret about those five days. Without those five days, he wouldn’t have this kind of relationship with Bran now. Of course, it would have been better if those five days remained as Isaiah Cole’s memories, not Isaiah Diaz’s, but it was all in the past now. What couldn’t be changed had to be accepted. And what could be changed, he would change. He could now distinguish between the two.

“Maybe.”

Suddenly, Mickey spoke up. Isaiah turned his head to look at him. When their eyes met, Mickey spoke cautiously.

“Maybe… you want to change the plan, even now?”

“Now?”

Isaiah looked incredulous.

“Do you have a better plan?”

“…No.”

“Then stop fucking around and just eat your chocolate.”

Mickey let out a groan and bit into the chocolate. Isaiah neatly folded the already crumpled receipt in half. He folded it in half again and put it in his pants pocket. Mickey stared blankly at Isaiah, then swallowed the chocolate in his mouth and spoke quietly.

“When did Bran start liking you?”

“I don’t know.”

Isaiah took a cigarette pack out of his jacket pocket. And as he lit a cigarette, he said.

“But he’s the man who took my bug even when he didn’t know me well. For me, at least, that was the beginning.”

“Bug?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

Isaiah took a deep drag from his cigarette. Mickey said nothing more. He clearly had something he wanted to say, but seemed unable to bring himself to speak. Or maybe he had decided to talk after finishing the chocolate. He took a long time with the palm-sized chocolate, and only after a good while, crumpling the wrapper of the finished chocolate, did he speak.

“If Bran finds out you went to Martino yourself, what will he say?”

Isaiah couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter. So this is what he’d been hesitating to say all this time.

Did he hear something from Samuel?

He was curious, but didn’t particularly want to ask. Hearing the answer wouldn’t change anything, and judging by Mickey’s current behavior, it would clearly only give him more reason to hesitate.

“How should I know?”

Isaiah said deliberately dismissively. Mickey dropped the chocolate wrapper onto the table, let out an anguished sigh, and wiped his face with both hands.

“I don’t know. I… I also thought this method was the best. But now, I’m really not confident. Whether Bran will maintain his relationship with the FBI even after finding everything out…”

This must be what the FBI is really worried about. But he didn’t need to worry about that. He didn’t have time for it either.

“That’s something you guys have to figure out.”

Isaiah stood up from his seat with the cigarette still in his mouth. He took one last deep drag, but perhaps because the filter was almost burnt, only a bitter taste remained. Tossing the cigarette butt into the sink, Isaiah spoke with a smile that carried the full weight of that bitterness.

“But it’ll probably be fine.”

The two left the apartment a little before six o’clock.

“So, are we finally going to Dobel now?”

Mickey asked with a tense face as he fastened his seatbelt.

“No, Taten.”

“Taten?”

Mickey stopped starting the car, a startled expression on his face.

“Kestrel is there.”

“So what if Kestrel is there?”

Does that bastard own the lease? Is he the building owner? Isaiah retorted childishly.

“That’s not it, but.”

“Go to Taten. Drive around the church once before that.”

While Mickey drove towards the church, Isaiah sent a message to Kestrel. As expected, Kestrel also had someone watching him.

「Manny?」

「Not him some guy I havent seen before」

「Then just kill him」

「Hey」

「I’ll take responsibility」

Kestrel didn’t reply for a while. Then, a moment later, a message arrived along with a photo of someone lying collapsed on the floor.

「Make sure you do」

Isaiah sent a message telling him to come down to the parking lot when he called later, then ended the conversation with Kestrel.

“We’re almost at the church, should we go inside?”

The church roof was visible in the distance.

“Don’t go in, just slowly drive around once to see how many cars are in the parking lot.”

Mickey slowly circled the church area as Isaiah commanded. Compared to the front parking lot, which was almost empty, the rear parking lot was nearly full. Even assuming multiple people arrived in each car like yesterday, it seemed at least two hundred people had come. At this level, it was safe to assume almost all regular members of the Kalisz family were participating.

