Chapter 130

“The approval request for this operation has been returned.”

Cha Si-eon’s dry voice echoed through the room.

The 「Railway Station」 operation members did not seem particularly surprised, as if they had already heard the news.

Instead, someone asked this.

“So when are we going to 「Railway Station」?”

“…….”

“Just push the field first and file the report afterward. What is the problem?”

“Approval or whatever, what are they going to do if we go?”

“Ah, those old men do well enough, then start being petty whenever they get bored.”

Several agents openly revealed their intent to disobey.

“Are you thugs? We still have to follow procedure.”

“What is the reason for rejection? Can it be revised?”

“What did Manager say?”

On the other hand, there were also agents trying to judge things at least somewhat rationally.

Responses divided as if on display.

And those strongly opinionated people soon began to fight.

“Ah, don’t you know how frustrating the old men get once they start protecting themselves? Is this our first day doing this?”

“So what are we supposed to do? Do it however we want and go to prison?”

“What prison are they sending us to? Who knows what we do inside? Bastards who can’t even set foot there…….”

“Hey, keep the line. We are public servants, in any case.”

“Ah, fuck……! So I’m saying I’m going to carry out official duties, so why are they giving us shit?! We’ve left it alone long enough. How long are we going to keep leaving it like that?”

“You bastard, right now, you’re the only one……!”

“Everyone, be quiet.”

When the words exchanged grew rougher and rougher, Cha Si-eon stepped in to mediate.

“First, Manager said he would try persuading them again.”

“…….”

“…….”

“I will also supplement the plan and approach them again. Please stand by without static until the result comes out.”

Cha Si-eon seemed to have decided on the position of following procedure.

At that, even the agents who had been taking a hard line closed their mouths for now.

They knew Cha Si-eon would absolutely not give up on this operation.

It was a temporary concession made possible because they knew that.

---

The 「Railway Station」 special operation was returned only 1 day after being proposed.

The reason was, naturally, because of the high danger level.

On top of that, it was said that the upper level had expressed considerable displeasure toward this operation.

Those above had nearly confirmed Lee Sol’s disposition.

But then the agents submitted an operation that ran counter to that decision, so from the higher-ups’ perspective, it felt like a sort of coercion or rebellion.

It sounded like absolute madness, but according to what Deputy Manager Yoon U-jeong told us, that was how it was.

Thanks to that, the Field Division was currently quite heated.

But it was not only the Field Division side where the situation was complicated.

“Ji-an’s contamination level came out quite high…….”

Oh Tae-o murmured as he conveyed Kim Ji-an’s situation.

At those words, I grew rather flustered.

“Did you not say it had been over 3 years since Ms. Kim Ji-an resigned?”

“That is right, exactly 3 years…… Under normal circumstances, there is no way the contamination level would jump like this…… It seems the memory loss incident last time was indeed connected to a Special Zone…….”

“…….”

The Research Division employees putting Kim Ji-an in a protective suit yesterday had been half a joke.

But when they actually measured her contamination level, the value came out abnormally high.

Like a person who had just come out of a Special Zone.

So right now, Kim Ji-an was quarantined in the Bureau while they observed her progress.

“And we said yesterday, did we not? That Ji-an had once moved around without memory like this before…….”

At Oh Tae-o’s question, I nodded.

Yesterday, while matching the timeline, they had belatedly remembered and talked about it.

“We barely found the footage recorded at that time. Honestly, I thought there would be none…….”

Oh Tae-o turned the tablet toward me.

Then he showed me a video.

About 10 people in white coats were climbing stairs.

The person filming the video was following the line, so the footage was filled entirely with their backs.

A strange sense of incongruity came from the scene.

I soon realized the reason.

A white coat suited a well-controlled space, such as a hospital or laboratory.

The problem was the stairs they were climbing now.

They resembled those of a ruin or construction site.

Because of that, the sight looked like a scene of escape from a disaster site.

“Ji-an, do you know the way right now?”

“Ms. Kim Ji-an, please answer something…….”

Several people murmured in lowered voices.

But no answer came back, and the people in coats soon stirred with agitation.

It was then.

“Do not look back!”

When the people began looking around, someone shrieked.

“If you want to live, do not doubt and follow me. If you look back, you cannot leave this place.”

A firm voice.

This was definitely Kim Ji-an’s voice.

“……What footage is this?”

“3 years ago, there was a time when Research Team people were dragged into a Type 3 Special Zone as a group…….”

“Ah.”

I had heard a little of this story too.

In the days when the total-war period against the Special Zones was at its height.

The Field Team had smashed Special Zones apart in a manner close to a runaway rampage, and that had looked like a fairly effective act.

But as the Special Zones kept being destroyed, the Special Zone side also began counterattacking with strange patterns.

One of those was the “group fall of researchers.”

From a certain point onward, the Bureau’s researchers were dragged into Special Zones.

Not just one or two, but in droves.

Naturally, most of them could not return alive.

At that time, a large number of researchers died, and because of this incident, brakes began to be put on the Field Team as well.

After that, the fierce fighting slowly settled down, leading to the Bureau reorganization.

“Ji-an was dragged into a Special Zone at that time too, but rather, she led the people dragged in with her and escaped safely. It was a zone whose strategy had not even been identified yet.”

“…….”

“So the team leaders asked about the circumstances, but she could not answer. She said she had no memory at all from the middle onward.”

After that, Kim Ji-an left the Bureau.

Because she could not forget the horrific scenery of the Special Zone she had seen before her memory cut off.

Then she had supposedly lived doing work as ordinary as possible…….

“If she connected with something from the Special Zone then…… it may have manifested again this time too…….”

At Oh Tae-o’s inference, I drew in a deep breath.

