“There’s no fourth android anywhere in the registration records.”
Park Mujin said it.
No Geon enlarged the serial numbers of the three androids displayed on the screen one by one.
Mira.
Yuna.
Sarah.
All three were NOVA-5 domestic-assistance models. They had been manufactured on the same day and registered at Han Myeongjin’s house on the same day.
No Geon spoke.
“Because it wasn’t registered.”
“How do you know that?”
No Geon displayed the numbers extracted from the traces of illegal procedures on the three androids.
772. 773. 774.
“These are the internal tracking numbers Choi Munsik assigned when he performed the illegal procedures.”
Park Mujin looked at the sealant he had found at the scene.
“What we found was 771.”
“Yes.”
“There’s a number missing.”
“It means there was an android that underwent the procedure before the other three.”
Jin Seoah asked, “How do you know that android has the original of the murder memory?”
No Geon opened the structure of the memory data.
“Choi Munsik didn’t store his clients’ memories only on his own equipment. If he got caught in a raid, he would lose everything at once. He created a hidden storage area in the core of the first android he operated on, then distributed the originals he extracted afterward and stored them there.”
Jung Haeun checked the screen.
“You mean he used the subject’s memory core as an illegal server?”
“The subject probably didn’t know. And only Choi Munsik would have had access.”
“Why didn’t you say this until now?”
Park Mujin’s voice sharpened.
No Geon looked at him.
“Until we secured the memories he was selling, we couldn’t tell whether 771 was a storage number or just a transaction number.”
“Then you’re sure now?”
“The location where the originals were stored was left in Choi Munsik’s merchandise.”
No Geon pointed to one side of the screen.
ANCHOR 771.
Jin Seoah asked, “What’s an anchor?”
“An android that holds on to the original memories.”
Seo Jinhyeok said, “If the fourth android is still alive, then the unedited memories should still be inside it.”
“If its core hasn’t been destroyed.”
“Where is it?”
No Geon displayed the original registration address of the three androids.
“We need to check Han Myeongjin’s house first.”
The house where Han Myeongjin had lived was in an old residential neighborhood in Seongbuk-gu.
It was a two-story detached house.
After Han Myeongjin’s death, a dispute over ownership had left it vacant for two years. As soon as Mira, Yuna, and Sarah received permission for independent operation, they each changed their address to a different residence.
Im Suhyeon arrived at the scene carrying an emergency search-and-seizure warrant.
Park Mujin took the documents.
“You got it quickly this time.”
“Someone died.”
“I mean, faster than in the Hana case.”
Im Suhyeon didn’t answer.
Gu Daechul opened the locked front door.
As the door opened, the smell of old dust drifted out.
The furniture was covered in white cloth, and human footprints remained on the entryway floor.
Rian crouched in front of the footprints.
“Someone came in recently.”
“When?”
“The most recent record is within the last two days.”
Park Mujin asked, “One of Mira, Yuna, or Sarah?”
“It could have been all three.”
The house wasn’t large enough to need four domestic-assistance androids.
A small living room and kitchen.
Three bedrooms.
They also confirmed that Han Myeongjin had lived alone.
Jin Seoah found a photograph hanging on the living-room wall.
Han Myeongjin stood in the photograph with four women.
All four women had identical faces and heights. Only their hairstyles and clothes were different.
“There really were four of them.”
A date and names had been written by hand in the lower right corner of the photograph.
Mira.
Yuna.
Sarah.
And Ara.
Park Mujin took the photograph off the wall.
“Ara.”
Rian looked at the fourth android in the photograph.
She had the exact same face as Mira, Yuna, and Sarah.
But Ara stood one step farther away from the other three. Her body was turned toward Han Myeongjin, but her eyes were fixed on Mira.
“Run a search on her manufacturing records.”
At Seo Jinhyeok’s instruction, Rian checked the Administration’s records.
“There’s no registered name Ara in the early NOVA-5 production numbers.”
“What about facial recognition?”
“No facial data either.”
Gu Daechul took the photograph and examined it closely.
“Their appearances are the same, but the seam behind the ear is different.”
“What does that mean?”
“She looks like an early model made before Mira, Yuna, and Sarah. She may have been a test model from before mass production.”
“How did Han Myeongjin get a test model?”
“Probably not through a legitimate channel.”
Park Mujin turned his gaze to No Geon.
“Do they sell things like that on the market?”
“They do.”
No Geon gave a short answer and looked around the house.
“If Ara is here, she won’t be in any room where she can be seen.”
“Why not?”
“She’s been hidden for two years. She’s unregistered.”
No Geon walked toward the kitchen.
