Chapter 86: The Abandoned Foundation Facility (２)

****

We searched the abandoned building.

If they’d evacuated deliberately, nothing would be left. A few relatively cheap pieces of scientific equipment were scattered around. Microscopes, pipettes, that sort of thing.

There wasn’t a single speck of dust in the abandoned building.

“It was the right call to let Deimos live, right?”

“I respect your choice. But if it were me, I’d have killed them all.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s obvious. Those people—their yacht’s probably enchanted so it’s hard to detect. They’ll sneak around trying to stay invisible, minimize exposure, and resupply in remote spots.”

I nodded.

“That makes sense.”

“You know it too. Pluto LLC’s people live on that yacht, and catching them on the high seas is nearly impossible. No help for it—should’ve killed them all when we had the chance.”

“Hmm.”

“Hey, does that make any sense? Being human and voluntarily living and working on some creepy billionaire’s yacht. Civilians wouldn’t do that, right? It’s not like they’re some pharaoh.”

Hard to say. Maybe they were brainwashed, maybe they’re on their side, or maybe they’re really just there for the money.

Still, we got one humanoid anomaly out of it. To us, it’s just a containment target. To them, it’s a product worth hundreds of billions.

It’ll probably come in handy.

The flashlight swept across the facility’s interior.

“What were they raising in here?”

“Probably one of Project Blue Rose’s creations. Let’s see, there’s an abandoned filing cabinet here…”

I kicked the locked filing cabinet.

“It’s written on this scrap of paper. What they were raising here was Blue Rose-12. A humanoid anomaly the Foundation made out of some weird-looking jellyfish.”

How do you make a person out of a jellyfish? No—on second thought, I don’t want to know.

“Doesn’t say what it was for?”

“It doesn’t.”

“Its role, or anything.”

“It got burned.”

Nanami handed me a piece of paper she’d picked up off the floor. Most of the writing was burned beyond recognition. Well, we still don’t know what it was, anyway.

“Let’s just move on.”

“Hmm.”

“We’ve still got thirteen facilities left.”

Nanami mulled it over.

“Actually—do you think someone’s guarding every site? Facility 12 had Pluto LLC’s people watching it, so what about the others…”

“That’s a possibility too.”

Thinking about the symbolism, each Blue Rose might be tied to one Group of Interest. Or there could be something similar going on.

It feels like the mystery is finally starting to unravel.

****

We went back to the car.

A mint-green convertible.

Not vintage, but made to look vintage. It’s a bit of a shame—a masterpiece like this, scratched up from crashing through a fence.

Nanami sat in the driver’s seat.

“Can’t I drive?”

“No.”

I stared at the dashboard. Nanami always seemed to drive at the legal maximum speed. A bit faster if there were no cameras.

“You know why Admiral Hourani won’t meet you? I think I’ve got it figured out.”

“Why?”

“He’s afraid of humanoid anomalies. Or he just hates them. Well, I guess he could be scared. But what good does burying his head in the sand like a camel do anyone?”

“Hmm.”

“Idiot. It’s not for nothing that I refuse to sleep at those bastards’ facility. I don’t want to set foot in Admiral Hourani’s building.”

“You went in last time.”

“That’s true.”

“Human garbage and a cowardly half-breed.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s my take, Dr. Geum. Why do you think these fourteen facilities are abandoned on this tiny island of Jeju? They can’t even manage facilities an hour’s drive apart. The absolute peak of incompetence and stupidity.”

If that’s what Nanami thinks.

To be honest, I had no intention of bad-mouthing someone I’d never even properly met. I figured they had their own reasons too.

“From the next site on, let’s move with full gear. I don’t know what we’ll run into, but… someone’s going to be waiting at the next site too.”

Good thing we left early in the morning.

“For now, let’s just enjoy the drive.”

“Have you ever been to Jeju before, Nanami?”

“Me? No.”

“Ah.”

“I’ve never been outside the Foundation’s reach. Never even left Seoul except for missions. Though I suppose this could count as a mission, depending on how you look at it.”

“Still, it’s nice to get out for a drive.”

“Let’s get something good for lunch.”

“Let’s head to the next site first.”

“Is Admiral Hourani a high-ranking person in the Foundation? I don’t really know how high up he is.”

