Hunting (2)
Paju, at a deserted abandoned building.
It was with some effort that An Yeong-uk opened his eyes.
His mind was foggy, as though he had just come out of a sedative sleep.
His blurred vision slowly began to sharpen.
A few minutes passed before he could make out the face of a man looking down at him.
Only then did An Yeong-uk realize he was sitting in a chair.
He tried to move, but nothing happened.
When he discovered that ropes had bound his hands and feet, he stopped struggling.
Then he stared straight at the man looking down at him.
There was a deep scar carved beneath the man’s jaw.
And those cold eyes fixed on him from above.
To expect mercy would have been foolish.
“Shit... I should’ve killed you back then.”
With everything accepted at last, An Yeong-uk muttered to himself.
“It was 1.2 centimeters.”
Kang-hae spoke.
“According to the doctor, if the bullet had missed by even 1.2 centimeters, it would have hit an artery and killed me.”
“Then I’m the one who should be thanking you, huh? Heh-heh.”
An Yeong-uk’s laughter echoed low through the abandoned building.
“At first, you know, I thought about how I’d kill you. Should I set you on fire while you’re still alive? Or should I pump you full of a drug that paralyzes your nerves and cut off your limbs one by one? With the drug still in your system, you wouldn’t feel any pain. But once it wore off, the agony would hit you twice as hard.”
An Yeong-uk swallowed dryly without a word.
“Of course, I could do both.”
His tone was no different from someone weighing menu choices at a restaurant.
Kang-hae continued, “Captain An Yeong-uk. You were raised in hardship by a single mother. That’s why you applied to ROTC, isn’t it?”
“……”
“And last year, you got married too.”
“……!”
When family came up, An Yeong-uk couldn’t hold back.
“You— you fucking bastard... If you lay a hand on my family...”
He thrashed in the chair, trying to rise.
He looked like a trapped beast baring its teeth.
Kang-hae placed a hand on his shoulder and pressed down gently.
“The comrade you killed at the MDL had a family too.”
“That was...”
“An unavoidable thing?”
“……”
“Because you were given orders?”
“……”
An Yeong-uk nodded slowly.
“I had no choice either... Please... Just my family...”
Before he knew it, tears had welled in the corners of An Yeong-uk’s eyes.
“Please... I don’t care how I die... Please, just my family... Please...”
“You’re going to die, of course.”
“……”
“The question is what happens after you die.”
“After I die...? What does that mean...?”
“I’ll kill you and erase you completely from this world. Then what will happen to your family?”
“……”
“Losing a family member is a truly dreadful thing. That’s not a threat. That’s experience.”
“……”
“Once you disappear, your family will be swallowing handfuls of psychiatric medication with every meal, crushed by depression and insomnia. They’ll spend every won bit they have left running around the country looking for shamans and private investigators. Living but not really alive. Losing family is hell on earth.”
At Kang-hae’s words, tears spilled from An Yeong-uk’s eyes.
“Tell me who ordered it.”
“……”
It took a long time before An Yeong-uk finally opened his mouth.
“There’s an insurance policy taken out in my name...”
“……?”
“I know you can make it look like an accident.”
“I can.”
“If you classify it as an accidental death, I’ll tell you who ordered it.”
Kang-hae fell into thought for a moment.
Was it right to show this kind of mercy to the man who had killed Ha-jun?
But this bastard had been taking orders in the end too.
The price for killing Ha-jun wasn’t just his life, but the rest would come from the man who had given the order.
“Let’s be clear. If I find out later that you named the wrong man, I’ll kill your whole family.”
An Yeong-uk looked at Kang-hae’s face.
And he knew the words were sincere.
He nodded quickly.
“Say it.”
“The Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs. Lee Sang-woo. He’s the one who ordered it.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. I swear it. Please...”
“I’ll trust you.”
After saying that, Kang-hae took An Yeong-uk by the chin and forehead with both hands.
Then, without hesitation, he twisted An Yeong-uk’s head.
Crack—
The sound of his neck breaking rolled low through the abandoned building, and An Yeong-uk died there.
* * *
On the sloped road.
Ha Seok-jun put all his strength into his arms.
And with everything he had, he pushed the trunk of An Yeong-uk’s car.
A groan burst from Ha Seok-jun’s mouth.
“Ugh...”
After a moment, the car began inching forward.
Then it rolled off the road and down the embankment beside it.
Thud—
The instant he saw the front end crash into a massive pine tree, Ha Seok-jun collapsed onto the ground.
Then he looked up at Kang-hae, who stood there expressionless, unlike him.
That demon bastard...
While serving in the Defense Counterintelligence Command, Ha Seok-jun had handled more than a few murder cases.
But every one of them had been spontaneous.
The perpetrators hadn’t been in their right minds either.
They were half-mad with guilt, and as long as they lived, they would suffer forever.
But kidnapping a man right in front of him...
Breaking his neck without hesitation and killing him...
And then staging it as an accident...
That was the sort of thing he had only seen in films.
How the hell did I end up tangled up with a demon like that...?
While Ha Seok-jun lamented his lot in life and cursed Kang-hae under his breath, Kang-hae called out to him.
“Hey, trash.”
“Huh. Kang-hae.”
At the sound of Kang-hae’s voice, Ha Seok-jun jumped to his feet at once.
His body reacted faster than his brain.
After calling him over, Kang-hae said nothing for a while.
Locked in eye contact with him, Ha Seok-jun felt the back of his knees go weak.
Several words flashed through his mind.
Destroying evidence...?!
Hiding evidence...?!
