The Strongest E-Rank: Kang Taegun Vol.3

Prologue. The Bridge

Cairo, Egypt. 2046. Three years after the Gates opened.

Something came up the Nile the size of a city, and it walked straight for the bridges.

Six people stood in its way.

One of them stood on the bridge and didn't move for nine hours.

The world only ever learned his name.

Chapter 1. Blind Eye

Blind Eye — Chapter 1

Seoul, April 2061. Four months after Haiphong. Somebody upstairs planted cherry trees on the third ring, and the petals blow all the way down into the pit.

[Picture: cherry petals]

Kang Taegun is S plus on every roster in Korea now. He still works the Euljiro north wall, midnight to six, standard rate.

[Picture: cherry petals]

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung. Hyung, look at the TV. Look at the TV right now.

Kang Taegun: I'm watching the pit, man.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Seo Ji-hoon: It's Judah Coles. He just landed at Incheon. Judah Coles is in Korea!

[Picture: previous speaker]

On the little TV bolted to the wall post, a private jet rolls to a stop on the tarmac. The crowd behind the fence is a wall of phones.

[Picture: tv jet]

Kang Taegun: Who?

[Picture: tv jet]

Seo Ji-hoon: Who? Hyung! Cairo! The bridge! He's America's S plus!

[Picture: tv jet]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo Dae-sung: Let it go, kid. He doesn't know who anybody is. He asked me last week who the president was.

[Picture: tv jet]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: I knew. I just wasn't sure.

[Picture: tv jet]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Seo Ji-hoon: Okay. Okay, listen. In 2046 a monster the size of a city came up the Nile. Judah Coles stood on a bridge and took its hits for nine hours so the others could kill it. Nine hours, hyung.

[Picture: tv jet]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Huh. That's a long shift.

[Picture: tv jet]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo Dae-sung: And now he goes wherever he wants. Any country, any Gate, no order. The GGA just looks the other way.

[Picture: tv jet]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: They can do that?

[Picture: tv jet]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo Dae-sung: For him they can. The GGA exists because of Cairo. Nobody there is going to tell the guy who held the bridge where he can't stand.

[Picture: tv jet]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Incheon Airport. A hundred cameras. The biggest man anyone has ever seen comes down the stairs of the jet with sunglasses pushed up on his head.

Behind him come the S-ranks of his guild, Goliath. Eleven of them in America. Four came to Seoul.

A luggage tractor tips over near the fence, and a stack of cases slides toward the crowd.

Judah Coles catches the whole tractor with one hand. He doesn't look at it. He's still answering a reporter.

Judah Coles: Why Seoul? Heard y'all have the best barbecue on earth, bud. I'm gonna eat all of it.

Seo Ji-hoon: He didn't even look at it!

Jo Dae-sung: He's not here for barbecue. Goliath doesn't cross an ocean to eat. They're here to buy somebody.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Buy who?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo Dae-sung: We had eight S-ranks five years ago. Three went to America, because America pays ten times what we do. We lost Ri in Haiphong. That leaves four, and every one of them just got a phone call.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Something scratches on the far side of the barricade. Then something giggles.

GATE AGENCY FILE. IMP. E rank. A small fiend with bat wings that blinks out and back in. Common in the western United States. Never before logged at Euljiro.

[Picture: stamp E]

A small red thing with folded bat wings pulls itself over the steel, grinning. Two more climb up behind it.

[Picture: impish fiend front]

Jo Dae-sung: Imps? We don't get imps. Those are American. Nevada gets imps.

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung, the signal's wrong tonight. It feels like something's leaning on the Gate from the other side.

[Picture: previous speaker]

The imps blink out and blink back in, closer. Kang reaches over the barricade and catches all three in one hand, then drops them back down the pit. Ji-hoon's coffee is still in his other hand, and none of it spills.

[Picture: impish fiend front]

Kang Taegun: Sorry, guys. Wrong country.

Jo Dae-sung: Write that down, kid. Imps at Euljiro. The agency's going to want to know.

[Picture: previous speaker]

The next evening. Kang's sister Ha-eun has cleared the whole low table for dinner, because Ahn Ji-soo is coming, and Ji-soo is officially his girlfriend now.

Ha-eun has also put up a new poster. It's Judah Coles, holding a bridge.

[Picture: judah poster]

Kang Ha-eun: He's six foot eight. He eats three breakfasts. He holds the record for most hits taken in one fight. Did you know that, oppa?

[Picture: judah poster]

Kang Taegun: I found out last night.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Ha-eun: You found out last night? He's the most famous Breaker in the world! You're the only Breaker in Korea who doesn't know who he is!

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: She's right. I checked. You're the only one.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: I've been busy. There's a wall.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: It's funny, though. If you walked into Tokyo tomorrow and punched one monster, the GGA would pull your licence. Mine too, probably. He does it every week and they send him a thank-you card.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Good for him, man. He's got a bridge. I've got a wall.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: It really doesn't bother you?

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Why would it? Nine hours on a bridge. He earned it.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Ha-eun: See? Even oppa respects him. Ji-soo unnie, do you think he'd sign my poster?

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: You might get your chance. Goliath has a desk at the Gangnam Exchange this week, and they've asked for meetings with Seo-yeon and Jang. They're not here for sightseeing.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: They're trying to take Jang?

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: And Seo-yeon. America pays better than anybody. If they say yes, Korea's down to two.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Ha-eun: Would you go? If America offered you ten times?

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Who'd work the north wall?

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Ha-eun: That's the dumbest answer I've ever heard. I love it. Don't tell anyone I said that.

[Picture: judah poster]

[Picture: previous speaker]

The door bangs open. Min-jae comes in with his helmet cam blinking and three bags of takeout, because he heard there was dinner.

Park Min-jae: I brought extra! Also, hyung, Goliath is filming a street food show at Dongdaemun tomorrow night. I have deliveries there all night. I'm going to meet Judah Coles!

Kang Ha-eun: Take me with you!

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: You have school, Ha-eun. And I'm a professional. I'm going to be very cool about it.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: You're going to ask for a selfie.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: I'm going to ask for a very professional selfie.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Three in the morning at the Seoul detention center. The lights are down to one in four, and the corridor past the visiting room is quiet.

Then the far wall starts to bend.

[Picture: wall ripple]

KOREAN GATE AGENCY WANTED FILE. OBSIDIAN GUARD. The Guard's door-maker. Bends space with a relic frame. Walls are not a problem for her.

[Picture: stamp wanted]

The concrete folds open like a curtain. Black armor comes through the gap, and red optic visors, and a van idling in the yard behind them.

The cell at the end of the corridor opens. Nam Gi-cheol steps out and rolls his shoulders like he just woke up from a nap.

Gu Min-ho: Sarge! Hi! Hi, Sarge! Hurry, please, hurry!

Nam Gi-cheol: Took you long enough.

[Picture: previous speaker]

In the corridor, a man in an orange jumpsuit is holding a mop. He hasn't moved. He isn't breathing.

Choi Dong-wook: ...Take me with you?

Nam Gi-cheol: Bring the mop guy.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Choi Dong-wook: Really?

[Picture: mop]

Nam Gi-cheol: Leave the mop.

[Picture: mop]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Chapter 2. Speedy

Speedy — Chapter 2

Dongdaemun, eleven at night. The lanes are full of Breakers buying boots and filter masks, and a TV crew from the US Gate agency has set up lights at the end of the food row.

Park Min-jae comes through the crowd with a stack of fried chicken boxes and his helmet cam blinking. His jacket says Fastest Delivery in Seoul.

Park Min-jae: Delivery for table nine! Hot, crispy, three minutes flat!

[Picture: chicken box]

Colt Mercer: Yo. Yo, check the jacket. "Fastest delivery in Seoul." Somebody get a camera on this guy.

[Picture: chicken box]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: Oh! You're Colt Mercer. You're... wow. You're really fast.

