Chapter 69: Le Wei, Returned from Hell

TL: LittlePeach

I already had a rough plan in my head for how to stir up the Shanyuan Society and turn it upside down.

All that was left was to put it into action.

"Tsss...."

Of course, there was one thing I had to settle for certain before that.

The Shanyuan Society were irredeemable trash who had tried to kidnap North Korean defectors and grind them up in a voice phishing operation.

That much had already been proven.

'The Hongmen Society, though. I'm not so sure about them.'

The Hongmen Society had put up a respectable building and, on the surface, offered legitimate security and guard services.

Handling security for a drug production site was disqualifying, sure, but whether that justified charging them with the same crimes as the Shanyuan Society was another matter entirely.

What if, on the off chance, this Hongmen Society really was a normal business built on honest sweat?

'Even I'm not that much of a lunatic.'

So I needed to confirm their true face.

Necessary groundwork, if I wanted to sleep soundly at night.

So I picked up the phone.

Brrrrring.

Click.

-Hello?

A voice thick with suspicion about who I might be came through the phone.

An international call from an unknown number. Fair enough.

Ahem.

I smiled gently and led with a greeting.

"It's me, Sparrow No. 7. Have you been well?"

-....

The instant the words left my mouth, for some reason, silence came back at me from the other end.

I couldn't even see her face, and yet somehow I could feel a glare prickling at me.

-Haaah.

And now a sigh, too?

'What's this about?'

When we parted in Dandong, I was fairly sure we'd parted on good terms. Had I been wrong?

As the silence on the other end stretched out, I found myself smacking my lips awkwardly.

"So, uh. I thought we parted on pretty decent terms back in Dandong. Guess not?"

At that, a faint snort came through the phone.

Sighing one moment, laughing the next. Her reactions were impossible to pin down.

-No. The meaning of that sigh was.... Haah. Never mind. What would be the point.

"Ah, well. It's been a while. You're doing all right, aren't you?"

-Sure. I don't know about well, but I've certainly been keeping busy.

For some reason, Yang Mi-ryeong kept grumbling and picking at the tail end of everything I said.

Just as I swallowed dry at her inexplicable primness.

-Anyway. Where are you right now?

"Me? I'm in Cambodia at the moment."

-...Haah. Of all the places to be calling me from....

This time the sigh was twice as deep and twice as long as the last one.

The silence dragged on again, and when Yang Mi-ryeong's voice finally returned, it sounded a good deal lighter.

-Well, fine. What did you call about?

She seemed to have shaken off some lingering attachment I couldn't name.

The prim tone, of course, hadn't budged an inch.

I wet my lips and forced my voice up a notch.

"Nothing much. There's an organization inside the Triads I wanted to ask you about."

-Which one?

"I was wondering if you knew anything about a place called the Hongmen Society."

The moment the question was out, Yang Mi-ryeong went quiet for a while again.

Her head seemed busy sorting through what she ought to say and what she shouldn't.

Before long, that distinctively soft voice came through.

-I won't bother asking why you want to know. But there's a condition in exchange.

"Which is?"

-Do me one favor sometime soon. I'll make the payment worth your while.

It was the first offer like this I'd had since the job to abduct Jin Hao alive.

How big a headache would it be this time, and what kind of staggering payment would she press into my hands?

I had plenty of questions, but the line had to be drawn first.

"I told you last time as well. I don't kill people for money."

-Don't worry, it's nothing like that. Categorize it however you like, it's simple protection work.

"Ah. If that's all, then sure."

Protection work was nothing difficult.

Either I become the punching bag, or I beat down the punching bags that come at me.

That's all there is to it.

When I nodded readily, Yang Mi-ryeong's voice picked up in earnest.

-All right, then. What is it you want to know about the Hongmen Society?

"Just the basics. They say the outfit's been rooted in Cambodia for quite a while, but from the outside they look like an ordinary security firm. I want to check whether these guys are bad guys or good guys."

-...Heh. Good guys? You think there's a saint anywhere among the lot who do business under the Triad name?

Yang Mi-ryeong couldn't hold back a laugh at my naive question.

And what she told me next about the Hongmen Society's true nature was very interesting indeed.

-The Hongmen Society hangs a security-company sign out front, but what they actually run is a vicious murder-for-hire business.

To start with, the Hongmen Society's main clientele were Cambodia's senior officials, regional power brokers, drug cartels, all the strata that reeked of money.

Having drained those people's money and connections, the Hongmen Society had erected a building in the heart of downtown for all to see, then dressed itself up as a legitimate security and guard company and ran its business from there.

