GB 111

Yoon Moo-hwa threw down the wet handkerchief and dropped his legs from the desk.

Contact with the necessary networks and personnel was complete. Gripping a pencil while clutching his head as if tearing at his hair, he quickly wrote out the document stating his intention to leave the military, equivalent to a resignation letter for an office worker. 

With his leg shaking, tearing at his hair, and muttering incessantly, he looked like an immaculately groomed drug addict.

After neatly folding what he had written and placing it on the desk, it became the only orderly thing in these ruins, including Yoon Moo-hwa himself. He had already become part of the ruins.

Finally, Yoon Moo-hwa entered a program window that he knew by heart, beyond his personal security clearance.

It was Haero’s vital signs graph that he had watched for so long it had become second nature.

Yoon Moo-hwa stared blankly at the enormous screen. It displayed vital statistics that were transmitting somewhat slowly but steadily, but showing no life-threatening signals. The location wasn’t showing. They must be on a ghost island or using jamming signals.

As his father had said, without something as sophisticated as military GPS, it couldn’t be found, and military GPS was all registered in the internal system. The limitations of Haero’s illegally implanted chip were obvious.

Nevertheless, he transferred the program itself to his watch. The watch, which he hadn’t used since becoming a captain, was from his special forces training days and was waterproof, fireproof, and flame-resistant.

Once the program was completely transferred, Yoon Moo-hwa tore out the hard drive and poured alcohol over it. With a cigarette in his mouth, he emotionlessly watched the amber liquid pouring until the bottle of whiskey was completely empty.

When the bottle emptied, he flicked his cigarette onto it.

It caught fire instantly. Along with the tremendous flames destroying the hard drive were Yoon Moo-hwa’s private records besides the GPS tracking program implanted in Haero’s body. All the photos of Haero captured by his artificial eye.

What a waste. An unbearably painful waste. That made Yoon Moo-hwa even more furious at this fucking situation and filled him with murderous intent. He wanted to kill anyone in sight, to grab anyone and beat them. The reason he had shown below-average violent tendencies in his last evaluation was solely because he had exercised restraint. Because he had a margin. But now there was nothing.

If he died, Haero would have died too. If he died, all these records would be accessed. Then everyone would see Haero.

Tremendously regrettable, and though he was so angry he wanted to retrieve it from the fire immediately regardless of whether his hand burned, he still absolutely did not want just anyone to see Haero.

The sprinklers finally burst as the flames blazed. At the alarm, the military police guarding the residence and Yoon Moo-hwa’s personal aides rushed in.

From amid the ruins, Yoon Moo-hwa slowly turned to face them as he stood before the still-blazing fire, completely soaked. 

Slowly brushing back his wet hair, he asked in a very dull voice and tone, “I’d like to go to a hotel with an ocean view. Any recommendations?”

✼✼✼

The roadside shop that had delivered Haero’s identification tag disappeared immediately after the aide left. Although there were CCTVs nearby because it was close to the base, they soon disappeared in the direction without CCTV coverage, making it impossible to track them further. The motorcycle they had been riding was abandoned at a midpoint and confirmed to have been reported stolen.

The pursuit would continue, but there was no time to wait.

Late at night, Yoon Moo-hwa slipped out wearing a hat. He changed elevators multiple times, getting off and back on repeatedly. Thanks to changing his location from the residence to a hotel, it was easy to slip out disguised as a guest.

Originally the hotel’s private beach, the nighttime shore was somewhat chaotic after the law changed to prohibit private ownership of the sea. He walked slowly along it. Outwardly, he appeared to be walking deep in thought, but he was actually busy handling matters. Moreover, his headache was intensifying as he dealt with intermittent attempted access to his communication lines.

“Haah….”

It was literally a pain and heat as if his eyeball would fall out. Yoon Moo-hwa covered his eye up to his forehead with his hand, unable to press down, just gritting his teeth.

A cold compress was desperately needed. Even painkillers no longer worked. Above all, the problem was that because he was overusing his artificial device, all his nerves were sensitively activated, causing all information values to mix chaotically.