[Picture: chicken box]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt Mercer: Fastest man in America, bud. You wanna race? Winner keeps the chicken.

[Picture: chicken box]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: Ah, I can't, I've got an order...

[Picture: chicken box]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt takes the bag out of Min-jae's hands. Then he's gone and back, and gone and back, running laps around him so fast his red jacket turns into a ring.

[Picture: chicken box]

Colt Mercer: Come on, Speedy! Catch it! Catch it!

[Picture: chicken box]

Rhett Dawson: Nice helmet. What is this, a toy?

[Picture: helmet cam]

[Picture: previous speaker]

A big blond man pulls the camera off Min-jae's helmet and tosses it to Colt. Colt tosses it back. The crew's lights swing around to follow it.

[Picture: helmet cam]

Park Min-jae: Ha. Ha ha. Okay, guys, that's... my mom watches those videos.

[Picture: helmet cam]

Rhett Dawson: Hi, Speedy's mom!

[Picture: helmet cam]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt opens the chicken box and starts eating. Rhett takes a piece too. Then Colt pulls out a hundred Credit note and stuffs it into Min-jae's jacket pocket.

[Picture: credit note]

Colt Mercer: Keep the change. Big American tip.

[Picture: credit note]

Park Min-jae: That was table nine's order...

[Picture: credit note]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nobody has broken a rule. That's what makes it hard to watch.

A tall man in a black hooded jacket comes up the lane with a skewer of fish cake in one hand. They were supposed to get dinner.

Kang Taegun: Hey, man. You ready?

Park Min-jae: Hyung! Yeah. Almost. I just need my camera back.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt Mercer: Come get it, Speedy!

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt comes sprinting down the lane with the helmet cam held over his head, laughing.

Kang doesn't turn around. He just holds his arm out.

The fastest man in America runs into it like a steel pole. His legs keep going. They go straight up into the air.

Kang takes another bite of fish cake. There isn't a drop of sauce on his sleeve.

Kang Taegun: Sorry. You okay, man?

Colt lies on his back in the middle of the lane, staring at the market lights. The helmet cam is in Kang's hand.

Rhett Dawson: Hey. Hey! You think that's funny?

Rhett shoves Kang in the chest with both hands. Kang doesn't move. Something in Rhett's wrist goes pop.

Rhett Dawson: Agh! What... what are you made of?

Kang Taegun: Sorry. That looked like it hurt. You should ice that.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Half the market has its phones up now. A woman with white hair in a tight ponytail pushes through the crowd.

[Picture: phone flashes]

Lyra Wescott: I apologize. To everybody. To the market. To you, sir. They're leaving.

[Picture: phone flashes]

Rhett Dawson: He started it!

[Picture: phone flashes]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Lyra Wescott: He was eating a fish cake, Rhett. Car. Now.

[Picture: phone flashes]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang hands the helmet cam back to Min-jae and puts it back on his helmet for him, carefully, the right way up.

[Picture: helmet cam]

An hour later, a tent in Jongno with the flaps rolled up and a cherry tree dropping petals into the doorway.

[Picture: cherry petals]

Park Min-jae: Twenty million views, hyung. Twenty million. In an hour. "Delivery guy's friend clotheslines America's fastest man."

[Picture: phone 20m]

Kang Taegun: I didn't clothesline him. He ran into my arm.

[Picture: phone 20m]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: My mom shared it first. She shared it before I got home. She added three heart emojis and a flag.

[Picture: phone 20m]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: The clothesline is a ten. The shove is a nine. The "you should ice that" is an eleven, and I don't give elevens.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: It's not funny, man. Guys like that don't let it go. The big one's going to be thinking about this for weeks.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: They were just messing around. That's what I kept telling myself. They didn't break any rules.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: They ate table nine's chicken.

[Picture: chicken box empty]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: They ate table nine's chicken.

[Picture: chicken box empty]

[Picture: previous speaker]

The next morning, forty floors above Gangnam. Judah Coles is eating his third breakfast. Rhett has a bag of ice on his wrist, and Colt has a bruise across his neck in the shape of a forearm.

Rhett Dawson: Twenty million views, boss. Twenty million people watched a nobody make us look like idiots.

Judah Coles: Twenty-three. I just checked. It's still going.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah watches the clip again on his phone. He starts laughing. He laughs until he has to put his fork down and wipe his eyes.

Judah Coles: Oh, man. Oh, look at your legs, Colt. Look at 'em go.

Colt Mercer: It's not funny, boss.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: It's real funny, bud. You got punked by a delivery guy's buddy. Eat your eggs.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Rhett Dawson: He's some E-rank. That's what the market people said. He works a wall.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Lyra Wescott: He's the S plus from Haiphong, Rhett. He's on the news.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah shrugs and goes back to his pancakes.

Judah Coles: Then he's Korea's problem. We're here for the rock guy and the time lady. Stay focused.

Judah Coles: And Colt. Go say sorry to the delivery kid.

Colt Mercer: Yeah, boss. Sure.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt doesn't go.

That afternoon. Goliath has rented the biggest desk in the Exchange and hung a banner with a clenched fist over it. Min Seo-yeon and Jang Tae-sik sit across from Judah.

Judah Coles: Ten times what Korea pays you. A house on the water in Malibu. A TV crew that follows you around and makes you look great. And you only take the jobs you like.

[Picture: goliath contract]

Min Seo-yeon: The pay is a nine. The house is an eight. The TV crew is a two.

[Picture: goliath contract]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jang Tae-sik: I'm a rock guy, Mr. Coles. My rocks are here. No thank you.

[Picture: goliath contract]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Rock guy. I like that. Offer doesn't expire, bud.

[Picture: goliath contract]

[Picture: previous speaker]

The glass doors open. Kang walks in, because he promised Jang lunch.

Kang crosses the hall toward Jang. Judah stands up to leave. They pass each other in the doorway, close enough to bump shoulders.

Jang has felt the footsteps of every Breaker in Korea. He goes pale. Then he starts to grin.

Jang Tae-sik: The floor doesn't know which one of you to be scared of.

Judah looks Kang up and down, once.

Judah Coles: You're the delivery guy's buddy.

Kang Taegun: Yeah.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Nice clothesline.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah turns back to wave goodbye to Seo-yeon and walks out. He doesn't look back. He really doesn't care.

Jang Tae-sik: Taegun. That man is not an S-rank. That man is something else.

Kang Taegun: He seemed okay. Where are we eating, man?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Chapter 3. Wake-Up Call

Wake-Up Call — Chapter 3

A basement club in Hongdae, closed to the public. Nam's old crew used to run jobs out of here. The Obsidian Guard never stopped paying the rent.

Choi Dong-wook is back in his old white armored coat. The Guard stole it out of a police evidence room for him. He keeps smoothing it down.

Choi Dong-wook: So. I've been thinking about why you brought me. I think it's respect. I think you saw a leader.

Nam Gi-cheol: I saw your codes.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Choi Dong-wook: My what?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: When you ran Hanseong Response, you sold seal post access codes to anybody with cash. The agency never changed half of them. They still work.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Gu Min-ho: The board was very excited about your codes, Captain Choi. Very excited.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Choi Dong-wook: So you didn't bring me out of pity.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: I brought your codes. You're just how they walk.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam spreads a map of Seoul across the folding table. There are red circles on six Gates.

[Picture: seoul map]

Nam Gi-cheol: Here's the job. Every sleeping Gate in this city is held down by posts. We pull the posts, the Gate wakes up. One a night. The agency runs around putting them back to sleep, and every night they're a little slower.

[Picture: seoul map]

Gu Min-ho: And then the insurers at the Exchange start calling us. Private sealing, ten times the rate. The board loves it.

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Choi Dong-wook: And what do you get out of it, Sergeant?

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: This city pays kids standard rate to stand on walls. Twenty Credits a night to stand between a Gate and a school. I want Seoul to see what happens when the walls don't hold.

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

A big man steps out of the shadows by the stage. His skin is cracked black stone, and thin red light runs through the cracks.

