“We’re heading to the East district. Would you like to come with us?”
Jennifer shook her head in response to my words. Her dark blonde hair fluttered, along with the small earring in her ear.
“I’m going find my team who fled to South district and take the central elevator.”
That’s impressive. If it were me, I’d run away without looking for my team in this situation. Maybe there’s nowhere to run, anyway.
Kim Gayoung’s eyebrows furrowed. “It takes 10 minutes to call the elevator, and another 10 minutes to ride it without the elevator moving.”
“That’s still the fastest way out of here.”
Shin Haeryang, who appeared to be ignoring the conversation in the multimedia room while looking outside, took Seo Jihyuk’s pad and showed Jennifer a picture. He twisted the angle of the pad screen so the light outside or Henry in front of him couldn’t see, but I knew what the picture was as soon as I saw it.
Shin Haeryang showed Jennifer a picture of a man whose eyes never closed, and because of that, I had to make eye contact with a dead person for a few seconds. ‘Ah, damn it.’ Jennifer scowled as she saw the photo and bit her lip.
Shin Haeryang looked outside and spoke, “It’s too dangerous.”
“Aren’t we in a situation where we’re not considering the danger, swinging axes to get on the escape boat, shooting people in the head?”
“We don’t know when the central building’s pressure control device will fail.”
“Then we should move faster. Whether it’s the East district’s elevator or the North district’s elevator, we’re dead if either fails,” Jennifer rebutted and stood up.
Seo Jihyuk, who had been standing and looking outside, insisted, “We’re going to the East district as planned.”
Upon hearing that, Henry quickly raised his small hand. Even in the darkness, Henry’s small arm reflected Shin Haeryang’s surprised expression. Hand raised, Henry voiced his opinion.
Henry, with his hand raised, expressed his opinion, “I’ll follow Jennifer.”
“Why… why?”
“Because she said she’s going to find my dad.”
Listening to his firm voice, the adults stared at Henry in a daze. ‘Is this kid for real? At his age, all I did was watch cartoons and roll on the ground, begging for toys.’
Everyone present was thinking of escaping one way or another, but none of them were willing to comb through the entire underwater base, which could be anywhere, under the pretext of finding Henry’s father. It seemed that even the kid had vaguely realized that the promises of calling for his father or taking him to his father were lies. As Jennifer subtly held the boy’s hand, Kim Gayoung sighed and held his other hand, “I’ll go, too. His age reminds me of my nephew.”
“Wouldn’t it be safer for all of us to go to the East district together?”
“If we can’t use the escape pod in the East district, we’re going to take the East’s side elevator, right? Whether we take this central elevator here or the one for the third underwater base, the risk seems similar, so I’m just going to take the direct elevator in the Central.”
“There’s also a multi-person submarine and the third underwater base elevator at East district. Come with us.”
Even though we asked her again, Kim Gayoung declined. Deeming further discussion useless, Shin Haeryang nodded and opened the door to theater 1. Three seconds later, Baek Ae-young, who had quietly high-fived Jennifer, left, followed by Seo Ji-hyuk.
Yoo Geum-yi held Kim Gayoung’s hand tightly, then said “Let’s go out and see.” before letting go and leaving the room. I also carefully swept the bottom of the bag with my sleeve, took out all the chocolate bars and candies, and handed them to the three.
“If your teeth rot, I’ll fix them next time we meet.”
“See you in a bit, Muhyun-ssi.”
Watching Kim Gayoung wave her hand, I left the movie theater 1. Baek Ae-young led the way, stopping when she said to stop and walking when she said to walk.
As we were almost running toward the cafe past the second and third movie theaters, Yoo Geum-yi spoke quietly, “Gayoung eonni is not good with her ankles. She used to wear heels a lot and sprained her ankle so often that her left ankle is in bad condition. It might have been tough for her to keep up with us at this pace. She might have stayed because she hates having her ankles slowing her down. Or maybe she truly believes that the elevator is safer than escaping through the escape pod.”
“What about you, Ms. Geum-yi?”
“I relieve stress through exercise. Wondering what to do with my thesis? I used to run on a treadmill out of anger every time I heard about professors making noises. I must have run more than any used car.”
I couldn’t help but laugh imagining Yoo Geum-yi running fiercely on a treadmill in her anger, but I barely held it in.
“How about… How about you, doctor?”
As we walked at a brisk pace, Seo Jihyuk, who had been listening to Yoo Geum-yi’s story, asked me. The weight of the cat on my back felt like it was pressing down on my whole body. I had twice fallen into the water, alternately carrying 6kg and 20kg, and now I had no strength to walk. I assessed my overall condition and told Seo Jihyuk.
