by Donald Ha
“….!!”
He was sure.
The girl in the photo looked younger, but the girl in the faded portrait was Marie-Louise Lane, the mysterious girl in the cellar.
“Do you know her?”
Grace glared at Jackal.
“…..”
Even Jackal couldn’t keep his cool in this situation.
The photo was quite devastating to him.
As he felt Grace looking at him, Jackal instinctively knew that the bald man caught his surprise.
‘Damn, I had no idea.’
Jackal reprimanded himself.
It was because displaying his emotions directly was unlike his normal self.
“……”
He felt a sense of loss that he hadn’t felt for a long time.
But, Jackal was Jackal. He continued with his next move no matter what Grace thought.
“Wow! She’s really pretty, like a doll. I never imagined such a pretty girl would exist. Now I know why you are looking for her.”
Jackal explicitly displayed his surprise on his face. He didn’t forget to exaggerate.
‘There is a saying that goes ‘if you want to hide a tree, you should hide it in the forest.’ Now, baldy American, what is your next move?’
It was Grace’s turn.
“…..”
Grace was suspicious of him, but he didn’t say anything.
He hadn’t expected a lot from him.
If he knew her, it was great, but if he didn’t, it didn’t matter.
If not, Grace would have questioned Jackal thoroughly.
“She must be different from the girl you mentioned.”
Jackal confirmed his victory in his words and said.
“Yes, the girl in the photo is much better.”
Grace let out a deep sigh and took the photo back.
“That’s a photo from three years ago. She must have grown a lot by now, maybe 18 years old.”
“Hmm.”
“I need to find her, but I have no clue where. I was a little hopeful when you mentioned the blond girl, but I guess she’s a different one.”
Grace spat on the ground and stretched his arms.
A strong fatigue seemed to hit him.
“But if you ever find this girl, call me. I’ll give you a handsome reward.”
“Yes, sir. I think I’ll be busy for a while.”
When Jackal left, Grace pulled out another cigarette and returned to his office.
As he returned to the office, phones were ringing here and there and the smell of cigarettes that were permanently permeated in the room, stimulating his nose.
Grace sat down on his desk just in front of the door. There were countless documents disorderly piled up on the desk.
Grace searched the pile, pulled out a name card, and dialed.
“Yes, it’s Captain Grace. The Asian that I mentioned, he just left the base.”
*
When Jackal left the U.S base, he headed straight for the Soviet occupation zone.
On the border between the U.S and the Soviet occupation zone, there were soldiers in different uniforms tightly guarding the checkpoints.
If anyone suspicious passed by, they stopped them for inspection.
Young men had to go through two inspections: once by the U.S and again by the Soviet soldiers.
And people were beaten up for no particular reason. If anyone had weapons, they were arrested immediately and sent to the military police.
Instead of passing through the checkpoint, Jackal climbed up the stairs of an abandoned building nearby.
When he reached the rooftop, there were several men standing by.
The men recognized Jackal and one of them held out his palm.
“You’re a little busy today, aren’t you?”
Jackal quietly took out a coin and put it on the man’s palm.
Then, the men took a long wooden panel and placed it on the edge of the building and the building across the street.
A temporary bridge between the two buildings was complete.
Jackal swiftly crossed the panel and reached the other rooftop. There were another group of men on this rooftop too.
Jackal took out another coin.
It was a 50 cent coin.
The men looked at the coin with greed.
“I’m looking for a man called Popov. They say he works at the borderline.”
“Popov? You mean Andrei Popov?”
A man seemed to recognize him.
Jackal glared at the man coldly.
It was a middle-aged man with cracked glasses.
He had seen him before, but he didn’t know his name.
He continued as Jackal’s eyes were fixed on him.
“I know him very well. He’s a real gangster. He’s always drunk with vodka. Whenever he has the chance, he points a pistol at women, drag them to an empty house and rape them. He also has quite a temper, so he beats anyone up if he’s in the mood. He even got into a fight with the U.S soldiers and injured them badly.”
“Where is he right now?”
Jackal asked as he waved a coin in front of them.
“Is there a problem?”
“He raped a woman I know. I need to get my personal revenge on him.”
“He’s probably at Jäger Bräuhaus. They say he got a penalty for beating up a U.S soldier.”
“Jäger Bräuhaus, eh? Thanks.”
Jackal gave him the coin.
A smile of satisfaction appeared on the man’s face.
Then, he asked worriedly.
“You going alone? He’s really strong. It might be hard for you to beat him.”
“I’ll manage.”
Jackal climbed down the stairs with a smile.
‘I’m the Devil of Cherbourg. What do they take me for anyway?’
Jackal was always confident.
He had the capability and the experience to support his confidence.
But soon, his confidence was shattered.