[Picture: obsidian guard kinetic bruiser front]

KOREAN GATE AGENCY WANTED FILE. OBSIDIAN GUARD. Heavy. His relic rig turned his skin to stone. Hits like a truck. Stores every hit he takes.

[Picture: stamp wanted]

Gu Min-ho: Oh. He does this to new guys. It's a tradition. It's a bad tradition.

The Bruiser throws one punch at the new guy in the white coat. It's a hit that could cave in a car door.

Choi doesn't move. His coat doesn't even wrinkle.

The Guard man standing next to Choi flies across the room and hits the drum kit.

Choi Dong-wook: ...Ha. Sorry. That happens.

The club goes quiet. The Bruiser looks at his fist. Nam looks at Choi for a long time.

[Picture: obsidian guard kinetic bruiser side]

Nam Gi-cheol: Whatever hits you, the man next to you feels it.

Choi Dong-wook: It's a gift. My license file says nothing lands on me. Nobody's ever seen me hurt.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: Every rookie you ever had got hurt, Choi. Every single one. That's why you always kept them close.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Choi Dong-wook: ...They were E-ranks.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam turns back to the map without a word. Gu steps two long steps away from Choi, very casually.

Nam Gi-cheol: Tonight you write down every code you ever sold. Every Gate, every post, every year.

Choi Dong-wook: And if I don't?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: Then I stand you next to Gu, and we find out how much he can take.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Gu Min-ho: Please write them down, Captain Choi. Please. I have a very small body.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Choi Dong-wook: ...Fine. Get me a pen.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Two in the morning. Seo Ji-hoon grabs the barricade with both hands.

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung. The Gate. It's waking up. It's waking up fast.

Kang Taegun: It's not supposed to do that.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Kang, it's Yun, on the second ring. Two of the posts are pulled. Somebody pulled them with real codes. The rig thinks it's a service check!

The whole pit shakes. Cups fall off the food carts on the third ring. Dust comes down from the ceiling in long gray sheets.

[Picture: falling dust]

GATE AGENCY FILE. TREMOR WORM. B rank. Travels under the ground and shakes everything above it. Comes up under whoever is standing still.

[Picture: stamp B]

Something huge moves under the old printing district. The street above the pit rolls like water.

[Picture: falling dust]

Jo Dae-sung: Everybody off the bottom ring! Kang, Ji-hoon, you're with me. Standard rate.

[Picture: falling dust]

Kang Taegun: Boss, you're a hiring manager.

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo Dae-sung: I'm a C-rank with a harpoon and thirty years of bad knees. Move.

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo pulls a harpoon gun off the rack by the lift. He hasn't fired one since 2049. He loads it without looking.

[Picture: harpoon gun]

Seo Ji-hoon: It's under the presses on Euljiro three. It's turning. Left! It's coming up left of the lamp post!

[Picture: harpoon gun]

Kang doesn't ask how Ji-hoon knows. He just goes left.

[Picture: harpoon gun]

The street splits open under a lamp post, and a worm as thick as a subway car comes up out of the asphalt with its mouth full of rings of teeth.

Jo's harpoon hits it in the eye. It screams.

Kang grabs it just under the head with both hands and pulls it straight up out of the ground, like a root out of a garden. Every window on the street shakes.

Kang Taegun: Sorry about your street.

The worm lies across two blocks of the printing district, very still. Below them, the Gate is still pulsing.

[Picture: tremor worm lying]

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Posts are back in. I'm resetting the tuning by hand. Everybody stay off the ring. It has to be quiet.

Seo Ji-hoon: It's settling. It's going back to sleep. Okay. Okay, it's quiet.

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Firing.

Green light fills the pit, and the Gate goes still.

[Picture: green seal glow]

Jo Dae-sung: Put that on your resume, kid. "Pulled a worm out of a street."

[Picture: green seal glow]

Seo Ji-hoon: You hit it in the eye, boss! From forty meters!

[Picture: green seal glow]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo Dae-sung: I told you. Thirty years of bad knees. Nothing wrong with my eyes.

[Picture: green seal glow]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Boss. Somebody pulled those posts on purpose. With codes.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo Dae-sung: I know. I've been on this pit since the night it opened. Nobody's ever touched the posts but us.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung, it didn't feel like just the posts, though. When it woke up, it felt like something was pushing from underneath. Like when you lean on a door.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Imps, then this.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jo Dae-sung: Put it in the report, kid. All of it. Then go home and sleep. Both of you.

[Picture: previous speaker]

In the morning, Ji-soo calls. Kang takes it on the stairs by the lift.

Ahn Ji-soo: ◉ ▂▄▆█ The codes they used belonged to Hanseong Response. Choi's old team. And there's something else. The detention center had a breakout two nights ago. They kept it off the news.

Kang Taegun: Who got out?

Ahn Ji-soo: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Nam. And Choi.

Kang Taegun: Sarge is out.

Ji-hoon comes up the stairs behind him. He's very pale, and he's holding the rail like the floor might move.

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung. It's not just Euljiro. I can feel four more. All over the city. They're all waking up.

Chapter 4. Stretched Thin

Stretched Thin — Chapter 4

The station under Namsan tower watches every Gate reading in Seoul. Three nights after Euljiro, the agency puts Ahn Ji-soo in the dispatch chair, because she can match a rank to a job faster than anyone in the building.

At 1:12 a.m., the first reading jumps. Outside, one beacon lamp lights on the hill.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Ahn Ji-soo: Achasan east gate is waking. Jang, Oh, that's yours. Go.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Jang Tae-sik: ◉ ▂▄▆█ On it, boss lady! Rock guy is rolling!

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

At 1:19, a second reading. A second lamp.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Ahn Ji-soo: River crossing at Yanghwa. Something's climbing the bridge supports. Seo-yeon, Baek.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Min Seo-yeon: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Copy. You're pacing yourself well, Ji-soo. It's a seven so far.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Ahn Ji-soo: Don't rate my dispatch while I'm dispatching!

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

At 1:24, a third lamp. The Gimpo bastion on the west side.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Ahn Ji-soo: Gimpo. I've got nobody left for Gimpo.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Park Min-jae: ◉ ▂▄▆█ I'm at Gimpo! I was delivering soup! Also the American guys just pulled up in a big black truck.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: soup bag]

Ahn Ji-soo: Goliath's at Gimpo?

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: soup bag]

Park Min-jae: ◉ ▂▄▆█ They brought a camera crew. The camera crew got here first.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: soup bag]

Ahn Ji-soo: Min-jae, you're a C-rank courier. You are not assigned to Gimpo.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: soup bag]

Park Min-jae: ◉ ▂▄▆█ There are people in the tower, noona. I'm assigning me.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: soup bag]

Ahn Ji-soo: ...Fine. Evacuation only. You don't fight anything. You carry people and you run.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: soup bag]

Park Min-jae: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Carry people and run. That's my whole resume!

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: soup bag]

A fourth reading starts to climb on the north side of the board. Ji-soo stares at it. She has no one left.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Ahn Ji-soo: Suyu culvert. Taegun, where are you?

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

Nobody answers. The reading keeps climbing.

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

[Picture: lamp glow]

[Picture: lit lantern]

The eastern gate, against the dark slope of Achasan. Searchlights sweep the six-lane road. Something is climbing over the barricade that should not be in Korea at all.

[Picture: horned devil front]

GATE AGENCY FILE. HORNED DEVIL. D rank. Lesser devil, heals while you watch. Only ever logged in the western United States. Until tonight.

[Picture: stamp D]

It's the height of a tall man, with dark hide and long horns curving forward off the brow. Two more come over the sandbags behind it. When a guard's round hits one, the wound closes while they watch.

[Picture: horned devil front]

Jang Tae-sik: Horned devils? These are American monsters. What are they doing in Achasan?

