3:12 a.m.
A young woman walked into the lobby of Jongno Police Station.
She was wearing a black hooded jacket and sneakers. Her short hair was soaked with rain and plastered to her face.
The officer on duty rose from his seat.
“What brings you in?”
The woman stopped in front of the entrance.
“I killed someone.”
The officer’s hand slowly dropped to his waist.
“Who did you kill?”
“Choi Munsik.”
“Where?”
“In the basement of the Donggwang Printing building on Euljiro 4-ga.”
The woman held both hands out in front of her.
“I killed Choi Munsik.”
3:19 a.m.
A second woman appeared at Mapo Police Station.
She was wearing a light-colored coat, and her hair was tied back.
As soon as she entered the station, she gave them her name and registration number.
“Registered name: Yuna. NOVA-5 domestic-assistance model.”
The officer on duty checked the information on his screen.
“What is this about?”
“I killed Choi Munsik.”
“Who’s Choi Munsik?”
“An illegal memory technician.”
“Where did you kill him?”
“In the basement of the Donggwang Printing building on Euljiro 4-ga.”
Yuna looked at the officer.
“I killed Choi Munsik.”
3:27 a.m.
A third woman entered Gangnam Police Station.
She had long hair and wore a gray suit. Her hands were empty.
She stopped at the information desk and said,
“I’m here to turn myself in.”
“What for?”
“Homicide.”
“You’re saying you killed someone?”
“Yes.”
“Name of the victim?”
“Choi Munsik.”
“Where did it happen?”
“In the basement of the Donggwang Printing building on Euljiro 4-ga.”
The officer on duty photographed the woman’s face and entered it into the identity-check system.
A moment later, a warning appeared on the screen.
The same facial data had been searched at another police station fifteen minutes earlier.
The officer looked back and forth between the monitor and the woman’s face.
“What’s your name?”
“Sera.”
“Have you ever used the names Mira or Yuna?”
“No.”
“Do you know those two?”
Sera did not answer for a moment.
“I know them.”
“What’s your relationship?”
“We were made with the same face.”
“Who killed Choi Munsik?”
Sera answered in the same tone as before.
“I killed him.”
3:31 a.m.
Choi Munsik’s body was found in the basement of the Donggwang Printing building on Euljiro 4-ga.
It was the location described in all three androids’ statements.
6:10 a.m.
By the time Seo Jinhyeok entered the special unit office, every team member had arrived.
Three face photos were displayed on the large wall-mounted screen.
Mira with short hair.
Yuna with her hair tied back.
Sera with long hair.
Their hairstyles and clothes were different, but their faces were identical. The size of their eyes, the bridge of their noses, the shape of their lips—even the tiny mole on their skin—everything matched.
Park Mujin stood in front of the screen.
“Their names are Mira, Yuna, and Sera. They’re all NOVA-5 domestic-assistance models. Same manufacturing date, same release date.”
Seo Jinhyeok asked,
“Owners?”
Im Suhyeon checked the files.
“None of the three currently has a registered owner.”
“They’re unregistered?”
“No. They received independent-operation permits two years ago. Their limited artificial personhood was recognized as well.”
“All three were approved together?”
“The application and approval dates are the same.”
Park Mujin changed the screen.
The androids’ registration photos appeared.
The three faces in the photos had identical hairstyles as well. They were identity-registration photos taken immediately after manufacturing.
“They were originally used together by one household. The initial owner was a man named Han Myeongjin, who died two years ago. After that, all three applied for independent status.”
Jin Seoah asked,
“Do they still live together?”
“Their addresses are different. Mira’s in Jongno, Yuna’s in Mapo, and Sera’s in Gangnam.”
“What’s their relationship with Choi Munsik?”
“All three have clammed up. They just keep repeating that they killed him.”
Gu Daechul stepped closer to the screen.
“Even if they’re the same model, their internal parts must have changed a lot if they’ve been operating separately for more than ten years. Their maintenance histories should be different too.”
“How long have they been manufactured?”
“Fourteen years.”
Rian stared at the screen.
His expression was no different from usual. But whenever the photos of the three androids changed, his gaze followed them.
Seo Jinhyeok watched him for a moment before asking,
“Can you tell them apart?”
“Not from external information alone.”
Park Mujin said,
“If even you can’t tell them apart, how are humans supposed to?”
