Yugeum quickly regained his composure and asked,
“There should be people from Undersea Bases Three and Four. Did any of them come to Undersea Base Two?”
“There are some. A few are here too, and, uh······I heard there are some at Undersea Base One as well. We shot a few of them dead, but that was because they wouldn’t listen. We’ve gathered all the ones who did listen in a corner.”
······Good. So it seemed they weren’t killing everyone who came up by elevator. But then, wouldn’t it have been all right to come up by elevator? ······No. We’d already come up through the stairs. I could have been one of the people who died. At least I hadn’t been caught by the cultists. That was enough. Strategically speaking, I wasn’t sure how advantageous it was that those bastards didn’t know we existed······ Yugeum hesitated before speaking.
“Then······why is the Infinite Church trying to kill people? There’s no need to kill them. Let them have the undersea bases. All they have to do is let the people escape.”
I quickly nodded at Yugeum’s words. Right. You take the undersea bases. I didn’t care whether it was the Chinese team, the Russian team, or the Japanese team—let the winner of the fight among yourselves have them. Let everyone else escape and go home. Tyler spoke awkwardly.
“I don’t know much about it either, but apparently, there have to be a lot of people in the building for the Day of Infinity ritual, and at least a few people have to die. They used fish before, but on the Day of Infinity, it has to be people. They said they were originally going to do it at midnight tonight, or maybe tomorrow morning, but then they suddenly heard that Undersea Base Four had been completely destroyed. Everyone got up, saying it was a good thing. They can let only the people from the Infinite Church live and claim that everyone else died because of Undersea Base Four.”
As expected of a cult. So this was a place that offered people as sacrifices. ······No, this was absurd. Even people who lived fifteen hundred years ago knew human lives were precious, so they used clay figures instead of people for burial sacrifices. Who the hell were they to decide whether they could kill people or not?
“You’re saying it wasn’t you who fired the missiles at Undersea Base Four?”
Seo Jihyeok asked Tyler irritably.
“Missiles? So someone fired missiles at Undersea Base Four? What? Was I the only one who didn’t know?”
Tyler looked at us, then frowned and spoke as though he had been treated unfairly.
“Why would the Infinite Church destroy Undersea Base Four? If it hadn’t been built yet, maybe, but destroying an undersea base built three thousand meters below the sea would literally cause marine pollution. Who’s going to clean up all those chunks of concrete, dust, and garbage? What about the creatures living there? If a mining pipe bursts and oil or gas leaks out, who’s going to take responsibility? Even now, the radiation contamination from Japan decades ago still hasn’t been resolved. If this undersea base gets wrecked, the North Pacific Ocean will literally become a mess.”
Uh······ While I stood there, stunned by how shockingly sensible his words were, Yugeum said,
“You don’t care about people dying for a religious ritual, but you care about marine pollution.”
Tyler answered without thinking in response to the sharp remark.
“Ah, well, as long as I’m not the one dying.”
Then, when we had no more questions, Tyler fumbled for a moment before falling silent. When Seo Jihyeok asked him about communications, he said they had cut off all the internet and telephone lines from the moment they occupied the undersea base. The undersea bases contacted one another by radio, but between Undersea Bases Two and One, they communicated by traveling back and forth in person. Shin Haeryang projected images of Undersea Bases One and Two into the air with his pad and said,
“Point out the places where your believers are mainly gathered.”
Several areas had already been selected in blue. Tyler looked at Shin Haeryang as though he found his existence extremely unpleasant, but soon began pointing at Undersea Bases One and Two with his finger, marking them like dots. The map began to fill with red dots. It was very different from what had been marked in blue. The blue markings had probably been made by the man we met at Undersea Base Three.
“I only know Undersea Base Two. Will you let me go once I mark everything?”
Tyler asked in a disgruntled tone, stopping in the middle of his coloring. Shin Haeryang shook his head.
“No. You’re coming with us. If there are believers somewhere other than the places you marked, or if we run into other people unnecessarily, then you will have betrayed your religion. I don’t know how much your religion cares about its believers, but we can at least find out whether they’re the sort who won’t shoot a traitor.”
Tyler’s mouth fell open. Mine did too, inwardly. Tyler hurriedly began erasing a few of the red dots with his hand. Seo Jihyeok was holding Tyler’s gun. After checking whether it was loaded and whether the safety was on, he set it beside him and placed the pistol we had somehow obtained at Undersea Base Three on the sink. Then he called Yugeum and me over toward the sink.
“Which of you has ever thought, ‘I’d like to fire a gun at least once someday’?”
When neither Yugeum nor I answered, Seo Jihyeok sighed and asked again.
“Or which of you has better concentration?”
“······I don’t know.”
“I couldn’t say.”
Yugeum and I were flustered by Seo Jihyeok’s question. Wasn’t that something that had to be determined with a brainwave test? Seo Jihyeok then spoke to Yugeum.
“Try holding it, Geumi. How does it feel? I never thought it was heavy, but people who don’t exercise say guns all feel heavy when they hold them. Are you having trouble breathing, losing strength in your legs, or breaking out in a cold sweat?”
“No.”
“······Your hand is shaking.”
