Ch.127Over there! (7)

#127

In the end, Dexter, who had gone too far, flinched when he saw the fearful eyes of the researchers around him.

‘I’m fucked.’

He had lost his temper and knocked down one of the researchers.

At this rate, it was clear that Dexter would also be dragged away by security guards.

Dexter racked his brain for a way out of this situation.

“Everyone, do you think this is right? Huh?”

“…?”

“Did we come here to make money, or to be slaves? Are you going to continue to endure this inhumane treatment and keep working?”

“What are you talking about…?”

As the researchers around him struggled to understand what Dexter was saying, he continued.

“Isn’t this bastard trying to gain power in our R&D department? Trying to stand above us without any proper position or support base? And with that pitiful power, he’s trying to restrict our actions, prevent us from rebelling, and eliminate our free will!”

Dexter was passionately ranting on the spot.

Whether such things actually happened within Pink Industries was unknown, but based on what he’d observed so far, he was saying things that would appeal to the researchers.

“America is a democracy, where the people hold sovereignty. But this bastard and Pink Industries are trying to create ‘classes’ that undermine the foundation of our democratic nation. Fellow researchers, must we silently endure this?”

As Dexter shouted with his eyes tightly closed and fists clenched, the surrounding researchers nodded and responded.

“No, we shouldn’t.”

“Now that I think about it, that’s true.”

“He’s not wrong.”

Encouraged by the researchers’ positive reactions, Dexter continued his passionate speech.

“Must we keep enduring this? How long must we simply witness our colleagues falling? Everyone, if not now, we’ll never be able to stand up. Right now! We must stand up for the rights of us researchers!”

“That’s right!”

Dexter looked at the researcher who had loudly agreed with him and said:

“Don’t remain isolated! Let’s unite! Let’s stand together! That’s what we must do! And to find a way out of this situation right now, let’s go to the executive office on the top floor of this factory!”

With those words, the researcher who had agreed with Dexter stepped forward with his fist raised high, and other researchers began to follow him with uncertain expressions.

These words would have had no effect if the researchers had been in a normal physical state.

But with bodies and minds exhausted from research, they couldn’t think properly.

Moreover, since entering Pink Industries’ R&D department, colleagues were no longer colleagues to each other; they were tired of hurling ugly curses at one another and trying to push more work onto others.

The researchers’ physical and mental state, combined with their situation, made Dexter’s shallow revolutionary speech sound plausible.

“I’ll take care of this bastard and catch up. You lead the way!”

Dexter pointed at the researcher who had agreed with him.

“I’ll do that!”

As the researchers began to leave the R&D room, Dexter added:

“Fight! Fight!”

“Fight! Fight!”

“Guarantee the rights of researchers!”

“Guarantee the rights of researchers!”

Dexter smiled with satisfaction as the researchers chanted exactly what he prompted.

“No… what fight…!”

When the researcher still at his feet squirmed and muttered something, Dexter kicked him in the head.

The researcher went limp and passed out, and Dexter hoisted the unconscious researcher over his shoulder and headed elsewhere.

-Mr. Dexter, did you read the Communist Manifesto while in space?

When Himena’s amused voice came through the earpiece, Dexter looked around and put his hand to his ear.

“Ms. Himena? Are you hurt?”

-Fortunately not. But my hands are tied with cable ties. And I’m locked in some kind of storage room?

Since her voice sounded normal, Dexter replied with a relieved expression.

“Is that so? Just tell me your approximate location, and I’ll rescue you right away.”

-Okay. But according to the guards, they’re desperately looking for you, Mr. Dexter. Will you be able to avoid being caught?

“Don’t worry about that. You just think about where we’ll go on our date.”

Himena was puzzled by Dexter’s confident voice. She responded to his words but wondered what he had done to make him so confident.

Soon, countless footsteps were heard outside the storage room, and a man’s shout penetrated through the door.

“…Riot on the top floor! All security guards, stop your duties and prevent the riot! Now!”

Hearing this, Himena could guess that the riot was Dexter’s doing.

Although her arms were bound with cable ties, she could break free quickly.

