Mercenary Black Mamba

The snoring stopped.

“Communist, don’t you want to return to FAP?”

Black Mamba asked with his eyes closed.

“I don’t want to work with those stupid fools any longer.”

“You can leave if you want. I will give you food and a camel.”

Sun WooHyun refused instantly.

“What the f*ck? You said I’m your sidekick! You’re responsible for me now.”

“Responsible? Yeah right. You’re driving me crazy. What is this unreasonable persistence?”

“I’m resentful of you beating me, so I’m going to stay by your side until I get to beat you back.”

“Will you be able to earn your own meals?”

“I’m still the best leader of the reconnaissance troops there is. Don’t you worry about me pulling my fair share of the weight.” Sun WooHyun blurted out angrily.

“Are you really going to act like my sidekick?”

“I never liked North Korea. I had thought it was strange that they told me to return so I checked with a friend who worked at the consulate and he told me my father had been killed.”

“Do you have other family?”

“The only family I had left was my father. I’m what the South Koreans call an abandoned duck egg. I can’t go back dead, and don’t you think it’s better for me to be next to a South Korean comrade than those black idiots? I’ll play your sidekick, so just feed me.”

Black Mamba smiled happily.

The sidekick’s blood circulation and brain waves were stable. He was being sincere. Black Mamba wanted to test him before deciding whether or not to continue beating him. The situation seemed to be progressing better than he’d hoped.

After thinking it over, Black Mamba’s mind broadened. He was not so petty as to mark the man as an enemy just because he was a communist.

“I’ll build you a home and give you plenty of rice and soup to eat, would that be enough?”

“Haha, there’s nothing more I could wish for.”

The North Korean soldier who had lost his home and the South Korean mercenary who had been pushed out of his home, stared at each other and smiled. They were in a faraway land, the African Sahel.

The black comedy play ended.

“C’est incroyable!” [1]

The captain exclaimed with gusto after they had returned from surveying the surroundings. The guy had been beaten to a pulp by Black Mamba, but the short Asian’s bayonet skills and battle mentality was impressive. It was so interesting to watch that he forgot his hunger.

“Valboir, what do you think will happen if I go against that guy?”

“Don’t you think you could survive at least ten hits?”

The captain shook his head.

“Thank you for thinking so highly of me. If I was fighting for my life, I wouldn’t even be able to last through three. That guy is a human weapon.”

Who they called ‘The Communist’ was small in physique but was extremely well built. His attack skills were deadly and cruel. His body and mind were trained to the highest potential and he was a real killing machine.

“I think the communist is North Korean.”

“Probably!”

The two of them worked out Sun WooHyun’s identity. They knew it to be true that the FROLINAT training instructors were North Korean.

It wasn’t only Chad.

Uganda, Central Africa, Zimbabwe, and every other dictator run country were inspired by the North Korean army. The killing skills and cruelty of the North Korean soldiers were legendary in Africa.

“Valboir, Korea seems to be a unique country.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The country itself is not very powerful but the individual skills of its people are phenomenal. It’s a mystery.”

“That’s true. Koreans have relatively small numbers drafted but they are hard-working and respectful. Their physical skills are good too. Whenever a Korean enrolls in the army, I scrutinize him and take him into my team every chance I get. If the commander had not ended up in that state, I would have said to pick up the North Korean right away. Hahaha!”

“No way. Black Mamba had already chosen him.”

“Can we trust him?”

“Eh hm!”

The captain clicked his tongue at Valboir and looked at him pathetically.

“You were Black’s commanding officer and yet you still don’t really know him. His thinking is as deep as he is powerful. He can see many steps ahead. If you leave him alone, it will all be to our gain in skin and blood. Don’t worry about it and let him do what he wants.”

Many people think that those who are overly interested in physical fitness are dumb. In reality, that does tend to be true. Those that learned martial arts or sports from when they were young had focused all their energy on growing their physical abilities and their mentality is often weak.

