Ch.198Another Brick in the Wall!

#198

Hurd, a former OSA agent, worked for the organization for about 30 years before retiring in the early 2000s.

As such, Hurd’s mental image of workplace culture remained stuck in that era.

In Hurd’s eyes, both Jesse, who wasn’t properly dressed in the basic OSA field agent attire, and Agent Jake, who seemed nervous around Jesse, were eyesores.

“So, what brings you here?”

Jake, noticing Hurd’s disapproving gaze at them sitting on the sofa, carefully broached the main topic.

“We heard you were the one who operated Howard Hughes’ memory eraser during its demonstration.”

“Howard Hughes.”

As soon as he heard that name, Hurd’s expression changed from disapproving to solemn.

While it hadn’t been life-changing for Hurd, the memory of that day remained unforgettable.

“Yes… that day was the day before Mr. Hughes died.”

Hurd, who was a junior field agent at OSA at the time, participated in a new experiment after being pressured—or rather, forced—by senior agents.

Howard Hughes brought a prototype memory eraser that was several times larger than the current models, filled with Earth-made components except for the essential alien parts, and declared:

“If this machine works properly, we won’t need to burn through personnel for the sake of secrecy anymore!”

Hurd said that when he heard that proclamation, he thought Howard Hughes had completely lost his mind.

From OSA’s founding until then, Howard Hughes and OSA executives had maintained close ties, but at some point, Hughes’ mania began.

He exhibited eccentric behaviors like staying silently in a Las Vegas hotel suite for months, or attaching sticks to baskets to receive work-related documents and letters from outside his room.

When a businessman who had Las Vegas wrapped around his finger did such things without fail every day, anyone would naturally conclude he had developed a mental illness.

“Even when I was a rookie, he would visit OSA occasionally, but his strange behavior and image were similar even then.”

Amid all this, everyone was suspicious when Howard Hughes suddenly visited OSA with a “invention” he claimed to have made—the memory eraser.

As a result, Hurd, the most junior agent, ended up operating the machine, with Howard Hughes himself as the test subject.

Sitting in the prototype memory eraser that looked like an electric chair for death row inmates, Howard Hughes told Hurd:

“Make absolutely sure the memory erasure time is set to three days ago.”

“Three days ago, so from April 1st, 1976?”

Hurd nodded in response to Jesse’s question.

“Hughes insisted that everyone would be in danger if he didn’t forget, and told me to make sure it was set to April 1st. Naturally, I had no intention of disobeying and did as he asked.”

Aside from the danger he mentioned, Hurd didn’t know why Hughes wanted to forget everything from April 1st until that day.

Soon, Howard Hughes’ memories were erased as he wished, and when he rose from the chair attached to the memory eraser, he looked around and spoke.

“He asked if the experiment was successful, and after a few questions, it was clear he had completely forgotten how he’d even gotten there.”

Hurd chuckled as he recalled the bizarre scene from that day, but his face hardened again as he remembered what happened the next day.

“After celebrating the success of his machine, Howard Hughes said he would return to Mexico and rest at a lakeside villa. Then early the next morning, we received a call.”

“A call…”

“Naturally, a call saying he had been killed by El Cuero.”

Speaking with a heavy voice, Hurd pulled a cigarette from his front pocket, put it in his mouth, and said:

“Though they said he was killed by that unpredictable monster, it was unnecessarily cruel.”

After lighting his cigarette, Hurd stared at Jesse, looking her up and down, and said:

“If you had been there, you might have fainted.”

“…”

‘Why does this old man keep picking on me?’

As Jesse clenched her fist, annoyed by Hurd’s constant jabs at her, Agent Jake seemed to catch a hint from those words and asked a question after pondering.

“When you say ‘unnecessarily cruel,’ do you mean it didn’t look like El Cuero’s work?”

“It might have been, or it might not have been.”

“That’s quite ambiguous.”

“I was just a rookie then. I could be suspicious, but when the seniors decided to cover it up, what could I do?”

“That’s still the case now…”

So Hurd had been suspicious at the time but gave up without being able to solve it.

