BIA Ch. 45

“You’ll arrive at the restaurant late that day. Right after Cedric announces his successor. And when you get there, you’ll fire a blank shot at the entrance. Then my men will use that as a signal to shoot Chester’s gang.”

“Why not use a rifle? Rifles are my specialty.”

“I’m trying to get you out of there. Whether you use a rifle or a pistol, once you pull the trigger, a shootout is inevitable. If a large-scale shootout happens in the middle of the city in broad daylight, a police investigation is unavoidable.”

If a shootout broke out in a place where all the gang members were gathered, there would be at least twenty casualties, if not more. If that happened, the police would put everything else aside and focus on finding the person who fired the first shot. They’d have to determine who was responsible.

“The police will search every CCTV in Eloy City to find you. With an incident of this scale, even Chester won’t be able to hide you. Besides, Chester will be dead by then.”

“Hmm.”

“But if you say you were angry at Chester and fired a blank shot to scare him, you’ll be off the hook, no matter what happens to the others. No matter what your fault was, that wasn’t your intention, and since you only fired a blank, you’ll just have to pay a small fine.”

I thought he would say yes right away, but Isaiah Cole looked surprisingly hesitant.

“What, do you have a better plan? If you do, tell me.”

I tried bluffing.

“No, it’s not that.”

Isaiah Cole seemed to be thinking about something, then finally opened his mouth.

“Okay. I’ll do it that way.”

“It feels like you’re up to something.”

He deliberately looked suspicious. Isaiah Cole stared at me with a dumbfounded look, then said in a bored tone.

“What, what do I have to do to make you believe me?”

I handed him the champagne glass I was drinking from. He looked at the glass for a moment, then reluctantly took it. He emptied it in one go and handed the empty glass back to me.

“Satisfied?”

“Good.”

While I was killing time with pointless chatter, he fell asleep. The zolpidem ^[1]I had dissolved in the drink had taken effect. It was a small amount that wouldn’t affect me at all, but for someone without any tolerance like him, it was enough to knock him out.

After confirming Isaiah Cole was asleep, I went to Mountain Dog and called out Warbler from the back door. Twisting the neck of a drug-addled old man was easier than twisting a child’s wrist. I put the corpse in the car and moved it to the entrance of Isaiah Cole’s apartment. Isaiah Cole must have been in a deep sleep because he didn’t wake up even when there was noise at the entrance.

I sat on the bed and looked down at his sleeping face. He was completely defenseless, knocked out cold like an innocent child. I always thought he looked young because of his eyes. But now that I looked at him, his smooth, flawless skin, his well-shaped nose that wasn’t too big and just the right amount of prominent, and his slightly plump lower lip seemed to play a part too.

…Damn it.

Was it the small amount of sleeping pills starting to kick in? I shook my head lightly to get rid of the strange thoughts and got up.

I went to the kitchen, left a message on the receipt I received after paying for the drinks at Mountain Dog, and stuck it on the fridge before returning.

I was curious what kind of expression he would make when he found the note in the morning. And how he’d react to the gift at the entrance.

Now that Warbler was dead, he couldn’t go back to WD. To explain Warbler’s death, he would have to tell them everything about the conversation we had last night. And since Warbler was dead, he couldn’t use a rifle tomorrow like he insisted.

I expected to hear his answer about the gift during dinner.

As expected, he sent me a signal during the meal and left his seat, and I followed him to the bathroom after a delay.

And—

“Actually, it’s because I can’t remember! I have amnesia!”

That was Isaiah Cole’s answer.

Of course, I didn’t believe him. Then he clung to my sleeve and cried. This was definitely something the great Lanius would never do. Nor would the Lee from the orphanage. That stubborn child would always bite his dry lips to keep from crying in front of me.

I lowered the gun I had been pointing at his head. I needed to hear him out. But whatever the case, it was impossible to do anything tomorrow in this state. I used Angelina’s funeral as an excuse to buy time. Edgar Derby, who was checking the rooftops of the buildings where the snipers would be deployed tomorrow, was cursing up a storm in the dark web chat room, but I ignored him and went to his apartment.

