A Glint of Red
I was thrown. Had some kind of alarm gone out? How had he known to come? I looked to Senior Yeongseok, and he seemed every bit as startled as I was.
"Senior. Did you happen to call the team leader?"
I kept my voice low enough that only he would hear. He shook his head.
"I only called the department head and the deputy head. And now the team leader's here too. Ha ha."
Ah. So that was it. Then how had he ended up here? The thought lasted only a moment.
An executive director had walked onto the floor in person. A proper greeting was not optional.
"Team Leader. Good afternoon."
Senior Yeongseok and I bent at the waist.
"I came by for a Line 1 meeting, and... what exactly is going on here?"
From the sound of it, the team leader had already been on his way to Line 1 for that meeting, heard the news, and stepped onto the line with the others. A safety matter was the sort of thing that got reported up to team-leader level. Arriving now, after the first response was already in place, might even have been for the best. Senior Yeongseok stepped forward and laid out the situation.
"We've got a leak in the scrubber piping on WN-11. The valve is shut, so there's no further leakage."
"Any injuries?"
"Engineer Lee Seokhyeon here caught it early, so fortunately there's been no additional damage. As you can see, it's just a bit of standing water."
The team leader nodded. Fatigue showed in his eyes. Stress, no doubt. An accident like this, on a line under his own command.
"This engineer is the one who found it?"
His gaze swung to me. I bowed again.
"Good afternoon, Team Leader. I'm Engineer Lee Seokhyeon."
"Good. Nice to meet you. Mind if I ask a few things?"
"Not at all. Ask whatever you'd like."
I was a little tense. What was he planning to ask?
"Walk me through how you found the leak."
"Yes, sir."
I nodded and started in. There wasn't much of an explanation to give.
"The piping looked off to me, so I'd been coming down fairly often to check it while I was on patrol. That's how I came down to the plenum around 1:05 and found the leak."
"The piping looked off? Were there signs beforehand?"
"No symptoms. No warning signs. It was only a hunch."
I could hardly tell him I'd seen something glittering. It had simply been intuition. An engineer's intuition. That was the only way I could put it.
"Hmm... Couldn't it have been prevented ahead of time?"
"Yesterday I contacted the scrubber contractor and had them run an inspection, but the Inform came back clean. Nothing out of the ordinary."
I answered without flinching. Honestly, once you'd had the responsible contractor inspect the thing, you'd done everything there was to do. Hadn't you? Just then the vendor tech I'd called earlier came up to the scene.
"Good afternoon. Scrubber contractor. We heard there was a leak."
"Ah, yes. Right over here."
I raised a hand and showed him where. The team leader had the sense to step aside. The contractor came in and checked the scrubber one more time.
"First thing, I'm putting this scrubber on bypass."
He routed around the scrubber that was no longer getting PCW, so another unit could take over the work in its place. Then he looked at the piping and clicked his tongue.
"Whew. So this happens too. Twenty years on the job, and I've never seen one like it."
"Is that right?"
"Yes. I got the call yesterday and came out to inspect it myself, and I couldn't find a thing wrong. A case like this, you'd have to be a god to catch it."
Only then did the team leader nod. He finally had something to hang his understanding on. The tech said he'd replace the piping later and disappeared from the floor.
"You both worked hard. Thanks to you, something that nearly turned into a major accident got shut down early."
The team leader looked from me to Senior Yeongseok as he said it. Senior Yeongseok waved the credit off.
"I didn't do anything. Engineer Lee Seokhyeon here handled all of it, from the first find to calling the contractor to putting up the safety zone."
"Mm. I see."
The team leader's eyes traveled over me. Somehow that made it awkward.
"I'll remember."
With that, he turned to go. He didn't get far before he glanced back.
"One moment. Engineer Lee Seokhyeon?"
"...Yes?"
"You're the engineer who took care of WN-15?"
How does he know that? The report must already have gone up. I nodded.
"Yes, that's me."
"...I see."
A glint passed through the team leader's eyes. For a second it almost looked like a smile.
"Now I'll be sure to remember."
"Thank you."
I bowed low. I could see the team leader talking something over with the department head and the deputy head. The pumps around us were too loud to make out a word.
Whew. I really thought we were done for.
In truth, even the puddle on the floor already counted as a serious matter.
"Seokhyeon. Good work."
Senior Yeongseok patted my back. I let out a breath of relief.
"I honestly thought this was going to be a disaster."
"If you hadn't found it, it would have been. We'd have lost power, too."
The plenum didn't have a drain of its own. Left as it was, the leak might have risen deep enough to cover a man's ankles. At that point the power lines to the utility pumps would have been sitting in liquid. A short, right there.
Just thinking about it makes me dizzy.
The three managers seemed to be having the same conversation. A grave look crossed each of their faces. Before long the three of them gave a rough nod, and the team leader and the department head left the line. Deputy Department Head Kim Soonhyeop came over to Senior Yeongseok and me.
"Hey. You two really went through it."
"Not at all. Seokhyeon did everything."
I laughed, a little embarrassed.
"The team leader was pleased. Said the two of you are the reason it wrapped up clean. Word is a reward'll come your way later, separate from this."
