Fair Trade

Dozens of footsteps roared in the narrow alley. A man was being chased and behind him were… Ten? Twenty…? No, he didn’t know exactly how many men were chasing him.

A bullet whizzed past the head of the man with a sparse beard. He cursed and then ran in the direction of a complicated alley.

His sweaty clothes stuck together and his legs were trembling due to not eating properly for several days. But if he didn’t somehow get away from here, he knew he’d be caught between the two mafias and won’t even have the luxury of a peaceful death.

He ran with all his might, clutching his cell phone that couldn’t connect to the other side.

That crazy Giulio Parrenti!

He approached a place after confirming that it was clearly a blind spot.

Did this happen because I was too sure that a smart Rose would never mention me?

Unexpectedly, Giulio, who was heading for the port, suddenly changed his direction.

Hiding behind a giant cactus pot, Valentin gasped for breath.

The sound of footsteps echoed from all directions.

That was when he got the call he was waiting for so long. He lowered himself under the shadow of a cafe building and answered the phone.

[Code N, state your affiliation.]

“Code K. Agent Gavin Smith, code name: Hyacinth. Fuck, Yuri Petrov has started to move. He must be the one who gave Giulio Parenti the information. Secure the retreat now and send reinforcements! I’m going to go to Place Masséna, so in seven minutes and 20 seconds, I should have a helicopter over my head!”

[Damn it, Gavin. You’re going to survive no matter what. What about the item?]

“No. Guilio Parenti also doesn’t have it. Then… I have no choice but to go back to New York.”

[A request for reinforcement has been registered. Seven minutes and five seconds later, Place Masséna.]

When the phone hung up, Gavin activated the Automated Self-destruct System and smashed the phone against the corner of a hard brick. Tossing the crushed pieces of the phone in a nearby trash can, he started running again.

Gavin Smith. It was the name of the man who was known as Valentin Orlov to Giulio and Pablo Bellini to Yuri.

A black shadow suddenly appeared in front of him as he jumped off the high fence.

Gavin, without hesitation, thrust the knife toward the other guy’s head. He could not even scream. He just bowed down, drew his knife, and ran toward the designated coordinates with a dazzling glow in his eyes.

Bang!

Again, a bullet from somewhere flew past his arm. No matter what kind of mafia they were, they tended to avoid conspicuous behavior, but these guys were different.

With the square right in front of him, Gavin checked the time and hid among the crowds of tourists. Everyone cheered the guide’s big talks which increased his enthusiasm for the night tour.

Please don’t do anything conspicuous!

There were two minutes until the helicopter would arrive. He felt a searing pain spread through the skin torn by the bullet that had just passed. He tied his arms with his belt to stop the bleeding and then walked with extreme vigilance.

Guilio Parenti didn’t know his face, but Yuri Petrov did. Since Guilio wasn’t hesitating to shoot him, it meant he had already gotten all the information he needed on him.

Gavin could feel a terrifying fear engulfing his throat. He dashed behind a huge trash can in a closed restaurant. It smelled bad, but he had no choice but to hide there to survive. He stared at the black sky, pulling his knees together.

A cold sweat ran down his back as he recalled the time he met Kirill Kuzmin’s eyes while he was leaving the hotel an hour earlier.

“But… Why is Kirill Kuzmin, who never even takes a step without Yuri, here in Nice?”

Gavin tried to pull himself together. In the end, his only hope was Yuri Rose.

No… Her real name was Jang Sei.

He heard the sound of the helicopter’s propellers echoing above his head.

Heavily armed agents started pouring from the helicopter that started the loudspeaker warning toward the mafia.

They easily landed on the ground and ran towards the mafia members. Soon after, several gunshots rang out in the alley.

I survived again.

Relieved, Gavin relaxed and lay down on the hard stone floor. Suddenly, a long shadow loomed over his body accompanied by the sound of light footsteps.

“This is Code N. You are?”

Gavin shook his head with a sigh of relief as he looked at the woman who stood over him, pointing a gun at him.

“Stop it, Tiffany. Fuck… I thought I was going to heaven.”

“You’re not going to heaven, but hell, Gavin.”

As he reached out his hand, the woman pulled him up with a grin. Gavin jumped up and grabbed his sore arm, looking around the guards who surrounded him as if to protect him.

“You bastards! What do you think of the FBI now?”

When he shouted, a mafia member, who had been captured, started spewing out foul expletives. But soon after he was hit on the back of his head and collapsed. Gavin shuddered at the sight. He took the water bottle that his colleague had given him and stepped forward.

“Let’s go. I was so scared that I wetted my pants a little.”

***