"We're heading to Cheongnyong-dong. Would you like to come with us?"
Jennifer shook her head at my words. Her dark blond hair swayed along with the small earring in her ear.
"I'm going to find our team, who probably fled all the way to Jujaek-dong, and take the central elevator."
Impressive. If it were me, I wouldn't look for my team in this situation and would just run away. Then again, there wasn't anywhere much to run to. Kim Gayeong's eyebrows furrowed.
"Calling it takes ten minutes, and even after you board, you can't move for ten minutes."
"But it's still the fastest way out of here."
Shin Haeryang, who had been looking outside and seemed to not be listening to the multimedia room conversation, took Seo Jihyeok's pad and showed a photo to Jennifer. He twisted the pad screen's angle so that neither Henry in front of him nor the light outside was visible, but the moment I saw that photo, I knew what it was.
Shin Haeryang showed Jennifer a photo of a man with unclosed eyes, and because of that, I suddenly had to make eye contact with a dead person for a few seconds. Ah. Damn it.
Jennifer frowned after seeing the photo and bit her lip.
Shin Haeryang spoke, looking outside.
"It's too dangerous."
"In a situation where people are swinging axes to take escape pods and shooting others in the head, do I look like someone who cares about danger?"
"We don't know when the Jungang-dong pressure regulator will break down."
"Then we should go even faster. If the elevators in Cheongnyong-dong or Hyeonmu-dong break down, we'd die just the same."
Jennifer stood up. Seo Jihyeok, who had been standing and watching outside, spoke.
"We're going to Cheongnyong-dong as planned."
Upon hearing that, Henry raised his small hand high. Even in the darkness, Shin Haeryang's bewildered expression was visible past that small arm. Henry, hand raised, stated his opinion.
"I'm going to follow Jennifer."
"Wh... why?"
"Because Dad is the officer in charge, and I said I'd go find Dad."
Hearing his clear, deliberate speech, the adults stared at Henry blankly. He's so decisive? I think when I was seven, I just watched cartoons and rolled on the floor begging for toys.
The people here were all thinking of escaping somehow, but I had no intention of rummaging through every corner of the underwater base not knowing where he might be, just to find Henry's father. The child also seemed to have vaguely realized that the promises to call his dad or take him to his dad were lies. As Jennifer quietly took the child's hand, Kim Gayeong sighed and took his other hand.
"I'll go too. My nephew is around his age, so he keeps catching my eye."
"Wouldn't it be safer for all of you to just come with us to Cheongnyong-dong?"
"You'll take the Cheongnyong-dong elevator if you can't use the escape pod there, right? Either way, I think the danger is similar whether you take the central elevator here or the third underwater base elevator, so I'll just take the Jungang-dong direct elevator."
"Cheongnyong-dong also has a multi-person submersible and the third underwater base elevator. Please come with us."
After inviting her one more time, when Kim Gayeong refused, Shin Haeryang seemed to deem further conversation useless and simply nodded, then opened the Movie Theater 1 door and went out. Three seconds later, Baek Ayeong—who had silently high-fived Jennifer—went out, and then Seo Jihyeok went out. Yu Geumi tightly held Kim Gayeong's hand, then said, "See you outside," let go, and left the room. I too, this time, wrapped my hand in my sleeve, carefully swept the bottom of my bag, pulled out all the chocolate bars and candy, and handed them to the three.
"If these go bad, I'll fix them up for you next time we meet."
"See you later, Mr. Muhyeon."
Watching Kim Gayeong wave, I came out of Movie Theater 1. Baek Ayeong took the lead, stopping when she signaled to stop and walking when she signaled to walk. By the time we had passed Movie Theater 2 and Movie Theater 3 and were walking toward the café as if lightly running, Yu Geumi spoke quietly.
"Gayeong unnie has a bad ankle. She used to wear heels all the time and sprained it so much that her left ankle is in bad shape. She probably had a hard time walking with us at this speed until now. She might have stayed behind because she didn't want to hold us back. Or maybe she really thought the elevator was safer than going out in an escape pod."
"What about you, Geumi?"
"I relieved stress through exercise. Every time I got scolded by professors asking if my thesis was going well, I ran on the treadmill in anger. I probably ran more than your average used cars."
Thinking of Yu Geumi furiously running on a treadmill made me want to laugh, but I held it back.
"...How are you doing, Doctor?"
