Chapter 662

The door to the ICC Operations Planning and Coordination Office opened. The Director of Planning pulled the handle shut behind him, walked inside, then abruptly stopped.

“...”

A man was sitting on the black leather sofa, with no telling how long he had been there.

He had not even made the slightest effort to hide himself.

“I can’t even say our security is a mess. Not when you’re the one who broke through it.”

The Director of Planning calmly walked over to his desk. Taeo spoke in a voice sunk low.

“Explain.”

“We still haven’t received the information on the key locations. So it flowed to you instead.”

“...”

“Your superiors must have it rough too. Trying to keep you under control—”

“I used up what little patience I have waiting for you.”

Click.

The sound of a gun being cocked rang out.

Taeo was holding a small revolver rather than the M200 he normally used, and he did not turn his head.

As though he had no idea what he might do if he looked at the man right now.

Even in a situation like this, he kept his emotions under control and acted rationally.

Just like the excellent hunting dog the ICC had poured everything into raising.

-This is just so fucking good

-I’m speechless... This is seriously like a work Ma Eungyo wrote specifically for Han Yohan

-TT_____TT fuck, why does holding a gun suit him this well

-My heart rate just hit 180 and my watch is screaming ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND at me;

Aetami found herself experiencing the bizarre phenomenon of constantly thinking about Yeoreum even in scenes where Yeoreum did not appear.

“This is insane....”

Gal Daeguk and Ma Eungyo had definitely done something.

Just looking at Han Yohan’s face made Han Yeoreum appear in her head.

The effect produced by a man who had spent his entire life carrying someone in his heart had an overwhelming power beyond imagination.

A field agent who showed no change in emotion even while bullets were spraying and dozens of people surrounded him would throw caution to the wind the moment a single woman was involved.

It delivered a rough, almost violent catharsis.

Dozens of comments poured in every second, and the sheer buzz turned the discussion thread red-hot.

In an atmosphere so tense it felt as though a bullet might lodge itself in someone’s skull at any moment, Taeo raised the arm holding the revolver.

The muzzle pointed directly at the center of the Director of Planning’s forehead.

“Please put the gun away. I have no intention of ending my life here! I can just tell you, can’t I?”

Taeo lowered his arm very slowly. The Director of Planning did not even dare wipe the cold sweat running down his forehead.

He reached beneath the desk, opened a drawer, and took out a sheet of paper.

“It seems you still haven’t found out about that child’s adoptive parents.”

“...”

“You came straight to me without thinking about anything else, didn’t you? You should fix that habit. If people learn that you lose your mind whenever that child is involved, it’ll become dangerous. Not for you, of course. For the child.”

At the mention of Lia being in danger, Taeo tilted his head back slightly. The mark of his clenched teeth showed above the sharp line of his jaw.

The Director of Planning placed the paper on the table.

“When we rescued you, that child was also found on a mountain road not far away. The believers bit through their own tongues and killed themselves the moment they encountered us, before we could even subdue them. I don’t know how they were brainwashed, but their loyalty was impressive.”

As though the words had dragged him back into the nightmare of that day, a vein rose along Taeo’s neck.

“All the children we captured had been cut to pieces. How should I put it... Yes, to use their terminology, they probably decided there was no need to let ‘bad stock’ live. Except for that child.”

The revolver in Taeo’s hand grew warm and damp from his body heat. Beyond Taeo’s shoulder, the Director of Planning came into view.

With a grave expression, he recalled the past.

“Normally, people fleeing while carrying a child try to use the child as a hostage. Always, once things turn against them. They press a blade to the child’s neck and scream at everyone to back off. But that day was different. There were people fleeing while clutching the unconscious child as though she were some precious treasure. Three of them, maybe four....”

The Director of Planning abruptly asked Taeo a question.

“Do you know what forms the central axis of a religion? Time.”

Taeo had no desire to know, so he did not answer.

“Doctrine, ritual, and community. People listen to the object of their faith, pray, and gather with others who share their beliefs. They serve society, sacrifice themselves, and create a virtuous cycle among believers.”

The Director of Planning held up three fingers.

Then, unfolding each finger he had bent one by one, he continued.

“But cults are different. Their central axis is doctrine, the bishop, and proof.”

He lightly waved his fully spread hand as he explained.

“They hear new doctrine from the bishop and want to see proof that God exists before them. God is alive. He is right beside me. The miracle he will perform exists.”

A faint trace of disgust surfaced on the left side of Taeo’s face.

Disgust at having to go over the past again like this.

“That child’s adoptive parents have no connection to the ICC. We’re not as rotten an organization as you assume.”

All those days he should never have known existed, even though he himself had survived.

“Of course, a lot happened before it came to that. Remnants of the cult were already hiding inside the ICC. That’s why we had no choice but to hand her over to Interpol. Keeping her under our protection came with too much risk. Between us, isn’t this organization the perfect environment for worshipping eugenics? The one person chosen out of a thousand. The one person who survived out of a thousand. The one person who saved a thousand lives.”

