“Where should we go now?”
“For now, the escape pod port.”
The woman from Room 8 followed right on my heels, constantly talking to me.
“Why are we going to the escape pod?”
“People will be gathered there trying to escape. Or the elevator area.”
“Uh…… do we have to escape right away? Are we in a dangerous situation right now?”
The woman asked me with a bewildered expression. Hearing her questions, I was the one more flustered.
“The quarters where I was just lying down and sleeping are flooded, and you’re asking if it’s dangerous? Is there a more dangerous situation in an underwater base than this?”
“I left my passport behind in the room without thinking. We can’t go back, can we? ……Doesn’t look like it.”
Seeing me quickly lock the stairwell door connected to the flooding quarters, the woman hurriedly added those last words. Then, wringing out her wet clothes tightly with her hands, she asked me.
“If water is leaking somewhere, won’t the engineers fix it? There are more than fifty resident engineers here.”
“First, we need to get out of the underwater base quickly.”
“So we can escape by taking the escape pod instead of the elevator? I’ve never ridden an escape pod in the underwater base before, have you?”
Only after hearing these questions did I realize that this person knew nothing right now.
“You didn’t hear the broadcast, did you?”
“There was a broadcast? As you can see from the state I was in earlier, I was busy making good use of my day off. I’m Tumanaako Orangaya. I came from New Zealand, and I’m the exclusive hairstylist at this underwater base.”
Tumanaako energetically held out her hand, and I absentmindedly grabbed and shook it. There was a hair salon in the underwater base? It hadn’t been in the guidebook?
“I’m Bak Mu-hyeon, a Korean dentist who came here five days ago. Was there a hair salon in the underwater base?”
“That’s because it’s only been around for a month. It’s next to the No. 3 Underwater Base escape pod port, so people don’t come by often. Thanks to that, it’s a bit quiet. I’d love it if it stayed unknown forever, but then it might disappear due to lack of customers, so I wish it were moderately bustling. Don’t you think the same about the dental office you’re in?”
“I think I felt that way at first, but I don’t think anything of it now.”
“I heard that the people living in the underwater base request dental and hair salons the most. As you know, if you don’t steadily take care of your hair or teeth, both become a mess. I’m new here too. Please take care of me.”
Tumanaako said that and smiled. I nodded blankly. Even though Tumanaako had just come out after being submerged up to her chest, she didn’t seem to care about that at all.
The underwater base guidebook that Seo Ji-hyeok had given me was translated a long time ago, so it didn’t even list a hair salon made a month ago. Come to think of it, the dental office was the same. As we began walking side by side toward the escape pod port, Tumanaako looked at me and asked slyly.
“How is it working here? I’ve only been here a month, but I think it’s so, so great. It’s my first time having my own salon. Plus, there aren’t many reservations yet, and since it’s salaried, they pay a lot. They provide quarters and three meals a day. Where else in the world is a place like this! It’s absolute paradise.”
Uh…… what should I say? As I listened to Tumanaako’s story, I felt like my soul was escaping through my nose. I was dying to quit here, and hearing sentiments completely opposite to mine gave me a headache.
“I’ve only…… been here five days.”
“Really? It must be fascinating. I couldn’t imagine I’d end up working at an underwater base either. You can tell from my name, I thought I’d be rejected the moment I submitted my resume.”
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Why did you think you’d be rejected?”
At my question, Tumanaako made a flustered expression.
“Ah. You Asian people don’t discriminate based on names?”
What is she talking about. ……Can you discriminate based on names? What names get hired and what names don’t? Did they use onomancy in the hiring process? Is it because I’ve never been an employer in my life? It’s probably a kind of discrimination I’ve never experienced.
“In what way do they discriminate based on names?”
Tumanaako looked at me as if surprised, as if observing an animal she’d never seen before.
“My name doesn’t sound like a white name living in New Zealand, right? Doesn’t it?”
“All I know is that the kiwi bird that lived in New Zealand went extinct.”
The kiwi suffered from dehydration due to heat waves and droughts and went extinct, like the dodo. Tumanaako, who had smiled lightly at my words, said.
“My name is in the Maori language. They say that at a big company like this, you get rejected just for submitting a resume. I didn’t think I’d get accepted either. Have you seen the names of the Australian and New Zealand engineers?”
“No.”
“They all have white names. For the first month I was here, I worried they’d take away my contract and kick me out, but now I’m a bit used to it.”
……I’d never thought of it that way until now. Was it because I’d never worked in a place with so many people from different nations? Under normal circumstances, would Tumanaako have been unable to get hired?
I imagined Priya snatching away my employment contract right now and kicking my ass to chase me back to Korea. I’d probably run out of here cheering. They don’t have to pay me for the five days I worked.
