The Runaways
"What gear did they run off with? Just be honest and open it all up."
"......"
"Baek Seol. We're right on the edge here, so just talk."
The fury radiating off him was enough to fill the whole room, and Baek Seol understood every bit of it. Even so, she swallowed the words she'd been holding back.
That she had known, too, that the contract hadn't been properly fulfilled.
It was a silence born of calculation—saying it now wouldn't help resolve anything. Whatever else could be said about the bastard, the physical therapist Gong Won-goo was reacting like a professional, and cooperating with that reaction was her best move.
"What did they take?"
"The rest is trivial. But one thing is a problem."
"What is it?"
Instead of answering, Baek Seol drew a black ampoule from her pouch, holding about 15mL of liquid.
"It's called FU-8000."
"Just tell me what it does."
"It varies by individual, but it grants roughly an hour of hyper-regeneration."
"Ha...... this is insane. So this is what your company's been cooking up all this time?"
She nodded.
"How many are missing?"
"Three."
She held the ampoule out to Won-goo as she said it.
"So I take this and go catch them. That's what you mean?"
"I'm sorry......"
"Sorry doesn't cut it. Let me ask just in case—did Gu In-seon get her arm reattached?"
"Yes......"
"Ha...... so she's got her arm back while still mouthing off. They've clearly been running plenty of experiments."
"......"
"They haven't gotten stronger off human experiments or anything, have they? Tell me straight. If I get out there and they're beyond the estimate... Baek Seol, you're out of a job."
"Thankfully, no, nothing like that. The only issue is that FU-8000's effect is quite potent."
"To the point where a severed arm grows back?"
"Not instantly. It'd take a few minutes."
"Which is still the level of growing one back......"
The worst-case scenario flashed through Won-goo's mind.
Poke, wielding the Demonic Sword, juiced up on that ampoule—unkillable, rampaging like a madman.
Just picturing it for a moment was enough to make irritation bubble up from somewhere deep.
"There aren't any more, right?"
"No."
"Then there better not be. Bring me everything else too, even the small stuff. That way I can handle this fast. If time slips by, this whole incident gets truly tangled up. I'll be preparing in the meantime."
"Understood."
Baek Seol moved without a word of protest. That alone said how serious the situation was.
Once she was gone, Won-goo moved himself.
"Tell everyone to stand by."
"Director, where are you going?"
Geum Chul-soo asked.
"To hire some pathfinders."
Won-goo's crew had all gathered in the office. There were two outsiders as well—Mr. Kim and Fresh.
"So what about Yeongyeong? You came alone?"
"Yeongyeong's off recuperating. Says she's not doing any fieldwork for a while."
"Weren't you saying she was recovering?"
"She is, but it's slow. And she's still got the kids under her care to look after."
"So it's you flying solo again?"
"That's how it worked out."
"Either leave your damn kids behind, or draw up contracts and make yourself some actual crewmates."
"Easier said than done."
"Listen when I tell you. If you're told not to do something, don't do it. Look at this incident. You remember watching wrestling as a kid? Shit! There were always those idiots who broke their heads doing the moves the pros told them never to try at home. That's exactly what this is. Why the hell would you keep someone alive when you were told not to?"
"Anyway, Director. Did you get rough coordinates?"
Kim Seok-bong asked, and Won-goo nodded.
"Only the direction they bolted in, more or less. Those sonsofbitches should've come straight away. All this stalling for time just tangled the case up for nothing."
"Are our odds of catching them even decent, Director Gong?"
"Fifty-fifty?"
"So there's a real chance we come up empty, huh?"
"We wasted time. That's on us."
"Hmm... the roster of names attached to this case looked pretty flashy. Can we actually handle it?"
Fresh fished a stick of gum out of the case tucked in his jacket and popped it in his mouth. He offered some to Won-goo and Seok-bong too, and both took a piece.
"This has some of the sweet stuff mixed in, doesn't it?"
"Barely. I wouldn't give you anything too strong. You don't like the heavy stuff anyway, Director Gong."
"I don't dislike it. I just hold off when there's a case on."
