Near the border between Poland and Russia.
Inside a speeding car, a man held up his phone.
# Beeeep--- Beeeep--- You are being transferred to voicemail. #
His face twisted as he examined the list in his hand.
What the hell was going on?
Every single line that was supposed to help him in an emergency had been wiped out.
Gritting his teeth.
He was trying to ignore it, but he knew exactly what this meant.
'We're being cleaned up? Us?'
The unit the man belonged to was called Spetsotrad.
It was a unit that handled tasks the state couldn't officially carry out, and among high-ranking officials, it was known as Russia's Shadow.
Given that, killing targets and cleaning up messes were things they did as routinely as eating.
And yet, they were on the receiving end of it now.
'Who the hell is doing this? How?'
Question marks kept popping up in his mind.
The response was too fast for it to be the US or Europe stepping in.
Besides, fewer than five people among the Babel Operation participants had this list.
It was nearly impossible for it to have leaked out.
"Damn it!!"
Frustrated, he slammed his hand down on the steering wheel.
This was an operation that absolutely had to succeed, one with no room for failure.
And yet, everything had gone to hell.
What kind of variable had to intervene for things to end up like this?
'Where is General Anastasia…!'
That was the most incomprehensible part.
This whole situation started with her absence.
The Korean NIS agents and Hunters currently stationed at Babel?
Anastasia could kill them all in five minutes.
But the fact that she wasn't doing that meant she wasn't at Babel.
He didn't think anyone had captured Anastasia.
That was simply unimaginable.
So where the hell had she vanished to?
Vrrroooom!
He stepped on the accelerator, speeding up.
He was dying of curiosity, but solving that mystery was a matter for later.
First, he had to get out of Pola—
Flash!
Light filled his vision for a few seconds.
The car collided with something solid and launched into the air.
It spun several times before crashing onto the empty road.
"Ugh…!"
The man barely managed to crawl out of the driver's seat, gasping for breath.
A shadow loomed over him.
He looked up to see an unwelcome face.
'Son of a…'
A person who absolutely should have died during this Babel Operation.
The Korean ranker Cheon Se-yeon, whom the man had brought from Karlsruhe.
Se-yeon let out a sigh of relief after confirming the man's face.
He had chased him down in a real hurry, afraid he might cross the border.
"Hand over the phone, you bastard."
The man swallowed dryly and pulled out his phone, handing it over.
Se-yeon examined it from every angle, then scowled.
"Damn, I just got this thing, and the screen's shattered."
It was covered in scratches, completely unsalvageable.
In the meantime, the man had grasped the situation and let out a hollow laugh.
"So it was Korea? The one cleaning us up?"
If not, there was no way Se-yeon could be here right now.
He must have tracked the exposed name on the list.
"Ha…! Can you handle the consequences? Or are you going to beg the US or the European Union for protection?"
"I don't know about that."
Se-yeon walked closer to the man.
"I warned you back in Karlsruhe, didn't I?"
Then he raised his fist.
"I told you not to play games."
Wham!!
The fist slammed into the man's face, his eyes rolling back.
Bubbles of foam frothed from his mouth.
"Now that feels a bit better."
Se-yeon patted his chest and stared at the empty road.
He had come here with the single-minded determination to land a punch, but now… how was he supposed to get back?
It was a night that left him feeling a little lost.
* * *
A university hospital located on the outskirts of Krakow.
Creak.
As the nurse left, Roche opened her closed eyes.
Then she quietly sat up and walked to the window.
About five stories high.
Her body wasn't in great shape, but it was a height she could jump from without too much trouble.
She opened the window and was about to swing one leg over.
"You're not thinking of jumping, are you?"
A voice came from the open door.
Cheon Se-yeon walked in, drenched in sweat from whatever he had been doing.
"Where do you think you're going in that condition?"
"Couldn't you have just pretended not to see? Getting caught in this position is a little embarrassing."
"First, put your leg down. If you insist on going, I won't stop you. Everyone has their own circumstances, right?"
After a moment of thought, Roche shrugged.
It wasn't like something terrible would happen if she didn't leave right this second.
"Sorry. Do I smell like sweat? I was out beating someone up."
"I'm honored. You came to visit me in the hospital without even showering first."
"Right? I don't do this for just anyone. Lie down. Since I'm here visiting, I'll at least peel you an apple."
Roche chuckled and obediently sat on the edge of the bed.
Se-yeon washed his hands at the sink, then picked up an apple and a paring knife.
Scrape. Scrape.
Watching him, Roche spoke.
"I know this might be a little rude to say, but…"
"Yeah?"
"Can I do that instead?"
Se-yeon looked down at the apple.
It had been the size of his palm, but now it was only half that.
He handed over the apple and knife without protest.
"Actually, at home, I don't peel them. I eat them with the skin on. But giving it to a patient like that just felt wrong."
"Here, eat."
Before she even finished speaking, Roche handed him the apple.
Se-yeon's eyes widened in shock.
The peel was so thin that moonlight could shine through it.
"Th-Thanks, I'll enjoy it."
He accepted the apple with a slightly sheepish expression and took a bite.
Polish apples. Incredibly sweet.
