The Soldier 1

by Donald Ha

  “Before speaking, I would like to take a shower. Frankly speaking, this doesn’t look beautiful.”

  “Shower?”

  “If you’ll let me to do it.”

  A disgusting odor flowed from the girl. It was the smell made when the blood started to clot, and along with the smell of the dead corpse, Jackal felt like vomiting.

  ‘It’d be better to see her after being cleaned. I can’t stand looking at her now.'

  Jackal has a weak stomach even though he has seen a number of corpses in battlefields. He took out of a pocket watch from his chest, showed it to her and said,

  “I’ll give you 10 minutes.”

  “That’s too short for a girl. I need at least thirty minutes.”

  “Twenty.”

  “….Fine.”

  Under Jackal's eyes, the girl crawled towards the shower room, dragging her feet.

  After she entered the shower, the sound of water reached his ears.

  While Jackal sat on the side of the exit, he waited for the girl to end.

  Once again, an air of silence filled the room where he was left alone.

  All of sudden, a question rose.

  “What am I doing here?”

  Unlike his usual self, he could hardly keep his countenance.

  If he was his usual self, he would throw her out or kill her, but this time, he was strangely swayed by the situation.

  Come to think of it, he had no choice.

  The sudden appearance, a figure that reminds him of a ghost, a stray bullet, and patience strong enough to be admired.

  Maybe, Jackal might have lost his equilibrium from the first moment he met her.

  After a while.

  “Well, may I come in?”

  “Come in.”

  The existence that exposed again with crutches was a very beautiful girl with a bright blonde hair and a gloomy look.

  “Let me introduce myself. My name is Marie-Louise Lane. As you can see, I’m a patient.”

  *

  Marie-Louise Lane wore a French maid dressed instead of the clothes covered in blood. Her bare foot, exposed under the long skirt, was heavily bruised.

  “This clothes? A maid who came from Poland for my uncle used to wear it. Her name was Katejina or something.”

  The girl with green eyes seemed to see right through Jackal’s heart and kept talking parenthetically wherever his gaze stayed.

  Amazing thing was the sociability of her voice that made the other person feel good while she was talking.

  Jackal stared at Marie-Louise's left leg with crutches.

  Without fail, Marie's explanation followed.

  “I took off my splint. I didn’t have any bandages, so I tore off my clothes that I used to wear, cleaned them with soap, squeezed them out and then wrapped it. I learned how to do it when I went to school.”

  “.....”

  The next place Jackal gazed at was the face of the girl who was staring back at him.

  “Me?”

  “You….who are you?”

  “I think I already told you my name and my family relationship as well. Anyway, why don’t you stop aiming a gun at me? Think about it. I am a beautiful woman. I am injured. How can I harm you? I don’t even want to. “

  Jackal put the gun back into the waistband of his trousers. Marie's eyes shined at the gun.

  “The gun….my uncle’s. It was his most cherished one. If I touched it, he freaked out.”

  “Your uncle killed himself with this gun.”

  “Yeah. Not surprising, considering that he always wanted to meet his fate with a gun.”

  “By the way… Stop chattering and let’s go back to the main business. Why did a woman like you come here, covered in blood and your legs broken?

  At Jackal’s question, Marie lowered her head and sighed.

  “In fact, I’m being chased by someone.”

  “Who? The U.S Army? The British Army? The German Army? Or the French guys?

  “So many choices. As a matter of fact, neither one of them. However, the opponent was wearing US military uniform, so let’s call them the U.S Army.”

  Jackal sneered at her words.

  “A girl being chased by the U.S Army. That's a new one. Did you commit so called war crimes?”

  “No, I didn’t. For the duration of the war, there wasn’t a single American soldier that I killed.”

  “But, why are you being chased?”

  “That was my question. I knew it only yesterday…One of them told me that I should not have been born into the world.”

  The girl looked at the ceiling, with a solitary smile.

  On the ceiling, incandescent bulbs blazing in white shed light.

  ‘A girl who has been chased by American soldiers…’

  There’s no knowing whether it is true or not. But if it was true?

  Suddenly a thought came into Jackal’s mind.

  “Well, what do you want me to do?”

  Jackal said with a cold voice, staring at her.

  The girl was staring at the incandescent lamp with blank eyes.

  "Did you want to ask permission to live here for a while?"

  At Jackal’s question, the girl’s eyes turned towards Jackal. When their eyes met, she bowed her head narrowly on her crutches.

  “I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”

  “There’s no medicine or food here.”

  “I just need water. And at your earliest convenience, I will be very thankful if you could share little bits of biscuits with me.”

  “I think I can manage that. By the way, how will you handle that?”

  Jackal pointed to the dead man on a chair.

  “You are not going to live with your uncle?”

  “My uncle….Let me bury him.”

  “At such a state?”

  “After recovering a little.”

  That’s not a bad condition.

  Before Marie appeared, Jackal had worried about the disposal of the dead man. However, it is the best to remove it through someone else’s hands.

  Anyway, the guy was rotten from a few months now, so leaving the dead body for a few days will not remove the bad smell from the room.