"You live buried in cases every day, so that's the same as not doing it at all. Anyway—can we handle it or not?"
"I already ran the numbers. My crew does the catching. Everyone else just needs to herd them our way."
"If you ran the numbers, Director, then it's solid."
"They're dangerous ones, but time has passed for them too."
"What's that supposed to mean? They've been off the Field?"
"Yeah. A long time. Especially this bastard. Hoppang. You all know what a piece of work this guy is, right?"
Kim Seok-bong and Fresh both nodded.
"Oh, we know. Before this guy got caught, nobody could even touch him, right? Not until you personally stepped in, Director Gong."
"I just landed the finishing blow, that's all."
"......?"
"......?"
Both of them looked utterly confused.
"Come again?"
"The bastard was such a menace that his own crew took him down. We just went in to clean up the aftermath."
"So that's why."
"This one's a slaver like Gu Sik, but a different breed. Gu Sik at least took care of his own people."
"Only so he could use them up."
"Different flavor, I'm telling you. Hoppang treats everyone as slaves, period. If things sour, crew or no crew, he beats them to death."
"A thug, then."
"Exactly. A neighborhood punk, plain and simple. Either way, this guy's been off the Field way too long. Things are different now than back then."
"True enough. The coin denomination everyone deals in has changed."
"So the real concerns are Poke and Gu In-seon."
"Personally, I think you should just take Gu Sik along too."
"That bastard is working diligently as a supervisor on Buri Island right now."
"So you're keeping him under watch?"
"Yeah. Working a place and watching over it are different things. I've raised his pay quite a bit, so I'll see how it goes. Whether he really lives as he claims, as long as nobody touches him—or whether he's scheming something else the whole time."
"So Gu Sik's on trial. What's your read?"
"My read......"
Won-goo started to answer, then stopped. Lee Hyun-sung had just hurried into the office.
The others reacted immediately. Mu Beob-sa, who'd been lying in his hammock, pushed himself upright.
In Lee Hyun-sung's hands was the material Baek Seol had scraped together and handed over.
He came straight over and passed it to Won-goo. It was far deeper than the profile Won-goo had glimpsed earlier—this time it even included testimony from the organization members who had clashed with the escapees recently and survived.
Which meant the existing estimate could now be refined into something much more precise.
"Hyeong-nim. Montage Hyeong-nim's crew has departed as well."
"Good. Then let's move too."
Pacific was still fast asleep, so he'd already been laid out in the trailer as he was.
Hearing the word, Kim Seok-bong and Fresh headed outside and kicked their motorcycles to life. Behind Seok-bong rode the additional pathfinders he'd hired on.
Won-goo's crew boarded the trailer straightaway.
Kim Seok-bong led from the front, guiding the way while pushing a fierce pace. They ran into a Bloodfan pack partway through and simply plowed through them with the trailer.
Bloodfans were aggressive monsters, but they also knew when to submit to unquestionable power. The moment ten-odd Bloodfans lay helplessly flattened under the trailer, the rest scattered at once.
"Well, what in the world is all this?"
The Montage crew was waiting at the agreed spot. Not the whole crew—only about half had joined up.
Joce was there too, naturally.
"That's how it happened. The man goes on vacation and the very day it starts, work blows up. Honestly... anyway, Hyeong-nim, we need your skills."
"Say no more. Runaway-chasing is my specialty. Don't you worry."
"Let's head to the scene first. We can talk on the way."
"Gotcha."
They set out for the coordinates again. Kim Seok-bong's ability—the one Won-goo had rated A-rank pathfinder—was genuinely outstanding.
A pathfinder who could only guide you to a destination didn't deserve an A rank.
An A-rank pathfinder got you there fast while steering you clear of hazards as much as possible.
On top of that, Seok-bong had the sense to know that packs like Bloodfans could be smashed straight through, so he didn't bother avoiding them.
That saved even more time.
Thanks to Kim Seok-bong's efforts, the survivors reached the scene quickly.
"They didn't get as far as I expected?"
That was the first thing Fresh said as he climbed down at the site.
Twenty or so corpses lay sprawled across the ground, badly mangled.
"Don't touch anything, y'hear."