“What are El Cuero’s habits?”

“…It’s closer to a fish like a stingray, and it likes to eat its prey whole. But there are also stories that it likes to slit open bellies with its sharp teeth and eat the organs.”

Agent Jake, who had seen Howard Hughes’ autopsy report that remained at OSA, recalled the results that didn’t match El Cuero’s habits and said:

“But I understand Howard Hughes died from dozens of stab wounds from something sharp.”

“The seniors speculated that El Cuero bit Hughes but fled when it was startled by human presence.”

“If that were the case, wouldn’t it be better to swallow him whole at once rather than biting him…?”

“That’s exactly what I was suspicious about.”

What if he had stood up to his seniors then and insisted on another investigation?

The OSA of 40 years ago was a much more rigid organization than one might think.

Hurd, who had no choice but to live passively, shook his head while stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table and said:

“Anyway, that’s all I have to say, and I have nothing more to add.”

The brief spark in Hurd’s eyes faded back to the typical haziness of an elderly person, and Agent Jake stood up, shook hands with Hurd, and said:

“Yes, thank you for your help, even though we came without notice.”

When Jesse extended her hand for a handshake as well, Hurd made his disapproving face again and grasped her hand, saying:

“Have you considered looking for work outside of OSA?”

“What?”

“OSA agents should have an ordinary appearance that blends in anywhere, but you’re far from it.”

“…”

Jesse squeezed Hurd’s hand once, then threw it aside and walked out without saying goodbye.

Watching this, Agent Jake looked at Hurd and said:

“Why are you being so hard on her?”

“She seems better suited for somewhere other than OSA.”

“Excuse me?”

“Never mind.”

A puzzled Agent Jake bid farewell to Hurd and went outside. After locking the door, Hurd made a displeased expression and said:

“She wouldn’t have come to OSA on her own, so whoever brought her in is the real villain.”

Though clicking his tongue, Hurd wondered who had recruited that agent.

* * *

“Ouch, it stings!”

“Oh, stop being such a baby.”

“It really does sting!”

Jesse slapped Himena’s back as she injected a nanobot ampule as thick as a baby’s arm into Himena’s arm.

“All done!”

“I don’t feel suddenly overflowing with strength or anything after the injection…”

As Himena clenched and unclenched her left hand, Judy, who was rummaging through the kitchen cabinets, said:

“Dexter’s strength isn’t really because of the nanobots; they play more of a supporting role. So for us too, the nanobots don’t give us tremendous strength but help us with recovery and hormone regulation more easily.”

“Wow, you gave Judy a detailed explanation but only gave me a rough one?”

As Jesse grumbled with apparent dissatisfaction, Judy waved her hands in denial and said:

“No, that’s not it! I just kept asking questions!”

“Are you protecting your boyfriend?”

“…Not exactly. He said it would help you too, Jesse.”

“Oh, me?”

“Remember how you’d get nosebleeds when studying with that learning device on? He said the nanobots would prevent that.”

“Oh, that’s actually pretty good.”

Jesse looked at her left arm where the nanobot ampule had been injected, seemingly pleased.

“Is there anything for theft?”

“…He said there are benefits like being able to hold your breath longer… Are you going to use that for stealing?”

“That’s my job.”

As Emily spoke matter-of-factly, Himena looked at her incredulously and said:

“It’s amazing how Emily openly talks about stealing with a government agent and a correctional officer right in front of her…”

“If she cared about appearances, she wouldn’t be stealing in the first place.”

Regardless of what Jesse and Himena were saying, Emily lay on the sofa with an expressionless face, repeatedly tossing a tennis ball she had gotten from somewhere toward the ceiling.

“By the way, where’s Dexter? I haven’t seen him for a while.”

“Agent Jake called him out just in front. Said he had something urgent to discuss.”

“Didn’t Jesse go with Agent Jake last time?”

“Yeah. But that old man kept getting irritable and trying to pull some old-fashioned authoritarian stuff. It was annoying.”

“That’s how all retired OSA agents are, I guess.”

