Chapter 114: The Sixth Anomalous War (２)

****

For some reason, it felt like nothing would happen. I sat down, laid out the papers I needed to read, and was adjusting the amount of sugar to put in my latte—

Bang bang bang. Paper walked into the Director’s Office.

“Director. A urgent document came up through the Commissioner of the Coast Guard’s Special Phenomena Response Bureau. A Chinese fishing boat was trying to salvage one of the Foundation’s sunken ships, so they chased it off for now.”

“Fishing boats are salvaging warships these days?”

“It’s more likely a disguised warship or a special-purpose vessel. Less likely, but it could also be a Foundation ship with tangled communications.”

“Any other anomalies?”

“The Cheonghaejin and one Foundation vessel are already heading to the site. They said they didn’t even know such a ship existed.”

“News to me too.”

The sea is unimaginably vast. Tens of thousands of shipwrecks lie scattered across the Pacific. It wasn’t impossible that we’d only just learned of it, but something still felt off.

“What kind of ship is it?”

“Unknown. Let’s go see.”

Probably a relic of a bygone era.

“We have the coordinates, right?”

“Yes.”

“Understood. Once the vessel arrives at the site, I’ll dispatch a helicopter, so wait a moment.”

A lot had changed since the Jeju elimination.

Korea has three major Foundation facilities. Seoul, Busan, and Jeju. When the Seoul Branch command structure was unstable, the three facilities stood on equal footing.

Not anymore. After the elimination, headquarters intervened in the Jeju Branch. Most of the Jeju Branch’s assets were dispersed to Incheon, Mokpo, Taean, Ulleungdo, and elsewhere.

With that, the Foundation’s command structure was reorganized around the Seoul Branch. It was now fair to call it the Korea Branch rather than the Seoul Branch.

Of course, to complete the Foundation’s Korea Branch, we’d need cooperation from the local—no, the Korean government and major corporations. That was something to work on slowly.

“Are you going in person, Director?”

“I was planning to.”

“I’ll relay that to the others.”

Wait a moment.

“Can you contact the Coast Guard at the site?”

“Ah, that should be possible. I’ll get the phone numbers of the Coast Guard officers on site through the Support Division.”

I nodded.

****

Korea Coast Guard Han River-class patrol vessel, Han River-1.

[Krrrzzzt.]

The captain of the Han River-1 was troubled. They’d definitely turned off long-range communications, so what on earth was the problem? Had something gone wrong with the comms equipment?

“Hey. Why is it doing this?”

“I’ll look into it.”

An engineer began inspecting the communications equipment. But the crackling sound coming from the equipment only grew louder.

A moment later.

[Ah, ah. Am I speaking with Captain Kim Cheolsang of the Coast Guard vessel Han River-1?]

“State your name and rank.”

[Sir. It’s about an hour until your daughter gets out of school. Nam-il Elementary, 6th grade, class 4, right?]

“What—”

[Just kidding. It’s two hours. And it’s class 3, not class 4.]

“…”

[Anyway. Our people and the Navy will be heading your way, so please report the situation on site until then. What’s the status?]

The captain deliberated for a long moment before speaking.

“A Chinese fishing boat crossed the West Sea boundary line, so we sortied as a warning. We thought it was a simple fishing boat, but it looked a bit strange. When we got closer, it was submerged.”

[Submerged?]

“Yes. Judging that they were conducting some kind of military operation, we fired warning shots and began a search. We don’t know yet what they were doing.”

I had a good idea. There was a report the Head of Support had given me a few days ago.

[What exactly were they doing?]

“We believe they were attempting to salvage something from the seabed. We can’t tell what they were looking for, but there’s some kind of structure on the ocean floor.”

[Captain. The Han River-class has a helipad, right?]

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Ugh, I don’t want to rappel. That’s a problem. Then I’m not boarding that vessel.”

****

And so the three ships arrived at the scene.

I watched from beside the Feynman’s helipad. Last time I dove, I fell into a coma from decompression sickness.

I need to avoid that this time. I felt the syringe case in my pocket. If something goes wrong, I’ll revive with the Popo Serum right away.

The side effects…

Honestly, I don’t know. Hasti seemed fine, though. She did seem a bit off mentally, but that’s probably Dr. Ahn’s influence more than Popo’s.