Meanwhile, Yoon Moo-hwa’s steps took him beyond what had been the private beach area to a darker beach with larger sand particles and some accumulated trash. Though staggering, he couldn’t stop his rapidly spinning circuits. Having lost his self-control due to Haero’s absence, he was like an addict seeking greater stimulation.

Unable to bear it any longer, Yoon Moo-hwa took off his hat, clutched it in his hand, bent forward at the waist, and groaned in pain.

“Ugh… damn…”

He staggered while muttering in a dying voice. His dizzy vision, no, the hallucinations created by his brain due to the artificial eye stimulating his neural pathways, kept showing images of Haero that had been stored on the now-burned hard drive, one by one.

No matter how much he burned it to ashes, he couldn’t do anything about the memories remaining in Yoon Moo-hwa’s mind. No one could take that away or erase it. Not even himself.

The night was extremely dark, and because of the deep darkness that buried everything, Yoon Moo-hwa didn’t see someone’s shadow approaching from behind. Those who stealthily approached from behind rushed at him with practiced movements, and Yoon Moo-hwa sharply turned his head just before their hands touched his body.

When the hand covering his eye slightly dropped, from his left eye with the artificial implant, hot bloody fluid was flowing.

✼✼✼

The non-existent seawater had almost dried up when the Captain’s sister came in with Salmo to feed him water and bread again. This seemed to be their plan to prevent him from scheming.

Knowing this, Haero deliberately went even more limp and unfocused whenever they entered. He wanted to appear susceptible to the drug to put them at ease.

When the drug’s effects began to fade, Haero tried to make the most of those brief periods.

This hallucination-inducing jellyfish was difficult to obtain. Even the black market dealer who smuggled it took pride in it. Moreover, jellyfish become almost like water when they die, and it’s extremely difficult to preserve the chemicals their bodies produce. This led Haero to two possible conclusions.

One was that their hideout was near a jellyfish habitat. The other was that they had connections to smugglers known by the owner of the errand center where Haero had worked.

If they were dealing with smugglers, their ships would dock periodically. Smugglers’ vessels focused on speed and had large fish holds and cargo storage areas perfect for hiding. Of course, one would have to risk suffocation… And being discovered would also be problematic. It was a gambling-like plan with extremely high risks in many ways, but now wasn’t the time to be picky.

Haero watched a large turtle nibbling on a jellyfish like jelly and moving away. As he strained his eyes and frowned, the turtle moved further away, approaching the silhouette still standing in the middle of the unidentified sea.

He was now waking from the drug’s effects. As far as Haero knew, this drug wasn’t addictive. But while it didn’t cause chemical addiction, there were reports that the expectation of seeing desired dreams led people to willingly become addicted.

Around the time he quit his job after his final delivery, the substance from this jellyfish had been designated as harmful and banned from commercial use.

Haero tried to move his tongue, which had gone soft like wet toilet paper. Now it moved a little.

And at an incredibly inconvenient moment, the door flew open.

Reflexively, he squeezed his eyes shut. The person walked into the darkness and shined a flashlight directly at Haero.

‘Ah, so bright.’

He felt a surge of irritation due to his fatigue.

As he tried to endure it, the person lifted Haero’s eyelid. When he pretended to be unfocused, they slapped him hard. Then they poured cold water over his face. 

‘It smelled salty. Too precious to use purified water, I guess.’

“Sit him up.”

It was the Captain’s voice.

The person who entered appeared to be the Captain.

This would be their first encounter since meeting on the fishing boat. Something had clearly changed in the situation. His heart rate began to accelerate with tension. Thin, long fingers, presumably Salmo’s, entangled around him like a spider and lifted him up. 

Haero counted to exactly thirty before opening his eyes.

“Are you conscious?” The Captain, his face and exposed skin covered in bruises and contusions, asked bluntly with his hands on his hips.

Those injuries clearly came from that fight Haero had heard, whether it was yesterday or the day before. If it were a bit brighter, he could have determined how much time had passed by the color of the bruises. Unfortunate.

The Captain nodded to Salmo. Salmo loosened the gag covering Haero’s mouth and pulled it down.

“A show needs an audience to get interesting.” The Captain muttered, looking Haero over, and finally got to the point, “I came because there’s something I want to show you.”