Apologies for the slow progress on this fanfic. Somehow I feel like when I get back to working at my regular job this week, it will force me to also do more writing. The holidays have made me too lazy and I actually hate that! Anyway, I'm grateful to have more than 30 followers now. Here's the next chapter. No idea when I'll update, but keep checking back! ;D
Ciphertext – Chapter 26: Human Rights
Tom turned to face the black-suited men, who had managed close in on him. They had aimed their guns directly at his head.
"The South Korean Government?" echoed Tom. The tone of his voice suggested that he was just as surprised as Luciel, but he seemed to be more playfully amused by this revelation than he was concerned. "Don't be ridiculous! I have all of those people under my control. My knowledge is worth too much for the government to go against me," he scoffed. "I don't believe that they would dare to take me down for even a second."
One of the suits, standing to Tom's left, sought to correct his assertion. "Actually, Mr. Park, we've been given express permission to ignore any orders that you issue us. President Song has told us directly that you are not to be trusted under any circumstances," he confirmed, positioning his own gun a little more accurately. "Don't make any sudden moves."
"Oh?" Tom leered, satisfied that his reputation was threatening enough to have well and truly preceded him. He dropped the knife onto the floor and put his hands above his head. "Come and get me if you want," he said, inviting the men to seize him. Then, a knowing smirk crossed his face as he stood up slowly, hands still in the air. "But if you kill me, you'll just make more trouble for yourselves."
Another of the armed men moved closer, clicking off the safety on his gun and positioning it against Tom's head. "I hope that it won't be necessary to kill you Mr. Park. However, if you refuse to cooperate, your crimes will be publicly revealed and your entire client list will know your true motives. If that should happen, you might just as well be dead."
"That's total bullshit," noted Tom, turning to face the man who had just spoken. "Why would President Song try to break our partnership now? Since I know too much about how the South Korean government gets its intel, the best thing they can do is keep me alive."
Seeing that Tom was preoccupied with trying to negotiate with the men, Luciel took the opportunity to quickly shuffle away. Although one of the men spotted him out of the corner of his eye, he said nothing and his facial expressions did not betray him. After all, the red-haired hacker was on their side.
As his eyes panned around, Luciel tried to make out some of the strange objects in the room. He searched for clues that might be able to help him find Eun-ji. Tom wasn't going to let the cat out of the bag so easily. He fixed his gaze on the rows of dull, emotionless programmers who were still staring intently at their screens and crawled over to the main power source. Masses of cables ran separately from there to the individual monitors.
Maybe if I can disconnect one of these cables …
Hearing the rustling of Luciel's clothes and feet coming from behind him, Tom spun around to see his old friend fiddling around with the mainframe.
"No! Don't touch those Saeyoung! You have no idea what they are rigged up to do!"
He's being deliberately vague about the details, which means I'll upset the system he created if I unplug this but …
… what do I have to lose? I need to try something. Eun-ji can't be far away from here and I can't just sit back and relax right now.
"Saeyoung …" Tom tried again, "Listen to me."
Completely ignoring the plea, Luciel wrapped his hand around the thickest cable he could see and violently yanked it out, setting off a brief flurry of electrical sparks. Then, within a matter of seconds, the haunting blue light that had been flooding the room disappeared and all the screens blacked out, leaving the place noticeably darker.
All at once, the zombified hackers stopped typing and rested their hands on their laps. They stared blankly ahead at the clock on the wall, as though they had stumbled across a never-ending pit of nothingness. Perhaps they had paused to consider what little meaning their lives now held in a place like this. Or perhaps they weren't even capable of those kinds of thought processes anymore. Luciel jumped back onto his feet again, taking a moment to steady himself using one of the desks. He felt sorry for the poor slaves.
His mind felt slightly numb as he kept his eyes fixed on the row of mysterious shadowed faces. "Tell me what the hell you did to these people Tom."
Tom snarled, like a dog actively defending his territory. "What do you care about who these people are? All you need to know is that all this is the product of my longstanding hatred towards you, Saeyoung. Nothing more, nothing less. I built this secret hacking empire and hired some of Seoul's most intelligent people to bring it to life – you had always just been the key part of the plan."
"What plan?" Luciel said, putting on a more investigative tone.
"To ensure that the North Korean government becomes subservient to us after all these years. For that, 707's intellect was all I ever needed." Tom let off a dissatisfied grunt under his breath. "Your emotions and all those new romantic ideas floating around in your head are useless to me."
Luciel put a hand to his chest, feeling his heart beat a little with anxiety as he pondered how his sense of self had been affected by Eun-ji. But he kept himself calm and took a few deep breaths to bring himself back to reality again.
"Wasteful or not, at least my feelings for her are genuine, something I'm certain you'll never begin to understand." He paused and thought about what Tom had said. "The intel we gathered for our clients … it was always meant to be for peaceful purposes. Are you telling me that was a lie, that you were just using me to fulfil your unlawful plan?"
