Ch.201Another Brick in the Wall! (4)

#201

The three women were engaged in a heated debate with a blueprint spread out on the kitchen table.

“How can a sewer be sixteen floors deep?”

“Apparently only certain sections are that deep, while the rest are similar to regular sewer pipes. But I heard some of OSA’s underground levels are connected to the sewers?”

“Wow, the floors connected to OSA must smell terrible…”

While Judy and Jessie were examining the blueprint, circling suspicious areas with erasable pens, there was a panting sound from the front door.

When Jessie opened the door, Himena, the last to arrive, was standing there drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

“Finally here? But why do you have so many documents? I thought I brought all the necessary papers?”

Dexter, who had been sitting on the sofa with a bored expression, immediately stood up at Jessie’s words and took the stack of documents Himena was carrying.

With her hands finally free, Himena wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, “The folders kept slipping—it was a nightmare. Jessie, you brought the blueprints, right? I had them all copied and gave them to the engineers.”

“What exactly did you ask them to do?” Dexter inquired.

Himena replied with a confident expression, “I asked them to point out any unnecessary or suspicious parts of the sewer system. Engineers would spot things better than people like us, right?”

“And?”

“These are the results. I pushed them from morning till evening.”

Himena spread the stack of folders on the table as she spoke.

The folders containing the engineers’ notes about problematic areas in the blueprints were color-coded.

Himena pointed to the only red folder and said, “Every engineer agreed this area must be investigated. The orange folder contains sections that about half the engineers found suspicious, while the green and blue ones just have minor mentions.”

Nodding at Himena’s explanation, Dexter opened the red folder. The blueprint section inside didn’t point to the lowest level of the sewers, but rather to the 13th underground floor.

Surprised by the relatively intermediate floor number, Dexter pointed directly to the blueprint on the table and asked, “This is the most suspicious part?”

“All one hundred engineers were suspicious of that area.”

After looking at the documents, Jessie, Judy, and Emily each added their thoughts while reading the engineers’ comments.

“Yeah, this part definitely seemed suspicious.”

“This area certainly had a lot of empty spaces, didn’t it?”

“Though not included in the blueprints, wealthy people often put secret passages or rooms in structures like this. Howard Hughes probably did something similar.”

When Emily, the unofficial expert who enjoyed studying blueprints, nodded in agreement, it was essentially unanimous.

Dexter stroked his rough, overgrown beard and said, “Since everyone agrees, we should check this place out.”

“When?”

“Let’s have OSA agents search the other areas first, and we’ll investigate this part ourselves.”

“You’re taking the lead again?” Himena asked.

Dexter frowned at her words. “Don’t treat me like some nursing home grandpa. I’m performing this operation.”

“‘Performing’? You’re just obsessed with work. Would it kill you to rest?”

“When the fate of Earth rests in my hands, of course I have to be a workaholic.”

“Ugh, ‘the fate of Earth rests in his hands,'” Jessie mocked with an exaggerated shudder.

“Don’t you feel embarrassed saying stuff like that?”

Instead of answering, Dexter lightly flicked Jessie’s forehead and said, “The Galactic Alliance might have killed my great-grandfather and could kill me too. What am I supposed to do?”

Jessie covered her forehead and avoided his gaze. “…There’s no evidence.”

“That’s why we’re going to look for it. There might be prototypes or other items in that bunker.”

“But are we just going to walk there like last time?” Emily suddenly asked.

“What do you mean?” Dexter questioned.

“I heard from Jessie that OSA has exploration equipment.”

“They do?”

“Remember how your shoes and pants got all dirty last time? I wanted to find a cleaner way to travel, so I asked a senior maintenance technician. They said there’s equipment like jetpacks you wear on your back.”

“Oh, I know about those. They must be the equipment that was developed but then canceled.”

“Canceled? There were more than ten of them stacked in the warehouse.”

Hearing Jessie’s firsthand account, Himena closed her eyes in thought and said, “I heard they weren’t originally meant for humans but for robots—police robots, I think? Anyway, they were supposed to be worn by those robots, but when the robot development was canceled, so was this equipment. There were probably many because they had made about ten robots before cancellation.”

“Police robots? What is this, RoboCop?”

“Oh, didn’t you know?”

“Know what?”

“RoboCop was actually a promotional video for OSA androids.”

As soon as Jessie heard Himena’s words, her eyes widened, but when she looked at Himena’s expression, she could see the corners of her mouth twitching.

“Ah, you’re lying! You’ve learned Dex’s bad habits!”

“Can’t fool you, I see.” Himena stuck out her tongue, prompting Jessie to frown.

“You’ve completely ruined this rich girl, I swear.”

“Again with the rich girl talk!”

“Enough fighting. So can we use those jetpacks?” Dexter interrupted.

“Not right away. It’ll take two or three days. Since they weren’t designed for humans, they’ll need some modifications.”

Dexter nodded at Jessie’s explanation. “Perfect timing. Let’s get everything ready and depart in three days.”