“I need voice and behavior data.”
“They’re the same model anyway.”
Rian looked at Park Mujin.
“The same model and the same individual are different things.”
“If their faces and voices are identical, how do you distinguish them?”
“I can tell when I meet them in person.”
No Geon was sitting at the end of the conference table, looking at the three androids’ photos.
He enlarged the screen.
“Show me the backs of their necks too.”
Park Mujin opened the photos taken when the three had been arrested.
No Geon enlarged Mira’s photo. The skin at the back of her neck showed through her wet hair.
Three faint lines remained beneath the synthetic skin.
No Geon’s gaze stopped.
“Enlarge the same area on Yuna and Sera.”
Similar marks appeared on the backs of the two androids’ necks as well.
Park Mujin asked,
“What are they?”
“They look like procedure marks.”
Gu Daechul examined the screen closely.
“They’re not in the official maintenance records.”
“Because it wasn’t an official procedure.”
No Geon rose from his chair.
“They’re scars from forcibly opening and resealing the memory-access ports.”
Jin Seoah looked at No Geon.
“How can you tell from a photograph?”
“There are places that leave marks like those.”
“Where?”
“Unregistered repair shops.”
Park Mujin turned toward No Geon.
“You mean illegal procedure clinics?”
“Some people call them repair shops. Others call them hospitals.”
“What do you call them?”
No Geon smiled at Park Mujin.
“I’ve never been to one, so I wouldn’t know.”
Park Mujin did not smile.
Seo Jinhyeok asked,
“Could Choi Munsik have been the technician who performed the procedure?”
No Geon’s gaze shifted to Choi Munsik’s photo.
“We’ll know when we see the scene.”
Donggwang Printing was a print shop that had closed five years earlier.
The old sign on the first floor was still there, but there were no printing presses or people inside.
Dust coated the stairs leading to the basement. Yet the handrail and the center of the stairs were clean, as if people had continued coming and going.
Park Mujin went down first.
Seo Jinhyeok, Rian, Jin Seoah, and No Geon followed.
Police tape had been put up in front of the basement door.
When they opened it, the smell of burning plastic rose up to meet them.
The room was nothing like the abandoned print shop it appeared to be from outside.
Memory storage devices lined the walls, and an operating table large enough for one android had been installed in the center. Several cables hung down from the ceiling.
A man’s body lay collapsed on the floor.
It was Choi Munsik.
A man in his fifties, wearing a white shirt and gray pants.
A long metal needle was embedded behind his right ear. It was a procedure probe used with memory-access equipment.
Some of the equipment connected to the probe had melted from an overload.
A scene examiner approached Seo Jinhyeok.
“We won’t know the exact cause of death until the autopsy, but we suspect nervous-system overload.”
“You’re saying the memory-access device killed him?”
“It looks like current was sent through it at maximum output. Every auxiliary memory device connected to the victim’s brain was burned out.”
Jin Seoah moved closer to the body.
Choi Munsik’s eyes were still open. His fingers were gripping the floor.
“Did the human have a memory-assistance device too?”
The examiner nodded.
“It wasn’t officially registered. It was implanted in the back of his brain.”
No Geon sat down beside the body.
He examined the probe embedded behind Choi Munsik’s ear and the melted equipment.
“This man wasn’t storing a memory.”
Jin Seoah asked,
“Then what was he doing?”
“He was receiving one.”
“What memory?”
No Geon’s gaze followed the cable connected to the end of the probe.
The cable led to three memory storage devices on the wall.
“It was converted so a human could experience an android’s memory firsthand.”
Jin Seoah checked the storage devices.
No data remained on the front displays. Someone had completely deleted the memories inside.
“Not legal equipment, then.”
“If it were legal equipment, there’d be no reason to hide it down here.”
Park Mujin looked around the room.
“There’s only one entrance, the stairs. What about CCTV around the building?”
A police officer at the scene answered,
“The camera at the building entrance hasn’t worked for three days. The footage from the two cameras in the alley was also deleted for the time of the incident.”
“Any witnesses nearby?”
“We’re checking.”
Rian was examining the cables attached to the wall.
“There are three.”
Seo Jinhyeok asked,
“Three what?”
“Android interface ports.”
Three of the cables hanging from the ceiling had synthetic-skin interface needles attached to their ends.
Rian checked the floor.
