“It’s been a while, sir.”
Sin Junggi froze.
No words came out.
He had never imagined Toto would be here.
Judging by Toto’s expression, it wasn’t a coincidence.
She had come here knowing.
How could this be?
He couldn’t understand it.
He had truly done everything he could to avoid being found.
He had naturally avoided CCTV,
erased his access records,
hidden his location with VPNs,
and kept changing his routes.
Sin Junggi knew very well how Chen Zihao found people.
So he had avoided those methods.
Naturally, he had been certain Chen Zihao wouldn’t be able to find him.
And yet Toto had found him.
“H-how did you find me?”
Uncharacteristically for Sin Junggi, he stammered.
That was how flustered he was.
“When I saw the bomb go off this time, I knew it was you, sir. That’s how I was able to find you.”
“···.”
Sin Junggi couldn’t say anything.
“You may not know it, sir, but you have your own pattern.”
Toto had learned a great deal about weapons from Sin Junggi.
That was why Toto called him sir.
The two of them had gotten along fairly well.
“Pattern?”
“Yes. Just as you know Mr. Chen Zihao’s patterns and avoid them, you have patterns of your own, sir. I saw those and came here.”
He had thought he had hidden perfectly,
but someone had been reading Sin Junggi.
Someone had been paying attention to Sin Junggi.
It felt burdensome, and yet he was a little grateful.
A sense of relief brushed past him.
“So you came to stop me?”
“Pardon?”
“Did the boss tell you to? To find me and stop me?”
“No. The boss doesn’t know. Not even that I came here.”
Toto shook her head.
“Then?”
“It just looked like you needed help. It’s hard to do alone.”
“What?”
“You can’t get rid of Parallax by yourself. And it’s better if there are two of us. It’s more fun, too.”
Sin Junggi was dumbfounded by Toto’s words.
This was no joke.
It wasn’t a game.
It was a revenge play being carried out with his life on the line.
If Parallax caught him, pain more terrible than death would be waiting.
Sin Junggi, too, was doing this with his life thrown away.
And yet Toto had come here knowing all of that.
Well, she had always been smart, so there was no way she didn’t understand what was going on.
But he couldn’t take Toto into this dangerous board.
One person in danger—Sin Junggi—was enough.
“Go back. This isn’t something for you to get involved in. It’s far more dangerous than you think. So go back.”
“Sir···”
“I said go!”
Sin Junggi’s voice rose.
But there was no change in Toto’s expression.
“Do you know something, sir?”
“What?”
“Dennis wasn’t someone important only to you.”
“···..”
“He was important to me, to the boss… to all of us. So I understand how you feel. Just as everyone accepts death differently, the way they express it must be different too. So I understand your way, sir, and I support it. I want to help. I don’t want to leave the person who killed Dennis alone either.”
Sin Junggi looked out the window.
A small plane on the runway was preparing for takeoff.
Without saying a word,
he simply stared out the window.
“It’s dangerous. I warned you.”
“I know.”
“You could get hurt.”
“I know.”
“You could die.”
“I know. But I still want to do it.”
Toto’s expression as she answered was the same as it had been at first.
Her face was still bright.
She was smiling, but strangely, she looked sad.
“Fine. Let’s go together.”
Sin Junggi said with a long sigh.
“Thank you. I’ll do my best.”
Toto answered.
“But let me ask one thing. Why are you trying to do something this dangerous?”
Toto hesitated for a moment before answering.
“···Because I’m afraid you’ll die like Dennis, sir.”
“What?”
Sin Junggi’s eyes wavered.
“I don’t think I’d be able to handle it then. Then I really might wipe out a whole country or so. That’s why. I’m trying to protect you for my own sake, sir.”
Sin Junggi felt as if he had been struck in the back of the head.
He couldn’t say a word.
Sin Junggi was taking revenge because he couldn’t control his own emotions.
But this young Toto was saying she would go to war to protect him.
Suddenly, he remembered when Toto had first arrived.
