Chapter 29

Chapter 29

To Australians, the time after work spent with family was an absolute sanctuary that could not be exchanged for anything.

Unless urgent work business, contacting at this hour itself belonged to tremendous rudeness.

Senior Sergeant David, the moment the personal phone set on the table rang noisy, furrowed his brow and checked the screen.

The very number of that Korean that his old friend Gary had told him, asking, in the daytime.

David, knowing Gary's temperament, sensed the call at this hour was never a light greeting.

When he quietly pressed the call button, beyond the receiver rough foreign curses mixed with a metal sound, and the voices of many threatening someone, began broadcasting live whole.

[Hello. Mr. David. I'm Jungsu. Please help.]

After that he could not understand exact what was said, but the situation of asking for help was clear.

"Hoo."

David let out a short sigh and got up from the sofa as if annoyed.

And picking up the jacket hung on the chair, he hurriedly put on the outer.

His wife, who had been drinking warm tea watching television, looked at him as if odd and asked.

"Where at this night?"

"Ah, there was something Gary asked me to help with in the daytime. The situation seems to have got a bit urgent, so I think I have to go sort that."

The wife opened her eyes round and asked back.

"Gary? You mean your friend Gary Thompson?"

"Yeah. Right."

The wife narrowed her brow slightly, seeing her husband even putting on the duty belt.

"It's not dangerous work?"

"Not that. Just going to clear some neighborhood thug kids."

Of course from the dull cracks and brutal force heard beyond the receiver he could not be sure it was 100 percent safe, but David answered calm to reassure his wife.

How many years of Australian police seasoning, no reason to fear a mere street-thug assault.

The wife did not dig more at her husband's answer and nodded cool.

"Go well."

"I'll be back soon."

David took the car key and left the house.

Starting the vehicle and pressing the accelerator toward the city, he picked up the police radio connected to the dashboard.

The voice that had been like a hearty man on ordinary days was nowhere, and a veteran senior sergeant's sharp, cold voice rang in the car.

"Headquarters, Senior Sergeant David here. City-jurisdiction night patrol team, respond."

Static— [Yes, Sergeant David. City team 1 standing by.]

"Gather force right now and move to the city center. The address is······."

David said the address of the building Gary had told him in the daytime.

"Beside that, at the ground lot, a scene of multiple Asian suspects holding blunt weapons attempting a group lynching against a decent citizen. Suspects estimated as illegal-contractor organization members, and the probability is very high that not only violence but other crimes such as visa violation are tangled."

Static— [Copy that. All force will deploy to that address at once.]

"It's a report related to my acquaintance, so control the scene sure until I arrive. Don't cut the siren, step on it, block their retreat complete, and those who resist, subdue by force without mercy and cuff them all."

Weeeing—

The moment David's radio ended, patrol cars standing by across the city all sounded noisy sirens and began narrowing the net toward the dark alley where Jeong-su was.

* * *

The die was cast.

What remained was only holding, drawing the eyes of these stupid thugs, until the police arrived.

"Hey, finish them! Step those bastards so they can't gather bones here today!"

Park Ji-hun's shout full of spite tore the night air of the city center sharp.

The language-school-linked share house we stayed in was in the middle of the city.

In this ground lot of the city center, where neon lights of high-rises and shops leaked faint around, seven grown men holding clubs began rushing toward us like yaksha.

'These bastards, shot in the head? Beating with tools in the middle of the city?'

However eerie the Australian night street, an ignorant act like this in the middle of the city was a look proving how swollen their livers were, or how stupid.

"Dong-myeong! Absolutely don't fight, run! Only dodge this way and that!"

I shouted at the top of my voice and twisted my body sharp.

Dong-myeong beside me, about to clench a fist and fight back right then, flinched at my shout, then soon bit his lip and began running after me into the packed lot.

The wide ground lot where dark and streetlight crossed was a better obstacle course than I thought.

Countless cars the share-house residents and nearby shops had parked were tangled like a maze, and we dug the gaps like loaches and shook the guys' chase.

Whoosh— puk! Kang!

A thick club fell where I had been standing until a moment ago, and a club one thug chasing me swung stamped the bonnet of a parked sedan and made a noisy crack.

At this level property damage would be added too, will those bastards pay?

Even running, that thought came sudden.

"You rat bastards! Not stopping there?!"

The thugs raged full of anger, but their ignorant swings only cut the air or smashed innocent cars' mirrors.

In fact, however many they were and however they held weapons, catching the two of us in one go, set on only running in this lot packed with cars, was close to impossible.

