BIA Ch. 14

“The mercenaries belonging to White Dove were especially renowned for their exceptional marksmanship. Many Navy SEAL snipers who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan went to WD as firearms instructors after their discharge. White Dove is a private mercenary company, but it is also a professional sniper training center.”

It’s said that if you gathered all the medals of valor awarded to White Dove’s instructors, you would have enough steel to construct a Bradley^[1]. The snipers of White Dove were those raised and trained by such seasoned veterans, who passed on all their skills. White Dove supplied them to the battlefield and in return received a substantial sum of money from the Department of Defense. However, as IS’s influence waned and the demand for sniper units decreased, White Dove began to dispatch the snipers they had painstakingly trained to the civilian sector rather than the military.

“But this turned out to be quite lucrative.”

Fortunately, the United States is a place rife with inter-gang conflicts, and even those outside of the mafia or gangs always seemed to want someone dead. Perhaps it was an inevitable progression that White Dove by its third generation would devolve into a full-fledged assassin training ground.

“You are a third-generation sniper from White Dove. Among them, you are a professional killer who commands the highest price.”

“…I see.”

So that’s how it was. Isaiah leaned against the armrest of the sofa and muttered to himself.

It was still an unbelievable story. However, had he come to accept this preposterous tale so calmly because he had grown accustomed to this surreal situation or was it because the speaker was Bran?

…No, it was probably because of the FBI identification card.

Isaiah steadied himself, recalling his ID card hidden in the cabinet. Yes, he hadn’t simply killed people. It was all part of an operation. Perhaps joining White Dove, or whatever it was, had been part of his FBI mission.

“You’re a sniper hired by Chester through White Dove, paid to handle a few complicated matters with ease. Over the past few years, the areas under his watch had been falling into complete disarray. When even his position as successor became jeopardized because of it. Chester urgently brought you in.”

However, he couldn’t honestly tell Cedric or the other organization members about this. The mafia should never utilize outside help, no matter the circumstances. Everything, life or death, had to be resolved within the organization. That was the “mafia way,” as Chester would habitually say.

“That’s why Chester paraded you around as his lover day and night. With White Dove, revealing one’s identity is generally prohibited except in special cases. To the members of the Kalisz organization, Isaiah Cole is just a homosexual who spends all his time at the Mountain Dog without a proper job. They would never accept such a person as an official member.”

But if he was Chester’s lover, the story changed. Though not a member of the organization, he wouldn’t be a complete outsider either. There would be nothing strange about him being present at their businesses or in the organization’s hideouts and even if someone found him bothersome, they wouldn’t dare tell Chester’s lover (the reckless son of the boss) to leave.

“Finally, if your identity were to be exposed, they could simply claim that you, as Chester’s lover, had been helping him and ultimately became involved in the family’s affairs.”

“I see… Chester put a lot of thought into it.”

“Manny, more likely.”

Bran spoke calmly.

“There’s no way Chester would be that clever.”

“..…”

That was true. If either of them were the strategist, it would undoubtedly be Manny.

“Anyway, you’re saying you don’t know anything about WD?”

Bran asked, picking up the can from the table again.

“Yeah…”

“And nothing comes to mind even after hearing what I’ve said?”

“That’s right. I’m hearing this for the first time. In the first place, I’ve never even seen anything like a white dove.”

“I see.”

Bran finished the rest of his beer. He crumpled the empty can loudly and said,

“Any ordinary nineteen-year-old living in the United States would have heard that name at least once on the news. That’s normal. Although it’s now reduced to a contract killer organization, it once received considerable media attention when snipers like Eric Hayes and Bill Wood, who even received the Presidential Medal of Honor, joined as instructors. Even kids playing war games preferred WD over SWAT, so that says it all.”

“Is that so…?”

So it’s really common knowledge… Why haven’t I ever heard of it? Isaiah was shocked. Could he really be this lacking in common sense?

Seeing Isaiah becoming increasingly distressed, Bran said, “That’s characteristic of dissociative fugue.”

“They consciously erase things they want to forget from their memory. So, the persona that fugue patients establish as their new self is usually far removed from their true identity.”

“Then I…”

Bran offered a tentative conclusion for the hesitant Isaiah.

“Perhaps the persona furthest from the professional WD sniper you imagined yourself to be was that of an ordinary American college student.”

“An ordinary… American college student. Yes, that’s right, college students are ordinary.”

These days, about seventy percent of high school graduates go to college. But why would it have to be a state university student majoring in English Literature? Why a nineteen-year-old Latino living alone with his mother in a port town? Except for the name, nothing overlapped with his real self.

“Anyway, there’s nothing we can do right now about your dissociative fugue state. We have no choice but to wait for your memories to return.”

“Yeah, Manny said the same thing. He looked it up online and there’s no other way.”

“Okay, hang in there.”

Bran tossed the crumpled can onto the table and stood up.

“Oh? Are you leaving?”

Startled, Isaiah also stood up and exclaimed,

“What if I don’t leave?”

“No, but if you just leave like this, I…”

“You should try to regain your memories. Get as much rest as possible.”

Isn’t that right? Despite the kind smile, Isaiah felt a definite distance.

“That’s too much, you.”

Isaiah blurted out, resentment lacing his tone without him realizing it.

“How can you think of just leaving someone in this state? Even Chester wasn’t like this.”

“Well, Chester had no one but you to rely on.”

Bran’s casual tone irritated Isaiah, even though he knew he shouldn’t feel that way.

“What? Then why would you suggest working together?”

“I was thinking of working with Isaiah Cole, the top marksman at WD. Not Isaiah Diaz, a nineteen-year-old state college student who wouldn’t know how to handle a gun.”

“….…”

“Anything else?”

There wasn’t.

Isaiah slumped back onto the sofa. He tugged at his hair in frustration then finally looked up at Bran again.

“Then, couldn’t you help me out of loyalty to Isaiah Cole…?”

“There’s no such loyalty between us.”

That’s right. To Bran, he was the man who had killed his girlfriend, even if it had been an accident. And it had happened because he had originally been aiming for Bran but missed. What kind of loyalty could there be with someone like that?

Ha, what should I do? Isaiah lowered his head again and resumed pulling at his hair. Should he just go back to Chester?

…No, not Chester. That guy would kill him on the spot if he found out he was FBI. He would order him to kill Bran before the successor announcement, no matter the cost. If he didn’t regain his memory by then, Chester would strap a bomb vest on him and make him sit next to Bran.

But going to the police and asking for help now… What if, by some extremely small chance, he wasn’t FBI? No, of course he was! He was certain of it! But what if some unforeseen circumstance arose, and he couldn’t prove it? Wouldn’t that be the same as turning himself in as a contract killer?

“…….”

No matter how much he thought about it, there was no solution. He needed to carefully assess the situation and proceed cautiously, but he had neither the time nor the strategy.

Finally, Isaiah decided to ask for help from the smartest person he knew.

“If you help me, I will help you.”