Oh Byung-chan: Ask them later, kiddo. They're heading for the ring crew.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jang slams both palms on the road. A wall of stone comes up out of the asphalt between the devils and the gate crew, six meters high and forty long.

Jang Tae-sik: Wall! Everybody loves a wall!

The devils go over the top. Jang drives his fist into the ground, and stone spikes come up under them one after another, and they stop healing faster than he can hit them.

[Picture: horned devil front]

On the far side of the road, Oh Byung-chan points a finger at a guard with a slashed arm. Green light crosses the whole road, and the cut closes.

[Picture: green sparkles]

Oh Byung-chan: There you go, kiddo. Keep your arm out of the pointy end next time.

[Picture: green sparkles]

Jang Tae-sik: Doc. First imps at Euljiro, now devils at Achasan. That's not a Korean Gate talking.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Oh Byung-chan: No. It isn't.

[Picture: previous speaker]

At the Yanghwa crossing, something tears a section of the bridge deck loose. It drops, and a city bus goes over the edge with it, lights still on.

Everything stops. The rain hangs in the air. The bus hangs over the river with its back wheels still spinning.

Min Seo-yeon is standing on the railing with blood running from her nose, holding the whole moment still for one heartbeat.

Min Seo-yeon: Now, Baek.

A pool of shadow opens under the bus and catches it like a hand. Baek Jae-won lowers it onto the road, very gently, and the rain starts falling again.

Baek Jae-won: Everybody out, please. Mind the step.

The western bastion is on fire. One corner of the bastion tower has cracked open, and people are still inside it. The US Gate agency's cameras are already rolling.

[Picture: embers]

[Picture: live bug]

Goliath is here, and they're good. Lyra Wescott stands at the foot of the tower with her eyes closed, and the ground, the river and the wind all move where she tells them.

[Picture: embers]

[Picture: live bug]

Lyra Wescott: Colt, west side. Rhett, hold the ramp. Nobody touches the tower until I say it's stable.

[Picture: embers]

[Picture: live bug]

Rhett Dawson: Hold the ramp. Sure. I'm unbreakable, sweetheart, I can hold anything.

[Picture: embers]

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt Mercer: Let's go, let's go! Chat, watch this!

[Picture: embers]

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt is a red blur up and down the ramp. Rhett takes a charge from something with too many legs and doesn't move an inch. It's real work, and they're genuinely great at it.

[Picture: embers]

[Picture: live bug]

Nobody's looking at the tower.

[Picture: embers]

[Picture: live bug]

A kid in an orange courier jacket goes up the cracked side of the bastion tower with a soup bag still hanging off his wrist.

He comes down with a grandmother on his back. He goes up again and comes down with two children. Then a man with a broken leg. Then a cook. Then a dog.

Forty people in three minutes. The only camera on him is the one on his own helmet.

Park Min-jae: Last one! Is that everybody? Is that everybody? Okay. Okay. I dropped the soup.

The tower settles. Lyra opens her eyes and sees the forty people sitting on the grass, and the kid in the orange jacket lying on his back next to them.

Lyra Wescott: Who got them out?

Park Min-jae: Ah, that was me. I'm a courier. Stairs are kind of my thing.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Lyra Wescott: Forty people. On foot. With a structure that unstable. Do you know how many things could have gone wrong?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: Yeah! Like a hundred. None of them did though.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt Mercer: Wait, that was you? I was on the ramp the whole time. I didn't even see you.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: That's okay. Nobody ever sees the delivery guy.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt opens his mouth to say something. Then he closes it and looks at the ground.

Lyra Wescott: I saw you. I'll put it in my report. Your name, spelled right.

On the north side of the city, the Suyu reading drops. All the way down. The fourth lamp never lights on Namsan.

Ahn Ji-soo: Did you just...

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Yeah. It was a small one. Sorry, I should've called first.

Ahn Ji-soo: You cleared a Gate before I could dispatch it. That's a zero for protocol. It's a ten for everything else.

At Gimpo, the camera crew finds Rhett. He's standing in front of the tower with his arms folded, and the forty people are sitting behind him.

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: character Park Min jae happy]

Rhett Dawson: Just another night for Goliath. We cleared Gimpo, we cleared the tower. You're welcome, Korea.

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: character Park Min jae happy]

Min-jae laughs and gives the camera a thumbs up from the grass. He doesn't say anything.

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: character Park Min jae happy]

Kang watches the broadcast on his phone on the way home. He watches Rhett's face. Then he watches Min-jae's.

Kang Taegun: You carried forty people, man.

Park Min-jae: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Eh. Who cares who gets the credit? Nobody died, hyung. That's a good night.

Kang Taegun: Yeah. It's a good night.

Chapter 5. Pocket

Pocket — Chapter 5

The detention center in daylight. The far wall of the corridor is still bent outward in a smooth curve, like somebody folded concrete in half.

[Picture: mop]

A mop lies on the floor where Choi dropped it. Nobody has moved it.

[Picture: mop]

Ahn Ji-soo: The warden says it took eleven seconds. The wall opened, they walked in, they walked out. Three guards didn't even wake up.

[Picture: mop]

Kang Taegun: Sarge planned it. He always planned everything.

[Picture: mop]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: He didn't plan this part. Choi wasn't on anybody's list. Nam just took him.

[Picture: mop]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Choi too.

[Picture: mop]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: Choi too.

[Picture: mop]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang picks up the mop and leans it against the wall, neatly, the way it probably should have been.

Kang Taegun: I used to think Sarge was the smartest man alive. When I was eighteen he'd give us one look and we'd know exactly where to stand.

Ahn Ji-soo: And now?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Now I think he's still the smartest man alive. That's the problem.

[Picture: previous speaker]

That night, a map of Seoul is taped to the barricade. Ji-hoon has marked every Gate that's woken up this week and written how each one felt. Yun Chae-won has marked which posts were pulled.

[Picture: seoul map]

Yun Chae-won: They're not random. Look. Euljiro, then Achasan, Yanghwa, Gimpo. Every night they're a little closer to the river.

[Picture: seoul map]

Seo Ji-hoon: And every night the other side feels heavier. Like something's leaning on all of them at once. Even the ones they didn't touch.

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: What's at the river?

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Yun Chae-won: The Banpo Gate. It opened under the Han in 2047, and it's never fully gone to sleep. The only thing holding it down is the posts on the causeway.

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Yun Chae-won: If they pull those posts, the whole west half of the city needs new seal cores at the same time. And every core for the west half is made at one place.

[Picture: seoul map]

Ahn Ji-soo: Mapo. The seal workshop.

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Yun Chae-won: That's where I work nights.

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: The Obsidian Guard kidnaps seal technicians, Yun. It's their whole business.

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Yun Chae-won: Then they'll have to get through my apprentice. She bites.

[Picture: seoul map]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang's phone buzzes. The number is blocked. He answers it anyway.

[Picture: phone blocked]

Nam Gi-cheol: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Hey, kid.

[Picture: phone blocked]

Kang Taegun: Sarge.

[Picture: phone blocked]

Nam Gi-cheol: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Saw your clothesline. The whole detention center saw it before I left. Choi cried. I think it was happy crying.

Kang Taegun: You're pulling posts, Sarge.

Nam Gi-cheol: ◉ ▂▄▆█ I'm showing people what they're standing on. Ri Chol-jin died in Haiphong on a standard order, kid. They gave his mother a flag and a pension that wouldn't cover rent in Mapo.

Kang Taegun: You're pulling posts on twelve million people.

Nam Gi-cheol: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Twelve million people who think the walls are strong because nobody told them the walls are paper. I'm telling them.

Nam Gi-cheol: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Keep your strength in your pocket, kid. Stay out of this one. I mean it.

The line goes dead. Ji-soo has been watching his face the whole time.

Ahn Ji-soo: Are you okay?

Kang Taegun: He taught me how to stand on a wall. Now he's knocking them down.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Two nights later. Ji-hoon feels the next one before the reading jumps. The north rail gate at Nowon. Kang is there before anyone else.

