Chapter 263.2

Chapter 263.2

The tires screeched against the ruined asphalt, emitting a chilling shriek. He lowered his body further as he swerved around a massive crater left by a shell.

Cold ran down his spine. The fingers protruding from the severed limb strapped to him seemed to tighten around his throat.

“The one luring me here… could be Tae Mu-kyung.”

At that thought, the image of another man’s wife flashed before him. A woman who had longed for her husband, resented him, and died.

Pale fingers. Disheveled hair. A jaw and throat drenched in blood. The metallic scent of iron brushed his nose, and Lee Wooshin spat out a harsh curse.

His stomach twisted, acid rising up his throat. He wrung the last of his strength from himself and drove harder.

At last, his destination came into view. At the edge of the city, an abandoned building rose before him.

The heart of the devastated city.

A skeletal structure of concrete loomed upright, stripped down to its massive frame.

With no windows and every floor exposed, it resembled a small honeycomb. Each time he stepped onto the staircase stripped down to bare rebar, the rusted metal plates creaked beneath his weight.

Lee Wooshin raised his handgun and stared sharply into the darkness.

“…He is late. Agent Joo Seoryeong’s husband. Ah. Not me. Your real husband. I left the coordinates of this place inside your ring.”

“…Who?”

“There is something I personally want to see.”

***

Somewhere, a distorted voice filtered through the cracks. The moment the floor beneath Lee Wooshin groaned, it caved in under his weight, scattering debris.

He instinctively sprang back, only for a chunk of cement to crash down from above. He quickly found cover and shielded himself.

As a storm of dust billowed upward, a bluish glow seeped through the wall beyond.

Two or three crude monitors.

“…!”

Like the hidden camera he had once installed in his own studio, she was there beyond his reach.

On the screen, Seoryeong flickered into view, bound helplessly inside the bathtub. His breath stopped.

“You must have trembled with betrayal. Yet you endured, tracked down your vanished husband, and married the same man again. No matter how I think about it, it is astonishing.”

“….”

“What makes you different. What makes the two of you different?”

Lee Wooshin did not move at all, as if he were part of the ruins themselves. At the same time, the man who appeared to be Tae Mu-kyung grabbed Seoryeong by the throat and plunged her into the water.

Through the blurred monitor, Tae Mu-kyung rolled up his sleeves with maddening calm. He pinned her slender neck with one hand. Water burst violently from her mouth and nose.

“You fucking bastard!”

Lee Wooshin’s veins stood out as he gripped the edge of the monitor with one hand. The harsh sloshing of water spilling over the tub played on repeat.

The moment Tae Mu-kyung’s hand fisted in his wife’s collar, Lee Wooshin’s jaw ground so hard it creaked. Thud. Thud. Thud. He could not tell whether it was his heartbeat or the sound of blood vessels bursting inside his skull.

Suddenly, his vision flooded red and blue. The rush of blood roared in his ears.

“You piece of shit!”

His shout struck the concrete walls and echoed back at him, as if mocking him for standing there helplessly. On the screen, Tae Mu-kyung yanked Seoryeong by the hair.

“Let her go!”

Lee Wooshin lunged at the screen and punched it. Shards from the cracked display lodged beneath his fingernails. His right eyelid began to twitch uncontrollably.

“You will call your husband and ask him to save you. If you do not call, the bathtub will turn into a microwave. If you do call…”

“.…”

“The snipers will take that ringtone as authorization to fire and pull the trigger on your husband immediately. The same conditions apply to Lee Wooshin, so do not worry too much.”

Tae Mu-kyung turned his head. His gaze toward the camera pierced through the screen and collided with Lee Wooshin’s.

In his hollow smile, something unreadable burned in his eyes. It felt like a silent challenge.

Can you break through this wall and save your wife?

Mockery and anticipation twisted together in that cold stare. The taste of blood spread inside Lee Wooshin’s mouth.

“Everything is ready. Now beg your husband to save you. Call him.”

Tae Mu-kyung pulled out an old mobile phone from his suit pocket and wrapped it together with wires around the back of her hand.

“Obviously, the one who violated the National Intelligence Service code should suffer far more. But in this ending that none of us can escape, only one person walks away…”

“This bastard wants to play a twisted game with me.”

Lee Wooshin’s shoulders trembled faintly. His chest quivered, but he forced his breathing steady and suppressed it. His shaking hand moved past his rigid jawline and pressed the in-ear calmly.

“Zoom in on the footage and check the window frames. The rivet spacing looks about five millimeters. Search for structural features tied to an industrial complex. Current solar elevation is forty two degrees. Estimate the shadow length at roughly one point eight meters and back calculate the location. Narrow it down within a two hundred meter margin.”

“Yes, yes!” A rigid, frozen voice answered at once.

Lee Wooshin sneered at Tae Mu-kyung’s pathetic game. If he got his hands on him, he would kill him. His long fingers dug into the grip of his handgun as if they meant to crush it.

‘So, Seoryeong.’

‘Do not waver. Survive first. I am coming, so please, just stay still–’

“You heard that, He Channa. Join him and share the data. Run SURF feature matching and compare it with last month’s reconnaissance satellite shots. Project the terrain map using homography transformation. I am giving you exactly one minute. And the moment the call comes in, trace the location immediately and…”

That was when it happened. Na Wonchang, who had been hammering at the keyboard without a word despite the torrent of orders, let out a strained groan.

―“But… Team leader… do you really think the owl would call you and ask to be saved?”

His voice had grown small, as if he were holding back tears.

―“Sniff. Somehow… I do not think she will…”

“.…”

Lee Wooshin froze.

Yeah. Damn it. That was the problem.

His wife, Han Seoryeong, was completely unpredictable.