Mercenary Black Mamba

'Hehehe, this guy came to see me because of the crap left behind by Germaine and Balisari, didn't he? What an unexpected jackpot this is!'

Was her name Balisari? Mu Ssang recalled a shapely female reporter that pranced around like an immature tool. Although she did get on his nerves a bit, she didn't cause any lasting harm.

However, he stumbled onto a large-capacity power station for himself all thanks to that woman, so everything worked out very well in the end. He was so thankful that he had half a mind to gift Balisari with a designer label handbag made out of Sarcosuchus hide for starting this whole thing.

Bonipas was also feeling greatly pleased with himself after dealing with the elephant in the room. The gaunt Death Mask brightened up considerably. His lips as thin as a line drawn by a purple chalk spread open so wide in a grin that it even put the hahoetal to shame. (hahoetal - Traditional Korean mask)

Bonipas laughed loudly. "Kuhahaha! Thank you. Honestly speaking, I was feeling very anxious until now."

"My pleasure. Although, I regret making you worry over such minor matters, knowing how busy you are, General Director." Mu Ssang responded in kind.

The real thankful person here was him, in all honesty. Voluntarily disclosing things like this made things better for everyone. A person in the position of giving would feel so much lighter and happier, while the person in the position of receiving would feel happy about not needing to say any lame things. That's why 'voluntary disclosure' was a daily thing in South Korea, also known as the 'Country of Courteous People in the East'.

*

Once the atmosphere became amicable, Bonipas felt a lot more at ease, allowing him to take his time observing Samdi. Even at a casual glance, this man oozed this incredible aura strong enough to kill an elephant with a single punch and then some.

Bonipas possessed the sharp eyes befitting the head of a country's intelligence agency. He had already analyzed Samdi's worth by now, whose combat ability seemed to rival that of Ocelot.

'When a winner falls down, he'll end up falling on top of a beauty, or so they say...'

Bonipas lamented inwardly.

The Arago Project that began during the era of Napoleon and continued on till recently ended up as a failure and had to be shuttered for good. Tens of billions of Francs in national budget went down the drain with that result.

Brave generals were supposed to follow the hero, and as an example, Black Mamba had taken under his wing an individual rivaling Ocelot in strength. Black Mamba's worth had soared even higher with this development.

"Did you kill Ocelot?" Bonipas suddenly asked a question.

"How did you guess?" Mu Ssang asked back in a surprised voice.

Ocelot lost to Samdi and was fed the cantarella poison before getting shoved inside the titanium coffin. Everything seemed to be taken care of without a trace, so how did Bonipas figure it out?

"All my life, I've deceived my enemies but never my friends. Please do not test me."

'What on earth is this guy even talking about?'

Mu Ssang became confused by Bonipas's sullen words.

'...Aha!'

However, Mu Ssang quickly figured out what the 'voluntarily disclosing' specialist Bonipas was misunderstanding about here. The Frenchman was unhappy about the fact that Mu Ssang chose not to say anything to him after eliminating Ocelot.

"My skin is too thin to boast about finishing off a mere punk like that, you see." With perfect timing, Mu Ssang came up with a shameless reply.

'I knew it, he has a gracious heart. He considered my position and decided to give up on getting paid for it.' Bonipas thought to himself, feeling rather moved.

He felt that, without a doubt, the strength of trust and friendship they had built up until now was unquestionable. It seemed that Bonipas's one-sided adoration didn't know when to cool down.

"Even if we're close, we should still be precise with matters involving money. Even more so, when the individual we're talking about was the result of us messing up.

"Thank you for eliminating a bastard that was like a thorn on our side. As promised, thirty million Francs will be added to the payment for the operation. The Interpol put up a bounty of five hundred thousand dollars on that bastard, but please do forget about that. France is not in the position to publicize Ocelot's demise at this stage, you see."

"You don't have to be so generous, you know!"

Despite what his mouth was saying, Mu Ssang was grinning from ear to ear.

Even before the payment for the operation had been calculated properly, he got his hands on a thermal power station and thirty million Francs. Ocelot stuck inside the titanium coffin was like a recycle asset at this point. Wasn't this like killing two birds with one stone? Indeed, depending on how you recycled trash, you could make bank big time.

