Cleanup
I sighed and pushed the blonde hair away.
"Get off. Check the injured first."
"They're alive, aren't they? The security team will—"
"You're just going to leave an injured person lying there? What did they teach you in training?"
"Ugh..."
Sirin pouted, but she stepped back without further protest.
Where the tentacles had vanished, purple slime and broken wall fragments lay mixed together. Pink powder had settled enough to discolor the observation room floor. Even through my mask, a faint smell like rotting fruit seeped through.
I pulled a containment sheet from my pocket, approached the researcher collapsed in the corner, covered her body, and checked her pulse.
"Mm... are you conscious?"
The researcher's eyelids fluttered. Her lips moved, but no coherent words came out. With her stomach full of slime and powder...
"Don't try to answer. The medical team will be here soon."
Still, treating rape trauma would take quite a while... Should we just wipe the memories with a Washing?
Checking the personal ID band on her wrist, I saw Research Team 2, Yoon Ga-hee.
What? She's not even on my team. Why call me Team Leader when it's confusing like this?
Unfortunately, a Washing wasn't possible. I'd just have to hope the other Team Leader made the right call.
"Sunbaenim!"
"What?"
"Don't get too close to her. There's still powder left."
"I'm wearing a mask. Don't worry."
"It could get in through your skin, you know."
Without waiting for my reply, Sirin came over and brushed the pink powder from my shoulders and arms. Her hands were more thorough than necessary. Only after carefully checking my coat and hair did she nod, looking satisfied.
"Hehe."
"Check the injured, not me."
"Yeees..."
Thud, thud, thud. Sounds came from outside the observation room. The footsteps were quite loud.
"Medical Support Unit!"
"...Confirm your gas protection gear before entering."
"Yes."
Four medical personnel in silver hazmat suits entered. They immediately transferred Yoon Ga-hee onto a stretcher and layered a transparent film over the containment sheet.
"Uh, so. High chance of inhalation contamination, and the cause is pink powder and sticky liquid, okay?"
"Confirmed. We'll transfer her to the isolation ward."
"Be careful not to let it touch skin, and clean thoroughly... you know? A Washing."
"Yes. Test results will be sent to Team 1 and Team 2."
After the medical team left, the Contamination Disposal Unit entered. The Facility Director was with them.
...Not good news.
The Facility Director looked back and forth between the shattered reinforced glass and the hole punched through the wall. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, exposing the wiring.
"Huh."
"Uh..."
"The damage is severe. Who did this?"
I glanced at Sirin.
"......"
"That new recruit?"
"Yes."
"......"
"It, uh, was an urgent situation."
"So you went and destroyed the entity too?"
"We had no choice if we wanted to prevent casualties."
The Facility Director glanced at the floor. Purple slime was draining into the floor grate.
"...Ha. Specimen of the main body? Photos? Initial investigation records?"
"Uh, none. The surveillance equipment was destroyed by the impact, and the investigation team's terminals appear to have been stored in the observation room."
"......"
The Facility Director closed his eyes.
"So to summarize: the entity is gone, the recording devices are destroyed, and you wrecked the containment chamber too? Are you kidding me right now?"
"We did save the injured person..."
"Right. Good job on that. So what? Does that make the problems that already exploded just disappear? Huh?"
The Facility Director bent down and picked up a shard of reinforced glass from the floor. He checked its thickness with his fingers, then set it back down.
"So, uh, what should we do?"
"Who made the call to destroy it?"
Strictly speaking, Sirin had made that call, but as Team Leader I had to share the responsibility.
"I did."
Sirin started to step forward, but I stretched out my arm to stop her. The Facility Director pressed his fingers to his brow.
"...I get the general picture. New recruit, you come to my office separately."
"......"
"Seollin, don't lie to my face again. Understood?"
"Yes."
Ha. The Facility Director let out a long sigh.
"First, submit an incident report. Emphasize that the entity continued attacking and that rapid suppression was necessary for survivor extraction. The destruction determination will be made after the Video Recovery Unit and Medical Support Unit results come in. I'll provide cover."
"...And the damage costs?"
"It's not coming out of your pocket. We'll handle it with public funds. In exchange, Research Team 1 won't get any new equipment requests approved next quarter."
"...Yes."
I supposed this counted as getting off relatively easy.
The Facility Director left a few instructions with the Contamination Disposal Unit and went outside. The moment the steel door closed, I grabbed both of Sirin's cheeks. Squish, stretch. I pinched and pulled them several times.
"Aaaah... that hurts, Sunbae."
"Why did you kill it."
