TCWGRF 6

“No, it is just… The idea of organizing a patrol unit to lure in the rebels seems to carry a significant risk…”

Yes. This was a bait to round up the rebels who had infiltrated the city on a large scale, and an operation Samuel had been preparing even before his inauguration as Chief.

The Public Security Bureau was always a tempting prize for the rebels. Their comrades, whose very survival was unknown, were imprisoned in the bureau’s basement, and all the information, from the keys to the gateways that allowed entry into the city to the passwords for the guard posts, was here.

Furthermore, since the end of last year, anyone with even the slightest connection to the ‘outside’ had been dealt with by Samuel. Most had been neatly purged and lost their heads, or had barely managed to keep their lives.

In other words, there was no longer any way for the rebels to know the situation inside the Public Security Bureau. With their hands and feet, which were supposed to be active on the front lines collecting confidential information, cut off on a massive scale, a change in the rebels’ strategy was inevitable.

No matter how skilled they were, the rebels were not capable of waging an all-out war with the city. Even if they plundered and threatened the vehicles carrying daily necessities from the outside, they had no chance of victory unless they could shake the interior directly.

Also, the captured comrades knew not only about the city’s affairs but also about the outside and the rebels. If things went wrong, the rebels’ location or situation could be exposed in reverse, so the rebel leader must have been desperate to resolve this situation one way or another.

There were two things they could do first. Either rescue their captured comrades and retreat to bide their time for a later opportunity. Or, if not that, kill them cleanly before they could spill what they knew about the rebels.

Samuel, if it were him, would choose the latter without a moment’s hesitation, but it might be different for those who put forth justifications like working for a greater cause or for the liberation of the city.

The recruitment for the patrol unit, conducted at just the right timing, was a bait they had to take, even knowing it was suspicious. Now that Samuel had ascended to the position of Chief of Public Security, there would be no more opportunities like this in the future.

So, would they really let go of what could be called their last chance?

If they had any inkling of the gravity of the situation, those who had been hiding while waiting for the right moment with important roles within the city would have no choice but to reveal their identities.

If he could just catch a tail, even a part of one, it was only a matter of time before the full picture of the rebels scattered throughout the city was revealed. The information Samuel had gathered over several years and the spies he had planted in each district would not miss the slightest opening and would bring about the best possible result.

If he could annihilate the rebels in one fell swoop and eradicate them from within the city. No one would be able to deny that the ‘eternal peace of the gray city,’ which the rulers always talked about, was brought about by the new Chief of Public Security from the outside, a man they so despised.

‘How utterly ridiculous.’

It was at times like these that he had to be cautious. As Walter said, rounding up everyone who seemed like a rebel based on mere suspicion would yield little.

Rebels who had lived hidden in the city for over a decade would be accustomed to acting like citizens, and confessions extracted through torture were smeared with a desperate desire for survival, making it difficult to discern the truth.

It was better to throw out a few options and wait to see what they would choose. The moment the opponent makes the first move. That is when what they want, and what they want to hide until the very end even at the cost of great loss, will be starkly revealed.

After a brief silence, an unexpectedly kind answer came from his superior, who was smiling with the corners of his mouth stretched.

“This time, we’re not using a net, but a fishing rod. So we have to use bait.”

He was in a good mood because everything had fallen into place exactly as he had expected so far, so he could afford to show that much tolerance to the adjutant who had followed him for years.

Besides, it was not strange for his adjutant to have doubts. After all, if it were not Samuel, it was a daring operation that one would not even dare to imagine, using the entire Public Security Bureau as bait.

“Ah. I understand.”

Walter, who understood his superior’s intention through the simple analogy, nodded his head vigorously, then gathered the approved documents, bowed his head, and went outside.

“…Ahaha.”

Samuel, left alone in his office, looked out the window and suddenly laughed out loud. It was because he remembered one of the applicants he had seen in the morning, who had an expression full of determination, as if he were going off to war.

Whether he knew this was a place of death or not, the sight of him biting his lip and enduring, determined to stay until the end, was truly amusing.

A young man with black hair, wearing baggy and coarse clothes, who looked naive to anyone’s eyes and was from the outside. If there was a variable Samuel had to consider, it was only him.

People from the outside exuded a unique sense of unrestraint. This was especially noticeable when they stood among people who had grown up their whole lives in compliance with class and order. The rest did a pretty good job of pretending to be citizens, but that young man, in particular, was not one of them.

Just as Samuel had openly thrown out the bait of the patrol unit, perhaps the other side had also pushed in an unexpected person to test the waters here.

‘I’ll find out in due time.’

The stage was set, so now all he had to do was create a situation where our rebel friends could make their move.

He wondered how big the fish caught at the end of the fishing line would be, and what the feel of reeling it in would be like. With anticipation for that, a wry smile hung on Samuel’s lips.

*

Isaac, the only patrol unit member from District 28, barely made it home just before the curfew siren rang and reflected on his day.

‘How did I get chosen?’

Even though he had hoped to become one of them, he was more puzzled by the result, for which he himself could not find a reason. Looking at the selected members, he could not figure out the criteria at all. This was because their affiliated districts, ages, and appearances were all vastly different.

