WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 450: Stuffed Paradise (12)

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Inspector Maynard had offered an explanation, but the Independent Battalion officers still had not let go of their suspicion that Maynard's and the subordinates' identities might be fake, or that even if they were real, they might be involved in some sort of plot. The fact that the emergency contact network had not been activated was suspicious enough on its own. There was also the precedent of the True Patriots.

So Maynard and the police strike team members put their weapons down entirely. They had their own share of hard experience, but being watched by active-duty officers who had survived a hellish battlefield was still bound to be a heavy burden.

The taut tension finally eased only after Gyeoul made calls here and there to confirm the facts. To the members of the Independent Battalion, officers and soldiers alike, Gyeoul's judgment was absolute. The platoon leaders from each Company took their fingers off the trigger guards.

Yura, as the next highest in command, offered her hand in apology.

"I'm sorry we doubted you. I hope you weren't offended."

The emergency contact network, reorganized after the spread of the plague, had been designed so that when a disaster occurred, all relevant personnel in the area, including soldiers, police, firefighters, and others, would receive real-time updates on the situation.

Maynard shrugged and shook her hand.

"Not at all. Given the circumstances, it was understandable. Anyway."

Maynard turned to Gyeoul.

"So it really does look like a jurisdiction fight?"

"That seems to be the case."

"I'd rather not get dragged into a competition between the people upstairs and end up worn out..."

If things started getting tangled at the top over which department would take the lead, inefficiency and breakdowns in the field naturally followed.

For example, during the 2014 Ferguson incident, which had been sparked by controversy over racism, the state police and National Guard had belonged to different chains of command from the federal police and the Department of Justice, resulting in separate responses. At least now, in wartime, it was fortunate that command authority over the National Guard had passed to the President.

'Anne is going to be furious if she hears about this.'

The President was one thing, but Gyeoul was more worried about Anne. Even if the Bureau was structurally above the state police, once the governor started shielding the police, that relationship would clearly become meaningless. In their own state, a governor could even play power games against the President, depending on the situation. So Gyeoul was less worried about her anger itself than about the stress it would cause her.

Still, he could not avoid telling her.

When Gyeoul sent her the situation by text, Anne immediately called.

"You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Put that person on right now."

She probably had a great deal to say, but she kept it brief to save time. As expected, her voice sounded like she was holding back a great deal of anger. When Gyeoul handed over his Net Warrior terminal, Inspector Maynard looked a little puzzled. The screen only showed the name Anne.

"Who is this, and why are you giving it to me?"

"The FBI Deputy Director."

Hrk. The inspector sucked in a startled breath. Aside from the police, a few of the battalion officers looked slightly surprised too. It seemed the people who knew about Anne's existence had been very strict about keeping quiet. Was it because they did not want to cause trouble for Gyeoul?

"This is Inspector Maynard."

Gyeoul's hearing was good enough to pick up the call leaking through the receiver. Anne's voice was businesslike, but there was something in it that pressed down on the person at the other end.

She demanded that Maynard report major operational matters to her as well. As Gyeoul had noticed earlier, given Maynard's rank, it was safe to assume that information coming in from the front line would all be accessible. High-level internal information too.

Of course, she was not simply trying to pressure him into yielding.

"I will take responsibility for any problems that arise from this. If you suffer any professional disadvantage, and if it is not corrected, I will look for a position for you at the Bureau."

Gyeoul was reminded all over again that his lover held considerable power.

After finishing her conversation with Maynard, she asked Gyeoul to be careful and ended the call. There was still a chance that the email mentioning a bomb was a false threat, but since this involved Gyeoul, she would probably be quite busy too.

Maynard pointed with his thumb over his shoulder, toward the helipad.

"Come with us. Until the search inside the college is complete, we'll take you to the secure operations headquarters."

Walking beside Maynard, Gyeoul lowered his voice and asked.

"Will you be all right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Cooperating with the Bureau."

"Ha ha."

Maynard laughed quietly.

"I should hope something happens to me, really. An FBI agent usually makes a hundred thousand dollars a year... More importantly, isn't it only natural for local police to cooperate with the Bureau? Especially when this concerns Lieutenant Colonel Han Gyeoul's safety. There can't be any mistakes."

The first part sounded like a joke, but the farther Maynard went, the more strongly the sincerity came through. It was probably a decision based on Maynard's own thoughts rather than Anne's promise, which had no written guarantee.

Gyeoul and the battalion officers split up and boarded four helicopters. The helicopters, carrying snipers at their sides, turned their noses west. The field command post had been set up at Dickinson College. It was a campus Gyeoul had visited several times for ROTC lectures and training matters.

The distance between the command post and the War College alone was enough to suggest the scale of the police force that had been deployed. If it had been a meager force, the command post would have been set up right nearby.

Vehicles with flashing lights patrolled every major intersection. Watching the streets of Carlisle pass below the window, Gyeoul thought.

'No matter how I look at it, this is a bad environment for a sniper attack.'

There were few open spaces, and no tall buildings at all. The greatest distance anyone could secure was about a hundred meters at most. Anne had told him to be careful, so he was wearing body armor, but even a skilled sniper could not escape Gyeoul's senses from that close.

The enhanced variant whipper that had fooled Gyeoul right in front of his eyes had been the strange one.

"Insight," working in connection with combat-related bonuses, supported Gyeoul's judgment. By now, it was not much different from Gyeoul's own senses, so it was barely useful at all.

What were the odds that a bomb had truly been planted in the War College, where outsiders' access was restricted?