As Himena added that she sometimes heard racist comments when meeting retired agents, Dexter, who had been sitting in the passenger seat of Agent Jake’s car near the house, said with a serious expression:

“So the retired agent’s testimony doesn’t match the autopsy results in many aspects, is that right?”

Agent Jake, with a similar expression to Dexter’s, nodded.

“I also looked up El Cuero, and it definitely doesn’t have such habits.”

“What do you think, Agent Jake?”

“Either it’s a case similar to Rascal, or it’s the work of a group from outside OSA. One of the two, I’d say.”

“I think similarly. Especially what that retired agent said bothers me.”

“About asking to erase memories from April 1st onward?”

Dexter nodded at Agent Jake’s words and said:

“The more we approach this case, the more it seems like it was prepared long ago, which gives me chills.”

It seemed like it had been meticulously planned since long before Dexter was even born.

‘It’s as if they’ve been exploiting this since the founding of OSA, from the moment Earth entered the neutrality treaty until now.’

He hoped it was just his paranoia, but considering all the incidents so far, it no longer seemed like mere paranoia.

If only they could beat them up or shoot them to resolve this—but this slow, subtle infiltration by unknown forces was exactly the kind Dexter hated most.

‘It’s frustrating not being able to resolve this decisively.’

As Dexter frowned, Agent Jake added:

“It’s understandable to be angry. This is essentially undermining the foundation of OSA.”

While Dexter agreed with Agent Jake’s statement, he thought there might be something beyond OSA.

“If they went so far as to transport an alien monster like El Cuero to Earth and staged it as an attack on Howard Hughes, it must be an organization larger than we can imagine.”

“Organization?”

“George Hayward also said it was dangerous because of the paper he co-wrote with Howard Hughes, and that everyone who knew about it could die or disappear.”

Dexter had excerpted part of the telegram content from George Hayward’s computer and shown it to some OSA personnel.

“But all the paper’s authors lived normal lives and even had grandchildren, didn’t they?”

“What if they lived their entire lives under threat?”

“Their entire lives…?”

“Yes, their entire lives. What if they lived knowing they were being watched, unable to reveal what they knew?”

“Then they would have had no choice but to keep the secret. But wouldn’t that mean it’s related to the Galactic Union too?”

Information related to Negative was controlled by the Galactic Union, and it remained under control to this day.

“Don’t you find it suspicious that the Galactic Union has been controlling something most planets don’t understand? The species that know about Negative can be counted on one hand, including Earth humans.”

“You’re saying they didn’t control it simply because Negative is dangerous?”

No matter how dangerous it might be, from Earth’s perspective, it was like the Galactic Union trying to control something they didn’t even understand.

“Even in the 21st century, Earth still doesn’t know how to extract and use Negative. But Howard Hughes, born in the 20th century, knew, while planets with far superior technology don’t know—isn’t that strange?”

After saying this, Dexter thought hard and came up with one possibility.

“What if the Galactic Union intentionally taught Howard Hughes how to extract and use Negative, but then silenced everyone involved for some reason?”

“Come on, isn’t that going too far?”

“For example.”

Dexter made a gun shape with his right hand and said:

“What if the Negative weapon Howard Hughes developed was too powerful?”

Agent Jake, who was about to dismiss it as a joke, was left speechless when he saw Dexter’s serious expression.

“If the Galactic Union, recognizing the danger of Negative, killed Earth humans or made them live in fear their entire lives…”

“The neutrality treaty has a clause allowing Galactic Union personnel to visit Earth without restrictions, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right. Since it’s difficult to get permission from the respective planet whenever problems arise, they included that clause to provide help without restrictions… Are you saying they exploited that?”

“Yes, probably.”

Dexter’s speculation was that the Galactic Union hadn’t established the neutrality treaty to protect Earth from other planets.

‘Rather, it was an experimental ground for new technology.’

And when Earth developed weapons that could threaten even them, they silenced Howard Hughes and George Hayward.

However, even knowing the problem, the solution was challenging.

‘Can OSA alone handle this? And what’s the connection between Director General Olivia and the Galactic Union?’

After that, Dexter and Agent Jake remained silent.