“…What is that..?”
The man called Andrei Popov at Jäger Bräuhaus looked more like a bear than a man.
A bulky man, who was two meters tall, was covered with muscles.
His arm seemed to be thicker than Jackal’s thigh, if not his waist.
Even if Jackal was a good fighter, he could not overcome the fundamental difference in physique.
If he had guns or knives, he might be able to beat him. But Grace asked him to beat him up with his bare hands and send him to the hospital.
“Do I need Hans..?”
He didn’t like to share his profit, but it seemed to be the only way.
Jackal quietly left Jäger Bräuhaus.
It was already getting dark outside.
Night in Berlin was a lawless world.
The streets were completely empty.
Jackal pulled down his hat, raised his collar, and walked quietly like a cat.
‘I need to head straight home. It’s already late.’
Normally, he would head to Marie-Louise’s bunker to train Wugong, but it was getting too late.
Roaming around at night was not a good choice.
The night in Berlin was dangerous even for a trained soldier like Jackal.
Soon, the familiar building appeared in the darkness.
A faint light was lighting up the entrance.
Before Jackal went inside, he looked around. It was an old habit of his, just in case there were any tails following him.
‘!?’
Jackal’s eyes beamed.
There was a shadow in the back.
There were two. Judging from the silhouette of the shadows, they were adult men wearing coats.
‘I didn’t sense anything.’
Jackal’s senses were very sharp. If he concentrated hard, he could even hear a leaf falling 30 meters away.
It didn’t make sense that he couldn’t have heard others’ footsteps, especially in the quiet night.
He had a bad feel
ing about this.
‘About 40 meters away. I better turn into an alleyway.’
Jackal turned and started walking.
He knew the area in detail.
Jackal calculated his next path in his head and continued walking.
All the while, he held out a small mirror to reflect his backside.
The shadows were behind Jackal.
He was not sure if they were chasing him.
But Jackal always chose the safest option.
Soon, a big trashcan and a small alleyway showed up.
Jackal walked into the alleyway.
The alleyway between the two tall buildings was completely dark.
He couldn’t see anything, but Jackal swiftly went into the alleyway as if he had night vision. He dug into a pile of trash on the floor.
Then, a dark hole even darker than the alleyway showed up.
A nasty smell came out from the hole.
It was a manhole to the sewers.
Jackal jumped inside and hid himself with the piles of trash around him.
Jackal did this all in a very short instant. He had practiced hundreds of times just in case he was followed.
‘Now, let’s see what they do.’
As he pulled out the pistol in his pocket, Jackal looked out of the manhole and observed the alleyway.
There was enough time since the others were about 40 to 50 meters behind.
Even if they ran at full speed, it would take about 10 seconds.
Suddenly, two shadows of men appeared at the corner of the alleyway.
Jackal’s eyes opened widely in surprise.
‘… They’re fast!’
Even a runner in the Olympics couldn’t have covered that distance in 3 seconds, and they were not even making any sounds.
The shadows stopped at the corner and looked around as if they were looking for something.
‘A tail, just as I expected. But who sent them?’
His heart pounded.
Jackal raised his pistol and glared at the mysterious shadows.
The two men formed a group.
One man stood guard.
And the other man stepped into the alleyway.
*Click*
A flashlight lit up the dark alleyway.
“Nothing.”
The man said.
It was a powerful low-toned voice.
He looked around the piles of trash in front of him and looked at the steel fence beyond it.
There was a steel ladder leaning against the fence.
The ladder was fixed on the ground with concrete so that nobody could take it.
“Hey, I think he might have gone over this.”
The man standing guard came over.
“Perhaps he climbed over the ladder?”
*Click*
Another flashlight lit up.
The two flashlights pointed at the ladder leaning against the fence.
One man approached the fence.
There was round-shaped barbed wire on the top of the fence and there was a steep bank of the Oder canal beyond it.
“What should we do? Go after him?”
One man asked. The other man shook his head.
“He’s a smart one. He seems to know the area very well.”
A whistle sounded from nearby.
It was the whistle of the Soviet guards.
There was gunfire and the men heard this clearly.
“I think we should go now.”
“I agree.”
The men quietly disappeared into the darkness.
After a while, Jackal slowly came out of the manhole and looked around.
The mysterious men who were chasing him were nowhere to be seen.
The sound of a military dog barking was heard from the distance.
*
In a dark cellar.
Marie-Louise was unwrapping the bandage covering her leg.
As she finished unwrapping the thick layer of bandage, the splint and the cotton ball showed up.
“Sigh…”
Marie-Louise’s forehead was covered with sweat.
She carefully lifted the splint and the cotton ball.
Her discolored leg with the nasty wound showed up.