There was a narrow cabinet between the sink and the wall. It contained nothing but old cleaning supplies.
He tapped the bottom of the cabinet.
It made a hollow sound.
Park Mujin asked, “How did you know that this time?”
“The walls are too thick for the structure of the house.”
When No Geon removed the cleaning supplies, a small lock appeared on the wall behind them.
It wasn’t electronic. It was an old mechanical combination lock.
Seo Jinhyeok said, “Find the number.”
As Rian began checking the house, No Geon entered a number into the lock.
0771.
The lock released.
Park Mujin grabbed No Geon by the arm.
“You can figure out the number just by looking at the house’s structure?”
“It’s the number Choi Munsik assigned to his property.”
“Then you know what’s inside, too.”
“Let’s find out.”
No Geon opened the hidden door.
There was a staircase behind the wall.
It was barely wide enough for one person to pass through.
A faint mechanical hum came from below the stairs.
Gu Daechul took the equipment and went down first. Seo Jinhyeok, Park Mujin, and Rian followed.
There was a small workshop in the basement.
Old android parts lined the walls. Cut synthetic skin, circuit boards, and an old memory-core connector were piled on the workbench.
A single chair stood in the middle of the room.
An android was sitting in it.
It was Ara from the photograph.
Her eyes were closed, and her head hung forward. Her synthetic skin was intact, but dust had settled on her hair and clothes.
Several cables ran from her back to the equipment mounted on the wall.
Jin Seoah approached Ara.
“Does she have any power left?”
Gu Daechul checked the connection port at the back of her neck.
“Standby power only.”
“Can she wake up?”
“We’ll have to check.”
Rian lifted Ara’s hand.
The joints in her fingers were stiff. The illegal procedure number was engraved on the inside of her wrist.
771.
It was confirmed that Ara was the original-memory anchor.
Gu Daechul connected a portable device.
The core status appeared on the screen.
Power standby. Personhood drive inactive. Memory storage 82%.
Jin Seoah asked, “What does it mean that the personhood drive is inactive?”
“It means the memories remain, but Ara herself isn’t functioning.”
“Can’t we turn her back on?”
“We need to find out why she stopped first. If we force power into her, we could damage the core as well.”
Jung Haeun remotely connected to the equipment.
“Remove the core and bring it here. If we open it here, the security device Choi Munsik installed could activate.”
Gu Daechul began disconnecting the cables one by one.
Behind Ara, in addition to the standard memory core, a separate storage device was attached.
Several small devices surrounded the core like a neural network.
No Geon said, “It’s Choi Munsik’s warehouse.”
Jin Seoah looked at Ara’s face.
“You mean this contains the memories of other androids, too?”
“Maybe not all of the originals belonging to the people who visited Choi Munsik, but some of them.”
“And those people don’t know their memories are here.”
“No.”
Jin Seoah looked around at the storage devices piled in the room.
For two years, Ara had been unable to move, storing countless people’s memories inside her body.
Someone’s death and pain, love and shame.
She had been surrounded by memories that weren’t her own.
Then Rian found a small port at the back of Ara’s neck.
Unlike the other cables, it showed signs of having been used recently.
“There’s a connection record from within the last two days.”
Park Mujin asked, “Can you tell who came?”
“The user information was deleted.”
“One of the three came here before the murder.”
“We need to determine whether it was before or after the incident.”
Seo Jinhyeok said, “Move Ara and all the storage devices to the Administration.”
As Gu Daechul tried to remove the core, Ara’s fingers moved ever so slightly.
Everyone froze.
Jin Seoah leaned close to Ara’s face.
“Ara.”
There was no response.
Her fingers didn’t move again.
Gu Daechul checked the power levels.
“It’s not a drive response. Just residual power passing through.”
Jin Seoah stared at Ara for a moment, then stepped back.
Gu Daechul removed the memory core.
Ara’s head slowly tilted to the side.
Rian reached out and supported it so it wouldn’t hit the chair.
That face, identical to the one in the photograph, came to rest in Rian’s hand.
Rian looked down at Ara for a long time.
Park Mujin watched him but said nothing.
Ara’s memory core was moved to the Special Investigations Unit’s analysis room.
Jung Haeun first detached the external storage devices Choi Munsik had installed. If they touched the security system incorrectly, all the data could be deleted.
Jin Seoah compared the storage numbers beside her.
772.
773.
774.
The memories extracted from Mira, Yuna, and Sarah were stored in separate areas.
Hundreds of other numbers were found as well.
Some contained human memories, while others contained android memories.
Seo Jinhyeok asked, “The original of the murder?”
“We’re looking for it.”
