The Sound Empress: Chapter 14
Brief synopsis: The typhoon hits and Kari bunkers down. When the weather clears, Kari ventures out and gets a piece of debris which gave her information on the headquarters of the Korean Origin Force.
The next day was simply going to be one of preparation. I would need to survey the house for any spots that water could seep in, and ensure that I could seal them up to the best of my ability. I would also board up the windows, just to avoid the windows from shattering, which would cause lots of glass to be strewn all over the floor, and that would be a pain to clean up.
But first, before I do that, I would wait for the supplies to come in. They came in just before noon, right at my front door. I took the box into the living room and extracted the contents of said box.
Going through the box, one item at a time, there was:
2 boxes of cereal, one rice and one frosted wheat
a bag of powdered milk, and a jug of regular milk
a filled fuel canister to fill up the generator outside the house, in the case the power goes out
a good supply of wood and nails, to board up the windows
towels
some assorted dried fruit
some dried and cured fish and some dried meat
rice
a first aid kit with bandages, gauze, medical syringes, and other medicinal supplies
a few flares
bread
potable water
That was it. There was enough here to last a week, if I properly conserve it. Now, with supplies in hand, I was ready to bunker down in this house. First, I put the perishable food away in the fridge and the non-perishable food in the cupboards. Next, I used the wood and nails, along with a hammer that I had in my bedroom, to board up every single window in the house. Next, since I was outside to board up the windows, I filled up and armed the generator. Hopefully I won’t need it, but in the case the power goes out, the generator would kick in and allow me to still have power to perform basic tasks, such as cooking, and it would allow me to keep my cellphone charged, which could be crucial if I needed assistance. Finally, I placed two of the supplied towels to cover the thresholds of the front and rear doors to the house. This would hopefully prevent water from seeping in, and damaging the floor, or, worse yet, the stuff inside the house.
The next three days would prove to be the longest days in my life.
The rain started to come in starting late Wednesday evening, while I was sleeping. It was a more or less steady rain for a good 36 hours or so, although the worst of it had to have been Thursday afternoon, when the winds were the strongest, as well. At this point the center of the storm was right over Yokosuka, which was not too far from where my hometown of Yokohama is. This was actually the second landfall of the typhoon, as earlier it had made landfall near Numazu, which was a bit further east than was originally predicted. As a result, the storm maintained its intensity a bit longer, packing winds of up to 160 kilometers per hour up until landfall. After this point the conditions started to improve quite rapidly here, as the rains stopped falling. Then the winds died down soon thereafter, and then, by Saturday morning, the conditions were essentially as they were before the storm hit, albeit with much cooler temperatures and with slightly breezy conditions.
When Saturday rolled around, I went outside to take a look at the village and see if there was any major damage. Remarkably, despite the heavy rains, there was no flooding to speak off. There was, however, lots of debris on the roads and in the yards of people’s houses. A large number of houses were missing some pieces of their roof, and some trees were knocked down, thanks to the winds and the rain causing the soil to get soft and loose.
Walking over to the various temples in the village, I saw that they all survived, although one of the temples had some statues missing and/or damaged as a result of the wind.
Walking a bit further to see the train tracks, I saw no trains coming in either direction. The company that runs the trains must have closed down the lines for a while, while cleanup efforts are in progress, I thought.
I mentioned there was debris all over the place. While walking, a certain kind of debris caught my eye. It was a yellowish envelope that had no address marked on it, but had a stamp on it. I was curious to see what might be in the envelope, so I picked it up and took it back to my house after I finished exploring the village in the aftermath of the typhoon.
Back at my house, I inspected the envelope more closely. There were no markings on the envelope, except for the single stamp on it for postage. There was no tape on the envelope flap, so it must have been licked shut. Guess the only way I will know who this envelope is intended to will be to open it up.
The ethical part of my mind as well as my curiosity clashed. On the one hand, I wanted to know who the letter was intended to, as well as what was written on it. On the other hand, it’s wrong to open up mail that is intended for someone else, especially if it contains sensitive information.
I pondered for a few minutes. After a few minutes, I decided to pull out a knife to open the envelope. I carefully placed my left hand on it so that I wouldn’t nick myself with the knife, as it was still recovering from the wound I inflicted upon it a while ago.
Upon opening the envelope, a musty smell came out of it.
“Must be the start of mold,” I thought to myself.
I extracted the contents of the envelope. All that was in there was a folded up piece of paper. I decided to open up the piece of paper, and read what it had to say, completely ignoring any sort of ethics:
“Addressed to Buson-min Park
Juksan-ri, South Korea
Your majesty Park:
As you have probably heard, a typhoon is presently rocking Japan. It is hitting our city, Kofu, extremely hard, and we are probably going to lose some people in our branch of the force. We will need to get more recruitment materials, as soon as the storm passes.
Please get back to me as soon as possible.
Signed,”
and then the leader of the Kofu branch of the Korean Origin Force signed his name. I could not decipher what the name was. But I didn’t care for the name, anyway. I now know where the top secret headquarters is! Now, I should try to contact Nari, to let her know of the news. Then, she could coordinate with the military to figure out what would be the best way to reach this place and then get rid of this force, once and for all.
Immediately I pulled out my cellphone and started to dial Nari’s number. Just as I was about to call, my right hand hesitated. I thought, “It’s likely that the power might still be out in Ayase, as it was closer to the center of the storm. That would mean she would probably not have cell service, either. Should I still dial?”
I pressed the button to call the number that I entered, despite the obvious chance that she may not be able to receive my message.
The phone rang. I really wanted to tell her my discovery. Eventually, I did reach her.
“Hello?” Nari started.
“Hey, Nari. I have some very important news to tell you.”
“Listening,” Nari said, awaiting me to tell her the news.
“I intercepted a letter that was intended for the leader of the Korean Origin Force. It was in a loose envelope that flew from somewhere during the typhoon. The letter gave the village that Buson-min Park is in, which is Juksan-ri, South Korea.”
I could hear Nari jumping up and down in the background after I told her that. She was clearly ecstatic.
“Kari, this is awesome! This is exactly the thing that we needed to find out. Now, we can proceed with our next steps.”
There was a brief pause, as she was writing down the location of the headquarters. Then she came back, with the following:
“The next step would be to travel to the village specified in the letter. We would want to go there in the night, so that there would be a lower risk of being detected by his henchmen. Then we will locate the headquarters, while disguised as a normal person in the force. Then we will find him and kill him with a silenced pistol.”
“This sounds good.”
“Indeed it does. There is one big problem, though. I have no idea where the village is, as I have never ventured to South Korea.”
“Neither have I,” I said, “but my mother Martha has. She presently lives on a farm with my father on the outskirts of Koshu.”
“So, we could ask her for directions to the village.”
“Yes, we could. She doesn’t have a phone, however. We would have to go to her farm and talk to her herself.”
“Okay. Then we shall do that.”
“Sounds good. This will afford me the opportunity to check up on her to see how she’s doing after the typhoon hit.”
“Yep, sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow to pick you up and take you over to your mother’s place.”
“Okay! See you tomorrow!” I hung up.
The rest of the day was quiet, as I prepared for another trek out of my hiding spot. Hopefully nobody sees me as I head towards my mother’s and father’s place.