‘Sarah,’ who introduced herself as the public relations officer for the Public Security Bureau, left the successful candidates who were gathered in a corner of the field, telling them to greet each other.

For those who were drained from standing all day, it was a moment to sit down and rest comfortably for a while. This is to say that they did not even have the energy to make innocent self-introductions or get to know others.

As expected, there were no familiar faces. The only thing he could read from the strangers who had silently plopped down was that the dozens of people gathered there did not all have the same expression.

Most were beaming with joy at having gotten the job they wanted, but a few had a strange look of worry plastered on their faces. Besides them, there were also people with blank faces, and some whose expressions were erased, making it difficult to guess their thoughts.

Isaac had no way of knowing which group he belonged to among them. Pretending to wash his dry face, he traced his fatigue-worn face with his fingertips, but he could not quite gauge what kind of expression he was making.

When Sarah returned and finished giving simple instructions, the order to go home was soon given. The patrol unit members returned to their respective districts under the guidance of officers, just as they had come.

In any case, what was done could not be undone, and without even a moment to catch his breath, he had to go to the Public Security Bureau again starting tomorrow morning to perform miscellaneous tasks as a patrol unit member.

‘Still, it’s a relief. Because I got this.’

In Isaac’s hand was a new identification card stamped with the seal of the Chief of Public Security.

It was a single sheet of paper with simple personal details—Joshua, male, 22 years old, 178cm tall, residing in District 28, Block 45, 12th building, room 307—with the sentences ‘Public Security Bureau Patrol Unit Member’ and ‘Permitted to pass through gateways during curfew hours’ added, but that alone made him feel like he had taken a step closer to the hope of finding Asel.

The scenery that changed drastically each time he crossed a gateway, his shoulders that were confident then easily shrunk, his toes that curled at the unfamiliar feel of the smooth pavement, the freedom we did not have, the nevertheless beautiful city, the people gathered to grasp a thread of hope with their own hands, the field full of intensely shining sunlight and pale yellow sandstorms, the gazes that looked down fiercely as if they would shoot at any moment, the empty eyes of the applicants who were exhausted and could not bear it…

‘Starting tomorrow…’

The exhausting day flashed across Isaac’s eyelids, which were blinking and closing slowly. He had to make a plan, figure out what to do. But his overworked body refused to think, whispering to him to let it go, to leave it all in the darkness, to the next day’s sun.

Either way, he would not know until he faced it. How much leisure he would have to wander around the city and look for Asel, or whether another means of finding him would arise. The him of now knew nothing, but wouldn’t the him of tomorrow, who had become a patrol unit member, be different?

And so, in a pitch-black room without a sliver of light. On the shabby bed of the real Joshua, made of intertwined planks, Isaac slept soundly for the first time in a long while, without dreaming or tossing and turning.

*

Ah, haang, aht. A long time had passed since the siren announcing the start of the curfew had rung, but from the Chief of Public Security’s room, the sweet moans of a guest could be heard as usual. It seemed their day was not yet over.

From the flamboyant dress and various jingling accessories dropped on the floor, one could guess that today’s guest was a woman with quite a glamorous taste, but who she was did not matter. The guests who frequented this room were not just one or two, and most were people who did not require identity verification or surveillance.

“Harder, do it harder. Please, Samuel.”

“Well. It is already getting late.”

The woman, who was now spreading her legs wide and clinging shamelessly to Samuel, was the wife of a party official who had once rebuked him, and also the new stepmother of Joas, a regular visitor here.

“It’s fine. It’s okay. Hm?”

Her husband was twice her age, so their nights were likely unsatisfactory, and her father was also a very powerful figure, so no one could say anything even if she sometimes acted promiscuously like this, seeking out other men to satisfy her.

Those who treated him with such contempt and disdain during the day would hide themselves in shiny black cars like cockroaches at night, come all the way here, and wish to be his one-night stand, to be fucked by Samuel.

It was not bad. He too had desires he wanted to relieve, and he did not want to form a special relationship with anyone.

However, the only thing he found dreadful was when they did not know their limits and tried to act like lovers, or when they clung to him with their sticky bodies, expecting afterglow or affection, and rushed him.

“My husband doesn’t care about me anyway.”

“……”

“So I don’t have to go back.”

The woman, who had sat up, wrapped her arms around his neck and pretended to sniffle in a sulky tone. When she still did not get the expected reaction, she pushed Samuel away and climbed on top of him so that her naked body would be more exposed.

Her finely featured face, framed by thick, wavy hair, her full breasts, and her slender waist were her own unique weapons that had conquered numerous men.

Even with the woman actively seducing him right before his eyes, Samuel only looked at her blankly, slowly opening and closing his eyes, and did not seem particularly aroused.

The thought of annoyance had taken precedence, and in the short time he took a deep drag of cigarette smoke with his index and middle fingers pressed tightly to his lips, his brow was already furrowed with irritation.

“You should be going back.”

Hoo. The indifferent smoke, which had swept through the deepest parts of his lungs, blurred the face of the woman who had luckily obtained high status and power just by being born.

“Samuel, you know very well. He is…!”