Ch.109Addiction! (5)

#109

“Senior Himena.”

Agent Kuma carefully examined the rear through the rearview mirror while calling out to Himena, who was sitting in the passenger seat.

Himena was in the middle of busily texting Dexter on her mobile phone.

“What?”

“Without looking back, don’t you think that blue van behind us is following us?”

“Van?”

Himena glanced at the blue van reflected in the side mirror and said.

“…Could you make a left turn up ahead?”

When Agent Kuma made a left turn as Himena instructed, the van followed right behind them.

“Now make a right turn here.”

Agent Kuma’s car smoothly made a right turn, and the van was still following them.

“Yep, they’re definitely following us.”

“What should we do? If we keep going, we’ll head straight to OSA headquarters.”

“Don’t you think they’ll likely try to stop our car and attack us before we reach headquarters?”

“But it’s broad daylight.”

“Do you really think a van following two people in obvious black suits would care about that?”

“Ah, I guess you’re right.”

Anyone could see they weren’t ordinary office workers, but rather government agents who reeked of official business.

If someone was bold enough to tail them, they would clearly attack regardless of whether it was day or night.

“I only have a pistol today. Do you have anything else?”

“I brought some things just in case—two submachine guns, two pistols, and four magazines each.”

“…Isn’t that a bit excessive?”

“Given my background, this is the bare minimum.”

Agent Kuma, who came from a special forces background, laughed lightly.

“Then we need to find a place with minimal civilian casualties. What should we do?”

Himena tapped her lips thoughtfully, then snapped her fingers.

“Right. If we’re in this area, we must be near Red Rock Canyon? There’s a limestone quarry called Box Canyon. Let’s lure them there. We can request backup to that location, so we should be able to handle this ourselves to some extent.”

It was a spacious area nearby, and since the weather was extremely hot today, there would hardly be anyone working there.

The place was also characterized by scattered cover, making it easy to defend.

“…I’ll try to lure them there then.”

They would need to avoid making it obvious that they were leading them to a remote area, but it seemed likely the van would follow regardless.

‘No matter how willing they are to take out government agents, they’d probably want to avoid a shootout in the city.’

Himena sensed that their pursuers might actually be grateful that they were heading to a remote location.

Since there was still time, Himena sent a text message to Dexter just in case.

It seemed she would be getting home later than usual.

-I might be a bit late today. There’s a van following us during our investigation.

Though it was still working hours, Dexter’s reply came immediately, sooner than she expected.

>A van?

-We went to Agent Thompson’s house because of the Polytechnic, and it seems they’ve been watching us for a while. There was no one following us before that.

>I understand. Be careful, and I’ll head over as soon as my shift ends.

-Okay.

As soon as she finished her conversation with Dexter, Himena called OSA headquarters to request backup.

“Residency Management Division, Agent Libero and Agent Patel reporting. We’re currently on West End Road near the golf club, and I’m reporting that an unidentified van is following us. Also…”

Headquarters quickly responded that they would dispatch an immediate response team and field agents to Box Canyon, then ended the call.

“How long has it been since the Abomination incident…”

Agent Kuma looked at the van following them in the rearview mirror with exasperation.

“I’m sick of it too, really. Can’t we just live in peace?”

“But this is something you brought upon yourself, Senior Himena.”

“That’s true… but it’s still annoying, seriously.”

Himena glared intensely at the van following them through the side mirror.

“For now, please prepare the submachine gun and pistol. There should be two bulletproof vests in the dashboard. You can wear one of them.”

“Even bulletproof vests?”

“After the Abomination incident, every little precaution seems precious to me.”

While Himena was preparing for combat, as they approached Box Canyon, the van seemed to sense something was off and began to speed up, trying to overtake them.

But it was impossible for a van that appeared to be fully loaded with people to overtake a mid-sized car carrying only two people.

Soon they arrived at Box Canyon, and as the paved road ended, Himena and Agent Kuma, both wearing bulletproof vests and holding submachine guns, looked at each other and nodded.

Agent Kuma immediately parked the car behind a large excavator and got out.

Hiding his body behind the excavator’s tracks, Agent Kuma observed the van coming to a stop and whispered to Himena.

“Senior, the hostiles are about to disembark.”

“Got it.”

Himena also got out of the car, took cover behind the excavator, and aimed her submachine gun toward the van.

‘How many will there be?’

With the van’s heavily tinted windows, neither of them could see inside, so they were curious about how many people would emerge.

Finally, the back door of the van swung open, and men with armaments no ordinary civilian could possess began to exit.

Seeing this, Agent Kuma clicked his tongue.

They appeared to be mercenaries from a PMC, a private military company.

‘One, two, three, four… twelve in total. Judging by their gait, armament style, and facial features… the first one out looks like DEVGRU? Or maybe 75th Ranger Regiment.’

‘DEVGRU’ was the abbreviation for Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and the 75th Ranger Regiment was a unit that combined the characteristics of both infantry and special forces.

