Seo Jihyeok spoke in a voice that had dropped even lower, as if his anger had risen all the way to the top of his head.
“If the person we’re supposed to protect under the contract turns out to be a terrorism risk or someone directly or indirectly involved with a terrorist organization, then whether they die or not is none of our business. Team Leader, what was that domestic terrorism law called?”
“The Terrorism Prevention Act. Even if they return to Korea, anyone who supported a terrorist organization can face up to ten years in prison or a fine of up to one hundred million won.”
Hearing that, Seo Jihyeok laughed hollowly and said,
“She really must think you and I are dead. ......Aeyeong too.”
Seo Jihyeok’s chest rose and fell heavily as he breathed in and out. Kim Gayeong pressed herself tightly against the electric blanket and, trembling little by little, asked,
“Is that kind of thing in the contract too?”
Seo Jihyeok frowned and grumbled,
“Of course it is. We’re pretty meticulous about clauses like that. If the protected target commits a serious crime, we’re out. Why? Because bastards like that try to shove us in as accomplices after they’ve caused trouble. And when something like this happens, the people we signed with try to shift responsibility onto us too, asking what the hell we were doing while he was committing a felony.”
Seo Jihyeok looked up at the ceiling where the broadcast had come from and sneered.
“How are we supposed to stop that kind of insanity? And we didn’t sign with some random nobodies. We’re not rolling around taking cash without a contract from cartel bastards who distribute drugs. We signed with a ministry of the Republic of Korea.”
Ah. That made sense. Shin Haeryang’s expression hadn’t changed much, but Seo Jihyeok seemed furious. I don’t think he acted like that even when he was shot in the knee. Or did he? Was it worse back then? All I remember is the endless medley of curses.
“Jeong Sanghyeon. That bastard, seriously! We should’ve thrown him in prison back then!”
“There’s no use dwelling on what’s already happened. Don’t stand around here looking miserable. Go out and keep watch.”
Seo Jihyeok glared viciously at Shin Haeryang, then left the dental clinic without a word. I expected the door to slam shut with a bang, but it didn’t make a sound. Shin Haeryang quietly looked at Baek Aeyeong, who had been laid on the dental unit chair, then spoke to the others.
“There are two courses of action we can take.”
“First! We stay still right here!”
At Kim Gayeong’s urgent voice, Shin Haeryang replied with visible displeasure.
“......Whichever of the two we choose, we have to move. We’ll leave here in three minutes, so get ready.”
“Why?”
Kim Gayeong asked in a defiant tone, as if she would not separate from the electric blanket unless he gave a reason she could accept. Kim Gayeong was acting as if the electric blanket were her new skin, and if anyone tried to forcibly separate her from it, she looked ready to bite them, no matter who it was. As if he had sensed that whether Kim Gayeong would move or not depended on his answer, Shin Haeryang replied quickly.
“They’ll come to check the dental clinic.”
Kim Gayeong seemed to ponder for a moment as though it were a matter of life and death. She seemed to be thinking that, rather than painfully dragging her frozen legs around to avoid armed religious people, it might not be such a bad choice to stay here comfortably warmed by the electric blanket, get discovered, and die. But soon she stopped resisting and unplugged the electric blanket with sorrowful eyes. Then she downed the remaining water in the cup in one shot.
“What are the two courses of action?”
Tumanako came over, sat in the chair Shin Haeryang had been using, and asked.
“Right now, the only gunmen here are me and Jihyeok. We have to escape the -3000m undersea base while protecting roughly six people, including two injured.”
So Baek Aeyeong and Kim Gayeong were the injured. ......Kim Gayeong was currently in the state of a frozen pollack, so Shin Haeryang probably wasn’t fine either.
“It’s almost impossible.”
Of course it was. If I were Shin Haeryang, I’d go on strike right now. The words “every man for himself” would be rising all the way up my throat.
The situation was far too bad. In the past, the number of people these people had to protect had been small, just me and Yugeum. When we had to move with a lot of people, there had been no injured, and all three of them—Shin Haeryang, Seo Jihyeok, and Baek Aeyeong—had been fine.
And even if they called it bodyguard work, from what I’d heard, it seemed like they were only protecting their country’s employees enough so that gangster-like engineers or mining team people wouldn’t extort money from them or beat them up.
They probably hadn’t lived their everyday lives fighting off bastards who fired guns and fanatics. If that sort of life had been normal in the first place, the government ministry wouldn’t have sent people here; they would have bought robots. No matter how out of their minds they were, I don’t think they would have left contract civilians to fend for themselves like this.
“One option is to find a safe place, move there, and hide until this commotion dies down. At the very least, the United States Pacific Fleet, USPACFLT, or Submarine Forces Command, SFC, will have confirmed the missile launches that happened here. No matter how long it takes, before the day is over, at least five rescue ships from eight countries will arrive.”
Though I had a feeling they would all come to the surface. Wondering whether there even was a safe place here, I asked out of curiosity.
“If we go to a safe place, where are you thinking of going?”
“We have to go farther down.”
