George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 88

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‘Where am I!’

He clearly remembered the last moment. Children he didn’t know playing in front of his house, birds chirping in the trees along the street, and then darkness.

Darkness came suddenly. In a very short time, his vision turned dark, and his mouth and nose were blocked. It happened so quickly that he couldn’t even figure out what was going on. The last thought he had before losing consciousness was that what he was experiencing was an act called ‘kidnapping.’

His head felt like it was going to break, beyond even a hangover. It was as if his head was made of glass, a heavily cracked glass product. Even when he tried to scream, only a small groan came out of his mouth. It seemed like his mouth was taped shut.

Fortunately, he could turn his head, but that was it. Deprived of sight, hearing, and even smell, his sense of reality faded. He couldn’t even properly figure out if he was sitting, lying down, or hanging upside down.

‘My, my name.’

He could easily remember his name. His head was throbbing madly, but it didn’t seem like the headache was particularly confusing his memory.

‘James, James Hewish. That’s my name.’

His profession was a referee. Specifically, he officiated in the promising sport of short track speed skating. In two weeks, he was scheduled to fly from Australia to the United States to referee at the Olympics. But what on earth was going on?

‘Two weeks? Two weeks. Come to think of it, how many days have passed?’

He thought it was a big deal, but he couldn’t even tell if the crisis was due to the danger to his person, or the thought that he might not be able to referee, or both.

“Ah, you’re finally awake!”

‘Someone’s here! Someone’s here!’ He flailed wildly, not even knowing what condition his body was in, but stopped instantly. There was no point in struggling here. He didn’t know who had kidnapped him, but he had to make them realize that he wouldn’t do as they pleased.

Above all, James Hewish was greatly relieved that whoever it was hadn’t taken away his hearing. At least he could recognize that his body was still intact.

“Waterproof tape on the mouth, what is this, the Cold War era?”

With a ripping sound, silver duct tape was torn from James Hewish’s mouth. It seemed some of his beard was pulled out in the process, as droplets of blood formed around his mouth.

“Now, let’s talk a little.”

“Who are you?”

“You’re calmer than I thought. Who do you think I am? What do you think you can do if I tell you my name?”

James Hewish carefully tried to place the voice, but eventually realized he had never heard it before. There were many similar voices, but he had never heard such a creepy voice with cruelty hidden beneath its pleasant tone. Above all, the accent was neither Australian, nor American, nor even British.

“What do you want from me?”

As James Hewish said this, he was getting a rough idea of who they were. He had saved up enough money, but he hadn’t amassed enough wealth to be kidnapped and threatened, so money wasn’t the goal.

His relationships weren’t exactly smooth, but he hadn’t done anything to warrant being kidnapped, and he hadn’t cheated anyone.

Then, of course, it must be related to his job as a referee. James Hewish, while self-respecting, sadly knew his place. If someone was mobilizing people to kidnap him and do something, it was only because of the refereeing at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

“Is it about biased judgment? Which country’s hand should I raise? I will judge according to your instructions! All I want is my own safety and success!”

“Ah, you’re hurting my ears. Shut his mouth.”

“No, then what do you want! What do you…! Mmph! Mmmph!”

The scream-like cry turned into a groan in no time. Still, James Hewish was able to realize one thing from this: at least the kidnapping wasn’t related to just the man he had just spoken to.

Unless that man was a multiple personality madman, he was sure that at least two or more people were involved. But then, suddenly, he had this thought.

‘What if he’s really a multiple personality madman?’

What if a crazy serial killer wanted to add a male taxidermy with a referee job to his collection this time? What if the purpose of taking so long was to instill as much fear as possible in the captured prey in order to satisfy his perverted and sadistic tendencies before starting the human body mystery exhibition?

‘Damn it! This can’t be! It can’t be!’

It can’t be. It can never be! He struggled, yearning for freedom. Soon, with a thud, a shock ran through his whole body. And James Hewish realized that he was sitting with his arms forcibly tied to a chair.

“Ah, hey, hey, hey. Calm down a bit, before I knock you out again.”

“Mmph! Mmph!”

“Well, I guess it can’t be helped. I was originally going to make you look peaceful, but a look of terror isn’t bad either.”

‘This is bullshit!’

It was real! The owner of this voice was a psycho who enjoyed taxidermying and exhibiting human bodies! The sound of sharpening a knife, or something, painfully pierced James Hewish’s eardrums. It wasn’t just sharpening on a whetstone, but on a grinder, the sound of cutting metal that you could only hear at a construction site.

‘Maybe it’s not a knife, but a skewer?’

