Counterattack (2)
“No, seriously, I’m telling you, you can’t.”
The man blocking Seong Ha-yeong’s way at the hospital was the head of administration at Saengmyeong Hospital, a man in his midforties.
“Then let me at least speak to the autopsy physician or someone from pathology.”
Seong Ha-yeong pleaded with him earnestly.
But the administrator recited the manual as though he had been expecting exactly this sort of thing.
“An autopsy requires the family’s consent and a warrant. So how do you expect us to hand over autopsy materials when you come in here demanding them like this?”
The business card bearing the National Security Office logo that Seong Ha-yeong had presented meant nothing to him, either.
I… really didn’t want to have to say this.
At last, Seong Ha-yeong made up her mind to pull out the card she had been saving for an emergency.
“You saw my card just now, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Next month, that card will be different.”
“……?”
“Not the National Security Office. The Ministry of Health and Welfare.”
“……!”
“I’ve already been assigned there.”
The moment the words Ministry of Health and Welfare left Seong Ha-yeong’s mouth, the administrator’s face stiffened.
Seong Ha-yeong felt a twinge of guilt, but what mattered right now was securing the tampered evidence.
“You remember the investigation last year, when the urology and neurosurgery professors here were caught taking kickbacks from Daeseong Pharmaceutical, don’t you?”
“…….”
Last year, Saengmyeong Hospital had been thrown into chaos by the kickback investigation involving its professors.
The hospital had conducted its own internal inquiry, and it had confirmed that not only the urology and neurosurgery departments, but also nephrology, family medicine, infectious diseases, and hematology-oncology had all been directly or indirectly implicated.
As unfortunate as it was, the hospital had moved quickly to erase the evidence.
Because of that, only the urology and neurosurgery professors had actually been investigated.
“You know how things are these days, right? The Ministry of Health and Welfare and doctors aren’t exactly on the best terms.”
“…….”
“And the ministry’s itching to catch anything it can. So naturally, wouldn’t they start by looking into repeat offenders?”
“…….”
When he heard about that trick investigators used to pad their numbers, the administrator’s face went pale.
The nightmare of last year came rushing back into his head.
He never wanted to go through another prosecutorial raid like the one he had only seen in movies and dramas.
Of course, from the hospital’s point of view, the doctors’ kickbacks had been unfair in their own way.
How could anyone possibly check every private payment the physicians received from pharmaceutical companies?
But the damage the hospital had to bear was enormous, too.
After last year’s kickback scandal, audits had become far more severe, and the hospital’s evaluation score had been cut as well.
Several long-running projects had also been thrown off course.
“How can I help you with this?”
What Seong Ha-yeong said to the frightened administrator was honey-sweet.
In the end, the administrator led her to pathology.
“Director Jin Seong-jun is on vacation right now, so…”
A rookie nurse in her mid-twenties said awkwardly, lingering on the spot.
“Since when?”
“Since the day after the last autopsy…”
“Has he done this before?”
“…….”
Not knowing whether she should answer, the nurse looked toward the administrator.
The administrator gave a short nod.
“No… this is the first time…”
Something about it felt suspicious.
Still, his absence would probably make it easier to secure the evidence.
“The bullet that came out of Kim Ha-jun’s body after the autopsy—where is it?”
“That would be in the medical waste storage…”
“Where is the storage room?”
“In the basement.”
Seong Ha-yeong immediately sprinted downstairs.
The medical waste storage room was divided by section into isolated medical waste, hazardous medical waste, and general medical waste.
She asked the pathology nurse who had followed her which section it was in.
“General.”
The shelves holding general medical waste were stacked with dozens of boxes.
Seong Ha-yeong pulled on a pair of rubber gloves from the storage room.
“You’re not seriously going to dig through all of that, are you?”
The administrator nearly lost his mind, but Seong Ha-yeong didn’t hesitate. She started rifling through the boxes.
Her gloved hands moved unflinchingly through gauze stained with blood and bundles of diapers.
Now and then, used needles classified as hazardous waste came tangled up with the rest.
A foul stench began to spread through the storage room.
The administrator and the nurse pinched their noses, grimacing.
