Codename Anastasia Novel (End) - Chapter 14

Psikh Bogdanoff abruptly approached Kwon Taekjoo. He fluidly pushed through the crowd, unexpectedly wearing a white lab coat. It was identical to the paramedics’ uniforms. He pulled a white mask up over his nose and casually headed for the ambulance driver’s seat. It was clear that he would end up in the same car as him. It was dangerous. His instincts blared incessantly in his mind.

He abruptly pushed the paramedic aside and leaped out of the car.

“Hey!”

The paramedic, who had stumbled, let out a shout. At the commotion, Psikh Bogdanoff stepped back out of the driver’s seat. Kwon Taekjoo kept his eyes fixed on the man and slowly backed away. The man, with a grim expression, strode purposefully closer. His two eyes above the mask gleamed sharply.

He gritted his teeth and bolted in the direction where people were gathered. As he roughly pushed through the crowd, grumbles erupted everywhere. This was what he wanted. In this situation, being the target of the crowd’s glares was much safer. Perhaps conscious of the surrounding attention, Psikh Bogdanoff didn’t immediately give chase. He hesitated for a moment and then disappeared in another direction.

Kwon Taekjoo quickly left the hotel area and entered the main road. His opponent would surely know all the local geography. He had to go as far as possible.

He ran for a while, only looking forward, when he suddenly heard the rough roar of an engine. He glanced over and saw a jeep rapidly approaching. The tinted front windshield made it impossible to see inside. Yet, one thing was clear: a man in a white lab coat, presumably Psikh Bogdanoff, was riding in the passenger seat.

He muttered a low curse and immediately changed direction, entering a narrow alley where vehicles couldn’t follow. The jeep, which had been pursuing him as if to ram him, stopped at the mouth of the alley. Immediately after, the back door swung open, and a man dressed entirely in black from head to toe stepped out. At Bogdanoff’s nod, the man, his long coat fluttering, began to chase Kwon Taekjoo. Meanwhile, the jeep disappeared back onto the main road. They intended to corner him, chasing from behind and blocking from the front.

While frantically escaping, he kept wondering why Psikh Bogdanoff was targeting him, Kwon Taekjoo. If his identity hadn’t been exposed, then the man’s target would be Sakamoto Hiro. Did the man also have grievances with the Russia-Japan contract?

Even trying to guess, it was still puzzling. If his intention was to take a contracting party hostage to exert influence, it would be better to kidnap someone else from the delegation with a higher ransom value than Sakamoto Hiro. On the first day of his arrival, Sakamoto Hiro was the only contract official available for kidnapping, but the situation was different now.

So, in the end, the person he was trying to catch wasn’t Sakamoto Hiro, but Kwon Taekjoo himself? Why on earth? The questions only multiplied, and he couldn’t reach a conclusion.

He looked up and around him. Ahead, he saw a spiral staircase on the outside of a building. If he climbed that staircase to the rooftop or scaled the railing to the adjacent building, he thought he could escape being a trapped rat. He mentally drew his escape route and then made up his mind.

However, the pursuit was not easy. With a bang, a bullet whizzed past Kwon Taekjoo from behind, scraping the outer wall of the building. As if reading Kwon Taekjoo’s plan, shots were fired repeatedly around the staircase. He tried to step onto the ventilation shaft of the building next door to climb, but they shot there too without fail.

“…Damn it!”

He gritted his teeth in annoyance and ran again. The man relentlessly followed. Even though he ran until his lungs ached, he saw no escape. What kind of country was this where gunshots could repeatedly ring out on a main road in broad daylight, yet it remained so quiet? He needlessly blamed the Russian police’s laziness and again changed direction. The path, barely wide enough for one person, led directly to the riverside boulevard. He hadn’t anticipated the current chase, but it was good he had familiarized himself with the road conditions.

The wide, straight boulevard came into view in his wildly shaking vision. Many cars were passing over it. Just a little more, just a little more. Kwon Taekjoo took bigger strides, putting on a spurt. It felt like he was running more than enough since coming to Russia.

Just as he was emerging from the narrow alley onto the main road, a car abruptly braked, blocking his path. It was Psikh Bogdanoff’s jeep from earlier. From behind, the man’s henchman was still closing the distance.

Kwon Taekjoo shoved the opening driver’s side door shut with force. The driver, who was about to get out, was shoved back in. He used that split second to nimbly leap over the hood, sliding across it. At that moment, the passenger side door suddenly swung open. He stumbled, losing his balance as he hit it. He rolled his body to dodge into the next lane as he fell, but the situation was rapidly worsening.

