Ch.173Chapter 173. D-4

A wanted notice was issued.

One each for Ms. Juliane and me.

Both had roughly similar content.

Apparently, we attacked and fled from FBI agents who were requesting cooperation.

It wasn’t entirely false, but it was quite malicious not to specify who attacked first.

“Damn…”

My legs were trembling.

I hope I don’t look too suspicious.

I was sitting on a bench in the lake park with my hat pulled down tight.

I was here to meet up with Ms. Juliane.

Her phone had disconnected and never reconnected after that.

She must have physically damaged it or had to turn it off due to the circumstances.

With the FBI as our opponent, they’d be monitoring all public phones, so the moment we used one, they’d track our location through CCTV and catch us.

The only communication method Ms. Juliane could use would be a cheap shortwave radio from a nearby store.

So I continuously sent radio messages telling Ms. Juliane to come to the lake park.

I even encrypted it considering the possibility that the FBI might be listening to all radio frequencies.

The encryption was simply repeating the phrase “the place with our most intense memories.”

Among the memories Ms. Juliane and I shared, the most intense would definitely be here, under the streetlight at the lake park.

We went at it until we were naked and nearly lost consciousness, so how could we forget?

Thud…

Just then, someone sat down next to me with a rustling sound.

Her hair was braided and stuffed into a hat, but strands of blonde hair were sticking out.

Though she was armed with a mask and thick coat, I could immediately tell who it was.

But what was with the handcuffs on her wrist?

“Jinsoo…”

“Shh. Let’s move first. After I get up, follow me naturally after a little while. Try not to be obvious.”

“Okay.”

“Where did you get that hat and mask?”

“I stole them…”

Seems she didn’t bring cash today.

To think that law-abiding citizen would commit theft.

Well, I guess she lost her law-abiding status when she knocked down three FBI agents and ran away.

“Then where did you get the radio?”

“Radio?”

“Didn’t you hear the broadcast?”

“No. I just thought you’d be waiting here.”

“…”

Ms. Juliane must definitely have telepathic abilities.

The process was completely wrong, but we met in the end, so I guess it worked out.

I put my hands in my pockets and headed toward the slum.

Soon, Ms. Juliane began following me from a distance.

Patrol cars were driving around the slum, conducting checkpoints.

Whenever we spotted police, we ducked into narrow alleys, and eventually made it to Bob’s hideout.

“It’s me, Bob.”

“Where’s your wife?”

“She’s with me…”

“Phew.”

A small basement apartment.

As Ms. Juliane poked her head in and took off her hat, Bob sighed with relief.

“There are cops all over outside.”

“Yeah. It’s dangerous to go out now. They even raided my workshop.”

“What? Why was it raided?”

“They must have figured out I was hiding you two. Ah, give me your arm. I’ll cut those handcuffs off.”

Damn it.

We were really causing Bob trouble.

To think he’d help us even at the cost of breaking the trust he’d built with the LAPD…

I was on the verge of tears from gratitude.

“So what exactly happened? I was asked by the FBI to come with them from work, but when they suddenly tried to arrest me, I ran away. I was terrified when I saw the wanted notice and just kept running until I finally met Jinsoo.”

“Cuss was captured. Probably by the FBI.”

“…”

Ms. Juliane’s eyes widened as she placed her arm on the workbench.

I had told her this over the phone, but she seemed surprised, perhaps having forgotten in the midst of fighting.

I held her hand before she could get agitated.

“When I got home, it was already too late. I was about to be arrested too, but Bob came and saved me.”

“Ah, why would the FBI… Could it be… Oh…”

After rambling incoherently, Ms. Juliane suddenly opened her mouth wide as if she realized something.

I could deduce it quickly too, so Ms. Juliane must have figured it out in an instant.

“Yes. They must have discovered she’s an alien and tracked her down.”

“W-wait, Jinsoo! There’s someone else here…”

“It’s okay. I’ve already told Bob.”

“Oh…”

Bob winked, showing off the cut handcuffs.

I had no choice but to tell Bob everything.

He was helping me even at the cost of destroying his own livelihood; I couldn’t let him help without knowing the whole story.

After hearing it, Bob was a bit shaken, but that was it.

He kept his silence without questioning me further.

Maybe he was at a loss for words.

“Th-then what do we do? What should we do, Jinsoo? If Cuss is captured… Oh, no… Are they going to dissect her? Conduct human experimentation…?”

“We need to stop them. Get a grip.”

When I firmly gripped her shoulders, Ms. Juliane’s wandering pupils finally steadied.

We couldn’t afford for her to panic here.

