BIA Ch. 75

Day Six

The flight from Eloy to Virginia took a little less than three hours. He took off at 7:50 AM, arrived at Richmond Airport at 10:30 AM, and after taking a taxi, reached the WD headquarters building a little after exactly 11:00 AM.

“Isaiah, what’s going on? You did not even call.”

He went straight to the director’s office on the 4th floor, and Morgan’s secretary, Howard, exclaimed with wide eyes.

“I have something to talk about with Morgan.”

“He’s with a guest right now in a middle of a conversation. Did you make an appointment?”

“No. When do you think the conversation will end?”

“Well, he has a lunch appointment at one, so it should be over before then.”

“I’ll wait on the second floor.”

There was a lounge with a cafe on the second floor.

“I’ll have a flat white.”

Chester said as soon as he sat down at a table.

“I’ll have orange juice. In a bottle.”

“……You want me to go buy it?”

Manny looked at Isaiah with a dumbfounded expression.

“You’re going to go buy Chester’s anyway.”

At Isaiah’s words, Chester chimed in, “Yeah, just buy it.” Manny frowned as much as he could but still got up from his seat.

“This whole place is the WD building, right?”

As soon as Manny went to order, Chester asked.

“I think so.”

Isaiah answered, taking a cigarette case out of his jacket pocket.

“What floor is the training ground on?”

“There’s no training ground here.”

“Why? It’s pretty big.”

Instead of answering, Isaiah put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. After taking a long drag, he exhaled just as long and said,

“You don’t think we would be training by shooting at paper targets in an indoor range, do you?”

“……”

Whether he realized he had said something stupid or not, Chester coughed awkwardly and turned his head.

Soon, Manny returned with the coffee and juice. As we were drinking and waiting for a call from the 4th floor, two men entered the lounge. One was tall and large, and the other had shoulder-length blonde hair and a headband. Both were wearing tracksuits, probably having come from the fitness center on the 2nd floor. The large man recognized Isaiah and immediately greeted him.

“Well, look who it is. It’s Lanius.”

It was Kestrel.

“Long time no see. It’s been almost a year, hasn’t it?”

“I guess.”

Isaiah answered casually. Kestrel, not caring, happily sat down in an empty chair at the table. He didn’t even ask for permission from Chester and Manny, as if they were not even in his sight. The headband also naturally sat down next to him. Kestrel pointed at him and introduced him.

“This is Peacock. He’s the same age as you.”

It was a name he was hearing for the first time. When Isaiah, instead of acknowledging him, just drank his juice with an uninterested face, Kestrel laughed loudly, as if embarrassed.

“Hey, that’s too much. I’ve been here for two years now.”

“Is that so?”

But Isaiah was still not interested. He only briefly thought that the name, whoever gave it to him, suited his handsome face.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Lanius.”

Peacock said, leaning his elbow on the table. Just by his flushed face, you could tell it wasn’t an empty compliment. Even if that wasn’t the case, every new recruit who had joined WD in the past few years had said this to Isaiah.

“I heard your hit rate within 1000 yards is over 90%? And 100% within 600 yards.”

“It must be 99% now.”

Chester sniped from the side. As if he had finally noticed his existence, Kestrel asked.

“Come to think of it, who are these guys…?”

“Ignore them.”

At Isaiah’s words, Chester yelled, “What!” and jumped up from his chair. Then, at Peacock’s words, “I heard you killed 80 people in Afghanistan in a month. You even sniped six people while shot, hitting them all. What’s your secret?” he quietly sat back down and silently sipped his coffee as if he had never been angry.

“I was lucky.”

“He always says that.”

Kestrel laughed and nudged Isaiah’s arm with his elbow.

“Even if there was a secret, we wouldn’t be able to follow it anyway.”

‘Then there’s even less point in telling you,’ Isaiah thought, but said,

“You just have to not think about living. Even if I don’t hit with this one shot, there’s nothing I can do, and even if the enemy finds my location and kills me, there’s nothing I can do. If you shoot with that mindset, you’ll usually hit.”

