Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: Exchange II
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The boss of the kidnappers spoke.
- Good.
Na Gang-in pulled back slightly from the phone and whispered in a low voice.
"Ask to hear Bora's voice."
Shin Eun-ha quickly said,
"Let me talk to Bora! I need to make sure she's okay!"
- Wait.
A moment later, Bora's voice came through, sobbing.
- Eun-ha! Save me!
"Hey! Why'd you get kidnapped again..."
- These guys were trying to nab you and grabbed me by mistake!
"Huh? R-Really?"
- Save me! Just give 'em that dragon thing or whatever!
"Got it. I will. Just trust me."
The voice switched back to the boss.
- Bora's still alive. But if you call the cops or bring anyone else, she dies.
Na Gang-in pointed at himself beside her and mouthed quietly.
"Say you're bringing your manager."
Shin Eun-ha said to the kidnapper,
"Why should I trust you and come alone? I need to bring someone too!"
- I said no cops.
"Not cops! Just one actor and one manager! That should be fine! You can tell an actor isn't a cop just by looking at their face!"
- Fair point.
"So I can bring them?"
- No. Actor only. Leave the manager behind.
"No way! That actor's too lightweight; she won't be any help!"
Kim Yu-chan said with a flustered look.
"I'm not that useless..."
Na Gang-in whispered.
"Say yes. And demand a guarantee for the hostage's safety."
Shin Eun-ha quickly replied,
"Fine! I'll just bring the actor! And the Dragon Plate means nothing to me, so as long as Bora comes back unharmed, you can have it. But if she gets hurt, no Dragon Plate either! Got it?"
- Heh. You know how to negotiate. We'll tell you the time and place.
Na Gang-in said,
"Right now."
"Right now! No stalling!"
- The quicker the deal, the better for us. We'll call back in ten minutes. One more time: anyone besides that actor, and Bora dies.
The call cut off abruptly.
Shin Eun-ha panted heavily.
"Hah... hah... I did good, right?"
Na Gang-in said,
"Not bad for your first time negotiating with kidnappers."
"I adapted a scene from a movie. It was in a script I practiced for acting prep."
Kim Yu-chan chimed in from the side.
"Bora... But yeah, bringing an actor makes sense..."
"Obviously Oppa Yu-chan. Were you thinking of not going? Bora got nabbed coming to the exhibition you co-hosted."
"I was going to. I was just asking if we really can't bring anyone else. Like Gang-in here."
Shin Eun-ha turned to Na Gang-in.
"But if these guys see a manager or anyone extra, they'll..."
Na Gang-in said,
"I can get out of the car way before we make contact."
"Right! That works! Dragging cops or bodyguards might tip them off and get Bora killed. Oppa Gang-in, come with us!"
Kim Yu-chan relaxed a bit.
"If Gang-in's with us, those scumbags don't stand a chance. So we're safe now..."
But Kim Yu-chan had another worry.
"Can Gang-in protect us and save Bora alone?"
Shin Eun-ha patted her chest, protected by the Dragon Plate.
"If we have to, we'll fight too."
Kim Yu-chan said,
"Gang-in, Eun-ha's acting tough just because of that vest. Get me one later too..."
After hanging up, the boss said,
"Shin Eun-ha and one actor are coming to the meetup spot."
"An actor?"
"I heard a guy's voice faintly. Probably a male actor."
"Ah! The co-host of that art exhibition is Kim Yu-chan. I saw Bora talking to him earlier."
"Then he'll bring Kim Yu-chan. Easy to recognize."
Another underling voiced concern.
"Boss, what if a detective disguises himself as that actor?"
"If a detective looked like Kim Yu-chan, he'd quit and become an actor. And even if some lookalike shows up in disguise, what can one guy do?"
About ten underlings stood around the boss.
"Even if a cop brings a pistol."
The boss smacked his waist.
"We've got guns from the advance payment. We outnumber his one pistol."
Another underling approached.
"Boss, Bora's back in the trunk."
"This spot could be traced, so we'll send the meetup during the move. Let's go."
A text came to Shin Eun-ha's phone. She checked it quickly.
It had an address and meetup time.
"Where's this? Gyeonggi Province?"
Na Gang-in opened the map app on his phone and entered the address. The map loaded right away.
"They picked a spot with nothing around."
Shin Eun-ha checked her watch.
"Hurry. They didn't give much time. If we're late, Bora's in danger."
Kim Yu-chan cautioned,
"Hold on. Why'd they pick some remote spot in Gyeonggi instead of downtown? Suspicious, right?"
"They're scared we'll call the cops! City's full of people; hard to spot undercover cops. Out there, no one's around, so no tails."
"Makes sense?"
Na Gang-in looked at the map.
"But we can swing by my workshop on the way."
Shin Eun-ha checked too.
"No? Doesn't it add distance to hit your workshop, Oppa?"
The three piled into Shin Eun-ha's car, a rear-wheel-drive import. Na Gang-in drove.
He floored the accelerator from the start. The car lurched forward.
Kim Yu-chan in the passenger seat panicked.
"Wh-Why so hard on the gas? Even rushing for Bora, this is too much! We can make it without speeding!"
"They probably calculated ETA with a nav app when they sent the text. Normal speed gets us there."
