Mercenary Black Mamba

Something heavy dropped onto the tent, shaking it to the point that it almost collapsed.

"What was that?"

Jeong Pil-su, startled, stood up. A screech and a low growl shook up the night. Jeong Pil-su poked his head out of the mosquito net.

"What?"

Two blue flames burned right before his eyes. The beast lowered its stance. It was about to leap. Jeong Pil-su hurriedly fumbled for his rifle. He was in such a hurry that he couldn't get himself to grasp the rifle properly.

"I should have gone to bed hugging my rifle!" he thought.

He regretted it futilely. His chest was burning with anxiety. There was a heavy thud. The beast leaped and then it was sprawled on the ground. The gushing blood looked black under the moonlight.

"God damn!"

With the tension leaving at once, his body felt heavy like wet cotton. He had fallen asleep at last after prying his mind off the howls of beasts and suspicious movements all around. Then, the wretched beast woke him up. He was almost eaten by it.

A blinding searchlight illuminated the camping grounds.

"What happened, Jeong?"

Kim Myung-jin, just woken up, stared at the dead bodies of the monkey and the leopard. Jeong Pil-su despaired at his inept companion who hadn't even figured out the situation. Matanga was right. If he kept being inept, he wouldn't last a day here.

"Are you here for a picnic? Comrade Jeong, where is your rifle? Think of it as your wife. It should be by your side at all times."

Sun Woo-hyun and Zulu appeared.

"Phew!"

Jeong Pil-su couldn't even respond. He stared down at the dead bodies of a monkey with its leash broken and a black leopard with a bullet hole in its body. He felt like his own destiny was alike theirs in this wilderness where everything ate and was eaten.

"You should just work in the windbreak forest." Sun Woo-hyun uttered the worst insult in Novatopia.

"What do you mean?" Kim Myung-jin asked, still sleepy.

"It's a punishment. One plants trees in the desert for the rest of his life. There are about 500 Koreans sentenced to this particular punishment. I will strongly recommend you two to Wakil."

Jeong Pil-su and Kim Myung-jin frowned deeply. They could hear no other words. He was saying that they were useless.

"It will soon be first light. Now that you are awake, let us have breakfast and set off early."

Sun Woo-hyun rekindled the embers from last night's campfire. Zulu threw away the dead leopard, gutted the monkey, and roasted it on the campfire. The smell of cooked meat filled the camping grounds.

"I am going insane!"

Jeong Pil-su shook his head.

******

Sun Woo-hyun and the others ate monkey meat and C-ration, then they set off north on the second main highway before dawn. When they were 10 kilometers from Butembo, a particular incident happened at the second checkpoint.

"Your passports or 500 dollars!"

Guerillas wearing jeans and baggy Reebok T-shirts blocked the road. One was aiming at them with his rifle while another was holding out his hand. In the guard post, another three guerillas pointed at them and giggled.

Zulu glanced at Sun Woo-hyun and handed the man five 10-dollar bills. It was 10 times the normal passage fee.

"Your passports or 450 dollars!"

The man took in the 50 dollars and held out his hand again. Zulu looked back at Sun Woo-hyun.

"He is hell-bent on getting 500 dollars."

"He means to rob us of everything we got, then he'll kill us. Wakil told me to make a quiet journey without killing anyone, but he is asking for it. Get rid of him!"

"Aye!"

Zulu moved like a fallen leaf dancing in the wind. Two arm-thick steel bats swished through the air. Before they had time to react, the heads of the two guerillas got smashed. Sun Woo-hyun pulled the trigger many times. The giggling guerillas in the guard post gushed blood from their mouths. The incident was concluded in a few moments.

"Take cover! I will eliminate them."

Sun Woo-hyun jumped into the jungle and Zulu drove the jeep after him.

Jeong Pil-su and Kim Myung-jin stared blankly at the bloody road and the guard post. The lump of meat in a puddle of blood was the man who counted the dollar bills moments ago. They were overwhelmed by the force and a cold-blooded scene that decimated five lives without hesitation. On this continent, a human's life was not worth more than that of a chicken or a pig.

"Start the car!"

Sun Woo-hyun returned, completely covered in blood. The foul stench of blood and the vinegary smell of old sweat were mixed in the air.