But the Black Mamba the captain had seen was like a raccoon disguised as a tiger. The reason he compared him to a raccoon was that he did not express his feelings openly. If he had expressed his opinion, then there was definitely a good reason for it. Getting rid of the communist would strictly be Black Mamba’s decision.

There were other things the captain had to worry about.

He was the person who had attacked Pieff and Mike.

“Valboir, call Black.”

“He’s asleep.”

“The speed at which he falls asleep is worthy of his call name status. Let him sleep. He will obviously be very tired.”

The situation wasn’t so peaceful that they could leave Black Mamba to sleep deeply.

Before the captain had even finished talking, Black Mamba’s eyes shot open.

“It’s the sound of bikes. They are coming this way from the direction of their headquarters.”

“We’re in big trouble.”

The captain and Valboir’s faces flushed white. There were corpses all over Trident Rock. Even if they were to kill the messenger, they would still run into problems.

“We have the communist, so what are we worried about.”

Black Mamba was annoyingly calm. The captain and Valboir looked over at Sun WooHyun.

“Communist, who’s that on the bike?”

“There’s no reason for me to answer.”

Sun WooHyun was sick of being called a communist. But if he insisted on being called Namir, he would be teased as a narochi again.

“I guess you don’t want to eat the soup.”

“He’s a messenger of Hadad. I make contact with him twice a day.”

He responded immediately. Food was always a big incentive. No, the two people had already found a connection. They were just trying to protect their own pride.

“Communist, get on a bike and ride out there. Meet him at the entrance and send him back.”

Valboir, who had been listening, didn’t agree.

“Black Mamba, what are you saying. How can you trust him?”

“Valboir, you can pray to the gods and eat what I give you.”

The captain put his hand over Valboir’s mouth.

Vroom… Sun WooHyun rode off on the bike in the direction of Tanga.

“Valboir, if it’s possible, try not to get involved with the things Black Mamba wants to do. If you don’t get over that nosy behavior of yours, you’ll get yourself in trouble.”

The captain whispered quietly.

“If that guy goes to FROLINAT and hands over our information, aren’t we in big trouble?”

“You still don’t get it. The communist’s already turned his back on them.”

“I will bet a thousand percent that he will not return.”

“Alright, I’ll bet a thousand percent he will. Haha! I just made some money.”

“We’ll have to see to be sure.”

Valboir still could not agree.

A few moments later, Sun WooHyun showed up. As the captain put out his hand, Valboir’s face turned sour.

“I’ve earned my meals. It looks like Hadad is planning to position himself here. I told him that I was heading to Tanga.”

“Good. Let’s hurry and finish this and eat.”

The captain glanced at Valboir as if proving a point and mustered his troops.

“Okay, we don’t have time. Before it gets light, we have to erase any trace of us and then get out of here. Emil call Centienne, Maxim, and Jang Shin. Valboir, you lead them.”

“Black, let me see you for a moment.”

The captain took Black Mamba to the barracks. The unconscious Pieff and Mike were lying on the beds. Belman and Bronin were busily prepping for the surgery.

“Black, what happened to Mike and Commander Pieff?”

“I don’t know. You can ask the communist.”

Black Mamba pointed at Sun WooHyun.

“Did you do that?”

Black Mamba pointed at the bayonet in Mike’s chest.

Sun WooHyun nodded.

“He’s large but dumb. The son of a bitch got hit with a bayonet the moment he stepped into the barracks. The slow kid didn’t even attempt to quieten his breathing. He does seem to have a long lifeline though by the look of it.”

“The reason the troops retreated to the back was because of him then?”

“Guilty. If that piece of fat had found a way in, I assumed a bunch of assassins had broken through. I raised the alarm and told them all to retreat, although that didn’t help much. Now that I think of it, that piece of fat saved my life. If it wasn’t for him, my head would have been chopped off without me even knowing why.”

“I see.”

