They reached the third deck. The forward section was empty. No captain, no staff, no sign that anyone had been there recently. The room looked untouched.
Seongji looked around slowly. "Did that worker lie to us?"
Baki thought about it. A worker sends two people to an empty room in the middle of the night. There was only one reason to do that. "We need to find him. He was buying time."
They went back to the restaurant. Empty. They checked the surrounding areas one by one. The whole ship was quiet and dark. Then they turned a corner and stopped.
A man stood alone in the corridor. He had messy purple hair that hung over his eyes. The moment he saw them, something in his posture changed. He looked at Baki first, then at Seongji, then at the baby carrier on Seongji's chest.
He tilted his head. "You two are strange. Walking around at midnight with a baby." He pushed the hair out of his face. "Are you with them? Did they only send two people to stop me?"
Baki looked at him evenly. "We're not here for you. We're looking for some kids."
The man didn't seem to hear it. His eyes had already settled on Baki with the kind of focus that meant he had stopped caring about anything else. He took one slow step forward. "You look strong. Are you a hired mercenary?"
"I just told you," Baki said. "We're not here for you."
"Yeah." The man cracked his knuckles. "But I'm here for you."
He vanished from where he was standing and reappeared directly in front of Baki. "Why did you bring a baby to a fight?"
He drove an overhead axe kick straight down. Baki stepped back and it hit nothing. The man rushed in with a high roundhouse into a low shin kick. Baki blocked both, grabbed him, put two knees into his face, and snapped a kick up into his chin. The man crossed his arms and caught it.
He shook out his arms. "I didn't expect someone this strong from their side."
He didn't wait. He launched a leaping roundhouse that pulled Baki into range and followed it with a jumping uppercut. It connected cleanly.
Baki didn't move back. A smile appeared on his face instead.
Seongji saw that smile and felt no sympathy for the purple-haired man.
Baki went up and came down on him. His body spun and his kick drove the man into the floor. The concrete cracked open into a crater. Baki grabbed his arm and slammed him down again, then pinned his neck under one foot and held his balance with the other.
The ship lurched. Baki shifted his weight and the man pulled his arm free and rolled away. He stretched and stood up slowly. "That was strong. Even Minyul Cheon shouldn't be that strong."
Seongji's eyes sharpened. The name tag. "Are you talking about the cleaner on this ship?"
The man scratched his head. "Cleaner? Why would he be a cleaner? He's a human trafficker. Didn't he send you here to stop me?"
Seongji shook his head. "We don't work for any trafficker. We're looking for teenagers who came on this trip with us. They've been missing since evening."
The man's expression shifted. "Oh. I thought you were sent to intercept me. I didn't expect civilians out here at midnight." He paused. "If you're looking for your people, Minyul Cheon probably has them."
Baki had been listening quietly. "The ship is moving. Why is it moving at this hour?"
The man thought for a moment. "They're transferring the kidnapped people to an island. They're heading there now."
Seongji said, "Then we have to stop the ship or find them before they reach it. Once they're on land it gets much harder."
The man nodded and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small tracking device. A red dot blinked on the screen. "One of my guys let himself get captured. He's carrying a tracker." He looked at them. "I'm Choi Sunjae, by the way."