A motorcycle was speeding down that lane. The rider, seeing Kwon Taekjoo suddenly appear in the middle of the road, slammed on the brakes. However, the distance between them was too short for him to stop. He didn’t have the energy to get up. Kwon Taekjoo instinctively curled himself up. The front wheel of the motorcycle, attempting a sudden stop, screeched against the road, creating a long flash. Psikh’s group, who had been driving Kwon Taekjoo into this situation, also instinctively closed their eyes, sensing the worst.

A tearing screech echoed. A thudding impact followed. For a split second, the surrounding noise evaporated. But the expected impact didn’t come.

“……?”

He slowly opened his eyes. The rear wheel of the motorcycle, which had barely stopped, spun wildly in front of his nose. The motorcycle, having crashed its front into the jeep, had its rear end lifted into the air from the impact. That vacuum of a moment felt strangely long.

He hurriedly dodged to the side. It was an action purely driven by survival instinct. Immediately after, the raised rear of the motorcycle dropped with a thud. If he had been even slightly slower, his head would have been crushed by the back wheel.

Having escaped death, he felt completely drained. His eyelids twitched incessantly. His sweat-soaked body ached with a tingling sensation. How many times had his life been tempered since morning?

Someone grabbed the slumped Kwon Taekjoo and pulled him up. It was Psikh Bogdanoff’s henchman. Psikh Bogdanoff then grabbed Kwon Taekjoo’s other arm. The man glanced around, conscious of his surroundings, and muttered lowly.

“Stop making noise and get in obediently.”

A fist unexpectedly landed in his abdomen. His stomach lurched, and then his strength drained away as if swept out. The group forcefully shoved the limp Kwon Taekjoo into the backseat. Psikh Bogdanoff took the seat next to him. Immediately, all the jeep’s doors closed. Then, as if nothing had happened, it sped off down the road. Still, there were no police, not even a siren.

“A kidnapping paradise, I see.” He chuckled in disbelief, even amidst his dizzying state. What would happen now? Would he end up like Morgan, with all ten fingers cut off, bloated and dead in the water? It was an end he had never once considered.

At this desperate moment, where was Zhenya, that damn bastard? It was then that he suddenly remembered the existence he had forgotten all this time. The sound of a propeller turning came from a distance.

“It’s him!”

The man in the passenger seat shouted. Kwon Taekjoo merely rolled his eyes, looking out the window. A helicopter was approaching from the sky, directly opposite the jeep. A figure with long legs dangling, perched outside the helicopter, was visible. It was a faint silhouette, but it was undoubtedly Zhenya.

The man in the passenger seat immediately opened the window and began firing. Meanwhile, Psikh Bogdanoff reached under the back seat. The object he was desperately trying to retrieve hit Kwon Taekjoo’s heel. It was a bazooka.

“Open the door.”

At his command, the rear window rolled down. The man leaned his entire upper body out the window, aiming directly at the helicopter. If it took a direct hit, it would undoubtedly disintegrate in mid-air.

Kwon Taekjoo lunged at Bogdanoff, throwing his body. However, he couldn’t prevent the shot itself. The man in the passenger seat was pressing the barrel of a gun against his temple. He had no choice but to raise his arms and back away. Immediately after, with a heavy roar, the bazooka fired. The impact caused the moving vehicle to sway violently from side to side.

The helicopter rapidly increased altitude to evade the incoming shell. The shell narrowly grazed the helicopter’s tail, ripped through the air, and slammed into an innocent building. One side of the building wall was crushed as if by a wrecking ball. As if on cue, the helicopter also unleashed a fierce attack. Zhenya ruthlessly blasted away with the minigun he had been carrying all along.

He ducked deep. Psikh Bogdanoff did the same. The driver, holding the steering wheel, was helplessly riddled with bullets. The car body was also like a beehive.

As the driver’s body slumped, the steering wheel turned. Consequently, the car sharply veered to the side. The passenger, groaning from gunshot wounds, frantically grabbed the steering wheel. But the vehicle ultimately crashed into the guardrail and plunged into the river.

“……!”

There was no time to scream. His vision violently flipped. Gurgling sounds of air escaping came from all directions. Cold water surged into his nostrils and ear canals simultaneously. The river water instantly poured in through the shattered windows, which had been torn apart by the gunfire. He choked for breath, but he composed himself and waited for his surroundings to quiet. Soon, his breathing stabilized.

Psikh Bogdanoff was also still conscious. After waiting for a moment, he gracefully swam out through the open window. Since that was the only escape route, Kwon Taekjoo followed him out into the water.