It seemed like he was going to do the taxidermy after torturing him. Isn’t taxidermy just about preserving the skin anyway? Taxidermy would use glass eyes that don’t rot anyway, so maybe he’ll stab his eyes first? Is that what the skewer is for?

‘No! Please!’

James Hewish struggled and struggled, and eventually couldn’t overcome the fear in his imagination and fainted.

“Huh? He fainted?”

“Tsk. What a pain.”

Near the fainted James Hewish were two burly men. Well, they were said to be burly, but one was really skinny and the other was really huge. Anyway, the skinny one had a magical cigarette in his hand that made you happy just by burning it [marijuana], and the huge one was shaving with a military knife of unknown nationality.

These two were CIA from South America, and if you asked why the CIA was running a steam locomotive with marijuana, it was because marijuana was legal in South America, so no one could say anything even if the CIA smoked a little. Of course, it was illegal in law, but you couldn’t call it illegal in a place where you could go a little inside the market and get a discount on bundles while the police were proudly selling it to you.

In fact, it was strange to smoke marijuana during work, but what could they do if that was their style in the first place? Besides, even if James Hewish broke through this ironclad security and went out, the sight he would have to face was only the endless Amazon jungle spread out in South America.

“To think I have to endure a month here, it’s truly terrible. I was going to try to have a conversation because I was so bored, but he fainted.”

He threw the military knife he was shaving with at the dartboard. However, the dartboard already had seven military knives stuck in it, so it hit the knives and bounced far away. It was one of the few entertainments he could enjoy in this hideout where even radio waves didn’t work.

“But we just have to release this friend back into his family’s house in a month, right?”

“That’s what they say. I don’t know what the higher-ups are thinking. If they’re going to do this, they should do it in Australia. Why did they bring him all the way to South America to make a fuss?”

Above all, the reality that all they had in this humid place was a small portable generator and two fans was too annoying, beyond dedication to the country. Dedication to the country only comes out when the body is comfortable and the wallet is full, right?

Anyway, they were doing this because it was a top-priority matter that required secrecy and urgency, but all they were doing was guarding like a statue, so there was nothing more to say.

‘Well, it’s better than going into the Russian Kremlin and spying.’

“Just send up a regular report. Let’s just keep giving him sedatives and keep him asleep for about a month. That was the original plan anyway. Move him to the bed quickly.”

「Regular Report: No abnormalities.」

The regular report he wrote was on Bush’s desk in his office. Bush’s expression became subtle as he looked at the report. In fact, he had initially thought about how to deal with the ISU [International Skating Union], but it became a bit uncomfortable to just touch the ISU because the United States had created it, but Canada was also involved.

And he stopped trying to do anything about Anton Ohno. At least Kim Kap-hwan himself was an American now. He was a human who would be eliminated by Hollywood action if James Hewish was not there. In addition, Bush believed in the power of the United States even if there was no biased judgment.

Increased budget and efficiency always bring good results. It’s hard to see the effects in the sports world in the short term, but that doesn’t mean their basic athletic abilities haven’t improved.

Anyway, Bush was planning to shake up the ISU properly once the Olympics were over. But no matter what anyone said, the most 궁금한 [curious] thing was whether Russian capital had really infiltrated the ISU. Of course, it couldn’t have not infiltrated. Rather, if it hadn’t been infiltrated, that would have been truly surprising.

So, to be exact, he was curious about how much it had been eroded.

‘I can’t help it. If this doesn’t explode properly once, it will surely come back with more terrible consequences in the future.’

What Bush was hammering on came out into the world faster. A wound roughly covered with bandages was bound to rot and fester later to the point where it couldn’t be contained by any ordinary surgery.

“But, are you really going to do the opening ceremony like this?”

“That’s enough. What more do you want?”

“I thought it wouldn’t be a bad choice to put the military in the opening ceremony to 확실히 [certainly] capture the Republican Party’s taste.”

“Even if they don’t come out directly, they come out as a video. That’s enough.”

Some say it’s inappropriate for the military to come out at the Olympics, but that was only when the US military was busy digging in the Middle East and getting 욕을 [cursed]. But now, they were able to receive the world’s support with a quick end to the war.

So, as long as the title of ‘world police’ was still intact, the US military was also a symbol of peace.

“Let’s not discuss this part anymore. Instead, the opening declaration speech.”

Thus, Bush decided not to touch the opening ceremony as much as possible. It was the same opening ceremony he knew, but the meaning was completely different. However, there were changes in the details, and it had a subtly patriotic tendency.

That’s why Bush decided to touch only one part.

“Yes, it’s scheduled to be done by the President.”

“I’ll do it myself, not what you guys 짜는 [planning].”