As a former Navy SEAL, Agent Kuma was uncomfortable with the possibility that one of the men exiting the van might be from DEVGRU or the 75th Ranger Regiment.

“What’s wrong? Why do you look concerned?”

Himena could sense his discomfort and asked in a low voice. Agent Kuma carefully aimed his submachine gun toward the van and replied.

“I think they might be better fighters than us.”

“Then we’ll have to make sure that doesn’t matter.”

Himena switched her submachine gun to single-shot mode as she spoke.

Although she was trying to act composed in front of her junior Agent Kuma, Himena’s mouth was bone dry.

‘I’m so nervous I could die…’

Just then, one of the mercenaries who had exited the van spoke in a low voice.

“The Polytechnic you took from Agent Thompson’s house.”

“……”

“It would be better if you handed it over nicely.”

Agent Kuma responded to the PMC mercenary’s words.

“Do you know who we are?”

“We don’t care who you are. All we want is the Polytechnic.”

In response to the mercenary’s firm voice, Himena pursed her lips once before shouting.

“But we have one problem that we can’t just let go, you know?”

“…?”

“How did you know the name Agent Thompson?”

OSA is a government secret agency after all.

When agents contract for residences, they don’t use their real names but are helped to contract under cover identities.

Even Himena’s current condo is registered under one of her frequently used cover identities, not her real name.

In a normal situation, no one except Himena and Agent Kuma should know Agent Thompson’s name, yet the PMC mercenary near the van casually mentioned it.

“……”

The PMC mercenary, seemingly realizing his mistake, remained silent.

“It looks like you’ll have to surrender to us quietly.”

With those words, Agent Kuma aimed his pre-loaded submachine gun at the leg of one of the PMC mercenaries.

-Bang!

“Argh.”

As one man collapsed with the gunshot, the mercenary who had proposed negotiation shouted.

“Everyone, spread out and take cover, now!”

-Ratatata!

This time, although the shot was slightly off, it still pierced through the right arm of another mercenary, rendering him unable to return fire.

Himena also aimed her submachine gun at the right arm of a mercenary who was crawling in a prone position trying to take cover behind a small hill nearby.

She gently pulled the trigger.

‘If I pull it right, I should feel several catches, they said.’

Himena’s shooting posture was completely still.

-Bang!

“Urgh.”

That mercenary tried to return fire with his left arm instead of his injured right, but Himena shot him in the thigh, making it impossible.

-Bang!

“Damn it!”

As two men were instantly incapacitated, the leader-type mercenary shouted.

“What are you doing! Fire now!”

Two men carried away the incapacitated mercenaries while the rest began firing toward the excavator.

Bullets were literally raining down on them.

Himena, watching bullets ricochet off the excavator’s frame, picked up an elongated stone from the ground, threw it toward the mercenaries, and said.

“Kuma, get down!”

Agent Kuma, who obviously wasn’t carrying grenades, understood what Himena was aiming for.

“Get down!”

When the leader-type mercenary shouted, the mercenaries crouched down expecting an explosion. Seeing this, Himena began firing.

-Ratatata! Rata!

Even for PMC mercenaries, the pain of bullets tearing through flesh and lodging in bone is indescribable.

“Urgh.”

Though they tried to endure, another bullet from Himena pierced through an arm, causing a suppressed scream to escape.

“Crazy, damn it!”

The leader-type mercenary already had a good grasp of the situation and knew they weren’t outnumbered.

However, more than six of his team members were already incapacitated.

From mistaking a mere stone for a grenade to team members getting shot while crawling to find cover in an open field, he was at a complete loss.

Some team members were former Rangers or Navy SEALs.

Yet they were being picked off helplessly.

It was absurd and embarrassing.

He shouted to one of the uninjured team members who had luckily taken cover behind a large rock or in a ditch.

“Goddamn it… throw a grenade now!”

The mercenary’s voice echoed loudly.

A team member took out a grenade attached to his tactical vest, slightly peeked out, pulled the safety pin, and threw it toward the back of the excavator.

“Grenade!”

Himena shouted.

Agent Kuma carefully observed the trajectory of the incoming grenade and predicted it would land near his feet.

The adrenaline rush made everything around him seem to slow down.

There was no time to hesitate.

Agent Kuma gripped the stock of his submachine gun.

The grenade’s delay fuse still had 1 to 2 seconds before detonation.

Agent Kuma immediately swung his submachine gun like a baseball bat, hitting the grenade.

-Thwack!

The sound of the submachine gun’s barrel colliding with the grenade was surprisingly clean, almost unbelievable.

The grenade flew in the opposite direction, traveling well over 100 yards before exploding in mid-air.

-Boom…!

Himena found his action ridiculous, but she realized that his body was now exposed outside the excavator.

“Kuma, get down now!”

Just as Agent Kuma was about to duck down as Himena instructed.

-Bang!

“Damn…”

Despite Himena’s warning, Agent Kuma was hit by a bullet fired by the leader-type mercenary. He ducked down, clutching his shoulder.