Chapter 114 - Emergency Mobilization (2)

[Mobilization order. All headquarters Badgers are to report to the portal zone.]

The portal?

I looked up, my eyes widening. There had been several mobilization orders so far, but this was the first ordering us to assemble in the portal zone.

"Let's go."

Yun set off calmly.

"You know where the lockers are by now, right?"

"Yes."

Headquarters had individual lockers for the Badgers to store their combat uniforms and personal weapons. My fellow recruits and I hadn't taken the promotion exam yet, so we hadn't been issued personal weapons.

We would probably get communal weapons from the locker room.

When I ran to the lockers, several seniors were already there. I nodded in greeting, then got changed.

Unlike usual, I also had to put on a helmet reminiscent of a gas mask. The black combat uniform was thicker and sturdier than normal, too. It seemed to be loaded with all sorts of unfamiliar features, but Yun, who had changed in an instant, stuffed me into it before I could ask what any of them were.

Dazed by his rough handling, I flailed my arms and legs.

"Aagh!"

My hair was caught!

"My hair!"

Yun simply ripped out the hair caught in either the helmet or the zipper. Several people nearby watched us in amusement.

"How can you be this bad at getting dressed?"

"He's a new recruit."

As Yun muttered in puzzlement, one of the seniors watching beside us snickered.

"Aren't you being a little rough putting that on him?"

Once I was dressed, I followed Yun. Everyone was wearing the same gear, but my training officer was easy to pick out. Of everyone gathered in the locker room, he moved the most quietly and efficiently.

We were the last to leave.

"Remember where the portal zone is?"

"No."

I'd been far too disoriented back then. I hadn't even been able to remember what I looked like.

Unsurprised, Yun merely nodded.

"Underground."

Underground?

It was underground?

Silently marveling, I followed my training officer.

Ahead of him, helmeted Badgers moved in perfect coordination. Heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor. I raised my visor for a better view and followed close behind him.

People pressed themselves against the walls, parting like the Red Sea.

I ran, focused solely on my training officer's back, until the people ahead of us suddenly stopped. I stopped as well and looked up.

An ash-gray door filled my vision.

CLANK, CLANK.

The deafening sound of enormous locks disengaging assaulted my ears. Slowly, the locking mechanism released, and the massive door swung heavily inward.

The smell changed. Air rushed inward.

I drew a breath as the view opened up before me.

The portal zone.

The familiar sight stole my breath for an instant.

Ice-cold light washed over my eyes. The space was still vast enough to accommodate several cargo trucks, and still startlingly pale. The color alone was enough to give me chills.

Two unidentified devices stood in that immense space. People who looked like scientists were studying tablets beside the machinery.

The head of HR was at the entrance as well.

"You're here."

The head of HR looked up from his tablet.

"You can see the roster, right?"

Watching the Badgers enter, he pointed at a display suspended in midair.

"Badgers assigned to Area B-5, head to the back! Those assigned to Area B-14, line up in front of the device by the entrance!"

The majority, assigned to Area 5, moved off en masse. The few seniors assigned to Area 14 also made their way silently toward the device.

They crossed the vast space with their weapons in hand. Only Yun didn't move.

The head of HR and I turned toward him in puzzlement. After standing still a moment, he raised his visor.

"What's with this lineup?"

"Sorry?"

Zhu tilted his head. Meeting my training officer's gaze, he smiled, his gentle eyes curving into perfect crescents. It was the sort of smile that could melt most people's hearts.

It didn't work on Choi Yun, though.

If anything, it seemed to have the opposite effect. My training officer furrowed his brow, rebuffing the head of HR's smile. Even with only his eyes visible through the helmet, his expression was easy enough to imagine.

He looked as though he'd seen something truly revolting.

Irritation colored his voice.

"Do I really have to spell it out?"

As the portal device leading to Area B-5 began powering up, Yun growled.

"Why have you lumped all the fucking bastards together in Area 14?"

"Is this about Sylvia and Leonard?"

Zhu, in turn, brushed off Yun's bloodlust-filled gaze without batting an eye. The head of HR kept smiling brightly.

"I know you can't stand your own kind, but please bear with them for a bit. They're both excellent at what they do, aren't they?"

"You know perfectly well it isn't just those two. Jerry Jones, Lucia Kwon, Gale Dawson, Isaac Lane... Do I need to keep listing names before you're satisfied?"

"They'll listen to you, Mr. Yun."

The head of HR dropped the pretense of ignorance. The daisies that always seemed to shimmer like a hallucination behind him vanished in an instant.

I swallowed at the change in his smile.

"We do need to concentrate most of our key personnel in Area B-5."

"Then send everyone to Area 5."

"I'm told they need bait."

Zhu's voice was low enough that only we could hear.

"They need someone in Area 14 who can draw attention away from the Badgers surrounded in Area 5."

Ah.

He meant me.

Suddenly, it all made sense. Apparently, the Badgers deployed to Sector B had been surrounded by creatures. We were going through the portals to rescue them, but they needed a unit to draw off some of the creatures concentrated in Area 5.

That was why Yun and I had been assigned to Area 14. My own kind would sense me and converge on my location.