“Just think of him as the person who manages Jeju. In a way, Jeju itself is a logistics base for the Foundation Navy.”

“But how did things get this mismanaged?”

“That’s exactly what’s strange.”

“Now—”

BOOM!

The explosion filled the road.

****

It took about a second to assess the situation.

Someone had fired an anti-tank guided missile at our car. The Foundation vehicle’s electronic warfare suite had neutralized the missile.

An iron rod the size of my forearm had slammed into the engine at subsonic speed, causing the explosion. Nanami threw me out of the car, then dove out herself and hit the ground—

I raised my head.

“Dr. Geum. Grab the bag and get into the woods.”

I did as Nanami said, dragging the bag and sprinting into the forest as fast as I could. Nanami was breathing hard, but she was calmly scanning for a place to take cover behind the trees.

“Who do you think did this?”

“Who else? The Foundation.”

“Foundation headquarters?”

“If it were headquarters, we’d already be dead. It’s obviously Hourani’s people. No—coming to Jeju at all was the mistake.”

“How do we get back to the mainland?”

“Even if we have to swim.”

Nanami paused for a moment.

“Let’s talk in that cave.”

Nothing we could do about it. We sat inside the cave, gathered some branches, and lit a small fire. An ember fire with barely any flame or smoke.

To make tracking difficult?

“Dr. Geum. I’m sorry to say this, but from this moment on, do I have command of the operation?”

“Go ahead.”

“The anti-tank missile aimed at us. It’s a Javelin. Given the launch angle, it was fired from ahead of us. From behind a hill outside the line of sight. I can pinpoint the location.”

“Mm. Makes sense.”

“First, we kill the soldiers who tried to kill us. Then we go back to the main Foundation Jeju Naval Base and kill the leadership there.”

“Should we ask Foundation headquarters?”

“Pointless. They won’t intervene. They’ll side with whoever’s winning.”

“…”

She says it like she’s been through this before.

“Why?”

“Because they’re fascists. Pitting their underlings against each other is their way. From headquarters’ perspective, there’s no way to know which side is right, or which side serves order.”

Preparations were just about done.

“It’s Foundation equipment. That rocket was fired from within about a kilometer. Since they fired from behind a hill, the enemy doesn’t have many options.”

“Yes.”

“Once we cross the ridge, we should see a military truck. I’ll kill them all—just give me covering fire.”

If the enemy had fled immediately, there’d be no catching them on foot. But if they’d delayed their movement even a little… we might be able to kill them.

We moved forward.

The plan was simple. Follow the forest, cross the ridge, secure the area, and find the enemy. Nanami would handle the rest.

I’d probably be mostly safe thanks to that invisibility cloak. Nanami, I’m not sure about… but I can’t picture her getting hurt.

“There. A black military vehicle.”

Those soldiers must have fired a Javelin. We hid behind the trees.

“They’re not looking this way, are they?”

“Doesn’t seem like it yet.”

Nanami drew her greatsword.

****

[This is HQ. Echo-1, report status.]

[Echo-1. Vehicle destruction confirmed.]

[Confirm whether the target is dead or alive.]

[Echo-1. Unable to confirm status.]

[Move to the site and confirm directly. Neutralize if necessary.]

[Echo-1. With the equipment and personnel on site, we cannot complete that mission. Withdrawing.]

[That’s an order, Echo-1.]

[This is Echo-1. The order was impossible from the start, so we cannot carry it out. Apologies.]

[Echo-1. Continue the order.]

[This is Echo-1. We need to withdraw immediately. Please give the withdrawal order.]

[Then the order is changed, Echo-1. Remain at that position and only confirm the targets’ location.]

[Echo-1. Impossible. We didn’t fire that anti-tank missile for nothing. If our position gets traced back, we have no way to respond—]

****

*Shunk!*

Nanami’s greatsword cleaved the military truck in half.

Javelins are usually operated in a fire-and-forget manner.

Once you launch an anti-tank missile, there’s no real way for infantry to deal with a tank afterward. The situation now wasn’t much different.

Nothing could hold out against Nanami bearing down like a tank. I emptied my magazine and counted the bodies scattered around.

One, two, three… nine.

Everyone who came in that truck seemed to be dead. Nanami rummaged through the burning wreckage and found a radio.

“Pray to whatever god you worship. I’ll make sure you meet them before the sun sets today.”