By the time she reached the fifth box, Seong Ha-yeong felt something hard and metallic beneath her fingertips.
Even through the rubber gloves, she knew what it was.
A bullet.
* * *
The Civil Affairs Secretariat Office at the Presidential Office.
Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Lee Sang-woo was looking over papers prepared by his aides.
“Ugh…”
A groan, half sigh and half complaint, escaped from Lee Sang-woo’s mouth.
The president’s approval rating still hadn’t recovered after the Panmunjom summit.
Knock, knock—
At that moment, there was a knock, and an aide came in.
“What is it?”
“Sir, the Director of the National Security Office is here to see you.”
Ko Jeong-un appeared behind the aide.
Lee Sang-woo sprang to his feet and greeted him in a hurry.
“Oh, Director. You should’ve called for me—I’d have come to you. Please, come in.”
His manner was infinitely deferential.
Ko Jeong-un sat down wordlessly on the sofa in the reception area.
“What brings you here, Director?”
Lee Sang-woo asked as he took the seat opposite him.
Without a word, Ko Jeong-un took three bullets from his pocket.
They were the ones Seong Ha-yeong had handed him after returning to the Presidential Office moments ago.
Like a man tossing chips into a casino table, Ko Jeong-un flicked the bullets onto the glass top.
Clang, clang, clang—
The sound of the metal bullets striking the glass echoed through the room.
“And this is…?”
“Bullets. Ammunition, if you prefer.”
“I mean, what exactly are you—”
“They were recovered from the body of an Intelligence Command operative who was shot at the MDL recently.”
“…….”
“Right now, one of our staff members is being investigated by the Civil Affairs Secretariat’s special inspection team over fabricated evidence. And this,” he said, tapping the bullets, “is evidence that the fabricated evidence was fabricated.”
“An investigation? This is the first I’m hearing of it.” Lee Sang-woo put on a startled look and denied everything.
“You’re telling me the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs doesn’t know about an investigation being conducted in the Civil Affairs Secretariat?”
“I’ve granted the special inspection team independence, you see. To put it in military terms, I suppose you could call it acting first and reporting later.”
Then Lee Sang-woo raised his voice and called for the aide waiting outside.
The aide standing by outside hurried in.
“Assistant Kim. Is our special inspection team investigating right now?”
The aide, who had reported on the special inspection team’s status barely an hour earlier, was taken aback.
But he didn’t let it show.
“I’ll check right away.”
Lee Sang-woo thought to himself that the aide was rather useful.
The aide went back out, stood at the door, counted thirty seconds in his head, and then returned to the Civil Affairs Secretariat Office.
“Sir. The special inspection team is currently investigating an Intelligence Command officer dispatched to the National Security Office.”
“What?! Even if I give the investigators independence, that’s something they should have reported to me! Tell them to come to my office right now!”
“Yes, sir.”
Shortly afterward, Lee Jin-gyu came to the Civil Affairs Secretariat.
Lee Sang-woo shouted as soon as he came in.
“You idiot! Who told you to investigate a National Security Office employee on your own?”
“…….”
Lee Jin-gyu was left speechless by the outburst.
And the instant he spotted Ko Jeong-un seated opposite Lee Sang-woo,
he knew something had gone wrong.
Shit…
While Lee Jin-gyu bowed his head in silence, Lee Sang-woo inclined his own toward Ko Jeong-un across from him.
“Director. I’m truly sorry. One of my people made a serious mistake.”
“Was it truly a mistake?”
“It seems one low-level employee let his own hunger for recognition get ahead of him. I’ll make sure appropriate action is taken.”
“Then what about our staff member?”
“We’ll stop the investigation and pull him back immediately.”
The moment Lee Sang-woo finished speaking, Ko Jeong-un rose to his feet.
Lee Sang-woo walked him all the way to the door.
And after Ko Jeong-un disappeared, Lee Sang-woo turned to Lee Jin-gyu.
Unlike before, his expression was freezing cold.
“You should’ve handled it properly.”
The moment he heard those words, Lee Jin-gyu realized it.
He had just been cut loose.
I busted my ass to get this far, and now this bastard—
The road back down seemed endless.
Lee Jin-gyu dropped to his knees.
