Ch.126Episode 7 – Daily Life

Sometimes when my sleep is restless, I have dreams like this.

When I open my eyes, I see a lush forest with rain falling.

The headlights of a vehicle parked in the middle of an unpaved road illuminate the forest, and five or six sturdy men are huddled together, looking at the roadside.

“Vietnam weather is such a pain in the ass. I feel like I’m going to get hair loss at this rate. Does anyone have an umbrella?”

“Who carries an umbrella during field operations? Just hurry up and search the vehicle.”

After this half-hearted complaint, my colleague grumbles and leads the deputy down the slope.

The destination is below the roadside. A vehicle overturned and crashed into a tree.

“What do you see?”

“Oh, there’s a badger here. In the driver’s seat.”

“Is he alive?”

“Looks dead to me.”

My colleague bends down while examining the driver’s seat and scans the interior of the vehicle with a flashlight. I adjust the straps of my Type 56 rifle to sling it over my back, then gesture to gather the team members as we descend the slope.

After hopping down the short slope, I see the deputy illuminating the face of the commie he’s pulled from the driver’s seat with the light attached to his ops-core helmet.

“…Choi Chul-min, affiliated with the 166 Engineering Research Institute under the Defense Science Academy of the Korean Workers’ Party’s Military Industry Department. Death confirmed. His wife is in the passenger seat.”

“Cause of death?”

“How would I know that? I’m not a forensic pathologist.”

The deputy points at his own face, jabbing with his finger.

“The badger appears to have died instantly from the impact of the vehicle collision. There are many glass fragments embedded in his face. As for the wife, a rotten tree root as thick as an adult male’s forearm has pierced her chest.”

“Identity confirmation?”

“Yes, well. Both faces are pretty messed up with glass fragments… but identification is still possible. But team leader, why is the airbag intact when the vehicle crashed into a tree?”

“Because I removed it a few days ago.”

“Who did?”

“I did.”

“Oh my god…”

While exchanging pointless jokes, the deputy takes out a camera and photographs the badger’s face. I go around to the opposite side of the vehicle to look at the passenger seat. Inside the overturned vehicle, a woman with a tree root deeply embedded in her chest was dead in a position with her arms raised toward the ceiling. The airbag is intact.

While I was standing still, looking down at the dead commie, someone tapped my shoulder. It was Chief Park.

“Team leader. Please look at this.”

“What is it?”

“The cargo the badger was smuggling out.”

Chief Park illuminates a brown briefcase with his light. Inside the briefcase, which had bloody handprints on it, were, as always, scraps of blueprints and several Chinese smartphones. Chief Park pulled out one blueprint and showed it to me.

“It’s a design for a ballistic missile propulsion system. It’s definitely different from what the Belarus operation team acquired. Based on the shape, it’s definitely a propulsion system, but I don’t know what language is written here.”

“…It’s Persian. This looks like something that came from Iran.”

“Iran?”

“North Koreans do a lot of business with Iran. They sold weapons during the Iran-Iraq War back in the day, and sent military advisors and technicians several times. They either bought or stole this from there. Let’s fold it carefully and put it back before the rain damages it.”

I put the blueprints and smartphones back in and close the bag.

Click.

Click.

…Cough!

Someone coughed. A youthful voice. The sound came from inside the vehicle, not outside. Without time to think, everyone simultaneously turned their gaze toward the vehicle.

Rustle. I gripped a pistol in my hand, lay down in the mud, and illuminated the interior of the vehicle.

In the lush forest with rain falling, only the sound of a young cough echoes in the quiet place, and from behind comes the urgent voice of my colleague.

“Director, I apologize for interrupting, but there’s a survivor in the vehicle right now. …No, not the badger, but his daughter. I clearly heard during the briefing that he left her in North Korea when he defected… we don’t know why she’s here either. …Yes. …Yes, understood. I’ll put you through now.”

A voice comes through the radio my colleague handed me.

-“Since the situation is urgent, just answer yes or no. Has that girl witnessed our entire operation?”

“…I’m not certain.”

-“I said answer only yes or no.”

“…Yes.”

-“……”

In the back seat of the overturned vehicle. A kid hugging a teddy bear with frills. Caught in the seat belt. A girl who can’t properly open her eyes looks at me through the dimly glowing tritium sight.