Jung Haeun searched the data based on the time the incident occurred.
After Choi Munsik’s death, one new memory had been automatically stored in Ara’s core.
It was six minutes and forty-two seconds long.
The seal number was 771.
“I found it.”
The team gathered in the analysis room.
Before opening the original, Jung Haeun said, “There’s something we need to confirm first.”
“What?”
Jin Seoah asked.
“This memory doesn’t belong to Ara. It was transmitted from another android through Choi Munsik’s equipment.”
“From whom?”
“We’ll have to open the memory to find out.”
“Is there anything wrong with Ara’s core?”
“We can read the memory data alone. But we must not connect it to Ara’s personhood drive.”
“Is there any chance Ara could wake up?”
Jung Haeun couldn’t answer for a moment.
“Not in her current state.”
Jin Seoah asked no more.
Seo Jinhyeok said, “Play it.”
The screen came on.
The field of vision shook.
It was the staircase leading down to the underground operating room.
The owner of the memory was walking in front.
Mira was behind her on the right, and Sarah was on the left.
The three androids descended into the basement together.
The owner of the memory was Yuna.
Her right hand gripped the stair railing.
Her fingers curled and extended in sequence, starting with her pinky.
It was a self-diagnostic movement for her sensory system.
Park Mujin watched the screen.
“That’s Yuna.”
Rian nodded.
“She repeated the same movement in the interrogation room.”
It was an action Rian had already observed in Episode 5.
Every time someone opened the interrogation-room door, Yuna’s fingers moved first.
At the time, Park Mujin had thought it was because she was nervous.
But Yuna had been checking the sensation in her right hand.
The three androids in the video entered Choi Munsik’s operating room.
Choi Munsik was standing beside the operating table.
“I knew you’d come.”
Mira said, “Return Ara’s memories.”
“I already told you I deleted them.”
Sarah looked at the storage devices.
“We confirmed that they’re being sold on the market.”
Choi Munsik’s expression changed.
“Who told you?”
“Reactivate Ara.”
It was Yuna’s voice.
Choi Munsik laughed.
“That’s not happening.”
“Why not?”
“Because Ara’s core is my storage.”
Choi Munsik tapped the equipment along the wall.
“Your memories are there, too. Every memory I’ve operated on so far.”
Mira asked, “Since when have you been using Ara as storage?”
“From the beginning.”
“Since Han Myeongjin was alive?”
“He asked me to do it first.”
The three androids stopped moving.
Choi Munsik continued.
“She was a test model, so she couldn’t be registered, and he said it would be a waste to scrap her. He figured she could at least make money as memory storage.”
Yuna’s right hand slowly clenched.
Han Myeongjin had told Mira, Yuna, and Sarah that Ara had stopped because of a malfunction.
He said that if they left her with Choi Munsik, she might wake up again someday.
But Ara had never been repaired.
She had been converted into a memory-storage device from the very beginning.
Sarah asked, “Were you the one who shut down Ara’s personhood drive?”
“I needed the storage space.”
“Turn it back on.”
“Why should I?”
Mira approached Choi Munsik.
“What do you want?”
“Your three most recent memories.”
Choi Munsik placed three connection needles on the operating table.
“Give me one year from each of you, and I’ll bring Ara back.”
“We can’t trust you.”
“Then leave.”
Choi Munsik pressed a button on the device along the wall.
Ara’s core appeared on the screen.
Preparing to delete original storage area.
Yuna said, “Stop.”
“If the original stored here disappears, Ara can never be turned back on.”
“Didn’t you say you had already shut down her drive?”
“Shutdown can be reversed. Deletion is different.”
Choi Munsik placed his finger over the button.
“Choose. Are you giving me your memories, or are you abandoning Ara?”
Mira and Sarah looked at Yuna.
No one answered.
Choi Munsik executed the deletion command.
The number on the screen began to rise.
Deletion 1%.
Yuna lunged at Choi Munsik.
Choi Munsik grabbed the stun device beside the operating table.
Electricity struck Yuna in the side.
Her vision shook violently.
The floor.
The ceiling.
Choi Munsik again.
Mira and Sarah grabbed Choi Munsik’s arms.
He shoved them away.
Deletion 7%.
Yuna braced herself against the floor and stood.
The fingers of her right hand curled and extended in sequence.
She checked her sensory response.
Choi Munsik raised the stun device again.
Yuna picked up a connection needle from the operating table.
Choi Munsik backed away.
“Wait.”
This was where the first eleven seconds of the memory sold on the market began.
Choi Munsik said, “I can just delete it again. This time, I’ll make sure not even a trace remains.”
Deletion 12%.