Recalling one by one the dark sides of the underwater base I’d learned of over the past four days, I suddenly thought that I couldn’t go back to the time when I’d admired the interior of the central elevator. Had I been too shocked by the room where they grew poppies? As if making a promise to myself, I said to Tumanaako.
“I’ve only been here five days, but I’ve decided to resign quickly.”
It already felt like more than a week longer had passed. What I’d experienced on my day off was harder than five days of work. Tumanaako seemed unable to understand me. She looked at me with a slightly worried expression and asked.
“Why? Does the food not suit your taste? If you’re struggling with motion sickness or noise from staying in the underwater base, you can go to the hospital on the first floor and get earplugs or medicine. Is it because you’re depressed from not getting sunlight?”
“No. That’s fine.”
What should I tell Tumanaako first? I recalled asking Baek Ae-yeong what life at the underwater base was like after I’d joined. Hadn’t she said it was ‘a bit off’? I hadn’t known how many meanings were compressed into those words back then. Is this what it feels like to see a lost lamb who has wandered into hell without knowing anything?
When we arrived in front of the escape pod port, the surrounding floor was covered in water. It seemed the people from the Baekho-dong quarters had already gone inside the escape pod port. I quickly told Tumanaako only the most important parts of what had been broadcast.
“We have to leave the underwater base without taking the escape pod.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because it’s broken.”
When I entered the escape pod port, everyone inside looked at me. To think I’d receive the gazes of so many people in my life. I felt like I was being crushed to death under the weight of their stares. There were more people than expected. Tumanaako followed me in without a thought, then flinched. And then she spoke to me.
“They’re all looking at you?”
I know. Well, it can’t be helped. They must have heard the broadcast. ……Let’s handle this one by one.
Walking down the hallway with Tumanaako, I felt keenly that my body, carrying a backpack, was too light. Whether it was a cat, a snake, or a child, none were on my back.
In the area where the Engineer Team Da people were gathered, I saw Vladimir laying Henry down on dry floor. So he’s safe. I first approached Yu Geum-i, who was near Engineer Team Ga.
“Miss Geum-i. I’m glad you got out safely. You said the cat wasn’t in Room 64.”
“Huh? Yes. It wasn’t there. Is the cat so small that I couldn’t find it? About how big is it?”
“Um. It’s about 6kg. It’s a size that couldn’t possibly be missed.”
It wasn’t a cat small enough to overlook. Because the alarm was ringing loudly, the cat had bristled its fur and looked enormous. Where could it hide? Yu Geum-i shook her head back and forth.
“I shook the blanket several times, but it wasn’t there.”
“……Thank you for looking.”
Then where did the cat go? Did it slip from the bed and fall into the water? Can cats swim? Is it trapped in the Baekho-dong quarters where the water is still rising? That good, gentle creature wouldn’t go anywhere alone. And no one took it.
At that moment, I recalled Emma’s back as she ran out of the elevator wearing a backpack, disappearing into the sunlight. If Emma had escaped with the cat and the snake. If that’s why the cat wasn’t in the underwater base, how had that happened? What would I have to do to make that happen again?
While lost in thought for a moment, someone strode up, grabbed my collar with one left hand, and lifted me. In the blink of an eye, my body floated into the air. Vladimir held me up in the air and spoke.
“You little rat bastard.”
A man over 190cm tall lifted and shook me with one forearm; I was completely out of it. Even though he had only grabbed my collar, it was hard to breathe.
“Are you playing with me?”
“Kek! Kek!”
Even if I had a hundred mouths, I had nothing to say. But if I hadn’t said your team member was there, you wouldn’t have gone to rescue even if I’d said a child was sleeping in a flooding room.
Vladimir drew his right hand far back. I had seen the still-half-drunk Nikolai get hit like this. I clenched my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut at the incoming palm. Please, spare my eyes. If they get hurt, the surgery costs are no joke. As for my teeth…… well, I know plenty of dentists.
When no pain was felt on my face even after several seconds, I opened my eyes slightly. Vladimir’s right hand, which had been flying toward my face, was stopped, held suspended in mid-air.
Sin Hae-ryang was gripping Vladimir’s right forearm. Sin Hae-ryang, seeing me hanging in the air, said to Vladimir.
“Put him down.”
“This is none of your team’s business.”
“He’s a Korean civilian.”
As soon as Sin Hae-ryang finished speaking, irritation flashed across Vladimir’s face.
“Two of our team members are missing.”
Keeping hold of Vladimir’s arm, Sin Hae-ryang replied.
“I know.”
“How did this bastard know Dmitri was gone, in that situation?”
“Managing team members is the team leader’s responsibility. If you want to talk negligence, punch your own face.”
Sin Hae-ryang answered coldly.