Four men in black armor and red visors are kneeling at the base of the seal posts with a code reader. Two are already out of the ground.

[Picture: code reader]

Kang Taegun: Evening. You're going to want to put those back.

[Picture: code reader]

The Guard team goes for him all at once. About four seconds later, all four are lying on the gravel in a neat row, and one of them is apologizing.

A fifth man is crouched behind the maintenance shed. He is very thin, and he's wearing armor that is clearly too big for him.

[Picture: character Gu Min ho afraid]

Gu Min-ho comes out from behind the shed with both hands up before anybody has even looked at him.

Behind him, the air shimmers. His invisible wolves are there, and one by one, they all sit down too.

Gu Min-ho: I surrender! We surrender! The wolves surrender! Please don't clothesline me!

Kang Taegun: Hi, Gu.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Gu Min-ho: Hi, Staff Sergeant. You look well. You look very strong.

Kang Taegun: Where's Sarge?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Gu Min-ho: I don't know where he sleeps! He doesn't tell me things! He tells Choi things now. I think Choi's his favorite. It hurts a little.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: What's the big job, Gu?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Gu Min-ho: The river. The big one's the river, I heard him say it. But he's waiting. He said he needs a night when nobody's watching.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: When is nobody watching?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Gu Min-ho: That's what I asked! He said he'd know it when he saw it.

[Picture: previous speaker]

The agency takes Gu and the four Guard men away in a van. Gu waves from the back window. His wolves are gone. Kang puts the two posts back into the ground by hand.

Late. The tent is almost empty, and a petal from the cherry tree outside has landed in Ji-soo's soju glass.

[Picture: soju glass petal]

Ahn Ji-soo: Can I ask you something?

[Picture: soju glass petal]

Kang Taegun: Sure.

[Picture: soju glass petal]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: If it's Nam. Face to face. What are you going to do?

[Picture: soju glass petal]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang doesn't answer for a while. He turns a fish cake skewer around in the broth.

Kang Taegun: I don't know. I really don't.

Ahn Ji-soo: That's okay. I just wanted to know you didn't know. It's better than you pretending.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: The fish cakes are a six. This is a nine. Don't make me explain the difference.

Kang Taegun: I won't.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Chapter 6. Guild Thing

Guild Thing — Chapter 6

Dusk on the Incheon road. Another Gate on the western approach wakes up an hour before sunset, and this time the wall itself starts to move.

GATE AGENCY FILE. RUBBLE LORD. B rank. Builds its body out of whatever wall it is standing next to. Do not stand next to walls.

[Picture: stamp B]

A shape made of broken concrete pulls itself up out of the bastion wall, and pieces of the wall fly up and snap onto its arms as it stands. It's four stories tall, and it's still building itself.

[Picture: rubble dust]

[Picture: rubble lord front]

Goliath's cameras are already rolling. Min-jae is already running.

[Picture: rubble dust]

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: rubble lord front]

Park Min-jae: There's a family in the tollbooth! Mom, dad, little kid! I'm going!

[Picture: rubble dust]

[Picture: live bug]

The Rubble Lord's arm comes down on the tollbooth. Min-jae goes under it, grabs the kid, grabs the mom, and comes out the other side with the dad on his back half a second before the booth turns into gravel.

[Picture: rubble dust]

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: rubble lord side]

He sets them down on the grass. The kid hugs him around the neck and won't let go.

[Picture: live bug]

Park Min-jae: Okay. Okay, buddy, you're safe. You're really strong, you know that? You held on so good.

[Picture: live bug]

Rhett walks in front of the family, puts his hand on the kid's head and turns to the US Gate agency camera.

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: character Park Min jae thoughtful]

Rhett Dawson: Goliath. We don't leave anybody behind.

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: character Park Min jae thoughtful]

Min-jae looks at the camera. He looks at his own helmet cam, which is streaming live, like always. He grins.

[Picture: live bug]

[Picture: character Park Min jae thoughtful]

Park Min-jae: Hi, Mom. Just so everybody knows, that was me. The big guy wasn't here yet. He was doing his hair.

[Picture: live bug]

It goes everywhere in about four minutes. By the time Colt checks his phone, the clip is on every feed in Korea, side by side with the US broadcast.

[Picture: live bug]

Up on the top walkway of the bastion tower, three floors above the road and out of every camera's view, Rhett catches up with Min-jae.

Rhett Dawson: Doing my hair? You think that's funny, Speedy? You think you can make me look stupid twice?

Park Min-jae: I just said what happened, man.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Rhett kicks him in the leg. Something breaks, loud enough to hear over the sirens. Min-jae goes down without a sound.

Rhett Dawson: Speedy's not so speedy now.

Colt comes around the corner and stops dead. His face goes white. Twenty meters behind him, Lyra has seen it too.

Colt Mercer: Rhett. Rhett, what did you do? That's his leg, man. That's his whole leg.

Something lands on the walkway behind them hard enough to crack it. Kang Taegun stands up out of the dust.

[Picture: rubble dust]

He looks at Min-jae on the ground. He looks at Min-jae's leg. He goes very, very calm.

[Picture: rubble dust]

Kang Taegun: Who did that?

[Picture: rubble dust]

Rhett Dawson: He tripped. Tragic. You want to do something about it, E-rank?

[Picture: rubble dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang doesn't make a fist. He just puts one open hand on Rhett's chest and pushes him straight down.

Rhett goes through the walkway floor. Then the floor below it. Then the floor below that. Three floors of concrete, and the whole tower shakes.

Rhett, Goliath's unbreakable man, lies in a pile of concrete on the ground floor, looking up through three holes at the sky. He doesn't get up.

Kang kneels next to Min-jae and puts a hand on his shoulder.

Kang Taegun: Sorry, man. This part hurts.

Park Min-jae: Hyung. Hyung, it's bad, right? It feels really bad.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: It's not that bad. Look at me. One, two...

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang sets the leg on "two." Min-jae screams. Then a warm green light falls over both of them from the stairs.

[Picture: green sparkles]

Oh Byung-chan: Hold still, kiddo. Doctor's here.

[Picture: green sparkles]

The next morning. Min-jae is sitting up in bed with his leg in a light cast and a pair of crutches leaning next to him. He's eating everybody's fruit.

Oh Byung-chan: The bone's knitted. Stay off it for a day, kiddo. One day. That means twenty-four hours, not one nap.

Park Min-jae: Yes, Doc. Hyung, you put an S-rank through a building.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Three floors.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: Three floors! His unbreakable face went through three floors!

[Picture: previous speaker]

The door bangs open. Ji-soo comes in still wearing her dispatch headset, looks at Min-jae, looks at the leg, and hugs him so hard he drops a grape.

Ahn Ji-soo: You're an idiot. You're an idiot for running under a four-story rock man. That's a one out of ten.

Park Min-jae: The kid was a ten, though.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: Yeah. The kid was a ten.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Forty floors up. Rhett is on the sofa in a neck brace. Judah stands at the window with his arms folded, watching the clip of three floors falling in on themselves.

Rhett Dawson: He attacked me, boss. On camera. In front of the whole world. You gotta do something.

Lyra Wescott: Tell him what happened first, Rhett.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Rhett Dawson: I don't know what you...

[Picture: previous speaker]

Lyra Wescott: Then I will. Rhett broke the courier's leg, Judah. Off camera. Because the kid said out loud that Rhett didn't save that family. The kid was right. Colt and I both saw it.

[Picture: previous speaker]

For the first time since Goliath landed in Korea, Judah Coles goes quiet.

Colt Mercer: She's right, boss. I saw it. I should've said something at the market. I should've said sorry to the kid like you told me.

Judah looks at Rhett for a long time.

Judah Coles: Rhett was wrong. Dead wrong. I'll deal with Rhett.

Judah Coles: But somebody put my guy through a building on live TV, and the whole world watched. That's a guild thing. I can't let that sit.

Lyra Wescott: Judah...