And Dong-myeong and I had been carrying heavy materials in dirt dust every day, and running the site this way and that, training stamina.

Not defectives soaked in cheap cigarettes and alcohol, going to casinos every night like those thugs.

And that influence appeared soon.

"Haa······ heok······ heok······."

Around when only three minutes had passed since the chase began.

Turning about half the lot in a frenzy, the thugs' steps began to slow noticeable.

If we only set the mind we could have run long ago, but we have to catch the guys here.

The guys propped the clubs on the ground like canes, or lay on the trunks of parked cars, tongues out long, panting rough.

"Shit, fuck······ those bastards. Why so fast······."

Park Ji-hun too made a phlegm-boiling sound and panted, hands on his knees.

Cold sweat was pouring like rain on his forehead, and the legs already showed a shaking look plain.

While the guys caught their breath tired, I leaned crooked on an old van, having opened a generous safe distance from them.

Dong-myeong too was lightly loosening his body beside me, taking a big breath.

We were sound, not even sweating proper.

"Why? Legs already gone?"

I grinned and began teasing toward the guys.

"In name, contract thug scraps gathered to pickle one person for money, and barely running half a lot the breath is about to go over. Hey, Park Ji-hun. That backing of yours didn't even do a fitness test and put you on site? These are complete defective bastards."

"You······ fuck bastard, only the mouth alive······!"

Park Ji-hun glared at me with bloodshot eyes and spat a stream of curses.

"Come here and stick like a man, son of a bitch! Don't only run, let's fight square!"

"Ranting. Seven holding tools and rushing, fight square? Did your brain melt in alcohol and common sense evaporate? If it's unfair, try catching us, you bastards worse than premature."

I stood the middle finger upright and scraped the guys' insides without mercy.

The thugs, unable to beat the anger, panted and regripped the clubs.

But my inside, acting leisurely and provoking on the outside, was in fact burning black.

'Damn it. Was five minutes this long?'

One minute, one second in a blood-drying standoff flowed terribly slow like an hour.

If the guys got scared and pulled back like this, or the opposite, lost reason and started throwing weapons wild, it would be trouble.

I had to keep the guys' anger gauge at the top and tie them inside this lot until the police arrived.

"Hyung, their movement is a bit strange."

Then Dong-myeong, watching the situation beside, whispered low.

Park Ji-hun, who had been glaring at me as if to kill, panting rough, suddenly gestured toward the gang and began giving some order.

"Hey! Don't chase bunched all at once! Those bastards' running is no ordinary, so spread wide and surround! Block from the exit side and drive them into that corner!"

Park Ji-hun's head finally turned taut and changed tactics.

At the guy's order the six thugs who had caught their breath began spreading wide in a fan, turning large around the lot's outer.

It seemed a thought of driving Dong-myeong and me toward the blocked wall behind the share-house building and cutting the retreat.

"Cheap bastards, you think we'll get caught doing that!"

I scanned the surrounding ground fast.

Between the guys slowly narrowing the net from all sides, narrow gaps between the cars still remained many.

"Dong-myeong! Before the guys play wall, tear out careful. I go first."

"Yes, hyung!"

Instead of being driven toward the wall, I began a full sprint toward the loosest gap on the left of the net.

"Block! They're slipping that way!"

Two thugs approaching from the left raised clubs and blocked my front.

I ran without slowing, and the moment the guys were about to swing the clubs I rolled my body sliding over the bonnet of a parked ute and slipped flexible to the other side.

"Fuck! A loach bastard!!!"

The guys shouted full of spite too.

"Hey! Catch him fast!"

Already the chance of them catching me was gone.

But Dong-myeong, split from me, could not get out smooth.

Running between the cars, because one thug stood blocking only Dong-myeong's front path to death.

Dong-myeong rushed to force a path open, but because of that the guy made a riot and swung the club.

The moment, twisting the body excessive to dodge that, whether he caught on something on the ground, he began staggering large.

'Dangerous!'

I ran toward Dong-myeong without measuring front and back.

Three other thugs narrowing the net had surrounded Dong-myeong in an instant.

Like this the retreat could be cut and it could really get dangerous.

"Dong-myeong!"

"Keh keh keh! Pickle this bastard first!"

Park Ji-hun's eyes flashed with killing intent.

Dong-myeong covered his head with both arms and crouched, but if those ruthless blunts poured at once, bones crushing was a matter of time.

'This crazy!'

Run? My younger brother about to take a beating in the middle of the city, police or whatever, that kind of thing would not enter the eyes.

