Wire Across the Road
Se-geon was racing forward when he sensed something off. He had always kept his guard up around Tetra Anax, so his nerves were already stretched taut.
But from where?
And how?
Screeeech!
Se-geon leaned the bike hard and slammed on the brakes. Stopping would have been suicide if it were a sniper, yet a skilled marksman could still nail a target moving at constant speed. He had to change velocity!
Where are you!
He roared the thought inside his head as he righted the bike he had laid on its side and shot straight ahead. Slowing with the lean and brake, then releasing into a hard acceleration—it was one of the techniques he favored.
Thwack!
Even so, spotting a thin membrane floating in the dark of night was no easy feat. The instant he poured on the acceleration, something smashed into his face with brutal force and flung him backward. Thank God for the motorcycle helmet; without it his face would have been pulp.
Shhhrrreeee!
His XR-250 skidded down the road, trailing a shower of sparks.
“Gaaah!”
His neck had nearly snapped backward. He had only been caught at the moment of re-acceleration after braking; if he had been flying at full speed his neck might have broken clean through.
“A wire!”
Se-geon muttered the words as he drew his Tokarev. Remaining flat on the road was suicide. Traffic was light in the dead of night, which meant any vehicle that came would be moving fast. Stay here and he was dead.
“Keh! Not bad!”
Gyeong snickered at the sight of Se-geon thrashing on the ground. The kid had hit the trap and still lived—his instincts were sharp.
“But you picked the wrong opponent.”
Gyeong murmured the words and pulled a UZI submachine gun from his coat. When it came to killing humans, nothing beat human firearms.
“Kh—!”
Se-geon tried to rise, only for the world to go black. Severe concussion. And of course the enemy was packing superior firepower in a situation like this!
I got too cocky!
He cursed himself, but the regret came far too late.
Brrraaap!
Gyeong squeezed the trigger. Se-geon rolled sideways in pure desperation and tumbled off the road. Every movement sent a spike of agony through his skull; the hit had been brutal. He wanted nothing more than to inhale Psychedelic Moon, but there was no time to yank the helmet off.
“Damn it.”
Se-geon snatched a half-empty water bottle sitting atop a roadside traffic-signal controller. The fact that almost nothing remained inside suited him perfectly. He dumped Psychedelic Moon into it and bolted for an alley.
“Hah… hah…”
Gyeong followed at a leisurely pace. The kid was already wounded; charging in deep and catching a Tokarev round would only make him look foolish. Better to kill him slowly, carefully.
“But is that guy really supposed to be something special? Doesn’t look like it to me.”
Gyeong scratched his head with the UZI as he muttered.
Meanwhile Se-geon ducked behind a parked jeep, shook the bottle until the Psychedelic Moon dissolved, and filled a blood-draw syringe with the mixture.
Hiss.
“Ugh!”
The needle biting into flesh felt filthy, but it was the only option left. Injecting was faster and more effective than risking the seconds it would take to remove the helmet. Sure enough the pain faded and his concussion-blurred vision snapped back into focus.
“Shit, where is he?”
Thinking that, Se-geon hurled the empty bottle to the opposite side. A sharp whistle of air answered; the bottle pinwheeled away and buried itself in a roadside tree. A pure-white knife had punched straight through the plastic and into the trunk.
Vrrrrmmm.
The knife had been thrown with such force that its hilt was still quivering.
“Maybe stop with the cheap tricks?”
Gyeong shouted, kicked off the wall, and vaulted up into the tree. From that height Se-geon’s cover behind the car was wide open!
“Kh—!”
Se-geon leveled the Tokarev and fired. Gyeong simply leapt from the tree onto a rooftop, dodging the rounds with contemptuous ease.
“What was that!?”
“Gunshots!”
Voices rose from the surrounding buildings. Se-geon melted into the shadows the moment he heard them. Using a gun in the middle of the city was always a liability unless special conditions were met…
“Hello!”
A human voice suddenly spoke right beside him.
“Ugh!”
Thud!
Se-geon tried to throw himself backward, but his opponent’s charge was ferocious. A one-two kick combination slammed into him before he could fully react. He crossed his arms in a block, yet still went flying into a tree, his back cracking against the trunk.
Crack!
Sparks exploded behind his eyes from the pain. He still had to move.
“Kh!”
Se-geon ducked; the next knife bounced off his helmet with a metallic ting and spun skyward. He raised the pistol and glared at Gyeong.
“Ah, let’s play without guns. I’ll put mine away first.”
Gyeong said it casually and hung the submachine gun from his belt. Doing that right in front of an enemy!
“You shot first!”
Se-geon shouted and pulled the trigger. At this range there was no way the bastard could dodge! Yet Gyeong’s form shattered like glass.
“What!?”
“Sorry—that was a mirage.”
In the same instant Gyeong lunged from the side and chopped Se-geon’s arm with a knife-hand strike. A sickening crunch of breaking bone rang out as the Tokarev tumbled from Se-geon’s grip. Gyeong kicked the pistol far away and drove a palm-heel strike toward Se-geon’s torso.
“Kh!”