Seo Jihyeok spoke as though he felt uncomfortable. Holding the gun with a completely terrified expression, Yugeum asked,
“What if I shoot it by mistake?”
“······As long as you don’t shoot your own toes. Geumi, put the gun back on the sink just as it was. Yes. Good job. Muheon, you try holding it. How does it feel?”
“It’s heavier than I expected.”
“Then did you think it would be like a pair of chopsticks?! Hey, hey, grip it tightly! Is there no strength in your hand?! Where did you learn to place your index finger like that?”
His attitude was completely different from when Yugeum had held the gun. Damn it. Seeing that I had straightened my index finger so I wouldn’t pull the trigger even by accident, Seo Jihyeok asked,
“Action movies.”
“What kind of movies does Geumi like?”
“Disaster movies?”
“······Muheon is holding the pistol. Keep the muzzle pointed at the floor normally, and fire only when I tell you to. Keep your finger like that the entire time. If you pull the trigger now, a bullet will come out immediately, so don’t even think about touching it. Fire only when I tell you to.”
It felt as dangerous as holding a grenade in my hand. I had no idea a gun could be this heavy. I had never had any reason to hold one in my life. It was much heavier than my large tumbler filled to the brim with coffee. ······Seo Jihyeok had probably told me to hold the gun not only because we now had four guns, but also because my hand wasn’t shaking. Ah, of course it wasn’t. Who would want to be treated by a dentist with trembling hands?
Holding the black gun awkwardly, I felt as though I had indigestion and couldn’t digest anything. I couldn’t take my eyes off the gun. An absurd image unfolded in my head: if I looked away from the gun, the muzzle would spin around and automatically point at me.
Yugeum quietly muttered, “My hand doesn’t shake when I’m holding tweezers!” as though he felt unfairly accused, but Seo Jihyeok merely nodded halfheartedly and needled him by saying things like, “My hand doesn’t shake when I’m holding a chicken drumstick either.”
It looked as though Tyler was nearly finished with his little coloring game. As Shin Haeryang examined the mottled map, Baek Aeyeong pressed the muzzle of her gun to Tyler’s head and asked her first question.
“Why did you come this way? Almost no one comes over toward the Deep-Sea Aquarium.”
“······Why should I answer you?”
Then Tyler sneered and chuckled. The moment I heard him say that from beside the sink, I completely forgot about the gun in my hand and turned my head toward Baek Aeyeong. Despite Tyler’s insolent answer, Baek Aeyeong was smiling brightly, the corners of her lips lifted. It was the first time I had seen her smile like that since the utility room.
Baek Aeyeong tilted her head ever so slightly and glanced at Shin Haeryang. The instant their eyes met, Shin Haeryang merely closed and opened his eyes once. Still smiling, Baek Aeyeong reached up beside Tyler’s ear and removed the attached translator from it. Then she spoke in Korean in a gentle voice.
“You think I’m easy, don’t you? Since a tiny Asian woman who’s not even 160 centimeters tall is holding a gun, it looks like a toy to you, doesn’t it? Just how easy and stupid do I look to you? Huh? You think you can sass someone who’s holding a weapon? You answered our team leader’s questions just fine. You even answered that idiot’s questions, and he’s never held a gun in his life. Does your hearing stop working when a woman with breasts starts talking? Huh?”
Her “Huh?” was spoken in an extraordinarily lovely voice. Besides, perhaps Baek Aeyeong had stopped the translator embedded in her teeth from operating, because everything she said was in Korean. I got goosebumps on my arms, guessing what would happen next. With the translator removed from his ear, Tyler couldn’t understand what Baek Aeyeong was saying, but seeing her smile and speak so sweetly, he seemed to assume she was saying something nice to him.
What are you saying? Do you like me? You’re a bitch, but you look good when you smile. Why don’t you take off some clothes? He was spouting things like that in English. Baek Aeyeong stroked Tyler’s hair, then, without the slightest warning, brought the end of the gun down against his cheek. The hard lump of metal struck his soft cheek.
“Aaaargh!”
Grabbing Tyler by the hair as he fell backward, she held the gun in one hand and repeatedly slammed it into his forehead and around his eyes. Tyler reflexively raised his arms to shield his face and resist, but since both his wrists had been bound with Shin Haeryang’s parachute cord from the moment he was first subdued, all he could do was lift his arms this way and that.
Still holding Tyler by the hair, Baek Aeyeong slammed his chin down onto her knee. Since Tyler’s head kept shaking as she held his hair, I couldn’t tell whether Baek Aeyeong’s knee had struck his neck or his chin. Clenching Tyler’s hair in her fist, Baek Aeyeong said,
“Try sneering at me again. Huh? Try sneering at me again! Make fun of me and ask why you have to answer!”
Then she slammed his head into her knee again. For some reason, the low sigh from Seo Jihyeok, standing beside me, sounded vivid in my ear. Yugeum had completely lost his wits at the sight of the violence and was covering his mouth with both hands. When I started to approach them to stop her, Shin Haeryang, who was pointing his gun at Tyler, gave me a slight shake of his head. He meant that I shouldn’t interfere.
As I watched the beating in fear, trembling all over, a sudden thought occurred to me: the direction of Shin Haeryang’s gun could change at any moment.