Chapter 46 - Area D (3)

The building was far larger than the Library of Beginnings. A rectangular block with monotonous rows of windows. What had it originally been used for?

The supply depot in Area F occupied a library, but I couldn't guess the original purpose of this building in Area D. It was, however, clearly better protected than the one in Area F.

For one thing, something like a transparent dome surrounded it.

So that was the Breath.

I pulled the battered military vehicle up to where Ami directed me. Beyond the dome, a solid iron wall encircled the building. I stopped at the main gate in the wall.

Ami reached from the passenger seat and picked up what looked like the vehicle's radio. A woman's husky voice came through it.

["Royal."]

"Jeep."

Apparently, that was the challenge and password.

CLUNK!

A heavy sound came through the broken window. The iron gate began to move slowly, sliding aside with a ponderous rumble. Behind me, my seniors began preparing to get out: weapons clattering, bodies shifting.

The gate opened all the way, revealing the building's main entrance.

But the barrier outside the gate was still there, wasn't it?

"You've never seen the Breath open, have you?" Ami asked casually. "Watch. It amazes me every time."

An enormous sound rang out.

It was a peculiar noise. Something like a soap bubble popping, or a balloon rapidly inflating. Like a computer booting up, or a sound produced by a magnetic field.

As I stared wide-eyed, my ears muffled by the noise, a doorway opened in the miniature core. It was round, like the one Yun had shown me in his basement.

I turned the wheel and drove through the iron gate.

"Park near the entrance," Green ordered.

As instructed, I parked parallel to the wall on the left side of the gate. Driving had brought back how to parallel park, too. Ah. The voice of that scientist with the two-tone hair (a scientist, presumably) kept echoing in my head.

["Parallel parking's easy once you get used to it, too."]

But this was no time to dwell on the fragments of memory that kept popping up.

I jumped out of the driver's seat after my seniors piled out. The vehicle was a mess in more ways than one. Its entire rear was drenched in blood, and half the windshield was gone.

But no one cared.

Leaving the keys inside, I picked up the duffel bag I'd hastily tossed aside and followed my seniors.

Someone was walking slowly out of the building's main entrance. Ami called out brightly.

"Sylvia!"

Ah, that silver-haired senior.

I'd met her on my first trip outside the core. She was one of the people with Jason Tvein. We hadn't introduced ourselves then.

She hadn't seemed inclined to, either.

So she must have been the one giving the challenge over the radio? We stopped before the cold-looking, silver-haired Badger. I silently studied the woman, whose coloring was pale all over.

A sniper rifle slung diagonally across her body. Skin as pallid as Yehyeon's. Bright, sky-blue eyes. Long, pale eyelashes.

She looked almost as cold as my training officer.

"No incidents," Sylvia reported in a husky voice, meeting Green's eyes. "Personnel currently on site: Sylvia Keef. Bobby Winter. Iho Chang."

"Good."

Iho was here, too.

Then was Bobby the blond senior I'd met last time? Keeping my curiosity to myself, I followed the others inside.

An unfamiliar interior opened up before me.

The iron gate and the Breath had been thoroughly modern, but the building itself was rough and unpolished. The years had left their mark everywhere. Strangely musty air. A lobby with broken flooring and gravel underfoot.

Following Walker and Tvein's example, I tossed my duffel bag onto the floor.

"Hang on. What's with this lineup?" Iho's voice came from farther inside. "Are we expanding our territory or something?"

"Iho-Iho," Aki answered.

Iho hadn't changed. He still looked tired and was wearing drab fatigues again today.

Ami gave her distinctive laugh as she watched him and Aki.

"Iho-Iho, she says."

"Hey, I told you not to call me that in front of our seniors. ... But seriously, what's going on? Why send a lineup you'd normally only see on a core expansion?"

"Yehyeon's orders."

"I'm telling you, the bastard's gone senile."

Tvein sniped from beside Green, who had given the curt reply.

"Time to replace him. Huh? Hasn't he milked that job long enough? Wouldn't you agree, Richard?"

I watched impassively as Tvein rattled off insults about Yehyeon and everyone else ignored him, setting down their belongings and heading farther inside.

Since I didn't know what to do, I watched my seniors closely and copied them. Put down the bag of essentials, take off the outer layer of my combat uniform and leave it on the duffel bag. Keep my weapon and head inside.

In the process, I discovered what the building had originally been used for.

It was a museum.

* * *

Once you got as far as Area D, returning to the core wasn't easy.

That was what Ami had explained. Which made supplies all the more important from Area D onward. Apparently, Badgers did this routinely: transporting supplies from the depot in Area F to Area E, then to Area D.

Yet we hadn't brought a single box of supplies.

In fact, Yehyeon had apparently rejected Richard Green's suggestion that we bring some along while we were at it...

"Potato."

"Yes, sir."

I placed a peeled potato in Walker's enormous hand.

It plopped into the huge tin pot. Standing before the rising steam, I mechanically turned another potato in my hand, peeling it.

"Chop the onions, too."

"Yes, sir."