Once they arrived, it was Montage's time to work.
He examined the scattered corpses with perfect calm. Survivors who'd worked with him before knew his ability, so they kept their distance and simply watched.
"Starts here."
"How long ago did this happen?"
"Thirty-two hours."
"Hmm... now I get why Director Gong said fifty-fifty. We are late."
"Late, sure. But not so far gone that we can't track them."
Fresh's only answer was a nod.
Meanwhile Montage, who'd been crouched over the bodies, rose to his feet.
"You're done that fast?"
"What's there to examine in detail? Catching those bastards comes first, don't it?"
"Fair point."
"We've lost a lot of time already, and those dumb bastards even rolled out carts and told their cargo to ride comfortable. Can't you catch 'em?"
"Why would I not? We've just got farther to go, is all."
"Then let's go."
"Hold on, lemme ask you one thing."
"What is it?"
"Those bastards—is there anyone among 'em who does hypnosis or the like?"
Montage had joined from Slow. Naturally, he hadn't been properly briefed on the case—it was too urgent, so they'd agreed to explain once he reached the scene.
Survivors usually balked at joining cases that erupted out of nowhere. You needed to know which direction an incident would unfold before you could prepare for it.
Even so, Montage had joined without a word of hesitation.
It was a moment that showed exactly who he was—a man who valued bonds and loyalty above all.
"There is. Why? Found traces of it?"
"Three of the women here got it. The goons killed each other. So what d'you think that means? Hypnosis, ain't it."
Lee Hyun-sung, sharp as ever, brought over the tablet holding the runaways' profiles and offered it to Won-goo first.
It showed his character again—handing it to Won-goo before Montage. There was also the meaning of asking Won-goo's permission first. Sticking to proper procedure even for the smallest matter was pure Lee Hyun-sung, and Won-goo knew it, so he took the tablet himself and passed it to Montage.
"Hmm... this ain't how it's supposed to play out... there was a slip-up, huh?"
"That's my failure to prepare. Please have some mercy, Hyeong-nim."
"You surely didn't do it on purpose, Director Gong?"
"Not on purpose, but I did slip up. He's an old trading partner, so I stopped watching him closely."
"Well... long relationships make folks lax, I suppose. Anyway, this gal here is dangerous, she is. Joce!"
"Yes, Hyeong-nim!"
"What're you standing there for. Get to pullin'."
He meant: pull out anyone in the crew he'd brought whose nerve was weak. Joce immediately peeled off three men with the shakiest constitutions.
"Director Gong. The gals here got five or more needles stuck in their heads at minimum, y'know? This enough to keep 'em standing?"
"It'll be touch and go. But we came prepared."
Lee Hyun-sung, as if he'd been waiting for the moment, brought over a small handbag.
"It's a clarity type. When we meet them, inject one each as we go."
Montage took the bag and opened it. It was stuffed full of syringes.
"Where d'you stick this thing?"
"Just jab it straight into the neck."
"No side effects?"
"There are. You won't sleep a wink for about forty-eight hours."
"That ain't a side effect then. Finish the job fast, stay up all night drinking and having fun, done. Ain't that right?"
"Exactly, Hyeong-nim. Soju and pork soup after......"
Joce excitedly jumped in, then hastily shut his mouth.
"Anyway, Director Gong—Seok-bong and me take point from here on. You just keep up, y'hear?"
"Understood."
Won-goo boarded the trailer again. As he went, he caught Montage chewing Joce out.
"Joce. I told you to keep that mouth of yours in check. Yours is always sprouting flowers, y'know. Blood's flowing at a scene like this and you're grinning your teeth out in front of it? You think that's proper?"
"I'm sorry, Hyeong-nim."
"We'll be talkin' later, I tell you."
Past the corpses, the survivors sped along in pursuit of the runaways.
Then they hit a situation that forced them to stop.
"Now what in tarnation is this? Director Gong!"
Montage had gotten down first, so Won-goo brought the trailer to a halt and stepped out as well.
"What is it?"
"Two trails."
"......?"
"Two trails, I'm saying. Looks like they split here."
"They split?"
"That they did."