A Leader's Authority

"You wouldn't happen to know this postman, would you, sir?"

The moment I took an interest in the corpse, Hocheol asked, careful about it.

"I'd have to see the face to be sure, but probably not. The postmen I know, I can count on one hand."

Truth was, I didn't need to look. I already knew who it was. The postman who'd traveled with the Physiognomist. Kim-ssi — the one the raiders had rigged with a bomb.

He had died in that same posture, face-down exactly as my order had left him.

"If he wasn't someone you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knew, that's a relief, I tell you, sir."

"Wouldn't have changed a thing if he was."

Days had passed, and the body was no longer whole. Bugs seethed over every inch of it. Even so, it was more bearable than I'd expected, and that was thanks to the postman's raincoat laid over the corpse. From the head — the part no one wants to meet — all the way down to the hips, some raincoat or other was doing the courtesy of covering him.

I took a folding explosives detector from my bag and opened it.

"Oh, postman gear's come a long way these days, hasn't it, sir?"

"My money, my buy."

"Sir?"

"Old four-character idiom. Means I bought it. Wasn't issued to me."

"A four-character idiom! Incredible, sir! Those are difficult, aren't they?"

"Study a little and you'll get them."

I learned mine from the Old Man, mind you. But did a thing like this even count as a four-character idiom? Four words, so it had to. "My rules, your problem" is a four-character idiom too.

...Isn't it?

"Miss Shin-hye would know her idioms too, sir?"

"I did study some... but I've never heard of 'my money, my buy.'"

Tch. So it wasn't an idiom.

"Seems Mr. Jeong-guk studied more than I did. I'm seeing you in a new light."

Yeah, yeah. It is an idiom.

Anyway, the detector gave no reaction at all.

"Not a booby trap, then."

Once that was confirmed, Hocheol strode over and started with the raincoat.

"Why waste a good raincoat on something like this, I tell you, sir."

A fair question. Behavior like that usually comes down to one of two reasons. I had a rough idea who'd done the covering, so I could already guess which one it was — and if I kept my mouth shut, Jo Shin-hye looked likely to answer.

"Hm... Sometimes a killer closes a corpse's staring eyes, or covers the face."

Correct. One of the reasons.

She must have seen plenty of ugly things in the military.

"Why would they do that, sir?"

"To ease the guilt. Hurt someone, then play at tending the wound — that sort of feeling? And if the killer knew the victim, looking at the face gets hard to bear, so they cover it."

The explanation was right, but unfortunately this wasn't that situation. Well, Jo Shin-hye could hardly be expected to get that far. About time I lent a hand.

"There's another possibility. A gesture of mourning."

"Sir?"

"The killer is someone else. Whoever found the body later covered it, out of respect. A way of paying their respects."

Jo Shin-hye stroked her chin, eyes rolling as she thought it over.

"Hm. It's not impossible. No way to know."

"And because it happens to be a raincoat, this version is a little more likely."

"Ah... because they went out of their way to use a raincoat too good to waste?"

"Yes. The killer was most likely a robber. Even if a man like that covered a body out of guilt, he wouldn't walk off and leave something worth money."

"That's true."

She agreed, but her face wasn't particularly bright. Pinching her nose, she started in on the corpse. Being a doctor, perhaps, she didn't seem unused to a scene like this. She began with the lower body, the part the raincoat hadn't covered — postman's trousers hang heavy with pockets, after all. She didn't turn up anything worth having.

"The postman's bag isn't here either, and there's nothing in the pants."

Hocheol pitched in beside her, practiced at it. Corpses are a common sight once you leave a settlement, but few jobs see them as often as a soldier's.

Unlike the two of them searching the body, Jo An-na had turned her back completely and stood with her head lowered. The world is littered with corpses, but if you aren't used to them, your eyes find somewhere else to be. A gruesome one makes it worse. Then the corpses grow familiar, and from then on you look closely — curiosity outruns the horror. That's when you study a body hardest. Once that period passes, you don't even spare a glance. A corpse, a rock, something rolling in the road: same difference. At most you search one that looks like it might have something worth taking. Like now.

Jo Shin-hye lifted the raincoat just enough to check the torso.

"The waist is completely severed."

Hocheol ducked his head and peered in.