Se-geon forced through the agony of the broken arm and launched a flying knee—kao loi—that smashed into Gyeong’s jaw. Countering a body thrust with a jumping knee on pure reflex… the split-second judgment was extraordinary. Even Gyeong had to snap his head back and retreat several steps.
Crack-crack!
“Damn. You’re not bad.”
Yet Gyeong simply grabbed his own head and twisted his neck forward as if nothing had happened. In that brief window Se-geon sprinted hard for the road.
Kh! Goddamn it! That first hit was too much! I have to run!
He pictured the XR-250 still lying in the street. Get on that and he could outrun any vampire’s speed. Gyeong, of course, had no intention of letting him go.
“Hey. Leaving someone behind and taking off by yourself is pretty rude.”
Gyeong shouted and charged. Se-geon threw himself forward, scooped up the fallen Tokarev, and tried the near-acrobatic feat of firing backward while still moving.
“Hah!”
But Gyeong was nowhere in his field of view. The vampire had simply vaulted nearly three stories high and sailed clean over him.
“Look, I’ve got the face of the Juk-yo Assassin Squad to maintain, so do me a favor and die, yeah?”
He said it while drawing the submachine gun again. Se-geon clenched his teeth. He had forgotten the old saying about there always being someone higher up the food chain, and now he was going to die like a dog for that carelessness.
Vroooom!
At that exact moment a Hummer came roaring into the alley. The military vehicle charged like a rabid rhinoceros.
“Kh!”
Gyeong rolled once, then springboarded lightly into a tree. The Hummer smashed straight into the trunk anyway.
Crrraaack!
“I came because I heard gunfire, and look what a mess I find!”
Sarhyuk bellowed as he rolled down the window. Gyeong’s eyes went wide.
“Alchemist!”
“Hm?”
Sarhyuk glared at him and drew a Colt Python .357 from his coat. Gyeong clicked his tongue.
“Lucky bastard. That’s enough for today!”
In a flash Gyeong launched himself across the rooftops and vanished.
“Damn it. Better clear out for now.”
Sarhyuk muttered and tossed Se-geon into the back seat. The fight with Gyeong had been so savage that even after the Psychedelic Moon, Se-geon was still half-conscious.
“My bike…”
“I know, I know. Leave it and it’s evidence! Hang on!”
Sarhyuk wheeled the Hummer toward the main road, hopped out for a second, grabbed the bike with both hands, and heaved it onto the roof of the Hummer. The casual way he lifted and set it down made it look no heavier than a bicycle.
“….”
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Sarhyuk floored it and tore out of the neighborhood.
The first thing Se-geon saw when he opened his eyes was a gigantic Bart Simpson face.
“Ugh…”
His mind was still foggy. He forced himself upright and tried to think. The questions that floated up were Where am I? and Who am I?, but the answers arrived quickly. The only place he knew with wallpaper this ridiculous was Silvester’s room. Which meant this had to be Arjuna.
“Right… Sarhyuk saved me, didn’t he?”
Se-geon gave a bitter smile. He had never held a particularly high opinion of the man, yet that same man had pulled him out of the fire. A sudden wave of self-loathing washed over him. He had swaggered around just because he had a little experience under his belt, and he couldn’t even handle one vampire…
Arm’s healed too.
The vampire’s knife-hand strike had broken his wrist, yet it was cleanly mended. They must have injected him with vampire blood while he slept.
Knock-knock.
Someone rapped on the door. Se-geon sat up with a start.
“Yes! Come in.”
“Right.”
The door opened to reveal Silvester wearing a distinctly sour expression. He was dressed in a T-shirt several sizes too large for him; he dropped onto the opposite sofa and fixed Se-geon with a hard stare.
“Huh?”
“Nearly dying clear your head a little, brat?”
“Well… that vampire was pretty strong, though.”
“Even on the brink of death you still won’t admit you’re weak.”
“I mean, my own weakness is part of it. Oh—Sarhyuk-ssi is the one who saved me.”
“Your life has plenty of black marks, but that one’s probably the biggest.”
“….”
Every word Silvester spoke carried a peculiar barb. He clearly despised Sarhyuk.
“Doesn’t matter much to me either way, but you’d better be careful. Get too close to Sarhyuk and people start treating you like the same breed. Show your face at Arjuna again and I’ll cut both your heads off and hang them in the trees for the magpies.”
“…I just accepted help, that’s all.”
Se-geon said it and slipped out of the room. Kim Seong-hui, who had been preparing breakfast, looked up in surprise.
“You’re already up and moving? Where’s Silvester?”
“No idea. What about Sarhyuk—what did he say?”
“Not much. Why do you care?”
“I should at least go thank him. I owe him.”
When Se-geon insisted, Kim Seong-hui gave a small smile.
“Here—his business card. Go look him up if you want. But keep it quiet from Silvester. He hates that Sarhyuk more than he hates cockroaches.”
“Uh… Silvester can already hear everything we’re saying.”
Se-geon reminded her of Silvester’s ridiculous hearing, but she only winked.
“Oh my. I had no idea. Anyway, that Sarhyuk fellow has a terrible reputation in the business. Even the vampires seem to look down on him. He’s the type who makes enemies left and right, so it’s better not to get too close.”
“Yes. I’ll be going, then.”
Se-geon took the warning and stepped outside.