  “Good.”

  Jackal readily accepted and put the gun inside and stood back.

  “I’ll visit next time.”

  “When are you going to visit me?”

  Jackal closed the door, ignoring the words of the girl.

  The ladder that received faint light in the distance caught his eyes.

  “A girl being chased by American soldiers. Perhaps, she could take me out of this collapsed empire.”

  Closing the hatch, Jackal muttered in a low voice.

  He recalled the U.S military officers who he knew by sight and left the ruins of the building, thinking how he could meet them.

  While Jackal dreamed of making a fortune in one stroke, the girl left in the bunker was staring at the dead man sitting in front of her.

  “A wanted criminal?”

  Donald McGally was one of the few American military officers. This infamous office who once received an official reprimand for escaping the enemy front, could only think of returning to his hometown, Seattle.

  “Yes. I want to earn a lot of money by catching them.”

  “Now you’re gonna change your job from ‘Hyena’ to bounty hunter?”

  "There's nothing worth much on the streets anymore."

  Speaking so, Jackal secretly took out a glass bottle with brown liquid from his chest.

  It was the French Cognac made in 1923. Donald, who saw the rare alcohol, said in a low voice after he looked around.

  “Put that inside the guard post. And take a pass and find Lieutenant Grace in the military police. He looks young, but you can find him easily because he is bald.”

  Entering into the guard post, the guards inside stared at Jackal with a frown.

  “What’s that? He’s Jap.. Why you here again?”

  Jackal put t
he Cognac down, and they gave Jackal a pass, and patted his shoulder.

  “Stop by often.”

  Even though he had a pass, he still had a long way to go. Jackal’s shabby looks and Asian face stopped many of the U.S soldiers passing by.

  “What? Who are you? Where you from?”

  “With the reference of Lieutenant Donald, I am on the way to see Lieutenant Grace.”

  Jackal had no choice but to bow and smile. Even though he didn’t want to.

  Unpleasant looks continued throughout the military police troops.

  “Stop there. Asian.”

  Two military police officers who were watching the military building stopped Jackal.

  Both of them were bigger than him.

  Even though he showed his pass, it didn’t work.

  “What? An Asian in Berlin.. you are Jap?”

  Outright hostility was shown in their eyes.

  It was only natural for them. Germany surrendered, but the war with Japan still continued.

  Especially, in the battle that recently took place in Iwo Island, a number of American soldiers died, so the U.S. antipathy towards the Japanese reached its climax. It was time to speak out about them calling everyone that looks Asian a ‘Jap,’

  “I’m not a Jap.”

  “Really? So, you’re Chinese?”

  “Nope.”

  “Where the hell do you come from?”

  The American soldier said in an angry tone.

  “You will never know even though I tell you. Because the country that I call ‘my country’ was already destroyed in the distant past and does not exist anymore in this world.”

  Jackal spoke in a neutral voice and had a forlorn look on his face.

  Just in time, one noncommissioned officer called the military police officers.

  He might have something to tell.

  “Really? That’s too bad.”

  There is no apparent reason to stop him, since he had a pass. Military police ofiicers who had unexpected business did not question him closely and just let him go inside.

  After extending courtesy, he went into the office.

  It was hot, damp and bustling in the office. Phones rang here and there and the office was thick with cigarette smoke.

  Jackal found a man that Donald described. It didn’t take long to find him.

  “Hello? You must be Lieutenant Grace?”

  There was no need to refer to the description that Donald answered, because the name plate with ‘Cpt. Grace’ was written on it was placed on his desk.

  “Yes, I am.”

  Lieutenant Grace turned his head and looked blankly at Jackal’s face. He made incredulous looks on his face with his pouting lips.

  “I came here with Lieutenant Donald’s referral.”

  “With a referral from Lieutenant Donald?”

  Hearing the name of Donald, Grace checked out Jackal’s look. After a while, he picked up the phone and said something.

  What he said on the phone did not reach Jackal’s ears.

  After he hung up, Grace stood from his seat.

  “Perfect timing! I was about to get some air.”

  He walked to a secluded place behind the building and asked him what happened, with a cigarette in his mouth.

  “So, why did you come to me?”

  “I’m looking for the wanted with prices on their heads.”

  “You mean you’re a bounty hunter?”

  “I can travel in and out of the U.S and the Soviet territory freely, and I am very familiar with the geography of Berlin. I also know a few Soviet military officers and can get much information in my hands.”

  At Jackal’s words, Grace looked at him with dubious eyes and nodded his head and lit the cigarette.

  After taking a puff, Grace opened his mouth again.

  “By the way, you’re Asian. Are you Japanese?”

  “No. I’m from Joseon.”

  There was no need to tell a lie to the military police officer like Grace. It is natural for him to crack down and investigate someone. There was no use telling a lie, because it’ll be revealed soon and I could be suspected.

  “Joseon? Is there such a country?

  “It was forcibly merged with Japan.”

  “If so, you are Japanese.”