“I’m at death’s door.”
“You seem perfectly fine.”
Does living underwater impair hearing? I stared at the sturdy back of Shin Haeryang, who was leading the way, then glanced at Yoo Geum-yi. She looked anxious. I was also anxious. ‘After all, I’m not good at lying. Moreover, I can’t live with anxiety. I guess that’s how I’ll be my whole life.’
That’s why I asked Baek Ae-young, who was walking briskly by my side, “What is your real identity?”
“Me? I’m an engineer.”
“No, I mean that knife.”
“Every woman living in this dangerous world should have at least one knife. It’s a trend these days!”
Seo Jihyuk agreed with her words. He said it was something like a piece of jewelry. But seeing the real thing made me wonder. When I looked at Yoo Geum-yi, she yelled, asking why I was looking at her. Can you believe it?! At her words, I suddenly remembered something and spoke to Baek Ae-young.
“Bringing weapons into the underwater base is prohibited, isn’t it?”
Baek Ae-young immediately refuted my statement, “Well, only things like firearms and grenades are banned, cold weapons are allowed! If you say no knives at all, how are we supposed to cook in the restaurant?”
“Cold weapons?”
When Yoo Geum-yi asked Baek Ae-young what cold weapons were, Baek Ae-young looked surprised. When I looked at Seo Jihyuk in disbelief, he turned his head away, avoiding my gaze. I heard Baek Ae-young’s voice, saying we were screwed, then she asked Shin Haeryang what to do.
Shin Haeryang, who was walking at the very front, peeked around the corner of the cafe building into the convenience store, then waved his hand.
‘What did that mean?’
As we all moved quietly and pressed ourselves against the wall, Shin Haeryang muttered in a tone of headache. “Once you took out the knife, it was over.”
“What is your real identity? Are you some kind of soldier or a special forces member?”
“Do you think the global underwater base, funded by various countries with over 6,000 trillion, would only house civilians?”
When Baek Ae-young shot back at me, Yoo Geum-yi clapped softly, exclaiming, “I knew it! and wagged her forefinger. “There were rumors among the researchers! They said there could be unusual people among the ones at the underwater base, not just ordinary people! Like special agents from various countries, or even criminals! There were such rumors floating around, but I thought they were just scary stories. It turns out they were true!”
Suddenly, Yoo Geum-yi, with her eyes sparkling, fired a barrage of questions, “Is everyone in our team like this? What about Soo-jung and Ji-hyeon? Do Kim Jaehee Kim and Jung Sang-hyun also know how to use knives and guns?”
“The most dangerous one is Ji-hyeon. That nutcase.”
“No way! Ji-hyeon is so nice!”
When Seo Jihyuk said that, Yoo Geum-yi timidly contradicted him, and Baek Ae-young kicked Seo Jihyuk’s shin, saying, “Stop talking nonsense. Seriously.”
Seo Ji-hyuk closed his mouth with a choked sound. Suddenly, Shin Haeryang explained that we would run from here to there. But we shouldn’t make any noise. Among those who had shoes, Yoo Geum-yi and I held ours in our hands, and we ran one by one at the signal.
From somewhere, we could occasionally hear sounds resembling beans being roasted. The sound was echoing too much to tell where it was coming from. A few minutes later, Baek Ae-young, who was at the front, signaled to lie down. We stayed still, so I lay still.
I tapped Shin Haeryang lightly and then tapped my own lips, and after a few moments of silence, Shin Haeryang nodded his head and said, “Speak.” I shuddered at the fact that I was trapped in a place that was narrow or wide, depending on perspective, with those who had received professional education on the methodology of people harming people.
“So you’re saying that the madmen in the North district who were shooting with guns weren’t just trying to earn escape points, but could have been trained gun experts who did it on purpose!”
“······And we don’t have a gun.”
Hearing Shin Haeryang’s clean-cut words gave me a feeling of a headache coming on. I reached out my palm to Shin Haeryang.
“?”
“It’s been fun so far.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s been a fun and enjoyable conversation. Hand me the hidden gun.”
“I don’t have one.”
“But the Engineer B (Japan) team brought a gun, didn’t they? The Engineer C team (Russia) seems to have smuggled in alcohol in box loads, and one of the mining teams seems to have imported a large number of cigarettes from their home country. Don’t we have anything? Surely we have something hidden? Like a multi-person submarine capable of rising from 3,000 meters underground to sea level at once.”
“These are all we have.” Shin Haeryang rummaged through his pockets and carefully placed a sugar-free grape candy, which I had handed out before entering South district, on my palm. I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh. I slapped the candy back into his hand, making a clapping sound.
“We didn’t expect it to turn out this way either.”
