Chapter Eighty-Four: In the Name of Our Fellow Countrymen

He looked like a butcher-king emerging from the jungle—Rambo? Madness. Aside from the movies made in Mainz, where in the real world could there be such an enemy? Blue eyes turned restlessly as they stared at Chen Cao, whose body was covered in blood and reeking of gore.

Chen Cao held a dagger and looked slowly at the white man. The fellow was panting hard, unable even to rise from the ground. The struggle just now had clearly drained him of all his strength. Chen Cao had calculated it perfectly: in his haste, the man could not possibly have been carrying any weapons besides the sidearm on him. So Chen Cao had thrown away the gun in his own hand. The moment he saw the girl’s corpse, he had sworn to kill with his own hands the beast who had defiled her.

The white man watched Chen Cao approach step by step and clearly understood that the other had already seen through him, so he no longer harbored any luck. When Chen Cao was only a few meters away, he spread out his hands and dropped the gun to the ground. Smiling with a face of fleshy folds, he spoke in halting language: “Friend, can we talk?”

As he spoke, to show his sincerity, he took off the gold watch from his wrist, removed the thick gold chain from his neck, and even pulled the gold teeth from his mouth, laying everything out in a neat row on the ground.

Chen Cao soon reached the man’s side, dagger hanging in his hand, and looked coldly at the glittering pile on the ground. “Tell me your name.”

“There’s room for discussion!” The white man’s eyes lit up. He pointed to himself. “Mine. Joey. You understand? If you promise to let me go, I’ll take you to Kokora, and all the goods here will be yours. Do you know how much there is? Fifty million in United States currency, equal to three hundred million in Great Dawn currency!”

“Oh? Is that true?” Chen Cao crouched down.

“Of course!” Now Joey was utterly convinced that this Great Dawn soldier had been dazzled by money. He smiled even more broadly, to the point that the flesh on his face seemed almost distorted, and he nodded desperately.

With a flash of cold light, the dagger struck true and sank into Joey’s thigh. Instantly, the pain from the nerves in his leg twisted his expression from delight into agony. On that fat-laden face he now looked more like a terrified white pig.

“I only asked your name. You talk too much.” Chen Cao yanked the dagger out again and said coldly.

“Mm, mm, I won’t say it, I won’t say it!” Joey still fought for his life. Now his fate was clearly in the hands of the man before him; no matter what, he had to cooperate.

All the while, Chen Cao remained vigilant, scanning the surroundings. The captain had not yet been eliminated, and who knew from where that bastard might suddenly emerge to put a bullet into him. He had to seize the moment. Judging from this white man’s status, he did not seem like an ordinary drug courier, nor like a leader within the organization. He looked more like a wealthy patron. But how had he come here, and why were these murderers who blinked only in the presence of death so deferential to him? There were only two possibilities: either this man possessed extraordinary influence in this operation, or he had come here for some unspeakable purpose.

From the fact that he was almost kneeling before Chen Cao, together with the earlier struggle, the first possibility could be ruled out. So Chen Cao turned to the second line of inquiry. Though this was only a chance encounter, he could report it to the Great Dawn military and let them investigate.

In a cold voice, Chen Cao asked, “Who is the insider who helped you open a drug-running route across the border?”

Joey clutched his wounded leg, his eyes darting about as he hesitated over whether to answer.

With another flash of cold light, Joey’s face convulsed violently. He clapped a hand over the thigh Chen Cao had just stabbed, and with the other gripped Chen Cao’s wrist around the dagger. “Please, don’t pull it out. If you pull it out, I’ll die from blood loss. Please!”

“Then speak,” Chen Cao said, stopping, his face still expressionless.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I just passed through here with those traffickers. I truly don’t know!” Joey pleaded incessantly. His face had gone deathly white from blood loss, his lips had turned blue-black from the pain, and the dizziness in his head had already made his words incoherent.

Yet he still had not forgotten to beg. “I’ll give you all the goods. I’ll give you another hundred million in United States currency. Please, don’t kill me!”

The trail is broken, Chen Cao thought grimly. So he moved on to the next question. “Do you know why I came here? You should understand that in this world, no matter who does what, there is always a price to pay.”

Joey, who had been begging incessantly, suddenly fell silent. His hand unconsciously moved toward his groin. Did he not know very well what he had done? At last he understood that today he could not escape death, because the Great Dawn soldier before him, with his solid, hard muscle, had come to exact payment for that girl—the girl who had once writhed and trembled beneath him was now here to claim his life.

At that thought, Joey suddenly seized Chen Cao by the shoulder and threw his head back, slamming desperately toward the man standing inches away.

