Dojin's Ability Was Sealed and Sera's Command Was Cut

Dojin's ability was sealed and Sera's command authority was cut.

Hyeonju did not rescue either of them.

Instead she moved twelve civilian buses first.

Jang Mina calculated the odds of that decision saving Team 7 from the control room on the second floor of the East Bus Depot.

14 percent.

She closed the calculation window and what remained was the return route for fifty two citizens.

Eighteen hours until the disbandment hearing. The people who had gotten out of the East Shelter still carried the role of witness waiting for a commander's secret lover. Instead of lifting that role, the Coordination Bureau notified them that shelter use was ending. If they didn't clear out by six in the morning, the stay would be billed to them individually.

The door had opened, but the place to go had a price tag.

On the depot floor, twelve buses, six citizen representatives, nine union drivers, and fourteen shelter support staff had gathered. There was no Team 7 marking anywhere. Hyeonju had them taken down.

A different name appeared on Mina's screen.

Request to open a temporary Citizens' Watch Coalition.

There were three boxes for choosing the purpose.

Defense against Team 7's disbandment hearing.

Restoration of Baek Dojin's agreement correction authority.

Evacuation, treatment, and evidence preservation.

Choosing the first granted access to the disbandment hearing files. Choosing the second let her file for a temporary review of Dojin's execution key. Choosing the third would only authorize eight civilian routes. Hyeonju pressed the third.

"Are you giving up access to the hearing files?" the Coordination Bureau officer asked over the remote window.

"We're not trading. Keeping the team and getting citizens out are separate requests."

"Processing them together raises the odds of approval."

"That's why we're separating them."

On the approval screen, four bus routes locked to gray. Before filing an objection, Hyeonju sent the eight open routes to the drivers.

Mina deleted the 14 percent.

A temporary nameplate sat on the table in the middle of the depot. Oh Hyeonju. Hyeonju pushed it toward Taeho.

"The proposer will not chair the vote. If legal counsel also holds the chair, this coalition becomes a bypass organization for Team 7."

Taeho checked the back of the nameplate. "Return deadline?"

"Until the first route finishes."

"Short enough. I'll take it."

He laid out twelve car keys beside the nameplate. Eight with valid insurance, two on temporary extension, two awaiting inspection. Nine drivers, four relief drivers, sixteen wheelchair-fixed seats, four hundred twelve regular seats, eighty four empty return seats.

Taeho added one line to the end of the list.

If there aren't enough seats for people, we do not ship evidence.

Mina asked, "What about the three original sealed cases?"

"After people are seated, if there's room."

"What if the Coordination Bureau's servers close first?"

"If the originals evacuate before the citizens, that's not shipping. That's smuggling."

Taeho unloaded the sealed case that had been riding in the trunk of Bus 1. They agreed to distribute evidence copies to Mina's citizen verification terminals and let the buses carry only people. The risk of transmission failure went up 9 percent. Seats went up by twelve.

"Conditions for logistics chair. No demands to confirm a driver's role. No demands for public statements of support. Refuse shipment if return seats fall below 20 percent unfilled. Break even one item and I recall the car keys without a vote."

Hyeonju corrected the end of the sentence. "Not without a vote. Let's change it to a single vote from a driver or logistics halting it. It has to stop even without you."

Taeho looked at the nameplate for a moment. It was a revision that shrank his own authority.

"Adopted. No second thoughts about my hero narrative."

Eunha overlaid the bus assignment chart with a medical chart. Six citizens whose long distance travel was on hold after hyperventilation treatment, nine who needed a low floor bus instead of stairs, two who refused to ride with family, three who could only ride with family. Travel order was decided not by age or relational role, but by each person's chosen scope of contact and companionship, and by medical risk.

Citizen representative "East-2" read the chart. This was someone who had chosen not to disclose their name at the shelter.

"Does only the medical staff hold the right to stop treatment?"

Eunha answered. "No. The patient themselves, their companion, and the driver can all stop it."

"If the companion is family, is their vote stronger?"

"It's the same one vote. It can't override the patient's own choice to continue or stop."

"Then if the medical staff says it's dangerous?"

"Movement stops. Contact treatment is asked again."

East-2 set their wristband on the table. The word "witness" was still blinking on it. "Don't decide that I'm waiting because of this role. I'll say whether I'm waiting for a bus or waiting for a person."

Eunha did not put that sentence into the first column of the medical chart. Instead she turned it into a confirmation question.

Which do you choose right now: move, wait, or check other routes?

Who do you want or refuse to ride with?

How do you choose contact treatment: now, later, or refuse?

East-2 raised their head. "I'm in favor now."

Before her turn came, Mina opened a public dashboard. She combined bus positions, seats, medical holds, original file hashes, and the disbandment hearing time into one screen. Normally this would have been her fastest work.

Citizen representative "West-Hold" raised a hand. This was the person who had held back sharing the no-fault test broadcast link and ended up cast as a traitor.

"Why is our travel on the same screen as the team's disbandment time?"

Mina answered. "Because the agency is tying the routes to the hearing."

"If the agency ties them together, do you tie yourself to it too?"

