The voice sounded so distant that my translation device could no longer translate it into Korean, and I only heard the original voice very faintly. I asked Yujin in a stiff, tense voice.
"How many times can it be wrong before it doesnât open?"
Yujin pondered for a moment, as if thinking about the distant past, and then answered.
"About ten times?"
Kim Gayoung kept folding her fingers and then, frightened, whispered.
"Itâs already been more than seven times."
"What happens after ten times?"
"Um... You have to try again after ten minutes."
Lee Jihyun frowned and gripped the scalpel. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she realized that one person might try to open the door with a fingerprint. Wow, no way. It canât be. Ignoring the chill running down my back, I asked Yujin.
"Can you only enter with a fingerprint?"
Yujin thought for a moment and then nodded.
"After it became known that AI voice modulation could open the door, the lab abandoned that method in its early days. Originally, they used card tags, but people were playing pranks with them, so they were all discarded, and now itâs probably only fingerprints."
As soon as she said that, we heard a distant "ding" sound, as if the door was opening. We all froze for a second, looking at each other. Seeing Kim Gayoungâs shocked expression, Lee Jihyun silently approached and quickly locked the iron door connecting to the animal room.
We heard very faint and distant footsteps. Yujin looked at the almost empty aquarium tank, then at the locked door and the bottle of hydrochloric acid in her hand, and her face turned pale as she shouted at us.
"Key! Key!"
"What?"
"The key to this iron door! The key to this iron door should be next to the reagent room!"
"Iâve got it. I picked it up. Donât worry."
Kim Gayoung showed us the key with a jellyfish design on it. Yujin took a deep breath and, as she was about to hold the bottle of hydrochloric acid with both hands, the footsteps grew closer.
The middle door connecting to the animal room opened when someone pressed the button on the floor. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, we heard the sound of the middle door opening and someone entering. It seemed the person had entered Yujinâs animal room. The sound of dragging feet was getting closer. Slippers? Lee Jihyun asked Yujin in a low voice as she headed for the office.
"How do you open this?"
"Press the button next to it."
When she pressed it, the middle door blocking the animal room of the adjacent lab opened, allowing us to move to the office of the adjacent lab. We looked at each other, our faces frozen with tension. ...What do we do now? Should we immediately run out and hope we can outpace that person, or should we run up the stairs to the third floor? Lee Jihyun quickly wrote something on a notebook with a pen. As she was writing, a sound was heard.
Knock, knock, knock.
The person was knocking on the iron door with the back of their hand. Knock, knock, knock. As we exchanged glances, a manâs voice was heard.
"I know youâre there."
Then the person kicked the door. Bang! Kim Gayoung gasped and held her breath. Yujin jumped.
...Itâs an iron door. Kid. Try kicking it. Yujin, who was standing there like a statue with the bottle of hydrochloric acid, handed it to me, and I placed it on the center of the office desk. The manâs voice, speaking in normal English, came from the other side of the iron door. It was a rather deep voice.
"Why didnât you go to the third floor?"
All our eyes turned to Yujin. Yujin made a sound and then asked us in a low voice.
"...Should I answer? Or should I stay quiet? Which is better for us?"
Lee Jihyunâs expression also turned uncertain. I whispered.
"Is it okay to ask what heâs doing? Why he didnât escape from the flooded submarine base, if the research center is intact, and what heâs doing here."
We only stopped by here briefly before heading to the submarine pollution center through the third floor, but why is he wandering around here? Lee Jihyun thought for five seconds and then nodded.
"...Okay. But, Jin. Youâre the only one in this lab."
Yujin said "Ah" and nodded, quickly writing "OK" on the notebook. Then she left the office, crossed the middle door, and walked to the opposite side of the iron door, shouting.
"Who are you to enter someone elseâs lab without permission?"
"I came in after scanning my fingerprint."
The manâs voice answered, mocking Yujin. Yujin, whose face was tense, bit her lip and frowned, shouting.
"If youâre going to talk like that, I donât want to talk. Get out!"
Yujin, who seemed annoyed by the unknown personâs attitude on the other side of the iron door, spoke firmly. The person was silent for a while and then answered.
"I work at the submarine pollution center. Do you work here? Or did you wander in like me?"
"...How did you get in?"
"I collected some researchersâ fingerprints. What about you?"
Kim Gayoung looked like she was about to vomit from disgust. Yujin hesitated, looked at us for a few seconds, and then answered.
"I work in this lab."
"Did you come from the main building? Or have you been here all along?"
"Iâve been here all along."
The man kicked the door again. Bang! Kim Gayoung and I jumped, and Yujin jumped and took a few steps back. Turning my head at the sound of rustling, I saw Lee Jihyun writing on the notebook.
Lee Jihyun, gripping the scalpel in one hand, was writing with a complex expression. She wrote that she would open the door from this side and ambush the man in Jinâs lab. She asked us to stall for time. As soon as I saw the content, I shook my head.
He seems crazy. Is Lee Jihyun going to fight him with just a scalpel? What if he has some strange microbial gun? Can Lee Jihyun handle him alone? What if someone is waiting for the lab door to open from outside?
If the man closed the door after entering Yujinâs lab using a fingerprint, we canât enter that lab without Yujinâs fingerprint. An ambush is impossible. The man laughed at Yujin.
"Donât lie."
The man spoke calmly to Yujin.
"Letâs exchange information honestly for our survival. Weâre both busy people, after all."
Yujin frowned and crossed her arms. Then, despite her trembling lips, she answered calmly.
"Give me information that will help me first. Iâll decide after I receive it."
"The barrier on the third floor of the submarine pollution center can only be opened by someone with the authority of Director Riley or Director Malon. The same goes for the barrier between the main building and the annex."
Lee Jihyunâs eyes widened. She immediately took out her Roacker pad, turned it on, and checked the map of the submarine pollution center. Then she wrote.
[The barrier was down.]
Kim Gayoung, looking puzzled, took the pen and wrote.
[Iâve traveled between my lab in the submarine pollution center and the annex hundreds of times, but it was never blocked.]
It seems that researchers could freely move between the research centers before. I took the pen and quickly wrote over Kim Gayoungâs words.
[So, heâs trapped in this deep-sea biology center now?]
I suddenly remembered the shattered pad next to Angela Malon. And the barrier that blocked the corridor connecting to the annex. It must have been Angela Malon who lowered the barrier.
Lee Jihyun started checking if there was a way out of this deep-sea biology center using the pad. We entered the research center because of this pad; otherwise, we probably wouldnât have been able to enter. It seems that regular engineers canât control an entire research center with a pad.
Yujin uncrossed her arms and pointed at the iron door with her finger, making a circular motion and a gesture asking what to do. Lee Jihyun quickly wrote and showed it to Yujin.
[In exchange, give the information that the missile attacked here.]
Is this important information? To me, it doesnât seem important at all. Lee Jihyun probably thought the same. Whether the building was destroyed by a missile or people caused an explosion inside, the submarine base is still leaking like a waterlogged shoe. The need to escape for immediate safety remains unchanged. Yujin hesitated, licked her lips, and then answered the man.
"The research center is in this state because it was attacked by a missile. Now, itâs my turn to ask. Did you kill the people in the corridor?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I could."
Yujinâs mouth gaped open in shock. Kim Gayoung, similarly shocked, was writing to confirm if she had heard correctly. Lee Jihyun frowned at the iron door. After taking a deep breath, Yujin seemed to recover from the shock and now stood with her arms crossed, glaring at the iron door. The man asked Yujin.
"Now, itâs my turn to ask. Why did you return to the research center from the annex? Why didnât you escape?"