Don't Hold On Tight
Hong Yu-geon, who had collapsed from the electric shock, slowly stood up and shook his head.
“Agh, I thought I was done for! Shouldn’t you be more careful when you fire that thing?!”
His voice was full of complaint.
In-hyuk kept his eyes fixed on the computer in the living room and answered flatly.
“Which is why you should’ve been careful.”
“Me? The boss should’ve been careful! Don’t tell me… you shot it on purpose at that exact moment, did you?”
“….”
When no answer came, Hong Yu-geon grew even more agitated.
“What? It’s true? Because I tagged along without permission?”
“Shut up. The thirty minutes I mentioned earlier are almost up, so move. And pull the black box from the vehicle outside while you’re at it.”
“Tsk—!”
Hong Yu-geon had just checked the clock himself. In the end he followed In-hyuk’s orders, gathering what needed to be gathered while hurrying around the house.
In the meantime In-hyuk stared at the monitor, watching the screen flicker rapidly as the USB transferred data. Every file stored inside was being encrypted and sent to the secure web server Go Mi-ah had prepared.
Crackle—
He also made sure to hit the fallen men with the stun gun one more time, just in case they regained consciousness.
“Whoa… that’s brutally cold.”
Hong Yu-geon, having finished searching the second floor and come back down, muttered at the sight.
“They’ve got better endurance than I expected, so I have to stay sharp.”
“You seem to know them pretty well?”
“I don’t exactly not know them.”
Once the files had transferred far enough, In-hyuk searched the pockets of the unconscious men.
As expected of UID personnel, they carried nothing that could reveal their real identities. He then opened their left hands and examined them closely—especially the line where the ring finger met the palm.
“Looking for a wedding ring mark?”
“I told you to shut up…”
On the left palms of all three men, In-hyuk found a tattoo combining a cross and a circle.
As I thought… are they connected to those bastards and the UID?
The suspicion had arisen because Pyo Jun-woo’s crew had used TMT—the combat technique taught within the UID.
From torturing Pyo Jun-woo he had learned they trained at a camp near the Naran region in Mongolia. But the odds of any traces still existing were low, so he had never gone to check.
“It’s almost thirty minutes. We leaving or what?”
“…We’re leaving.”
In-hyuk answered, snapped photos of the men’s faces with his phone, then pulled the USB from the computer and pocketed it. As he had told Hong Yu-geon, he slipped out of the safe house and ran southeast.
“Why are we heading this way? What about the car we left earlier?”
“That car’s already been recovered from another location.”
“Don’t tell me… the car being ready earlier, all of this—you’re a task broker, aren’t you?”
The term referred to an underground facilitator who handled dirty errands.
Work passed through multiple layers to avoid leaving traces, and the client’s identity was never revealed. It was the kind of service used by lobbyists, mercenaries, and agents running high-risk operations.
“Correct.”
They kept running at full speed even while talking.
“…Just who the hell are you, boss?”
“Aren’t you sick of asking that yet?”
“I’m asking because I still don’t get it!”
After all, until recently the man had been nothing more than an ordinary—(?)—salaryman who had married into a chaebol family.
Every time something surprised him, Hong Yu-geon would stop and reexamine the situation, searching for anything strange. Yet even a moment ago In-hyuk had displayed combat skills and decision-making no ordinary person should possess.
“I’m not lying to you. So believe what you see.”
“Maybe you’re some kind of black operator or shadow asset from an agency… No, that can’t be right. There would’ve been holes in your background.”
In-hyuk merely shrugged at the man’s sigh.
The pair ran southeast, crossed over the mountain, and continued descending. Before long a ruined farmhouse came into view, and they headed for the vinyl greenhouse whose covering had rotted and torn away.
“You hid a getaway vehicle here too?”
“We need a way back. But…”
“Don’t tell me there’s only one?”
Inside the greenhouse sat a single motorcycle.
In-hyuk let a faintly displeased aura leak out as he spoke.
“Want to walk instead? The car I rode here is roughly ten kilometers away. Just get there and you’re fine.”
“…Can’t I drive?”
“Why would I want to ride with you behind me? You’re not exactly pretty. So either walk or stop complaining and get on.”
“Tsk…”
The two well-built men settled onto the motorcycle.
“It’s gross, so don’t hold on tight.”
At some point Hong Yu-geon’s arms had slipped lightly around In-hyuk’s waist.
Baek Ji-woong was reviewing documents at the large desk in the center of the WISE&WIRE Group chairman’s office when his phone vibrated. A message had arrived.
“…”
His expression turned grave the instant he saw the English name HANNYA.
He immediately retrieved a satellite phone from the hidden safe behind the painting at the back of his desk and powered it on.
When the loud ringtone finally sounded, he pressed the call button at once. Then, as if it were second nature, he began speaking in Japanese.
“I’ve picked up. Hannya.”
“It has been a long time, Chairman.”
The man called Hannya answered in Japanese as well. Yet the deep voice coming through the receiver carried an unmistakable chill.
“Indeed it has. To what do I owe the honor of a direct call?”
Hannya paused as if gathering his breath before speaking again.