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: I know, Lyra. I know. Both things are true.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Midnight. The north wall has its usual night shift, and then the whole bottom ring goes silent at once.

Judah Coles walks down the ramp from the third ring with his hands in his jacket pockets. Jo drops his clipboard.

[Picture: character Judah Coles neutral]

Jo Dae-sung: That's... uh. Kid, is that...

[Picture: character Judah Coles neutral]

Seo Ji-hoon: Yeah, boss. That's him.

[Picture: character Judah Coles neutral]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Evening. You're the delivery guy's buddy.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: His name's Min-jae.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Min-jae. Okay. My guy broke Min-jae's leg. That was wrong, and I'm gonna make it right. And you put my guy through three floors.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Yeah.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: So you and me, bud.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: I'm on shift till six.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah looks at him. Then he laughs, a big real laugh that bounces off every ring of the pit.

Judah Coles: Okay. Six it is.

He sits down on the barricade next to Ji-hoon and holds out his hand. Ji-hoon gives him his snack bag without being asked.

The sky over the pit goes gray, then pink. Cherry petals blow down the ramp.

The shift clock rolls to six. The biggest man in the world is still sitting on the Euljiro north wall with an empty snack bag in his lap.

He stands up and stretches, and his back cracks like a tree branch.

Judah Coles: Your country does rank trials in front of a crowd, right? Jamsil. Tonight.

Kang Taegun: Okay.

[Picture: previous speaker]

A navy uniform comes down the ramp at a fast walk. Captain Park Hye-jin of the GGA has not slept either.

Park Hye-jin: Mr. Coles. The GGA can't authorize this. An S plus fighting an S plus in a city of twelve million is not something anybody authorizes.

[Picture: character Judah Coles amused]

Judah Coles: Then don't authorize it, ma'am. Call your bosses. See what they say.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Hye-jin calls. She listens for a long time. When she hangs up, she doesn't look at anyone.

[Picture: character Judah Coles amused]

Park Hye-jin: They said to keep it inside the arena.

[Picture: character Judah Coles amused]

In the basement club, Nam Gi-cheol watches the announcement on a phone. Every channel in Korea has the same headline.

[Picture: phone headline]

Choi Dong-wook: Tonight? The two of them? At Jamsil?

[Picture: phone headline]

Nam Gi-cheol: Every Breaker in Seoul is going to be watching that arena. Every cop. Every agency officer. Every camera.

[Picture: phone headline]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: There it is. Tonight nobody's watching the river.

[Picture: phone headline]

Chapter 7. Titan

Titan — Chapter 7

Jamsil Arena, nine at night. The agency ordered the stadium closed. Ninety thousand people are in the seats anyway, and the US Gate agency's crew is broadcasting to the whole planet.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: phone flashes]

This is where Kang was certified S plus. It's where Korea holds its rank trials in front of a crowd. Tonight nobody is calling it a trial.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: phone flashes]

Kang Ha-eun: I'm wearing his shirt. I'm wearing Judah's shirt to my brother's fight. What kind of sister am I?

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Park Min-jae: The honest kind. I brought two signs. One for each of them. I'm a coward.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: two signs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Seo Ji-hoon: You're supposed to be off your leg for a day, hyung.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: two signs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: It's been nineteen hours. That's basically a day.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: two signs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

At the rail, the four Korean S-ranks stand shoulder to shoulder. Ji-soo stands a little apart from them. The agency asked her to referee. She said no.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Ahn Ji-soo: I can't rate this one. I can't watch it neutral.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Baek Jae-won: Nobody here is neutral, Ji-soo. Not even the floor.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jang Tae-sik: The floor's shaking already, and nobody's thrown anything yet.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Oh Byung-chan: Anybody want to bet? I've got a scarf on Taegun.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Min Seo-yeon: Nobody's betting, Byung-chan. It's a nine on bad taste.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jang Tae-sik: I'll take the bet. I'll take Taegun too. Everybody takes Taegun. That's the problem with the bet.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Across the pit, at the Goliath rail, Lyra Wescott is standing with Colt and a camera crew. Rhett isn't there. His neck brace wouldn't fit through the tunnel.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Lyra Wescott: Judah hasn't gone past half size since Cairo. Not once. He's never had to.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Colt Mercer: You think he'll have to tonight?

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Lyra Wescott: I think the man who put Rhett through three floors used an open hand.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah walks out into the pit in his old bomber jacket and his jeans. No armor. No gear. Colt jogs out after him with a long black case.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Colt Mercer: Boss. You're not wearing your armor?

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Judah Coles: Didn't figure I'd need it.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang comes out the other side in his black hooded jacket and his hand wraps. The crowd makes a noise like the whole stadium breathing in.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Judah Coles: Evening, bud. How's Min-jae's leg?

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

Kang Taegun: Better. Your guy's neck?

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Worse. He'll live. Go on, then. Free one.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: What?

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: First hit's free. I always give one. Take it.

[Picture: jumbotron vs]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang takes it. One punch, straight to the chest.

Judah slides back thirty meters across the pit. His boots cut two long trenches in the concrete, and the stands behind him shake.

Then he stops. He looks down at the trenches. And he laughs, loud and happy, like a kid on Christmas.

Judah Coles: First guy in fifteen years to move me. Fifteen years!

Judah rolls his neck. Then he comes forward, and they trade. Kang hits him. He hits Kang. Kang hits him again. Every hit sounds like a car crash, and for a full minute nobody in ninety thousand seats says a word.

Neither of them gives a step.

Min Seo-yeon: They're even. They're actually even.

Oh Byung-chan: Kiddo's never had to trade before. Not with anybody.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: You hit like a freight train, bud! Where'd you learn that?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Army. Then a wall.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: A wall! They teach this on a wall?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: You'd be surprised what comes up the pit, man.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Then Judah starts to grow. His jacket splits across the back. He's twice his size, then more, and every step up, his hits get heavier.

A fist the size of a car door catches Kang in the ribs. For the first time since the Horned Tyrant, something hits Kang hard enough to move him.

Kang goes backward through the lower deck of the stands and out the other side. Concrete and blue seats rain down on the pit.

Judah, twice the size he was a minute ago, walks after him.

The hole in the stands is quiet. Then Kang climbs back out of it, brushing dust off his jacket. There's blood on his lip.

[Picture: falling dust]

He wipes it with his thumb and looks at it for a second. Like he's never seen it before.

[Picture: falling dust]

Kang Ha-eun: Oppa's bleeding. Min-jae oppa, he's bleeding.

[Picture: falling dust]

Park Min-jae: Yeah. He did that in Haiphong too. He'll be okay. He'll be okay.

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: Huh. That one hurt.

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Good! It's supposed to!

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: Taegun! Are you okay?

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: I'm okay! Sorry about the seats!

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Ha-eun: He's apologizing to the seats. He's bleeding, and he's apologizing to the seats.

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: That's how you know he's fine.

[Picture: falling dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang stops trading. He goes fast. He's under Judah's arm, then behind him, then above him, and every hit lands somewhere Judah isn't looking. Judah can't touch him.

Judah Coles: Oh, you're quick. Okay. Okay. Then I gotta go bigger.

He does. The floodlight rigs bend around his shoulders. The roof of Jamsil Arena starts to crack. Kang goes up to meet him, straight into the air, and stays there.

[Picture: rubble dust]

Judah Coles: Oh, you fly? Nobody told me you fly!

[Picture: rubble dust]

Kang Taegun: I learned last year. I'm not great at it.

[Picture: rubble dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: You're doing fine, bud!

[Picture: rubble dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Colt Mercer: Boss! The roof! You're going through the roof!

[Picture: rubble dust]

[Picture: previous speaker]

The roof goes. Stars show through the hole. The crowd scrambles back from the rail, and the agency starts pulling people up the aisles.

[Picture: rubble dust]

Judah Coles, now taller than the arena, steps out through the stadium wall toward the Han River, trailing concrete and steel beams like cobwebs.

