Ch.104Señorita! (5)

# Chapter 104

Dexter and the two others were puzzled by his behavior as he drove toward Honeygood Springs after saying they would stop somewhere, but soon they saw him turn right instead of left at the intersection that would have taken them home.

“Isn’t this the way to the Air Force base?”

“Yes, it is.”

Soon, they arrived at the Air Force base, and as Dexter presented his ID at the guard post and drove inside, Himena said:

“No way?”

“Your guess is probably right.”

“What is it? What could possibly make us go into a military base?”

Dexter didn’t answer Jesse’s question, just smiled slightly as they soon arrived in front of a large hangar.

“Oh, come on! What is it? I’m curious, so tell me already.”

“You’ll see when we go inside.”

Dexter opened a small door to the hangar and flipped a switch on the side.

-Click.

As the fluorescent lights came on in the dim hangar, a large boomerang-shaped metal object that filled the entire space was revealed.

The sleek cyan body reflecting the fluorescent light filled the three people’s vision.

“…What is this?”

“My spaceship. Just follow me.”

Jesse looked bewildered, not understanding what was happening, while Himena, seeing Dexter’s spaceship for the first time, began taking pictures of it from various angles with her phone.

As Dexter approached the entrance of the spaceship, the door opened and stairs slowly descended.

-Welcome back, Mr. Dexter.

Jesse flinched at the female voice coming from the spaceship.

“Oh my god.”

“It’s just a guidance message. Don’t be scared.”

The three entered the spaceship.

Dexter was happy to be inviting other people, especially two people he liked, to his spaceship for the first time, and Himena was smiling broadly at the thought of boarding a spaceship for the first time.

Among the three, only Jesse wasn’t smiling.

“What is this anyway? A movie set? An amusement ride? Or just a hidden camera prank?”

“Okay, calm down first. Sit here.”

Dexter pointed to a bed and sofa in the corner of the spaceship.

“Himena already knows, and among the people here, you’re the only one who needs to know.”

“Ah, come on!! Tell me already!! Anything!!”

Jesse shouted, frustrated by the two who seemed to keep delaying the explanation.

“You really have no patience, do you?”

“Want me to show you what real impatience looks like?”

When Jesse took Dexter’s teasing seriously and glared at him, Dexter immediately began explaining as a sign to calm down.

“Well, my original job isn’t a correctional officer.”

“What are you talking about? You’re working at Honeygood Prison right now?”

“No, my entire career of working at a prison in New Mexico is a lie.”

“You’re not joking, right?”

When Dexter nodded with serious eyes, Jesse rested her arms on her knees and propped her chin on her hands.

“Then, what did you originally do?”

“I spent 15 years doing various things in space.”

“…I thought you said you weren’t joking.”

“I’m not joking.”

When Jesse looked at Himena, she nodded.

Jesse looked back and forth between Himena and Dexter with a confused face at the sudden talk about space.

“No, what nonsense is this? Space? That dark place with twinkling stars where things float around?”

“Your description of space is terribly inadequate.”

“…Shut up! This isn’t the time for jokes!”

Seeing that Jesse still couldn’t believe him, Dexter scratched his chin and said while looking into the air:

“Bring out the large screen.”

“What?”

With Dexter’s words, a white screen like one you’d see in a theater slowly descended from the ceiling.

Once the screen was fully down, Dexter stroked his chin and began to ponder.

“What videos do I have saved here… Ah, yes. Play the Tenpenny advertisement.”

-Now playing the most recently saved Tenpenny Corporation advertisement.

With that, the inside of the spaceship darkened, and the screen began to glow.

On the screen appeared the interior of a space vessel much larger and wider than Dexter’s spaceship.

A man with long ears and teal skin urgently spoke to an elderly man with a full white beard.

-Captain, we’re in crisis! The plasma protect has very little operational time left!

But the captain remained silent.

-At this rate, everyone will die! Do you really intend to sacrifice the crew like this?

-BOOM!

-AAAAAH!

With that, the ship on the screen shook incessantly.

-Wait, he will come soon!

Just as the man next to the captain was about to voice his complaints at the captain’s deep, appealing voice…

-L-look over there, Vice Captain!

At the crew member’s cry, the vice captain turned his head to see numerous massive space vessels visible through the ship’s window.

-Look, didn’t they come! This is the Tenpenny Corporation!

Along with the captain’s voice, the ship’s crew members cheered with joy, and outside the ship, massive vessels fired high-powered laser beams as the screen faded to black.

-Your safety is guaranteed by Tenpenny Corporation.

[Tenpenny Corporation, your safety is as valuable as your money.]

The screen showed the brightly glowing Tenpenny Corporation logo along with space vessels, and the video ended.

After watching the advertisement to the end, Himena pressed her temples and said:

“Wow… That’s truly the worst advertisement I’ve ever seen.”

At Himena’s blatant disapproval, Dexter gave a bitter smile and pointed to the Tenpenny Corporation logo on the screen.

“This terrible advertisement was the most expensive among all the advertising costs paid by Tenpenny Corporation. All those space vessels were real.”

“Not CGI?”

“No. I was at the filming site with that Eliya guy at the time, and seeing tens of millions of ducats fly away each time they fired those lasers… I thought, so this is how money can be wasted.”

