WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 184: Under Black Water (2)

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Joanna stared at the ceiling and blinked. The rims of her red eyes grew quietly wet.

“It doesn’t feel real. More than ten million people are about to die, and yet it feels like something happening in another world.”

There was a deep dampness in the long sigh she let out. Along with grief came a touch of self-loathing. Shouldn’t I be suffering more than this? Why am I so calm? Those tangled emotions weighed down the agent. That human side of her reached Gyeoul’s heart.

“It’s because we’re weak.”

Gyeoul spoke quietly, as if stroking a wound.

“We want to grieve everything that deserves grief. We want to take responsibility for all the misfortune in the world... But we’re too small and too weak for that. Our own pain always feels the biggest, we have to do our best just to live day by day, and saving the people closest to us is already more than we can handle. We don’t even have enough capacity to grieve.”

After shaking his head, Gyeoul affirmed what it meant to be human.

“Weakness can’t be a sin. What’s wrong is refusing to do what you can. So, Anne, I think we just have to do our best within arm’s reach.”

That was the limit, and anything beyond it was a dream. The words the boy swallowed reached her as something other than speech. The FBI agent pressed a fist to her forehead and squeezed both eyes shut. I shouldn’t be doing this. The monologue that slipped through her dry lips was a lash turned against herself.

“I showed you an ugly side of myself.”

After a pause, she steadied herself again.

“Yes, right now, we have to do what we can. Human experimentation is one thing, but the fact that a private organization acting on its own exists inside the Intelligence Agency is also a major problem.”

Having cut off her agitation, the agent quickly laid out the prepared plan.

“At 1500 hours, there will be a minor disruption in the power grid. Of course, it will be restored within a few seconds, but that will be enough to reset the closed-circuit switching cycle. As you know, there are far more closed-circuit cameras than monitors in the situation room. If we move according to the intervals when the screens change, we should be able to reach the lowest level without being discovered.”

She showed him her notebook. Pages of work notes and written conversation turned one after another until a rough map of the ship appeared. Along with the expected route, the locations of the surveillance cameras and the intervals during which they appeared on screen were written in neat, careful handwriting. 「Map Navigation」 quickly absorbed the information.

Gyeoul said with admiration, “You prepared thoroughly. With this much, it should be possible.”

The closed-circuit cameras had motion tracking, meaning they could automatically track movement, but it was not used during the daytime, when many people usually came and went. The settings were probably the same now, with the withdrawal approaching. In this busy mess, nobody would have time to pay attention to that.

Joanna’s face darkened.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into something dangerous, Gyeoul. But there was nobody else I could rely on.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for. I’m glad, actually. That I can help.”

“...Thank you.”

A faint smile brushed across the FBI agent’s lips.

“What about bringing in the strike team?”

Gyeoul made the suggestion.

“If it’s White Skull, there are quite a few people I’ve at least gotten acquainted with. Anne, you may not have good feelings toward Captain Fowler, but Captain Fowler isn’t rotten at the core, and is an excellent soldier. If the team hears about human experimentation that wasn’t ordered by the government, I think they’ll definitely cooperate. They may even convince the other strike teams...”

Marine stubbornness became grounds for trust at times like this.

“Even if not... If one Company of Force Recon helps us, this will become much easier. A surprise seizure of the situation room would be a decent method too. Most of all, isn’t this something you can request with your authority as an inspector?”

Joanna looked regretful.

“It’s a good idea, but I’ve already considered it. The incineration procedure still bothers me. It’s a self-destruct device prepared for emergencies, so it operates separately from the other systems. I looked for a way to shut it down on my own, but found nothing. In other words, Team Leader Chadwick can destroy the evidence at any time.”

“You think bringing more people would backfire?”

“Yes. I want to avoid increasing the chance we’re discovered. Most of all, there’s no guarantee there are no sympathizers of Team Leader Chadwick inside the strike teams. Private organizations like that often expand through personal contact and recruitment. Unfortunately, there are plenty of operators with unstable mental states.”

I’m going through all this suffering here because of those Chinese bastards. As the operation dragged on, some operators had darkened that way. People left to stagnate for a long time in the rotten sea, with no replacements available.

They'd be easy to shake, and easy to persuade. Since they were special forces, they had plenty of value too.

The more Gyeoul thought over the FBI agent’s concern, the more reasonable it seemed. He accepted it.

