“I’m sorry. We lost him.”
The voice of Team 2, who had been tracking the limping man, came through the earpiece.
“Understood. I’ll go.”
I hurried toward Team 2’s location.
I had to see the scene for myself.
Whether that man had been Adrian,
I had to confirm it myself, with my own eyes.
When I arrived at the alley,
Team 2 was guarding the spot.
Their expressions were stiff.
They looked as if they had committed some grave sin.
“···.”
They couldn’t say a word.
“It’s fine. I was the one who told you to keep your distance. My judgment was wrong.”
“I’m sorry.”
Team 2 bowed their heads.
But it wasn’t their fault.
I was the one who ordered them to confirm from afar.
And I never imagined that old geezer would be carrying something like a smoke grenade.
It was clearly my mistake, my fault.
Leaving them behind, I examined the scene.
The acrid smell of the smoke grenade still lingered.
I checked the spot where it had gone off.
On the ground lay the spent casing of the smoke grenade.
But beyond the smoke grenade, there was nothing.
No footprints, no traces.
Clean.
“A decoy.”
He hadn’t fled through the smoke.
He had only made us believe he had.
“Check the opposite side.”
We scattered and checked the surrounding buildings.
Both sides of the alley, the buildings, the entrances.
We checked them one by one.
Before long, the radio crackled.
“Over here.”
I headed that way immediately.
“There are signs that someone forced this door open and went up to the rooftop.”
The door’s lock was broken.
I pushed the door lightly with my hand.
Creeeak.
The door opened easily.
On the rooftop, faint traces remained of someone having stayed there briefly.
It was certain.
The limping man had definitely been Adrian.
We had lost him, but we had come to the right place.
The direction was right.
Adrian might think he had escaped,
but instead, he had given us certainty.
I called Chen Zhihao over the radio.
“Dig through the CCTV. Look for someone wearing beige slacks and a gray windbreaker.”
“Yes.”
I paused for a moment.
“He might have changed clothes. Instead, look for anyone whose gait seems even slightly off. If you find him, stick to him no matter what.”
“I’m already on it. But…”
“But what?”
“There isn’t much CCTV in Luxembourg. Especially around the Old Quarter, there are a lot of blind spots.”
A brief silence.
“Doesn’t matter. We’ll fill them.”
I switched the radio to the all-channel frequency.
“All Obsidian personnel. We are changing the operation from this moment on. Look for anyone with an injured leg. Whether they’re limping or dragging a leg even slightly, check them all.”
“Maintain distance, and no contact.”
“Yes.”
The wind blew through the alley again.
I looked in that direction.
It felt as if Adrian were somewhere out there.
“Go ahead, run. It wouldn’t be fun if you were easy to catch.”
The corner of my mouth lifted slightly.
“Hide well.”
.
.
.
Adrian did not stop walking.
He turned down the alleys of the Old Quarter again and again.
Down stairs, then back up again,
slipping through the crowd as if brushing past them.
But he did not hurry.
His pace was steady.
It was not the walk of a man being chased.
But his limping leg was difficult to hide.
He had placed a support pad inside his shoe to balance himself.
He paid attention to his stride as well.
Even so, it wasn’t perfect.
It could not be concealed.
The rhythm kept falling out of sync.
His body remembered the limp.
The more he tried to hide it, the more it stood out.
Adrian took a phone from his pocket.
An old 2G phone.
“Protocol Delta. Abandoning the primary base. Everyone withdraw. I repeat. Primary base is abandoned. Everyone withdraw.”
“Move to the secondary base. Rendezvous at ‘Iron Castle.’”
“If you detect pursuit, scatter individually.”
“Roger.”
From the other end of the line came only a short reply, as if they understood, and the call disconnected.
That was the end of the call.
Adrian did not press the end-call button.
He simply snapped the phone in half.
Crack.
The sound of the phone breaking rang out.
Without even looking at it,
Adrian threw it into the stream beside him.
Even then, Adrian did not stop walking.
His speed, his flow, his rhythm did not change.
He simply walked like any other tourist.
The moment he left the Old Quarter, the air changed.
The narrow alleys ended, and a wide road appeared.
His field of vision opened up.
Adrian swept his gaze over his surroundings very briefly.
Left, right, rear.
Nothing unusual.
Then, from the far side of the road,
a car approached at high speed.
It stopped as if it were about to crash right into Adrian.
The door opened.
Adrian checked the person inside once,
gave a slight nod, and got in.
The door closed, and the car immediately set off.
“We may have a tail. Watch the rear and drive accordingly.”
“Understood.”
The car quietly headed toward the outskirts of Luxembourg.
Along the way, they changed cars several times.
And so they arrived at the secondary base.
Iron Castle.
It was a very old castle located on the outskirts of Luxembourg.
After looking around once, Adrian confirmed there was no one there and limped into the old castle.
His footsteps echoed against the stone floor.
Irregularly.
.
.
.
Chen Zhihao’s fingers stopped as he stared at the monitor.
He stared hard at the monitor once more.
The mouth of an alley on the outskirts of the Old Quarter.
The timestamp was twelve minutes ago.
Beige slacks, black short-sleeved T-shirt.
A completely different person.
But the gait caught his eye.
He replayed the footage again and again.
He checked it frame by frame.
Only then did he see it.
The moment the left foot touched the ground,
his center of gravity wavered for the briefest instant.
It looked as if he had tried to hide it,
but in the end, he hadn’t been able to.
The corner of Chen Zhihao’s mouth lifted slightly.
“Found you.”
He muttered to himself while watching the monitor.
“Guess you were in such a hurry you only managed to take off the windbreaker.”
Chen Zhihao did not delay.
He immediately opened the radio and reported.