The child whose eyes had sparkled at everything in Unity Town.
The child who learned ten, twenty things when taught just one.
He remembered how everyone had bickered over who would take Toto in.
That child had already become an adult.
As an adult, she had come all this way to save Sin Junggi.
She had come to drag Sin Junggi out of hell.
Come to think of it, the reason the boss was fighting this war was the same.
Because he didn’t want to lose anyone else.
Sin Junggi lowered his head.
No words came out.
Tears threatened to fall.
“The boss says he’s going to Mexico. To catch Rodrigo.”
“We should get going too.”
Sin Junggi barely held back his tears as he spoke in a small voice.
“Before that, drink this before we go.”
Toto held out a disposable plastic cup.
Inside was a very rich iced chocolate.
The kind Sin Junggi liked to drink.
The iced chocolate Dennis had always handed him.
Now Toto was the one holding it out.
The moment he saw it, all the emotions piled up inside him collapsed at once.
A human with no emotions.
A time when he had felt nothing at all.
That was already in the past.
Now he was a human barely enduring life amid other people’s concern and consideration.
Only now did he realize it.
Sin Junggi’s shoulders trembled.
From his bowed head, large tears fell.
Without a word, Toto lightly patted him on the back.
That touch was so warm.
********
Mexico.
Tijuana International Airport.
The private jet slowly lowered its altitude.
Outside the window, an endless jungle could be seen.
Green stretched on without end.
The thick, damp air
seemed to seep in through the window.
The plane landed safely and moved to the apron.
Once the plane had come to a complete stop, the flight attendants waited by the door for the ground crew’s signal.
Normally, once a plane stops, the ground crew approaches.
They check around the aircraft, and when they signal that there’s nothing wrong, the door is opened.
But that signal never came.
The time the flight attendant spent waiting by the door grew longer.
Unable to wait any longer, the flight attendant simply opened the door.
The ground crew, who had been doing something else, jumped in surprise.
It was a little irritating, but that was all.
I thought of it as the kind of inconvenience born from the laziness and indifference unique to Central and South America.
Without saying a word, I got off the private jet.
I breathed in Tijuana’s air.
It was hot and stuffy.
Unpleasant.
Breathing that air, I headed toward immigration.
The immigration officer took my passport and stared at the screen for quite a while.
For a fairly long time.
It was strange.
Not to brag,
but there’s something you come to notice when you travel by private jet.
When you arrive by private jet,
immigration tends to be handled simply.
In many cases, they just check what they need to and let you pass.
But not this time.
“What is the purpose of your visit?”
“What is your itinerary?”
“How long will you be staying?”
“Where have you reserved your accommodations?”
“What is your occupation?”
“Will you be doing any work related to your occupation during your stay?”
“Where did you come from?”
“What is your relationship with the person traveling with you?”
“Coworkers?”
“Do you have any items to declare to customs?”
“I think we’ll need to check your proof of vaccination.”
The questions wouldn’t stop.
Even the United States, with its strict immigration inspections, doesn’t ask this much.
They asked questions I had already answered again.
In different wording, in a different order.
Questions poured down without pause.
I didn’t know why they kept asking questions I’d already answered.
I was trying not to get angry,
but I was angry.
I clenched my molars tightly and held it in.
Getting angry here would only make it take longer.
It was obvious they would delay our entry for some other reason.
They were keeping us this long
without any reason, without any suspicion?
When my thoughts reached that point,
another thought occurred to me.
What if the immigration inspection wasn’t actually strict, but there was another reason?
What if Rodrigo knew we were coming?
What if he had prepared for it?
It was an entirely possible scenario.
Of course, if it were me, I wouldn’t have done it in such a petty way.
They inspected our luggage.
We usually use a machine called an X-ray,
but here in Tijuana, it was different.
They opened every piece of luggage.
They opened everything and checked each item one by one.
It was slow, frustrating, and persistent.
Their intention was plainly apparent.
This wasn’t immigration or luggage inspection.
