Cheonho Pharmaceutical Company (5)
The girl didn't like looking up. That was because of the "job" she'd been doing ever since she was little.
"Move! You slow-ass worms!"
The man's voice—Marcus's—was like a whip. He actually swung a real whip at kids who didn't obey.
The girl burst out of the building at his command and looked up at the sky. Moments later, something flew across the blue expanse.
"Here! Over here!"
Marcus smiled at her waving hand. He slung a large device over his shoulder and gazed upward.
Bang! With a sound like a firecracker, a black weight-like object shot into the sky. It grew larger, unfolding into a wide net.
"Got it! First kid to bring it back gets an extra piece of meat!"
Woooaaah!
The children raced across the open field. The girl trailed at the very back, chasing them. Her breath came up to her chin by the time she reached the spot where the netted object had fallen.
"It's mine! I got it!"
"Get lost! This is mine!"
"Waaah! Mommy!"
It was pandemonium. They scratched and hit each other, screaming over that one extra piece of meat. The chaos didn't stop until Marcus showed up. In the end, the two kids responsible for starting it all went hungry.
"Pay attention. This is called a drone."
Marcus spoke to one child in front of him. The kid held a tiny screwdriver in his hand.
"To disassemble a drone, you have to unscrew here, here, and here without fail."
The instructions were simpler than expected. The girl watched once and replicated it in seconds. Marcus's face lit up.
"You're different from the other idiots. Here—extra meat for you."
The girl secretly gave that meat to the two kids who'd gone hungry.
Time passed, and word of the girl's exceptional talent spread. She disassembled drones five times faster than the others. Not just taking them apart, but sorting the components neatly for Marcus's convenience.
"Excellent!"
"...But why don't the grown-ups do it?"
"Screws on modern gadgets are too small for adult hands."
Marcus answered with a bored expression. One day, the girl asked him why they had to do this.
"If we sell 'em as-is, we get tracked. Disassemble everything, swap out every screw for new ones, and even the mighty US can't trace it."
"US?"
"Think of it as our gullible mark who doesn't care if a few pricey drones go missing."
She later learned Marcus sold the drone parts on the black market. The girl couldn't quite grasp it. Was this drone really that special...? So she examined the parts and even tried reassembling them.
"A computer? Why do we need that?"
"They say you need a computer to hijack a drone."
"Hmm..."
"If we sell the whole drone intact, we could get ten times the price on the market, right?"
Marcus bought a computer after mulling it over. That day, the girl hacked something for the first time.
From the day she first assembled a complete drone, Marcus treated her like royalty. Bread to her heart's content, meat until she was stuffed. She got a bed, new clothes, and even got to watch videos sometimes.
It was a brief peace.
"You damn bitch! I fed you! Gave you a place to sleep! And you screw me over?!"
Thud! Thud!
The girl curled up under Marcus's merciless kicks. It started because she'd helped one kid escape. The child had cried every day. When the girl asked why, it turned out he'd been snatched off the street by someone while walking with his parents.
...That's not right.
So she helped him flee, using the drones and surveillance gear she'd stockpiled.
"Ahh..."
Dying in the rundown barn, the girl felt no regrets. It was just a life of scraping by anyway. She only hoped heaven existed, something she'd heard about as a child. She believed she deserved to go there. That an angel would soon take her.
And... the angel appeared.
"Are you okay?"
The angel seemed almost human. Seeing her state, it scooped her up. The angel smelled like sweet apples. Up close, the gray hair was beautiful—like pure white tresses sullied and accepting mortality to descend to earth.
"Treatment first... Don't worry. When you wake up, it'll all be over."
The angel's whisper reached her fading vision.
And so, Blacky met her goddess, Conel.
…
"Gaaah! Conel! I'm sorry!"
Now 19 years old, the girl—Blacky—slammed her desk and wailed.
The girl who'd stolen and sold drones somewhere in Mexico was now providing her benefactor Conel with vital intel using her specialty.
"I-I couldn't help it! I really don't know!"
Blacky writhed in guilt. It had happened just a few weeks ago.
Conel had asked her, as usual, to gather some information.
"...B2? Who's this weirdo?"
"A former special forces sniper. Prime material for our team."
"Hmm... a guy?"
Conel's voice paused briefly on the line.
"Probably... I think so. Does it bother you?"
"N-no! If you need it, of course I'll do it! Trust me! I'll dig up everything down to his underwear size!"
"...No need to go that far. ID checks are just standard procedure. B2 will make an excellent teammate."
Blacky hid her sulkiness. She couldn't throw a tantrum at her benefactor.
Following Conel's request, she dove into investigating the man called B2. And... the results were shocking.
