Retire 281

281 Retaliation (1)

“Noah Michel asked you to do what?”

When Sandra Gamble heard from Alex about the errand Noah Michel had assigned him, she knew at once it was a poison she must never swallow.

Judging by the way Alex kept stealing glances at her, he understood it too. He might not always think things through, but he wasn’t stupid. All those years of diligent education had paid off.

“So?”

“So…”

Alex clamped his mouth shut. Well, at least he hadn’t gone off on his own, trying to fix things by himself. That alone was a relief. Now, at last, he could read other people’s feelings.

When she had first met him as a child, he’d been indifferent to the world, smiling only when his mother was watching, like a doll. Now, he seemed so much more human.

Sandra let out a sigh.

“You can’t hurt children. In fact, it’s not just children—harming innocent people is never right. You know why, don’t you?”

“I know that much!”

“Good… I really hope you do. Did Michel say anything about conditions when he told you this?”

“Conditions?”

“A deadline or… anything like that.”

“No? He just said to take care of it.”

“I see.”

Should she be relieved by that, or…?

Noah Michel knew about her. Alex hadn’t tried to hide it. Sandra had even let him talk about it openly. She wanted people to know that there was a clever person at Alex’s side.

If someone gave him a strange order, she wanted them to know there was someone who could tell him whether or not to follow it.

So, this time?

Did Noah Michel really think Alex would simply eliminate those children?

She didn’t know how Korean society worked, but even so, if children kept dying under suspicious circumstances, it would inevitably draw attention.

Moreover, from what Sandra knew, the Korean research institute had, for some reason, even kidnapped children of the elite, so there were people investigating the truth.

Had Noah Michel not thought that far ahead?

Sandra had never met Noah Michel in person. Judging by what Alex said, he seemed careless and impulsive… but she’d long since learned not to take everything Alex said at face value.

Either way, this was a trap. Whether they actually eliminated the children, refused, or found some third way—whatever they did, if someone was waiting for them to slip, no matter how carefully they hid it, they’d be caught eventually.

“So, what do we do?”

As Sandra’s thoughts dragged on, Alex, growing anxious, shifted restlessly and asked.

Sandra forced herself to break out of her thoughts. No matter how complicated it got, she couldn’t let the children be harmed.

She had already decided to walk a different path from Noah Michel.

“For now… wait.”

“Wait?”

“If Michel has decided to take care of this, the kids are in danger whether you do it or not. In that case, it’s better if…”

Sandra pressed her fingers together, steeling herself.

“It’s earlier than I planned, but let’s start now.”

---

About a year later, present day.

“…Didn’t Hunter Lee take over Sandra Gamble’s foundation? Don’t you know where the leak came from?”

I hate meetings.

I hate being called in, and I hate holding them myself. Even if I do, half the attendees will just sit there with their mouths shut, eyes rolling around, a quarter will spout nonsense with enthusiasm, another quarter of that group will pretend not to be dozing off, and only the remainder will offer anything resembling a worthwhile opinion.

Well, fine. Opinions. Listening to staff opinions is good. Talking with others can lead to better ideas, or point out things I hadn’t considered. If a meeting is actually productive, I welcome it.

But unfortunately, whenever there’s an accident and a countermeasure meeting is called, most people are too busy blaming others.

“We don’t even know for sure if the leak came from our side. Jumping to conclusions is dangerous.”

Even people from the future, world-class hunters, great magicians, and peerless geniuses are no different.

“Isn’t it obvious? There were no problems when I was in charge!”

“How do you know there weren’t? They could have been tracking us all along! They just decided to act now!”

“If they wanted to make a move, it would have been easier when things were smaller! But they waited until now? Now?! I was against it from the start! The more people who know, the greater the risk!!”

“So we should have left that shell company in place?! Think of the kids! If there’s trouble later, they’ll be the ones who suffer!”

“Better that than getting killed by a psychopath! At least I can clean up that mess!!”

“Come on, Gamble. How can you guarantee that?!”

Honestly, I wondered if any of this was right.

It had all started with a call from Alex Hope.

Henry Lehmann had found out about the children that Gamble and Hope had hidden away.

I never thought we could keep our alliance secret forever. Alex Hope had made that clear from the start. His warning about Sam Bloom had been part of that.

At first, Gamble had been lukewarm, thinking of Hope, but recently she’d made her stance clear. Once you cross the line, there’s no going back, and if you want to gain something, you have to give something up. She’d realized that belatedly. …And the mana detector blueprint passed through Kim Chaemin had probably played a part.

In any case, everyone had expected that, with the not-so-cooperative Alex Hope attaching Sandra Gamble to our side, it would be discovered sooner or later. Especially if the cooperation with Hope’s parents’ guild was made public.