“Head of Support. What do you think?”

The Head of Support tilted his head. He’s not someone you can easily meet under normal circumstances, but today he’d managed to tag along to the site.

“If this really is a Group of Interest vessel sunk during World War II, there’s no way to know what it was carrying. Whether that ship has biological or chemical weapons, bombs, anomalies…”

“We’ll only know by going in?”

“That’s correct.”

****

The maritime task force “Catfish” begins its operation.

“You’ve arrived, Director.”

“Yes.”

“It’s similar to the last mission. Fortunately, this time it’s the west coast, so the water is much shallower. This time we’ll search the sunken vessel and, if possible, salvage it.”

I nodded.

“So we still don’t know what it is?”

“No record anywhere identifies this ship. If the Chinese hadn’t tried to steal it, we wouldn’t have known either.”

Strange.

“Alright then. Let’s gear up and get in the water.”

The equipment was similar to last time.

Latex bodysuit, oxygen tank, diving helmet, fins, underwater bag. I was given an extra piece of observation equipment that could operate underwater.

“That’s a gun I’ve never seen before.”

“A smoothbore flechette round for underwater combat. It’s not much different from other guns, but let’s hope we never have to use it.”

****

A few minutes must have passed. Time to enter the water.

The task force members descended the ladder on the ship’s side, disappearing beneath the waves one by one. I was staring at the black sea.

“Director. Time to go in.”

I’d zoned out for a moment.

I tried to enter the water, but my foot slipped and I fell in ungracefully, back-first. The task force members had gone in as smoothly as seals.

I pushed the embarrassment aside and dove, following the Catfish team leader.

This time, because there was a chance of combat, we hadn’t set up a wired communication link with the ship. From now on, I can’t expect any help.

The underwater radio won’t reach beyond a few meters either. If something goes wrong down here, the only thing I can rely on is my diving helmet’s augmented reality function.

The water was darker than I expected. Whether it was because of the clouds overhead, the naturally murky water of the west coast, or the influence of an anomaly, I couldn’t tell.

“Ah, ah. Team Leader, can you hear me?”

[Yes.]

Thank goodness for small mercies.

I’d been worried about what would happen if even communication failed underwater. Of course, my own breathing was much louder than the comms, but that’s unavoidable given the diving helmet.

[There’s an unimaginable amount of marine life. Is it always like this?]

I looked at the wreck. The massive hulk was covered from bow to stern in barnacles and coral, not a single gap left bare.

“Anomalous space readings are within normal range.”

Though I’d need to think about it a bit more.

“Iron has strong chemical activity. The steel forming the wreck’s skeleton becomes food for iron-reducing lithotrophic organisms, and those iron-reducing lithotrophic microbes form the base of this ecosystem, attracting other marine life.”

[Ah, I see.]

“The abundance of life is normal.”

We reached the seabed.

[Advancing slowly.]

I pressed one hand against the ship’s side and advanced slowly along the hull. It was a massive thing, easily over a hundred meters. A large gash ran through the middle—whether from an explosion or not, I couldn’t tell. Debris still jutted out from the wound.

“Do you happen to know what kind of ship this is?”

[I do not.]

I rose a few meters and looked down at the deck. A long, narrow deck. No structures of note—just a bizarrely shaped turret sitting near the center of the hull.

What in the world was this thing? I set my hand on the railing, and it crumbled instantly. Startled, I shook the dust off my palm.

The cannon made it clearly a warship, but the cramped deck was odd. It felt alien compared to a normal vessel.

[It is likely a submarine cruiser launched during the interwar period. I suspect it was a hull type the Foundation frequently used for its stealth properties.]

That did sound about right.

The ship’s doors were probably all rusted shut. I hadn’t brought any equipment capable of breaching them underwater, so we’d have to enter through a hole in the side.

[Then let us proceed into the vessel.]

I checked my wristwatch for a moment.

It was already six in the evening. Captain Kim Cheolsang’s daughter would have finished her after-school activities and been home for over two hours by now. The sun would be setting.

The sea was pitch black.

As if sensing new prey, eel-like fish—resembling conger eels—loitered around the task force. Watching the mass of tentacle-like eels churned my stomach.

Horrible.

“Entering.”

In the distance, a large, nameless fish scraped along the seabed.