'I knew it, I'm a genius!'

Because Mu Ssang chose to head to Djibouti, he got himself a power station and 30 million Francs. Even though all he did was just act on his whims, he began praising his 'calculated' actions.

"By the way, is that creature a Chimera? Do you have any thoughts of selling it to me?"

Bonipas made that suggestion in a serious tone.

He was suspecting that Dino was a type of Chimera developed by the Yankees. Black Mamba was fully capable of capturing a Chimera and reprogramming who its master was, after all.

Black Mamba's report spoke of various Chimeras and humanoid living weapons, causing an emergency situation within the National Bioengineering Research Institute affiliated with the DGSE's tech and science division.

According to the report, the individual Yankee-developed Chimera's combat power and specs easily rivaled that of Ocelot. Meanwhile, the group of three aquatic Chimeras hiding in the Devil Spring was stronger than even Ocelot himself.

Even though the Yankees wouldn't reveal their existences that easily, if the Octopus or the Serpent were to be released in the coastlines of a target country, the fishing and tourism industries of said country would completely be devastated.

The National Bioengineering Research Institute was in the middle of covertly analyzing the corpse of a humanoid monster called the Haunter. The team leader confidently declared that they should be able to develop artificial muscles comparable to a Haunter's within five years if they could get their hands on the living Chimera stem cell specimen.

Samdi was already Black Mamba's underling. Bonipas getting greedy about him would be akin to fondling the balls of someone's dead child. If he requested that man to become a lab rat, Bonipas's head would definitely go flying this instant.

That's why he shifted his interest to Dino, instead. Despite sitting still like an obedient house cat, the air oozing off of that creature was so chill-inducing that it verged on being terrifying.

Being next to this creature would make one mistakenly think of a tiger as a meek little kitten.

Krrr-

Dino bared its fangs while furrowing its brows deeply. It found the old human's sideways glances very displeasing.

Smack-!

But as soon as Dino bared its fangs, Samdi's fist mercilessly smacked the creature in the back of its head.

"You insolent punk. A kid should not butt in during the adults' conversation."

Dino whimpered and buried its head between its legs.

Samdi had been reciting the 'insolent/rude/ill-mannered' while hitting Dino every chance he could find, so the poor creature began understanding what those words meant now. Although that old human soured Dino's mood, it decided to suppress its unhappiness.

Mu Ssang spoke up. "Dino is not a Chimera, just one of the ancient predator species still existing inside the jungles of Ituri."

"Heol, but that can't be?!" Bonipas sucked in a deep breath.

The discovery of small giraffe-like creature called okapi in the early 20th century caused a huge ruckus in the scientific world. But now, not only Chimeras but even ancient predator have shown up next. It was one thing after another, it seemed.

"The ancient ecosystem is still being maintained in the jungles of Ituri to this day. We even confirmed existences of the supposedly-extinct terror birds and Sarcosuchus, too."

"I can believe about Chimeras, but... it's very hard for me to believe that the monsters from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras are still alive." Bonipas could only shake his head.

"Of course, even I can't be certain whether they were really the extinct ancient species or creatures that merely looked similar on the outside. Samdi, bring that thing out."

Samdi brought out a huge durable-looking canvas bundle. And when the bundle was loosened, Dino shot back up to its feet.

"Hey, punk. Be still like an extra that you are. Your big bro killed this thing, remember that."

Samdi shot a sideways glare at Dino before taking out the Sarcosuchus hide. The womenfolk of the Pygmy tribe were natural-born leather tanning specialists. They somehow managed to process the Sarcosuchus hide, which was as thick and tough as steel plates, into something as soft and supple as a calf hide.

And the hide continued to roll out seemingly endlessly. Its length was nonsensical to behold - the massive crocodile hide nearly twelve meters in length easily filled up the suite.

And the hide emerging from the bundle was so complete that one could potentially make a stuffed exhibit out of it.

"Heol?! Unbelievable, you were telling the truth!"