“Target acquired. West side of the Old Quarter. As of twelve minutes ago. Currently moving north.”
“Beige slacks, black short-sleeved T-shirt.”
“Tracking in real time.”
“Confirmed. Continue tracking.”
“Roger.”
The answer came easily,
but the tracking was not easy.
There were too many gaps in CCTV coverage.
There wasn’t much CCTV to begin with,
and there were far too many blind spots.
If he hid intentionally, he would be difficult to find.
The Obsidian units filled those gaps.
“Target confirmed. Moving north. I’ll follow at a distance.”
“Don’t follow him. No contact.”
Alex’s sharp voice came through.
“··· Confirmed, no contact.”
The operative answered, startled.
“Launch the drone.”
“Launching drone.”
Instead of contact, Alex chose a drone.
From a height no one would care about,
a single drone rose quietly.
There was no noise.
It looked like tourist filming equipment.
But the lens was different.
The screen switched, and the lens locked onto Adrian.
“Lock acquired.”
Chen Zhihao spoke in a low voice.
The drone moved automatically in accordance with the target’s movements.
It set its own altitude and direction and flew.
At a height where the enemy would not notice it.
Chen Zhihao watched Adrian on the screen.
His expression said he would never let him go.
When Adrian emerged from the narrow alley,
a vehicle rushed toward him at high speed.
It stopped precisely in front of Adrian,
and Adrian got into the car without hesitation.
“Target has entered a vehicle. Switching tracking. Follow the vehicle.”
Chen Zhihao shouted after confirming Adrian had boarded the vehicle.
The drone’s target changed from Adrian to the vehicle.
The vehicle left the city.
It began to pick up speed.
But the drone did not lose it.
It followed the vehicle at a steady speed.
If Adrian changed cars,
they would simply switch the target to the new car.
And at the very end,
they were able to see Adrian get out of the vehicle.
Chen Zhihao looked back and forth between Adrian on the screen and the majestic old castle standing behind him.
“Got you.”
*******
After entering the old castle, Adrian collapsed into a chair.
The soft chair received his body.
Hoo.
He breathed hard.
He opened his hand.
It was full of sweat.
His palm was soaked.
It seemed he had been tense.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he had felt this kind of tension.
When had he last walked with his nerves this frayed,
conscious of every alley,
listening to his own footsteps,
moving while avoiding CCTV?
He was not used to this situation.
No, it had been so long that he had forgotten.
“Ha…”
A laugh mixed with a sigh escaped him.
He had survived.
That was all.
He picked up the bottle of whiskey on the table
and took a gulp straight from it without even pouring it into a glass.
The strong liquor slid down his throat.
A burning sensation spread through his insides.
But that actually felt good.
The tension slowly eased.
His stiff shoulders dropped.
It had been a hard day.
Ever since leaving Mauritius, he had been careful about everything.
Movement went without saying, but also contact, lodging, even the organization.
He thought he had hidden himself perfectly,
yet they had followed him all the way to Luxembourg.
Still, it was fortunate.
He had been able to shake off the enemies with the smoke grenade and move bases.
He hadn’t felt anyone following him.
Because of his anxiety, he had no idea how many times he had looked back
until he arrived here at Iron Castle.
And yet there had been no one.
At least, he was safe today.
Perhaps even until tomorrow.
But before then, he would move.
He would give those bastards no trace, no pretext.
Once his safety was secured, it would be time to counterattack.
Adrian leaned back into the soft sofa once more.
.
.
.
At that moment.
Outside the old castle.
People were gathering in the darkness.
But they did not converge in one place.
Two, three at a time.
Along the forest.
Along the ridgeline.
They moved without a sound.
They had come from different directions,
and they took up positions apart from one another.
There were no words.
No signals either.
They simply encircled the old castle in silence.
“Eastern approach complete.”
“Reached northern high ground.”
Short, dry reports followed.
Allen was checking the drone footage Chen Zhihao had sent.
While watching the footage, he adjusted the operatives’ positions little by little.
Seen from the sky, it became clear where the operatives needed to be placed.
Escape routes, entry routes, vehicle movement paths—he erased them one by one.
They took positions so that no one could enter or leave the old castle.
The problem was the inside of the old castle.
They had no idea what the interior looked like, or where it connected.
I contacted Chen Zhihao separately and asked.
“Chen Zhihao, do you think there are blueprints for that old castle?”
“I looked, but there aren’t any.”
Chen Zhihao replied as if there was nothing he could do.
“Still, when old buildings get their permits renewed, don’t they have to submit blueprints under building regulations?”
“There are cases like that sometimes, but they don’t match the actual structure. A lot of people just write down what’s visible and submit that. That building doesn’t even have that much.”
“Got it.”
I understood there was nothing to be done.
Was there no other way?
“What about thermal detection?”
“The walls are too thick, so it’s useless. We’re not picking up anything.”
We had surrounded the outside, but the inside was pitch black.
But we couldn’t just barge in blindly.
Without blueprints, we had no idea what the interior looked like.
We couldn’t even predict where bullets might come from.
Where the corridors turned, where the stairs were.
And where Adrian was hiding—we had no idea at all.
And we had no reason to take that risk and go in.
No matter how much this was for Dennis’s revenge, we couldn’t do it by grinding away our own lives.
That was also the reason we hadn’t dealt with Adrian directly in Mauritius.
Then the answer was simple.
“All personnel, prepare mortars.”
At my words, the operatives grew busy.
Each began moving quietly from their respective positions.
Cases opened,
and equipment was taken out.
At my radio command, every operative began setting up the thermobaric rounds
that Leon and Toto had worked so hard to make.
“Coordinates fixed.”
“Angle set.”
“Aiming complete.”
I nodded.
“Fire when ready.”