"If a grenade goes off pinned under the belly, the fragments bunch up just like this, I tell you, sir."

"Right. But it wasn't a well-made explosive. The fragments are shoddy."

They found their way to the answer without my needing to add a word. Peeking under the raincoat must have felt too cramped; Jo Shin-hye flung it clean off. In the same instant, the winged things clinging to the corpse burst up into the air. The body was wasted to the bone, and yet the cheeks alone were swollen. Probably because the mouth was packed full of maggots.

"But the fragments sprayed especially thick off that way, sir. You see it?"

"It'd make sense if there were two explosives, wouldn't it? One went off under the belly, and another off the side of the waist."

Even after they'd confirmed there was nothing worth taking, Jo Shin-hye and Hocheol kept their attention on the postman's corpse. A fine attitude. A kidnapped postman meant there had been raiders nearby degenerate enough to lay hands on a civil servant. At times like this, you pull every scrap of information a body can give. You might pick up a clue about the raiders in the process, and trivial information like that is what keeps you alive.

"I've heard it's a trick raiders use a lot, I tell you, sir. Kidnap someone, strap a bomb on, and send them out."

"Right. I heard they use them as bait, to find a fresh victim."

They knew their stuff.

"But why did he die here alone, sir? That's what I can't figure. If they used him as bait, there ought to be other bodies around."

"Yeah... What do you think, Mr. Jeong-guk?"

I'd been meaning to take the lead from here anyway.

"In my view, he probably didn't lie down of his own accord. Someone told him to. I can see it clear as day."

"Oh! Incredible as always, sir!"

Hocheol clenched both fists. Jo Shin-hye folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. She drew the raincoat back over the corpse, hiding as much of it as she could, and stood. Under the coat, insects filed in one after another.

"He must have known he was already a dead man, and still came this far, grabbing at straws."

"He would have. And they would've threatened to set ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it off by remote if he stopped walking."

"That tracks, I tell you, sir."

"I follow up to there. But what do you mean, they made him lie down?"

"Look over there."

What I pointed at was the abandoned building where I'd spent a night with the Physiognomist.

"The body's sitting dead-on in front of that window."

"You're saying someone inside made the postman lie down as he came closer?"

"Yes."

"Well, threatening a suspicious figure and making him get down — that can happen, but..."

Jo Shin-hye looked back and forth between the corpse and the ruin.

"What's your basis for it being that building in particular? There isn't just one ruin out here. And the body's head isn't even pointing that way."

"Correct. After they made him lie down, they realized there was a bomb at his waist and had him turn."

I indicated the spray of fragments beside the corpse.

"If you look, the fragments blew in the direction opposite the building. So it's reasonable to conclude that whoever made him lie down was on the building's side."

"Sounds right, sir!"

Jo Shin-hye still looked unconvinced.

"So he was pinned there on his face, and then the bomb went off?"

"What do you think? Do you see anything else here we could still get out of this, Miss Shin-hye?"

"Hm."

The answer came from an unexpected person.

"Wouldn't the one inside the building have been someone very good with words?"

Jo An-na. At some point she had turned to face us, and now she finally spoke.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because the postman who died set the bomb off himself."

Interesting. I thought so too. Kim-ssi had definitely detonated it on his own.

"Uh... how does that follow, sir?"

Hocheol still wasn't getting it.

"Mm~ I get it too."

Something had clicked for Jo Shin-hye.

"Think about it. Who set the bomb off?"

"Well, the raid—"

"Not the raiders. What would they gain, setting it off like this? Their bait, sent out at such trouble, dying alone. So it means this postman did it himself. He must have messed with the wiring on purpose, to make it blow."

Hocheol tilted his head again.

"What if the ones hiding in the ruin, the ones who made him lie down, threatened him with a gun, sir? They could've forced him to touch the bomb, couldn't they?"

"They wouldn't have."

Jo An-na said it with certainty.

"This is someone who came all this way trying to live, even with a bomb strapped to him. If they'd threatened him into messing with it, wouldn't he have run for his life instead?"

About time I put my spoon back in.

"I think so too. Someone talked him through it. Made him face what was real."

"Whoa... That would've been an incredibly hard thing to pull off, I tell you, sir."

