Ch.122Chapter 122. El Paso (2)

“Hey! Jinsoo! Over here!”

“Alejandro!”

I turned around when I heard a familiar voice calling me, and there was Alejandro approaching with sunglasses on, waving his hand.

We walked toward each other with smiles, hugged once, and then separated.

“It’s been a while.”

“Yeah. Oh, Cuss! Do you remember me?”

As if you could forget someone who cut Cuss’s hair just a few months ago.

Cuss stared blankly at Alejandro for a moment, then looked at me and said:

“Umm… who is this, Jinsoo?”

“Come on.”

This is ridiculous.

I can’t tell if her memory is good or bad.

“Is this your girlfriend?”

“Yes, that’s right. Juliane Stadtfeld. She works at the Department of Justice.”

“Hahaha. I see…”

Alejandro, who had been approaching for a hug, quickly withdrew his arms and extended just one hand for a handshake.

Then he suddenly rushed over to me, put his arm around my shoulders, and whispered:

“Hey. I didn’t know she worked at the Department of Justice?”

“Is that a problem? Are you manufacturing drugs at your house or something?”

“No, it’s not that… But some of our elders at home used to work in that business in Mexico.”

“Are they recognizable faces?”

“No, not really.”

“Then it’s fine. She won’t recognize them anyway. She’s not going to interrogate people to boost her performance record while on vacation.”

“Hahaha! That’s right!”

“…”

Even as I said it, I realized my mistake.

Knowing Juliane, she might actually interrogate anyone suspicious…

I really hope there won’t be any shootings during this trip.

“Before we go to my place, want to stop somewhere? Where would you like to see? Fort Bliss? Or an art museum? Or there’s an observation deck near the border.”

“Fort Bliss? What’s that?”

“A military base. There’s also a museum next to it that displays weapons.”

“What do you think, Juliane? Cuss?”

“Hmm…”

Juliane’s expression was ambiguous.

She didn’t seem very interested.

Cuss was constantly yawning, showing no interest either.

“Let’s pass on Fort Bliss. Art museum? Well, we can go to plenty of those in LA, so let’s skip that too. The border observation deck? Is the view good there?”

“It’s amazing. Should I take you there first?”

“Please do.”

“Alright! Just wait a moment!”

An observation deck.

I think city views are pretty much the same everywhere, but when you’re visiting a new place, you should at least go up to an observation deck once.

“Ta-da!”

Soon Alejandro returned with a honking horn.

It was a rattling car that looked like it could barely move.

I looked at Cuss with disappointment, but her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

Even though the car looked like it might break down any minute, it could be a new experience for Cuss…

I was starting to think coming on this trip was a good idea after all.

I sat in the front passenger seat, while Cuss and Juliane sat in the back.

As soon as we got in, there was a strange musty smell…

We ended up having to open all the windows for ventilation.

“Ah, now it feels like a place where people actually live.”

“Right?”

After driving out of the station, we entered an old downtown area with familiar smells.

Truly, the stations built around transit hubs look the same everywhere.

You have to leave the station area to see the distinctive characteristics of each city.

From what I could see, El Paso’s main feature was its barren landscape, as dry as the sandy wind.

However, the street vendors and food trucks lined up along the streets showed that it wasn’t completely desolate.

“Buy self-defense items! Buy self-defense items!”

While waiting at a traffic light, a vendor invaded the road to sell his wares.

Who would actually fall for this…

“Self-defense items?”

“Oh, miss. You absolutely need self-defense items. El Paso is so dangerous.”

“Really? I heard El Paso was quite safe?”

Oh no.

There was someone in the back seat showing interest.

I was about to tell her to just ignore him.

“Well, you should still have something.”

“But a gun seems a bit…”

“How about a stun gun then? Try pressing this button.”

Click! Zzzzzzt!

“Oh my goodness!”

“Hohoho. Now that you’ve tried it, you have to buy it.”

“Ah…”

She had already been pressured into buying it.

How could someone who’s a Department of Justice investigator be such an easy mark?

I heard she was known as a formidable investigator among criminals, but I couldn’t imagine that version of Juliane at all.

“That’ll be 100 dollars.”

“Eek… How can you force a sale like this…”

“Don’t be too upset. The performance is top-notch. If you zap someone below the ear, it can even disable the phone chip implanted there.”

“That could kill someone!”

Juliane reluctantly took out her money and handed the bills through the window.

Why would she pay for something when she knew she was being scammed?

The battery was obviously nearly dead.

She was being way too naive.

“Hey, Cuss. Don’t be a sucker like that.”

“Okay. I’ll learn from Juliane’s negative example.”

“Waaah! Cuss! I’m not a sucker!”

“Ugh! I get it, now let go of me!”

I was about to say something more to Juliane as she tearfully hugged Cuss.

I wanted to tell her that being so naive would get her in big trouble someday…

But then I realized that I was the one who got in big trouble.

I was in no position to talk, having lost my daughter and wife like a fool and rotting in prison for 10 years.

My mood suddenly plummeted.

I leaned my elbow on the window frame, rested my chin on my hand, and stared at the scenery outside.

Maybe it was because we were near the border.

There were many military vehicles like jeeps and armored cars passing by.

Police cars were also patrolling every intersection.

With so many military and police deployed, the public safety couldn’t be that bad.

But conversely, it also suggested a high risk of crime.

“The view here is truly spectacular. Let’s all go up.”

Finally, the car stopped in front of a building.

We took the elevator up for quite a while.

The building was 50 floors high—not a skyscraper, but that didn’t matter.

There weren’t many tall buildings around, so the view should be good.

“Now, ladies and gentlemen. Look over there. That’s the station where you arrived on the Hyper Bullet.”