"Peace can only be obtained if the opposition is brought to its knees, if the enemy is rendered so weak that they can no longer stand on their own two feet and have no choice but to obey the stronger nation's demands. In other words, it is necessary to take away their power to ensure our victory."
Is he serious!? This is taking things too far!
"Tom, that logic is obviously flawed. You would only bring about more poverty that way. Yes, our relations with North Korea may be constantly strained, but you know it's not right to use political oppression in order to gain power. What do those programmers have to do with this? Where do they fit in?"
"They were my pawns. More specifically, final year Computer Science students from Seoul National University. I had them recruited through a unique course that would give them programming experience in the real world. They were just like you, but instead of being naturally talented, we injected their brains with a special inflammatory substance, specifically commissioned by me. I call it 'Parkacetamol'. After that, all that was left to do was keep them permanently hooked up to a highly charged power source and bingo! – man-made geniuses in the blink of an eye." He laughed, perversely.
They live on drugs and electricity!?
"How the hell did they even stop to eat?"
"That's the beauty of this stuff. People get addicted to it and as long as there's an electric charge, the energy just keeps flowing through them. It keeps them alive. There's never a need for extra sustenance with Parkacetamol."
Luciel felt sick. "Tom … when did you become so cruel? I don't understand how any human being could be stupid enough to come up with this crap and call it a solution to a problem? These people have lives. What gives you the right to destroy them?"
"Heh. You're calling me an idiot for creating a really efficient productivity drug? This is by far the best thing I've ever patented in my entire life. It wasn't a question of inflicting cruelty, Saeyoung; this was throwing young people like us a safety net, something that isn't currently offered to them as part of their higher education."
He got a patent for it?
Tom looked over at the blank-faced hackers. "The programme I put together would have set them up for the rest of their careers … but that power cable was their lifeblood and you've just murdered each and every one of these guys. I had them so well trained too … such a wasted effort."
Luciel bit his lip as he quivered with anger. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me! How was I supposed to know that pulling out the cable would lead to this?" He clenched his fists by his sides, visibly frustrated by Tom's demeanour. "Anyway, I doubt they wanted to live their lives as your slaves for much longer. Maybe I've just done them a favour, but of course I wish you'd never recruited them in the first place."
"What makes us so different, Saeyoung?"
Is he asking me a genuine question, or is this supposed to be rhetorical?
"You know, right now I really couldn't care less about analysing our differences. Whatever they are, there's only one reason I came here today. Quit trying to win back my friendship and tell me where the hell you're keeping Eun-ji. I won't leave until I get her back by my side. You know that."
Tom grinned, pleased that Luciel had brought up the main topic of interest. "Oh, you wanted to see her? You should have said something sooner," he teased.
The suited men kept their weapons aimed firmly at Tom's body as he slowly moved over towards the wall, approaching a large black lever.
"Explain what you are about to do," said one of the men, obviously concerned that it could activate an inescapable trap.
Giving a small laugh, Tom added. "Where's the fun in that? Rather than simply giving the game away, isn't the suspense more … thrilling?"
"If you don't tell us what you have planned, you leave us very little choice Mr. Park!" another of the man warned.
"Oh, you mean you're all really going to man up and kill me?" Tom acted as though he were frightened by the prospect momentarily, but then regained his usual cool composure. "If that were true, one of you would have shot me the second you barged in here."
"Tom …" It was Luciel's turn to interject now. "You're stalling. I just want to see her with my own eyes. But I swear … if you've done anything to hurt her, there's no-one on this earth who is going to hate you more than me."
"Fine, I surrender!" he said, mockingly. "I promise I won't waste any more of your precious time, Saeyoung. I'm going to pull this lever to reveal a hidden room. That's where she will be. Once you see for yourself, there will be no reason to doubt me. I didn't do a thing to her."
Tom yanked the lever all the way down until it made a strange clunking noise, and sure enough, the wall divided into two and opened up. An invasion of incandescent light spilled into the room from the other side, illuminating the darkness that had surrounded them. Luciel put up his arm to try and block the overbearing glare and squinted as he struggled to adjust to the brightness.
Then, as everything came into clearer focus, he could see the faint outline of Eun-ji's slender body beneath her clothes, the way her long brown hair draped over her neckline and shoulders. All those familiar features that he thought he had lost forever were suddenly becoming real once again. He wanted to reach out and feel the softness of her skin under his fingers, to fulfil her deepest desires and make her feel loved however she wanted. Whatever animosity existed between them, whatever had happened with Zen – none of it mattered to him anymore.
But despite the beauty of her presence, a large and obtrusive metallic cage had Eun-ji pitilessly trapped within it. Her hands were tied with rope behind her back to the chair on which she was sitting, patiently waiting for the Defender of Justice to return.
As Luciel approached, his form materialised under the harshness of the overhead light, and she looked up at him, her wet, shaking eyes all at once expressing the relief, the guilt, the pain that her soul seemed to be keeping.
"Saeyoung …"
"Yes, Eun-ji … It's me. I've come for you."