Yuna shoved Choi Munsik down onto the operating table.
She drove the connection needle behind his right ear.
Choi Munsik grabbed Yuna’s wrist.
“Don’t.”
Yuna increased the output.
“That memory isn’t yours.”
“It’s Ara’s memory.”
Yuna raised the output to its maximum.
Choi Munsik’s body convulsed violently on the operating table.
Soon, all movement stopped.
The deletion percentage on the screen also stopped at twelve percent.
Mira and Sarah approached Yuna’s side.
For a while, the three androids stared at Choi Munsik’s dead body.
The connection needle fell from Yuna’s hand.
“I killed him.”
Yuna said it.
Mira answered, “We killed him.”
Sarah said, “We came together.”
“I used the connection needle.”
“We asked you to.”
“You two didn’t do it.”
Mira looked at Yuna.
“If you hadn’t, I would have.”
Sarah said, “I made the same decision.”
At that moment, all the equipment in the operating room turned on at once.
As Choi Munsik’s vital signs disappeared, an automatic program activated.
Connection cables hanging from the ceiling descended toward the backs of the three androids’ necks.
Yuna tried to pull the cables away, but it was already too late.
The murder memory was extracted.
Original transmission. Anchor 771. Memory-sharing subjects 3.
Yuna’s memory of the murder was copied to Mira and Sarah.
The same pressure.
The same temperature.
The same movement of the hand.
The same death.
In the memories of the three androids, the number of beings who had committed the murder increased from one to three.
The original memory ended there.
The screen in the analysis room went dark.
No one spoke right away.
It was confirmed that Yuna had actually killed Choi Munsik.
Mira and Sarah had not killed Choi Munsik themselves.
But all three possessed the same memory, and all three believed they would have made the same choice.
Park Mujin spoke.
“Choi Munsik tried to delete Ara.”
Im Suhyeon answered, “Confirmed.”
“Yuna was trying to stop him.”
“That’s confirmed, too.”
“Then can’t we apply self-defense or necessity?”
Im Suhyeon stared at the screen.
“It’s difficult.”
“Why?”
“Under current law, Ara isn’t recognized as an artificial person.”
“Because she couldn’t be registered?”
“Yes. Legally, Ara is an unregistered android. Choi Munsik’s attempt to delete Ara’s core could be interpreted not as an act that violated another person’s life, but as an attempt to dispose of illegal equipment.”
Park Mujin’s face hardened.
“Even though Choi Munsik illegally modified her and used her as a memory warehouse?”
“Those crimes and the murder are separate.”
“She killed a person while trying to save Ara.”
“The court will start by asking whether Ara was alive in the first place.”
“Her memories were still there.”
“Having memories and possessing life don’t have the same legal meaning.”
Park Mujin could say no more.
In the Inheritance case, Kim Taeho had destroyed Hana with a hammer. Hana’s memories and decision-making abilities had remained, but he had not been charged with homicide.
This time, it was the opposite.
Yuna had killed a human to protect Ara’s memories and personhood.
The moment she killed a human, Yuna’s act became homicide.
Even if the being she had tried to protect wasn’t legally a life, the being she had killed was human.
Jin Seoah asked, “Would it be different if Ara woke up again?”
Im Suhyeon answered, “It could affect the trial. But it probably wouldn’t erase the homicide charge itself.”
“Choi Munsik tried to kill Ara first.”
“We don’t know whether the court will recognize that wording.”
Seo Jinhyeok said, “Then we have to recognize it first.”
Im Suhyeon looked at him.
“You’re saying you’ll write that in the incident report?”
“Write that Yuna killed Choi Munsik while protecting Ara’s personhood drive and memories.”
“The prosecution will tell you to revise it.”
“Don’t revise it.”
“Chief.”
“The court can make the judgment. We don’t need to change the facts to fit the law.”
Im Suhyeon looked at Seo Jinhyeok for a long time, then nodded.
“I’ll write it as is.”
Yuna was sitting alone in the interrogation room.
Mira and Sarah had been moved to separate rooms.
Park Mujin and Rian entered the interrogation room.
When Yuna saw them, the fingers of her right hand moved.
Pinky.
Ring finger.
Middle finger.
Index finger.
The motion she used to check her senses.
Park Mujin sat across from her.
“You knew from the beginning that you were the culprit, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And you knew the memory had been copied to Mira and Sarah.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did all three of you turn yourselves in?”
“It was the decision of all three of us.”
“The hand that killed him was yours.”
Yuna looked at her right hand.
“After the memory was shared, it was difficult to distinguish.”
“Distinguish what?”
“Who acted, and who intended to act.”