Hmph. I saw through you long ago. Chen Cao threw his own head back at the same time, and with a single motion drew the dagger from Joey’s thigh. With a wet slash, the blade came out with a spray of flesh and blood.

Joey’s head struck empty air. He grunted and crashed face-first to the ground. As he howled and tried to rise, Chen Cao, reacting instantly, pressed his head down, pinning him motionless.

Then what came into his field of vision was Chen Cao’s sharply defined face, streaked with blood.

“I’m telling you, people must pay for what they do. Understand?” As he spoke, Chen Cao slowly eased the dagger toward the narrow gap where Joey’s neck nearly disappeared into the folds of fat. He moved so slowly, and did all of this, for one reason: to let Joey fully taste the terror of death.

As expected, the moment he felt the cold blade glide toward his throat, the whites of Joey’s eyes seemed to swallow the blue. On the fat-packed face a bizarre smile appeared, and he no longer struggled. “Do you know who my brother is? He’ll send you to eternal damnation, straight to the eighteenth level of hell!”

“I’ve been living in hell for a long time already, so as for your warning, I can only say thank you. At least now, you’ll go to hell before I do.” Chen Cao finished speaking and gently, slowly dragged the dagger across Joey’s throat.

A rattling, choking gurgle followed. Joey seemed to want to say more, but the rest could no longer be heard. His face twisted, and his fingers clawed into the earth.

“My compatriot, though I do not know your name, nor from where you came, I believe you can see this. Rest in peace.” Chen Cao’s eyes grew a little wet. He stood with the dagger in hand, and before him rose the image of the young girl with her eyes tightly closed.

The captain, clutching his wound, staggered and ran for a long time until he was certain no one was chasing him. Trembling, he crouched in the fork of a tree, took out a phone sealed inside a plastic bag, and expertly dialed a number. After two rings, the call connected. A man’s reproachful voice came from the other end: “What time is it? Don’t you know I’m directing a suppression operation at headquarters?” Then the line paused abruptly. “What is it? Something happened?”

The captain’s voice was tinged with resentment. “You still have the nerve to ask? Didn’t you say this route had been cleared? Then how did a damned ghost show up and kill two of my men?”

There was a pause on the other end. “Impossible. I handled this route completely. There can’t be any problem. There must be something wrong on your end.”

The captain choked at that and said slowly, “It was Joey. He violated a girl who was gathering medicinal herbs, and that’s what brought a soldier here.”

The man on the phone immediately said, “What? Sigh. Then it’s your bad luck.”

The captain was confused. “What do you mean, our bad luck?”

The man seemed intent on changing the subject. “How is Joey now?”

At that, the captain’s tone turned chilly with fear. “I-don’t know. Maybe he already—”

The man in the phone said in a low voice, “This is troublesome. You should know who his brother is.”

Hearing this, the captain dropped to his knees in the mud with a thud, his voice stammering. “Seven, you have to save me. The other side was too strong. I didn’t want this either. I’ve worked hard for the organization all these years. I’ve never made a mistake in running goods. Even if I have no merit, I’ve at least worked hard. You have to speak to Number One for me!”

Mm. The voice on the other end grew hoarse. “This was an accident. The fault is not yours. But you know very well what kind of man Number One is. Still, I do have an idea.”

“Really?” The captain wiped his nose, as if clutching a lifeline.

“Do not use the Great Dawn border route anymore, and you cannot stay in Great Dawn either. Go to Hossum first. Later, follow my arrangements. As for Number One, I’ll speak to him myself. I will make sure you live.”

“Thank you, thank you, Seven!” The captain finally broke into tears of relief and stood up from the ground.

“Remember, once you reach Hossum, do everything according to my arrangements.” With that, the other side hung up.

The captain stood there, and the wound no longer seemed to hurt. The cargo could never be recovered. Now he could only obey Seven’s arrangements and hide himself first in Hossum. Pressing his wound, he quickly vanished into the jungle.

“Political instructor, this area has been fully searched. Nothing was found. Should we withdraw?” said a soldier in camouflage uniform.

The middle-aged man in sunglasses touched the hawk-like bridge of his nose and said to the soldier under him, “If we search any farther, we’ll reach the Hossum border. Let’s withdraw first and report back.”

“Yes, sir!” The soldier saluted and turned to pass on the order.

Looking at the undulating mountain ridges, the political instructor lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. “It seems some things are made by heaven itself, destined.” He turned and left the main force, took out a communicator, pressed the button, and said softly, “Old Ghost.”

With that, he released the button.

The Flame King Chapter Eighty-Four: In the Name of a Comrade ends here.