I promptly started peeling an onion.

We were cooking. Walker and I stood companionably in the kitchen wearing aprons (his looked ready to burst at any moment).

As far out as Area D, you could still maintain a reasonably civilized existence at the safe points. From Area C onward, it was quite literally survival camping. Once Area C was thoroughly cleared and safe points had been successfully established, it would be reclassified as Area D.

In other words, this was the last place with electricity and running water.

But there was no one employed to clean or cook. Which meant the grunt work inevitably fell to the most junior members.

I pushed the onions I'd chopped with the kitchen knife toward the pot.

"Looks good."

Aki's voice behind me made me jump. I whipped my head around to find the bob-haired senior craning her neck to look.

"Curry?"

"Yes. We'll have it ready for you shortly."

"Want a hand?" She turned to meet my eyes. "I've got nothing else to do."

"No, it's fine. We're nearly done."

"Yeah? All right."

She accepted that.

But despite her words, she didn't leave. Instead, she stood there watching me for a long while. I kept my hands busy, pretending not to notice her presence—with a smile firmly fixed on my face.

Beside us, Walker stirred the curry without so much as glancing our way. One senior took the onions and tipped them into the pot. The other stared at me with narrowed eyes.

Smelled good.

Only once I'd finished chopping the onions did Aki get to the point.

"What did you do before you joined?"

Right. I'd had a feeling she would ask that.

"Sorry if this is too blunt, but are you from the underworld? The poor healing, deliberately not getting a license—it all seems to add up. And you said you did all your schooling online."

"Uh..."

"Am I wrong?"

Wriggle out of it. You need to bluff your way through this one too, Hildebert!

Peeling a carrot quickly, I replied, "What exactly do you mean by the underworld...?"

"The obvious stuff. Fixers like him, the mafia, drug dealers. Places that perform illegal enhanced-body transplants or illegal surgery to arrest aging."

"Oh. I've never had any ties to that sort of thing."

I hadn't, right, past me?

I believe in you, Hildebert Taleb of the past I can't remember. I believe in you.

I sliced the peeled carrot into even pieces, then smiled brightly.

"I was just a shut-in with no social skills."

"Oh, really?"

Aki blinked once. Then, after scrutinizing me, she apologized.

"I see. Sorry for being so blunt."

She shoved both hands into her windbreaker pockets.

"Quite a few people end up with unusual side effects from illegal transplants. That's why I wondered. Don't get me wrong—I don't hate people from the underworld or look down on them."

"It's fine."

"Illegal surgery wouldn't leave you with a body that sound."

Walker cut bluntly into the conversation. His keen, piercing eyes shifted toward me.

"Besides, one look at this greenhorn tells you he's got nothing to do with that world."

Is that so?

What a relief. If someone from the underworld said so, it must be true. I looked at the enormous man with a mixture of hope and goodwill.

Strong features and deep-set eyes. Cropped black hair and sinewy forearms. Not a single part of William Walker suited the red apron he wore.

At a beckoning twitch of his fingers, I quickly placed the chopped carrots in his hand.

The pleasant bubbling filled the kitchen. Watching the bubbles rise in the curry, I sank back into thought.

I remembered what Riccardo and Ro had said on my first day.

["You didn't get some illegal surgery somewhere, did you?"]

After watching Walker stir with the enormous ladle for a while, I broke the silence.

"So there are people who want illegal enhanced-body transplants even knowing the side effects will be severe."

"Loads. It's a social problem that pops up in the news just when you've forgotten about it."

"Ah. I suppose, when you think about it..."

"Only morons who can't think long-term do that."

"That's because you've never felt the need for an enhanced body, Will."

A youthful voice rang out. Delighted, I turned at once. Ami was opening the silver kitchen door and coming inside.

Looked like she'd washed up.

Everyone was getting themselves sorted out in their respective quarters, after all. Smiling, I looked down at Ami as she came to stand beside us.

She met my eyes mischievously. Then she grinned and abruptly said, "Hilde. Did you know?"

"Know what?"

"The head of HR tricked Will into becoming a Black Badger."

... What?

Where had that come from?

As I stood there looking dumbfounded, Ami's mischievous smile widened.

"One of HR Head Zhu's legendary achievements. Bringing in William Walker. Then sweet-talking him into becoming a Black Badger. Will was the first and last person the head of HR ever went out and personally recruited."

"Ah, I remember. There were rumors everywhere about this incredible new recruit."

"Fuck."

THWACK!

William Walker flung down the dishcloth.

But Ami's mischievous smile stayed firmly in place. She didn't look inclined to change the subject.

... For some reason, she reminded me of Choi Yun.

At any rate, it was quite an intriguing story, so I pricked up my ears as the salt and light of my life continued her explanation.

"The head of HR was really desperate at the time, too."

"Oh. Were you short on personnel?"

"No, not that. Around then, Yehyeon was absolutely furious with Zhu and told him to step down as head of HR."

Ami had brought out an even more intriguing story.

"With the immortal words, 'Zhu, do you do anything here besides create scandals?'"