by Jiny Lee
I told her everything from what Hannibal asked me on his death to what I'd found out about him. Obviously, Hannibal was expecting his old friend to come whether it was for a revenge, or curiosity. But he chose to do nothing, and I was there instead of him.
I wanted to find an answer but ended up with another question. 'The answer lies in the rise of the moon.' I asked her if she knew the answer, but she told me to solve it myself. So I returned to Bertie and asked him if he found anything.
He said there seemed to be a memory card inside the watch. I asked him if he could force open it and put it out. He said he could try but it was too risky since the memory card could be damaged if he tried to force it open.
I said, 'So it's composed of three numbers, right? The first one is from one to twenty, and the second one is from one to sixty, and the third one also is from one to sixty.' He said it was.
So I said, 'We have to find out what the numbers mean. It could be time, I guess. Will it be the time of the moon rise everyday? The abbess told me that the answer lies in the rise of the moon.'
Bertie said, 'Did she say that the answer lies with the rise of the moon? What does that mean?' I said I had no idea. Then he said, 'Come on. Didn't Hannibal say anything when he gave this to you? He must have told you something if he really wanted you to find that Rachel.'
I said, 'Wait a minute, I think he said something before he died. He said something about finding a mark. Is there any mark on the watch?' Bertie said, 'No, there's no such thing as a mark. Wait, what was the name of that guy again? The guy you met?'
'... You are a genius Bertie! Find Mark! Not find a mark! How could I be so stupid? Wait here, I'll go see him again,' I nearly cried.
I decided that I had to talk with Mark once again. He was the one whom Hannibal expected to have the watch, have the clue, and solve the riddle Selene gave. He must know something, I supposed. So I knocked on his door on the first floor one more time.
I asked him if he knew anything about 'the answer lies with the rise of the moon.' He fell into a deep thought for a moment, and said he got a few things that came to his mind. The first one was Rachel's birth day. It was on the fourth full moon, April 15th. I asked him if he knew what time of the day she was born, since I still needed one more number. He said he didn't. I thought Hannibal couldn't expect him to know that.
So I asked him about the second thing that came to his mind. He said, when he was a young boy, he used to go somewhere in the building to see the full moon on Chigan Sar every year. I asked him where. He said he didn't remember exactly where it was, but it was a room that had a huge broken openings toward the outside!
I asked him if it was on the 16th floor. He said, 'Yes, it was on the 16th floor. How did you know that?'
Because that was the same place where we used to see the full moon every year! I went straight up to the 16th floor. I tried to find the room, but I couldn't locate where it was. The outside walls had been all repaired and I couldn't remember the room number. I was too little to remember that detail.
I went up to the 100th floor and asked Kimmy if she remembered the room number. She said she didn't remember the number but she'd remember roughly if she went there herself. So we went down stairs to see.
She said 'I think it's somewhere around here,' and stoped at a hallway which had the rooms between 1640 to 1670 on both sides.
I asked Kimmy 'Should we check every room?' and she said, 'There seems to be no other way.'
So we knocked on every door, and asked for their cooperation. They all kindly helped us but there was nothing suspicious. We asked them if they knew anything about the repair but unfortunately, no one knew about anything.
Kimmy said, 'Danny must have known the room number.' I said, 'He definitely did. Do you remember the day? He came to us early in the evening and said he found an amazing place. You made fun of him Kimmy, what did you say?'
And Kimmy said, 'An amazing place to cut your hair?'
'Yes you did. It was so funny. You always told him to get his hair cut. You even said his hair looked like a shaggy mane of a lion,' I said.
'Yes! The lion!' Kimmy suddenly exclaimed, 'The lion, you fool genius! The lion!'
I remembered that I drew a lion on the floor of the room. We knocked on every door again and asked people if they had seen a drawing of a lion on the floor.
Luckily, a man who lived in the room number 1657 said there was a drawing on the floor he got rid of. He said he wasn't sure if it was a lion but it was surely a shape of an animal.
We asked for his understanding and started to remove all the furniture inside. As soon as we clear the room, we spotted a small crack on the wall. Normally, we'd think it was no big deal, but we were sure that we had to carefully examine it.
We called Bertie on the radio to come down. He came down with a small fiberscope and put it inside the crack.
There was an envelope inside. We broke down the crack with a hammer and put the envelope out.
24
There was a picture in the envelope. A picture of the building taken from the outside. Three guys were standing in front of the building. Two of them was wearing white gowns. They looked like some sort of laboratory workers or scientists. One man in between them was also wearing a gown, but wearing a weird mask and sunglasses that covers up all his face and he was also wearing a black gloves. But the most important thing was on the back of the picture. There was a sentence written in letters that I couldn't read.
Bertie seemed to know what the letters were. He said, 'I think I've seen this type of letters in a history book. This should be older than a thousand years!'
I didn't know anything about the history of the city outside. I asked him if he could read it. He said he couldn't but he knew someone who might.
He was an old man named Ganbold. He was a member of the counsel. He was a historian from the city. We went upstairs with that picture to see him.