“You’re right. I was being shortsighted.”

“No. It was a natural suggestion.”

In the end, sticking to the original plan was best.

“Let me borrow the notebook.”

Gyeoul took Joanna’s notebook, copied some of the contents, and memorized what he needed.

Even then, they had time to spare. Gyeoul deliberately showed his face outside. If he stayed gone too long, it would be easy to draw suspicion. He had spoken to various people here and there as a shallow trick in case someone went looking for him.

“Ah, Lieutenant Han Gyeoul? I think I saw him near the mess hall earlier.”

So that the same answer would repeat in different voices.

The time needed to go into the controlled area, take pictures, and return was expected to be under an hour at most.

On his way back, he avoided prying eyes. With ten minutes left, Gyeoul leaned against the wall of a cabin stacked with odds and ends and waited for the time. Tap, tap. A small sound came from boot heels touching. Joanna, leaning beside him, was lightly playing with her feet. She looked down at her toes with blank eyes. Her controlled breathing must have been a habit for suppressing tension.

Bzzzt.

The lights went out for an instant. It was the signal announcing exactly 1500 hours. Under the fluorescent lights that hummed and brightened again, Gyeoul and the FBI agent nodded to each other.

They opened the door and left. Naturally, there was no sign of anyone in the corridor. Five seconds until the closed-circuit camera ahead connected to the situation room. The two sprinted at full speed and slipped into the camera’s blind spot. Crouched directly beneath the camera, they checked their watches. Tick, tick. The time it would be displayed on the monitor was again five seconds.

They ran again and crossed the remaining half of the corridor. After quickly opening a pressure door and going through, they hid in the first cabin they saw. The time they had to spend here was 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second.

Bang! They kicked the door open and rushed out. Since there was no one around, they did not need to worry about sound. Bootsteps echoed through the narrow space. Their breathing grew rougher bit by bit. That was the agent more than Gyeoul. Given the situation, it was unavoidable that her heart rate and breathing rose more than the amount of exercise called for.

They could not use the elevator. The closed-circuit system was a problem, but the elevator’s movement also appeared on a separate screen. If the elevator operated in an area where personnel withdrawal had ended, it would definitely look suspicious.

A loud clanging rang out the entire way down the emergency stairs, made louder by the silence around them.

They had a brief rest at the landing midway. They had to conserve stamina. There were still many sections left to break through at a full sprint.

They could not neglect their watch even while resting. Since the camera’s blind spot was narrow, Gyeoul and the agent leaned back to back and aimed their muzzles in opposite directions.

“So far, it doesn’t seem... like we’ve been discovered.”

Her voice came through as a tremor across his whole back. He could feel her heavy breathing too.

Gyeoul thought of his older sister asking him for a song. This was not the time for that. The boy smiled bitterly without meaning to. I really must miss her quite a lot.

“Let’s move again.”

They did not know when or why someone from upstairs might look for them. The more time they saved, the better.

From the upper levels to the controlled zone on the lower level, they stopped only once while descending the long staircase. That was thanks to calculating in advance how long it would take for each camera’s turn to come around.

This one was 7 seconds. After passing here... another 7 seconds.

Throughout the run, he kept checking the notebook and his watch. Every movement had to be cut into units smaller than a second. Avoiding the closed-circuit cameras felt like knocking over dominos. If they ran according to the order in which the cameras switched, the time left before exposure kept extending.

Then, a creak came from somewhere, an ominous sliding sound.

“Ugh!”

Had there been a leak somewhere? The floor was wet, and the agent slipped. There was a loud tumbling sound. Like on April Pacific, she had been covering Gyeoul’s rear, and there was also a difference in speed, so he could not catch her in time. Gyeoul slid with his own inertia and turned around, then saw the camera at the far end of the corridor.

He ran backward. Four seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds until the sight of this place appeared in the situation room...

He opened the door to a cabin on the side and yanked the agent in with strength beyond human. He was already a little late. There was no time to control his force, so the agent slid straight in and struck her head against a metal cabinet.

After slamming the door shut, Gyeoul quickly checked Joanna’s condition.

“Anne! Are you all right?”

She crouched while clutching her head and groaned for a long time. Bloodstains remained on the cabinet corner.

A moment later, Joanna barely managed to raise her upper body while swallowing a moan, but one long line of blood flowed down her face. Her wavering posture was worrying too.