Three chairs had been placed around the operating table. Faint traces of coolant remained beneath them.
“It’s highly likely all three androids were here.”
Park Mujin said,
“So all three must have turned themselves in.”
“The fact that all three were here does not mean all three committed the homicide together.”
“If one of them did the stabbing and the other two just watched, they’re all accomplices.”
Im Suhyeon’s voice came through the communicator.
“Androids are not subject to the same accomplice provisions as humans.”
Park Mujin glared at the communicator.
“Are you watching the scene right now?”
“I am.”
“Then learn when to butt in.”
“I can’t leave an incorrect legal judgment uncorrected.”
Seo Jinhyeok cut off the exchange.
“Find physical evidence that the three were here together first.”
No Geon searched beneath the operating table, then reached out.
A small transparent fragment was wedged in a crack in the floor.
He pulled it out with his gloved hand.
It was part of a sealant used when connecting a memory core. Black numbers were stamped on its surface.
No Geon’s expression hardened for the briefest moment.
“What did you find?”
At Seo Jinhyeok’s question, No Geon held up the fragment.
“Sealant from an illegal interface port.”
“Was it used by Choi Munsik?”
“Probably.”
“You’ve been saying ‘probably’ a lot today.”
Park Mujin looked at No Geon.
“You seem to know something for sure.”
No Geon placed the sealant in an evidence bag.
“Someone who was there will know for sure.”
“All three are saying they killed him.”
“Then we can ask all three.”
No Geon said nothing more.
Mira, Yuna, and Sera were seated in separate interrogation rooms at the AI Administration.
They were the same model, but the differences became visible once they were observed in person.
Mira did not lean back against her chair. She kept both hands on her lap and stared straight ahead.
Yuna had been checking the door ever since she entered the interrogation room. Whenever someone came in, her fingers moved first.
Sera sat deep in her chair. Her head was slightly bowed as she stared at a scratch on the surface of the table.
Rian observed the three women one after another from behind the glass wall.
Park Mujin stood beside him.
“Can you tell them apart now?”
“Yes.”
“Their faces are identical.”
“Mira is waiting for questions. Yuna is checking escape routes, and Sera is avoiding external stimuli.”
Park Mujin looked back and forth between the three screens.
“How do you know that?”
“I observe people in the field too.”
“People?”
Rian did not answer.
Park Mujin did not ask again.
Seo Jinhyeok and Jin Seoah entered the first interrogation room.
Mira raised her head when she saw them.
Seo Jinhyeok sat across from her.
“Registered name, Mira. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Choi Munsik?”
“Yes.”
“What was your relationship?”
“He performed a procedure on my memory.”
“What kind of procedure?”
“A deletion procedure.”
Jin Seoah asked,
“What memory did he delete?”
Mira looked at Jin Seoah.
“I don’t remember.”
“Because it was deleted?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember why you wanted it deleted?”
“Because it was painful.”
“If you don’t know what the memory was, how do you know it was painful?”
Mira did not answer for a moment.
“There’s a record showing that I requested the deletion.”
“Did Choi Munsik delete the memory for you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you kill him?”
Mira looked down at her hands.
“He wouldn’t give my memory back.”
“You asked him to return a memory he had deleted?”
“I learned that he hadn’t deleted it. He had taken it from me.”
Seo Jinhyeok’s gaze changed.
“Who told you that?”
Mira did not answer.
“How did you kill Choi Munsik?”
Mira raised her head.
“I laid him on the operating table. I connected an interface probe to the auxiliary memory device behind his right ear. I turned the output to maximum.”
“Did Choi Munsik resist?”
“He resisted.”
“Did you subdue him by yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Were Yuna and Sera there too?”
“Yes.”
“What did they do?”
“They watched.”
“They didn’t try to stop you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because they wanted me to kill Choi Munsik.”
Seo Jinhyeok stared at Mira.
“Yuna and Sera both stated that they killed him.”
“I know.”
“Which one of the three is lying?”
“None of us is lying.”
“Only one hand inserted the probe into Choi Munsik’s head.”
“That hand was mine.”
“Yuna said the same thing, and so did Sera.”
Mira answered without wavering.
“Because all three of us remember it.”
Second interrogation room.
Yuna gave the same statement.
She had laid Choi Munsik on the operating table, connected the interface probe, and turned the output to maximum.
