Flushing Out the Fakes (10)
"How did you even get in here?"
I'd asked purely out of gladness.
Yet for some reason, Baek Sa-ra stared at me for a long moment before letting out a deep sigh.
"That's inappropriate."
"Inappropriate how?"
"Why are you acting like a landlord welcoming a guest into his home?"
Ah. Had something been off about that?
After living here for about a week, I'd apparently picked it up without even noticing…
The moment I belatedly registered the oddity, Baek Sa-ra sighed again and said, "You come out when you're told to come out. Or you pace yourself and come out partway through. What exactly do you plan to do if you get hurt carrying on like this?"
Under my instructor's scolding, I studied her face for a moment, then brought it up as casually as I could manage. "I think I've actually gotten fairly strong by now."
"I highly doubt that."
Baek Sa-ra smiled, an impassable fortress of disbelief.
I slipped through the gap and deftly changed the subject. "But seriously, how did you get in here?"
"With authorization, of course. Agent insertion was approved an hour ago."
As she answered, Baek Sa-ra opened her bag and pulled out a crinkling paper bag, holding it out to me.
A paper bag that somehow felt warm.
I opened it without knowing what to expect — and inside was a hamburger set.
"……!"
"I was in a hurry, so I just grabbed whatever. …You seem happier to see that than to see me, Agent Otter."
My expression must have looked truly desperate, because Baek Sa-ra muttered it while watching my face.
No — of course I was happy about both.
They simply belonged to different domains.
Baek Sa-ra was someone I greeted while maintaining my social dignity; the hamburger set was the object toward which my most primal desires were permitted!
I was nearly swept away by the oncoming wave of appetite before pulling myself together and saying, "Still, eating this all by myself…"
"So what? After everything you've been through in here, Agent Otter, this doesn't even count as a privilege."
That everything included Choi Sang-eun.
And Choi Sang-eun was, at this very moment, still in new-recruit training.
"That Choi Sang-eun fellow walks out today, and he can eat something tastier outside, so eat up. …It's a little late to be giving me that look."
Baek Sa-ra said it as if baffled, but I was sincerely, genuinely grateful to her.
So I stopped declining and pulled out the hamburger, sinking my teeth into it. The taste of civilization, after so long…
"You're getting out today too, Agent Otter."
Baek Sa-ra said it while watching me work through the hamburger.
"Once you're out, I'll be the one to capture that Contaminated Person."
Sitting on the sofa, she lifted the hem of her plentiful skirt slightly.
And sure enough — in the grimmest way possible — a large knife was strapped to her calf.
I stared at it, briefly astonished, then laughed. "That's a relief."
Truly reassuring.
At first I'd wondered why Baek Sa-ra came alone.
And prettily dressed up, no less.
But thinking it over, this was exactly right.
Inside this National Theater, the presence of "Alpha" and "Delta" placed heavy restrictions on the use of firearms.
On top of that, that bear harbored an intense hatred of the Bureau and of Cha Si-eon.
Inserting armed agents into this mess would have been absurd.
So the person best suited to the current situation was Baek Sa-ra — a specialist in close-quarters combat and equally gifted at disguise.
I swallowed what was in my mouth and continued. "It usually takes about two hours from the time we catch the Fake Humans until we leave. We have to brief the newcomers about them and move everyone out. But since Choi Sang-eun and I are going today as well, the handover will probably take a little longer. Will that be all right?"
If I didn't get out quickly, Baek Sa-ra's waiting time would stretch accordingly — that was why I was asking for her patience, but she simply looked at me steadily.
Then, as if genuinely curious, she asked, "Why do you go this far, Agent Otter?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Some people say it's because greed got the better of you. Is that right?"
"Greed?"
"You rescued nine citizens just yesterday, didn't you? That will all be factored into your performance bonus as well, won't it?"
"Oh…!"
That hadn't even crossed my mind — so there was another bonus coming?
I might be able to buy a house in Seoul before long?
When I jolted in surprise, Baek Sa-ra gave a soft, incredulous laugh, as if she'd expected exactly this. Then she added, "There's also talk that you're getting far too absorbed in playing hero."