On the surface, then, they appeared to draw an elegant line between themselves and criminal enterprise.

'For our VIPs who use our security and guard services, we do provide certain special services.'

But in reality they were no different from the Shanyuan Society.

Only the approach and the shell were different. In the end, both organizations made their money off other people's blood.

Custom-tailored murder-for-hire for VIP clients, in other words.

'Fuck! You're a Hongmen Society hitman, aren't you!'

Now I understood why Le Wei had bared his teeth at me like that.

Two organizations fighting over the same murder market on a patch of land as narrow as Cambodia. A turf war between the two had been inevitable.

-Hypocrites, all of them. I don't know if you're aware, but there's an organization inside the Triads called the Shanyuan Society.

I flinched.

Whether my shoulders hunched or not, Yang Mi-ryeong couldn't see it, and she went on saying her piece at her leisure.

-Inside the Triads, the two of them are treated as equals.

"Hmm."

If she was willing to go that far, there was nothing left to ask.

They were exactly the sort I could smash to pieces without a care in the world.

Which meant there was no reason for me to feel any pointless pangs of conscience, either.

"Understood. Thanks to you, I won't need to hesitate."

-I don't know what it is, but you sound excited.

"Yeah, well. Thanks for the help."

-I'll be in touch soon, so keep this line up.

Click.

And with that, the call ended.

I looked at the blackened phone screen and grinned.

"Right, then."

The firewood was stacked. All that remained was to light it.

*****

Phnom Penh has a fair number of good-sized used car lots.

Places that import cars one step from the scrapyard out of Korea, Japan, China and elsewhere, wipe them down until they look presentable enough to roll, and line them up for display.

Everything from sedans to buses. Quite the variety.

"Hm? What's this. Aren't you the guy who bought the pickup truck last time?"

"That's me."

"So where'd you offload that car, showing up here again?"

"I gave it to a new era."

"...?"

The Chinese owner of the used car lot recognized me at once.

He took a step back, his face souring.

"Whatever. I don't know what you're up to, but I take no responsibility. Wherever you drove that car into, it's no business of mine."

"I know. Anyway, how much for this one?"

"That? Japanese, so five thousand dollars. Good mileage, easy to fix...."

"Pricey. What about this one?"

"Tch. Korean, so two thousand. The odometer says five hundred thousand kilometers, but the condition's still...."

"Perfect. I'll take it."

"Tax is separate."

"And I don't need to register it, same as last time, right?"

"Yeah. In Cambodia you can drive around unregistered, nobody cares."

"Nice."

"I told you last time, no refunds."

"There won't be any refunds."

Buy a car from a place like this and it normally gives out inside of two weeks.

That miraculous equation where the repairs cost more than the car did.

But none of that had anything to do with me.

It only had to run safely for today, and that was enough.

'Money's nice for this kind of thing.'

A mere two million won for a car.

A hefty sum for a used car that could just barely roll, but if I thought of it as buying a homing missile for the same price, it was a bargain.

A single Scud missile goes for over a million dollars. This was practically a giveaway, wasn't it?

"La-di-da."

And so I picked myself out a used car.

Korea's eternal bestseller, the Sonata.

Another poor soul washed up in a distant country, eating dust and suffering, exactly like me. Something about it tugged at the heart.

So I stopped by a nearby gas station and filled its tank right to the brim.

Perfect for burning nice and bright.

"Hey, hey."

"What."

"This, twenty kilogram gas, how much?"

"Forty thousand riel."

"How about dollar. Ten dollar."

"Sure, sure."

"Five gas, c'mon."

"Holy shiiit."

Next I bought five of the twenty-kilo LPG cylinders that were piled up and sold any old way in a corner of the gas station.

Once I'd crammed the full cylinders into the passenger seat and the back seat, my terror prep was complete. Just like that.

Where else in the world is there an environment this relaxing for causing havoc?

Honestly, it was far more comfortable than Dandong had been.

'I really do like Cambodia.'

No wonder they call this place a paradise for criminals.

If there was one unfortunate fact for the criminals, though, it was that the paradise wasn't theirs alone.

Vrooooom!

I floored the accelerator and tore off toward my destination.

But there's always a reason for a cheap price.

Chug, chug, chug, chug....

Every time it tried to build past a certain speed, the engine bucked and wheezed.

It was a flood-damaged car, no question. Something had given it a thorough soaking somewhere.

"Hey. You want to wheeze along like this your whole life and end up in a junkyard?"

