Chapter 155.2

Chapter 155.2

It wasn’t a confession, it was a scream. The raw, unbearable sound of a person hitting rock bottom.

Parents abandoning their child. Parents cracking open their child’s skull. Remembering that despair, Joo Seolheon swallowed quietly and then steered the conversation to the main point she had been waiting for.

“We have to extract the child before then. That child we planted.” Joo Seolheon said, hiding the tremble in her voice as much as she could.

An unreadable gaze turned her way. She hardened her tone.

“If we pull that child out, they’ll be the sole survivor of the Koryo children. With Sakhalin’s future uncertain, we need to keep at least one piece on our side, Damon.”

“….”

“It’ll be harder to infiltrate again later if we don’t.”

Damon, looking somewhat convinced, nodded.

“The child’s name is Sonya.”

***

The unfamiliar name, heard for the first time in ten years, suddenly made her throat sting.

“Extract the child in advance and send them to the U.S. We’ll run some tests first—”

“I’ll take them and handle it.”

When Joo Seolheon cut in, he laughed mockingly.

“You want to take a possible CIA evidence back to Korea, Zoya?”

“….”

“It seems you’re under some misunderstanding. While we had no choice but to request cooperation from South Korea, this was strictly a CIA-led operation. Therefore, all evidence obtained belongs to us.”

“The American influence will be too strong,” Joo Seolheon refused to back down.

“No matter how much you try to place the child in a Korean household, they’ll always stand out if we ever need to reintegrate them as a Koryo person. I’ll take full responsibility.”

“You can’t raise something like that normally, Zoya. I’m sorry, but it’s evidence. What, did you suddenly develop maternal instincts?” Damon said with a sneer.

“Isn’t it ridiculous for you to say that, Damon?”

A suffocating silence followed. For the first time, her expressionless face twisted into one of contempt.

Maternal instincts? How dare he say that to her?

“Sonya” was a byproduct of Operation Red Veil, unethically obtained glory and a personal shame that had to remain hidden. Joo Seolheon pressed firmly.

“I’ll supervise the child strictly and submit monthly reports.”

***

When Rigay heard the name Sonya, he sank to the ground, dazed. But as the date approached, he moved frantically, like a man preparing for the end.

He burned all the research he had ever completed and packed as many syringes as he could. He erased all electrical codes that activated the chips and threw away an old Bible.

The Solzhenitsyn family’s birthday party was set to feature a circus performance, meaning many third-generation Koryo children would be present. It was almost a blessing in disguise.

While Russia had prepared brainwashing phrases to ensure the children’s obedience, Rigay had only ever wanted one thing from the start. It was something he told himself, too.

“Forget all the unhappiness of your childhood.”

Childhood trauma leaves irreversible scars on the brain. No one understood how devastating its effects could be better than Rigay.

Even if they couldn’t be reborn, couldn’t they at least live as if reborn? Couldn’t they wash away their broken lives? That was why he had dreamed the absurd dream of recycling the brain.

‘May all the children of Sakhalin be reborn from this day onward…’

Just then, the sound of string instruments celebrating someone’s birthday drifted in. Flower petals rained from the sky in honor of Russia’s precious children.

Soon, the two of them loaded a cart with children who had been injected and lost consciousness.

“Go! You need to leave too, Zoya!”

Today, all secrets would be buried in the white snow. Rigay would spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement as the terrorist who brought down the Solzhenitsyn family. Zoya would abandon her name and return to Korea.

And the children of Sakhalin would escape Russia safely to begin new lives.

“Rigay, wait!”

As they frantically opened the underground passage, their eyes met. From their first meeting to this moment of despair, even though their memories were built on lies, some still shimmered like grains of sand.

“Give me an injection too,” She said.

“What?”

“Promise me, never abandon that child.”

When she glared at him fiercely, Rigay stammered.

“T-this only works on underdeveloped brains! It won’t do much for us!”

“Even if it’s useless, I don’t care.”

Joo Seolheon gripped his arm tightly, “You know what kind of woman I am, what I’m capable of.”

Pinning him against the dark underground wall, she fumbled for the syringe at his waist.

“I don’t know how to protect anything,” She bit off the needle cap with her teeth.

The injection fluid entered her bloodstream, quickly spreading from her shoulder to the back of her head.

Rigay touched her stiffening nape and whispered, “I’ll protect the children from my place. You never take your eyes off Sonya.”

‘Could I even do that?’

“She’s proof that we loved each other, Zoya…”

“….!”

Her face hardened. She had only ever thought of the child as evidence of the operation, but could it really be that?

As the ground shook violently, Joo Seolheon sensed their farewell and pulled her husband into an embrace.

‘Yes, I understand. I understand…’

No other words came.

It was the end of a long mission.