To avoid interfering with Dexter, Himena struck the cable ties against her knee and applied force with both hands.

“Ugh!”

With a snap, the cable ties that couldn’t withstand the sudden force broke apart.

Himena rubbed the red marks left on her wrists, deeply regretting her mistake.

‘Two people aren’t enough… We need at least three. Besides the infiltrator, we need external personnel.’

There would be OSA agents to help her, but they didn’t meet Himena’s standards.

‘Assuming Jesse takes the escape and external standby role, and Emily handles the theft with her more specialized skills than mine… Mr. Dexter is obviously the muscle.’

While Dexter was searching for Himena, she was considering escape routes, infiltration techniques, and force responses for the operation.

‘What’s left is someone to coordinate the operation and backup personnel.’

She could coordinate the operation herself as she was doing now, but the issue was backup personnel.

The more external personnel not limited to OSA, the better.

‘A few people come to mind… but I need to see more.’

While Himena was pondering this, Dexter’s voice came through.

-I’m near where you told me, but where exactly are you?

“I think it said ‘Supply Room’ on it. It’s locked electronically from the outside, so I can’t unlock it from inside, so I…”

Before Himena could finish, there was a sound of someone touching the doorknob.

-Here it is.

Along with Dexter’s voice, an electronic beep sounded once.

Dexter tried to open the supply room door with his ID card, but the red light kept flashing, and the door wouldn’t open.

-Ah, why isn’t this working? Ms. Himena, step away from the door.

Though she wasn’t sure what he was planning, Himena moved away from the door as instructed.

“I’m away from the door. But what are you trying to…”?

-BANG!

“Open sesame.”

With those words, Dexter broke down the door and entered.

The supply room door was made of steel.

Normally, it shouldn’t bend, being a solid door, but now it was terribly bent and broken, including the lock, with Dexter’s footprint clearly visible on it.

Although she knew Dexter was strong, Himena hadn’t expected to see such a sight and gaped in astonishment.

“Let’s go.”

Dexter smiled and extended his hand. Himena took it and stood up.

“Oh, I need to take this guy too.”

Dexter hoisted the collapsed researcher at the doorway over his shoulder.

“Ms. Himena, put your arm around his shoulder too.”

“What? Why?”

“We’re going to act like we’re transporting an emergency patient.”

‘Emergency patient?’

Himena followed Dexter’s instructions, putting her arm around the researcher’s other shoulder as they headed outside the factory.

Soon, when a security guard at the first-floor corridor tried to stop them, Dexter spoke urgently:

“We have a patient! Please make way!”

“What? A patient?”

“There are many guards and researchers who collapsed because of the riot at the top! Call an ambulance right away! Hurry! I’ll take responsibility for getting this patient to the emergency room!”

“What? Oh, yes! I understand! Please go ahead.”

“Move aside, move!”

Deceived by Dexter’s excellent acting, the security guards cleared the way, allowing them to easily reach the car parked in front.

After looking around and confirming no guards were present, Dexter roughly tossed the researcher into the back seat.

“What should we do with this researcher?”

“We’ll kindly invite him to OSA.”

An investigation disguised as an invitation was planned.

The Miranda rights were unnecessary for OSA.

“Anyway, the factory is in chaos because of the riot, and the police will soon arrive because of this incident.”

Just as Dexter said, several police cars arrived with sirens blaring. Himena looked at Dexter with an incredulous expression.

“…What exactly did you do?”

“I awakened the red heart that everyone possesses.”

“Red heart?”

“This is not the time. Let’s go quickly. We might get caught by the police too.”

Though curious about what Dexter had done, that was something to be addressed at OSA.

Dexter and Himena loaded the researcher and smoothly left Nipton, heading toward North Las Vegas where the OSA headquarters was located.

Meanwhile, Sophia was unable to comprehend the sight of researchers suddenly gathering at the executive office on the top floor and protesting.

It was absolute chaos with security guards trying to block entry and researchers forcibly trying to enter.

“What the hell is going on! Why are the researchers doing this!”

At Sophia’s cry, a support team employee nervously spoke up.