'I can't rule out an inside job.'

The side trying to incite hatred had motive too. In that case, the point would not be to target Gyeoul so much as to make it look that way. The real target would be the Chinese-American citizens and refugees they hated seeing.

Yura was surprised when she saw the armored vehicle blocking the college entrance. It was not the kind of police bulletproof vehicle people usually imagined. Aside from differences in paint and armament, the basic chassis was identical to a military one. The engine was loud, so she asked over the headset.

"Has the National Guard already been deployed?"

Maynard gave a short laugh and answered.

"No way. Maybe if the bomb had gone off... That's police-owned equipment. Since the plague broke out, we've been bringing in more military equipment."

"I feel like that would make residents uneasy."

"I was surprised at first too. Even if the Ordnance Bureau selling to police is nothing new, I never imagined the day would come when we'd roll out armored vehicles."

"Was public order that good?"

"Well. I can't speak for other neighborhoods, but the Philadelphia metropolitan area was such a mess... I couldn't call it fine even as a lie. More than that, to be honest, the state government has always been short on this."

Maynard raised his hand and mimed rubbing bills together. Yura smiled bitterly.

Despite insufficient budgets, police organizations in each state had begun heavy armament as a measure against mutant horde incursions, or infection explosions on a similar scale. Of course, thanks to the massive arms buildup, the equipment now pouring out was probably cheaper than it had been in the past.

'It should get a bit better once the vaccine is complete.'

The apocalypse had not ended yet. Gyeoul always kept that fact in mind. Naturally so, since less than half a year had passed since they secured the original form of Morgellons. There were studies that had been built up during that time, but clinical trials would still have to happen before the vaccine could be mass-produced. They could not let their guard down until the very last moment.

The privilege gained by ending the apocalypse, though, did not actually mean much to Gyeoul.

The substance of the privilege was that everything gained through life in this world would be fixed as the minimum value for a new beginning. That included not only skills, but status and property as well. If Gyeoul retired as a general in the Army, then in the new beginning, he would be given a social background at a similar level.

This standard would apply the same no matter how many times he started over.

'What value does that have for me?'

If he could enjoy happiness, one life was enough. As Bom's friend, that amount of time would be enough too. Half a century later, Bom would have become a being who had reached a realm humans could not perceive. Gyeoul planned to discard his own existence after this world.

Those who meet must part.

People were not eternal. A single meeting promised a single parting someday. Therefore, loving someone also meant carrying a potential fear equal to that love. Now that he had come to love Anne, a world without her had become terribly empty to Gyeoul. If not for the older woman he loved, this afterlife was something he would have ended long ago.

Gyeoul was only waiting for the end of the apocalypse as a sign that the world where he would live with Anne had become a little safer.

The helicopters lowered altitude. After landing in a parking lot cleared of cars, they let off the people who needed to disembark and took off again. They had to monitor suspicious movements in the area.

"Please come this way."

Maynard guided Gyeoul to a tent open on all sides.

At the command post, they could watch the search underway at the War College in real time. The person overseeing the command post was a superintendent (Major) who looked like they might have served as the chief of some police station somewhere. When Gyeoul appeared, the entire tent briefly went quiet.

"It's an honor to meet you, Sir."

"Has anything been found?"

After exchanging greetings with Gyeoul, the superintendent shook their head at his question.

"We started with the lodging and have been expanding the search area, but so far, there have been no unusual findings."

On the screens, people in military uniforms flashed past from time to time. Gyeoul spotted familiar faces among them. They were none other than armed War College students. Since they lacked search capability, they were assisting the police by guarding the area around the scene.

Gyeoul had likely been brought here because he was the target, but the trainees were active-duty officers with combat experience. Setting aside whether cooperation was necessary, it must have wounded their pride to obediently take shelter. The War College might not have independent response capability, but it was still unquestionably a facility owned by the Army.

After watching the overall deployment and movements, Gyeoul asked again.

"Looking at the amount of equipment and manpower you've deployed, it seems you had some basis for judging that this wasn't a simple threat... Could you tell me what that was?"

"Yes, well."

The superintendent avoided giving a precise answer, wearing an ambiguous expression.

"The sender's movements and such... There are suspicious circumstances, but nothing certain. For now, please leave this to us. Hey, show Lieutenant Colonel Han somewhere he can rest."

Gyeoul raised a hand to refuse.

"No. I'll just stay here. I'll stay out of the way."

"Hmm... If that's what you want."

Right after answering, the superintendent turned slightly away. They began pressing the operators one after another, and to Gyeoul, some of the status checks mixed in felt a little unnecessary.

In the field, search teams accompanied by police dogs combed through the college buildings.

"D Block secured. The lodging is safe."

"Nothing unusual on the first floor of the library. Bravo Team, moving up to the second floor."

Positive reports continued. Gyeoul hoped it would end quietly like this.

'The timing is bad. The corruption of the refugee leaders is about to be exposed soon as it is... If that overlaps with a bombing, the aftermath will amplify both.'

The ending of the story he had built, the limits of being a person, the world flowing in a muddy current, tragedies in places beyond his reach. Gyeoul was trying to accept those tragedies as unavoidable, but of course he did not welcome their intensity rising.

A boring yet anxious stretch of time passed.

When the search had almost reached completion, a sudden explosion rang out.

The police radio network went wild.

"What was that? Where did the explosion happen?"

"Dormitory D? That place was searched already!"

The feed from the helicopter clearly captured smoke rising from the officers' lodging.

Gyeoul pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a small, long sigh.

Footnotes:

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