Even though my brain was working somewhat, I knew nothing about laws or government agencies, and Bob was just a grade-school dropout street thug who had seen a bit more of the world.

In other words, Ms. Juliane was the only brain capable of coming up with a plan.

“For now, they’re trying to completely cover up the story about the alien creature. Am I right?”

“Y-yes, I think so. If they don’t care about the issue, they can just arrest Cuss and if we protest, they can say they’re just eliminating an alien parasite. It’s clear they’re trying to handle this quietly.”

I decided to help Ms. Juliane organize the situation.

They’re trying to quietly cover things up.

They want to capture everyone who might know about the alien creature and silence them.

“Ah! Then to save Cuss, we need to make this public first.”

“Why does it have to be that way?”

“Cuss is being treated as a non-person right now. With a non-person, they can dissect or experiment without anyone outside knowing. But if we reveal she’s an alien and make it public, bringing it to the surface, they won’t be able to do anything brutal.”

“What?! But then the whole world will know Cuss is an alien!”

“We have no choice. It’s the only way right now.”

My mind went blank for a moment.

What was she saying?

“If we reveal she’s an alien, everyone will say it’s okay to dissect her…”

“No. If we prove she has sufficient intelligence, sympathetic public opinion will emerge. Plus, there are people who have met and spent time with Cuss. If we ask them to testify that Cuss is no different from humans, she might even be guaranteed human rights…”

Ms. Juliane’s voice trailed off.

It was an absurd idea, but… it wasn’t entirely impossible.

Human rights are the basic rights that humans possess.

The outcome depends on how we define “human.”

What basis is there to say Cuss isn’t human when she has a human form, similar or higher intelligence than humans, emotions, and behaves like a human?

At the very least, it would give us grounds to argue.

“The problem is how to make this public…”

“I’ll try contacting my father.”

She wants to enlist the help of a congressman.

The issue is that to ask for this favor, we’d have to explain everything to my father-in-law.

And I questioned whether he would help us after hearing it all.

Even someone who was laughing and getting along with us just yesterday might naturally be hesitant when the terrifying term “alien parasite creature” comes into play.

That’s human instinct.

I decided not to get my hopes up too high.

***

A twist occurred.

Somehow, Ms. Juliane managed to contact her father, explained everything, and asked for help, and my father-in-law accepted it.

He first vehemently protested to both the FBI and LAPD, demanding to know why they had arrested his granddaughter.

However, both the FBI and LAPD denied everything.

They admitted there was an attack on the house, but claimed it was by unknown assailants.

We were blocked from the very beginning.

“If this is the case, making it public won’t help at all. We first need to prove that Cuss is being held by a government agency… Sigh.”

They were clever.

They’re claiming they never kidnapped her in the first place.

In this situation, revealing the alien creature and appealing to public opinion wasn’t even the issue.

First, we needed to find evidence that they were holding Cuss.

“Bob, can you tell me the description of those assailants your subordinate saw?”

“He said they were dressed like petty thieves. All in black clothes with beanies pulled down. He thought they were vagrants, but when he looked closely, they had robust builds.”

“Did he see any special forces patches or helmets or anything like that?”

“He didn’t mention anything like that.”

“Bring him here. I need to ask him directly.”

“He’s already been caught.”

“Damn it…”

Special forces patches?

There probably weren’t any.

They wouldn’t be that careless.

They would have removed anything that could identify their affiliation.

Damn. Then the only evidence we could use was CCTV footage.

The footage from the camera in front of my house on the day of the incident.

“Still no word on the CCTV footage?”

“My father keeps urging them, but the police just keep telling him to wait…”

We were completely blocked.

Even a congressman’s power had its limits.

If we suddenly demand CCTV footage and they ignore us and stall, there’s nothing we can do.

A congressman doesn’t have the authority to storm into a police station and forcibly seize evidence.

If this continues, the CCTV footage might be lost due to an “unknown accident.”

“Th-then this time, we submit a proposal to the assembly to get investigative authority. This time, authority to investigate the FBI…”

“How long would that take?”

“At least three months…”

“And the chances of success?”

“Slim… almost none, I’d say.”

Investigate the FBI?

That was laughable.

Unless the FBI director commits a historic scandal, it’s absolutely impossible.

We couldn’t risk Ms. Juliane’s and my father-in-law’s political careers for such an absurdly low chance of success.

That method wouldn’t work.

Is there another way?

A way to raid the police station and extract the data…

“Oh!”

“What is it?”

“I just thought of something.”

“What? What is it?”

A brilliant idea came to mind.

I thought of a method with a much higher chance of success and lower risk.

I pulled out a crisp business card from my inner pocket.