"Aye!"

Zulu hit the gas as if nothing had happened.

"What happened?"

"Behind a checkpoint usually is a platoon. They need to be eliminated for them to never bother us ever again."

"Was that necessary?"

Jeong Pil-su's mouth was agape in awe. It meant that Sun Woo-hyun eliminated an entire platoon in 10 minutes. He felt chills down his body. The training and education at the ANS were mere children's play.

"Don't be a little girl. Bullets don't discriminate. If you don't want to be killed, you should kill."

Jeong Pil-su had no response to that.

* * *

Suddenly, they had a clear vision of a base surrounded by three barbed wire fences. It was the Mavivi site. They were finally there after driving 16 full hours since yesterday.

"Zulu, make the headlight flicker four times."

A fully armed guard emerged from the ground.

"Hail!"

The guard noticed Sun Woo-hyun and pushed open the steel gate.

"General Sun, the advisor is training."

"I see!"

Sun Woo-hyun nodded and went through the entrance.

* * *

"What is that?"

Kim Myung-jin pointed at the clearing in front of the barracks where strong gusts blew and dust rose. Whenever a man wearing a pair of short pants thrust his hand or foot forward, the air was torn and an air pocket blew up.

The man leaped, stopped midair, kicked around, and jumped like a cannonball. It was like an illusion. Their eyes couldn't follow his movements and the only thing they could see were shadows filling the 10-meter wide space.

"Is that Mu Ssang?"

Kim Myung-jin looked back at Jeong Pil-su. He nodded without saying anything. If not Mu Ssang, who was capable of such moves?

Mu Ssang thrust his arms forward and dropped to the ground with his knees bent slightly.

"How beautiful!" said Kim Myung-jin in his mind.

Kim Myung-jin's eyes seemed like they were seeing a dream. Mu Ssang's perfectly balanced his body. The drops of sweat rolling down his chiseled muscles were exquisitely sublime.

"Wakil, the South Korean comrades are here."

"You did a great job, lackey." A low baritone voice resounded.

Jeong Pil-su teared up. He never wanted to see Mu Ssang ever again, but he was moved as if he was a lost child who just found his mother in a theme park.

"You've had some."

Mu Ssang tapped Sun Woo-hyun's blood-soaked shoulder.

"It was nothing. I'm worried that the South Korean comrades are very frightened."

"When they get to the battlefield, they will adapt. Or they will die. Aren't you Zulu?"

"Long live my king. I, the measly Zulu, hail you."

Zulu moved his body, knelt, and bowed. His king remembered his name. He was touched beyond description. He could feel shivers coming up his body.

"Don't bow! A man should always be confident."

"Aye!"

Zulu held a steel bat and stood behind Mu Ssang. He seemed ready to strike anyone who disrespected Mu Ssang.

"Jeong Pil-su, how much do you have to love me to seek me out here in Africa? I am very moved."

Mu Ssang grinned.

"What am I even expecting from this man?" said Jeong Pil-su in his mind.

He still vividly remembered how he was tortured and hung from a tree. He no longer was glad to see Mu Ssang.

"Cut it out. I am here to answer your question."

"Hey!"

Sun Woo-hyun and Zulu glared at him at once.

"I am here to answer your question."

Jeong Pil-su's tone suddenly turned polite. He hated it, but otherwise, the fanatics would have murdered him.

"Who is this?"

Kim Myung-jin answered promptly, "I am Kim Myung-jin from the ANS's PR department. It's an honor to finally meet you."

Kim Myung-jin addressed Mu Ssang politely in the formal register. Age was indeed just a number. Mu Ssang's charisma forced him to address him formally.

"Honor is quite a stretch. I never required any PR assistance."

"I majored in Arabic."

"Huh, so Lee Dae-deok sent you. You will prove more useful than this fella here."

Jeong Pil-su frowned deeply.

"It's great to have guests from far away. We should get something to eat to accompany our conversation."

"I am glad you are glad, Wakil."

Sun Woo-hyun grinned. At three kilometers south of Mavivi, there was a tributary of the Aruwimi swarming with creatures. Mu Ssang and Olonge, shouldering a large bamboo basket, disappeared into the jungle.

"Where are they going?"

"Fishing!"

"Don't we need to follow them?"

