Chapter 16
Page (1/3)
The meeting finally came to an end. As Graves rode the elevator back to his office, he rubbed the tightness at his temples.
The emergency meeting had been called because four members of a Shadow squad dispatched on a mission had been kidnapped by local drug lords while operating along the United States–Mexico border.
The drug lords’ demand was simple: pay the ransom.
Oz and the other Shadows had proposed going in by force and resolving the matter militarily, refusing to compromise. The Shadow forces were more than powerful enough to crush and sweep aside the arrogant drug lords along the border.
“Send an AC-130 gunship to scour the whole area! Whoever these drug lords are, they’ll be blown to pieces!”
Graves shot a glance at the Shadow who had made the suggestion. His brow creased slightly, but he said nothing.
The implications of the United States–Mexico border were complicated enough that, had those four Shadows not encountered this situation, Graves would never have wanted to interfere. Too many forces were involved, and their interests ran too deep. He had no choice but to think things through carefully.
“Besides, there’s a very good chance the four of them will be brainwashed and turned by the drug lords. For the sake of the Shadow Company’s future…” another Shadow tactfully voiced the crux of the matter.
These drug lords had lost every shred of humanity. They committed every imaginable atrocity in the borderlands; calling them beasts would hardly have been an exaggeration. It was not difficult to imagine what those four Shadows might have endured…
The Shadows attending the meeting were all employed by the Shadow Company and had worked under Graves for a long time. Most of them maintained a neutral stance, while a minority insisted on “going to war.”
Whatever the decision, however, they were all waiting for Shadow-1 to make the final call.
Graves lowered his gaze to the teacup on the conference table. The hot tea had grown dry and bitter with the passage of time. Suddenly, he remembered a mission in the Middle East. On the return journey, YN had stood at the edge of the cabin, gazing through the window at the war-ravaged land below.
Her expression had been deeply sorrowful, as though her soul might shatter beneath the lightest squeeze.
“What’s wrong? What are you looking at?” Graves had asked, puzzled. Only a moment earlier, she had been basking in the joy of receiving her bonus, yet the next, she looked as though she were holding back tears, weighed down by some heavy thought.
The sunlight high above had been brilliant. YN had drawn back the cable from the land ravaged by war and gazed down through the clouds as she murmured, “After the war ends, how many mothers will be searching for their children? And those of us who took part in the war were once cherished children, held in our mothers’ arms…”
Her words had stirred something faint within Graves.
What she had said was, indeed, an honest depiction of what came after war.
Politicians used war to bring about changes in power, then shook hands and made peace. Capitalists used war to amass enormous fortunes. The only ones war truly devastated were the people who had suffered all along.
“Rosie, prepare the ransom,” Graves said firmly.
Everyone present knew Shadow-1’s style of doing things. Yet the Shadows who favored war were rendered speechless when they heard him choose to “let the matter rest.”
Was this refusal to avenge their enemies really Philip Graves?!
Rosie had already risen and, following Graves’s order, gone to arrange the ransom. She actually supported his decision and had guessed that, when faced with a choice between starting a war and paying to recover the hostages, he would choose the latter.
After all, these people had all left the armies of their respective countries and become mercenaries scattered across the globe. Mercenaries did not speak of feelings; they spoke only of being paid to get the job done. To a great extent, they could all be called desperate men.
Graves admired each of their abilities and had gathered them one by one, ultimately creating the Shadow Company as it stood today. His feelings for them went beyond those of a superior for his subordinates.
·
The elevator chimed to announce its arrival. Graves strode quickly toward his office.
Page (1/3)
Page (2/3)
He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch. Ten minutes had already passed since the end of the workday.
By YN’s habit, she would have waited for him no matter how late their meetings had run in the past. Surely today would be no different.
At the thought of YN’s beautiful, faintly petulant face that morning, framed by roses, Graves’s tense expression eased.
He had already ordered Oz to burn the provocative bouquet George had sent. Since it had been anonymous and YN had not guessed that George was the sender, the roses might as well meet such a fate.
He would give YN an even grander, more dazzling bouquet of red roses.
Soon, he would be able to enjoy that expression of hers to his heart’s content. The thought filled him with anticipation.
The moment Graves seized the office doorknob and pushed the door open, he called out instinctively, “YN.”
But he saw neither YN nor the large bouquet of red roses he had given her.
“YN?”
He crossed the room to the sofa in long strides, like a meteor, calling her name several times as he looked around.
No one answered.
Only then did Graves realize that the workday was over. YN had already gone home.
She had not waited for him today.
It was Friday. YN did not work on weekends. That meant he would not see her until Monday. Before then, he still had to fly to Mexico on Sunday.
Should he exercise his authority as her employer and make YN work overtime to keep him company?