“Oh……”

Peacock murmured softly. He said oh, but it was obvious that he was struggling to figure out how to continue the conversation. Fortunately, at that moment, a young man peeked into the lounge and gestured to Isaiah. It seemed he was an employee sent by Howard.

“Let’s go.”

Isaiah said, getting up from his seat. Chester and Manny quickly followed suit.

“Hey, when does this mission end? When are you coming back here for good?”

Kestrel shouted urgently from behind.

“I don’t know.”

Isaiah answered briefly and left the lounge.

As soon as we left the lounge, Chester asked.

“Did you sleep with him?”

Isaiah looked at Chester without a word. As if understanding the meaning of that look, Chester lowered his head with an awkward expression. For some reason, it felt like it would get noisy if I said I did, so Isaiah subtly changed the subject.

“More importantly, make sure you talk to Morgan properly.”

“What do you mean?”

“He won’t believe your ridiculous story about losing your memory. You’ll just say you were captured and held by Bran. And that Bran killed Robin. And that he took my phone so I couldn’t contact you. It’ll be more credible if you, the client, testify to it, rather than just me claiming it.”

“Bullshit. I’m a Christian. You want me to lie?”

Chester got angry, saying it was absurd, but when he was actually in front of Morgan, he lied quite well. However, he couldn’t explain things coherently, so Manny had to explain instead in the middle.

“I see. So Robin is dead.”

Morgan said in a gloomy tone. But it wasn’t a feeling of mourning for a dead colleague, but rather regret over losing the surveillance he had been planning to attach to Isaiah. This man was the same when Isaiah’s foster father had collapsed.

‘If Jacana dies, are you planning to leave WD?’

He was once a sniper who roamed the battlefield with the codename Peasant. He was also Jacana’s colleague. However, everyone who knew him said that he had completely changed after retiring early and participating in the management of White Dove. That he treated his old comrades like his subordinates and treated them carelessly. It was around that time that White Dove changed its name to WD and began to transform into a full-fledged assassination company.

When Jacana collapsed, Morgan was more worried about Isaiah leaving WD than about him. When Jacana was able to maintain his life, albeit in a coma, he was happier than anyone and said,

‘Don’t worry about the hospital bills. WD will cover them. After all, look how much Jacana has dedicated himself to WD. You don’t have to worry about anything, just do your job.’

That joy was probably due to the new slave contract that would be written from this day forward, rather than the fact that his old comrade had survived.

“Then what should we do about the spotter?”

Morgan asked, still trying to look somber.

“I don’t need one.”

Isaiah said firmly.

“It’s not a combat situation, and the scope is enough. Robin hasn’t really done anything as a spotter anyway.”

“Hmm.”

“It’s more work to take a new spotter to check the location now. And tomorrow is D-day.”

Morgan, who had been listening with a dissatisfied face, finally nodded after hearing that tomorrow was D-day.

“Okay, if you say so.”

But seeing him say that he would send one tomorrow evening if it was needed, it seemed like he was desperate to put someone to watch me. What exactly is he so anxious about?

As soon as we left the director’s office, Howard, who had received instructions from Morgan in advance, gave me a new cell phone and a bundle of bullets. There were exactly seven bullets.

“It’s like clockwork.”

“Rules are the rules.”

Since the pistol was just a backup, seven bullets were enough. It’s just that their stinginess, even after coming all this way, was making me lose respect for them.

After leaving the WD headquarters, Isaiah took a taxi with Chester and Manny back to his house in Charlottesville. It was almost one o’clock in the afternoon when they got out of the taxi.

“Is there anything to eat in this house?”

Chester, who was starting to get hungry, couldn’t wait for Isaiah to open the front door and asked.

“There should be cheese in the fridge. It won’t be white or blue, but probably green.”

Or maybe black. Isaiah added, entering the front door password.