Chapter 48 - Area D (5)

The CCTV control room was in the basement. As I headed down with Aki, I saw the seniors gathered inside. Thick cables stretched across the stark tiled floor. Bright light spilled from the dozens of monitors covering the walls.

The screens were packed with creatures of every kind.

"Have you reported it?"

"Yes."

Richard Green asked without taking his eyes off the screen, and Iho answered.

Everyone in the room stared grimly at the screens. Most didn't even turn to look at me. I stopped on the threshold and took in the silent room.

I hadn't expected things to go wrong this quickly.

Aki slipped inside and stood beside the seniors. Everyone kept their eyes on the CCTV feeds.

Only Ami turned to look at me. The only person who understood what was happening.

"Estimated Level 7?"

Tvein's voice resonated through the spacious room.

"Then doesn't that mean it could be Level 8 or 9?"

It was obvious what he was looking at.

A single enormous creature occupied several screens. It towered among the countless creatures we had seen the day before, dwarfing the Mad Buffalo, Witches, and Plague Gods. If I went up to the second floor and looked out a window, I would be able to meet its eyes as it stood there gloomily.

It stood motionless, ash-gray fur hanging down like hair. Its slit eyes were so blackened they seemed to be nothing but pupils. The thing, surely never discovered before, bore a strange resemblance to a human.

There was a reason the seniors weren't sparing a glance for the horde surrounding the miniature Breath.

I watched it in silence.

Was it guilt that kept making me want to cry, or fear?

Or some other emotion I couldn't identify?

After standing there for a long time, I lowered my gaze. Ami was looking up at me from among the seniors.

I held her gaze for a long moment before speaking.

"Ami."

"Yeah."

She came straight over to me.

"Want to step outside for a minute?"

I was grateful that she understood right away.

The seniors paid no attention to our leaving. Nor did they notice when we returned after talking on the stairs.

They were all busy seriously discussing the cause and a way out. Why had something so unprecedented happened? How were they going to resolve it?

They probably had no attention to spare for one clueless, anxious recruit.

That changed the moment Ami revealed the cause.

* * *

The control room erupted.

Everyone was furious, but two men were particularly so: Richard Green and Jason Tvein. They flew into a rage, demanding Yehyeon. Get him on the phone right now.

Could we even get a signal out here?

Apparently we could. The instant Ami revealed that creatures flocked to me, Tvein had grabbed me by the collar and shoved me against the wall. Now he stood fuming in front of a phone as the call rang.

"Crazy bastard."

He was also furious that he couldn't punch Yehyeon in the face right this instant.

"He knew all this and sent us out without a word? Selfish bastard. That fucking snake! Our lives mean nothing to him, is that it?!"

"If that were true, he'd have kept it secret to the end," Ami countered coldly.

"The commander told me to disclose it without hesitation if necessary, and respond as appropriate."

"If he wanted an appropriate response, he should have told us before we left! Is saying one fucking word that hard? Is it?!"

"There must be a reason only you knew, Ami."

Richard Green was more composed than Jason Tvein.

That didn't mean he wasn't furious. Anger roiled in his blazing eyes.

Of course. I'd be angry too. At me, and at Ami and Yehyeon for concealing the truth before we came.

"Regardless, I cannot accept this situation."

Wouldn't it have been better to stay inside the core, even if Jaeyeon dragged me away?

An unsettled air hung over the control room. The mood had grown heavier, with no sign of lifting. The swarming creatures weren't about to retreat, and it wasn't as though the others weren't angry too.

Walker pressed his lips tightly together, and Aki rolled her eyes hard. Sylvia stared coldly at the screens, while Bobby covered her mouth. Even good-natured Iho looked unable to comprehend it.

And they all looked at me as though I were a creature.

Suddenly, I missed Riccardo. He'd told me the idea that I might be a level-ten creature was absurd.

"Why won't this bastard answer his phone?!"

"It's three in the morning."

["Hello."]

As if on cue, the ringing stopped.

["Report the situation."]

A husky voice rang out.

He should have been fast asleep at this hour. Yet there wasn't a trace of sleepiness in the commander-in-chief's voice, as though he'd answered in the middle of work.

I hadn't been a Black Badger for long at all, yet hearing his voice already made my heart leap with tension.

The seniors instinctively straightened their backs too.

Tvein hurled abuse.

"You fucking bastard!"

"An explanation, if you would."

Green spoke, retaining at least some composure. His restrained voice betrayed unmistakable anger.

"What exactly is this rookie, and what on earth were you thinking, sending us outside the core with him without a word?"