In the upper right of the dashboard, a projected reach count appeared. If the disbandment hearing and the bus movements went out together, simultaneous viewers hit 4.8 million. If only the bus information was public, 360,000. The odds of a citizen narrative helping Team 7 were six times higher with the former.

Mina closed the full screen.

"I'll split it up. A travel board, a medical board, an evidence board. Public keys go out separately for each too."

"Can a team member delete it?"

"I lock the originals I make so even I can't delete them. But the person concerned can hide or take down their own row."

"What's the name of your channel?"

"It's dropped."

This time it took Mina two seconds to calculate. If her channel logo dropped, the ad revenue for keeping the citizen verification terminals running would disappear too. Wanting to build an independent public tool and wanting to attach her own name to it were not the same thing.

She handed the travel board's admin key to West-Hold, the medical board's stop key to East-2 and Eunha, and the evidence board's public key to three citizen verifiers. For herself she kept only the authority to report errors and propose fixes.

"One less sample."

West-Hold asked, "Who?"

"Me. The administrator sample."

Just as the first bus was about to leave, a Coordination Bureau warning came down.

Unregistered assembly participants may be classified as obstructors of Team 7's disbandment.

One driver's wristband turned red.

An obstructor cannot drive a Coordination Bureau designated evacuation route.

The bus engine cut off. The exit gates for the seven buses behind it lifted at the same time.

Hyeonju did not try to correct the warning text. Dojin's correction authority was gone too. Taeho set down the chair's nameplate and refit the wheel chock under Bus 1's front tire.

"Shipment halted."

The Coordination Bureau officer said, "Submit a list of participants and we'll review the obstructor classification."

West-Hold asked, "Who decides the scope of the list's disclosure?"

"The coalition's representative can give blanket consent."

Taeho pushed the nameplate away with a finger. "Representative's blanket consent, no second thoughts on that either."

Hyeonju pulled up the route authorization on screen. The authorizing body was the Coordination Bureau, but the vehicles belonged to the union, and the depot exit fell under the city transportation department's jurisdiction. Giving up the designated evacuation route would also free them from the Bureau's block condition. In exchange they would lose priority passage and fuel support.

"I propose switching to regular routes. Arrival will be 26 minutes later and add 480,000 won in fuel costs."

Taeho asked, "Return seats?"

"Maintained."

Eunha checked the medical chart. "The six on long distance hold can't handle 26 more minutes. We'll keep two buses here and use them as a temporary clinic."

East-2 switched their own route. "I'll stay too. If the patient representative is stuck inside a bus the whole time, no one sees the stop vote."

West-Hold voted for switching to regular routes but against submitting the list. Of the nine drivers, seven voted for the switch, and two held off until they confirmed their insurance coverage. Hyeonju did not flip the holds into no votes.

The vote result was six buses running, two used for treatment, two on hold for inspection, and two drivers holding.

Taeho picked up only the six keys for the regular route buses. "Dispatch."

The city's gate lifted. Six buses left the depot with 20 percent of their seats empty. Coordination Bureau fuel support was zero. Team 7 promotional markings were zero. Forty six citizens, six drivers, and sixty two return seats moved out.

At the first intersection, Bus 3 lost its Coordination Bureau priority signal. The driver stopped instead of pushing through the yellow light. The buses behind didn't line up single file, but scattered onto two branching regular routes. Taeho didn't pick the fastest bus, but kept Bus 5, which had the most return seats, at the rear. Two citizens who wanted to get off midway disembarked at a west side stop, and the empty seats were logged for the two returning drivers. They ran late, but no one had to prove they were a supporter to get through.

Mina did not release bus footage. The travel board only showed estimated arrival by vehicle, empty seats, and hold status. Only three sentences chosen by the citizen representatives were made public.

Not for the purpose of Team 7's reinstatement.

No demands to confirm relational roles.

Individual withdrawal is possible.

On the evidence board, a vote began on the scope of disclosure for the official account's originals. Full disclosure 17, hash and timestamp only 29, hold on external disclosure 7. One of the votes for hash and timestamp only belonged to Dojin. Without execution authority, he had submitted only the same single sheet of paper as any other participant.

The total was fifty three.

The paper ballot box also held fifty three sheets.

But in the live broadcast footage, the counting hands moved only fifty two times.

The missing vote was a citizen's vote for hash and timestamp only. It remained on the paper original, and only one frame of the video timecode was blacked out. Mina did not reclaim admin authority. She informed the citizen verifiers of the discrepancy between the paper seal and the video frame and attached "cause undetermined."

Those who had chosen full disclosure protested that the originals were being hidden. Those who had chosen to hold external disclosure objected that even hashes could become tracking leads. The coalition was not of one voice from day one.

Hyeonju did not declare the hash and timestamp disclosure plan as the conclusion. She put the majority proposal, the minority objection, and the objection over the missing footage on the same front page.

Dojin sat in the back of the control room. He had no execution key, no chair's nameplate, no admin authority. After casting his vote, he did not use his right to speak.

Mina's new dashboard asked him a question.

Do you wish to request to speak?

Dojin pressed Yes.

Queue number 17.