BATTER 63

The scale isn’t particularly grand, but even from the sky, it looks sleek and pristine. It’s clearly not a building constructed before the flooding. He didn’t even need to look at the map to know where to land. Baron lowered his altitude, drawing a bit closer. The golden tiles covering the structure’s surface gleamed without a hint of rust or a single cracked edge. The light reflected by the oddly beautiful pyramid struck his eyes with a cold, sharp glare.

“Must have had a serious lack of places to spend their money,” Baron muttered.

Grinning, Baron parked the bike on a corner of the island. Instead of a sandy beach, the shoreline was made of damp soil and blackened stones, devoid of any real atmosphere. He slowly pushed the bike toward the interior where the pyramid sat. The remains of dead trees and the skeletal ridges of the gradually weathering mountain crunched under his feet. The sound of waves scraping nearby sounded like the labored breathing of a lung swollen with infection. The scent of withering water wafted from everywhere.

The island was narrow enough to be compared to a reef, and thanks to that, he reached the front of the pyramid in no time. Standing on the same ground, the architecture felt even more bizarre. The excessively bright and technologically enhanced square pyramid gave off the impression of peering into the ruins of a civilization that had met a sudden end.

He had scanned the area quickly before landing, but there were no signs of human life outside the pyramid. Since they wouldn’t have walked here, was the parking handled inside that pyramid too? Baron kept his helmet on as he searched for an entrance. The four exposed faces were all composed of rectangular blocks of uniform size. There was no obvious entryway that one might call a “door.”

Instead, as Baron’s fingertips traced along a line slightly higher than his waist, he felt a faint groove. There was one block that protruded ever so slightly. It didn’t depress like a button, nor did a screen pop up. Baron leaned in close to discern if this was a hint, a trap, or a manufacturing error. Just then, a light flickered from the trophy on his wrist. Simultaneously, translucent text appeared on his helmet visor.

<Verified: Staff Code J148.>

Along with the blue-glowing text, the blocks that had been firmly interlocked began to sink inward. The rapidly rearranging outer wall created a rectangular void similar to an elevator. Bright lights, seemingly embedded along the edges, illuminated the interior.

The space revealed beneath the lights was excessively spacious for carrying just one or two people, and three of the interior walls were mirrors. There were only mirror images reflecting each other infinitely, without even a separate control pad. Baron looked into the three “Barons” staring back at him, each occupying a wall.

“Hmm.”

The mirror images cocked their eyebrows skeptically in unison. Then, following Baron’s movement, they all looked down. The floor wasn’t a mirror, but a large rectangle was drawn on it. Judging by the width and the context, it seemed to be a spot for a vehicle. Baron dragged the stolen hoverbike all the way inside.

As soon as he aligned the bike within the lines on the floor, the blocks began to move again. The wall reassembled, completely enclosing the space, and the lights surrounding the edges dimmed.

Baron felt the ground he stood on descend smoothly. The elevator went down at a pace that felt gentle yet incredibly fast. That was the only fact he could perceive inside. In an interior without a view of the outside, a current location, or a control pad, he could only faintly sense the speed and direction.

A tedious silence followed until finally, the vague sensation of descent came to a dead stop. Just as he expected the front wall to open, a blue so vivid it felt stifling rushed into the interior. A very deep, heavy, and endlessly dark blue. Blinking at the sudden burst of an unfamiliar hue, Baron pressed his face close to the wall. Instead of a clear reflection, a blurry visage in the glass met him. The faint face on the wall opened its mouth and laughed.

“Right, they wouldn’t have just put up simple mirrors.”

The elevator was surrounded by a type of one-way glass. It acted like a normal mirror when picking up passengers, but once it passed a certain point, it became transparent from both sides.

Shadows moved in clusters over his helmeted face. It was a school of fish beyond the glass pane. He was currently under the sea.

A group of fish with silver-white scales swam close to the glass wall. Eyelidless eyes that seemed to look nowhere met Baron’s gaze for a moment. Eyeballs that hadn’t yet gone soft or turned cloudy lingered right in front of his nose before disappearing into the distance. Baron laughed with a click of his tongue as he watched the slowly moving undersea scenery.

The elevator stopped descending and began to move horizontally. He could see transparent passages branching out like a maze through the deep blue seawater that overwhelmed any land creature. The elevator moved along those passages, guiding him toward his destination.

Baron passed through a forest of white, bleached coral and kelp that grew as tall as trees. The seaweed seen in the bluish water held a hazy, dreamlike light. The leaves, swaying slowly like fins, felt mysterious and beautiful, yet also reminiscent of the long hair of a drowning victim.

After staring for a long time, the glass wall blocking the seawater felt as though it were gradually thinning, making him feel breathless. Baron tore his eyes away from the suffocatingly blue vista and looked straight ahead. Not long after, the door opened silently. Likewise, a long, transparent corridor greeted him. Except for the floor, one could admire the underwater world from anywhere.

From the corridor, which led who-knows-where or how far, came the sound of bubbling currents and seafoam, along with faint, old music. Perhaps because it was heard from a distance, it sounded muffled like a gramophone recording, feeling like part of the sea’s own breath. It was a quiet and phantasmagoric place, like the light from the surface viewed while swimming along the seabed.

“Man, I can smell the money from here,” Baron remarked cynically compared to the scenery, before turning his head. He didn’t know where to go, but usually, things got settled once he found a place marked “No Unauthorized Entry.”

He walked along, following the elegant glow of the soft golden lighting. A dolphin, which he had heard was long extinct, followed him from just a few feet away beyond the wall. The dolphin, with its rounded forehead and sleek fins, twisted its body gracefully while watching Baron.

Its docile and intelligent eyes sparkled and shone even in the water. Because of the markings leading from its snout to its belly, it almost looked like it was smiling. Cute little thing. It was likely a decorative robot. Or perhaps a research species being restored in a lab…

The blue light entering from outside shimmered in ripples on the floor near his feet. Baron suddenly thought of Bijou’s eyes. Even though that guy’s eyes were much bluer than this.

The water-light filtered through the walls also invaded his hands and the tops of his feet. Baron turned over his punctured palm to cup the blue shadow of the sea. Over the jelly-like flesh filling the knife wound, a crumpled silk-like ripple pattern fluttered. It was a beauty that felt as if it would flow endlessly through his splayed fingers. Suddenly, the conversation he’d had with Harrison just before leaving the underground drifted in on the waves.

“Is there a reason you have to go this far?”

There were many answers he could give to that question. Because Baron Lin was a detective who protected the safety of the citizens; because it was connected to Liz’s revenge; because he had to clear up the unfair rumors within the police department.

They were right, but not quite. They were correct, but they weren’t the “answer.”

He wants to have fun.

Or perhaps, he doesn’t want to be lonely.

His tin-can angel was smarter than he looked.

“Do you need assistance?”

An unfamiliar voice caught him off guard. Without showing any sign of surprise, Baron turned his head toward the source of the voice. A beauty with neatly combed blonde hair was standing in the right-hand passage. Blonde hair falling to her shoulder blades, eyes as brilliantly blue as the sea, and a face sculpted like a doll. Under the heavy, dark light of the seabed, Baron almost called her a “tin can.”