A reasonable choice of personnel. I nodded in understanding.

But Yun kept his sullen gaze fixed on the head of HR. Staring at his superior, whose smile looked ready to make the daisies bloom again, my training officer muttered,

"So you're telling me to dispose of them and make it look natural."

"Show your juniors some love!"

Zhu abruptly cut him off.

"The baby will hear you!"

What were they talking about?

I blinked, not immediately following the exchange. I didn't understand why the head of HR had answered Yun's muttering with a call to love his juniors, or what exactly Yun meant to dispose of naturally.

But then the head of HR said, "Yehyeon really will tear into you," and the truth dawned on me.

I stared at Yun in horror.

"You're not talking about killing them, are you?"

"You're as quick on the uptake as they say."

Zhu studied me with an amused smile.

"Hardly anyone picks up on remarks like that from Mr. Yun right away."

I didn't think this was the time for such a sunny smile...

Of course people didn't catch his meaning. No one with common sense could imagine such a thing. If I hadn't spent months being put through the wringer under this man, I wouldn't have figured it out either.

There was something fundamentally wrong with him.

Yun completely ignored me as I shook my head. Lowering his visor, he turned away.

My sociopath of a training officer walked farther into the portal zone.

"If you're in a hurry, send that lot through first."

He meant the Badgers standing in front of the Area 14 portal.

"The rookie hasn't been checked for portal compatibility yet. I'll put him through after the check."

"Ah, all right."

Once again, I didn't fully understand what Yun meant. But judging by the head of HR's ready nod, it seemed he'd said something sensible this time.

The head of HR lowered his tablet with a smile.

"That would be the proper order of things. Go through once you've checked."

Yun headed toward the scientists without answering, while the head of HR smiled cheerfully.

I gave him a polite bow of my head, then followed my training officer.

* * *

My training officer stationed me in front of the Area 14 portal, then left to fetch a device for testing portal compatibility.

Just like that, I was left among seniors ready to travel through the portal. Keeping my mouth shut, I quietly took my place at the back of the group.

Stares rained down on me.

Even with most of their visors lowered, I could feel their eyes boring into me. The seniors assigned to Area 5 had already disappeared through their portal. Only the Badgers waiting for the portal to Area 14 to form remained in the vast portal zone.

They studied me as they waited.

This was deeply uncomfortable.

As I lowered my head and my gaze, someone tapped me.

"New recruit."

I turned toward the voice.

"Yes?"

"What were you dawdling around the head of HR for?"

The helmet hid the speaker's face, but judging by the voice and build, it seemed to be a man. He held a long rifle in his hand.

He thrust his helmeted face toward me.

"Don't you know this is an emergency?"

"I'm sorry."

Simply apologizing would be quicker than arguing.

I was grateful the helmet spared me the trouble of controlling my expression. I answered in a neutral voice.

"I'm told it's because I haven't taken the portal compatibility test yet."

"Compatibility test."

He snorted as though there were no funnier words in existence.

"That compatibility test even morons pass? That's why you're doing this?"

"Yes. I'm not sure what sort of test it is myself, but my training officer said he'd fetch the testing device."

"What a fuss."

He folded his arms and sneered, the gesture dripping with condescension.

"Making all this fuss over something like that."

"I'm sorry."

"If you're not compatible, you should quit being a Badger. Huh?"

"Eligible personnel will depart in thirty seconds!"

The scientist standing beside the device called out.

I blinked at the bluish ripples forming in the center of the device. The portal to Area 14 was ready now, too. The circular ripples at its center grew steadily larger, opening onto an alien space.

"Please prepare to move. We'll begin the countdown at ten seconds."

"You're coming too."

The Badger with his arms folded jerked his chin at me.

"It's an emergency."

"I've been instructed to stay here."

"Who outranks who?"

CRACKLE, CRACKLE.

The portal grew larger. One by one, the seniors turned their attention away from us and approached it.

No one intervened.

The countdown began. I frowned slightly at the senior gripping my arm.

"Ten."

"Oh, so you're not coming? Don't you know this is a direct order from the commander-in-chief?"

"I'll go as soon as my training officer returns."

"Nine."

"This is an emergency!"

The senior shrieked.

"The mobilization order takes priority over that precious senior of yours!"

I wasn't saying I wouldn't obey the mobilization order. I would simply be carrying it out a little later, at my training officer's discretion.

I tried to say as much, but I was a moment too late.

The senior picking a fight with me yanked hard, and now that the countdown had begun, the portal's pull was powerful. I'd anticipated his strength, but not the force of the portal.

Nor had I anticipated that someone else, who'd been quietly watching nearby, would shove me toward the portal from behind.

The numbers kept dropping.

With three seconds left, my body pitched toward the portal.

"Three."

"Huh? You're really dragging him along?"

"Two."

Someone reached out in alarm to catch me from outside. But I had already lost my balance, and brilliant light swallowed my vision.

"One."

The sensation of being sucked in.

A familiar sensation.

Experiencing that feeling I could never get used to, no matter how many times it happened, I was sucked into the portal.

* * *