Precautions of a Snakepit - Chapter 81
The door to the office was locked, unlike last time. It was likely due to Dr. Hudson’s break-in the other day.
‘Well, it’s not like I can’t get in.’
Won ran a hand through her unruly hair and unlocked the door in the blink of an eye.
“Fun as always.”
“I know.”
Black Cat and Top Dog might be a surprisingly good duo.
Opening the door to the office, they stepped inside and the two men moved the bookcase. In front of the herringbone-patterned wall, Won remembered the coordinates she had memorized.
‘(17, 21).’
She firmly pressed on the raised pattern around the perimeter, and the device moved as before, revealing the safe.
If the password is entered incorrectly three times, the safe will lock with a beep. She only gets two tries.
“I’m stepping back. I don’t have much luck with these types of things.”
Black Cat was the first to give up. If he had a clue about the password, he would have tried, but he had no idea where to start.
Won looked at Top Dog.
“Shall we try one at a time?”
“Isn’t this good? I feel like we’re participating in a couples’ trivia game.”
‘What the f*ck did he say?’
Frowning, Won pretended not to hear anything and pushed Top Dog toward the safe.
“You go first.”
Top Dog stared at the number pad for a moment, then raised his hand.
“You said the first digit was nine, right?”
He pressed the number pad. A strange sense of anticipation swirled through Won. Perhaps it was due to his extraordinary intuition in decisive moments like this.
“I was just going by feel, but it won’t open.”
Nevermind.
‘I’m a fool for expecting it.’
Won sighed and stepped forward.
“Move.”
Pushing Top Dog aside and standing in front of the safe, she hesitated.
‘Is this really right? Shouldn’t there be a more complex, more plausible cipher hidden somewhere in the hospital I needed to painstakingly decipher with all my might?’
The problem was, Won could only think of one four-digit number off the top of her head. The first digit was 9, too…
She can’t help it. She can’t think of any other answer.
Deciding it was best to try, Won firmly pressed the number pad. She heard the two men on either side gasp in surprise.
After punching in the last digit and carefully releasing her hand, Won composed herself.
‘If it doesn’t open, I’ll just leave…’
Just as she was thinking that, she heard the sound of a device inside the safe turning with an audible click. She wondered if it was a hallucination, but then the door opened.
“What the…”
“Sweetheart, how did you figure that out? That’s a combination you can’t try without knowing it.”
Top Dog’s innocent question left Won speechless. One glance at Black Cat, who was frantically reading the contents of the safe, and she wanted to avoid answering.
“Well.”
The safe belonged to Dr. Hudson. She tried to imagine herself in Dr. Hudson’s shoes.
A man who suddenly found himself as a patient in an asylum after his hospital was robbed by a cult. He would have wanted to somehow reveal to the world the truth of the tragedy and bad luck that had befallen him and the facility.
Fortunately, there was hope: he investigated them before becoming a patient himself.
With the hospital’s increasingly strange atmosphere and sense of urgency that was slowly being estranged by something unseen, he gathered information and succeeded in discovering their identities. Before he could reveal it, though, they attacked him and took his position as the hospital director.
The secret weapon that could turn the tables lies in his secret safe.
Even as the strange drugs they injected in his body ate away at his mind day by day, he waited. He waited for the chance to grab the materials from the safe and escape the ward. Believing that day would come one day, constantly reminding himself of the safe’s combination, just in case he forgot.
The drugs eventually destroyed his brain. He may have forgotten his purpose, but the obsession and compulsion remained, and he continued to repeat the password long after. Coincidentally, the sound was so similar to a pigeon cooing that the hospital didn’t even realize it was a number…
‘… I just wrote a novel called It’s The Right Answer.’
Won winched at her thoughts, leaving a bad aftertaste. It felt like a glimpse into a person’s unhappy life.
“One is a file and the other is a diary. I’m going to take both of them for now, in case there are any clues in the diary,” Black Cat explained after checking the contents.
Won held out her hand to him.
“I need to use the cell phone for a moment.”
“Ah, here you go.”
Taking the phone, Won punched in a number with a hesitant gesture and dialed. As soon as it connected, Won said, “It’s Won. I’m in.”
