Subjugation on Broadcast (43)
We didn't have much information about the inside of their base, so we moved with caution. That said, if we crouched around scanning our surroundings too obviously, we'd only draw suspicion. There were several CCTV cameras inside the building. We had to move as naturally as possible.
Dong-hyun gave Jinju's ass a sharp smack with his palm.
"Stop swaying those hips."
Both Minju and Jinju had their faces hidden behind masks, their chests bound tight with bandages to conceal that they were women. Minju still carried herself with a soldier's gait, so she passed well enough for a man — but from behind, Jinju's walk had a slight sway to the hips that no man would ever have. That was why he'd warned her.
"Ah! Sorry."
From then on, Jinju paid attention to how she walked.
They passed down a long corridor, and at last the stairs leading to the second floor came into view. The three of them walked up as naturally as they could.
That was when two men came down from the opposite direction.
"Where are you headed?"
The man coming down asked the three of them. Dong-hyun, who was at the rear, answered.
"We're going to the operations room."
"Why?"
The man seemed to hold a fairly high rank here — he kept questioning them in a casual, familiar tone.
"We're going to report after settling the VIP in their quarters."
"Huh? They even take reports like that?"
Dong-hyun had answered on the fly, and the man, unconvinced, pressed him again. Minju and Jinju quietly slid their hands behind their waists. They were ready to attempt an assassination at any moment.
"The VIP asked us to prepare something for tomorrow. We were going to deliver the request in person."
"Ah, I see. All right. Carry on."
Dong-hyun's answer finally satisfied him, and the man continued down the stairs. Dong-hyun let out a small breath, but they still couldn't drop their guard. If the man who'd gone down turned left, that would take him toward the entrance — and they risked being discovered as infiltrators. Fortunately, he turned right and walked on.
The three of them exhaled in relief and stepped onto the second floor.
If the man had been telling the truth, they needed to turn left from here and keep going to find the CCTV control room. They turned left — and four men stood waiting ahead. An important facility, so of course there were guards posted.
The operations room and the CCTV control room were right next to each other. To seize the cameras, they would have to take the operations room as well. Four of them versus three — even a surprise attack would be dangerous. But there was no other choice, so Dong-hyun kept walking forward.
"Halt! What's your business?"
At the sentry's challenge, they stopped. Minju and Jinju couldn't speak without giving away that they were women, so Dong-hyun continued to do all the talking. He answered the same way he'd bluffed the man earlier.
"The VIP asked us to deliver something."
"Deliver what?"
"Items they wanted prepared, plus details about the upcoming game."
"Tell me. I'll pass it along."
Even after Dong-hyun's answer, the sentry showed no intention of letting them through.
"There's too much to go through a messenger. It'd be better if we delivered it ourselves."
The sentry hesitated, then glanced at the man beside him.
"Just let them through. Why are you being so thorough?"
"Hah... Fine. All right. Go in."
In the end, the sentry waved Dong-hyun through. They passed the four men and were just opening the operations room door when Dong-hyun drew his knife and drove it into the nearest man's nape.
"Khuh!"
Caught off guard, one sentry collapsed with a strangled groan. Minju and Jinju, without a word of prior discussion, drew their knives in the same instant and plunged them into the nearest men's lungs. Dong-hyun yanked his blade free and immediately rammed it into another man's throat.
All four went down without even managing a scream.
There was a CCTV camera in front of the operations room. They could only hope no one had been watching.
Dong-hyun eased the operations room door open a crack. Inside, two men were watching TV. They didn't seem to have noticed the brief commotion outside.
Dong-hyun spoke to Minju and Jinju.
"I'll take the operations room. You two go into the CCTV room."
They both nodded. Dong-hyun stepped through the door and carefully closed it behind him.
The man sitting at the table seemed to sense his presence and looked up. Dong-hyun's clothes were black, so the blood on them apparently didn't show.
"What's going on?"
"The VIP asked me to deliver something," Dong-hyun said, without breaking stride.
"Yeah? What is it?"
That was when Dong-hyun drew his knife and drove it into the man's heart. The man beside him shot to his feet in shock. Dong-hyun lunged at him like lightning.