Black Mamba nodded his head. It was as he had expected. Mike would forever be a nuisance to him. Pieff’s actions didn’t make sense either.

“The man who shoved that blade into Mike’s chest is already dead.”

Sun WooHyun, comprehending what he was getting at, nodded his head.

“Guilty, there’s no point in seeking revenge. Thanks to that idiot, I was able to keep my head intact.”

The captain was frustrated by listening to the foreign language. He didn’t know any Korean.

“Black, what are you talking about?”

“Pieff and Mike are not Black Mamba. They deliberately disobeyed my command to stay back and survey the scene. Because those two had jumped into battle so recklessly, it put me in a difficult position. Those two people’s irresponsible actions put the entire team in danger. With my call name jurisdiction, I will lower the rank of commander Pieff and Sergeant Mike until our operation is complete. Until this operation is over, those two people will function as privates designated as Legion Deuxieme.”

Black Mamba closed his mouth after sharply expressing his opinion. He had not kept his mouth shut because he hadn’t known about the authority he had as a call name. He had only kept his mouth shut to respect the authority of his superiors. If Pieff and Mike continued to act on their own, it would put their entire team in danger.

“Alright, with you ranking as call name, the ranking of the two of them will be temporarily lowered to Legion Deuxieme class.”

The captain understood Black Mamba’s hidden agenda. He was trying to make it so that he no longer needed to worry about Pieff due to his higher ranking.

He again realized the importance of his partner. He had been wrong this time also. He should have called Mike back right away and sent another member for surveillance. Mike was already known to be impulsive but Commander Pieff’s conduct remained a mystery.

“What are you planning to do with that thing?”

The captain pointed at Sun WooHyun with his chin.

“I’ll deal with him.”

“Will there be any problems?”

“No”

“Alright.”

With that short exchange, the situation was resolved.

Sun WooHyun had officially become Black Mamba’s sidekick.

“Ack, wueck wueck”

Centienne and Maxim ran out of the barrack and vomited. There were tens of corpses with their heads cut off inside. It was worth vomiting over.

Following behind them, Jang’s Shin expression quickly changed.

He had seen his fair share of corpses in his lifetime but he had never had an experience of such a pile of decapitated corpses at one time before.

“Pathetic idiots!”

Jang Shin cursed at Centienne and Maxim as he tried to resist his own churning stomach. He was sorely reminded of the time he had thrown up at Er Ekdim valley and was almost killed by Ombuti.

Sun WooHyun, who examined the scene, felt his heart go cold.

There were exactly 34 corpses with their heads cut in a way that was just enough to kill them. There was only one assassin, Kanma, someone who he feared would show up in his dreams. No, right now, he was Black Mamba, who promised to give him rice and soup.

“Sidekick, you have a radio?”

“I do.”

Sun WooHyun pointed to a corner of his barrack.

“Huh, isn’t that a remote T34 PTC29?”

“It’s what the Americans handed over to the Soviets in World War Two.”

“Huh, it’s an object with a history. Does it work?”

“If you yell into it, it will work.”

“Contact headquarters. Tell them you got Kanma’s tail. Say you are following him towards the direction of Vilmar.”

Sun WooHyun nodded his head without argument.

He had no reason to worry about the Chad independence army anymore. In any case, he hadn’t been paid in three months.

“Will you give me my share of payment.”

“I’ll give you a lot.”

A smile spread across Sun WooHyun’s face.

The captain came out of the barrack with a water bottle. It was covered in bloodstains. He drank out of the water bottle without even thinking twice about it.

“Black, you’ve done well.”

Too many words make meaning more unclear. Between comrades flitting between life and death, one sincere word is plenty enough.

The captain forced everyone to help in erasing their tracks.

The bike and tarp, and all of the corpses, they dragged to the wadi and dumped them in the valley. All the small leftover things they buried in the ground. He too quickly started digging. He covered the bloodstains with the sand. The enemy was right in front of them. If they left a trace, they were sure to be followed.

[1] That’s incredible!