“Damnit,” Dick spat in annoyance. He aimed his gun at the American soldiers leaping out from behind Yuto and pulled the trigger several times. One of them fell, but another hid himself behind a tree and began firing bravely back at them.
Corvus swiftly picked up his assault rifle and began firing in fierce succession, taking down the soldier, tree trunk and all.
“Dick!” Yuto yelled. “We’ll be finished if we stay here. We should take that Jeep and—”
“It won’t get us away fast enough,” Dick said. “There’s a CIA helicopter waiting on the summit. Let’s head there.”
The three men scrambled desperately up the slope, which was soft and muddy from the rain.
“This is White Wolf,” Dick yelled into his radio as they ran. “Iron Raven, come in!”
“Iron Raven. Something wrong?”
“I’ve got two rescues with me, approaching you from two o’clock. We’re being chased by the enemy.”
“Roger. We’ll prepare for takeoff and stand by.”
Two rescues. Dick was planning to let Corvus onto the helicopter as well. Yuto gazed at Dick’s profile with gratitude.
“I haven’t forgiven him,” Dick scowled.
The three men continued to sprint desperately, even as the slippery ground tripped up their feet. The enemy swelled in number behind them, raining down an incessant storm of bullets upon them. Dick and Corvus teamed up and took turns furiously firing back, staving off their pursuit.
Yuto took a bullet to his right leg in an unlucky turn. He felt a burning pain race down from his knee to his foot, causing him to slump on the ground on all fours.
Dick and Corvus quickly came to his side and took each arm over their shoulders. Yuto mustered all his strength to move his legs as the men half-dragged him, but his right leg refused to cooperate.
“We’re almost there. Just hang in there,” Dick encouraged. Corvus looked up at the summit.
“I can see the helicopter,” he said, giving Yuto the courage to carry on. He could hear the helicopter rotors beating the air. They were indeed almost there.
“Corvus, take Yuto with you.”
Once they reached the summit, Dick turned his back toward them and began firing at the American soldiers coming up the slope.
Dick’s teammate was waiting by the helicopter, and he worked with Corvus to hoist Yuto onto the helicopter flight deck.
“White Wolf, get back here! We’re taking off!” the man yelled, but Dick was still about ten meters way. He kept firing as he slowly retreated in a bid to keep the soldiers at bay for as long as possible. However, the soldiers had apparently spotted the helicopter from the slope, for they began aiming fire at it instead.
“We can’t stay any longer, we gotta go!”
The spooked pilot began ascent, and the aircraft floated off the ground.
“Stop!” Yuto yelled. “Dick isn’t here yet! Are you leaving him behind?”
The pilot looked pale as he hovered in place, glancing repeatedly at Dick who was approaching with his back to them. He looked frightened enough to hightail it out of there any minute. He was most likely a hired civilian pilot and not a military one.
“Dick, hurry up and get back here! Hurry…!”
Sensing that he could no longer stave the soldiers off, Dick turned and began running toward them. However, the helicopter was already two meters in the air. Dick threw aside his gun without a moment of hesitation and clung onto the landing skid on the bottom of the aircraft.
The helicopter began to rise with Dick hanging off of it. The men continued to shoot at them from below, keeping Dick’s teammate from helping him up.
Corvus pushed him aside and leaned out of the bay door.
“Dick, grab onto my arm!”
He reached out without regard for the danger. Dick skillfully wrapped his legs around the skid and pulled his upper body up, grabbing Corvus’ hand. Corvus used all his strength to hoist Dick onto the deck.
As Dick managed to tumble on board, a sigh of relief permeated the cabin.
“They’re still shooting at us. Guys don’t know how to quit,” Dick’s teammate said with a lopsided grin. Just then, Corvus head slumped over.
Sensing something wrong, Yuto tried to grab Corvus’ shoulder, but his body slipped away from him. The man tipped over as if in slow motion, collapsing over Dick, who was sitting on the floor.
“Hey, what’s the matter?”
Dick looked surprised as he laid the man’s limp body out.