The feel of the cold trigger guard is more vivid than ever before.

-“…You know that if that child survives to testify to the Vietnamese police, that’s when a real war will break out, right?”

Rainwater flows down along the gun barrel.

Like tears.

-“Use your judgment and act.”

I raise the gun and aim at her head.

Through the sight, I see the girl.

Red hair. Fresh blood. Blue eyes soaked in blood. Looking back at me. A blue-eyed girl.

“…Camilla?”

Episode 7 – Daily Life

Only after getting up from bed did I realize I had been dreaming all along. Beyond the window were not the tall modern skyscrapers, but buildings of some alien style sleeping against the background of the blue dawn sky.

The cool dawn air fills my lungs. I leaned against the headboard to awaken my dazed mind.

The cold dried sweat felt unpleasant. I felt a slight fever, perhaps from leaving the window open all night.

“……”

For a long time, I sat on the mattress, blankly staring out the window. I couldn’t tell what was a dream and what was reality. I’m not sure if I’m still dreaming.

As I sat there blankly staring into space, someone next to me stirred and spoke in a low voice.

“Mmm… what’s wrong…?”

“…Veronica?”

It was Veronica.

*

Veronica rubbed her eyes and stirred like someone waking from a light sleep. The scent of alcohol lingered despite the cold dawn air.

“Are you awake…? You were tossing and turning terribly at dawn….”

“…I was tossing and turning?”

“Yes….”

Veronica nodded slightly and lay down with her arm as a pillow. The drinking session that had continued until dawn must have been quite exhausting, as she was struggling to regain her senses.

With a dazed mind, I looked at her and habitually turned on my terminal to check if there were any communications that had come in at dawn. The messages that had been filling up over the past month were nowhere to be found, and the only thing on the terminal screen was a text from the Defense Attaché’s Office saying I could come in late.

It was truly welcome news, but my head was so foggy that I couldn’t think of anything.

“……”

So, without any context, I sat on the bed and fell into deep thought, ruminating on memories that were coming back to me.

Sitting alone in my room until late at night, sending a communication to the Military Intelligence Agency to set an appropriate return date, telling the noisy people in the next room to drink moderately and go to sleep, only to be told not to be a buzzkill.

Talking with Camilla who visited my room while I was preparing to sleep at dawn.

After talking about various things and about to send her back, suddenly being caught by Veronica and her gang to drink…

I clearly intended to drink moderately, but I ended up getting completely drunk on everything from distilled spirits they got from who knows where, to palm wine, alchemist-made cocktails, and some years-old Le-something wine brewed by the Order. Of course, the culprits were Veronica and her gang lying next to me.

The instigator was Veronica. She used her saintly powers to suppress and drive away the Inquisition agents who tried to restrain her, saying the Pope would be shocked if he knew. Lucia, who’s sprawled out on the floor over there, joined in, saying she would take responsibility and make sure we didn’t stay up too late, while Francesca, lying on the sofa, smiled pleasantly and shifted all responsibility to Veronica and Lucia.

…What did they say? Something about not being able to trust someone you work with if you don’t clink glasses together, so we had to drink today. They kept saying such nonsense while continuing to offer me drinks. I don’t remember who said it. It was probably either Veronica or Francesca.

I tried every trick in the book to maintain my senses while drinking, but in the end, after holding out as long as I could, I even threw up and fell asleep as if collapsing.

“……”

The more I thought about it, the more embarrassing memories came to mind.

I also vividly recalled memories from my ROTC days when I got completely drunk on soju and tried to cook pajeon on a utility pole.

I didn’t realize it then, but thinking about it now, they’re all embarrassing memories. If I could turn back time, I’d want to erase them somehow. I don’t know why only embarrassing memories come to mind at times like this. Perhaps humans are creatures that remember shameful pasts better than good memories.

As I was inadvertently engaged in self-reflection while breathing in the cold dawn air, I suddenly realized that this was my hotel room.

“Um, Saint?”

“Yes…?”

“Why are you in my room?”

Veronica looks up at me with drowsy eyes.

After blankly looking around the room, I finally grabbed a bucket of melted ice and—

—Splash!

“Get out of my room!”

“Kyaaaah—!”

Veronica let out a shrill scream and jumped up like a drenched cat.

It was the beginning of a new day.