BIA Ch. 44

Irina was shot and killed on the spot as she was leaving my office on Adams Street with me. The KTW bullet that pierced Irina’s heart was the same one that blew off the heads of Martino’s gang at the rooftop bar. It was an unlike Lanius mistake. Targeting the heart instead of the head, and confusing the target.

This incident completely changed Edgar Derby’s passive attitude. It wasn’t just because Lanius was finally targeting me. It was because of Irina. Her real name was Svetlana Andreyeva, and she was an FBI agent dispatched from the Cyber Crime Investigation Team at Edgar Derby’s request. Edgar Derby was also mortified that he had lost face with Maurice, the head of the cyber team, but more than anything, he was afraid that his promotion to branch manager would be canceled.

On the day Irina’s body was sent back to Russia at her family’s request, I went to Mountain Dog late in the evening. Isaiah Cole was sitting alone at the bar that day as well.

I approached him and spoke for the first time.

“Want to buy you a drink?”

Isaiah Cole glanced at me sideways and replied expressionlessly.

“I don’t drink.”

“Why, afraid you’ll make a mistake like last time?”

I said, sitting next to him.

“You made a mistake even without drinking, so just drink, why don’t you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you drunk?”

He still looked at me with a blank face. Well, when it comes to maintaining composure, he’s several levels above me. A sniper has to maintain a calm mind like water even if a grenade explodes behind him. In that state, he aims at the target and pulls the trigger. Bang–!

“Bran.”

What flew to my spot instead of a bullet was a glass of whiskey. Without even ordering, the bartender Gray had prepared it, knowing it was what I always drank.

I raised my glass to Gray as a sign of thanks and then wet my throat with the whiskey. And putting the glass down on the table, I said to Isaiah Cole.

“Anyway, thanks for not blowing Irina’s head off. Even if she’s a corpse, I wanted to show her parents her beautiful face as intact as possible.”

Even the great Lanius has times when he shows mercy. I laughed and took another sip of whiskey.

“…….”

Isaiah Cole didn’t reply. He just stared at his ginger ale glass, where the ice had almost melted and half of it had turned into water.

Then, after a long time, he suddenly opened his mouth.

“Let’s say I killed Irina, like you said.”

Isaiah Cole turned his head and looked at me sitting next to him.

“Then shouldn’t you be grateful to me? Whether it was a mistake or not, I saved you.”

Under the dim table light, his black eyes shone quietly. It wasn’t the eyes of the boy I knew. Nor were they the unfocused eyes of a drug addict, or the wet, black pebbles. They were the eyes of a sniper, unwavering in any situation.

“Isaiah.”

I decided to take a gamble one last time.

“Good name.”

I nodded briefly and asked him.

“Do you know what it means?”

At my question, Isaiah Cole looked at me calmly with his unwavering eyes and said.

“Yahweh is salvation.”

And he picked up his glass of ginger ale and chuckled.

“I’d know better than you. It’s my name.”

It was only at that calm tone that I realized.

This guy isn’t Lee. He’s not the little kid who was relieved to have his bug trapped in my eyes, the one who held back tears when he heard the meaning of his name.

“Okay.”

I drank the rest of the whiskey in one go. And putting down the empty glass, I stood up from my seat and said.

“Break up with Chester and go back to Florida.”

“…….”

“I’m saying this because I want to save you one last time.”

Of course, he didn’t listen to me.

As expected, Cedric didn’t say much about Irina’s shooting. Since the culprit hadn’t been caught yet, he only gave the same old advice to be careful and thoroughly check our surroundings. Of course, he might have called Chester separately and warned him in some way, but if he had, Chester would have at least pretended to back down for a while.

7012984: In the end, Cedric was a foolish father.

Now that things had turned out this way, a bloodless takeover was as good as gone. Edgar Derby lamented that the father was ultimately killing the son that the women of the Kalisz family had saved.

We set the day of the successor announcement as D-day. It was clear that Chester would have set that day as the day of the final battle.

Of course, Chester’s plan was obvious. If the atmosphere was such that he would become the successor, he would kill me right after the announcement, and if it seemed like I would become the successor, he would kill me right before. In the former case, since he would be appointed as the successor and would be given full power as acting boss, Cedric would no longer have the right to interfere with Chester’s decision.