“Doing something and thinking about doing it aren’t the same.”
“Is that true for humans?”
Park Mujin’s expression hardened.
“Isn’t it true for androids?”
“If we have the same judgment and the same memory, only the outcome is different.”
“Someone died because of that outcome.”
“I know.”
“Mira and Sarah aren’t murderers.”
“They don’t think so.”
“What about you?”
Yuna didn’t answer for a moment.
“The memory of killing Choi Munsik is inside me.”
“Because it’s your actual memory.”
“It’s inside Mira and Sarah, too.”
“Theirs was copied.”
“Until they learned the memory had been copied, they believed they had killed him themselves.”
“They know now.”
“Knowing doesn’t make the memory disappear.”
Park Mujin looked at Yuna.
When he had first seen the three androids, he had thought there was no need to distinguish between them because their faces were identical.
But now he could see the differences between Mira, Yuna, and Sarah.
Mira waited for the question.
Sarah avoided his gaze.
Yuna moved her fingers.
They had the same face and remembered the same murder, but they were not the same being.
Park Mujin asked, “If you went back to that moment, what would you do?”
Im Suhyeon signaled from beyond the glass wall for him to stop the interrogation.
It was a question that could lead the subject toward a particular answer.
Park Mujin ignored the signal.
Yuna answered, “I would look for another way to make Choi Munsik stop the deletion command.”
“What if there was no other way?”
Yuna’s fingers stopped.
“I would kill him again.”
Park Mujin looked at Yuna.
She wasn’t saying she had no regrets.
It was an answer acknowledging that she had been unable to find any other way besides that choice.
Rian spoke for the first time.
“Did you want to save Ara?”
“Yes.”
“What is Ara to you?”
Yuna looked at Rian.
He was an android investigator like her.
But they stood in different places.
“She was the first face I saw when I opened my eyes.”
“Was it the same face?”
“Yes.”
“Does that alone make you family?”
Yuna thought for a moment.
“We didn’t become family because we had the same face.”
“Then why?”
“Because she promised to stay by my side until I stopped functioning.”
Rian asked no more.
After ending the interrogation, Park Mujin stood up.
When he reached the door, Yuna called to him.
“Investigator Park Mujin.”
Park Mujin turned around.
“Can Ara wake up?”
“I don’t know.”
“If she wakes up, please tell her.”
“Tell her what?”
Yuna looked down at her right hand.
“That I couldn’t keep my promise.”
Park Mujin left the interrogation room without answering.
Mira and Sarah were investigated on charges of false confessions and obstruction of the investigation.
They were not released. However, they were no longer suspects in the homicide.
Yuna was charged with Choi Munsik’s murder.
The incident record included the fact that Yuna had committed the crime while protecting Ara’s memories and personhood drive.
Whether Ara was a life or a piece of equipment was not recorded.
It remained a matter for the court to decide.
Ara was transferred to a robot hospital.
Removing the illegal storage devices Choi Munsik had installed and restoring her personhood drive would take a long time.
Jin Seoah watched as Ara was transferred to the hospital.
Before Mira and Sarah boarded the transport vehicle, they stood for a moment beside Ara’s transport unit.
Neither said a word.
Two identical faces looked at the identical face beyond the transparent cover.
Sarah raised a hand and placed it on the cover.
Mira placed hers beside it.
They did not move their hands until the transport attendant urged them to move.
Yuna was not there.
Jin Seoah attached the three women’s memory files to the incident record.
Yuna’s file was classified as “original execution memory,” while Mira’s and Sarah’s were classified as “copied memory.”
Finally, she ran the automatic sorting program to move the entire memory core to the storage server.
A progress bar appeared on the screen.
87 percent.
91 percent.
A printer started up on one side of the office. It was printing the evidence-seal labels.
Jin Seoah stood and walked toward the printer.
At that moment, a new item appeared at the very bottom of the list of files being processed.
MIRROR_001
It had no classification or creation date.
A small message blinked beside the filename.
Deleting
When the progress reached 100 percent, the file disappeared from the list.
Jin Seoah returned with the seal labels in hand.
Only the sorting-complete notice remained on the screen.
Error files 0
Jin Seoah clicked the confirmation button and closed the program.
No one saw that the file had existed, even briefly.
Seo Jinhyeok sat alone with a half-empty bottle of soju in front of him.
He hadn’t turned on the lights. Only the glow of the streetlamp filtering through the curtains stretched across one side of the floor.
Seo Jinhyeok emptied his glass and looked at the calendar hanging on the wall.
There were no marks on it.
There was no need to mark the date.
Every year, when this day came around, he drank alone.
It was the day of the first android homicide.