“Let me see.”

Gyeoul examined the wound. After wiping the blood away with a handkerchief, he saw that the tear was on the upper part of her forehead. The flesh had swollen. It would likely discolor soon.

‘I don’t think the bone broke... Is it a concussion?’

Joanna narrowed her eyes and waved a hand.

“I’m fine. My vision is normal, and I’m not dizzy.”

There was no way to be sure. Gyeoul turned on a flashlight and shone it into her eyes. It was a guideline 「First Aid」 gave him. Hypersensitivity to light was also one sign of a concussion.

The agent pulled the flashlight down.

“I really am fine. It just hurts. More importantly, what happened with the camera?”

“We were a little late. We were probably exposed on screen for around 1 second.”

“Fuck.”

Her self-reproaching curse did not stop with one word. Gyeoul spoke quietly.

“Calm down. Even then, it was just one screen among many, right? Only 1 second. Do you think they saw it? The situation room should be busy preparing to withdraw. Their guard may be down too.”

“...We have no choice but to hope so.”

Worrying about bad possibilities was meaningless. There was nothing they could do about it right now.

Still, they needed to avoid being ambushed from behind. The two moved to another cabin and waited to see if anyone followed them. Joanna also needed rest. The aftereffects of the injury might appear late. They had to be careful with head injuries.

Five minutes passed, then ten. The time they endured in silence kept stretching.

At the point where they thought anyone coming would have arrived by now, the agent lowered her muzzle. As she wiped away blood and sweat, she murmured quietly.

“Haa. We were lucky... Thank you, God.”

Their movement resumed. The restricted area had already been close. After they started moving again, they passed only two more cameras before a round pressure door appeared, different in size from every one they had passed so far. The lock required either inserting a card or entering a password.

After the camera’s turn on the door passed, Joanna took an ID card from her breast pocket and inserted it into the lock. With an electronic sound, the door opened. Gyeoul asked.

“Where did you get that?”

“I borrowed it for a moment.”

“Though the owner doesn’t know.” At her added words, Gyeoul laughed lightly. After quickly stepping through the door, he manually pushed the latch shut just in case.

“Even if they know, it won’t matter. The owner boarded the first submarine and left. The underwater telephone won’t reach this far... and now that the operation is over, I doubt anyone will care about a lost keycard either. I borrowed several cards from people coming out of the restricted area, and we got the right one on the first try.”

There was another door inside. To the side, they saw a place that looked like a security room. Closed-circuit screens were arranged on the table, along with several microphones and consoles of unknown purpose. Judging by the empty weapon racks, a fair number of armed personnel seemed to have waited there.

They could not have connected the surveillance system in the secret area to the situation room upstairs. People who did not know about human experimentation must have gone in and out of that place often.

Thinking that, Gyeoul gestured toward the security room with his chin.

“I think it would be better to check the situation inside from here before going in. There may still be infected subjects alive.”

Joanna agreed. The chance was low, but after the personnel withdrew, infected subjects who had been restrained might have gotten loose.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

#Q&A

Q. infe-nim: @This suddenly came to mind, but has nobody seen the ending of this game?

A. Of course there are people who have. Mostly S Grade subscribers. Mighty whaling makes everything possible.

Q. Calpis-nim: @If it’s a sapient being with a personality... does that include guys like HAL 9000 or the T-1000?

A. In my opinion, what defines a human is sociality. Therefore, the condition for being human is that they must be a sapient being capable of coexistence. So the guys you gave as examples are fine humans.

Q. Kaif-nim: @With a wallet like Chairman-nim’s, how long would it take to clear?

A. Good question. I’ve never thought that far...

Q. LewdDemonF-nim: @We haven’t been seeing the comments lately. Of course, I’m satisfied with the story progression.

A. They’ll appear once after this chapter passes.

Q. LewdDemonF-nim: @You always said the title reflects the content, so if it’s Under Black Water, then the long-term submerged nuclear submarine under the polluted bay is going to set off something big, or America will set off a nuke. If the submarine turns out to be a MacGuffin and it actually gets sunk by a third country while everyone was barking up the wrong tree, I’ll go to the bookstore and buy three copies.

A. If I say whether your prediction is right or wrong, that would be a spoiler in its own way. I’ll answer with the future serialization instead.

Footnotes:

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