Superior stock.

A special seed.

A talent bestowed by God.

Every word Taeo had heard while growing up came flooding back.

He wanted to forget all of it, but there was only one reason he had forced himself to remember again and again.

Because I was afraid I might forget you.

Because I was afraid the days I spent with you, buried beneath all those horrors, might never come back to me.

“So Interpol used that child?”

“I swear they didn’t. Interpol intended to protect her quietly. But how do you stop a child who decides on her own to become an agent? She joined of her own accord. And with talent that exceptional, Interpol wasn’t exactly in a position to turn her away either.”

“Then what kind of people are her adoptive parents?”

Even now, after years of being unable to forget her and yet unable to find her, Taeo could think only of Lia.

He did not rage that everything he had done all this time had been made a joke of.

He did not shout that she had deceived him from the very beginning.

He did not demand to know what she intended to do now.

Only Lia.

As though she alone mattered.

“They’re international human rights lawyers with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development at the Vatican. Her adoptive parents devoted their lives to eradicating the trafficking of vulnerable children. They were good people, which is why, when Interpol asked the Vatican for help, they were trusted with her.”

“How much do they know about Project Kardia?”

“Not the details, but they know the broad outline. Including the child trafficking and murders that took place at Eden Orphanage. But they don’t know that those people were targeting Lia. Because right afterward, even we didn’t know. All the records had burned, and the witnesses killed themselves. We only reached that conclusion after an exhaustive investigation.”

“Then why did they adopt her? They could have had an ulterior motive.”

“At the time, the child had developed mutism because of PTSD. Every night she would break out in a cold sweat, pull the blanket over herself, and cry. It was the same even after we rushed her to the United States. Her caseworker kept changing, until she was eventually placed in the care of the woman who became her mother, who was certified in treating mutism. Do you know the first thing that child said after she finally spoke again, fifteen months later?”

“...”

“‘Am I alone?’ Apparently, that was the first thing she asked.”

-TT_____TT

-Ah, that little baby...

-I’m fucking sobbing right now

-Eungyo, stop. Please, we can’t take this anymore, I’m begging you, stop

“Even without her memories, she knew one thing for certain—that she was alone. We gave up that very day on treating the child’s dissociative amnesia and trying to obtain a statement from her. Her adoptive parents immediately began the adoption process. From that day on, they avoided doing anything that might make her remember the past. As it happened, there was no longer any need to get a statement from her. We dug up related evidence in Texas.”

“...Fine. Then were the people involved in Project Kardia obsessed with that child because they believed she was God?”

At those words, the Director of Planning burst out laughing.

There was a hollow note to it that did not fit the taut, strained atmosphere at all.

“Listen, Time.”

“...”

“Think about your old name.”

Matteo.

One of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, and the author of the Gospel of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament.

A disciple who opened the door to the new scripture, whose name meant a gift from the Lord.

His former occupation had been collecting taxes, a trade considered base at the time, so he was treated as a sinner and despised.

But when Jesus called to him and said, Follow me, Matteo immediately rose from his seat, abandoned everything, and followed Jesus.

“You were the seventh disciple of Jesus. The pastor loved you because you were special. Then think about that child’s name.”

Lia.

“...”

“The central axis of a cult is proof.”

The child who shared my surname had been named Maria.

“God already fulfilled his role in creating that religion simply by existing. So what comes next is proof of a miracle. Jesus has to be born, doesn’t he?”

The physical mother of Jesus Christ, a woman blessed by God who conceived Jesus and obeyed in faith.

“Can you guess now what that child’s role was?”

Before he had even finished speaking, Taeo pulled the trigger of the revolver in his hand.

The nameplate on the Director of Planning’s desk went flying.

“...Don’t talk bullshit.”

“It’s true. This is why the ICC and Interpol have been chasing them for so long. They’re not an ordinary cult. Existing cults collapse or fracture into factions over power struggles once the leader dies, but the moment Jesus exists, it stops being merely a religious organization. It mutates into a small society under a dynastic system with a state religion. And it will never perish. It will exist forever.”

“Don’t make me laugh. Back then, she was only—!”

“Do you think that mattered to those bastards?”

Taeo’s eyes turned bloodshot.

A flicker flashed through them as though they had been swallowed whole by the flames of rage.

“You sons of bitches!”

“...”

“You knew that child was the target? And you still dragged her into this operation?”

Unable to contain his anger, Taeo rose from his seat and hurled the revolver away.

Then he strode over to the Director and seized him by the collar.

He had enough strength to lift a grown man clean off the floor in a single motion.

Taeo shoved his face close to the Director, who was choking and gasping as his throat was constricted, and shouted.

-These fucking bastards, seriously lololol

-Ah, I’m losing it TT__TT I feel like I’m gonna throw up

-This is fucking horrifying, this is insane right now;;;

-For real, Lia’s name was actually Maria all along

“Kh... The ones who wanted to make that child into Maria... kh...! They must be losing their minds with impatience by now. We erased the records and made her into someone who had died... but a few years ago they discovered the truth. There isn’t much time left, ngh....”

