The Crossroads
Ki-jo stood at a grave crossroads. Before Syngman Rhee, he had to choose whether to take the loan from West Germany or the loan from Italy. He had originally hoped to draw cash from Italy and a factory plant from Germany, and carry the venture forward on both. That was no longer possible. He and Lee Byung-chull would have to split the project in half and each pursue his own share.
He believed he had been summoned to Gyeongmudae thanks to Ambassador Hertz. Yet he was not the only one invited, and it seemed Hertz might have recommended him and Lee Byung-chull together — scored them as equals. Then, out of nowhere, Italy had been put forward as well. Who had told Rhee that a loan could be had from Italy too? Byung-chull, most likely. He had been wearing out his own shoes for the fertilizer plant just as hard.
There was hope in that. Even so, in his heart Ki-jo wanted to join hands with West Germany, where the precision-machine industry was far advanced. Italy was a power in machinery too, but work moved slowly there. Germany was a little slow as well, yet that delay was for the sake of accuracy and finish — not, as in Italy, the fruit of slack administration and an easygoing national temper. Things having come to this, he would rather win the loan from Germany if he could. Byung-chull, though, would want Germany too. He had already worked with the Germans while building Cheil Wool Textile.
Ki-jo turned over how to answer. If he and Byung-chull both asked for Germany, Rhee would almost certainly give Byung-chull the first claim. The president had been on close terms with Byung-chull's father, and he had built his own bond with the son over the years. Since a straight request was bound to fail, Ki-jo decided to cast a line.
"I'll take Italy."
He said it first, clean and unhesitating, and Syngman Rhee broke into a bright smile. Byung-chull allowed himself a faint smile of his own.
"Young Lee has chosen Italy quickly. Then will you tell me why?"
To Rhee's question, Ki-jo offered the answer he had prepared.
"First promise me the right to negotiate the loan with the Italian government, Your Excellency. Only then will I speak."
The cheek of it took Rhee slightly aback. Curiosity showed in the old man's eyes, though; he did not look offended. Byung-chull, too, was plainly interested in what Ki-jo had said.
"Then I shall have to ask Mr. Byung-chull as well. Will you take Germany?"
"I will."
Byung-chull's answer was short. Hearing it, Rhee turned to Ki-jo with a satisfied face.
"The matter is settled, then. Speak, young Lee. Why did you want Italy?"
"Because Italy is the easier side from which to secure a loan."
"Is that so?"
Rhee's eyes widened. Ki-jo felt Byung-chull give the slightest start.
"And why is that? Do you know someone in Italy?"
Rhee asked it with a familiar warmth, but Ki-jo did not answer readily. He glanced at Byung-chull, then spoke.
"It's awkward to say this with Chairman Lee Byung-chull in the room. He might change his mind after hearing me."
Ki-jo was playing the child, and Rhee laughed in sheer disbelief, a dry ho-ho.
"Come now, man. Would anyone who has given his word in front of me change it so easily? Isn't that so, Mr. Byung-chull?"
When Rhee looked to him, Byung-chull bowed his head and said nothing. To Rhee it must have looked like assent. To Ki-jo it did not. It looked like a man leaving himself room to go back on his word.
Ki-jo was certain Byung-chull was still in the dark about the shift in the international climate. Cautious in all things, he seemed unable to feel sure he could actually bring a loan home even if he were handed the right to negotiate and sent to Germany. The more that showed, the more childishly Ki-jo pressed.
"I'll speak when Chairman Lee is not present, Your Excellency."
In truth Ki-jo was shaking. To defy Rhee under his very nose was a gamble that could cost him every right to negotiate a loan.
"Now, now. I called young Lee admirable and sharp, and yet — young as he is, he still hasn't shed the child in him..."
Rhee clicked his tongue.
"Your Excellency, President Lee Ki-jo seems to wish to keep a trade secret. Men in business are that way by nature. Even before the head of the nation, what they most want to hide is a business secret."
Byung-chull had spoken up in his defense. Even so, he did not offer to leave the room.
"Speak at once, Mr. Lee. Before I find you insolent."
At the warning, Ki-jo bowed his head. Further resistance would only put him in danger — and in his heart he wanted Byung-chull beside him, listening.
He bowed an apology to Rhee and slowly began.
"Your Excellency, there is a firm in Italy called Montecatini."
"Montecatini?"
"Yes. Among its affiliates is a fertilizer company."
"Is that so? Mr. Byung-chull?"
Rhee turned to Byung-chull for confirmation, and Byung-chull confirmed that there was. Ki-jo had known he was already aware of the company. Sensing the current was with him, he went on.
"Montecatini is an Italian conglomerate, adept at business overseas. Across Europe it holds more than a hundred chemical plants, fertilizer works, power stations, and mines."
"Hmm. Quite a large company, I see."
"Yes. And it has a bond with Korea."
"A bond with Korea? An Italian conglomerate?"
Rhee asked it with the look of a man wondering why he himself had never heard of such a thing. Byung-chull's face said it was news to him as well. From here on, Ki-jo would be telling him what he did not yet know — a fact Byung-chull would learn only later, after he had gone to Italy himself in search of a commercial loan.
"Yes. In 1930 Imperial Japan built a nitrogen fertilizer plant at Heungnam, in South Hamgyong Province. It was built by the nitrogen-ammonia process, and the technology was brought from Italy."
"Was it, now...?"
"Yes. Montecatini was the first in the world to develop the nitrogen-ammonia process, but no one trusted it."
"Why not?"
"Because it extracted nitrogen from the air. Even the scientific powers of the day — America, Britain, Germany — would not believe that Italy had developed such a process."
"Well, well... Even hearing it now, I can hardly believe it. Fertilizer made from air..."