Ending the call after just four words, she handed the phone back to Black Cat. Then she turned to the two men who looked at her like she was an anomaly.
“What?”
“What kind of call takes you one second, pretty girl?”
“I was wondering if that’s what ‘just a quickie’ means.”
Won wasn’t sure what they wanted her to say. Was she supposed to say “Hi, I’m sorry to call you at such a late hour, but I have an urgent matter…?”
Not seeing the value in responding, Won changed the subject.
“Are you sure you don’t need to pack anything that could be used as a weapon?”
“No, but I think I just happened to see something nice over there.”
Top Dog gestured to something black and elongated. Upon closer inspection, they saw it was a golf bag.
“Maybe we can sneak a few in there?”
Not bad. Golf clubs are at least 18 inches long.
Firearms are the best weapons because they allow you to kill your opponent safely from a distance. Having a distance where you can hit your opponent but they can’t hit you is an important factor in a fight.
Won opened the golf bag and found several different clubs. Black Cat reached for the longest driver, while Top Dog snatched up an iron and handed it to him.
“This is better.”
“Ah I was just thinking of reach, but when you consider the area of contact, the larger head disperses the energy and makes the hit less effective. An iron would be better, and it’s metal.”
Top Dog looked at Black Cat, agreeing with his statement. Won was wondering what they were talking about, but she had a hunch.
‘He’s agreeing from experience, not theory.’
How many people has he beaten with a golf club? An ambivalence washed over her: curious, but not wanting to know.
Top Dog grabbed a wedge, gave it a quick swing with the snap of his wrist, and smiled with satisfaction.
“Well, that’s about as good as it gets.”
‘Good for what?’
Not bothering to voice the question, Won silently took the iron. Holding a weapon in each hand restricted her movement. If she had a pocket, she would put the gun there, but there were no pockets on the patient’s attire so they couldn’t hide anything.
Won held the only plastic container she hadn’t used in her assembly against her palm. Then, she ran her hand through her hair with the remover, grabbed a handful of hair, and ripped it out.
Ignoring the two men’s shocked stares, she weaved a bundle of hair into a long ponytail that held the gun still and tied it around her waist.
“… Fake hair?” Black Cat mumbled, trying to compose himself. Judging by the shortness of his words, he didn’t fully understand.
“It’s a special fiber disguised as faux wool. It’s strong, so let me know if you need it. Do you want to tie your papers and diary up with it too, Gyeom?”
“Yes? Yes, yes…”
Why give the same answer three times?
Won tore off a generous amount of the special fiber and handed it to Black Cat. Black Cat looked mesmerized and began to tie the folder and diary to his body.
“Make sure they don’t fall off if you move around too much. If you don’t have enough, I have more.”
“My pretty girl is so… different in so many ways.”
Top Dog’s voice held almost no emotion.
She was more surprised by their reactions since they both touched her hair more than once. How could they not recognize the foreign texture after all that contact? Surely, they should have noticed.
“I thought you would have noticed it because of the texture.”
“I thought you had dog hair.”
“I thought you had a bad hair day.”
Top Dog and Black Cat simultaneously responded. They seemed like best friends.
‘Who are these two?’
While Won’s irritation increased, Black Cat tied the papers, diary, and phone together with a cross, threaded a string through it, and placed it across his abdomen.
‘From the looks of it, he could probably take a knife to the stomach.’
She was tempted to grab a knife and go for it, but she can’t guarantee what will happen in a place where common sense does not prevail.
‘He seems to be… specialized, so he shouldn’t be a problem.’
She tore her gaze away from Top Dog. When she saw that Black Cat finished securing his things and gathered his golf club, Won announced the next steps.
“Now, let’s go to the religious room.”
“… Yeah,” Black Cat nervously replied.
Top Dog, on the other hand, was nonchalant.
“It’s been a while since I’ve played some games.”
Won wondered what he really could do.
The three climbed the stairs to the third-floor chapel, which, unlike the last time, was locked. There seemed to be an overall heightened vigilance because of Dr. Hudson.
It wasn’t hard to pick the door, so they were quickly inside. Where the art wall had been, an entrance to another room appeared. Won cautiously stepped through it, only to find that the back room was empty.
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