Chapter 39 - Escape (2)

John Mühlen didn't speak first.

I went straight to the point, unbothered. I didn't bother with a lengthy introduction like, Hello, sir, this is the new recruit, Hildebert Taleb. He wouldn't listen to a word of it anyway.

I just asked my question.

"How do you kill a Fire Shield?"

A brief silence. Perhaps five seconds passed before John Mühlen broke it, his voice matter-of-fact over the phone.

["Three ways."]

As expected, he answered the question as dutifully as an AI.

["Douse it with enough water to put out the flames, then kill it with physical attacks."]

"Right."

["Or heat it until it dies."]

"Oh... Right."

["Or trap it and suffocate it by depriving it of oxygen."]

None of those options was easy.

I looked toward the door to the stairs we'd run down. There was no sign of the Fire Shield coming down yet. The stairwell door stood quietly shut in the darkness.

But it would blast that door open with a pillar of fire before long. Once it came down into the underground parking garage, we'd have a much bigger problem. There were quite a few cars here. The moment the Fire Shield breathed fire, the whole place would become a sea of flames.

With a sinking feeling, I looked at the cars parked at the electric vehicle charging stations. If those caught fire, they wouldn't be easy to put out.

Had coming down to the parking garage been a fatal mistake? But if we hadn't, we might have been crushed to death by the debris that fell a few minutes ago. Thinking it over, we'd had no other choice.

Now that we were here, we had to either keep the Fire Shield out of the parking garage or escape as quickly as possible.

I frowned slightly.

"How much water does it take to put out the flames? A fire hose didn't do it."

["Enough to drown it. A fire extinguisher or hose won't do much."]

"What if we burst a water tank right in front of it?"

["It depends on the tank's size, but that should work."]

"Thank you. Oh, and what would it take to suffocate it?"

["Any reasonably airtight space will do."]

Mühlen fell silent after that. Then, after a brief pause, he asked a question of his own.

["Who are you, anyway?"]

So he'd simply picked up because the phone rang.

He must have answered on reflex. It wasn't a video call, but I beamed anyway. Watching me, Kudo arched his eyebrows as though I were the strangest thing he'd ever seen.

Ignoring everyone's reactions, I replied brightly.

"A junior who admires you, sir!"

["It says Test Subject 0."]

This bastard.

Anger flared, but I quickly got a grip on myself. At least he hadn't recognized me. I needed to hang up before he remembered who I was.

I called out cheerfully.

"Thank you for your help. I'm busy, so I'd better go!"

CLICK

I hung up, shoved the phone into my pocket, and lifted my head.

In the darkness, the chairman was staring at me in astonishment, Kudo was blinking expressionlessly, and the children were gathered around his katana, admiring it.

The chairman muttered in disbelief.

"John Mühlen answered your call, and you hung up on him? On the scientist of the century... While he was answering every one of those trivial questions?"

"What was trivial about them? Our lives depended on those answers. Did you hear him, sir?"

"There are too many cars."

Jonathan Kudo voiced exactly what I'd been thinking. Resting a hand on his katana's hilt, he lowered his eyes to the children.

"I'll lure it toward the water tank. You run for the exit with the civilians."

"Yes, sir."

"You can still run, can't you?"

He glanced at my injured leg. I ignored the heavy, numbing ache and smiled.

"Yes. I told you I wouldn't get in your way."

"Go."

Kudo lifted his head and met my eyes. Dried blood and debris. Scorched clothing. Yet somehow, he still looked remarkably immaculate. Like the pristine katana at his waist.

"Now."

BOOOM!

The door exploded.

"Mommmy!"

"Fuck, again?!"

"Hey! I can run on my own!"

"Don't be silly."

I scooped up the shrieking Becky and the absurdly bold Luke.

"Be careful, sir."

No answer came. But I didn't look back. Ignoring the pain in my thigh, I searched for the parking garage exit.

I spotted an arrow marked 'Exit,' dimly visible in the darkness. I ran in that direction. The chairman followed, spewing a stream of curses.

Becky was crying with all her might.

"Becky Ende! Don't waste your energy crying!"

Even as we raced through the packed parking garage, Luke was saying things that hardly sounded like a child.

"They teach you in kindergarten. If you see a creature, don't cry. Hide or run!"

BOOM!

A car exploded. The garage lit up, and heat struck my back. The heat was tremendous.

Glancing back, I saw that of all things, an electric vehicle had exploded, and swallowed a curse.

Ominous gray smoke began rising from the burning car. I bit my lip as I ran and looked at the man panting beside me.

"Wet your clothes with saliva and cover your nose and mouth."

"What?"

"Unless you want to die breathing toxic fumes."

"Becky Ende, spit!"

Luke caught on brilliantly.

"Spit on it!"

The parking garage kept growing brighter.