…Yes. Let’s admit it. In all those meetings, no one ever voiced concern for the children’s identities.

If I’m accused of being indifferent to the kids, so be it. The other side was telling us to dispose of innocent children, and we’d been complacent.

But Sandra Gamble had been just as careful, hiding them as best she could.

The children Sandra Gamble had faked the deaths of were orphans with no ties. They’d grown up in the research institute’s orphanage, or were former institute kids like Kang Tae-woo.

The kidnapped children weren’t given priority. If their parents were looking for them, spiriting them away could mean they’d never return to their families. So she’d been preparing to expose the orphanage, so those kids could go home.

For someone in her mid-twenties, fresh out of grad school, she’d done everything possible. She’d done well. We couldn’t keep track of everything happening in America, but even so, we hadn’t even realized the kids weren’t dead.

No matter how hard we tried to hide it, the hunters from Daseon, including Lee Miseon, seemed quite stung by the fact.

If something happened to those kids, we expected it to be because of Noah Michel, not Henry Lehmann. No one had imagined Lehmann would make a move.

“So how do you explain this? The moment we handed the kids’ information to the Association, all hell broke loose!”

In the end, the ones raising their voices were those who felt responsible. Whether it was truly their fault, a mistake, or just bad luck.

“We’re… still trying to figure out what happened.”

“Still trying? When will you know? Do you know where Lehmann is? What he’s doing? You poked at Lehmann without being sure, and now he’s retaliating!”

Gamble was shouting at Lee Miseon, veins standing out on her neck.

At the start of the meeting, everyone had been grilling Lee Miseon about how this had happened… but when things reached this point, my mind grew calm.

“That’s enough… Dr. Gamble? Please, calm down.”

“……”

Gamble glared at me. Her bloodshot eyes looked like they could tear me apart.

“We can’t say for certain that this is Hunter Lee’s fault.”

“…Then whose is it?”

“We do need to check if the leak came from our side. But Henry Lehmann wouldn’t have been sitting idle, either. He must have been looking for any opportunity to exploit our weaknesses.”

It was an organization where even the executives were too busy fighting among themselves.

Noah Michel, Henry Lehmann… and Alex Hope, too. All three had openly declared in front of each other that they’d screw each other over.

Even if we hadn’t made any mistakes, they’d have been on edge, looking for any scrap of information.

“And…”

I recalled my conversation with Hope.

“Lehmann hasn’t actually done anything yet, has he? Let’s all calm down and come up with a plan.”

Thankfully, Gamble accepted my words. The atmosphere eased somewhat.

Lee Miseon couldn’t quite hide her displeasure, but she regained her composure and spoke in a calmer voice.

“Sorry. We’re still trying to figure out what happened. If we find anything, we’ll let you know right away.”

“…No, I got too worked up. Lehmann’s the crazy one, not you. I guess I’ve just grown attached to the kids.”

Gamble accepted Lee Miseon’s gesture of reconciliation.

Kim Chaemin, who hadn’t done anything wrong but had been nervously glancing around, finally relaxed a little and met my eyes.

Kim Chaemin raised her hand halfway, drawing everyone’s attention.

“All right, let’s think together. What would make us angriest if Henry Lehmann used this information?”

“…If he went after the kids.”

“That would make him a monstrous criminal who preys on innocent children, wouldn’t it?”

Kim Chaemin shrugged.

“But we have to consider his relationship with the Ark. What could Henry Lehmann do with the knowledge that children who should be dead are alive?”

“…Tell Noah Michel?”

“It was Noah Michel who ordered the children killed, right?”

“So if he finds out the kids are alive…”

“But Lehmann and Michel don’t get along. No, they’re on bad terms. I don’t think Lehmann would do Michel any favors.”

“……”

Gamble nodded cautiously.

“If there’s proof Alex disobeyed, it’ll be easier for Michel to punish him. Since we’d have violated the original conditions.”

“Let’s clarify one thing.”

Hong Seok-young, who had been quietly observing the chaos, finally spoke for the first time.

“Yes?”

“Is there any way Michel can physically harm any of you? Besides taking hostages. I mean, could he remotely threaten Hope’s life or something?”

“…No. As far as I know, there’s nothing like that.”

“So the issue is the safety of Hope’s family? That’s helpful.”

“……”

Honestly, I’d worried that Hong Seok-young would go on a rampage, saying that if he just killed Lehmann and the rest, there’d be no more psychopaths threatening children.

“And as for the Henry Lehmann situation.”

But Hong Seok-young, uncharacteristically, spoke in a cold, calm voice.