Foot on the accelerator, I tapped the horn and put the question to it.

"Wouldn't you rather burn yourself up in one glorious blaze with me and go out in style?"

And then, as if in answer, Vroooaaaaam!

The engine boiled over with a furious roar and started wringing out every last drop of the life it had left.

"That's it! You're coming with me!"

Where to?

To the Zone of Zero!

And so I raced on and arrived in the heart of downtown Phnom Penh.

At an hour when few people were about, the Hongmen Society's headquarters loomed at the end of the road before my eyes.

A gaudy electronic billboard flashed away, showing itself off as if begging to be looked at.

The target was sitting there in plain view, so I stomped the accelerator down once more without hesitation.

Vroooaaaaam!

Thunk!

The wheels slammed into the curb.

"Whoa!"

Immediately after, my body, hanging from the seatbelt, launched into the air.

That floating, weightless feeling.

And at the same moment, the airborne car was sucked straight toward the plate glass of the first-floor lobby.

CRASSSSSHHH!

"Whoaaaaaa."

Crash-bang-bang-bang!

The car spun round and round as it tore across the wide lobby.

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

Countless fragments, glass or car body, I couldn't tell which, sprayed everywhere and pelted my whole body.

And then, THUD!

Only after burying itself in the expensive marble wall at the back of the lobby did the car finally stop.

And with that, the Sonata's last dance came to an end.

"Whew. Good work."

Wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo.

A blaring alarm started up throughout the building.

"Wh-what's going on!"

"A car, a car came flying into the lobby!"

Guards in black suits poured out from every direction like hornets whose nest had been kicked.

I had just kicked open the upside-down car door, climbed out, and pulled one of the gas cylinders from where it had been riding shotgun.

"Wh-what the hell!"

"Freeze! Who the hell are you, bastard!"

"Who is this guy, coming in here...."

Chinese, in a foreign land where I could barely make a word understood, sounded strangely welcome.

A man who looked like the building's chief of security leveled a pistol and shouted, but with the gas cylinder cradled in my arms, he didn't dare pull the trigger.

"Ahem. You want to know who I am?"

With a black mask pulled over my face, I shouted loud enough to make the lobby ring.

"I am Le Wei of the Shanyuan Society! I have returned from hell to take revenge on you bastards who killed me!"

"...What did you say?"

Naturally, it was complete bullshit.

The real Le Wei had taken my bullet through the heart in the hallway of his own Dandong hideout and gone to hell a long time ago.

But hey, who cared?

Le Wei died believing a Hongmen Society assassin had killed him, and here I was, flying all the way to Cambodia in person to lay his grudge to rest for him.

"Wh-what kind of crazy shit is that!"

The guards couldn't hide their bewilderment at my solemn declaration.

Whatever. I'd said everything I needed to say.

Le Wei of the Shanyuan Society, and revenge.

With nothing more to announce, I moved straight on to the next step.

Hiss, hissssss!

"Uh, uhh!"

"Stop! You bastard!"

Whoooosh!

I cracked the valve on the cylinder and set the gas alight.

Skills I'd practiced a few times don't go anywhere. The flames shot up in an instant.

This is exactly why the job market favors experienced hires.

"Shoot him! Shoot him dead, now!"

"C-can we shoot?"

"If we don't shoot, every one of us croaks!"

One of the ashen-faced guards leveled his muzzle at me.

Bang, bang!

Bang bang!

I just stood there blankly and took every one of those bullets.

I felt the rounds thumping into me, head, chest, all of it.

At the sight of me standing there vacantly after eating a hail of gunfire, the Hongmen Society men recoiled in horror.

It must have felt like a scene out of a horror movie.

"Wh-why won't he croak!"

Grin.

Smiling so clearly that it showed even through the mask I'd pulled on, I hoisted the burning gas cylinder high.

As luck would have it, the car I'd driven in had flipped, leaving its brimming fuel tank wide open.

"I told you, didn't I? I returned from hell to take revenge!"

"Nooooooo!"

"R-run! Evacuate, now!"

The cylinder, hurled with everything I had, flew fiercely toward the car I'd driven in.

Boom!

Crimson flame burst out in a rush, as though the gates of hell had opened and it had come up fresh from below.

Gasoline drenching everything as it geysered up.

And soon enough, the cylinders in the back seat joined the chain reaction.

'Watch in peace from down in hell, Le Wei. I'm taking your revenge for you.'

Yes.

This blaze is my tribute to Le Wei.

KABOOOOOOM!

***

Author's Note

Le Wei: …?

*****

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