Chapter 127
Chapter 127
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: Joint Investigation Unit
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The witness interviews were scheduled for later at a separate location. Na Gang-in and his group rode back home in Shin Eun-ha's car.
On the way, Na Gang-in stopped by where he'd left his bicycle. Earlier, he'd had to chase after them quickly and hadn't had time to disassemble it and fit it into the trunk.
"Uh..."
The bicycle was gone from where he'd left it.
Shin Eun-ha said,
"Looks like someone already stole it."
That mountain bike was one Na Gang-in had modified himself for tracking down those guys. Today, he'd ridden it hard over rough mountain terrain and blasted down unpaved roads at high speed.
"Let's go catch 'em."
"Huh? You can catch a bike thief?"
"There are bike tire tracks on the road. They must've walked it here, so they didn't come from far away."
The one who'd taken the bike was a middle schooler from the neighborhood.
When celebrities suddenly showed up claiming ownership of the bike, the kid shrank back and apologized.
"Sorry. It was just dumped by the roadside, so I thought someone threw it away."
Na Gang-in said,
"I get it. It was the kind of situation that could lead to a misunderstanding. It was caked in mud from the rough ride, and just lying there tipped over by the road."
He hadn't come to catch a bike thief.
"But if you just ride that thing, you could get into an accident."
"Huh?"
"It only looks fine on the outside. It's been ridden so hard that it could break apart any second. If it falls apart while you're riding downhill, you'll get seriously hurt."
"Nah, it looked super sturdy. No way it'd break."
"It will break. I'm not here to recover the bike—I'm here because I don't want you to die."
Na Gang-in pointed out the frame and parts one by one with his finger.
"Here, here, and here—micro cracks have formed. The chain's at its limit. The gears have a few cogs on the verge of snapping. If you push the speed on something like that and it disintegrates going downhill, you're dead."
The middle schooler got scared and apologized.
"S-Sorry!"
The police released an overview of the incident to the media. They boasted about dispatching immediately upon receiving the report and capturing all the perpetrators.
But they didn't disclose who had been kidnapped or who had pursued the criminals.
And the case wasn't handed to the local precinct—it went to a different department.
The executives of the Joint Investigation Unit, formed during the Gangnam Jackal case, were packing up with beaming faces.
"Man, the day the task force disbands has finally come."
"We've been through a lot, haven't we?"
"On top of our own department's workload, handling task force cases too—real tough stuff."
"Shall we all get together for drinks next week?"
"Sounds good. Hahaha."
The Joint Investigation Unit chief walked into the office.
A police executive said,
"Chief, you should pack up too. I'll help once I finish this."
The chief shook his head and said,
"Unpack your stuff."
The police executive froze, then grinned widely.
"Haha, you really know how to scare us with a joke."
"It's not a joke."
The task force executives were all flustered.
The police executive asked,
"Wait, why?"
The chief explained the outline of their new case.
"Someone mobilized a domestic organization targeting the Dragon Plate. They ordered them to take it from the celebrity who had it. And that case has landed with us."
"What? There's the local precinct and the organized crime unit—why us...?"
"The client paid the advance not in cash, but with a pistol. And the balance is to be paid in pistols too."
"So why does it have to be us...?"
The reason was simple.
"We've handled international criminals well so far, haven't we? Even if we haven't caught the ringleaders. The higher-ups think we're competent."
Another executive sighed.
"Should've slacked off if I knew it'd be like this."
"Then we'd get heat for not doing anything."
"True..."
"It's unfair. In the previous cases, Na Gang-in caught all the perps, so we just did the grunt work and didn't get much credit..."
The chief said,
"This case has some similarities to the ones we've handled before. Like involving apparent international criminals or the use of firearms."
"No, the regular police can handle that stuff anytime. Just those two things, and the case gets dumped on us? We're in the middle of disbanding."
"And the person who resolved the incident is Na Gang-in."
The executives were stunned.
"Huh? You don't mean..."
"Yes, that very thing."
"Na Gang-in again..."
"He caught the perps."
"Why him?"
The chief explained,
"The victim is actress Lee Bo-ra, and she's close with Na Gang-in. Apparently, as soon as he heard she was missing, he went looking."
"Ah, Lee Bo-ra—the actress who was kidnapped before too, right?"
"Yes. Kidnapping specialist actress. No, that's not right. Anyway, that's why it came to us."
There was one more reason the higher-ups assigned it to this task force: information on cases assigned here never leaked to the press. Especially since the executives kept their mouths shut.
The police executive tossed the items he'd been packing onto the desk and slumped into his chair.
"This is ridiculous. If he's gonna make us suffer like this, shouldn't Na Gang-in help out with our work, human decency-wise? Our department has stuff that really needs him."
The other executives chimed in.
"I think so too."
"Same here. If he came to our department and cleared a few cases..."
The Joint Investigation Unit unpacked and began investigating the case. In the process, they learned something new.
The chief asked,
"Hold on. We knew Na Gang-in was the head of the Dragon Plate design team at Titanforge, but was it something an individual could make?"
"I just found out too, but apparently Na Gang-in can craft it himself in his personal workshop."
"No way—that can't be something just anyone can whip up, right? It's the pinnacle of Titanforge's latest tech. Foreign companies can't even imitate it—it's that advanced."
"Right."
"And he makes it alone in a personal workshop? How?"
"Na Gang-in says he can."
"No, but how exactly...?"
