As she walked home after completing her work for the day, Eunhye saw a black Mercedes stop in front of her. The windows were blacked out, so she couldn’t see who or what was inside. One of the side windows slowly rolled down.

“Are you Miss Oh Eunhye?”

“You’re late.”

“… Please, get in.”

The Mercedes let out a low rumble as it sped away with Eunhye inside. As she sat there, Eunhye closed her eyes and went over what she was planning to say. Since she’d expected this situation, Eunhye wasn’t flustered, and as they saw her confident demeanor, the agents were at a loss for words.

After driving to the city center, the Mercedes entered a high-rise building’s basement-level garage and pulled into a car elevator. Officially, the building was said to have five sublevels, but the car elevator descended thirteen floors.

“I’d like to know who requested me. A researcher?”

“The director of research and the head of the institute.”

Eunhye had been taken to the main building of the secret US organization code-named Machine. The head of the institute was a prominent figure...