Kang hangs in the night air in front of him. He's about the size of Judah's eye.

Kang Ha-eun: Oppa...

Down at the rail, Baek Jae-won has stopped breathing. He puts a hand on the prayer beads around his wrist.

[Picture: jumbotron static]

Baek Jae-won: I'm very glad I never sparred either of them.

[Picture: jumbotron static]

Chapter 8. The River

The River — Chapter 8

Banpo Causeway. Under the deck, three technicians in the control gallery are watching the fight on a little TV with their mouths open.

[Picture: tv giant]

None of them hears the door. Five men in black armor walk in with a code reader and a woman in a black hood.

[Picture: tv giant]

Choi Dong-wook: Good evening. Seal maintenance. Very routine. Please keep watching the television.

[Picture: tv giant]

The technicians keep watching the television. It seems safer. The Guard men go out onto the deck and kneel at the first post.

[Picture: tv giant]

The code reader beeps. The post rises out of the concrete with a hiss. Then the next one. Then the next.

[Picture: code reader]

At the same minute, across the river, the loading door of the Mapo Seal Workshop rolls up. The night shift turns around from the glowing tanks.

Nam Gi-cheol walks in with eight Guard men behind him. He doesn't raise his voice. He never had to.

Nam Gi-cheol: Everybody on your knees, please. Hands where I can see them. Nobody gets hurt tonight who doesn't have to.

Yun Chae-won kneels with the rest of the night shift, next to her apprentice. She looks at the wall of seal cores. Then she looks at Nam.

Yun Chae-won: You know what's on that wall, Sergeant? That's every Gate in the west of the city.

Nam Gi-cheol: I know exactly what's on that wall. That's why I'm here.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Yun Chae-won: There are schools in the west half. There are hospitals. My apprentice's mother lives in Mapo.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: Then maybe after tonight her mother will ask why one workshop and one tired technician were all that stood between her and the river.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Yun Chae-won: She won't have to ask. I'll tell her. It was me. It's always been me. And I was enough.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam looks at her for a second. Then he turns to the rack and starts reading labels.

At the arena, everyone is looking up. Everyone except Seo Ji-hoon. He's looking at the floor, and his hand is locked on Min-jae's arm.

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung. The river. The Banpo Gate is waking up. It's waking up right now. The posts are coming out.

Park Min-jae: Now? During this?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Seo Ji-hoon: That's why it's during this.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ji-soo is already at the rail with the S-ranks. She doesn't take her eyes off the hole in the arena wall, where the fight went. Then she does.

Ahn Ji-soo: Baek, Jang, Seo-yeon, Oh. Leave it. The river's waking. Banpo, all four of you. I'll take Mapo.

Jang Tae-sik: Leave the fight? Now?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: He's fine! He's the only person in Seoul who's fine! Go!

[Picture: previous speaker]

The Korean S-ranks go. And Lyra Wescott, standing at the Goliath rail, goes with them without asking anybody's clearance, for the first time in her life.

Park Min-jae: I'm coming to Mapo.

Ahn Ji-soo: You have a broken leg!

[Picture: previous speaker]

Park Min-jae: I'm a runner, noona. I'll run on one leg.

[Picture: previous speaker]

The causeway posts are out. The Guard team is already gone. The river under the deck turns in a slow circle, and the green light under the water goes wrong.

[Picture: river mist]

GATE AGENCY FILE. ABYSSAL LEVIATHAN SPAWN. A rank. Young. Big enough to roll a patrol boat. The first one ever logged in the Han River.

[Picture: stamp A]

Something the length of a train comes up out of the Han right beside the causeway. Armored plates, barnacles, and a mouth wider than a doorway full of white teeth.

[Picture: river mist]

[Picture: abyssal leviathan spawn side]

The deck starts to break.

[Picture: river mist]

[Picture: abyssal leviathan spawn side]

Oh Byung-chan: That's a leviathan. In the Han. That's never happened. That's never, ever happened.

[Picture: river mist]

Baek Jae-won: Then we'll be the first people it happens to. Positions, please.

[Picture: river mist]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Baek Jae-won raises both hands, and a dome of light and shadow closes over the whole causeway.

Jang Tae-sik drives his fists into the deck, and stone pillars come up out of the riverbed to hold the concrete from underneath.

Min Seo-yeon slows the air around the leviathan's head until the spray off its jaws hangs frozen like glass beads.

Lyra Wescott opens her eyes and lifts the river itself into a wall, and Oh Byung-chan's green light finds every technician in the gallery.

Korea's four S-ranks and one American, all at once.

Lyra Wescott: It's pushing west. I can hold the water. I can't hold it forever.

Jang Tae-sik: Nobody asked you to hold it forever, America. Just till the seal lady shows up!

[Picture: previous speaker]

Min Seo-yeon: Where is the seal lady?

[Picture: barrier dome]

Baek Jae-won: Mapo. With the cores.

[Picture: barrier dome]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Oh Byung-chan: Then we're holding a leviathan with no seal coming. For how long?

[Picture: barrier dome]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jang Tae-sik: Till it comes! That's how long!

[Picture: barrier dome]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Lyra Wescott: Is he always like this?

[Picture: barrier dome]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Min Seo-yeon: Always. It's an eight, honestly. You get used to it.

[Picture: barrier dome]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Baek Jae-won: Welcome to Korea, Ms. Wescott.

[Picture: barrier dome]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ji-soo comes in through the side door at a run, with Ji-hoon behind her. Min-jae comes in through the loading door on crutches, which he throws at the first Guard man he sees.

[Picture: flying crutch]

Nam turns around. He looks at Ji-soo, and he almost smiles.

Nam Gi-cheol: The inspector. The kid's girlfriend.

Ahn Ji-soo: A-rank, Sergeant. And I'm arresting you. Let the night shift go.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: Does he know you're here?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ahn Ji-soo: He's busy. I told him not to do anything stupid. I didn't say anything about me.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: He picked well. Okay, Inspector. Show me.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ji-soo is faster than anyone in the building, and she fights like a fencer. She's a blur around Nam, her sword in and out of the light, three hits on his armor before he's even turned.

Nam is A-rank too, with the same gift as Kang, a body stronger and harder than it has any right to be. He takes every hit and keeps his feet.

Ahn Ji-soo: Your footwork's a six, Sergeant. Your guard's a five.

Nam Gi-cheol: And your left side's open.

[Picture: previous speaker]

His hand closes on her wrist mid-swing. He turns, and Ji-soo hits a workbench hard enough to crack it. She finally understands who trained Kang.

Min-jae hits the Guard line at full speed on one good leg. Men in black armor go over like bowling pins.

Choi is standing by the core wall. When he sees Min-jae coming, he does what he's always done. He grabs the nearest small person and holds them in front of him.

It's Ji-hoon. An E-rank. A kid.

Seo Ji-hoon: Choi! Let go!

Choi Dong-wook: Stay close, kid. Just stay close. It won't hurt me.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Min-jae's tackle is already coming. It's too fast to stop.

At the last second, Choi lets go of Ji-hoon. He pushes him away, out of reach.

He keeps the hit himself.

For the first time in his life, Choi Dong-wook goes flying. He hits the floor, and he stays there, holding his ribs, looking at the ceiling.

Choi Dong-wook: Huh. So that's what that feels like.

Seo Ji-hoon: You let go. Why'd you let go?

Choi Dong-wook: Don't make it a thing, kid. Just... go help your people.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Across the workshop, Nam has Yun by the arm. With his other hand he pulls one fist-sized crystal out of the rack. The label on the slot says Banpo.

[Picture: banpo core]

Nam Gi-cheol: No core, no seal. You know that better than anybody, Technician.

[Picture: banpo core]

Yun Chae-won: The river Gate is awake right now. If it can't be sealed, it doesn't stop. It just keeps going.

[Picture: banpo core]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: I know.