“What do you mean? That we might drown in the water 3km under any moment? Or that all the escape pods are broken, missing, or have been ‘tampered with’ and crashed?”
“We didn’t anticipate any of that.”
As Shin Haeryang calmly replied, Baek Ae-young quickly interjected, “How could we have known someone would ram a torpedo into the Central Research Center? If we knew beforehand, we would have taken a vacation the day before and gone to Hawaii. We never thought we would become fish food in this smelly ocean!”
Yoo Geum-yi had been trying to cheer me up when she shouted in surprise, “······Wait, someone shot a torpedo? You mean a torpedo, like an underwater missile? Who shot a missile?! Is this some kind of madness? Do they have any idea how much that research facility costs? How expensive is the equipment?! Don’t humans usually argue verbally before resorting to violence? What on earth is making these insane people detonate four seven-story research centers under the sea, creating so much waste?! My deep-sea life center is just one thing; we’ve collected an absurd number of jellyfish species! And I’ve heard that the amount of metals collected in the Rare Earth Center for mineral research is no joke. Do you have any idea how much this is all worth? We’ve got gold, silver, and even heaps of uranium pulled from seawater! What did the Undersea Pollution Center do to deserve this? They were studying how to stop undersea pollution, all the team members came from all around the world! They were here to research how to get rid of those damned microplastics and tons of garbage that we can’t even measure anymore in the sea, and some lunatics blew that up too? Are they all completely insane?”
“Calm…calm down! Jeez.”
“Calm down and lower your voice! You don’t know who might be around.”
Postgraduate student Yoo Geum-yi, who was pursuing her doctoral studies, was fuming at the audacity of someone firing a torpedo at the underwater research base.
I quietly asked Shin Haeryang a question, “Is it really a torpedo? It’s not an earthquake or something?”
“We saw it while we were working outside.”
“······ If you’re military, is there a way to contact Korea? Like, get in touch with the Navy? Or any separate escape plan?”
At that question, Seo Jihyuk gave a disheartened laugh. “Well······We’re not exactly military. You know our age, right? Except for Baek Sang-ari, we’re all almost in our 30s, haha. Those who work in such fields are usually in their early 20s. We’re all retired, so… think of us as mercenaries. Mercenaries… it’s a bit of an odd term, but contractors? That’s also a bit… um… think of us as outsourced staff. That’s still weird, isn’t it? Contract workers? Contract government employees? We’re not even formally registered as government employees, no pension… come to think of it, it’s not that great. Team leader Shin, why did you agree to such terms?”
“We’re getting paid from two places, right? Or did you want me to contract with Japan or China?”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
At that, Baek Ae-young began to grumble, “There are a few conditions like prioritizing Koreans for rescue, behaving in a way that’s friendly towards Korea, naming things inside the underwater base in Korean, and reporting activities once a week or so, but there was no material support or anything like that. We communicate by email, and they’ve never even bought us a pair of socks.”
“······I was denied four times when I asked for a satellite phone to contact the island. They also refused to get us a 2,000m multi-person submarine.”
“Well, I… *sigh*. I won’t compare us to America or New Zealand. Just within Asia, the B-team (Japan) and D-team (China) engineers have a cruiser yacht for their team to use. It’s not just that they’re rich, their supporting countries provided it! Even when I asked for a 20-foot one, they said, ‘Why do you need a yacht in an underwater base?’ Did I ask for a 50-foot yacht? They just say they’ll consider whenever I ask!” Baek Ae-young started pouring out her frustrations, whether there was anyone around or she had just been bottling up her grievances.
Shin Haeryang, who had accumulated a lot due to the rejected support requests, sighed and said, “We have nothing but our lives.”
“That’s the case for all of us. However-.”
Shin Haeryang quickly put his hand over my mouth. As I was about to pry his rough palm away, a short-haired woman of Oriental descent, with a glum expression and a gun, walked past the café. Everyone froze.
Before she completely disappeared from sight, Baek Ae-young whispered to Shin Hae-ryang, “That’s Takahashi Yurie. Should we snatch her?”
“Let her pass.”
At Shin Hae-ryang’s gesture, Seo Jihyuk, who confirmed that no one else was around, was the first to step forward.
Author’s note
Engineer Team A – Team leader Shin Haeryang – Korean
Engineer Team B – Team leader Sato Ryusuke – Japanese
Engineer Team C – Team leader Vladimir Sergeyevich Ivanov – Russian
Engineer Team D – Team leader ??? – Chinese
Engineer Team E – Team leader Jennifer Smith – American
Engineer Team F – Team leader ??? – New Zealander
Engineer Team G – Team leader ??? – Australian
Engineer Team H – Team leader ??? – Canadian
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