I did not know whether the phenomenon that had happened to Kim Ji-an 3 years ago and what had happened this time were the same phenomenon.

If they were the same, then Kim Ji-an had formed a connection with 「Crow」 before me.

Furthermore, this point in time was after Agent Lee Seop’s disappearance.

If 「Crow」 was the “modern person helping primitive people” Manager Kwon Mu-seop had mentioned.

Could it not also be seen that 「Crow」’s side had approached Agent Lee Seop first, then Researcher Kim Ji-an, and now me, in sequence?

“And I traced the sender location of the email I received from Ji-an too…….”

“Ah, yes.”

The email sent under Kim Ji-an’s name, which had informed Oh Tae-o of my going-out schedule faster than anyone else.

He had said he would check where that email had come from.

“The location where the email was sent was an officetel in Dongjak-gu.”

Dongjak-gu.

And an officetel?

I looked at Oh Tae-o in surprise.

“Do not tell me…….”

“That is right. It was an email sent from Agent Seo’s house using Agent Seo’s cell phone.”

What is this supposed to mean?

My original residence, which had been empty for months.

An email was sent from my personal cell phone left there?

“Did someone enter my house?”

“No. They checked, but there were no signs of intrusion from outside…….”

“Then are you saying the cell phone I left at home moved by itself and sent the email?”

I said that meaning it was absurd.

In response, Oh Tae-o nodded, shattering my heart.

“Yes. Right now, that is the only way to see it…….”

I completely lost my words.

I felt an unpleasant chill climb up my shoulders.

Inside my head, it felt as if a crow’s cry was ringing.

---

The Bureau assumes 「Crow」 to be an ally.

Since it had in fact received various kinds of help, it was understandable that they would think of it favorably.

Then what about me?

That thing drives me into the jaws of death without my permission or consent, and without even bothering to hide it, invades and takes control of my life.

Is it truly an ally to me too?

I acknowledge the efficacy it provides.

In some ways, I think it is fortunate too.

Because thanks to being swayed by it, I was able to save several people.

But because of it, my daily life had stopped and been placed in midair.

Moreover, it was twisting without me knowing it.

“Whew…….”

I exhaled for a long time and steadied my mind.

Then I left the lodging and crossed the Bureau corridor.

It was absurd anew.

If the one who controlled Kim Ji-an was 「Crow」, and if the one that spoke with me at the café and moved together with me was also 「Crow」.

Did that 「Crow」 act in front of me?

Acting as a person whose hands trembled from shock and grief?

The correction of “Agent Cha Si-eon, no, Team Leader Cha Si-eon,” and even the sight of her covering her mouth when she saw Lee Sol.

Thinking about it now, it was simply ridiculous.

To think it even acted like that while making a plan to send me to 「Railway Station」…….

But because of opposition from the Bureau higher-ups, that tearful effort was about to end in nothing.

What would 「Crow」 do now?

Would it give up and make another plan?

Or would it manipulate our situation through yet another method?

I could not predict it.

I knew nothing about 「Crow」, not enough to measure anything.

Neither its identity, nor its purpose, nor its nature, nor why it was doing this to me in particular.

A short while later, I arrived at the Director’s office.

It was the first place I had visited since my appointment.

When I bowed my head to the secretary sitting before the Director’s office, the secretary asked me,

“You are Agent Seo Do-un, correct?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The secretary picked up the intercom receiver while leaving me standing in front.

“Director, Agent Seo Do-un has arrived.”

Then the secretary put the receiver back down and said to me,

“The Director is inside. Please go in.”

I nodded, then knocked on the Director’s office door beside me.

When I opened the door and went inside, there were 3 people sitting on the sofa in the Director’s office.

2 middle-aged men I was seeing for the first time today, and Manager Kwon Mu-seop.

Those 2 middle-aged men must be the Director and Deputy Director of the Special Management Bureau.

Both were higher-ups above the manager line, but for me, they were people I was meeting for the first time today.

The Director and Deputy Director did not use the Bureau headquarters building and instead had their offices separately in an external annex.

This was because the new Director, who had newly taken office after the Bureau reorganization, regarded the Bureau headquarters building as ominous.

During the past total-war period, an indiscriminate Special Zone inflow phenomenon, so-called “falling” by the Bureau, had occurred in the Bureau headquarters.

So the new Director was reluctant to enter the Bureau building, and in the end, he placed his office outside and made the managers come to the annex.

The reason such a person had appeared in the Bureau today was simple.

Because there was an external audit in the afternoon.

“It is good to meet you, Agent Seo Do-un. I am Go Hong-sang, the Director.”

The man sitting at the head of the table, around his late 40s, spoke.

The man, Go Hong-sang, had a somewhat dry impression and wore glasses.

On top of that, he wore an expensive suit, so from appearance alone, he had the atmosphere of a high-ranking public servant.

Director Go Hong-sang extended his hand toward me, asking for a handshake.

But before I could clasp that hand, he drew it back.

Then he looked me over once with his eyes and murmured,

“It would be better to skip the handshake.”

“…….”

This is, because he is afraid of being dragged into a Special Zone?

Without any particular explanation, Go Hong-sang sat down again and said,

“I called you to see your face once before the audit team arrives. You have been working hard.”

“Not at all.”

“The audit team may also ask to see you, so stand by.”

Go Hong-sang’s attitude was quite indifferent.

To the point that I wondered whether he had any awareness that I was his subordinate.

The Director of the Special Management Bureau, Go Hong-sang, was someone with a subtly difficult and considerably high-handed atmosphere.

But 1 hour later.

Director Go Hong-sang was crying.

And 「Crow」 was a truly insane bastard.