"From South Korea. Age 27, real name Lee Suo. Currently on leave from university? ...A college student?"
No way. Conel had said he was ex-special forces. But check after check showed just an ordinary civilian college kid.
"He has some military service... six months? That's barely reserve duty. No way he's really..."
A civilian?
Blacky nearly convinced herself. She shook her head. Conel said special forces. There had to be something about this Lee Suo.
She abandoned sleep, combing every scrap of data on Lee Suo in South Korea. Even same-name duplicates or similar photos went into the pile.
The report deadline loomed. In the end, Blacky found nothing special beyond him being a civilian.
"No way... really a civilian? No! Conel said special forces. I-I missed something!"
Blacky didn't realize B2—Lee Suo—was truly a civilian. She couldn't fathom her idol falling for him.
In the end, she lied to Conel for the first time.
"Yes, ex-special forces. Post-discharge, he worked as an agent under the NIS. The blank three years need deeper digging."
"I see. Former NIS agent... Explains his quick thinking. Thanks, Blacky. You're always a huge help."
Blacky screamed after hanging up.
"Gyyyaaah! I'm sooo sorry, Conel!"
She spent the day sobbing. Blacky finally realized what Conel had once said: someday she'd meet someone who surpassed her. The world was vast, full of geniuses.
Blacky accepted reality. B2, Lee Suo—this mystery man was an elite on her level!
Suddenly, the tangled threads unraveled one by one. Starting from a memo out of the Blue House secretariat, she uncovered the NIS's secret unit "Night Owls."
"Gaaah! I did it! I'm the best! I'm a genius!"
Blacky roared, hurling an empty energy drink can. She'd finally unmasked the secretive Lee Suo.
So when she met B2 on Conel's first assigned mission for her, her hands shook.
B2 blended into daily life like a shadow. Infiltrating the company, he played the naive newbie to perfection, seating himself in the ideal spot for an agent.
She even modulated her voice. Exposing it to such a dangerous man terrified her.
The operation began. B2 was astonishing. With godlike marksmanship and takedown skills, he provoked her, won over the execs' favor, and snatched the target intel in a flash.
...Just like my idol Conel.
"No! Faith is eternal!"
Blacky yelled like a screaming chimp. She had more shocks coming.
Blending as an ordinary salaryman, B2 used "team bonding" as an excuse to extract more intel. Casually chatting to pry out Cheonho Pharma's remaining secrets—a pro's clean work.
"This... this is a real secret agent?"
B2's savvy shone. Ma, the executive, was approached by Japanese yakuza.
Blacky messaged Shai, back in Korea, for backup and left encouragement.
...Unnecessary.
B2 dropped three guys in seconds, toying with the rest like playthings.
Chills ran down her spine at B2's casual mutter. Sure, snipers train for CQC. But not against seven armed adults.
The real shock came after the gangsters appeared. B2 calmly won them over for infiltration, even fought mystery reinforcements.
Blacky couldn't reply. The afterimage lingered: B2 disarming and neutralizing a gunman in a blur. No mere pro—that was ghostly.
Conel had shown her agent training vids. None matched that skill.
"Wait! I hear voices!"
Ignoring Shai's routine curses, Blacky worked the computer. The abandoned complex had live cameras. She zoomed in, capturing audio.
A man called CEO Choi yelled at his underlings.
[Choi] Everyone to positions! Report any Japs on sight! Got it?!
[Underlings] Yes, boss!
[Choi] VP, hang back.
The gangsters descended and vanished. The feed showed two men and a bleeding blond guy on the floor.
Choi approached the fallen blond and kicked him hard.
[Choi] These fucking dogs played me! Both same org! That last one was a warning from up top—in case I get ideas!
Thud! Thud! Choi stomped the man like he meant to kill him. He spat a glob of phlegm.
[Choi] You think we'd jump in just to get used? We need control at minimum.
[Dongsu] Got it, bro.
[Choi] Yeah, I told you—if you're gonna be the dragon's tail, be ready to bite back.
The talk ended; audio cut. Another sound hit Blacky's ears.
"W-wait, Shai!"
While Blacky focused elsewhere, Shai spotted B2 and hit the gangsters.
...No major fallout, luckily.
"S-sorry! Things escalated faster than I thought—response was late!"
The monster who'd shone so brightly shrugged it off. This guy's the real deal.
Shai's vile curses killed the awe quick. Blacky finally snapped back at her—but couldn't match Shai's arsenal of slurs and racism.
As defeat loomed, the angel's voice intervened.
"C-Conel! Been waiting!"
Blacky briefed her briefly. She'd accepted her beautiful goddess Conel's request.
Her first mission was no ordinary gig, it seemed.