Bonipas's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. A gasp of amazement and admiration automatically leaked out of his mouth at the majesty of this ancient creature. Compared to this monster before his eyes, the current-day crocodiles all looked like measly little lizards.

"I like you, so consider this fang my gift to you. I had to sweat a bit trying to extract it, though."

Samdi presented a conical fang that was curved inwardly like a Kukri knife. Of course, it was a Sarcosuchus fang with the circumference of 300mm and the length of 350mm.

"Thank you for this valuable gift. I also like you." Bonipas replied while gladly accepting the gift.

This gift's monetary value should be incredible considering its rarity, but Bonipas was more pleased about Samdi having a favorable impression of him.

Mu Ssang spoke up. "The hide couldn't be cut with a blade. It didn't burn from the torch's flames and insects weren't attracted to it, too."

"Sounds like an amazing hide, then. What are you planning to do with it?"

"I hear that Louis Vuitton or Cartier is pretty good with leather goods. I could turn this hide into handbags and make myself some extra cash or something. What do you think?"

"Kuk?!" Bonipas gagged after he nearly choked on himself.

He had never seen anyone so... uncouth or insensitive like Mu Ssang before in his entire life.

Sarcosuchus was a species of crocodile from the Mesozoic period. Its fossils showing up would make the scientific community go wild so the appearance of an intact hide could potentially flip the whole world on its head.

Simply preserving it and charging fees to view it would make you rich. That's why Bonipas was left gagging at the declaration of turning this invaluable treasure into some handbags.

"Are you being serious?!"

"Oh? What if I'm not, then?"

Bonipas suddenly felt this urge to punch Mu Ssang's face when the latter asked back with an openly shameless expression.

"After doing some rough calculations, I think I can easily get about 700 pairs of ladies' shoes or 500 Kelly bags. I mean, you can see how big it is, can't you? Since they will be limited-run luxury goods made out of ancient crocodile leather, wouldn't they be sold out in a matter of minutes even I charge ten thousand Francs each?"

"Give it to me. I'll pay you double."

Mu Ssang shook his head. "I'm sure you're thinking of sending this hide to the CNRS (Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Scientific Research National Center). But that's no good. This hide must be turned into handbags. Tell me, do I look obsessed with money in your view?"

Bonipas wordlessly stared at Mu Ssang before making his reply. "...Mm. I see. You're worried about causing chaos."

"That's correct. The world is becoming more and more hectic lately. Inauspicious things appearing one after the other. An ancient creature like this Sarcosuchus will only serve as bellows that fan the current era's confusion and chaos. It'll be better for everyone that this hide does not appear in public."

"Fella, you are one strange person. A warrior. An assassin. A psychopath. An ascetic and a cleric. Even a sage. You are like an amalgamation of so many variety of personalities. It's not the case of multiple personality disorder, so should I say it's more like complex personality disorder?"

"What does my personality have to do with anything? I'll always be the same person, anyway!"

"Hahaha! That's a good saying. I see that you're in your Sage Mode, then. Alright. Although I'm tempted, I'll give up on the hide. But when you do make handbags out of it later on, do remember to give me one, too. I'd like to score some points with my wife, you see."

"Will do. I might not have a present for Mister Mitterrand, but I certainly cannot overlook my business partner, now can I?"

"Thank you. So. Beside the terror birds, Dinofelis and even this Sarcosuchus, I'm guessing there were other ancient animals in that jungle?"

"Correct. The deeper we ventured into Ituri's jungles, the more common the ancient lifeforms became. There was even a Titanoboa over fifteen meters long in that place."

"Hoh-oh? If this discovery gets out, academics from the related fields will rush there while busy tripping over themselves."

"Honestly, I'd like to talk them out of doing that if I can help it. Even now, I can't decide whether those creatures are actual ancient animals that managed to survive until now by adapting to the new ecosystem... or the Houngan of the voodoo cult used witchcraft to modify the existing fauna.

"I mean, the equipment for experiments and research data recovered by Paul and sent back to France all belonged to Damballa's boss, Kamuge, after all. And Samdi had a hard time fighting that Sarcosuhus, you see."