It was a kind of “welcome greeting.”
By that point, instead of getting angry, I let out a hollow laugh.
Is this all?
Only after more than an hour were we finally able to get outside.
Outside the airport.
The place where the rental car should have been waiting was empty.
Instead of the rental car, one employee slowly walked over.
With an awkward smile plastered on his face.
“You came out too late, so we processed it as a no-show.”
“Pardon?”
“You were late for the pickup time, so we thought you weren’t coming. So we rented it to someone else…”
“···You could at least have called to confirm before canceling it.”
“That’s true. But I forgot my phone at home today. I’m sorry.”
It was hard to find even a trace of apology on the rental car employee’s face.
Instead, it was full of mockery.
‘This son of a…’
Correction.
It was irritating.
I don’t know who planned this,
but I almost wanted to applaud them.
They had properly scraped at my nerves.
“Would you like me to look into another vehicle for you?”
“Do that.”
There was no other way.
We could look into another rental car company,
but if this was all Rodrigo’s territory,
if he had enough power to move even the airport,
then other rental car companies likely wouldn’t be much different.
I didn’t want to make things needlessly more complicated and annoying for myself.
The car the rental employee brought was an old van that looked like it might stop running at any moment.
“Here it is. I wanted to prepare a good vehicle for you, but this is the only one left right now. Still, it runs well and stops well.”
The rental car employee spoke as if it were a decent car, thumping the vehicle a couple of times.
At that sight, Chen Zihao beside me seemed angrier than I was,
but since I stayed still, Chen Zihao seemed to hold himself back as well.
“Let’s go.”
We got into the car.
The operative driving spoke.
“This car is strange. The brakes have a huge delay. It’s set up perfectly for an accident.”
“There’s a GPS planted in the car too.”
Chen Zihao added.
“I’m sure there is.”
“Should I remove it?”
“If you do, they’ll know, right?”
“Yes. They’ll know immediately.”
“Then leave it. Let’s go to the hotel for now.”
.
.
.
“What? A duplicate reservation?”
“I’m sorry. There seems to have been an error in the system.”
“So what are we supposed to do?”
My voice rose before I knew it.
“We will cancel your reservation free of charge. And we will also provide you with a voucher worth 1,000 pesos (85,000 won) for use next time.”
The young female concierge continued explaining, sweating profusely as if nervous.
It was the same here.
No matter how angry I got at this female employee, it would be useless, and the problem wouldn’t be solved.
It was nothing much,
but with everything piling up, my irritation surged.
From the airport to the hotel.
It wasn’t a system error, nor was it a mistake.
It was clear intent.
“Forget it.”
I answered with a long sigh.
“Do you have any rooms left?”
“We have one deluxe room left.”
The grade dropped sharply.
From a suite to a deluxe room.
“One room isn’t enough for us··· Is there nothing else?”
“I’m sorry. That is the only room remaining.”
“Fine. Give us that, at least.”
The employee held out a key.
I took the key and went up to the room.
In the meantime, I made sure to take the 1,000-peso voucher too.
We entered the room on the third floor.
Naturally, cameras and listening devices were hidden all over the room.
No, they hadn’t even tried to hide them.
They had put in so little effort that anyone could find them if they paid even a little attention.
‘We’re watching everything.’
It was a blatant signal.
In the room were me and Chen Zihao.
And the four members of the Obsidian Unit.
That was everyone who had traveled by private jet.
The rest of the personnel were scheduled to enter Tijuana on separate flights.
Those from Unity Town were also supposed to come directly to Tijuana,
but at this rate, the operation would inevitably go awry.
There would probably be trouble starting from immigration.
It seemed Rodrigo had expected us to come here.
I strongly felt that something was going wrong.
That was when it happened.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
The posture of the Obsidian Unit changed.
They lowered their stances, and their gazes turned toward the door.
They immediately entered a state of alert.
I checked the person outside through the peephole.
A man in a suit was standing there.
“Who is it?”
“I’m your guide.”