7012984: Then what about the latter case?

7035672: At that point, I’d be dead too, and since Chester would be the only one left, there’s nothing anyone could do.

There are hardly any mid-level executives left in the Kalisz family right now. Even the next boss candidates, me and Chester, are considered quite young. If Chester is also ousted, the waist of the family will be completely gone.

7012984: We need to deploy snipers.

7035672: And then?

7012984: We have to shoot Lanius before he shoots you.

7035672: Are you confident that you can find Lanius’s location? He’s never exposed his location to the enemy before.

Edgar Derby was silent.

7035672: You’re not planning to find his location after my head is blown off, are you?

After I sent the message again, Edgar Derby finally replied after a long time.

7012984: We’ll take care of it before D-day.

7035672: If it was before Irina died, maybe, but now that Irina is dead, if something happens to Chester’s lover, it will only give those who see me as a thorn in their side a reason to act.

7012984: Then what do you want to do?

Edgar Derby finally burst into anger.

7012984: This won’t work, that won’t work. Instead of just saying what won’t work, tell me if you have any good ideas.

Just as Isaiah Cole wasn’t the little boy from twenty years ago, Edgar Derby wasn’t the Edgar Derby from twenty years ago either. The calm, methodical, and sly FBI agent was gone. Now, there was only an old man who was impatient and blinded by the last honor before his retirement.

Of course, I wasn’t the me from twenty years ago either. I mechanically started typing on the keyboard.

7035672: I’ll try to persuade Lanius to come to the scene with blanks. If he shoots, we’ll use that as a signal to start a gunfight, and then our snipers can shoot Lanius. And in the end, the best thing to do now is to switch the gun in Lanius’s hand to make him the first shooter. We can find plenty of evidence that Chester commissioned WD.

Edgar Derby didn’t respond for a while, whether he was reading the long message I sent. I anticipated what he would nitpick about my plan and emphasized it one more time in advance.

7035672: I’ll try to persuade Lanius.

Two days before the successor announcement, I went to Mountain Dog again. As always, Isaiah Cole was sitting alone at the bar table. From my point of view, it was fortunate, but I was once again impressed by the boldness of the guy who had the nerve to come here even two days before D-day.

“Want to buy you a drink?”

I said, sitting next to him just like last time. He didn’t even look at me and replied.

“I told you I don’t drink.”

“Not at all? Not even a sip?”

“I don’t drink.”

“Why?”

Isaiah Cole finally turned his head and looked at me.

“It’s none of your business.”

“What if I say I’m curious?”

He looked at me quietly with his black eyes, just like before, then turned his head again and said.

“I just promised myself that I wouldn’t. That’s all.”

“Promises are made to be broken.”

“I don’t want to.”

“What if there’s a good reason to?”

Isaiah Cole looked at me again. I deliberately turned my head and glanced at Gray. Gray immediately brought me a drink. I took a sip of whiskey and then met his gaze and said.

“For example, you found out that WD is exploiting you with terrible conditions. Other organizations are thinking of hiring you as their exclusive hitman for several times that amount. And of course, the support for your stepfather’s hospital bills is separate.”

Was it my imagination? It seemed like a glimmer of light flashed in Isaiah Cole’s eyes.

“I want to hear more about that.”

Of course, it was my imagination. Isaiah Cole just spoke indifferently with a blank face as usual. But it was clear that he was interested in my offer.

I took another sip of whiskey and said.

“I’ll go to your apartment in an hour.”

An hour later, when I went to his apartment and rang the doorbell, Isaiah Cole opened the door right away, as if he had been waiting for me.

“What’s that?”

He asked, looking at the champagne bottle in my hand.

“It’s a celebratory drink to celebrate the new contract.”

“The contract hasn’t been finalized yet.”

Even though he said that, Isaiah Cole accepted all my conditions. Of course, He had asked for an absurdly large amount. Then he should have at least been suspicious, but there was nothing like that. Isaiah Cole just kept saying okay, as if he had been waiting for someone to make this offer, without any other requests.

Rather, it was unexpectedly during the explanation of the plan for the day that he showed a lukewarm reaction.