In The Dark (SNOWDROP)

"good luck"

❄︎ — chapter 11 — ❄︎

Almost in a panic, Joo Gyeokchan took Kang Cheongya's headphones and played the audio for himself, trying to make out what the cut-outs in the message might have been saying. He couldn't hear anything more than static.

"Ssi-bal..." he muttered, taking off the headphones. He tore out the page with the decoded message and handed the rest of the pad back to Cheongya.

"Move on to the next intercepted message."

She nodded and got back to work, and Gyeokchan took the paper and dug out his radio. He locked himself in the office the team had used for the initial debriefing and pulled out his radio.

"Galaxy, this is Olympus. Galaxy. Do you copy?"

❄︎ — ❄︎ — ❄︎ — ❄︎ — ❄︎

In the middle of one of the mountains surrounding Seoul, Jang Hanna descended a dark staircase, her flashlight in one hand and gun in the other. Her heart seemed to beat slower in her chest with every step. Behind her were Lim Sooho and Oh Dongjae, both similarly armed.

They came into a large and mostly empty concrete-walled space, filled only with a few old boxes and crates. Mice squeaked as they ran out of the way of the three agents' flashlight beams.

"What the hell..." Dongjae murmured. "What is this place?"

"Seems like some sort of basement," Sooho said. "Is there a building above us?"

"There couldn't be," Hanna said. "The closest building is Hosu Women's University."

"There's another staircase," Dongjae said, his flashlight beam landing on the chain-link wall in front of the stairs.

"Wait, noona," Sooho said as Hanna unlatched the gate to the stairs. "What if this is private property?"

"Haegeumseong 1 had a direct passageway here," Hanna said. "If anyone's here, they might know about him, or suspects."

"Don't we need a search warrant—"

"We can get it after," Hanna said dismissively, then climbed up the stairs and through another door, into a small, green-walled hallway.

Sooho's eyes widened. "This must be the bottom floor of the university."

Hanna found another flight of stairs and stormed up them. They hadn't run into anyone yet, but her revolver was loaded and ready to fire.

Why would Haegeumseong 1 have a passage straight into the university?

The three agents burst into another corridor, this one well-lit. A few young college girls screamed and scattered as soon as they saw the armed agents.

"Ya," Hanna said, lowering her gun and looking at one of the students who was ducking behind a pillar.

The girl looked out at her, clearly trembling. She had shoulder-length black hair and glasses too big for her face. A yellow band around her arm read STUDENT HEAD OF DORM.

"Who's in charge of the dorm?" Hanna asked.

"P-Pi Seunghee," the girl stuttered.