“There has been a small incident in Korea. I would like you to mobilize your people and look into it.”
The person on the other end was one of the highest-ranking members of the organization Baek Ji-woong belonged to. His position stood above even that of Baek Ji-woong, chairman of W&W Group.
At once Baek Ji-woong’s face hardened further.
“I don’t know the details, but wouldn’t your own people be better suited for an investigation?”
“One of our safe houses in Korea was raided. Naturally I trust my agents’ abilities. However, the intruders extracted only internal information without leaving a single casualty. The initial report contained no usable traces that could identify the suspect.”
Baek Ji-woong swallowed hard.
“…Are you referring to a safe house used by WID?”
WID operated across the globe. Baek Ji-woong had only ever used the agents stationed in Korea as his private soldiers.
That Hannya—who oversaw the entire WID—had learned of an incident in Korea before he had was genuinely shocking.
“To be precise, it is a safe house originally prepared by the UID. Is there any information you might have that could connect to this matter?”
The question landed, and a single bead of cold sweat that had formed on Baek Ji-woong’s forehead slid down onto his thigh.
He had no idea how much Hannya already knew about the domestic situation. Yet the fact that the man had contacted him directly made any vague excuse dangerous.
“Ahem—! I was planning to report it, but there has been some trouble domestically.”
“Why is the report late?”
Hannya’s voice grew heavier.
“We have identified a suspect. However, the opponent is not an easy one, so we have yet to produce any notable results.”
“What is the scale of damage?”
“As of now, one third-class operative embedded in a corporation and three fourth-class operatives.”
“From what I hear, the front company also suffered losses. Why are you omitting that from your report?”
He was referring to the internal cleanup of Dae-myung Detective Agency, which had been secretly running WID agents.
“That matter… stemmed from a mission failure. Their faces had been exposed and the company’s existence risked discovery, so I eliminated the person in charge along with every operative who participated in the operation.”
“Yet there was no report on that either?”
Listening to the man’s piercing words, Baek Ji-woong unconsciously clenched his fist.
“I intended to submit a full report shortly.”
“What was the cause?”
“…Pardon?”
“The reason the operation failed. Even if Lee Dae-myung had grown complacent after spending too long in the mundane world, he was not the kind of man who would leave an opening in an operation.”
Lee Dae-myung, who had run the detective agency, was a WID agent who had spent over a decade infiltrating the police force and building a foundation. He had maintained his cover identity for a very long time, retired from the force by sacrificing himself, and continued operating under the sign of a detective agency.
Such a man had failed a mission dangerously enough to be executed for it.
From Hannya’s perspective, the circumstances were bound to look suspicious.
“Are you suggesting I induced his mistake?”
“That was not my intention. First, submit a report on the incident. Include a full profile on this unidentified person of interest. And I also ask that you investigate the safe house I mentioned earlier.”
In the end, he intended to take everything he could get.
“Leaving other matters aside, is there a reason we must handle the safe-house investigation ourselves?”
He had not caught the reason when the order was first given.
“The safe house contains communication records exchanged with agents active across Asia. The list may have been traced, making it difficult to use personnel from that side for now. And if the ones who hit the safe house are the same suspect you are looking for, Chairman Baek… then you will have to take responsibility.”
The plan to shift responsibility as much as possible had come back doubled. Baek Ji-woong let out a small groan that would not reach the receiver.
“…Understood. I will conduct the investigation.”
“I leave it to you.”
The call ended.
Baek Ji-woong wanted to hurl the satellite phone across the room, but he endured it, returned the device to the safe, and locked it away.
Although he was chairman of WISE&WIRE Group, he was little more than a puppet. To obtain real power, he would need to endure far more.
He was lost in thought when he reached for his phone, only to be interrupted by a knock.
Knock knock—
“Come in.”
The door opened and Do Jung-geol, Baek Ji-woong’s secretary, poked his head inside.
“Chairman. There has been an incident.”
“What is it?”
Do Jung-geol handed over the tablet he was holding.
On the screen was a freshly posted article. Baek Ji-woong’s face stiffened subtly as he read it.
“It looks like the situation at W&W Entertainment is going to blow up.”
“This is going to get quite noisy. I thought the Riseburn matter was wrapped up recently. Were there still loose ends?”
Most of the people connected to the case had already been sentenced and sent to prison. Of course, some powerful families had tried to pull strings to get their children out.
But the prosecution had gathered so much evidence that almost no one had managed to escape.
“It seems a few people slipped through the timing. During the prosecution’s investigation of the previous case, this new list surfaced and the investigation exploded from there.”
“What a headache. Madam Kwon will be under even more stress.”
“Madam Kwon” referred to his wife, Kwon So-jung—the true owner of WISE&WIRE Group.
She was currently running W&W Entertainment. A massive hit that had finished production and was only waiting for broadcast had just been overturned by a single scandal; the problem was far from small.
“It does appear that way.”
“I understand. You may leave.”
Baek Ji-woong pressed his temples as he watched Do Jung-geol’s retreating back, then picked up his phone again and sent a message to Baek Si-hwan.