Can we even go farther down from here? We’re already deep enough under the sea, aren’t we? ......I didn’t feel like going at all. It’s not Undersea Base 5 that’s under construction, is it? As far as I know, construction was halted there, so it’s flooded and has no power and all that. To avoid that option, I asked about the other one.
“What about the other option?”
“The other option is to try to go up to another undersea base. There’s a chance we’ll run into armed people, but we either find an intact escape vessel, or keep moving toward a safe location while trying to reach Undersea Base 3 or Undersea Base 2.”
The second option was what we’d been trying to do all this time. Maybe he could say this now because Seo Jihyeok wasn’t here.
If we chose the first, the people here might be safe, but I didn’t know whether Baek Aeyeong could hold out for about twenty-four hours. From the way I saw it, Baek Aeyeong needed to go into an operating room immediately. Then would Baek Aeyeong be left abandoned here?
“If we choose the first option, what happens to Aeyeong?”
“I’ll stay with Aeyeong. Everyone here will follow Jihyeok.”
He wasn’t going with them? From his tone, it seemed the two of them intended to remain in Deep Blue.
“Haeryang, what are you planning to do if you stay?”
“I’ll try to negotiate with the other side and see if I can buy Aeyeong’s treatment with money. ......In the case of gunshot wounds, the probability of death rises sharply as time passes. Especially with a chest gunshot wound like this, if it takes more than an hour from being shot to surgery at a hospital, the survival rate drops precipitously.”
There was no religion that hated money. But what if they refused to take it? Seeing how the Infinite Church paid believers like Tyler to work for them, negotiation might not work. Thinking about the jewels that had filled the exhibition hall, they didn’t seem like a religion desperate for money.
“What happens if the other side says no?”
“I’ll think about it again then.”
So even the short time we’d stayed in the dental clinic had been reducing Baek Aeyeong’s chance of survival. Rather than doing first aid in the dental clinic, the best option would be to take the central building elevator, arrive at the hospital emergency room in ten minutes, and meet a thoracic surgeon.
Tumanako glanced at Baek Aeyeong, then exhaled as if her strength had suddenly drained away.
“I want to hide somewhere safe. I can’t do that again, like before, with blood spraying and guns firing. People are too scary. I don’t want to run into anyone.”
“I think I can walk, but if you tell me to run, I don’t think I can.”
Including Baek Aeyeong, who was lying down, there didn’t seem to be many people in Deep Blue in good condition. The common state of office workers, then. I, too, had come to work on a day off and done something that was both related and unrelated to my job, so I felt like death. I...... I wanted to lie down right now. And I wished I could sleep for about four hours without worrying about anything.
It didn’t seem like this group could move properly. Shin Haeryang seemed to think the same.
“Come out in one minute.”
Shin Haeryang swept his gaze over the exhausted, weary people and left the dental clinic. It sounded like he was talking to Seo Jihyeok outside, and when I went out after about a minute, the two didn’t seem to have reached a proper agreement.
“I said I’ll stay!”
“Hide and wait.”
Seo Jihyeok refused Shin Haeryang’s order and said,
“You’re lying, aren’t you? When are you coming?”
“Wait. If negotiations fail, I’ll go even if I have to go alone.”
Seo Jihyeok narrowed his eyes and stared at Shin Haeryang for a few seconds before saying,
“You said all gamblers are liars. That they’re crazy for money, that they have a lot to hide, that they deceive others, and that they don’t see anything once they’re at the table, so you shouldn’t trust a single bastard sitting there.”
“Yes.”
“How am I supposed to trust you?”
“Don’t.”
Judging from Seo Jihyeok’s expression, I didn’t know what Shin Haeryang had said before that, but I could tell Seo Jihyeok wanted to punch him. As if it were only natural, Shin Haeryang jerked his chin at us and said,
“Just follow Jihyeok.”
That Jihyeok doesn’t seem to want to listen to you very much right now, though. Defiance, irritation, and pent-up resentment flashed across Seo Jihyeok’s face before he let out a sigh and said,
“Let’s never work together again.”
Then Seo Jihyeok turned around. Shin Haeryang waved his hand. Of all his hand gestures so far, this one was the easiest to understand: either goodbye, or hurry up and get out of here. Kim Gayeong and Tumanako hesitantly began following Seo Jihyeok, who walked ahead showing only the back of his head.
Standing beside Shin Haeryang, I also waved to Kim Gayeong and Tumanako. Shin Haeryang’s gaze felt like it would burn my face.
“Run after them and join them, even now.”
“If negotiation with money doesn’t work, try selling me along with it.”
If Shin Haeryang sold something, he probably wouldn’t sell it at a loss. Kim Gayeong, who had been walking at the very back of the group, saw me, looked startled, pointed at me, and stopped in place. But when she saw me waving, she waved back.
As I kept waving until I could no longer see Kim Gayeong’s back, Shin Haeryang said to me,
“The Infinite Church believers will come here. Nothing good will come of staying here and getting caught.”
“Yes, well. ......Are you going to keep standing out here like this? How about we cover ourselves with more blankets before we get caught?”