"Because you looked like you were in danger..."
"I looked like I was in danger? Do you think I got the Team Leader position by luck?"
"...I'm sorry."
"There was so much we could have learned, and you just turned the whole thing into powder?"
Sirin closed her mouth. Her star-shaped pupils began staring fixedly at my face. My head started hurting again.
—What did I just ask?
"......"
"Just help with the cleaning."
"Yes!"
When your thoughts won't come together, it's better to just start moving your body.
.
.
.
The Contamination Disposal Unit sprayed neutralizer across the floor. When the purple slime touched the chemical, foam swelled up. The deep purple turned gray and hardened, and the disposal staff scraped it into sealed containers with spatulas. It looked uncomfortably like semen that had solidified into jelly.
I wrote out the list of damaged equipment.
Six panes of reinforced glass. Two wall sections. Three surveillance units. One biometric scanner. One automatic sterilizer.
The more I wrote, the more my fingertips trembled. My budget was melting away. Aaaagh.
"Sirin."
No answer. The blonde who'd been right beside me moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
"...Lee Sirin?"
Behind the broken wall, the tip of a black skirt poked out. I quietly approached.
Sirin was crouching among the debris, a small collection vial and a disposable spatula in her hands. She was scraping residual purple slime from the floor into the vial with the tip of the spatula.
"What are you doing?"
"Eek!"
Sirin's shoulders jumped. She hid the collection vial behind her back, but it was already too late.
"What did you just hide?"
"Nothing."
"Hand it over."
"I don't want to."
"Lee Sirin."
"Sunbae..."
Sirin glanced around, then held out her right hand. On her palm sat a vial containing purple slime.
"You said there were no specimens..."
"So you collected one yourself?"
"Yes."
"You should have told the disposal unit first. What if you got contaminated handling it with just gloves?"
"I am wearing gloves."
"You think those gloves block everything?"
"Hiiing."
I took the vial and held it up to the light. No reaction or signs of activity — ordinary slime.
"Collection time, location, and whether there was pink powder nearby. Answer."
"Um... I just collected it, found it under the broken wall. There might be a little pink powder mixed in."
"Tsk."
I pulled a specimen label from my pocket and stuck it on the vial. Sirin craned her neck over my shoulder to watch me write.
Temporary Specimen A.
Purple slime. Possible pink powder contamination.
I flinched. A slightly ominous feeling made me look at Sirin.
"You. Show me your other hand too."
"Huh?"
"Show me your left hand."
"...There's nothing."
"Hand it over."
Sirin slowly held out her left hand. Empty. I checked between her fingers and inside her sleeve. No slime residue or powder to be seen.
"...Sunbae, you don't trust me?"
"I was just checking."
Sirin stood up and brushed the dust from her skirt. I personally placed the specimen vial in the recovery case and engaged the double lock. Meanwhile, Sirin stood quietly behind me.
Uncharacteristically well-behaved...
I spoke up for no particular reason.
"What are you staring at?"
"I was just thinking how thorough you are, Sunbae."
"It's basic."
"Do you think I could be as good as you someday?"
"...I'd rather you be good at it now, not someday."
"Sunbae! That's so mean!"
Dangle, dangle. Sirin laughed and clung to my arm. I pushed her off with one hand while finishing the damaged equipment list.
Looks like overtime tonight.
Seollin left the observation room with a Contamination Disposal Unit staff member. Sirin watched until the white lab coat disappeared at the end of the corridor, then dropped her smile.
She opened her left hand. The palm was empty.
Slip. Two small vials slid out from inside her shirt sleeve. One held pink powder; the other contained a fingernail-sized scrap of dark red flesh.
The slime she'd shown Seollin earlier had been deliberately collected in plain sight. Bait, to make smuggling the two hidden vials feel natural.
Sirin held the pink powder vial up to the light. The powder clung toward her star-shaped pupils.
"Just as I thought."
The dark red flesh writhed inside its vial. Tap. Sirin lightly rapped the glass surface with her finger.
"Be quiet."
The flesh stopped moving. Hiiing. It made a whimpering sound. It sounded like Sirin.
"It'd be a problem if Sunbaenim found out. You're part of me too, so you understand."
After tucking both vials deep into her coat's inner pocket, Sirin smiled again. When she stepped out into the corridor, Seollin was waving from the far end.
"Lee Sirin! Come write the report!"
"Coming, Sunbaenim!"
Answering in a bright voice, Sirin ran toward Seollin. Inside her coat, the two small vials clinked against each other.
Clack.
At that sound, the pink powder gathered all at once into the shape of a star.