This time it wasn't a surprise attack, so the man dodged and his hand went to his waist — going for a pistol. Dong-hyun didn't give him the chance. His left foot slammed into the man's midsection.
"Khuhk..."
The body kick landed clean. While the man couldn't draw a breath, Dong-hyun finished him with the knife. Then he went straight into the CCTV control room. A fight would already be underway inside.
The moment he stepped into the CCTV room, raised voices and the sounds of a struggle filled the air. Two men were already down, bleeding, and the remaining two were fighting Minju and Jinju.
"Perfect timing. Help us take these guys down. They jumped us out of nowhere."
Seeing Dong-hyun come in, one of them assumed he was on their side and called out to him.
"Yes, sir!"
Dong-hyun answered with vigor, circled behind Minju and Jinju, and slid his knife through the gap under Minju's arm, driving it into the opponent's heart.
"Khhhk..."
The man collapsed with a dying groan. After that, subduing the last one was easy.
From the moment they'd passed through the entrance to the moment they'd taken down ten men, barely fifteen minutes had elapsed.
The CCTV control room was lined with countless screens. Most of them were dark, given the hour. A few, though, showed places with the lights on, and some were being recorded by infrared cameras.
Dong-hyun looked at the equipment on the table and spoke.
"There's a device here that can open and close the entrance. We should be able to unlock the door through this. I'll go bring the others. When I radio you, open the door."
"Understood. Let me have the radios for a moment..."
Minju took Dong-hyun's and Jinju's radios and changed the channel and frequency so that only they could communicate.
They still had about an hour and a half before the entrance guards rotated, but there was no guarantee the operations room shift would follow the same schedule. They had to move fast.
While Dong-hyun slipped out and headed back toward the hole, Minju and Jinju dragged the corpses outside into the operations room. Then, since they had no idea where a call might come from, Minju waited in the CCTV room and Jinju in the operations room.
Meanwhile, Dong-hyun had gone back down into the hole — and found Seonwoo Hyun awake, glaring at Gyeoul. Gyeoul's knife was pointed at Seonwoo Hyun's heart, which was probably why he hadn't tried anything. Then he saw Dong-hyun coming down and his face lit up.
"This bitch escaped! Deal with her!"
Dong-hyun pulled off his mask.
"What— you..."
"Gyeoul. I'm going back up to bring the others down. Keep watching him."
"Yes. Leave it to me."
Dong-hyun climbed up into Room 8 and spoke to the women.
"We've taken the CCTV. Everyone, head down into the underground passage."
The women, who'd been waiting for nothing but Dong-hyun's arrival, moved down quickly. Then he radioed to have the entrance opened. A quiet click confirmed the door had unlocked.
Dong-hyun left the room and went into Room 3. Suhyeon and Yurim were there. Whatever they'd been doing together seemed to be over — they were both dressed again, sitting on the bed talking.
"Yurim. We're ready. Come to Room 8."
Yurim had already known the plan. She and Suhyeon moved to Room 8 together. Yurim had told Suhyeon that Dong-hyun was trying to escape the island and talked her into it, so Suhyeon moved quickly as well.
Then Dong-hyun went into Room 1.
"Everybody up!"
The men in Room 1 got to their feet, still half-asleep.
"Anyone who wants to follow me and escape this island, raise your hand."
He hadn't explained the situation to the men, so they looked bewildered. Dong-hyun gave them a brief rundown — from seizing the operations room to the plan to escape the island.
At his words, every last man still remaining there raised a hand to escape. Dong-hyun moved them to Room 8 as well, and they all went down into the underground passage together.
"What should we do with these two?"
Gyeoul asked, looking at Dong-hyun.
"Please spare us. We'll cooperate with whatever you want."
The man who'd been a production staffer begged Dong-hyun. Dong-hyun knew the man had done wrong, but for now he seemed like he might be useful.
"We take both of them with us."
At Dong-hyun's word, Wonseon took charge of Seonwoo Hyun, and Suhyeon took the staffer, and they came back up. "Took charge" was a generous way of putting it — a knife at their backs was more than enough.
Everyone climbed out of the hole, moved into the building, and entered the operations room.