"That makes sense. The elite counter-terrorism unit got swallowed up by the jungles of Ituri, so the untrained civilians will have no chance there..." Bonipas blurred the end of his sentence.

Because of some old men's obstinacy, hundreds of young soldiers had to be sacrificed. That was a typical example of harm done when an incompetent fool somehow managed to worm their way into a high-ranking position. A vile terrorist could only kill a few dozens at most, but an incompetent fool of a policy maker could kill thousands, nay, tens of thousands with just one slip of paper.

"How high is the combat prowess of your Dino?"

"I haven't measured it. Should I send it off to that safari in Paris or Lyon's Peaugres Safari? That guy can crush a boulder with its front paw, I'll have you know. I think it can turn thirty to forty lions into corpses in a blink of an eye."

"But this kid is still too weak, though. I'm diligently training him." Samdi butted him while lightly slapping the back of Dino's head repeatedly.

'This friend... simply has to be in France's embrace, no matter what.'

Bonipas resolutely made his mind up about this. A monster supposedly attracted other monsters - and here was a good example. The human was a monster and that beast was a monster, too.

Even when he was acting as a lone wolf, Black Mamba was still powerful and skilled enough to scoff at the heavens above. But with Samdi, strong enough to rival Ocelot, and a strange monster coming under his wings, his destructive power must've gone through the roof.

Karrrr-

Dino pointed at the front door with its front paw.

"Sounds like the room service has arrived."

Samdi left the door open. Not too long after that, the waiter pushing the room service cart forward showed up.

But the waiter would get shocked to death at Dino's presence, so, out of worry, Bonipas shifted his head to look for the creature. But the beast was already gone without a trace. And only after the waiter had left, Dino reappeared without making a single sound.

'Wow, it's truly a clever creature.'

Bonipas began coveting Dino even more. There was no way that an animal could proactively analyze the situation and take appropriate measures like this. Not even chimpanzees, known to be very smart, could match the toe-end of Dino's intelligence.

"...You are now filthy rich, so isn't this a bit too low-key?"

Coq au vin and wine were the extent of the room service. No landowner out there should own a land as big as Black Mamba's nor would there be any gazillionaires with as much cash as him yet this...

Mu Ssang smirked silently while decanting the wine, then handed over the flute. "What's the point of me making all that money? I've already dumped it all on the Sahara desert by now, anyway. Having enough money to look after my family is all I want, that's all."

"Actually, it's a honor to receive a toast from Black Mamba, isn't it. Oh, what's this? This creature also wishes to participate?"

Bonipas chuckled at the sight of Dino standing on its hind legs while pushing forward a wine flute with its front paw. As he thought, this creature was no ordinary monster.

"For the newly appointed General Director, Bonipas!"

"Cheers!"

A human, an Epidium, a zombie and a beast from the Cenozoic Age were raising wine glasses for a toast inside a beachfront hotel in Djibouti. It certainly was an extraordinary sight to behold, indeed. The world had already gone corrupted by now, though.

An old French proverb said that if you want to negotiate, you should drink three glasses of wine first. Bonipas downed three glasses of Sciacarello in one go, then pulled out an aluminum case from an aged leather bag.

All high-ranking French officials stored their important documents inside aluminum cases with combination locks. The thing was, though, it didn't matter how well stored the documents were, it'd be for nought if the case itself went missing.

Even so, the French still insisted on such a cumbersome process. One could spy the inherent mentality of self-satisfaction that had some thread of connection to the mentality of a woman insisting on a designer handbag.

"Let's quickly finish our business and let's drown ourselves in wine, shall we?"

"Right. Let's sort this out quickly. I'm rather busy, you see. Technicians have stopped working and are waiting for me, so I need to hurry back home."

"Indeed, the protagonist needs to be at the historical location. To start off, Arevasa's bounty plus the successful operation fee. Chairman Javer put up the bounty of thirty million Francs with the condition of rescuing at least one hostage back then.

"As for the successful operation fee, it's one million Francs for one hostage. Adding fourteen survivors plus three bodies on top of Arevasa's bounty would bring the total to 47 million Francs. Excluding the down payment of eight million, 39 million Francs will be deposited to your account."

"He seems to be a generous man."