He said his name was Isaiah Diaz, that he was a freshman at the state university this year, and that he was a Latino from a single-parent family.

As soon as I heard that, someone came to mind.

‘What a shame. It’s a good name.’

‘That name is everywhere in church, though.’

‘Just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s a bad name. The little kid who lived next door to me was also named Isaiah.’

I wondered if he remembered that story and was using it. But it was strange that he knew things I hadn’t mentioned—that he was Latino and from a single-parent family. And how did he know which university I had graduated from recently?

Anyway, the Isaiah next door to me was in his mid-twenties now, and this Isaiah was nineteen, so their ages were different. And their last names were different too. The other one was Diez, and this one was Díaz. Above all, the characteristic of dissociative fugue was that it created a new identity, not stealing the identity of an existing person. So, this was most likely a coincidence.

Besides, that wasn’t the problem.

“Actually, I’m an FBI agent.”

I spat out the beer I was drinking when he said that with a serious face. Isaiah even presented my FBI ID as evidence to back up his claim.

“……”

Anyone watching would think it was a scene from a sitcom. The problem was that this was a real situation, and a pretty serious one at that.

The key was how Isaiah got his hands on this ID. The chance of him getting it by accident was zero, so he probably had someone investigate me. It was highly likely that he stole it from my house in the process.

Then did he also know that we were in the same facility? No, he might have known that, but he might not remember me. Or maybe he remembered everything but was pretending not to know…

“Anyway, so, Bran. I think I’m undercover.”

Isaiah said seriously. I wanted to tell him that he was right about everything except one thing.

“I guess you could think that way.”

I gave him back the ID.

“So, was joining White Dove an undercover operation?”

“I don’t know about that… Wait, do you believe me?”

He was going back and forth a lot. It was understandable. I was this confused, so this guy who didn’t even know his real name must have a complete mess in his head.

It was impossible to plan anything in this state. Isaiah didn’t even know how to hold a gun, let alone shoot one. Before that, he looked like he wanted to run away just by seeing a gun.

One of the most prominent symptoms of fugue was that people would escape when faced with a stressful situation. It didn’t just mean psychological avoidance like regression or amnesia. It meant literally hiding. They would leave their current location and travel far away, or go to a place where no one knew them and start a new life with a new identity.

Since the symptoms had just manifested today, it was better to calm him down and let him rest than to push him. Then, the next step was to find out how much Isaiah Cole knew and what he was thinking.

I took Isaiah to my apartment. I thought he would be exhausted and fall asleep right away after such a hectic day, but he started wandering around the house, looking around. He looked a little scared, but he couldn’t seem to resist his curiosity, looking around each room and even taking out books from the bookshelf and flipping through them. He looked exactly like a nineteen-year-old. If this was acting, Isaiah Cole should have quit being a sniper and become an actor.

“Hey, why do you keep calling me a little bird?”

He even asked me with a shy face. It was an expression that Isaiah Cole would never make. Nor would the Lee from the orphanage. Neither of them had ever smiled in front of me. It was like they didn’t even know how to move their facial muscles.

But why are you smiling? Who are you, and why are you making that shy smile with that face? Why are you making an expression that the owner of that body I know has never made, so naturally, so innocently, as if it was yours from the start?

Of course, he was also the owner of this body. He claimed to be Isaiah Diaz, but this guy was Isaiah Cole. He wasn’t someone else.

I knew it, but for some reason, I felt a little annoyed. To be precise, I felt mischievous.

That’s why.

“I see. If you didn’t know, it would sound like a pretty romantic nickname.”

I told him about the origin of the name Lanius, which he didn’t really need to know.

“Do you know the scientific name of this cute bird?”

“What is it?”

“Lanius. It means butcher, slaughterer in Latin.”

His face froze in the same shy smile. He even cried when he saw the picture of a Lanius cruelly skewering its prey on tree branches.