“The researchers are saying their situation is unfair and suddenly started shouting about fighting, and they’re demanding their safety be guaranteed…”

“They chose this path themselves, shouldn’t they just tough it out?! Wait, are all the security guards in the factory gathered here right now?”

“What? Yes, I think so.”

“This is not the time! We need to catch those guys! The ones who said they were from Columbia Safety Technologies!”

As Sophia raged, the employee called the head of security.

“Yes, this is the support team. I wanted to ask if the personnel you detained earlier are still in custody… Yes. …What?”

The support team employee’s expression darkened.

“…The door is smashed, and they seem to have escaped?”

Hearing this, Sophia screamed.

“What are you saying?!”

* * *

“Who’s this?”

Dexter, glancing at the indignant researcher, pointed at the robot approaching him.

[Checking roster. Honorary Agent Dexter. Welcome.]

“It looks like something from an old movie.”

When Dexter asked Himena, who was sitting beside him writing a report about the day’s events, she pointed to the robot next to her and said:

“Oh, remember the Libertron I told you about? It’s that one. Of course, all its data was erased, so it’s just like a pet robot wandering around inside OSA.”

The robot was making clicking sounds as it lingered beside Himena.

“Hmm. Does it have a name?”

“Servetron. It wanders around OSA, greets people, and does small errands.”

“Really? That’s a pretty lazy name.”

“I didn’t name it. Someone else did.”

Himena shrugged.

“You have no idea how much chaos there was during the robot inspection. There was a transmitter disguised as a regular part, and the engineer said there was even a homemade bomb near the memory.”

“That’s understandable for the robot, but what about…”

Dexter moved his face close to Himena’s and said:

“The spy?”

Himena, who thought Dexter was about to kiss her at work, cleared her throat and replied:

“…Ahem. The director said he would look into that matter through a special audit since it’s a serious issue.”

“Hmm. I see.”

Dexter was shocked to hear that he could have been caught in the robot’s explosion and died.

After glaring briefly at the Servetron that had nearly killed Himena, Dexter noticed it kept lingering nearby and asked:

“But why does this robot keep staying near Ms. Himena?”

“Who knows? Maybe because I’m pretty?”

When Himena joked, Dexter chuckled.

“I won’t deny that, but wouldn’t this robot say something?”

“I doubt it. Servetron, am I pretty?”

Himena blinked her eyes pretending to be pretty, and Servetron immediately replied:

[Beautiful, you are.]

“See? Even Servetron acknowledges me.”

“Funny robot.”

Amused by Servetron’s compliment to Himena, Dexter patted the robot’s shoulder and said:

“Take good care of Ms. Himena.”

[Protect and serve.]

After hearing Servetron’s response, Dexter was looking at the rotating part on the robot’s head when he noticed an OSA employee approaching Himena. He tapped Himena’s shoulder and pointed at the employee.

“Yes? Oh, is the investigation finished?”

The OSA employee who conducted the investigation nodded.

“Yes. The researcher only knows about the drug’s mechanism of action and seems to know very little about what’s happening inside the factory. He’s a manager in the R&D department, but he hasn’t been a manager for long, so he doesn’t seem to know much.”

“Is that so? Hmm… Please just organize his testimony, and then erase his memory before releasing him.”

“Understood.”

As the OSA employee gave Himena a slight nod and left, Dexter pointed at him and asked:

“Who is that?”

“An employee from the support department. I have some things to wrap up today, so I asked the support department for help.”

“You’re not doing it yourself?”

“…You said we’d go on a date after this.”

“Oh?”

Dexter rounded his lips in surprise, as if he hadn’t expected that, and Himena focused on her monitor and said:

“I’ll finish everything today so that from tomorrow morning until night, I won’t worry about work at all! I’ll be with Mr. Dexter the whole time.”

“Hmm, that sounds good.”

With those words, Dexter massaged Himena’s shoulders a bit before leaving headquarters to plan their date for tomorrow.

Since Dexter knew nothing about administrative matters, he wouldn’t be much help anyway.

‘Where would be good?’

Dexter decided to think about it slowly.