A faint sheen of tears gathered at the corners of Taeo’s eyes as he gripped the Director’s collar so tightly the man could barely breathe.

“They call Him omnipotent... kh... but time is fair to everyone. They’ll want to seize Lia as soon as possible.”

Taeo looked as though he had no idea what to do with the urge to grab someone right this second, beat them with his fists, put a bullet through their skull, and then keep beating them.

“But that child... is protected by the Vatican.”

At those words, Taeo slowly loosened his grip on the Director’s collar.

A well-trained agent detected lies out of habit.

From the movement of the eyes, the tremor in the voice, every piece of nonverbal behavior.

“Just as she always has been. The Vatican, Interpol, and we at the ICC will protect her with everything we have. By eradicating them once and for all.”

He was not lying.

“We have to catch their god.”

“...”

“Even if that means using the talent that child possesses.”

* * *

[Code Name: Time Seven Minor Gallery]

[“That child is protected by the Vatican” < this part gave me fucking chills]

Ah fuck, this is so hype. What a fucking legendary line;

Anonymous (17.11) For real, it feels like they’re not gonna go down easy at all, so I’m excited TT_TT

Anonymous (3.62) Her adoptive parents being connected to the Vatican is so fucking meticulous, seriously. Just imagining this cult crawling in like cockroaches is already terrifying

[Lia’s name really was Maria all along, I wanted to keep dodging that thought, fuck]

The real-life horror just shot straight up. It really feels like they’ve gone beyond an ordinary cult and completely shattered any normal common sense and gone insane...

Anonymous (1.552) The fact that Taeo only fired one shot is honestly beyond comprehension in terms of how rational he is. If it were me I would’ve sprayed bullets everywhere and killed the Director

[Maybe because Eungyo is a pastor’s kid, this really is on another level]

The disgust is seriously rising straight from my gut. You can really feel that this is a cult daring to challenge the authority of God itself? Thinking about it, Lia’s name was a massive spoiler from the very beginning, but everyone deliberately looked away because we’d known her since she was a child. It was just too inhuman to even think about;; this is seriously a ten-times-bigger betrayal event

Anonymous (10.27) A person with normal common sense would never even think of something like that. For real, Ma Eungyo hit us properly with this one. It feels ten times scarier and more dangerous now than just “they’re going to kidnap her”

Anonymous (6.66) I genuinely have no idea what kind of drugs Ma Eungyo and Gal Daeguk are on

Three pages were being pushed back every second.

Right now, the <Code Name: Time Seven> minor gallery was drenched in anger and fear.

No one could keep their hands still. Posts and comments were being hammered out like mad.

“...”

Feeling as though a bullet had lodged in the back of their head, IP 85.152 had even stopped managing the gallery for a while.

There was no helping it.

The revelation had the destructive force of something that had struck directly at a raw nerve in humanity.

The pastor who had cherished and loved little Lia came to mind.

The realization that it had not simply been because she possessed superior genes, but because that love had carried a revolting purpose, triggered an instinctive sense of disgust.

“Ugh, fuck....”

IP 85.152 genuinely felt like throwing up.

But the sight of Han Yeoreum’s face on the screen instantly cured the nausea.

“Yeah, Mom.”

Lia sat in her room using her laptop, chewing on a chocolate bar while talking to someone on the phone at the same time.

“What did I have for dinner? I ate. What? You’re asking if I’m just getting by on a chocolate bar again because I’m working? Come oooon-. Of course noooot-. Whose daughter do you think I aaam.”

Lia’s profile was utterly bright and innocent as she dragged out the ends of her words and acted cute while lying.

-She’s in so much fucking danger but our baby doesn’t know any of this TT_TT

-I’d adopt her too, fuck... my baby melon bread

?Get in line, I’m first

-How could you possibly not protect a kid like this TT_TT

Her eyes swept busily across the laptop screen, every bit the elite agent Interpol treasured, but the voice she used with her mother was still that of a spoiled child.

“Yeah. Dangerous, my ass. It’s not like I’m a field agent.”

But while Lia had been smiling as she spoke, her gaze suddenly changed.

An error had appeared on the laptop screen.

“I’ll call you back later. Yeah. I love you.”

Lia hurriedly ended the call and typed again several times.

The rapid clatter of her fingers filled the room.

But once again, she ended up right back where she had started.

“Ha....”

Lia covered her face with both hands.

But a moment later, she abruptly shot to her feet.

“Seriously. Not right before an operation. Don’t do this to me.”

Lia glanced at the clock once, loosely wrapped a red scarf around herself, and headed outside.

Her destination seemed clear as she walked through the nighttime streets.

Warm lights glowed in the distance.

Saint Basil’s Cathedral.

The building shining beneath the dark sky almost resembled the shape of an amusement park beloved by children.

The cold Moscow night wind brushed across Lia’s cheeks.

She buried her face in her scarf and walked among the people.

Step. Step. Step.

The sound of footsteps following from far behind began to overlap with her own.