BIA Ch. 149

As Samuel left for Liberty Harbor with Kestrel’s body, Isaiah went to a hotel first with Mickey. He judged that a crowded place would be safer for now.

“How are you feeling?”

In the car on the way to the hotel, Mickey kept checking Isaiah’s expression. From Mickey’s behavior, Isaiah realized that Mickey was the one who had come up with the idea to kill Kestrel and frame him as Lanius. Otherwise, there would be no reason for him to be so mindful of Isaiah’s reaction.

“Not bad.”

Isaiah said, rolling down the car window. The moon was already hanging over the tops of the buildings. The smell of gunpowder, momentarily forgotten, seemed to fill the car again. It was strange. He didn’t even have a single gun on him now. Samuel had taken them all. It was the first time the smell of gunpowder felt so strong on his own body.

“How about you?”

Isaiah asked, looking at the moon, slightly more distorted than last night. Mickey didn’t answer. He just stared at the car ahead, which had crept forward from afar and now wasn’t budging.

After a long while, the car began to move slowly. Mickey answered as he lifted his foot from the brake pedal. Not bad.

“No, actually, I feel good. Very good.”

He immediately changed his words.

“Really?”

It was unexpected. This was the guy who said he’d never fired a gun outside a shooting range. Of course, he hadn’t pulled the trigger himself this time either, but still, a life had been lost right before his eyes because of an idea he came up with. It was practically the same as killing someone directly. Isaiah had assumed he’d naturally be suffering from unspeakable guilt. But feeling good? Very good, even?

“Why, because you pulled off a job?”

“No, it’s separate from work.”

Only then did Isaiah turn his head to look at Mickey. More precisely, he looked at his face reflected in the rearview mirror. Mickey also raised his eyes to look into the mirror. When their eyes met, Mickey smiled with his characteristic awkward expression.

“An unknown sniper and a sniper you know. Between the two, who would you prefer to live?”

“..…”

“It’s like that.”

Perhaps the light had changed, as the gap with the car ahead finally widened a bit more. Mickey started pressing the accelerator.

Upon arriving at the hotel, Mickey didn’t rest for a moment, constantly exchanging messages with Jack. Isaiah, too, kept checking the time anxiously. He couldn’t relax until Samuel handed over the body to Martino’s side and returned. Plus, one important matter remained unresolved. Persuading Morgan.

Martino would surely send a photo to WD demanding confirmation as soon as he received Kestrel’s body. They needed to coordinate their story beforehand in preparation for that moment.

“Don’t worry. The FBI has secured evidence of misconduct and circumstantial proof against the heads of almost every organization in the US. Morgan probably has about six accounts that could be seen as evidence of embezzlement. Oh, that’s just what we found.”

Isn’t that more worrying? What on earth is happening to this country? As Isaiah was looking at his watch with various anxieties, Mickey’s phone rang. He naturally assumed it would be Jack, but it wasn’t. It was Morgan.

「You really have no shame.」

Morgan said as soon as Isaiah took the phone. His voice conveyed despair rather than anger.

「Leaving WD without a word like that, letting Kestrel die, and now planning to pin it all on him.」

Isaiah listened silently. He could have retorted endlessly, saying things like, ‘If you don’t like it, tell Martino the truth,’ or ‘Go ahead and get exposed for your embezzlement too,’ but he didn’t feel the need. Confronting him here would overwhelmingly be to his disadvantage. Jack and the FBI seemed to be trying their best to somehow coax Morgan, and there was no need to throw a wrench into their efforts. Besides, Morgan wasn’t entirely wrong.

Morgan didn’t seem to have called with the intention of confronting him from the start, as his accusations didn’t last long. He spat out a couple more resentful remarks—I knew it, but you really are heartless, you have no blood or tears—and then spent the rest of the time talking only about Kestrel in a choked voice. Do you know how proud he was to be part of WD? He truly respected you. He was the type to talk only about you even when you weren’t around… After pouring out all sorts of stories in a choked voice, Morgan finally brought up the real reason for his call.