An executive from the intelligence agency occasionally attended these meetings. He'd come to unpack but got roped in.
The manager said,
"It's true."
The other executives turned to him.
The intelligence manager explained,
"I learned by chance that Na Gang-in is the actual developer of the Dragon Plate. So he can produce it himself."
The manager added info the others didn't know.
"Moreover, there's speculation that one he makes alone might have even higher defense than Titanforge's official products."
"Handcrafted by an artisan beats mass-produced?"
"Titanforge's are custom too, but yes. Simply put."
"Do we have a Dragon Plate obtained directly from Na Gang-in?"
"Well..."
The manager sighed deeply.
He'd once sent two probationary agents to Na Gang-in to negotiate a Dragon Plate purchase. To test performance, they needed to wear it and roll around the training ground. So he sent agents who were easy to roll around.
But one ended up fighting Na Gang-in and came back, botching the purchase. A later agent was rejected outright.
"Na Gang-in doesn't sell them. Acquisition is impossible."
This time, the police executive pulled up a photo on the screen. It was of Shin Eun-ha, taken so the arrow hole in her clothes was visible.
When Shin Eun-ha had posed for the photo, her clothes had lifted slightly, exposing a bit of the Dragon Plate.
"About this photo. The perps had it. It's a publicly available internet photo, and the client told them to reference it."
The boss was still clamming up, but some underlings had spilled everything.
"The Dragon Plate Shin Eun-ha is wearing is one Na Gang-in made. And if his handmade ones might have superior defense to Titanforge's products...?"
The chief's eyes lit up.
"Huh? So the perps specifically targeted Shin Eun-ha's—not Titanforge's—because..."
"Someone saw this photo online and figured out what it was. What they want is Na Gang-in's handmade product."
"Why?"
"Obviously to analyze the tech. Since it's handmade piece by piece, they figured clues would be easier to find."
Another executive objected.
"I doubt it. If that was the goal, they'd target Na Gang-in directly."
"Huh? Target who?"
"Oh, never mind. Still, they could've infiltrated his workshop when he's away and grabbed more stuff."
"Hmm... The fact the client didn't suggests they recognized the Dragon Plate from the photo but didn't know the source."
"Right. And current production goes to government contracts—no sending thugs to snag one. But this seemed feasible."
"To know the truth, we need to catch the client..."
The chief sighed.
"Ah. Feels like this one's gonna be a pain too."
A Joint Investigation Unit detective met with Na Gang-in.
The detective sighed, just like the chief.
"The task force was about to disband, so I thought we'd never officially meet again."
"The unit's disbanding? Guess your workload lightens up then, Detective."
"No, the disbandment's canceled. We took the case."
"Ah..."
The detective gave Na Gang-in a brief rundown.
"There's a separate client who ordered Lee Bo-ra's kidnapping."
"Figured as much."
"But the boss didn't even tell his underlings the client's identity."
"I saw the boss on a phone call with someone. Traced the number?"
"We did. But it was a burner phone."
"Not prepaid?"
"Used domestically. We checked the last location it powered on—no one there. They bolted."
The detective added a caveat.
"Ah, can't give you that number, though. Haha."
"Oh, sure."
He already knew it.
After catching the boss, Na Gang-in had checked his phone. He couldn't call in that situation, but he'd noted the last call.
The detective continued,
"They planned a big score once they got their hands on guns."
"The boss was a good shot with the pistol—how'd that happen?"
"He practiced a lot in the Philippines every trip. Cheap live-fire ranges there, and back channels for weapons."
"Possible. Or he could've been lying."
"We're verifying. But anyway."
The detective asked cautiously,
"The perps are saying something weird."
"What..."
"That you batted away a flying bullet..."
"Oh, that."
The detective laughed.
"Hahaha. Must be some misunderstanding?"
"I did deflect it, though."
"Pardon? No way a person..."
"I didn't see the bullet coming and swat it. When the guy fired his pistol, I swung a steel pipe like a shield, and it connected."
"Uh... What if you'd gotten shot?"
"I was wearing a bulletproof vest then—one hit would've been fine. But each hit wears down the vest's durability, so better to deflect if possible."
"Aah..."
The task force detective gave an awkward smile.
"Gotcha. I thought you were some space knight with a lightsaber. Ha, haha."
The detective stopped laughing and got serious.
"Still, you did deflect a bullet, right?"
The detective's report came up at the Joint Investigation Unit meeting.
The chief laughed.
"Haha, knew it. No way a person spots a bullet mid-flight and swats it."
"Right? Lucky hit."
"Pure luck. He's no legendary swordsman."
The detective hadn't told Na Gang-in everything. The unreported parts came up in the meeting too.
"Who's this 'Director Cha' guy?"
"The boss cracked a bit—he's never actually seen Director Cha."
"Works for someone he's never met?"
"Paid reliably for jobs assigned."
"The section chief who kidnapped Lee Bo-ra. Supposedly planted by Director Cha in that org. He must know Director Cha."
"Nope. Never seen his face either."
"Then why send him to that org?"
"Told to contact if the boss schemed against Director Cha. Otherwise, follow boss's orders."
"So Director Cha involved in this case?"
"No. Client heard rumors about the org and reached out first."
The chief summarized,
"We still know zilch about Director Cha or the client, huh?"
"Yep."
"Sigh. Wanted to disband..."
"Chief, just accept your fate. We're stuck for a while."