Cars exploded here and there, struck by the pillars of fire the Fire Shield was shooting. Thankfully, Kudo was successfully drawing it away. There was some distance between us and the exploding cars. I forced my worries about my senior aside and ran.

At least the fire lit up the place enough for me to see where I was going. I had no chance to cover my own mouth. I simply ran until my thigh burned.

BOOOM!

I turned toward the exit. A narrow ramp stretched far ahead. Without looking back, I sprinted up the exit-only lane.

I tried not to think about Kudo. He was a Badger with excellent healing. He'd be fine. He had plenty of field experience, and I'd heard he'd fought in the Second War and survived...

My goal was to get these people out alive.

"W-wait."

The chairman, who'd been running beside me, stopped on the ramp.

"I can't run anymore..."

"Catch your breath."

I looked back at the chairman, who stood panting. I watched him sink to the ground, then looked toward the bottom of the ramp, which was growing brighter by the moment.

"I'll get the children aboveground and come back."

"What?!"

The chairman looked up in horror.

"You're leaving me here?!"

"I'll be back in a minute. I'll come right back and carry you."

"Don't go!"

He screamed, his eyes filled with terror. He even pulled the saliva-soaked fabric away from his nose and mouth to raise his voice.

"I said don't go! Tell that boy to run and carry me! He said he could run himself! Fuck, if you fail to protect me, you're going down with me! You're finished!"

"I can run."

"I really will be right back."

Getting moving even a second sooner would accomplish more than arguing. I looked straight into his despairing eyes and spoke clearly.

"Right back. I'll come straight back. Keep your nose and mouth covered properly, and stay flat on the ground."

"Hey, please..."

"I'm really okay."

I turned away.

I ran up the ramp again, looking away from the man I'd left behind. I ignored Luke's murmurs. "I can run. That man's really famous. He's famous, so it'll be a big deal if he dies."

Becky was hiccupping with sobs. She had followed her brother's instructions and covered her nose and mouth firmly, but the tears kept streaming down.

With her crying in my ears, I ran until my legs felt ready to burst, toward the opening where white sunlight streamed in.

There were times in life when you had to choose. Times when you had to choose between the worst option and the lesser evil. Hadn't I always chosen the lesser evil, agonizing over it every time?

To prevent more casualties, assigning different values to lives that should never have been ranked...

Watching the people I let go die with resentment in their eyes...

Wait. When had that happened?

There was no time to examine the question. I reached the surface and set the children down. Camera flashes seemed to be going off all around me, but I ignored them and kept moving.

I got three portable oxygen masks from the firefighters who rushed over. In an instant, they fitted one over my face.

I stopped them when they tried to go inside.

"If I run into trouble, I'll call for help."

Without another word, the firefighters fitted a radio earpiece to my ear. I thanked them and raced back inside with the other two oxygen masks. Back to the people still in there.

* * *

Searing heat was rising through the parking garage entrance.

The smoke was so thick that it took me a moment to get my bearings. Squinting, I ran down the ramp.

The air was far too hot. A sudden worry gripped me: what state would the chairman, a civilian, be in?

Just then, I spotted him lying facedown. I rushed over and put an oxygen mask on him.

A human silhouette wavered at the bottom of the ramp.

"Sir!"

I called to the man coming up the ramp, looking like a drowned rat.

"Are you all right?"

He didn't answer. But he didn't look well. He climbed the ramp slowly, looking as though he was terribly dizzy. He must have inhaled a lot of toxic fumes.

Pulling the limp chairman against me, I sent the mask rolling down.

"Put this on!"

The mask tumbled down the ramp. It came to a stop exactly where I'd intended. Kudo slowly bent down and picked it up.

It seemed he could still move. Relieved, I lifted the limp chairman.

Thankfully, the chairman was still conscious too. In my arms, he looked up at me with eyes full of resentment.

"Let's get out of here."

I met his furious gaze head-on.

"I'm truly sorry I left you behind."

Still, it was over now...

The chairman began flailing. I looked at him in puzzlement as he thrashed his arms and legs, as though trying to get the phone out of his pocket.

"What's wrong?"

Was he hurt somewhere?

"Are you in pai—"

BANG!

BOOOM!

A tremendous crash. A crash from overhead. A noise almost impossible to describe.

Before the noise, I had definitely seen something shoot upward through the air. But I had no time to wonder what it was.

My ears were soon ringing, and I realized something was raining down from overhead. Instinctively, I threw myself over the chairman.

Overwhelming pain struck my back. The impact was so intense that sensation seemed to recede instead. Noise. Endless noise.

As I wrapped myself around the chairman to shield him from the collapsing ceiling, I heard my senior's urgent voice. The man who was like a sleek, graceful blade was shouting something in alarm.

I couldn't answer. I caught only one word clearly.

"Taleb!"

At least he didn't seem to have been buried. Thank goodness for that.

With that thought, I lost consciousness.