Seo Jihyeok, who had been listening to Yu Geumi's story while walking quickly, asked me. The weight of the cat on my back felt like it was pressing down on my entire body. Having gone into the water twice and alternately carried 6kg and 20kg, I had no strength left to walk. I assessed my overall condition and spoke to Seo Jihyeok.
"I'm on the verge of death."
"You look fine."
Does living underwater make your hearing bad? I looked at Shin Haeryang's firm back as he walked in the lead, then looked at Yu Geumi. It was a nervous glance. I was nervous too. After all, I'm someone who can't lie well. And I'm the type who can't live while keeping my anxieties bottled up. I probably will be for life. So I directly asked Baek Ayeong, who was walking quickly beside me.
"What is your true identity?"
"Me? I'm an engineer."
"No. I mean that knife."
"A knife is essential for women living in this dangerous world. It's in fashion these days!"
Seo Jihyeok agreed with that.
I heard it was like some kind of accessory.
Wondering if it could be real, I looked at Yu Geumi, and she shrieked, asking why I was looking at her.
"You believe that?!"
Hearing that, I had a sudden thought and spoke to Baek Ayeong.
"Weapons are forbidden in the underwater base!"
Baek Ayeong immediately refuted that.
"Only firearms and grenades and stuff like that aren't allowed; cold weapons are fine! If knives were completely forbidden, how would the cafeteria cook?"
"Cold weapons?"
When Yu Geumi asked Baek Ayeong what cold weapons were, Baek Ayeong's face showed she had slipped up. I looked at Seo Jihyeok in disbelief, and he slightly turned his head to avoid my gaze.
I heard Baek Ayeong mutter that we were fucked, then ask Shin Haeryang what to do.
Shin Haeryang, who had been walking at the very front, pressed himself against the wall at the path leading from behind the café building to the convenience store, peeked very carefully, then waved his hand.
What does that mean?
We moved stealthily and all pressed against the wall, and Shin Haeryang spoke in a low voice, sounding exasperated.
"It was already over when you pulled out the knife."
"What is your true identity? Are you soldiers or special forces or something?"
"Did you think the underwater base that countries around the world poured over 6000 trillion into was staffed with nothing but ordinary civilians?"
When Baek Ayeong snapped at me like that, Yu Geumi clapped softly and shook her index finger.
"I knew it! There were rumors among the researchers! That among the people in the underwater base, there might be unusual people along with ordinary ones! That there might be special agents from various countries or even criminals; I'd heard such rumors before, but I thought they were just ghost stories—turns out they were real!"
Yu Geumi's eyes suddenly sparkled, and questions poured out of her.
"Are all the people on the same team like this? What about Sujeong and Jihyeon? Do Kim Jaehui and Jeong Sanghyeon also know how to use knives and shoot guns like this?"
"Lee Jihyeon is the most dangerous one. That lunatic."
"Th-that can't be. That Jihyeon is so kind!"
When Yu Geumi timidly refuted Seo Jihyeok's words, Baek Ayeong kicked Seo Jihyeok's calf with her foot.
"Stop talking nonsense. Seriously."
With a dull thud, Seo Jihyeok shut his mouth.
Shin Haeryang suddenly explained that we would run from here to there. But we must not make a sound. Among those with shoes, Yu Geumi and I were told to take off our shoes and run on cue, so we ran one by one.
The sound of something rattling like roasting beans was heard intermittently from somewhere. The sound was echoing so much that it was ambiguous where it was coming from. A few minutes later, Baek Ayeong, who was in the lead, gave the signal to lie down. Since she had signaled to stay still, I lay still.
I tapped Shin Haeryang and then tapped my own mouth; Shin Haeryang stayed still, then nodded after a few minutes and said, "Speak."
The fact that I was trapped in a narrow yet vast space with people professionally trained to harm others sent chills down my spine.
"Then those crazy bastards shooting guns in Hyeonmu-dong weren't just doing it out of greed to get an escape pod—specialists with professional firearms training might have done it on purpose!"
"...And we don't have guns."
Hearing Shin Haeryang's clean-cut remark gave me the feeling of a nonexistent headache surging in. I held out my palm to Shin Haeryang.
"?"
"It's been fun up until now."
"Huh?"
"It was a fun and pleasant conversation. Give me the hidden gun."
"I don't have one."
"I heard Engineer Team Na brought guns. Engineer Team Da seems to have smuggled in alcohol by the box, and one of the mining teams seems to have imported cigarettes in bulk from their country—don't we have anything? You've hidden something already, right? Like a multi-person submersible that can ascend from 3,000 meters underground to sea level in one go."