She had done it with her right hand.
Mira and Sera had watched from the side.
Sera in the third interrogation room said the same thing.
She had killed Choi Munsik, and the other two had watched.
Changing the order of the questions did not change their answers.
Seo Jinhyeok asked,
“What were Choi Munsik’s last words?”
Mira answered,
“That memory isn’t yours.”
Yuna answered too.
“That memory isn’t yours.”
Sera answered too.
“That memory isn’t yours.”
Even their tone and speed were identical.
Jung Haeun opened the memories of all three androids simultaneously.
Jin Seoah sorted the sensory data beside her.
The same scene appeared on all three screens.
Choi Munsik’s underground clinic.
Choi Munsik lying on the operating table.
A hand inserting an interface probe behind his right ear.
The screen displayed the pressure and temperature of the right hand, along with the angles of its finger joints.
Choi Munsik twisted his body and resisted.
“Don’t.”
The hand gripping the probe tightened.
Choi Munsik said,
“That memory isn’t yours.”
The output rose to maximum.
Choi Munsik’s body shook violently on the operating table.
A moment later, all movement stopped.
The memory ended there.
Jung Haeun froze all three screens.
“Start over from the beginning.”
The memory played again.
After the third playback ended, Jin Seoah said,
“They’re all identical.”
“It’s not just the content.”
Jung Haeun enlarged the sensory readings.
“Pressure: 18.7 kilograms. Surface temperature: 31.2 degrees Celsius. Right index-finger joint angle: 42.8 degrees. Even the sequence of visual focus shifts is identical.”
“Couldn’t that be because they’re the same model?”
“Even identical models have sensor errors. If they’ve been operated separately for fourteen years, those errors should be greater.”
Jung Haeun compared the original values of the three memories.
The match rate appeared at the bottom of the screen.
100.000%
Jin Seoah stared at the figure.
“They’re completely identical memories.”
“The three of them didn’t witness the same incident.”
Jung Haeun turned off the screen.
“One person’s memory is in all three of them.”
The analysis-room door opened.
Seo Jinhyeok, Park Mujin, Rian, and No Geon entered.
Seo Jinhyeok asked,
“What did you find?”
Jung Haeun pointed to the three memory cores.
“They’re copied memories.”
“Whose was the original?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“When were they copied?”
Jin Seoah answered,
“Immediately after the homicide. According to the internal records of the three androids, their memories were synchronized simultaneously four minutes after Choi Munsik died.”
Park Mujin asked,
“Did the three of them plan it and make the copies?”
“That’s possible. But there’s something strange.”
Jung Haeun enlarged the starting point of the homicide memory.
The memory began at the moment the interface probe was picked up.
There was no record before that.
“The beginning was cut off during the copying process.”
“How much?”
“We can’t determine exactly. The entire segment from when the entity that created the memory approached Choi Munsik to the moment it picked up the interface probe is missing.”
Seo Jinhyeok asked,
“Was it damaged by accident?”
“No. Someone deliberately cut the starting point.”
No Geon stepped closer to the screen.
He enlarged the first section of the memory data.
A short identification code repeated among the countless numbers.
The smile disappeared from No Geon’s face.
“This wasn’t copied.”
Jung Haeun looked at No Geon.
“What do you mean?”
“If it had only been copied, the original structure would still be there. This was repackaged according to a standardized format.”
Jin Seoah asked,
“You can repackage a memory?”
No Geon pointed to the identification code on the screen.
“The sensory values were organized so another individual could experience the memory, and the information that would identify its original owner was removed.”
“Why would anyone do that?”
No Geon looked at the identical homicide memories in the three androids.
“To sell it.”
Seo Jinhyeok’s gaze turned toward No Geon.
“Who buys memories?”
“People who want to experience a life that isn’t theirs.”
“Where is there a place like that?”
No Geon did not answer for a moment.
Park Mujin took a step closer.
“You seem to know a lot.”
No Geon looked at Park Mujin.
He smiled lightly as usual, but there was no smile in his eyes.
“There’s a market.”
“What kind of market?”
“A market that sells memories.”
On the analysis-room screen, Choi Munsik’s death was playing again.
The same hand.
The same sensations.
The same homicide.
And three androids who believed they were the culprit.
No Geon turned off the screen and said,
“To find the original, we have to go there.”