My body was already cutting the air like a bullet, ahead of reason.

I rushed fierce at the back of the biggest thug about to bring it down on Dong-myeong, and kicked off the ground and leapt as I was.

"Taaaat—!"

A heavy flying side kick, the hard safety-boot heel cutting the air and sticking exact on the thug's wide back.

Pueok—!

"Keuaaak!"

With a dull sound as if the spine were snapping, the big thug screamed tearing and pitched forward.

At that impact he tangled with Park Ji-hun standing in front and slammed onto a parked car.

Taking the gap of the formation collapsing in an instant, I grabbed the collar of Dong-myeong fallen on the ground and growled like a beast.

"Get up, you bastard! Run!"

It was the moment I forcibly pulled Dong-myeong up.

"Where, you fuck bastard!"

The other thugs on both sides, poison up, swung clubs.

Covering Dong-myeong, the angle to dodge that did not even come.

Ppeok!

"Keueuk······!"

Pain stuck like lightning through the whole body, starting from the back and the left shoulder blade.

A shock enough to flash white before the eyes, but I clenched my teeth and swallowed the scream.

Fall here and both die like dogs.

I kicked the solar plexus of the guy about to swing the club once more, collapsed his balance, then pushed Dong-myeong and sprinted like mad again.

"Hyung! Hyung, blood······!"

"Shut up and only look ahead and run!"

Behind my back the shouts full of spite of the thugs who had gathered and got up poured again.

A moment the left eye area began to look hazy.

Wipe with the hand and the hand is soaked with blood.

Seems I was hit near the eye or the head.

The guys, medicine up sharp, lost reason and began running at us like mad dogs.

The lot exit side, the guy called Kim Tae-sik or something was blocking with another thug, and we were being driven helpless into a fence corner blocked on all sides.

About to clench a fist and prepare a last counter, thinking is this really the end, that very moment.

Waaaaeng—!!!

Beepo— beepo— beepo—!

A sharp siren sound as if bursting the eardrums, tearing the forest of buildings in the city center, began ringing from all sides.

"Wh······ what?!"

The steps of the thugs running at us froze a moment.

The siren sound heard from far came up to the nose in only a few seconds, and before they could even grasp the situation, intense red and blue light-bar light poured in like mad toward the entrances on all sides of the dark lot.

Squeeeak— bang!

Fully four Australian police patrol cars blocked the lot entrance like a drift at a tremendous speed and stopped hard.

The dazzling high beams of the headlights lit the seven thugs naked like a pin light.

"All of you, drop the weapons and get down! Hands up right now!!!"

The car doors opened rough, and sturdy armed police in vests, tasers and pistols and batons on the waist, poured out like a swarm.

At their overwhelming pressure and ruthless order, extreme fear frosted in the pupils of the thugs who had been raging as if to kill a person until a moment ago.

"P, police······? Fuck, why are the police already here······."

No! They really attacked not knowing?

The club fell powerless from Park Ji-hun's hand.

The other guys the same.

Caught flagrante trying to lynch with weapons in the middle of the city? To them, a hotbed of every crime, illegal stay, violence, contract, tax evasion, this situation was no different from deportation and a death sentence.

A few guys fell into panic and tried to climb the fence or run, but began being subdued by rough force by the Australian police who had already cut the retreat.

"Aak! Please save me!"

The running guys were tackled, and as they were their faces were crushed ruthless onto the asphalt, and silver cuffs were filled without mercy.

A refreshing and desperate scene of the guys who had been trying to hunt us until a few minutes ago being trampled like bugs on the street in an instant.

"Haa······ haa······."

Only then the tension let go, and I leaned on a parked car and let out a rough breath.

Pain pushed like mad from the whole body, but seeing the guys all in cuffs, face down on the ground whining, a catharsis as if the chest opened wide was felt.

Dong-myeong came beside me welling tears and supported my shoulder.

"Hyung······ really, really the police······ wow, fuck, we lived!"

"Aigu, you only-big-build guy. From tomorrow when the site ends, let's do running practice again."

In the end Dong-myeong did not take even one hit.

Around when I burst a dry laugh of relief, one police officer of heavy build approached with long steps to the head of Park Ji-hun writhing face down.

A middle-aged white officer with hawk-sharp eyes, three chevron rank marks flashing on the epaulette.

He glanced down at Park Ji-hun slammed on the ground, sunk in despair, as if at a bug, then turned his head toward the two of us panting rough in a corner of the lot.

And he asked in a heavy voice.

"I'm Senior Sergeant David. Who is Jeong-su?"

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