"Don't be stupid and take care of yourselves first. Dressing like tourists, you won't last a day here," Sun Woo-hyun spat out.

Thanks to Mu Ssang's Resonance Wave and training, Olonge was now practically Tarzan. He was swifter than a monkey and stronger than a gorilla. In the jungle, even Sun Woo-hyun himself couldn't overtake him.

"What is this place?"

"A base of the DGSE. Don't ask too many questions. Get changed."

Sun Woo-hyun tossed them combat suits, combat shoes, bulletproof helmets, and bulletproof vests.

"Why is he so mean to us? I don't like him," Jeong Pil-su muttered without anyone hearing his words.

He didn't like that an ex-North Korean military officer acted up. Sun Woo-hyun, on the other hand, didn't like that a South Korean weakling had such a big ego.

When they got changed and had time to have a cup of coffee each, Mu Ssang returned. Olonge took out two Nile perches as big as him and a baby boar.

"Whoa! You said hunting isn't as easy as it looks," Jeong Pil-su said to Sun Woo-hyun.

"It depends on who is hunting. You will be eaten by a Nile perch, but for Wakil, it's very easy."

"How petty!" said Jeong Pil-su in his mind.

Jeong Pil-su had no retort to that. Sun Woo-hyun seemed to be as adept with his tongue as he was with his muscles.

The guards and DGSE agents joined the party. A wine-marinated barbecued boar and Nile perch roasted with pineapple juice and cinnamon was a luxury hardly ever enjoyed in the warfare. The two Koreans who barely had anything to eat for the past two days also gorged themselves on the meat.

Mu Ssang cooked a spicy Nile perch stew with the red pepper paste Kim Myung-jin brought.

"It tastes great!"

Mu Ssang marveled at how delicious the stew was. He missed his mother and the food she cooked.

"This red pepper paste saved your face."

Jeong Pil-su and Kim Myung-jin looked angry. The value of the two men combined, in the middle of this African jungle, was less than that of a tube of red pepper paste.

A half moon rose. After the meal, the guards and agents withdrew to their barracks to evade the swarm of mosquitoes. Only Koreans remained in the clearing in front.

Mosquitoes in Ituri varied from fruit-fly size to blowfly size. If attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes, one could collapse from anemia and even has a high risk of dying. Olonge burned mosquito-repelling grass on the campfire. The scent of burning grass filled the clearing in front of the barracks.

"What do you feel like?"

"I feel terrible."

Jeong Pil-su glanced at Zulu standing right behind Mu Ssang. He felt like he was going to get smashed by the steel bat if he was not polite enough.

"Is Lee Dae-deok doing well?"

"He got promoted in Foreign Operations."

"Ha. I didn't expect that. He didn't seem like the type to get promoted easily."

"He could be grumpy sometimes but he deserved the promotion more than anyone else."

"He is one good man in that entire organization."

"Thank you for your help."

"You are very welcome. I spared your life because Korea is suffering from brain drain."

"Why does he have to put it like that?" thought Jeong Pil-su.

Jeong Pil-su resented that but couldn't show it. Mu Ssang's eyes gave off a blue sheen from across the shimmering campfire. It was chilling.

"Give it to me."

Mu Ssang held out his hand.

"What?"

"What? Are you able to explain the document to me?"

"What an asshole! I am losing face," Jeong Pil-su said in his mind.

Jeong Pil-su took out a document that was covered in a tarp from within his jacket.

"This is information regarding the Room-Temperature Superconductor summarized by Dr. Lee So-jin of the KAIST."

"I will take my time reading it. Why are you here?"

Mu Ssang tossed the document into his backpack.

"To hand you the very document regarding your question."

"Jeong Pil-su, do you think I'm stupid enough to buy that?"

"Ugh!"

There was a scream. Mu Ssang's aggression cooled the sweat formed on his back.

"Dr. Lee asserted that once he could get his hands on a Room-Temperature Superconductor, he can reverse-engineer it. Lee Dae-deok deduced that you already got ahold of it or at least possess a great clue."

"So, am I supposed to just hand it to you?"

Mu Ssang smirked. He didn't have anything to lose. Jeong Pil-su and his company came here for their own goal. It was great hospitality for Mu Ssang to just protect and feed them.