「Anyway, testifying that the body belongs to the rumored Lanius isn’t difficult. Since it’s already come to this, what reason is there to hesitate if a single word can save your life? Having lost Kestrel, I can’t afford to lose you too.」

Morgan strung together plausible-sounding words, as always. Just as Isaiah was thinking, Could it be? based on the lengthy nuance…

「I’ll testify as many times as needed. I’ll even issue a fake contract to them if you want. We just need to change the name on the contract you signed with Chester to Kestrel’s real name. Instead, Isaiah, come back to WD.」

There it is.

Isaiah let out a small chuckle without realizing it. It wasn’t a sneer. It was closer to a sigh. Yes, a sigh closer to resignation, as if he somehow knew it would turn out like this.

Morgan must have noticed, as he began to persuade Isaiah calmly, his voice growing more serious.

「I know, you’ve already lost interest. But what can we do? With Kestrel gone, the company will struggle to operate if you leave too. I hope you can understand and cooperate on this part.」

Morgan brought up Kestrel again. Isaiah didn’t answer. Morgan, knowing full well what silence meant in this situation, placated Isaiah in a softer tone.

「Isaiah. There’s a reason we named you Lanius out of all the birds. That creature looks very cute. Small and cute like a sparrow.」

Yes, just like you when we first met, Morgan said with a hint of laughter in his voice.

「But it’s a bird of prey. A carnivore that tears apart creatures several times its size.」

“..…”

「Do you think it does that for fun? No, that’s just the bird’s instinct. It’s destiny. It was born with a life that requires it to live that way from birth. That’s why it has that sharp beak and talons.」

It’s the same for you. Morgan’s tone suddenly became firm.

「You have to do this work. You have to spend your life holding a gun, hunting prey. Whether you want to or not doesn’t matter. Why? Because you were destined to do this work from the beginning.」

Suddenly, he remembered that prayer. The petition asking for the serenity to accept the things he could not change, the courage to change the things he could, and the wisdom to know the difference.

He had already changed everything he could change. He had squeezed out every bit of courage to change Bran’s plan, time and time again.

So, should he accept the things he couldn’t change? Is that the way to find peace? Is resisting, unable to distinguish between the two, unwise?

「No matter how sick a bird of prey gets of its life, it can’t survive by pecking at grains. You won’t be able to live without doing this work either. It will eventually turn out that way.」

Isaiah couldn’t tell anymore. What could be changed, and what couldn’t. But the fact that his first reaction upon hearing Morgan’s words to return to WD was a laugh, thinking ‘There it is,’ suggested that perhaps he had vaguely known all along. That this belonged to an absolutely unchangeable destiny. That no matter what he did, he couldn’t escape the smell of gunpowder, this cage.

But the important thing was that he would live on, even like this. That even covered in the smell of gunpowder, trapped in a cage, he would live today and live tomorrow. Considering his situation where he couldn’t guarantee life even a few hours later, after midnight, this current anguish felt like an incredibly luxurious and happy worry.

“Understood.”

Finally, Isaiah answered briefly.

「Yes, good thinking.」

Believing it was the natural outcome, Morgan didn’t seem overly pleased. Instead, he claimed Kestrel would be happy, selling Kestrel out until the very end. Isaiah found it truly ironic. That Kestrel’s wish for him to return to WD was achieved through his death. Is this also destiny, perhaps?

「Then I’ll speak to Martino. You must have had a long day, so get some rest.」

As Morgan showed signs of ending the call, Isaiah urgently called out to him.

“Morgan, my father.”

「Ah, right, that.」

Morgan said belatedly, as if he had forgotten to mention it.

「Jacana went to the Lord’s embrace this morning.」

“…..”

「The funeral is tomorrow, but you don’t have to come if it’s difficult for you. We’ll give him a good send-off. However, we’ll need to rewrite the contract later. We need to remove the clause stating your salary would cover Jacana’s hospital bills.」

Morgan then ended the call, saying he’d contact him again later. Mickey watched Isaiah, who just stood there holding the disconnected phone with a hollow laugh, and asked.

“What did Morgan say?”

Isaiah handed the phone back to Mickey and said.

“That he’s a world-class son of a bitch.”

Well past midnight, a message came from Jack. It said Martino had accepted Kestrel’s body with great satisfaction.

“Samuel just left the port too. He should arrive around dawn, so sleep soundly tonight without worry.”

Just like yesterday, Mickey knocked urgently on the door to deliver the message and left. Following his advice, Isaiah fell into a deep sleep for the first time in a long while.