"A reward?"
I echoed it before I could stop myself. They were going to reward us for this?
"Yeah. Not cash, though. It'll come in kind. A gift set, something like that."
As if I'd turn that down. I'll take it, and gladly.
Ah—suddenly it seemed as if a halo were shining at the back of the team leader, already far off down the line. A superior who rewarded and punished without fail. Nothing but light. Of course, mattering more than any gift set was that an executive director had taken notice of me. Under ordinary circumstances, he was someone I would never have had cause to meet.
"All right. Good work, both of you. Clock out soon."
With that, the deputy head stepped off the line as well.
"Haa... it's over."
I let my body sag. Down on the floor, the Environment and Safety team was already wiping up the puddle on the team leader's orders.
"We should get moving too. We've got an Inform to give."
"Yes. ...Hold on. What time is it?"
I checked in a hurry.
"..."
Not only was Inform long past—the shift change had come and gone a good while ago. Senior Woohyun and Senior Jihan would be waiting.
"Let's go, now!"
"Ah—yeah. Right."
The Inform went off without a hitch. Once you were actually doing the work, showing up late to give it was apparently routine, so neither Senior Woohyun nor Senior Jihan waited with any real complaint. They did start when I told them water had burst out of the WN-11 scrubber. We finished the Inform, finished getting ready to leave, and by the time we stepped out of the office it was already past three.
...A hard day.
The moment I got home, I was going to drop. The drain on me had been that severe. A flood, of all things. This wasn't a water park, and I had never seen a stream of water like that.
Next time, is it going to be a fire?
The thought sent a sudden chill over my skin. Come on. No way. Even if something like that did happen, I'd have to stop it with my eyes wide open and burning.
It'd be nice if I could read danger like this, too.
For now, my eyes only warned me about breakdowns. If they could tell me about safety problems as well, that would be something. Turning it over as I walked, I was home before I knew it. I dumped my bag, finished a shower, and threw myself onto the mattress.
"Gyaaaah..."
Melting. I was melting. A short nap, just for a bit. Today had earned that much. The moment I shut my eyes, a stinging current ran along the rims.
This again.
I frowned and rubbed at them. It was the same feeling I'd had the day before I first saw the white glitter that marked a machine's failure.
Don't tell me there's actually something wrong with my eyes.
Come on. It would pass in a minute. Idle thoughts chased one another, then cut off clean. I must have fallen asleep.
The next day, I showed up at the company rubbing my eyes. The sting had only let go that morning.
Feels like some of it might still be hanging on.
I was walking toward the office when it happened.
Vwoom—
A car swept past beside me. No—it slowed, and stopped.
Whirr—
The rear window came down.
"Engineer Lee Seokhyeon."
The team leader was in the back seat. I startled and bent into a bow.
"Team Leader. Good morning."
"Good to see you. I'm on my way to Line 1. Care to ride along?"
I nodded.
"Yes. I'd be grateful to share the ride."
It could look like I was imposing, but refusing a superior's offer would have been worse manners. I started for the front passenger seat.
"No. Come sit in the back."
"Yes, sir."
Well. I hadn't expected quite this much. I climbed quietly into the rear seat.
"Excuse me."
"Make yourself comfortable."
"Thank you."
On the way to Line 1, the team leader asked about this and that. When had I joined. How was company life. Was the work manageable. I transformed into a yes-yes-yes machine and told him yes to all of it. The reaction that stood out came when he heard my start date.
"A month, you said?"
"Yes. It's been a month now."
"...I see."
Interest lit in the team leader's eyes.
"You're the first employee I've seen get this much done in a month."
"Ha ha. Is that so?"
"It is. Usually this is right about when you're just getting the hang of the job."
On that point, I agreed with him.
I did get a faster start than most.
Wasn't all of it thanks to Senior Yeongseok's patient teaching? Anyway.
"The work is fun. That's why."
"Is it?"
"Yes. And the people I work with are good, too."
That part was sincere. I found the work I was doing genuinely fun. Maybe because I could take the measure of what this ability of mine could do. Watching myself grow by the day felt good.
"That's a little unfortunate."
"...Sorry?"
"It'll be sad, later, if you move to another department and have to part ways."
I thought for a moment, then nodded.
"I suppose it would."
"Mm."
"But I'll keep the good memories, so I don't think it'll be all that sad."
At my answer, the team leader nodded and smiled.
"That's a relief."
A relief how?
"Shall I tell you a little of my own story?"
With that, the team leader began. There was nothing extraordinary in it. He had joined as an equipment engineer, the same as me, produced results, and sat down in the team leader's chair.
"I spent plenty of time on WN equipment myself."
"Oh..."
We talked, and before I knew it we were at Line 1.
"Thank you for the ride."
"Don't mention it. I was heading this way anyway."
I got out and bowed. The team leader stepped out as well. Just as the driver brought the car around—
"...Huh?"
"What's wrong, Engineer Lee?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
I rubbed at my eyes. Then I looked again at the car as it turned. It was still there.
...Red?
A glittering red light, shining from the right rear tire.