"That one's really not true…"
The accusation was too absurd, and I could only laugh.
Playing hero — again, what I'd done was nothing special.
It might be different if I'd spent my own money, but I'd cheerfully used Bureau funds the whole time.
"I know what things are like in here, so I just did what I could."
"I thought you'd say that. Still, not everyone looks kindly on something just because it's done with a good heart."
"Do they need to look kindly on it? Onlookers are just strangers who watch, anyway."
"If you're going to put it that way, the people in here are strangers to you too."
"Hm. Fair point."
At my prompt concession, Baek Sa-ra let out a long, deep sigh.
Then, in a voice pitched even lower, she asked again, "Then at the Railroad Station — did you also 'just do what you could'?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Handing Lee Sol that ticket. Was that also 'what you could do'?"
I considered it for a moment before answering. "That's closer to 'something I went and did,' honestly."
"Haah…"
Baek Sa-ra sighed at my answer and propped her chin on both hands.
Holding that pose, she sulked for a while, then murmured as if to herself, "That's inappropriate."
"What now…"
"The fact that the savior of my life turns out to be someone who'd do that for just anyone."
With both cheeks cradled in her hands, Baek Sa-ra lifted only her eyes to look at me.
Something about that sulky gaze left me rather flustered.
What was I supposed to say to this?
"Would you like some fries?"
It took a certain courage to say, but it only backfired — Baek Sa-ra's sigh deepened.
I was sheepishly demolishing the hamburger in front of her when it happened.
A sound burst from my smartwatch, shattering the rare peace.
"Seo Do-woon."
"Kim Hae-sung has found your vest in the theater."
My vest? Oh — the one I'd taken off on the first day…
Damn it, I hadn't been able to retrieve it, so I'd just shoved it under a seat in the theater!
"How did he find that only now?"
"He appears to have been trying to steal the wallets of the citizens who died in the theater."
That son of a bitch — cornered, he was trying everything.
Baek Sa-ra's expression turned grave in step with mine, and she asked Cha Si-eon, "What should we do?"
"Kim Hae-sung's current position is the first-floor theater. Now that he knows the Bureau has been deployed, the odds are high he'll seize and occupy the theater as it is."
Made sense. There was a rule against causing a disturbance during a performance, after all.
But if he dug in there, no one would be able to leave.
The exit was behind the theater's stage.
"Seo Do-woon, go down and draw Kim Hae-sung's attention. Baek Sa-ra, in the meantime, enter through the opposite door and subdue him."
"You want us to take Kim Hae-sung down inside the theater?"
"As long as no performance is underway, a certain amount of noise is acceptable."
Cha Si-eon answered my startled question, then added:
"Just take care not to defile the theater or damage any of the fixtures."
Easier said than done.
This one I'd simply have to trust to Baek Sa-ra.
"One moment, Agent Otter."
When I shot to my feet, Baek Sa-ra stopped me.
Then she drew something out from under her skirt and held it out to me.
An object that stirred a strange sense of déjà vu.
A pistol.
I entered through the theater's side door.
An empty auditorium bathed in faint, dim lighting.
The bear was standing on that stage.
And he was in the middle of a phone call.
"Please let it slide just once, bro… I'm begging you, just once, I really have nowhere left to go…"
Hearing me, the bear — mid-plea — turned toward my side of the hall.
Then, without hanging up, he asked me, "You're really with the Bureau, huh…?"
Clatter—
He lifted my vest as he spoke, his voice carrying more fear than hostility.
"The boss says he's going to kill you."
The bear recited it in a terror-stricken murmur.
"Says he'll kill you no matter what it takes. Says he will never, ever let you off…"
A threat steeped in malice.
Why? What had I ever done to him?
Was it that I'd interfered with their little operation?
It wasn't even an operation to begin with — it was outright extortion. And he was furious simply because someone had dared disrupt his meal ticket?
From start to finish, every word of it was garbage.
I ignored all of that garbage and called out to the bear. "Kim Hae-sung."
At the sound of his name, Kim Hae-sung flinched hard.