"Last time too, why are you always trying to leave so urgently? Like you're someone who can't stay in one place."
Roche, chewing on the apple, pointed a finger at Se-yeon.
"That's right. I can't stay. Especially not in places that aren't right for me."
"What kind of places aren't right for you?"
"Places where there are people who wish I would disappear."
With a faint smile, Roche leaned back against the bed.
"The unit I belong to is called Spetsotrad. A brigade-level unit that handles all sorts of dirty work. I've been training and growing up there since I was six years old."
As Roche continued her story in a calm voice, Se-yeon put down the apple he had been chewing on.
Even though he was hearing it directly, it didn't feel real at all.
That was how surreal the story was.
To someone who had grown up in an ordinary family environment.
"Spetsotrad values assets created with time and money… more precisely, weapons. So they never tolerate situations or relationships that could render their weapons useless."
"So they come and, like in the movies, slit throats or blow things up? I thought that was something from the Cold War era."
"It's actually gotten worse. With awakened abilities, there are even more options for killing someone. Spetsotrad is a unit optimized for this kind of work. And I turned my back on that very Spetsotrad at Babel. I was too blatant this time, so the unit has probably already figured it out."
Roche took a quiet breath and closed her eyes.
"Before long, the unit's execution team will be dispatched. Their goal is the complete elimination of the target. To achieve that goal, they don't care about time or place. They'll wipe everything out."
"That's brutal."
"They won't stop until my death is confirmed. Do you understand now? Why I need to disappear quietly through that window."
Roche, who knew Spetsotrad better than anyone, had made that judgment.
There was no guarantee she could protect everyone in this hospital, so how could Se-yeon stop her?
"Then, before you go, can I ask you one thing? I think you might know."
"Of course."
Se-yeon showed her the note Jin-hyuk had left behind.
# 62.4371 108.9055 #
"It looks like latitude and longitude, but when I checked satellite images, it's just snow, rivers, and forests. Do you know what it is…?"
Se-yeon stopped talking.
Roche's eyes had widened significantly.
Having realized something, Roche spoke.
"Where is Jin-hyuk right now?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen him for a while. He gave me his phone before he left, so I can't contact him. A transport helicopter from an unknown unit did land at Babel earlier, so maybe he took that?"
Roche ran a hand through her hair and stared at the coordinates.
She had no idea how Jin-hyuk had obtained these coordinates.
But one thing was certain.
The longitude and latitude before her eyes pointed precisely to something.
The base of the brigade known as Russia's Shadow, Spetsotrad.
* * *
High in the sky, far from the target point.
"Yodel Ranger squad leader Kancho! Ready to drop!"
He said it as energetically as possible, but he was actually whispering very quietly.
Because Dominic in the cockpit mustn't hear.
"Kancho. Are you sure you'll be okay? The wind is really strong. You're not going to go flying off again, are you?"
"No, sir! To become a Yodel Ranger, experience in airborne operations is essential!"
"Did the Yodel Forest have parachutes?"
"I jumped holding a frog tree leaf! It floats me down gently!"
"Nice. If the parachute doesn't open or it gets dangerous, just de-summon immediately. You can come back."
"Roger that, sir!"
"I'll signal the strike point with a smoke grenade."
Kancho gave a chubby thumbs-up and firmly put on his yodel goggles.
"Dropping now!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he hopped down from the helicopter.
'The whole world is white!'
The strong wind sent his small body flying, but he wasn't flustered.
Occasionally, strong typhoons would hit the peaceful Yodel Forest, and whenever they did, he would run out and practice dropping.
'Landing point confirmed!'
He memorized the location and deployed his parachute at the right moment.
"Huh?!"
The parachute caught the wind, drifting further and further from the intended landing point.
He thought he was supposed to pull some cord or something to adjust in situations like this.
But he had been too busy stuffing clay into bullets to pay proper attention.
"Landing complete!"
He was way off target, but he had landed, so it was fine.
Kancho cut the parachute with his yodel knife and burrowed into the snow.
Thump thump thump thump thump!
Like a mole, he tunneled through the snow.
So what if he landed in the wrong spot?
He could just go again.
Pop!
Kancho, having reached the target peak, poked his head out.
Ears perked up!
The enemy's hidden base came into view.
Perfect.
He had arrived correctly.
He pulled out various equipment from his bag and laid them out.
First, he planted a yodel flag to gauge the wind.
"Adjustment complete! Four kancho-meters to the right, two kancho-meters up!"
He shouted loudly and pulled out the slingshot of Volkanu, the master of amplification.
And then he waited.
For the signal from the commander-in-chief, Yoo Jin-hyuk.
Just as he was about to become a snow yodel in the middle of the snowy plain.
A colorful smoke plume rose from the target location.
Ears perked up!!
He spun his body around, shook off the snow, and loaded a large lump of clay into the slingshot.
"Clay shot, loaded!"
He pulled the sling back with all his might, tilting the slingshot to the pre-calculated angle.
"Aim complete!"
Then he released the tension in his hands.
"Firing!"
The clay, amplified by the slingshot.
Swoooooosh---!!
It traced a red tail across the dark sky.
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T/N:
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