Yuto widened his eyes in disbelief. Corvus was bleeding from his left chest area. Dick immediately pressed down on the wound with both hands, but the bleeding only got worse.
“Sid, get me a hemostatic!”
“It’s too late. He’s taken a critical shot. There’s nothing we can do,” Dick’s teammate shook his head in regret. Yuto froze in shock as it dawned on him. Corvus had not been wearing a bulletproof vest. Maybe the armour that he had given Yuto was the last one he had.
“Corvus, hang in there!”
Corvus’ face lost more and more colour before their eyes, his lips turning white like a dead man’s. He seemed to have difficulty even breathing.
“—Yuto, it’s a shame. Looks like my last fireworks show… ended up to be nothing… but a dream…”
“You’re not gonna die. Dick saved your life. We’re not letting it go to waste!”
But no matter how much he yelled, there was nothing Yuto could do. He could only watch as Corvus grew weaker.
“What about Alchiba?”
“I… I wanted… to leave my mark… on USA. A mark that… only I know.” Corvus spoke in short bursts as his voice became faint. Yuto gripped his hand rightly.
“I know. When you connect the footsteps you left behind, you get the Corvus constellation, right? I knew.”
Corvus smiled faintly. “Is that so,” he murmured. His gaze wavered slowly before he pointed to the holstered gun on Dick’s hip.
“Dick, take that gun and… shoot me. Kill me… with your own hands.”
Dick took out his gun without a word. For a moment, he pointed it at Corvus, but there was no longer any emotion in his eyes.
Yuto knew that Dick wouldn’t be able to shoot Corvus in this state. The man was already dying; leave him for a few more minutes, and he would go out on his own. How could he bring himself to lodge a bullet into someone in that state?
“Bullshit,” Dick said. “I’m not doing you any favours. If you want to be shot in a shootout so badly, get up and grab a gun yourself.”
Corvus laughed silently when he saw Dick lower his gun.
“You idiot… I know it was… your biggest wish…”
Corvus exhaled weakly before smiling blissfully as if he were in a dream.
“Ah… it brings me back… to those days at Schelger Prison…”
It took all of Yuto’s effort to suppress the hot surge of emotion that threatened to burst from his chest. He could barely keep himself from screaming.
Yuto’s time in prison had been absolutely miserable; however, in Corvus’ harsh life, those days had been the most peaceful.
What a pitiful life his had been. But Corvus did not feel sorry for himself. He had no idea he was a pitiful person, which Yuto thought was the most unfortunate thing about Corvus.
“Corvus. Will you tell me your real name?”
Yuto wanted to call the man by his real name, at least in his last moments. However, Corvus only shook his head weakly.
“—Corvus is the only name I know. Yuto… will you do me a favour instead? Just one last time… I want you to call me Nathan.”
Only behind bars had Corvus been able to live like a human being. He had been liked, trusted, and needed by other inmates. Even if those days that he spent as Nathan Clark were fiction, it had been the closest semblance to a normal life he could have.
He had been raised as a murderer, only permitted to live in the shadows. Even though Yuto knew that Corvus was a wicked person, he could not bring himself to hate the man completely.
“Nathan, rest easy. You can go to sleep now, Nathan,” Yuto murmured gently. Corvus closed his eyes, looking satisfied at last. His eyes never opened again.
After witnessing Corvus’ death, Yuto slumped over weakly on his hands and knees. He was breaking out in a cold sweat, and his breathing was fast and shallow. He was going through shock from blood loss.
“Sid, pass the gauze.”
Dick laid Yuto out on a sheet and pressed a piece of gauze against his leg, pressing down on it hard with both hands. Yuto’s face grew ashen he looked up at Dick, engrossed in stanching Yuto’s bleeding.
Dick did not try to look at him. Yuto wished he would say something. Anything. Regret at not being able to kill Corvus himself. Anger at Yuto for getting in his way. He wanted Dick to tell him what he was feeling in his heart. Even a single word would do.
Yuto tried to call Dick’s name again. His lips moved, but no voice came out. His consciousness quickly faded into darkness.