I showed him the picture. He looked surprised and excited at the same time to see the picture and the letters behind. He said the picture seemed to be taken in front of the building to celebrate its construction. 'The construction?' I asked. It blew my mind since to the people of the building, the construction of the building has the same meaning as the beginning of the world.
I asked him if he could read the letters. He said he could read some of it but he wasn't sure about some of the letters. He asked us to bring some of the books he had in his apartment. They were history books with old writings in it.
...
After an hour or so, Ganbold finished the translation of the letters. He showed us what he translated.
In celebration of the rise of the new world. Nergui, Altan, and Arban, in front of the completed Lunar Corp's Headquarter. 06/26/53
Ganbold said, 'The numbers at the end seems to be the date of the construction of this building. June 26th, 53. If it is what I think it is, It's from the time when the city was first beginning to be built by the first pioneers of the desert! There's not much historical material of the time. This is a discovery of the century! Son, how did you find this remarkable piece of historical evidence? I'd like to study more about it.'
I let him keep it. All I needed was the combination. I turned the hands to point 06:26:53 and pressed the button on the side. With a click, the watch opened itself. And there was a small piece of plastic inside. It was the memory card that Bertie said earlier.
...
We took it to Bertie's office. He put the memory card in his computer. There was an audio file named 'rc1.' Bertie said he thought it meant recording one. He tried to open the file but it was locked with a password. Bertie said it would take a few minutes to decrypt the password. I told him to try, 'Rachel.' And it was opened.
The file didn't open correctly. Only an error message came out. I asked what was wrong. He told me to wait for a moment.
After a few minutes, he told me he figured out the problem with a big grin on his face. He said, 'What a sly little fellow this
Hannibal guy is! He simply changed the extension of the file!' I asked him what the extension was. He said, 'Simply put, it's a text file, not an audio file.' Then he opened the file and showed it to me.
25
Mark, if you're reading this, it'd mean that I'm dead and you found the picture in the wall. I hope there would be no need for this, but if you read this file, please know that I really wanted to tell you the truth in person and I wanted to tell you that I want to apologize to you about everything that I've done. Please, my friend, I want you to understand that I had no other way to get this far. To find Rachel.
It's true that I did all the dirty works to get to the top of the pyramid. I've done many things that I regret I did. I know I've become a monster that everyone despise of. I know it all sounds like a lame excuse, but I determined to do everything to get Rachel back. You may blame me that I chose the wrong way. But if you're reading this, I want you to finish what I started. It's almost done. All I need is a final step to take me to the top of the building. Everything I'm looking for is on the top of the building.
When I became a guard, I found that Rachel disappeared from the building. Not only Rachel, I found out that a certain number of sisters occasionally disappear. At first, I thought it was the Reaper.
I tried everything. On one hand, I did everything to get to the top, and on the other hand, I planted people I can trust here and there. And finally, I learned that the Reaper made a deal with someone. He was sending a certain number of sisters to him every few years. What I couldn't understand was that the Reaper got nothing in return.
To figure out to whom he was sending sisters, I attached tracing devices to the sisters every year during the Chigan Sar. And finally one of them disappeared during a Chigan Sar, and I was able to track the signal. The signal was going down below the ground level until I lost track of it.
So I learned the existence of the basement level. I dug into it and found out that the rebels were hiding on the basement. I assumed that they were related to the missing sisters.
So I caused the war. The cartel destroyed the rebels in the end as you'd probably know. I led the guards. I stood in front of them to see if they were hiding the sisters.
But there wasn't any of the missing sisters. It was strange. I interrogated the rebels but none of them seemed to know anything about the sisters. Then I found that picture in Daug's office, the leader of the rebel. He seemed to know what it was. He definitely knew that it was the picture of the founders of the building. I instantly noticed that he was hiding something.
I interrogated him, and tortured him nights and days, but he didn't open his mouth. But trust me, I didn't kill him. I wasn't going to let him die until he opened his mouth. I swear to goddess that I didn't kill him. Someone else did, to shut his mouth, I guess.
I ordered the guards to search every inch of the basement. But suddenly, the Reaper gave a direct order, telling us to block all the passages down to the basement and clear all the floors from the first floor to the 14th floor. They said they were going to sell it to the day walkers and turn it into a prison. The Reaper was intentionally blocking the way to the basement. It was clear that he was also the one behind Daug's death. I had to be careful cause I didn't know if the Reaper knew anything about me.
I didn't do anything suspicious for a while after that. I got promoted and transferred to the higher floors. I was sure there were more information I could get here. I pretended to be the loyal dog while I was quietly gaining information pieces by pieces.
Now I know where the missing sisters might be. I wish to find them and find Rachel by myself, but I'm afraid that I might not be able to. So I'm leaving this letter to you in case I fail.
But forgive me my old friend that I can't tell you where they are. I'm worried if anyone but you would see this. Forgive me that I had to make you take a long journey here to put the pieces of the puzzle one by one. I'm sure you'll reach the conclusion.
I wish to thank Selene once again for helping me and you. She's been a mysterious person all the time. Forgive me once again that I can't tell you any further. Tell her the answer you've come to. I'm sure she'll show you the truth beneath everything. It was the growler after all.