"His way with words must've been something else. Was he on your level, Mr. Jeong-guk?"

Jo Shin-hye walked up to the ruin and peered in through the window.

"Nothing special left in there."

"There'll be traces to the left and right of the window. Trash thrown out recently, or a patch of floor swept clear to make a place to sit. That sort of thing."

At that she looked through the window again, more carefully.

"You're right... now that I look close. Though one side looks like someone tried not to leave a trace."

"From inside, the left side of the window. Whoever was there would've hidden his traces as best he could."

That had been my spot.

"...How did you know?"

She turned her head toward me and frowned.

"If you're inside, standing to the left of the window, what you see outside is the view to the right."

Her gaze followed where my fingertip pointed.

"The right is an area where raiders show up often. The left is sniper country, so raiders don't like to travel it."

"So what you're saying is, a careful man would've stayed on the left of the window, where he could keep a good eye on the right — the side raiders were more likely to come from?"

"Yes."

Of course it was. I was talking about myself.

"Hah! A master of survival, as expected, sir!"

Hocheol thought well of whatever I did. Jo Shin-hye still looked displeased.

"The logic's sound, but..."

Of course it wouldn't be easy to swallow. The logic was sound, but it wasn't really the sort of thing you state with certainty — not unless it was nothing more than a guess. It would feel as if I'd lucked into the answer, and yet be hard to refute.

"Is there a problem? Speak freely."

I said it as if I were perfectly ready to hear another opinion.

"...No. I've got nothing to argue."

She couldn't wipe the uneasy look off her face. In the end she never said she accepted it. But she had yielded. That much I could say.

"Then we'll move out again."

I turned at once and took the lead.

At this level, they can't help but acknowledge it.

The way to get them to Headquarters safely. The first step was making them trust me completely. When a crisis came, my role would be to give them the best solution there was. Theirs would be to take my orders without doubt and move on instinct. What a relationship like that required was a leader's authority. And the surest way to get authority was simple.

Show them you're capable.

Anyway — who was the postman who'd covered Kim-ssi's body with a raincoat? Not that I personally knew more than one postman to begin with.

The road back to Headquarters was ordinary. Far off, I saw an air raid come down, once. They usually aim for settlements, so it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠someone else's problem. We also spotted a monster colony, once. No decent detour, so we hid until they passed. Just as the monsters were nearly gone, the army arrived to put them down. Normally we could have watched the fight and gone on our way, but with deserters for company we had to stay hidden.

No particular trouble after that. The sisters and Hocheol moved briskly, just as I'd ordered. It helped a great deal that Jo An-na and Captain Choi had spent a long time preparing the escape and stockpiled plenty of supplies. Food was no worry. And in the gaps, Hocheol kept finding moments to talk to Jo An-na.

The problem comes after we reach Headquarters.

The companions had no clearance to enter. Even if they somehow got in, scanners were laid all through the place; the moment one read a biosignature, it would come out that they were deserters. So once we arrived, I would leave them outside and go in alone.

Jo Yong-han will handle the sisters. The one I have to worry about is Hocheol.

If I could get him a postman's status, he wouldn't die on the spot. Of course that wasn't the end of it. I had a few things to put the newly made postman Hocheol to.

"You really can make me a postman, can't you, sir?"

"Yeah."

Not that I could promise it.

"I'm not confident about working alone, I tell you, sir..."

"You don't need to be confident. Just do the work well."

"These days, what happens if a delivery fails, sir?"

"Same as ever. Banned from Headquarters. You live outside a few days like that, then a new mission comes down and you go deliver it."

Sleeping rough is forbidden in the protected zone around Headquarters. Which means a postman who has lost his clearance gets driven far from the place — all the way out into the world where corpses lie in the road. That's where he has to live.

"And if the new mission fails too, sir?"

"Still banned. And the time it takes for the next mission to come down gets longer. You just keep holding out. Outside."

"Hnh..."

Far off, dazzling white buildings were starting to show. Headquarters, soon. Come to think of it, what Jo Yong-han had entrusted to me was delivering a single letter. Once he learned I'd brought the sisters, it would be a sight.

And like that, one step closer to the Subway.

But the person I met before Jo Yong-han was someone else. Just before we reached Headquarters, I saw the back of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a familiar postman.