Even if she did nothing at all, merely remaining within his line of sight would be enough. Whenever he wanted to tear himself away from the tedious task of reviewing documents, he could look up and see her laughing happily as she watched Tom and Jerry.
Graves looked at the tablet YN often used to watch Tom and Jerry. It had been left in the corner of the coffee table, and an indescribable sense of disappointment settled in his heart.
·
Early on Saturday morning, when the sky had only just begun to pale, YN left her quarters and drove her street-sweeping vehicle along the outermost road of the Shadow base, beginning another day.
Mrs. Emma, the head of the cleaning department, had assigned YN a small cottage to use as her quarters.
YN loved her little cottage. Ever since she had begun shopping online, she had furnished it with all sorts of things.
There were strings of colored lights to hang around the outside and decorate the house, for instance, as well as a set of attractive, practical dishes that brought a touch of freshness to the life of someone who could not cook.
The reason YN had begun changing was that, in the month or so since she had joined the Shadow Company, she had formed bonds with others, just as she had once hoped she would.
Besides managing the cleaning department, Mrs. Emma was also a veteran pastry chef. Whenever she had free time, she would feed YN some of the desserts she had made, such as Oreo-crusted bread and caramel apple canelés.
Rosie had given YN tremendous help at work. She was the very definition of a professional capable in both pen and sword. During military training, she was swift and accurate when shouldering a rifle for target practice; at work, she could quickly produce any document the Shadow Company’s CEO, Graves, required.
“Live in the present, sweetheart YN. You deserve to embrace every beautiful thing in the world.” Those were the words Rosie had spoken to her after Graves took YN to the desert to drive a tank.
YN had kept them close to her heart and begun to reflect on them. Her mother had once said something similar to her.
Yet for all these years, she had lived in the opposite way, in a manner completely at odds with those words.
Page (2/3)
Page (3/3)
She had become an information broker in order to take revenge on Makarov. But she had never found Makarov, and instead had allowed herself to fall into this hopeless predicament.
Fortunately, she had stopped herself before it was too late. No longer spending money on men, but spending it on herself instead, brought a happiness she could scarcely describe.
YN no longer dwelled on the past. She wanted to move forward.
She tidied her room and made it warm and inviting; she bought herself pretty clothes and savored the joy of being alive; she worked hard and earned her own money.
And she wanted to adopt a puppy that would love her sometime in the near future.
Thinking of all the changes she had already made, YN opened the two sweeping brushes beside her vehicle, then drove closer to the edge of the road. She turned on the water hose attached to the sweeper and watered the shrubs along the roadside.
It was Saturday, and as Graves’s assistant, YN still enjoyed the full weekend off.
She had risen so early because she wanted to explore the forest beside the Shadow base.
The last time she had gone to the desert, she had been unable to see the chameleon change color again, which she had found deeply disappointing. That was why she wanted to take an adventure into the forest over the weekend. Perhaps she would discover something else to delight her.
·
The Shadow Company had been established in a sparsely populated suburb close to the city.
America’s geography was remarkably varied. Even if this area consisted of mountains, the land immediately beyond them might well be desert.
Russia was also a superpower, but it snowed there all the time. With its long winters and freezing climate, simply staying alive was difficult enough. YN had never had the heart to explore the wonders of nature.
But her state of mind was different now. She had become far more open-minded. She thought that the next time she saw snowflakes swirling across Siberia, she might not hate them quite so much.
YN had set out very early. She raised her wrist and glanced at the watch she wore—the promotion gift Shadow-9527 had given her. It was a simply designed sports watch.
The display showed six in the morning. YN slung on her little yellow-duck backpack, packed with orange soda and Oreo cookies. After parking the sweeper by the roadside, she set off toward the forest.
Before the sun rose, the temperature in the forest was lower than usual. YN pulled up the hood of her windbreaker to keep warm and stepped on the pine needles scattered across the ground. Only then did she realize how pleasant the sound was beneath her feet.
She went back and forth across the carpet of pine needles, playing there for a long while.
There were plenty of pinecones on the ground as well.
YN bent down and picked up the largest one near her feet. She thought that when Shadow-9527 returned, she could give it to him.
Following the path blanketed with pine needles, YN tucked the large pinecone into her little backpack and continued deeper into the forest.
Sunlight filtered through layer upon layer of leaves, casting scattered patches of brightness onto the ground. Just as YN was about to reach the end of the path, she collided head-on with a swiftly approaching figure.
She was about to apologize when the other person immediately seized one of her arms and twisted it behind her in a restraining hold. The sudden pressure on a vulnerable part of her body caused sharp, instinctive pain, and YN let out a muffled groan.
At the sound, the other person released her at once.
His voice carried a trace of barely restrained emotion.
“YN?!”
Page (3/3)