Ch.331Episode 13 – There Is No Country for Wizards

“Director, just a moment.”

Before going to meet Martinez.

Pippin, who was guarding the security terminal, stopped me.

“What will you do if Martinez notices something suspicious during the meeting and attacks?”

“Shoot first.”

I blurted out while holstering my gun.

“But he’s a magician, isn’t he? And a dangerous, wanted one at that.”

“Can’t magicians get bullets in their heads?”

“You still need insurance.”

“Pippin’s right. You need to be prepared.”

Jake, who had just returned, took out a charm from his bag, folded it neatly, and handed it to me.

“It’s a charm with an anti-magic protection spell. Take it with you.”

“Won’t that be insufficient?”

“I have a good idea.”

Thud. I tossed a secure phone onto the desk. I pointed at the rugged mobile phone and continued.

“Take out all your phones.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“I’ll call you with this phone. Then you record everything you hear on the communication line, listen carefully, and if anything seems off, send backup immediately.”

“Isn’t that too dangerous?”

“When has anything we’ve done not been dangerous?”

After lighting a cigarette and exhaling smoke, I spoke to my subordinates.

“This operation must succeed at all costs. If we lose them, not just you and me, but Francesca, Lucia, and Camilla will be fucked too.”

“……”

“Let’s end this in one go.”

So I connected my secure mobile phone to my subordinates’ secure phones.

It was a wise choice.

Episode 13 – There Is No Country for Magicians

Martinez was the first to react.

He immediately kicked off the asphalt, turned his back, and ran away.

“Kill him!”

At that signal, a flash erupted from the second floor of the building across the street.

The yellow mass that was fired soaked the floor and pillars, and soon the bricks crumbled with a chilling sound.

Having barely avoided the magic, I grabbed my gun handle and shouted.

“Open fire!”

Tadadada! Tadadada! Muffled gunshots crossed the road.

The source of the commotion was two men who had grabbed their slung guns.

They were paramilitary operatives disguised as local soldiers wearing military uniforms.

“Run!”

Before the paramilitary operative’s shout ended, gunfire erupted again. Gun barrels aimed at the second-floor window were spitting fire.

Tada! The gun barrel that spewed out loud gunshots flashed briefly in the darkness of the intersection. Bullets ricocheted from the second-floor window, and stone dust poured down. At the same time, a short scream was heard from inside the building. The magician who had fired the spell seemed to have been hit.

While one Royal Intelligence Service paramilitary operative was suppressing the magician on the second floor to prevent counterattacks, another operative who had shouted at me aimed at the back of the fleeing Martinez.

Then came three gunshots.

But no one fell.

“Damn it…!”

As smoke belatedly rose from the silencer, the paramilitary operative who had folded his gun and raised the barrel toward the sky cursed.

“What happened?”

“He went into the alley.”

Unfortunately, Martinez had escaped the gunfire and fled into an alley.

Two enemies. One had already escaped, but one remained. I took my pistol and kicked open the door of the building across the street.

Bursting into the building, we found a magician groaning on the floor. An intelligence officer who had slammed the man to the floor as he was dragging his legs out of a wide-open room turned on his light to illuminate his face.

Meanwhile, I took out my phone to compare the magician’s identity with the stored photo.

Fortunately, it was someone I knew.

“Karim Boumediene.”

No other words were necessary.

As soon as his identity was confirmed, the intelligence officer blew Karim Boumediene’s head off with his rifle. The muffled gunshot shook the corridor, and the sound of someone holding their breath could be heard from behind tightly closed doors.

I signaled to suggest going outside. The paramilitary operatives didn’t carelessly respond in Abbasian, but just nodded and quickly left the building.

Immediately after leaving the scene, I took out my phone and contacted Pippin. Since I had connected the call an hour earlier, I didn’t even need to press the call button.

“Hey, it’s me. This bastard just bolted into an alley. Northern direction.”

-‘Adult male fleeing northward. I’ll find him right away.’

A pigeon sitting on a utility pole began to flap its wings vigorously.

The pigeon that soared into the night sky flew high, and the crystal ball fixed to its body clearly transmitted the landscape from dozens of meters above.

-‘I found him…!’

Charnoi’s voice came through less than 3 minutes after the pigeon had taken flight.

-‘800 meters north…! He’s moving through the alleys…!’

“The bastard is fucking fast….”

He ran 800 meters through maze-like alleys. I don’t know what he normally eats to be able to run like that at his age.

I paused the call briefly and contacted Jake. He must have been holding his phone, as he quickly answered.

-‘Yes.’

“Change of plans. Martinez escaped.”

-‘I’ll pursue him.’

After telling him to get Martinez’s location from Pippin, I hung up.

Karim Boumediene, who had fired the magic, was dead, but Martinez had fled far away. However, there was still a chance.