“Sir, please. Just one more chance.”
“Get out.”
Lee Jin-gyu did not rise.
In the end, he had to be dragged out by the aides Lee Sang-woo called in.
And after even Lee Jin-gyu had been hauled out of the room,
Lee Sang-woo let out a deep sigh and took off his suit jacket.
His shirt was damp with sweat.
That bastard Ko Jeong-un…
Lee Sang-woo understood now.
Ko Jeong-un was holding a knife to his throat.
And that he had not yet sheathed it.
Lee Sang-woo took out his phone and called someone.
The other party answered only after a long while.
[I told you not to call me while I’m working.]
“Ah, well, it’s just that it’s a very urgent matter…”
[What is it?]
“It seems the Director of the National Security Office has found something.”
[…….]
“We’ll need to take some kind of action on our end.”
[Understood.]
“Yes. Go ahead.”
After ending the call, Lee Sang-woo took out a cigarette and lit it.
For some reason, he had the uneasy feeling that something bad was about to happen.
* * *
The person who came to fetch Kang-hae from the interrogation room was Seong Ha-yeong.
After leaving the interrogation room with Kang-hae, Seong Ha-yeong headed straight for the first-floor lobby.
“Go home now.”
“My work hours aren’t over yet.”
“It’s Director Ko’s order.”
Ko Jeong-un had given the order separately, knowing that if Kang-hae came back to the National Security Office, people would start gossiping about him.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow.”
After greeting Seong Ha-yeong, Kang-hae left the Presidential Office.
Then, instead of heading back to the goshiwon where he lived, he made for Pyeongchang-dong.
It was the neighborhood where Civil Affairs Secretary Lee Sang-woo lived.
Kang-hae walked around the area surrounding Lee Sang-woo’s house, carefully checking the positions of the CCTV cameras and the height of the stone wall.
By evening, security service vehicles were making patrol rounds.
Kang-hae recorded the times they passed by.
After midnight, a government sedan pulled up in front of Lee Sang-woo’s house.
Lee Sang-woo, drunk and unsteady on his feet, got out of the car.
Supported by his driver, he staggered into the house.
And from far away, Kang-hae watched him.
Not yet.
A week.
No, four days would be enough, he thought.
Enough to map out the area around Lee Sang-woo’s house.
If he really wanted to, he could kill Lee Sang-woo right now.
Climbing the wall and subduing Lee Sang-woo’s family and the housekeeper would be nothing.
But there would certainly be traces left behind in the process.
He couldn’t allow that.
Kang-hae still had more trash to kill after Lee Sang-woo was dead.
He had to be careful about killing Lee Sang-woo.
Four days from now, Kang-hae resolved to kill him without leaving a single trace behind and turned back toward the goshiwon.
* * *
The next morning.
Large numbers of reporters had gathered in front of the Presidential Office.
On his way to work, Kang-hae stopped when he heard the reporters speaking into their microphones.
“This is truly heartbreaking news. Early this morning, Senior Secretary Lee Sang-woo passed away of cardiac arrest. While the Presidential Office has yet to release an official statement, President Kim Jin-cheol is expected to pay his respects as soon as a funeral hall is prepared.”
“The deceased had long suffered from cardiovascular disease and is said to have been under severe strain recently because of North Korea’s military provocations and the personnel vetting process.”
“Even opposition lawmakers who had been at odds with the Presidential Office posted tributes to the deceased on social media.”
“The deceased previously served as Vice Minister of Justice and was also the National Defense Committee secretary during the last National Assembly.”
There was no way, Kang-hae thought.
It shouldn’t have happened like this.
He should not have died from something as trivial as cardiac arrest.
Lee Sang-woo, who had ordered Ha-jun to be shot, was the kind of man who deserved to die writhing in agony.
Kang-hae pushed past the reporters blocking the entrance.
Then he headed for the National Security Office.
The staff who had already arrived were talking about Lee Sang-woo’s death.
Kang-hae passed them without a word and went straight to the Director of National Security’s office, yanking the door open.
Before anyone could stop him.
Ko Jeong-un, who had arrived before Kang-hae, was seated at his desk.
Looking at him, Kang-hae asked, “Director. Was this you?”