Wholly caught up in the tale, Rhee laughed with a childlike innocence.
"A Japanese businessman named Noguchi paid a million dollars for the patent and built the nitrogen fertilizer plant at Heungnam. Italian engineers came willingly to Korea to help him."
Ki-jo could feel Byung-chull concentrating on every word.
"Once the plant the Japanese had built in Korea with Italian technology was running successfully, the whole world was astonished, and they flocked to Montecatini to buy the process."
"Well, well. So there was such a thing."
"Yes. In a sense, the Heungnam fertilizer plant saved Montecatini. Korea is as good as its benefactor."
Rhee nodded. His face said he found the point sound. Ki-jo did not relax; he drew the reins tighter.
"There is Minister Choi In-gyu, whom Your Excellency appointed Minister of Home Affairs."
"Oh, yes. Choi In-gyu — that man is very diligent."
Choi In-gyu, who met every remark of Rhee's with a string of Quite so, Your Excellency, was known as the Yes-Minister.
"They say Minister Choi's younger brother, Mr. Choi Byeong-gyu, worked at the Heungnam fertilizer plant before liberation. If I go to Italy, I will take Mr. Choi Byeong-gyu and Mr. Noguchi, who is in Japan, and call on the chairman of Montecatini."
"Oho... I see. You mean to make use of the bond between Korea and Italy. Ha ha ha."
Rhee was thoroughly pleased. He spoke as if bringing in a commercial loan from Italy were already a settled thing.
"Well, then. Young Lee has nothing to worry about. What I said a moment ago, calling him a child — I take it back. I take it back."
He laughed like a boy, delighted. After a good while of it, he looked at Byung-chull.
"It's our elder Lee who worries me. I wonder whether he can truly bring a loan back from West Germany. Mr. Byung-chull, have you learned anything about Germany?"
At the question Byung-chull's face went scarlet. Ki-jo looked at him in triumph, and Byung-chull avoided that confident gaze. Turning back to Rhee, Ki-jo spoke with care.
"Your Excellency, Chairman Lee must have some know-how of his own. I have already laid mine open, but I would like his trade secrets protected. I ask your leave to withdraw first."
"Why? You ought to hear it too before you go. You have revealed your secret; should you not exchange them? This is for the country..."
Rhee tried to hold him. But Ki-jo could feel, beneath the words, the old man's wish to spare Byung-chull. The boy he had once doted on, as the son of a comrade from the independence movement, was hemming and hawing, and Rhee seemed to pity him.
Ki-jo asked once more.
"Your Excellency, please allow me to leave first. I beg you."
"Ah, very well. If you have said all you have to say to me, get up and go. Come to think of it, today is Sunday, isn't it? I've gone and summoned guests on a Sunday without a thought."
At last Rhee consented. Ki-jo rose slowly, brought his hands together, and bent deep from the waist. Toward Byung-chull, whose face was still flushed, he gave a nod so slight it might not have been a nod at all.
He stepped away from the balcony and stood before the door, and a guard opened it. Before he left the room, he looked back and saw Rhee's back where the old man sat on the balcony, and the leather shoes of Chairman Lee Byung-chull.
By a bitter coincidence, the day Rhee had summoned him was April 19. Unaware that his end stood exactly one year off, the president sat at peace on the balcony, talking with Byung-chull.
Before he went out, Ki-jo bowed once more from the doorway toward the back of Rhee's head. Then, still facing inward, he backed out through the door. It was the last point of etiquette Kwak Young-joo had taught him.
The door closed behind him. Ki-jo thought it would be the last time he saw Syngman Rhee and Lee Byung-chull in the same room.
When he turned, Kwak Young-joo was standing there. With the shape of his mouth alone, Kwak asked the question.
Did it go well?
Ki-jo nodded. Relief crossed Kwak's face, and he nodded back. He walked Ki-jo all the way out of Gyeongmudae.
Back from the meeting with Rhee and Byung-chull, Ki-jo waited for word to come down from Gyeongmudae. He wondered whether they would give him the right to negotiate the Italian loan, or the right to negotiate with Germany. He had resolved not to be disappointed even if he failed to receive the West German brief. It would sting a little, but the mere chance to bring in a foreign loan and build a fertilizer plant was itself a happy thing, and a thing done for the people.
He was pressing his seal to the papers confirming the tenants of the small warehouses when a great shout burst from the secretarial office.
"Lee Ki-jo! Get him out here!"
On its heels came the crash of furniture breaking, and a woman clerk's scream.
"What's going on? Who are you people?"
Dae-ik's voice, too — tight with alarm.
Ki-jo rose and tried to open the door of his office. It would not budge.
"All of you, out! What kind of outrage is this?"
Dae-ik was shouting.
"Out of the way, you bastard! Unless you want to die!"
A stranger's voice.
"Hey! Beat this son of a bitch down!"
The words and Dae-ik's groan landed in the same instant. They were beating him.
Ki-jo threw his weight against the door, and through the crack he saw Dae-ik. Even under the blows, Dae-ik had the handle locked in his grip. Ki-jo shouted through the gap.
"Dae-ik! Open the door! Get clear!"
But Dae-ik would not let go of the handle, not even while they struck him.
"This bastard's a real hard case! Haul him off!"
"Yes, sir!"
Several voices at once. Then Dae-ik's cry.
"What the hell are you doing? Let go of me!"
The door flew open, and Dae-ik was flung to the floor. Men in military uniform were tearing the secretarial office apart.
A man with a knife-sharp gaze came toward Ki-jo and asked,
"You Lee Ki-jo?"
"I am. I am Lee Ki-jo, head of Cheongsan."
Ki-jo answered, and held the man's eyes. A pistol was clenched in his hand.