Before moving with the paramilitary operatives disguised as soldiers,

I glanced at the faint silhouette leaping across the rooftops.

*

A chase began in the moonlit night.

“Shots have been fired. The neighborhood residents are all awake, and the Imperial Military Police and Internal Forces on patrol have probably noticed. Feel free to use your personal weapons, and shoot to kill as soon as you encounter the target.”

“Understood, Team Leader.”

Team Leader Matthew took his finger off the button.

The deputy team leader sitting in the passenger seat said,

“Obstacle ahead. Turn left.”

“Got it.”

The vehicle smoothly crossed the icy surface and turned left. The following vehicle also quickly changed direction at the three-way intersection.

Jake, sitting in the back seat, tapped his radio while placing his rifle between his legs and staring out the window.

“Location?”

Matthew asked. Jake answered.

“300 meters left.”

“Which way do we go?”

“Turn right in 15 meters, then go straight until you reach an alley with a parked car. We should encounter him there.”

“Did you hear that, Steve?”

The deputy team leader in the passenger seat, Steven, shook his head.

“I still can’t get used to that name.”

Two vehicles raced down the long straight road that appeared after completing the right turn.

Black asphalt covered with mud, garbage, and black soot-stained snow. The cars sped down the wide-open road.

At that moment, suddenly a man darted out from an alley.

Though too far to confirm his identity, there was only one person who would be roaming the city alone during curfew.

The decision was swift.

The intelligence officer at the wheel shifted gears and pressed the accelerator deeply, beginning to charge toward the man.

“Damn it…!”

Martinez, who had barely dodged and jumped onto the road, was horrified to see the vehicle rushing toward him like a ferocious beast.

Thick tires, a heavy body, unbreakable bulletproof glass. It was definitely not an ordinary car commonly seen on the road. It was more like a military armored vehicle with its turret removed.

The engine roared as the previously off headlights flashed on.

Martinez, momentarily captivated by the intense light, quickly spread a green barrier.

Then came the tremendous impact.

A chest-piercing collision sound: Boom!

Martinez, who had hastily protected himself with the barrier, collided with the rapidly approaching vehicle and tumbled across the muddy ground.

*

Martinez, who had collided with the vehicle, was thrown onto the road like a roadkill deer.

He had prevented serious injury, but there was nothing he could do about the wounds from rolling on the asphalt.

Groaning from his skin scraped by the asphalt and the ice and snow fragments that had seeped inside his clothes, he stood up and swung his arm to cast a protection spell.

Bullets flew into the thin membrane of green magical energy.

The Royal Intelligence Service paramilitary operative who had rammed Martinez with the vehicle, upon confirming that he was still alive and breathing, opened the car door and opened fire.

Tadadadadada! Pushing the door open with his foot, the paramilitary operative extended his gun barrel between the windshield and side window and showered the magician protected by the shield spell with bullets.

Following him, Team Leader Matthew and Deputy Leader Steven, who had half-emerged from the vehicle, also supported their teammate, and Jake too crouched behind a tire and pulled the trigger.

“Urghh…!”

With each burst of gunfire, ripples formed on the barrier.

Cracks appeared in the hastily created protection spell, and the green magical energy wavered precariously like a candle in the wind.

Martinez’s face contorted at the unseemly sound escaping through his clenched teeth. The color of the precariously wavering protection spell appeared and disappeared repeatedly on his face as he glared at the paramilitary operatives with bulging eyes.

It was impossible to hold out any longer.

Once he made that judgment, Martinez raised his voice and shouted into the air.

“Ahmad-!”

No sooner had those words ended than the green barrier shattered into pieces.

And between the incoming bullets and Martinez, a black space like a deep well gaped open.

What emerged from the ominous space that had swallowed the bullets was none other than a pack of dogs with glowing red eyes, dripping black liquid.

“Grrrr…!”

“Keng! Keng!”

At the sudden appearance of the dog pack, Team Leader Matthew shouted to his team members in Kiyenese.

“Undead!”

The dogs, lowering their bodies, began to charge toward the intelligence officers at lightning speed.

As a dog, whose spilling entrails dragged along the ground unnoticed, leaped from the mud with sharp teeth bared—

A figure running along the icicle-fringed edge of the roof soared into the sky.

On the rooftop under the faint moonlight.

Black fur swaying in the wind and a roughly curved tail. Cat ears that weren’t hidden even by the beanie twitched alertly.

Caer, who had kicked off the roof and taken flight, aimed his gun barrel downward.

The finger resting on the trigger guard was gently pulled.

-Click!

As everything seemed to flow slowly like a panorama, as if time had stopped.

A strange “pong” sound, incomparable to gunfire, struck everyone’s eardrums.

The fired projectile crossed the spine-chilling night sky.

It was a grenade.