[Picture: banpo core]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Ji-soo is on the floor by the workbench. She can't get up yet. Min-jae is surrounded.

And across the city, up the river from Jamsil, comes a boom so big it rattles every tank in the workshop.

Chapter 9. By a Hair

By a Hair — Chapter 9

The Han River at Jamsil. Judah Coles is standing in it. The water only comes up to his knees now, and his head is higher than the apartment towers on the bank.

[Picture: river mist]

Kang is in the air in front of him. Both of them are bleeding. Neither of them has taken a step back in twenty minutes.

[Picture: river mist]

Judah Coles: You tired, bud?

[Picture: river mist]

Kang Taegun: A little. You?

[Picture: river mist]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Little bit. Feels great.

[Picture: river mist]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah swings. Kang takes it on both forearms and skips across the river like a stone, three times, and comes back up out of the water in a cloud of spray.

[Picture: river mist]

Kang swings. Judah folds over it, a building bending in half, and straightens up again, laughing and coughing.

[Picture: river mist]

Judah Coles: You're holding back.

[Picture: river mist]

Kang Taegun: So are you.

[Picture: river mist]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah thinks about that. The whole river goes still around his legs.

[Picture: river mist]

Judah Coles: ...Yeah. Okay. No more.

[Picture: river mist]

Kang Taegun: No more.

[Picture: river mist]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah raises one fist the size of a bus and brings it straight down with everything he has.

Kang meets it head on, one fist against one fist.

The river is blown clear to the riverbed in a perfect ring. For one second you can see mud and old bicycles and a sunken ferry at the bottom of the Han.

Every window on both banks goes at once. Neither of them gives an inch.

The water rushes back in. They're still there. Still even. Still trading.

On a rooftop across the river, Colt Mercer has stopped filming. His stream camera is pointed at his own shoes.

Colt Mercer: Nobody's ever... nobody's ever made him go that big. Nobody.

They both land at the same time. Kang's fist on Judah's jaw. Judah's fist on Kang's chest.

The shockwave flattens the river into a circle. Judah shrinks as he falls, back to a man again by the time he hits the shallows.

Kang drops into the water on one knee.

For a few seconds nothing moves. Then Judah pushes up on one arm. He gets one foot under him. His knee buckles.

He tries again. It buckles again, one second before Kang's would have.

Judah lies back in the shallow water and laughs until he coughs.

Judah Coles: Okay. Okay, bud. You win. By a hair.

Kang Taegun: ...I'll take it.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang tries to stand up. It takes him two tries. His right arm isn't working very well.

Judah Coles: You gonna make it?

Kang Taegun: Probably. Sorry about your jaw.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Don't you dare apologize. Best night of my life.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang's phone is still in his jacket pocket, somehow. It's buzzing. It's been buzzing for a while.

[Picture: missed calls]

Park Min-jae: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Hyung! Hyung, it's Mapo! Nam's here. He's got Yun. He took the river core. Noona's down. Hyung, please!

[Picture: missed calls]

Kang looks up the river toward Mapo. He can barely stand.

Judah Coles: Go on. I'll catch up.

Judah stays on his back in the water.

Judah Coles: ...In a minute.

Kang goes. He flies crooked, low over the water, and he doesn't slow down.

Kang comes in through the workshop roof and almost falls over landing. Glass rains down around him. Every Guard man in the room steps back.

[Picture: glass shards]

Nam Gi-cheol doesn't step back. He looks Kang up and down, the bleeding lip, the dead right arm, the wet jacket.

[Picture: glass shards]

Nam Gi-cheol: Look at you, kid. You can barely stand.

[Picture: glass shards]

Kang Taegun: Let her go, Sarge.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: You just fought an S plus for half an hour. I'm fresh. I've got the same gift you do, kid. Strong, fast, hard to put down. And I trained you. You know how this goes.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam comes at him. He's fast and he's strong, and he's fighting a tired man with one arm. He lands a hit on Kang's ribs, and it actually hurts. He lands another.

Ahn Ji-soo: Taegun!

Kang doesn't block the third one. He takes it on the chest. Then he looks at Nam, and it's the same look he had the last time they fought.

One punch. The last one Kang has in him. Left handed, tired and slow.

It doesn't need to be fast. Nam Gi-cheol hits the floor of the Mapo Seal Workshop and doesn't get back up.

Kang Taegun: Sorry, Sarge.

Nam Gi-cheol: Told you... Keep it in your pocket.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Kang Taegun: I did. Till tonight.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Yun Chae-won pulls free, grabs the crystal marked Banpo off the floor and runs for the door.

[Picture: banpo core]

Yun Chae-won: Min-jae! How fast can you get me to the causeway?

[Picture: banpo core]

Park Min-jae: On one leg? Pretty fast! Get on!

[Picture: previous speaker]

Dawn over the Han. Baek's dome is cracked like an eggshell. Jang is on his knees. Seo-yeon's nose has been bleeding for an hour. Lyra's arms are shaking.

[Picture: cracked dome]

And standing on the broken deck, holding a whole section of the causeway on his shoulders, is Judah Coles, bleeding, back at his normal size.

[Picture: cracked dome]

Jang Tae-sik: When did he get here?

[Picture: cracked dome]

[Picture: character Judah Coles neutral]

Oh Byung-chan: About ten minutes ago. He said he was "in the neighborhood."

[Picture: cracked dome]

[Picture: character Judah Coles neutral]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Little one. You should see its mom.

[Picture: cracked dome]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Min-jae comes down the causeway on one leg with Yun on his back. Yun slides off, runs to the center unit and slams the core into the rack.

[Picture: cracked dome]

Yun Chae-won: Everybody, I need it pinned. I need it still. It has to be quiet.

[Picture: cracked dome]

Baek Jae-won: Then it'll be quiet.

[Picture: cracked dome]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Baek's shadow wraps the leviathan's jaws shut. Lyra drops the river on top of it. Jang pulls the riverbed up around its body like a fist. The leviathan stops moving.

[Picture: cracked dome]

[Picture: abyssal leviathan spawn front]

Yun Chae-won: It's quiet. Firing!

Green light runs down the causeway posts and into the river, and the Banpo Gate goes back to sleep. The sun comes up over the Han.

[Picture: green seal glow]

Lyra Wescott: We held it.

[Picture: green seal glow]

Judah Coles: Course we did. Hey, Lyra. You didn't ask anybody's permission tonight.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Lyra Wescott: I know. I feel terrible about it. Also great.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Min-jae sits down on the wet deck and finally takes his weight off the cast. Yun sits down next to him. Neither of them says anything for a while.

Yun Chae-won: You ran me across half of Seoul on a broken leg.

Park Min-jae: Cracked leg. Mostly healed. Doc's going to kill me.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Oh Byung-chan: Doc is going to kill you, kiddo. Doc is going to heal you first, and then kill you.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Jang Tae-sik: Mr. Coles. You got here fast for a guy who lost.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Lost by a hair, rock guy. By a hair. Put it in the papers like that.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Min Seo-yeon: The fight was a ten. The losing was a nine. Holding the bridge after was an eleven.

[Picture: score 11]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Judah Coles: Is that good?

[Picture: score 11]

[Picture: previous speaker]

Baek Jae-won: She's never given anyone an eleven, Mr. Coles. She gave you one.

[Picture: score 11]

[Picture: previous speaker]

At Mapo, the agency puts Nam Gi-cheol in cuffs. As they walk him past Kang, he stops.

Nam Gi-cheol: Kid. Listen to me. I only loosened the posts.

Kang Taegun: What does that mean?

[Picture: previous speaker]

Nam Gi-cheol: Something on the other side has been pushing on every Gate in this city for a month. Before I ever got out. I just let it lean.

[Picture: previous speaker]

Chapter 10. Odin

Odin — Chapter 10

GGA Operations Command. The wall of screens has been playing the same footage for six hours. A river blown down to its bed. Two men standing in the ring of water.

Director Grace Okonkwo hasn't sat down since it started.