"This is all I have."
Shin Haeryang rummaged through his pocket and gently placed the sugar-free grape candy I had handed out before entering Jungang-dong onto my palm. Heh heh heh. A hollow laugh escaped me. I slapped that palm with a smack and handed the grape candy back.
"We didn't expect things to turn out like this either."
"What things? That we might drown in seawater 3km down at any moment? Or that every escape pod we come across is broken, missing, or bashed into the floor because someone 'touched' it?"
"I didn't expect any of that."
When Shin Haeryang spoke blandly, Baek Ayeong quickly chimed in.
"How could we have known someone would slam a torpedo into the Jujaek-dong research center? If we'd known in advance, we'd have taken vacation the day before and gone to Hawaii—we never thought we'd become fish food in this murky seawater!"
Yu Geumi tried to comfort me, who looked depressed, then shrieked in shock.
"...No, wait, they fired a torpedo? A torpedo is a missile that runs underwater, right? Who fired a missile?! Are they crazy? Do you know how much that research facility costs? The equipment is so expensive! Weren't humans supposed to argue with words when something displeases them before using violence! Are these crazy people trying to pollute the seabed by blowing up four seven-story research centers?! Fine, I'll give you the deep-sea biology center where I work—we only have a shitload of jellyfish collected by species! But I heard the amount of metals stockpiled in the rare earth center for mineral research is no joke. Do you know how much money this is? There's gold, silver, hell, even uranium they extracted from seawater in massive amounts! And what crime did the marine pollution center commit? Those guys came from all over the world to research preventing marine pollution! They came to get rid of microplastics and this shitty garbage spread across the ocean—garbage that's now uncountable by the ton—and who are these crazy bastards that blew that up? Are these guys complete psychos?"
"Ca... calm down! Ms. Geumi."
"Please calm down. Lower your voice! We don't know who might be around."
Yu Geumi, a PhD candidate, huffed in anger at the thought that someone had dared fire a torpedo at the underwater base research facility.
I quietly asked Shin Haeryang.
"Was it really a torpedo? Not something like an earthquake?"
"We saw it while working outside."
"...If you're military, is there any way to contact Korea? Like contacting the Navy? Or some separate escape method?"
At that question, Seo Jihyeok laughed hollowly.
"W-well, we're not soldiers or anything. You can tell by our ages. Except for that white shark over there, we're almost in our thirties, hahaha. The kids who do that kind of work are all fresh-faced early-twenty-somethings. We've already retired, so... think of us as mercenaries. Mercenaries sounds a bit off, though. Contractors? That's a bit... Ah... I guess you could call us an outsourced company. That's a bit weird too? Contract workers? Contract public servants? That's not it either. We're not officially registered as public servants, and we don't get pensions... come to think of it, it's nothing great. Team Leader Shin, did you really sign us up for this kind of contract?"
"You get paid from two places. Or did you want me to sign a contract with Japan or China?"
"Ah, I suppose that's true."
At those words, Baek Ayeong began grumbling.
"There are things like Koreans getting priority rescue, acting in Korea's favor, naming things inside the underwater base in Korean, and submitting activity reports once a week, but they never gave us any material support. We communicate by email, and as for guns, they've never even bought us a single pair of socks."
"...I've been turned down four times when I asked them to buy a satellite phone to contact from the island. We were also turned down for a 2,000-meter multi-person submersible."
"No, I... Ha. I won't compare us to America or New Zealand. Just among Asian countries. Engineer Team Na and Team Ra have cruiser yachts for their teams to use. It's partly because they're rich, but it's also because the countries backing them provided support! I said I'd take even a 20-foot one if nothing else, and they said why would we need a yacht at an underwater base! It's not like I asked for a 50-foot one! Every time I ask about something, they say they'll look into it!"
Whether checking that no one was around or simply because she'd had a lot of pent-up frustration, Baek Ayeong began venting her annoyance.
Shin Haeryang spoke like a sigh, perhaps because he had accumulated a lot from rejected support requests.
"All we have are our lives."
"Everyone does. But—"
Shin Haeryang hastily placed his hand over my mouth.
Just as I was about to remove his rough palm, a short East Asian woman with long hair holding a gun passed by the side of the café with a tearful face. Everyone froze.
Before she completely disappeared from sight, Baek Ayeong spoke softly to Shin Haeryang.
"That's Takahashi Yurie. Should we take it?"
"Let her pass."
At Shin Haeryang's gesture, Seo Jihyeok checked that no one was there and stepped forward first.