“Who’s going?”

“Everyone.”

“Everyone?”

When Jessie pointed to the four women including herself, Dexter nodded.

“Of course all four of you are coming. You said you’d help me, right?”

“This will be fun.”

While Himena looked uncertain about bringing Judy and Emily along, Emily commented with a slight smile, prompting Dexter to flick her forehead.

“Is fun why we’re going?”

“We’re searching for Howard Hughes’—I mean, your great-grandfather’s treasure. This has to be fun.”

“I really want to leave you behind.”

Emily was generally fine, but occasionally she could be stubborn about strange things or say childish things.

Finding it difficult to be genuinely angry about this, Dexter simply ruffled Emily’s hair.

“Is it really okay for me to be involved in this?” Judy asked.

“What’s wrong with you being there, Judy? You’re actually more reliable than Jessie or Emily in some ways. I may be a fake corrections officer, but you and Himena know the proper protocols best.”

“That’s true, but… will it go well?”

In response to Judy’s concern, Jessie slipped behind her and embraced her. “Why are you always so worried? Just be yourself.”

As Jessie’s hands moved up Judy’s sides toward her chest, Judy shuddered and exclaimed, “Ah, seriously! Stop it! That tickles!”

“So just come with us.”

“Okay, okay, I will, but don’t touch there!”

Having gotten confirmation from the now flushed Judy, Jessie grinned at Dexter and said, “She’s coming!”

“Should I thank you?”

“No, you don’t have to!”

Looking at the blueprints in the folder, Dexter knew he needed to anticipate what threats might be lurking inside, preparing for the worst-case scenario.

If he were going alone, it would be different, but he was going with multiple people—people he cared about.

‘I really need to prepare thoroughly.’

There could be no mistakes.

Dexter clenched his fist in determination.

* * *

Early in the morning, Dexter’s group arrived at OSA and was riding the elevator down to the city hall basement, chatting among themselves.

“It’s always amazing, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“The fact that there’s a secret intelligence agency under city hall. Do you think they have something like this in England too?”

“Wouldn’t MI6 serve that role?”

Listening to Jessie and Judy’s conversation, Himena chimed in.

“MI6 actually has deep connections with OSA. They handle aliens interested in Europe.”

“Is there a separate agency for Asia too?”

“Hmm, since East Asian countries don’t get along well… Russia, China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam probably all manage things differently.”

“That must be complicated.”

Soon after arriving at OSA headquarters, Dexter’s group headed to the special investigation team’s office as usual, where they were surprised to find stacks of metal boxes.

Dexter, Himena, and Jessie immediately opened the boxes, which contained various items useful for their investigation.

These included the solid metal jetpacks Jessie had mentioned, as well as helmet-style night vision goggles and other equipment useful for navigating sewers.

Everyone had different reactions to these items, with Judy showing the strongest response.

“My goodness… these look like they’re straight out of a movie!”

Judy’s eyes sparkled as she felt like a secret agent from a film.

“I understand the jetpacks since Jessie mentioned them, but what’s this thing that looks like a water gun?”

When Judy pointed to a gun in the box, Dexter peered inside and tilted his head in confusion.

“I thought it was a hand cannon, but it’s different?”

It resembled the original hand cannons that could use negatives, but instead of dark red negatives, it contained blue liquid and had a more sophisticated design.

Jessie, who was closest to the scientific technology and had seen its development, pointed to the gun and explained:

“It’s a hand cannon modified by the Space Secret Operations Department. They say it’s not as effective as a real hand cannon, but much better than most rifles.”

“Who said that?”

“That Asian department head was raving about it. I had to listen to his explanation for over ten minutes.”

Dexter touched the gun lightly and said, “It would be fine if we had time to practice, but we need to go right away, so that’s a problem. It’s probably different from laser pistols or plasma rifles.”

While Dexter was excited about the weapon’s power, he was also concerned.

If Director Quan, who was obsessed with weapons, was so enthusiastic about it, it must be quite powerful.

‘I wonder just how powerful it is.’

Hoping they wouldn’t need to use it in the sewers, Dexter took a combat suit from the box and headed to the changing room.

OSA’s combat suits were similar in design to standard U.S. military uniforms, with most of the gear being similar as well.

The main differences were in the material and color.

Himena had her own combat suit that fit perfectly, but the other three had sizing issues despite their best efforts to find the right fit.

“Ah, this is tight around the chest…”

“Is there a smaller combat suit available?”

“Mine feels tight around the hips.”

Jessie’s chest area looked like it might burst at the zipper, Judy looked like a student wearing her father’s clothes, and Emily was waddling around in pants that were too tight.

Seeing this, Himena put her hand to her forehead and immediately took out her phone to make a call.

“…Are you in charge of clothing? We need to replace some ill-fitting OSA combat suits here.”

Several staff members responsible for combat suits rushed over after receiving Himena’s call.

Only after everyone received properly fitting combat suits did Dexter’s group board the disguised van used by the rapid response team and depart for the sewers.