["How many creatures have gathered?"]

Yehyeon's answering question sounded neither surprised nor shaken in the slightest.

Ami was the one who explained. She gave a neutral report of the situation: the horde completely surrounding the safe point's miniature Breath, and the unclassified high-level creature standing in its midst.

Tvein continued spewing curses in his agitation, but he was ignored.

When Ami finished, Yehyeon spoke calmly.

["So it's worse than when Hilde first went outside the core. Yun reported that he killed the Witch that time, then returned to the supply depot and watched Hilde fighting in the basement through a thermal camera."]

So that was why he'd said I was doing well!

I'd wondered how he could know whether I was doing well when he hadn't been beside me during my desperate fight with the Pig in the basement. The belated revelation shocked me.

That man. He'd just been enjoying the show.

Even Tvein stopped cursing and blinked once.

"Don't tell me the Pig was the half-wit's doing too?"

["No."]

Yehyeon answered without emotion.

["That creature slipped in during a supply delivery. It had nothing to do with Hilde. They reviewed the thermal footage and found that it appeared in the basement right when the food started going missing."]

I could almost hear my training officer saying, ["You didn't even check something this basic?"]

I retraced my resurfacing memories of that day as I listened to Yehyeon's clear explanation. I learned nothing new. It all overlapped with what I'd overheard of his conversation with Ami from the guest room that day.

Not every creature was after me. And the creatures approaching me certainly did not mean me well.

Silence falls when my superior's concise explanation ends.

The sound of machinery running. The steady breathing of those gathered in the control room.

It was Richard Green, eyes seething with anger, who broke the stillness that brought home just how early it was. He glared at the phone as though he could make it burst.

"I still don't understand what this rookie is, or why you accepted someone like him."

["I'm under no obligation to explain."]

The reply was cold.

["You don't need to understand every decision I make. To tell you as much as I can, Hilde is the joker in my hand."]

What?

My eyes widened. My jaw dropped before I knew it.

Everyone looked up at me at once. Several pairs of eyes shot toward me, pinning me in place.

Only Ami's held sympathy and affection.

["Time will tell whether that card brings victory or defeat."]

His voice gave no hint of what he was thinking.

["In any case, things have begun to move. Richard. Build your operation around Hilde. If the creatures have surrounded the safe point to get at him, that also means they'll disperse once he's gone."]

"I'll be asking you for details when I return to the core."

"Yeah. Do whatever the fuck you want. Power tastes good, doesn't it? Huh?"

["Hilde."]

My name came out of nowhere.

I jumped, then pulled myself together. The seniors' attention had drifted away, but their eyes shot back to me.

A faint note of amusement entered Yehyeon's voice as he continued.

["It's question time again."]

"Ah."

"Q&A Time with the Commander-in-Chief" had returned after a relatively short interval.

When I first met him. When I called his private number out of the blue after the cabin was destroyed. When we ate raw fish together at my training officer's house. And most recently, when I went up to his office in hospital clothes.

Every time we met, Yehyeon let me ask questions. As though he wanted me to piece together reality on my own and recover my memories.

Was he offering me that chance again?

Whatever the case, I had no intention of refusing. It wasn't as though I had no questions. Of all the ones circling my mind, I chose the one whose answer I most urgently needed.

"Do you know how the creatures detect my location?"

["I don't know that either."]

The answer was what I'd expected.

I thanked him, then asked one more brief question.

"If I turn out to be a losing card, will you discard me without hesitation?"

["I'll have to."]

"Yes. Please do."

My mind eases.

Because I now knew he wasn't holding on to me for personal reasons. Because I'd heard with my own ears that he'd accepted me as a Badger with the bigger picture in mind. And because he'd told me that if something went wrong, he would make the decision required of someone in his position without hesitation.

Now I could stand at ease among the Black Badgers, working to become the commander-in-chief's winning ace.

"Thank you for answering my questions."

Yehyeon answered with silence.

* * *

Someone else came on the line.

After wishing us success and promising any support we needed, Yehyeon called someone over. Richard Green had asked to speak to him, saying he needed him to plan the operation.

That someone was Yun.

Hildebert Taleb's training officer.

Yun sounded irritated on the other end of the phone.

["Just let him use a sword."]

He made no attempt to hide the annoyance in his voice.

["I'm telling you, that's what works best for that rookie. With a sword, he can pull his own weight. Without one, he's garbage."]

"You should have taught the recruit the basics first."

["If you're going to tell me how to do it, teach him yourself."]

No thanks.