Smashing evidence...?!
No way... It can’t be... Right? It can’t be... It has to not be...
The sound of his own heart thudding filled Ha Seok-jun’s ears.
A moment later, Kang-hae opened his mouth slowly.
What came out was far more horrifying than Ha Seok-jun had expected.
“You’re an accomplice now, you know that?”
The instant he heard those words, Ha Seok-jun lost his mind and fainted on the spot.
* * *
While Kang-hae was slapping the unconscious Ha Seok-jun’s cheeks, the officials responsible for the North-South hotline were arguing over the receiver.
The officials’ dreary, hopeless back-and-forth went on until sunrise.
But neither side wanted the matter to become an official incident, and in the end the two countries reached an agreement to announce it as a suspicious series of explosions caused by land mines washed loose by heavy rain.
* * *
On the way back to Seoul, Kang-hae took the wheel.
Ha Seok-jun was out of his mind.
He laughed like a madman, then burst into tears, then suddenly said he couldn’t breathe, opened the window, stuck his head out, and screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Aaaaagh~!!!”
After that scream, Ha Seok-jun abruptly began humming Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” for no good reason.
“Mama, I’ve just killed a man.”
“Mama, life had just begun.”
“Goodbye, everybody, I’ve got to go.”
He had tried to stay quiet as much as possible, but there was no way Kang-hae could put up with it any longer.
He rolled the window up.
“Keh— keh— keh...”
With his neck caught in the window, Ha Seok-jun thrashed wildly.
When Kang-hae lowered it again, Ha Seok-jun clutched his throat and burst into tears and snot.
“Hey, accomplice. Don’t be such a baby.”
“……”
“It’s only just beginning.”
“Only beginning...?”
Kang-hae didn’t answer.
Mom...
Suddenly, Ha Seok-jun missed his mother back home.
An hour later, Kang-hae dropped the half-mad Ha Seok-jun at the headquarters of the Defense Counterintelligence Command in Gwacheon and headed to Yongsan.
* * *
Kim Jeong-min, the section chief at the National Crisis Management Center of the Office of National Security, did not like Na Kang-hae the moment he met him.
It was partly because Kang-hae was not from the Office of National Security but had been dispatched from the Intelligence Command, but what annoyed him even more was that he had been late on his very first day.
The procedure for entering the presidential office had been far stricter than expected.
Thanks to that, Kang-hae had no choice but to be late on his first day of work.
“Mr. Na Kang-hae, being late on your first day isn’t exactly ideal, is it?”
Rather than explain the circumstances, Kang-hae simply apologized.
“I’ll let it slide since it’s your first day, but make sure you’re careful from now on.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Seong Ha-yeong.”
Kim Jeong-min called out to Seong Ha-yeong among the staff.
She was the employee who had helped Kang-hae after his discharge.
“Yes.”
“Train your replacement properly.”
“Understood.”
“What are you waiting for? Go with your senior and learn the ropes.”
Kim Jeong-min said, looking at Kang-hae, who was standing still.
“It’s urgent. I need to see the director right now.”
At Kang-hae’s words, the entire office went still.
Then, just as the saying went that if you speak of the tiger, it comes, Ko Jeong-un appeared.
People who spotted Ko Jeong-un lowered their heads.
“You’re here.”
“I have something urgent to report.”
“Come to my office.”
Ko Jeong-un led Kang-hae to his room.
Everyone else could only stand there with their mouths open, watching the two men disappear inside.
“What is it?”
Ko Jeong-un asked as he sat down.
“I’ve identified the man who shot at us.”
Ko Jeong-un’s gaze sharpened.
“Who was it?”
“Personnel from the First Division’s direct reconnaissance battalion. We dealt with one of them this morning.”
“……!”
A little earlier, Ko Jeong-un had been informed during a meeting chaired by the Director of National Security that there had been a death caused by a traffic accident, and he had thought, perhaps, that this might be related.
“Then have you identified the person who gave the order?”
“He said it was Lee Sang-woo, the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs.”
Ko Jeong-un fell silent in thought.
“I’ll handle it.”
“Not yet.”
“……?”
“There’s no solid evidence, is there?”
“It wasn’t a false confession.”
“But you killed him already.”
“……”
“I’m not criticizing what you did. But the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs can’t be dealt with that way.”
“Then why did you ask me whether I could shoot when you came to find me at the hospital?”
“……”
“I didn’t come here to put him on trial. I came here to kill him.”
At that moment, a noisy commotion sounded from outside.
A moment later, the director’s office door opened and a group of people entered.
“We’re from the Special Inspection Team of the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs.”
“What business does the Civil Affairs office have here?”
“As the Director knows, our office oversees and inspects everyone who enters the presidential office.”
“I’m aware.”
“We received a tip regarding Mr. Na Kang-hae.”
“What sort of tip?”
“Suspicion of murder.”
“Suspicion of murder?”
The National Security Office staff standing at the door began to stir.
Kang-hae reviewed the entire chain of events—kidnapping An Yeong-uk, killing him, and staging it as an accident.
There didn’t seem to be any particular problem.
Even if something suspicious turned up during the autopsy, it would take time.
There was no way they could uncover the accusation this quickly.
Don’t tell me that bastard Ha Seok-jun...?!
Kang-hae thought of Ha Seok-jun.
But from the mouth of the Civil Affairs Special Inspection Team came an unexpected name.
“The charge is that you murdered Intelligence Command operative Kim Ha-jun, who was deployed with you in Operation Storm.”
Kang-hae was dumbfounded.
They’re saying I killed Ha-jun...?