  Grace told him flat and pulled out a pistol from his chest.

  It was a totally unexpected situation.

  There was a subtle movement in the face of Jackal. His body was instantly startled and soon became immobilized.

  The low voice of Grace reached his ears.

  “The people of a hostile country are considered as a spy, so we can arrest them at any time. Japan is a hostile country and you are the people of a hostile country.”

  “The people of a hostile country. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  As the muzzle reached his eyes, Jackal raised his hands in fear.

  Grace seemed to enjoy the reactions from Jackal and told him coldly, pushing the gun on Jackal’s face.

  “In the battlefield, things that you don’t understand often happen.”

  “May I ask you one question?”

  Jackal said hastily.

  “What’s that?”

  “I heard that the United States was once a British colony. What were those who lived in colonial America called?”

  His voice was shaking, but it came out as easy like flowing water.

  Grace who listened, stared at Jackal and busted out laughing.

  “Huh! You’re funny.”

  Maybe he couldn’t find the words to refute Jackal. He lowered his gun.

  “Actually, I didn’t even unlock the safety. I was just testing you.”

  “T….Test?”

  “Have you ever heard of the Devil of Cherbourg?”

  “The Devil of Cherbourg?”

  “He is a damn bastard. If you were the Devil of Cherbourg, when I laid that gun on you, I might’ve been a dead man. Well, of course, that guy wouldn’t be able to get away, either.”

  The eyes of Grace headed toward the opposite building. The eyes of Jackal quickly followed the thing that Grace was looking at.

  Instantly, Jackal found a gleam from a window on the fourth floor.

  ‘Is it a sniper?’

  50 meter in the distance.

  It is just a good place to shoot someone because it is not close nor too far and controls surroundings.

  If Jackal did any strange behavior, it will be difficult for him to leave this place alive.

  “According to recently obtained information, there are rumors that the guy called the Devil of Cherbourg was a military officer from Japan. In other words, the guy is Asian. So, when I saw you, I thought that you might be the Devil of Cherbourg and so I tested you.”

  Grace inhaled the cigarette smoke and puffed it into the sky.

  Jackal looked at the smoke scatter and spoke with caution.

  “I’ve heard about the guy. If the rumor is real and I am the Devil of Cherbourg, wouldn't your life be in danger?”

  “It can’t be helped.”

  Watching the smoke being scatter, Jackal thought.

  ‘It’s ridiculous. At this moment, the sniper is aiming at my head. And even if there is a sniper, I could kill you any time.”

  When Grace leveled a gun at him, Jackal had already held a knife, that was hidden in his chest with, his hand.

  If he put his mind to it, he could plunge the knife into Grace's neck at any time. However, at the moment when Grace took out of the gun, Jackal noticed that the safety catch of the gun was locked.

  So, Jackal didn’t do anything.

  “Anyway, if you need anything, I'll tell Donald. Accept works through him.”

  Some time had passed. Grace kicked away the cigarette on the floor and said goodbye, whoel putting it out.

  “Well, I’d better get going.”

  “Well, Captain. I have something to ask you once more.”

  “What’s that?”

  “This mig
ht be a little silly question. Is there a woman that the American soldiers are looking for?

  “Woman?”

  “Well, I mean a pretty girl with blond hair and green eyes.”

  “There is no pretty woman among German women. The thing we are looking for is not a woman, but a war criminal. When it comes to woman arrangement, you’d better meet the Bolshevik guys from the east.”

  The conversation ended.

  Grace stalked off and left the place.

  “Hmm, was the woman telling a lie? No wonder that there was no woman being chased by the U.S Army.”

  Licking his lips, Jackal pulled a hat over his face and left the station.

  “Ah, well, I’d better find extra work.”

  The sky was reddening and fragrant smell of food from the U.S. restaurant spread out.

  American soldiers who finished the day walked into the dining room in twos and threes. Perhaps, one of them might recognize him.

  It seemed that American soldiers found out that he was Asian. Not just in Berlin, but there aren’t a lot of Asians in Germany.

  He was filled with a sense of foreboding, but there is nothing to be changed if he hesitated or was scared.

  ‘If I am condemned to be killed, I should die. However, I will not die easily.’

  With clenched teeth, Jackal walked among American soldiers in silence.

  *

  At the same time.

  “Phew….”

  Marie-Louise Lane was sitting, stretching her two legs and was staring at her legs with blue and black bruises through her transparent emerald eyes.

  “....”

  After looking at her legs for a while, she soon began to press her two legs with her fingers. If those who did not know what her situation looked like, they might have thought it was a useless behavior. However, this was quite a desperate and needed action for her.

  After doing that with her fingers, she took a deep breath and then began to fix the dislocated bones with her two hands.

  *Crack! Crack!*

  In the room that filled the air of silence, a screech that makes one’s hair stand on end, echoed. Nobody in their right mind would have been able to hear that sound. If there was a Demon’s Symphony, the sound made would’ve been perfect as the introduction.

  The whole thing was a bit scary but Marie-Louise Lane continued what she was doing without batting an eye.