When we reached the observation deck, Alejandro pointed with his arm.

The station area, like any station area, made me feel claustrophobic just looking at it.

The already dense city looked even more suffocating with its skyscrapers easily exceeding 200 floors.

“And from that boundary line down to here below is the old town of El Paso.”

“Eek?!”

“Ugh…”

Only then did Juliane realize the floor was made of glass, and she jumped onto me.

My back almost gave out from her sudden embrace…

Cuss, on the other hand, not being human, seemed to have no fear of heights and was looking down without any problem.

“And over there is Mexico. Ciudad Juárez.”

“…”

“…”

Alejandro pointed to the opposite side.

If El Paso below us looked like a city with the smell of life, Ciudad Juárez looked like a city with an overwhelming smell of death.

Just looking at the shanty houses packed tightly together made me feel like I could smell the stench.

“A city abandoned by the Mexican government. The real-life Gotham City. I was born there.”

A place where finding bodies hanging from streetlights is commonplace and gunshots ring out every night—the worst city.

The funny thing is, almost all regular residents have left, and only cartel members remain, so the crime rate itself isn’t that high.

Ciudad Juárez, just one step away from El Paso, is that much of a hellhole.

With such a city on the border, it made sense that many military and police would be deployed to prevent illegal immigrants and criminals from entering.

“I really love this observation deck. The station, El Paso’s old town, and Mexico… Where else can you see a view so clearly divided into three zones?”

“Yeah, Cuss. Take a good look. If you had been a little less lucky, you might have been over there in Mexico, addicted to drugs and selling your body to pay for them. Now you know how fortunate you are to have met me, right?”

“Yes. I was extremely lucky. Now I understand that.”

“What kind of education are you giving this child…”

As long as she understood that meeting me was her great fortune, that was enough.

Good.

From now on, whenever she doesn’t listen, I can threaten to throw her into Mexico.

“I want to go there too.”

“To Mexico? No way. You don’t have a passport.”

Actually, the problem wasn’t just the passport—Cuss didn’t officially exist in this world.

She had never been registered at birth or anything.

“Cuss doesn’t have a passport? Then let’s make one for her.”

“Ah… you see, Cuss isn’t actually a US citizen.”

“You mean she doesn’t have a birth certificate? Then as soon as we get back, let’s adopt her, register her birth, get her citizenship, and apply for a passport.”

“Don’t you need to be married to adopt?”

“That’s why we should quickly have a wedding. And while we’re getting married, we could also have Cuss’s sibling… hehe.”

“Ahem! Ahem! Shall we move on now?”

Just as Juliane was getting close enough to kiss me, Alejandro clapped his hands and walked right past us.

It seemed he couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

As we headed back to the elevator, Cuss looked slightly uncomfortable.

“Sibling… don’t want one.”

“Having a sibling would be great! Think of it as getting a living doll you can pinch whenever you’re annoyed.”

“Hmm… a sibling might not be so bad after all.”

“Jinsoo?!”

I could be certain that what Juliane was worried about wouldn’t happen.

Cuss is the same type as me.

We might speak harshly and roughly, but we have soft hearts, so when it comes down to it, we treat others warmly.

After coming down from the observation deck, we moved to our next destination, the art museum.

Art museums are probably similar in any city, but we needed somewhere to kill time.

Alejandro, that bastard, said he’d give us the full tour of El Paso, but there wasn’t much to see.

After having some tacos at Taco Bell for lunch and visiting a museum, the sun was starting to set.

By this point, I was feeling a bit disillusioned.

I couldn’t tell if this was an El Paso tour or an LA tour.

Except for the higher proportion of Hispanics walking around and the yellowish color of the buildings, everything else could be enjoyed in LA too.

“Hey man, what’s going on? You said El Paso was a super fun city. This is even more boring than Daejeon.”

“Daejeon? What’s that?”

“It’s a place.”

“Well, if you were going to come, you should have come a bit later. If you had come during the Day of the Dead, the whole place would be in a festive mood.”

Day of the Dead.

He must be referring to the Mexican holiday.

If that was the case, he should have told me to come then.

“Are we staying at your place?”

“Yeah. We have many empty rooms.”

“Oh, really? You must have a big family?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Juliane seemed strangely excited.

I heard that Mexicans often live in extended families.

It seemed like we might experience the culture of chili-eaters at this guy’s house.

“We’ve arrived. Everyone, come in.”

“Wow…”

The car stopped in a rural residential area.

With the sound of dogs barking in the distance, we climbed the stairs of an old multi-story house.

“Mom! I’m home! I’m with my friend’s family that I told you about!”

When Alejandro opened the door and entered, a long hallway appeared.

It seemed quite spacious, fitting for an extended family.

“Son! We’re all in the living room!”

“That’s good. Shall I introduce you?”

“That would be nice. We’ll be spending half a day together.”

Ornate carpets and an old television…

Yes, this was the exotic atmosphere I was looking for.

Now it finally felt like I was touring a city that wasn’t LA.

Satisfied, I entered the living room, and suddenly felt my breath catch.

“This is my mother, this is my father, and this is my younger uncle and…”

“…”

Oh shit.

The elders’ appearances were all ominous.

Cauliflower ears and scar wounds all over their faces…

It wasn’t hard to guess that these guys were high-ranking members of a drug cartel.

After all, physiognomy is a science.

Didn’t he say they “used to” work in that business?

These people looked very much like they were still active.

“Excuse me. Haven’t we met before?”

“Ah…”

Sure enough, Juliane approached with a hardened expression.

Didn’t he say they wouldn’t be recognized?

Damn it. We’re screwed…