"It's over. You know full well this was never going to end well for you."
"…Then what am I supposed to do?"
Kim Hae-sung mumbled in a deflated voice.
Then he erupted all over again, shouting at me, "This is all I can do, so what the hell am I supposed to do! I ended up like this and you never lifted a finger, and now you're the only one on my case! Fuck!"
Sharp tentacles came spilling out from beneath Kim Hae-sung's doll mask.
Whether he meant to take his rage out on me or snatch me as a hostage, I couldn't tell.
What was clear, though, was that this was Kim Hae-sung's last chance.
Just as his tentacles were about to come flying at me —
Shlick—!
Baek Sa-ra, materializing behind Kim Hae-sung, drew her knife across his throat.
"Ghk—!"
Kim Hae-sung staggered in shock, blood geysering up from his neck.
Pit-pat-pat—
Baek Sa-ra caught every falling drop with her own skirt.
Then she drove the blade into his body again, and again, and again.
Thrust-thrust-thrust-thrust—!
Under the merciless churning of the blade, Kim Hae-sung writhed, helpless.
"Ugh, gaaah…!"
He screamed, frothing blood.
Swish—!
His tentacles sliced through the air, hurtling toward Baek Sa-ra.
She evaded with a light roll of her body.
The moment she fell back, then kicked off the floor to charge again, a terrified Kim Hae-sung made the worst mistake of his life.
BOOM—!
The tentacles lunging to snare Baek Sa-ra slammed down into the stage floor instead.
CRAAACK—!
Those rigid tentacles punched clean through the wooden boards — and we froze, all of us at once.
"Ugh, aaagh…"
Pat— pat— pat—!
Lights snapped on, training themselves on Kim Hae-sung, who had realized his error too late.
"S-spare me…"
Thwack—!
A bolt came flying from somewhere and skewered Kim Hae-sung through the throat.
Kim Hae-sung fell.
Light and silent, like a sheet of paper caught in the wind.
"Contaminated Person Kim Hae-sung. Silenced."
As the lights illuminating him slowly died, Baek Sa-ra murmured into her earpiece.
She was just moving in to confirm the body when it happened.
"You're Baek Sa-ra, aren't you?"
A strange man's voice rang out from Kim Hae-sung's hand — from the smartphone he still held, the call never ended.
Baek Sa-ra, called out by name with perfect precision, stopped dead in her tracks.
"I heard the rumors, and turns out they were true. Looking good, hey."
"Who are you?"
"Hey, you don't remember oppa's voice? That hurts. We ran together, didn't we? In that place drenched knee-deep in blood."
A sharp, venomous killing intent gathered in Baek Sa-ra's eyes.
What was this? Did they actually know each other?
"Anyway, you really laundered that identity of yours properly, huh — the most monstrous one of the bunch. Are you with the Bureau now? You, your sister…"
Face twisted with lethal intent, Baek Sa-ra lunged to snatch the smartphone away.
"Don't go near it!"
Cha Si-eon shouted, and Baek Sa-ra halted — a beat too late.
In that sliver of an instant, the smartphone exploded.
KRAK—!
"Ugh…!"
Sharp fragments sprayed across Baek Sa-ra.
Thanks to stopping dead in that final instant, though, she'd escaped serious injury.
However, a new problem had just been born.
Pat— pat— pat—!
Had the system judged the explosion to be Baek Sa-ra's doing?
The lights converged on her.
Thwack—!
Another discharge followed.
But the instant the lights locked on, Baek Sa-ra rolled her body out of the line of fire.
Having missed, the lights gave chase.
Rat-tat-tat-tat—!
Baek Sa-ra dodged the incoming bolts one after another as she sprinted for the exit.
Then, the moment she tried to leave the theater, the lights simply went dark.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD—!
In their place came the thunder of massive footsteps —
BOOM—!
Something dropped from above and blocked Baek Sa-ra's path.
It was a man who looked to stand a good deal over 190 centimeters.
A face I knew all too well — though the short hair meant it took me a moment to place him.
It was none other than Cha Si-eon.