The Eloy City police estimated the total number of Kalisz members at around a thousand, but that included the lowest ranks, commonly called Associates or beginners. The number of regular members who had completed their probationary period and earned the title ‘Family’ was only about two hundred. It might seem small at first glance, but considering that more than half of the Five Families had fewer than a hundred regular members, their momentum was certainly strong.

“Okay. Let’s go to Taten.”

Shortly after Mickey turned the car around, a call came in. It was Jack. After finishing the call, Mickey spoke in a gloomy voice.

“He said they’ll send one support personnel to our side, just in case.”

“That’s good.”

But when asked why he looked like that, Mickey’s face darkened even more.

“Well… it’s Harold.”

As soon as they arrived at Taten, the bald man waiting in the parking lot furiously berated Mickey.

“Why the hell aren’t you answering your phone, you bastard?”

“S-sorry. My phone is having issues right now.”

Mickey bowed obsequiously but absolutely refused to give out his personal number.

“Fuck, you bastard, if the phone doesn’t work, at least be on time! Don’t you even know the basics of security? Punctuality!”

The bald man raged. Seeing him constantly harp on about security, it seemed Jack hadn’t explained the exact project details and had simply requested support for SP (VIP protection) duties.

Isaiah ignored the bald man who was tearing into Mickey like he was catching a rat and got into the elevator. When the elevator stopped on the 11th floor, Isaiah took off the caddy bag he was carrying on his back, handed it to Mickey, and said.

“Wait here.”

Isaiah left the two waiting in front of the elevator and walked down the corridor alone. Stopping in front of room 1106, he took a short, deep breath, then began knocking urgently on the door.

“Alejandro, Alejandro!”

A moment later, the door opened and a surprised Alejandro emerged.

“What’s wrong—”

“Bob is trying to kill me.”

Isaiah shouted without even waiting for Alejandro to finish.

“What?”

Alejandro’s already large eyes widened twice their size. Isaiah quickly grabbed his arm, pulled him into the corridor, and said.

“Hide me. You have other rooms here, right? 1806, 1807. Lend me either one.”

“B-but.”

“Quickly. I’ll pay you.”

Isaiah took out the cash he had prepared in his jacket pocket. As if his hesitation had never happened, Alejandro put on a determined expression and led the way.

“Follow me.”

Even in the brief moment heading to the elevator, Alejandro chattered non-stop at Isaiah, saying things like why did he date such a bum, a guy who hits people never changes, he should have broken up sooner. Then, seeing the two men waiting for Isaiah in front of the elevator, he looked extremely confused. ‘What’s this? Is Bob not the problem… but this Asian guy? Don’t tell me he’s cheating, not just two-timing but three-timing? Is this that polyamory thing I’ve only heard about? But why are both of them built like that?’

While Alejandro silently rolled his eyes, the elevator arrived on the 18th floor. Alejandro took Isaiah to room 1806.

“How is it? The layout is almost the same as 2208. And the locations of things are mostly similar too…”

Isaiah ignored Alejandro’s explanation and headed to the living room. Opening the window and turning towards St. Patrick’s Church, he cupped one hand to check the viewing angle. It wasn’t bad, but it was ambiguous. Of course, it was incomparably better than 2208, but it wasn’t the best. The tree in the backyard wasn’t the problem, but a single wire barely intruding on the left side bothered him. It would probably be more annoying looking through a scope. It wasn’t enough to directly affect the shot, so he could ignore it and shoot if he had to, but it was better to change it if possible. Use the visible target center as the aiming point, but in high-difficulty engagements where hitting the target cannot be expected, apply various aiming points as much as possible. Therefore, leave no obstacles whatsoever, in any direction.

“Is 1807 empty too?”

“It is, but a guest is scheduled to arrive there tomorrow…”

“Just show it to me for a moment.”

Isaiah took out two more bills from his jacket pocket. Alejandro turned around without hesitation.

“This way, please.”