Recalling that time, Dexter rubbed his thumb against his index and middle fingers in a money gesture, then made a “poof” gesture as if the money had vanished.

Impressed by the production quality that seemed like it was made by a major studio, Jesse pointed at the screen.

“That, that’s not CGI? Real spaceships? Are those people aliens too? The captain and all those people?”

“Yeah. Real spaceships and real aliens.”

As Dexter chuckled and answered, Jesse seemed confused and pointed at Dexter.

“Even individuals like Dexter can go to space? Really?”

“Yeah, my situation is a bit complicated. But if you have a spaceship, you can go. Even now, with this spaceship, we could immediately…”

“Immediately nothing! No way! You know space travel requires OSA permission, right?”

Unauthorized spaceship flights are obviously prohibited.

“Ah, that’s right. Too bad, Jesse.”

“Wait! Then what is OSA?”

“The Office of Space Affairs, a secret government department that manages aliens and information about aliens. Like the CIA or NSA.”

Himena was quietly listening to their conversation when she suddenly realized she had forgotten something.

‘Wait, the existence of aliens shouldn’t be disclosed to ordinary people!’

Dexter was casually revealing secrets related to aliens and space that he had kept hidden until now.

He was telling all these secrets to Jesse, a former criminal, when such confidential information isn’t even shared with important government officials.

Even if Dexter was exempt, the fact that Jesse, an ordinary person, knew these secrets would not sit well with the OSA if they found out.

‘Maybe I should talk to Dexter about making Jesse an honorary OSA agent or something…’

While Himena was thinking about how to maintain confidentiality, Jesse was groaning and racking her brain.

“So… Himena is an agent of this OSA place?”

“Correct. So Himena is…”

Before Dexter could say more, Jesse held out her palm toward him.

“Wait a minute!”

“…?”

“Let’s talk about this tomorrow. I feel like my head’s going to explode.”

“Why would your head explode?”

“I just got released today and I’m already overwhelmed, and now you’re talking about aliens, spaceships, and secret government departments? It’s too much to take in!”

Upon reflection, Dexter realized Jesse had a point.

“So let’s talk tomorrow, okay? Ah, what is all this, really…”

As Jesse, feeling dizzy, leaned back on the sofa almost lying down, Himena crossed her arms and looked at Dexter.

“And I don’t think you should be freely disclosing OSA and alien secrets to Jesse, do you?”

Dexter spoke lightly as if it were no big deal.

“Can’t we negotiate with the Deputy Director?”

“…Is the Deputy Director a pushover? There’s no way he’d agree to let you reveal secrets to an ordinary person. Besides, you’ve already got an honorary agent position, so why would the Deputy Director negotiate further?”

Dexter had been so focused on telling Jesse the secrets that he hadn’t thought about the consequences of revealing such confidential information.

His voice grew quieter as he offered a weak response.

“Maybe if we handle it well…”

“Dexter, did you really tell Jesse everything without thinking it through?”

As Himena firmly pressed him when his excuses fell flat, Dexter scratched the back of his neck.

He had nothing to say.

“I thought you had a viable plan for telling Jesse these secrets!”

Himena shouted, unable to believe that Dexter would reveal alien secrets to Jesse without any precautions.

“No, I do have a reason. I just don’t know if it will work.”

“…What reason?”

While it was true that Dexter had asked the OSA for the authority to freely request parole hearings for Jesse, there was another reason as well.

“We’re short-staffed.”

“What staff are you short on?”

“We need more people to investigate cases like before.”

Dexter is a correctional officer by day and an honorary OSA agent by night.

Although an honorary OSA agent has a team leader position, he naturally has no team or subordinates.

From the previous shotgun incident to the current abomination case, Dexter had realized one thing:

He lacked his own people.

Having agents with goodwill wasn’t enough.

“I need people who will work with me.”

“You have me, don’t you?”

When Dexter shook his head, Himena was a bit shocked.

Seeing her expression, Dexter quickly responded:

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying you’re not helpful. But what if you were in danger?”

“That wouldn’t happen very often…”

“The abomination.”

When Dexter mentioned how Himena had almost been attacked by the abomination, her face momentarily hardened.

“That was an issue with OSA personnel allocation…”

“Can you guarantee it won’t happen again?”

“Well, no, but…”

“We need to gather people to ensure that never happens again.”

“…I understand what you’re saying. But I’m not sure if that reason will convince the higher-ups…”

Jesse, who had been listening to their conversation, got up from the sofa and said:

“Let’s talk tomorrow, you two.”

“…Alright.”

“My head is a mess. I can’t even process Dexter’s story properly, so let’s talk tomorrow. I’ll keep quiet about the alien stuff as much as possible.”

The three agreed to discuss this matter again tomorrow evening and left the spaceship.

As Jesse walked unsteadily, she seemed to remember something and turned her head toward Dexter, who was heading to the pickup truck.

“So, my parole wasn’t because I did well, but because you pulled some strings?”

“Oh, impressive.”

When Dexter just smiled smugly instead of giving a proper answer to Jesse’s surprisingly sharp deduction, she narrowed her eyes and said:

“…It’s late today, so I’ll ask you tomorrow.”

“Just because you ask doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”

Dexter said, still wearing that smug smile.