Na Gang-in wrenched the wheel sharply. Tires screeched as the car slid.
"But why... Aaaah! We almost hit that streetlight!"
The car surged ahead again.
"Gotta make a quick stop without them knowing."
Shin Eun-ha asked from the back seat.
"Where?"
"My workshop."
"That detours us, though?"
"That's why I'm flooring it. If a speeding ticket comes, Bora can cover it."
"No, why the workshop now!"
"Grabbing something on the way."
They stopped at Na Gang-in's workshop, then headed to the meetup.
Long before arriving, Na Gang-in got out.
Kim Yu-chan worried,
"Gang-in, are we really okay just us?"
"I'll follow."
"On that bike? How?"
Na Gang-in had grabbed a mountain bike from the workshop. It was fully modded—some parts machined on-site with his equipment.
AI Jeon Ji-in said,
- Military-spec high-mobility mountain bike. Doesn't meet Earth Union standards, but it'll handle today's op.
"I ride a bit."
Shin Eun-ha leaned out the driver's seat.
"Oppa Yu-chan! Get in already! How many times have you seen Oppa Gang-in nail something?"
"But we're in a car and he's on a bike..."
"Just get in!"
Their car pulled out first.
Na Gang-in didn't take the road. He biked into the hills.
With leg power several times a normal person's, he pedaled fiercely. The tactical bike flew over the trails like a motorcycle.
The kidnappers who took Bora watched the meetup via camera with telephoto lens.
"Boss, car’s here. Foreign import."
The leader asked,
"Who's in it?"
"Shin Eun-ha got out driver's side. Passenger's that actor from the event."
"Kim Yu-chan?"
"Yes."
"Any tails?"
"None."
The leader called another underling.
"See anything up there?"
The lookout on the hill, scanning with binoculars, replied,
- Clear. No trailing cars.
The leader smirked.
"Heh. Obedient clients. Let's go."
After getting out, Shin Eun-ha shouted,
"It's Shin Eun-ha! I'm here like promised! Show yourselves!"
The three kidnappers from earlier: two arrived by car, one watched from the hill.
The kidnappers stepped out, faces hidden by masks, sunglasses, and hats.
Shin Eun-ha yelled,
"Where's Bora!"
The leader gestured. An underling opened the trunk.
Bora was stuffed in again, hands bound, head bagged in black plastic.
They dragged her to the front of the car and pulled off the bag.
Bora squinted at the light, couldn't see at first. Then she heard Shin Eun-ha.
"Bora!"
"E-Eun-ha!"
Kim Yu-chan shouted too.
"Bora! I'm here!"
"Too bright, can't see!"
"Uh... don't you recognize my voice?"
The leader said to Shin Eun-ha,
"Goods first."
Shin Eun-ha pulled the assembled Dragon Plate vest from the back seat. She held it up high.
"Here! Now let Bora go!"
The leader pressed a knife to Bora's side.
"Nah. We hold the hilt."
Bora screamed.
"Eek!"
The leader ordered,
"Put it down midway and back off. Gotta check the goods."
Distance between them: about fifty meters.
Shin Eun-ha placed the vest in the open middle and retreated.
The leader told his underling,
"Fetch it."
The underling ran, grabbed it. Leader saw the signature assembly and grinned.
"Goods check out."
Shin Eun-ha shouted,
"Now let her go!"
The leader patted Bora's back.
"Hey, miss. Go to your friend."
Bora ran toward Shin Eun-ha. But with bound hands, she stumbled and face-planted.
"Kyaa!"
Shin Eun-ha rushed over, grabbed her hand, pulled her up.
"Get up! We gotta get outta here!"
The leader chuckled, warning Shin Eun-ha.
"This whole deal's on my dashcam. If word gets out you traded with us, won't look good for you either? Bora's unharmed, so no cops, yeah?"
"You stole my vest!"
"That's the deal. And we're letting you go easy 'cause we don't want trouble. No one's hurt, so let's call it square."
"You son of a..."
Kim Yu-chan ran up.
"Eun-ha, not now. Let's go."
The kidnappers drove off.
The underling driving asked,
"Boss, okay to just let 'em go?"
"What else? Kidnap them too?"
"Might be better. What if they report us?"
"If they report, maybe one task force gets assigned? Nah, just tossed to existing teams."
"Still bad for us?"
"But kidnap them? They're celebs. Kim Yu-chan stars in movies and dramas."
"R-Right?"
"Three missing celebs? Cops tear the country apart in a day. Way riskier than them reporting alive."
"Ah... Civilians you grab and dump, but celebs? No."
"And as celebs, they hate scandals, so no report. Bora's safe anyway. Best for us."
Shin Eun-ha and Bora hadn't gotten in the car yet. Bora, makeup ruined from crying, apologized.
"Eun-ha, sorry."
"For what?"
"That vest they took. Oppa Gang-in made it, right? Sorry it got taken 'cause of me."
Shin Eun-ha smirked, waved it off.
"That was fake."
"Huh?"
"We stopped at Oppa Gang-in's workshop on the way. Some company called Iron Man Engineering made a prototype their way and asked him to evaluate it."
"Isn't that even more valuable?"
"Nah. He said it was useless scrap metal."