What we see, my friend, is only a fraction of it. I hope you understand what it means.
Postscript.
Beware the night crawlers.
...
After I read the letter, I was blown away by too many thoughts rushing across my head. Did Daug have something to do with this? Or did he just happen to find a photo of tremendous archaeological value somewhere? He didn't tell us about the vault, either. He didn't tell us what that big plan he was having at that time. What else didn't he tell us?
I could see what Hannibal was thinking. He was suspecting the basement. He was thinking that there must have been something under the ground. But there was nothing. I knew there was nothing, better than anyone else. But what if I didn't know just because Daug kept it a secret?
Besides, What was Hannibal trying to say at the end of the letter? What we see is only a fraction of it? At first, the growler, and now the night crawlers? What are they?
The more I thought about it, the more complex it seemed for me to figure out any of it. I needed help. I went to Sarny Sum to meet Selene and ask her help.
When I tried to open the door of her place, the sisters in the Sum stopped me. They told me to wait outside. Selene was having a conversation with a guest, they said.
I waited and waited, hoping Selene would tell me anything.
...
But the wait lasted too long. I went close to the door, and put my ear on it. I felt like I heard a noise. I knocked on the door and said, 'Is there anything wrong in there?' No one answered. I tried to turn the doorknob, but it was locked. I knocked the door and then I hammered the door with my fist and shouted 'open up!'
The sisters heard the loud noise and gathered around me. I tried to kick the door open, but the door was like a solid steel. I asked if anyone had the key. One of them brought a bunch of keys somewhere and hurried to find the right key and opened the door.
There was nobody in the room. I definitely heard a noise coming out from the room. Sister got panicked, too. None of them saw anyone coming out of the room. It was sure that something mysterious was going on.
I found a card lying on the floor. It had a picture of something I'd never seen in my life. It looked like a rock on a water. I took it to Bertie. He said it was a floater. I asked him what's a floater. He said, it was an iceberg.
I said, 'Iceberg? Why is there a card with an iceberg on it? Bertie asked me, 'Wait, what was the word Hannibal mentioned?' I said growler. Suddenly, he made a loud clap with his hands and said, 'Exactly!'
I was curious. I asked him 'exactly what?' He said, 'Well, growler is another way of saying Iceberg. So what he was trying to say is the tip of an iceberg! Yes! The tip of an iceberg! He was trying to say that this building is like a tip of an iceberg! Now it all makes sense! He said the signal went down to the basement but there was nothing! Of course there was nothing since it went further down the ground!'
I said, 'So, you mean there's more floors down the basement? Cause, there's far more part of an iceberg that's hidden under the ...'
'Exactly!' he exclaimed. 'Go bring all your friends and tell them this incredible finding!'
...
I told everyone to meet me in Bertie's office. Kimmy, Fox, Alex, Wonder, and Purple came. It was really in a while that the six of us were together.
I told them what I had found. They were not convinced at first, but after I showed them the letter Hannibal wrote himself and the card I found in Selene's place, they seemed to accept the possibility.
Alex said, 'Are you saying that there are more floors beneath? But I didn't see any way down when we were on the basement. You're trying to say it's covered up?'
Wonder added, 'Me, neither. If what you're saying is true, they, I don't know who they actually are, some people l
iving on hidden basement floors are coming up the floors from time to time to kidnap the sisters, but why? and how? There's no witness or whatsoever who claim that they saw any.'
Fox agreed. She said, 'Wonder's right. even though the Reaper was part of it, there's got to be some witness, a proof, or any clue. We have none.'
I wasn't sure about what exactly happened, either. I said, 'That's why I'm suggesting we should go down and investigate the basement. I'm sure we will find something out once we get there. I mean, we have to...'
Then purple interrupted, 'dig a little deeper?' quite sarcastically. No one even noticed the just made a joke but Alex giggled a little and gave Purple a look.
Kimmy wasn't saying anything. She was just quietly listening to our conversation. Then she said something that gave us a chill.
She said, 'Well, actually, I saw a strange thing when I was young. It wasn't a thing exactly. It was a human, but with a weird appearance. It had no hair, no ear, and its eyes were darker than the color black. It's body was all covered in black skin, but, I think it was a tight suit or something like that. I've always thought that I saw a ghost or had a realistic nightmare since I was very young at that time, but I think what I saw is what Hannibal said. The night crawlers.'
After Kimmy finished, Fox cautiously began to talk.
'I heard the similar thing from one of my friends, too. She said she saw something like that and she tried to chase it, but it disappeared into the dark. She said she had a weird sensation, though. A feeling like she definitely saw something, but wasn't sure she saw it at the same time.'
Bertie interrupted and said, 'We have two witnesses now. Well, I'd vote on going down and figuring out whether there are more floors under the basement or not. Come on! I'll make you all some fancy exploring equipment. Free of charge. I personally feel intrigued.'
I said I'm in without a second of hesitation. I had to find Diane. Alex seemed excited. He said he'd have to give his students a little break. And if Alex joined, Wonder would join, too. She did.