“If I hadn’t used my Force shield, my leg would probably have been cut off.’
Among the countless swords attacking her, Marie-Louise recalled the face of the man whose sword was attacking her fiercely.
“Was it James McCauley…?”
As she thought of the enemy’s name, she poked her discolored leg with a finger.
“…..!”
With a weak scream, a dark shadow came over her green eyes.
She repeated the same thing numerous times.
When she finally took her finger off the leg, her forehead was wet with sweat.
“Phew….”
She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.
She still held out the finger that poked the leg.
There was a steel basin at her foot.
Marie-Louise put the finger over it and closed her eyes.
Time passed.
The sound of water drops echoed in the room.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The drops were coming from the tip of Marie-Louise’s finger.
Black liquid, resembling ink, came out of her index finger and dropped into the steel basin below.
The liquid was the decayed blood under the wound.
She had released the congestion in her vein, transferred the blood to the finger and discharged it at the tip.
She repeated this process for an hour.
The basin was smeared with black blood.
Her closed eyes opened wide.
She was hearing footsteps coming from a distance.
Each person’s footsteps had a peculiar characteristic, like fingerprints.
‘It’s that man.’
As she discharged the last drop of blood into the basin, Marie-Louise attached the splint and the cotton wool to her leg again and swiftly wrapped the bandage.
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
Her hand could not be seen with the naked eye.
The injured leg was soon covered with bandage like that of an Egyptian mummy.
Creeek-
As the sound of the bunker’s hatch opening echoed in the room, she wiped the sweat on her forehead with a handkerchief and stood up using a crutch.
Step Step.
Footsteps could be heard. She looked at the corridor beyond the destroyed door and waited for the man.
The sharp-eyed man wearing an army coat bigger than him and a hat pulled down, appeared in the darkness.
It was Jackal.
“Hey, you’re here.”
Marie-Louise greeted him with her beautiful voice.
“…..”
As always, Jackal came in silently and pulled out a water bottle and a food box.
“Oh, what’s today’s menu?”
“As always, corn soup.”
Jackal sat down on the chair where the corpse that had committed suicide used to be and pulled out his weapons and arranged them on the table.
A submachine gun, a pistol, grenades, and a knife.
Marie-Louise stood up with her crutch and patiently observed Jackal arranging his items.
“I’m sorry to suddenly ask.”
Jackal said all of a sudden.
“Yes, go on.”
“You said you were being chased by the U.S army, right?”
“……”
There was a strange look in Marie’s eyes.
Jackal didn’t notice it because he was focusing on the weapons.
“Yes. What’s the matter?”
“Do you mind telling me who is chasing you, for what reason?”
Jackal looked at Marie-Louise.
Jackal observed her face and asked again carefully.
“Well, I was just curious. It’s been quite a long time since we met, and I’m
really curious about your real identity. Where did you learn Wugong?”
He was pretending to act casually, but there was a reason for his actions.
Marie-Louise knew that Jackal was not a careless person who would speak out unnecessary stuff.
‘He only says what he needs to say.’
There are people who closed their minds to protect themselves from getting hurt.
These types of people only act for their own good and do not involve themselves in other issues.
They’re like lone wolves of the battlefield.
It was a characteristic that people who’d spent a long time in the battlefield had.
“Even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe it.”
Marie-Louise quietly sat across from Jackal and put her crutches down on the floor.
She was sitting on a tall bar stool, so her bandaged leg hung in the air.
“Would you like to hear it anyway?”
Jackal looked at her and nodded.
“Actually, I have a past life.”
“A past life?”
“It’s like the rebirth they talk about in Buddhism. You know the stuff where you are born human if you lived a good life and a beast if you lived a bad one…”
“…..”
Jackal remained silent for a moment.
He knew from experience that questioning her if such a thing was possible was meaningless.
The existence of the girl, in a maid’s clothes, was impossible from the first place.
“…what kind of past life was it?”
“Oh, you are not surprised? I thought you might not believe it if I talked about the past life.”
“I don’t believe everything you say, but that doesn’t mean that I deny everything.”
“So you are willing to listen, huh?”
Jackal didn’t deny it.
Marie-Louise sighed and looked at Jackal. Her eyes, shining like stars, were firmly fixed on Jackal’s face.
“In the past life, I was the strongest and wisest person on earth. People described me as unprecedented or the all-mighty. Well, I look ragged like this right now, but I still have all the memories of my past life. Everything I learned, and everything I experienced.”
“Is Wugong included?”
“When I was 8, I heard a voice in my head. It was the voice from my past self. It told me everything about Wugong. I was young, and didn’t know anything back then, but I couldn’t disobey it. Especially when I learned how much benefit it would bring. After that, I trained hard, and survived.”