Counterstrike (3)
Delayed at last, the National Security Office staff hurried in after Kang-hae.
"Mr. Na Kang-hae, what do you think you're doing right now?"
Kim Jeong-min, head of the Crisis Management Center at the NSO, raised his voice.
Kang-hae’s gaze remained fixed on Ko Jeong-un.
"I apologize, Director."
Kim Jeong-min bowed his head toward Ko Jeong-un.
"No matter. I have something to discuss with Sergeant Na Kang-hae. Would you all mind stepping out for a moment?"
At Ko Jeong-un’s words, the staff filed out of the room once more.
"If it was you, you wouldn’t have killed him with something as crude as cardiac arrest."
"Did you really do it, Director?"
Ko Jeong-un said nothing. He simply looked at Kang-hae.
Their eyes locked.
Kang-hae could read nothing in Ko Jeong-un’s stare.
Only after a long silence did Ko Jeong-un speak.
"No."
"Are you certain?"
"This was not something the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs could have carried out alone."
"...?"
"Not only was a national first-class secret handed to the North, but an Information Command operative returning home was gunned down by a division reconnaissance unit. This is not something the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs could have borne alone. And Lee Sang-woo is certainly not the sort of man who’d pull off something like this by himself."
"Then you’re saying there was someone else involved?"
"Yesterday, Lee Sang-woo spoke to twenty people on the phone. Nineteen of them were family members or staff working at the Presidential Office."
"Then who was the remaining one?"
"A man in his seventies whose disappearance was reported three years ago. Probably a burner phone."
"There’s no call recording?"
"Lee Sang-woo’s phone has vanished."
"...!"
"The cell tower data is being checked. For now, we wait."
Without a word, Kang-hae left the Director’s office.
The moment he stepped out, he could feel the sharp, prying stares on him.
Kang-hae didn’t avoid them.
Maybe there’s a spy here too.
With that thought, he returned to his desk.
* * *
Seoul First Hospital funeral hall.
The memorial hall for Lee Sang-woo, arranged that afternoon, had seen a steady stream of mourners.
The Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers, conglomerate chairmen, and countless politicians all came to pay their respects.
Late that night, President Kim Jin-cheol visited with his aides in tow.
Presidential Chief of Staff Yoo Jeong-hun and National Security Office Director Ko Jeong-un were with him as well.
After offering words of consolation to the bereaved family, Kim Jin-cheol moved to a restaurant the security office had prepared in advance.
"All right, let’s eat."
Lifting his spoon, Kim Jin-cheol scooped up some yukgaejang from the table and ate.
The aides followed his lead and picked up their spoons too.
When the meal was over, just as Kim Jin-cheol was about to rise from his seat, Ko Jeong-un called out to him.
"Your Excellency, I have a request."
"What is it?"
"Please persuade the family to allow an autopsy."
As the word autopsy left Ko Jeong-un’s mouth, the faces around the table darkened.
"An autopsy? What are you talking about?"
The first to react was Presidential Chief of Staff Yoo Jeong-hun.
"To make certain."
"Certain of what?"
"Whether this was murder or not."
"Hey now, Director! The Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs died of cardiac arrest! How can cardiac arrest be murder? If an autopsy is performed, what do you think the press and the public are going to say?"
"What matters more than public opinion is confirming the truth."
The two officials serving the president had come to blows.
And no one dared step into the argument.
They only watched in silence, holding their breath.
It was only after some time that President Kim Jin-cheol finally spoke.
"Director."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
"Do you have any grounds or circumstantial evidence to suspect murder?"
"No."
"Then—"
"It is purely my own speculation."
"...."
Kim Jin-cheol fell into thought.
As the chief of staff had said, if an autopsy were carried out, reporters would spin their own theories at will.
Biased YouTubers would raise conspiracy claims.
And people would follow them.
It was something they had experienced countless times over the past two years.
"Administrator Kim, please bring the family over here."
Still, Kim Jin-cheol decided to trust Ko Jeong-un.
At his order, an administrator summoned Lee Sang-woo’s family.
Once they arrived, everyone except Kim Jin-cheol went outside.
And while Kim Jin-cheol was persuading the family, Yoo Jeong-hun approached Ko Jeong-un.
"Director. Could I speak with you for a moment?"
Yoo Jeong-hun led Ko Jeong-un to the smoking area.
A few people were there, but they all knew exactly who Yoo Jeong-hun and Ko Jeong-un were.
So they put out their cigarettes and left.
After everyone had gone, Yoo Jeong-hun offered Ko Jeong-un a cigarette.
"I quit."
Yoo Jeong-hun placed one in his own mouth.
After a moment, cigarette smoke drifted into the air.
"Director."
"Go ahead."
"Do you really think this was murder?"
"I believe that is a possibility."
"Then are you suspecting me as well?"
"I keep the possibility open for everyone. Of course, that includes the Chief of Staff."
"Then are you suspecting His Excellency too?"
"I have not ruled him out entirely."
Anyone else hearing such words would have been stunned senseless, but Yoo Jeong-hun didn’t even blink.
"I know you did a great deal of work in Information Command, Director. But the Presidential Office is not the military. And it’s certainly not like Information Command, where everything is handled in secrecy."
"Continue."
"What happens in the Presidential Office is not decided by one person’s opinion alone. Nor should it be."
"...."
"I hope there won’t be another incident like today."
Yoo Jeong-hun flicked his cigarette into the ashtray and left the smoking area.
The cigarette he’d dropped was still smoldering, smoke rising from it.
Ko Jeong-un watched Yoo Jeong-hun’s receding back as he drew in the smoke, silent and unreadable.
* * *
Four days later.
The National Security Office director’s office in the Presidential Office.
Seated at his desk, Ko Jeong-un was looking over the autopsy report just issued by the National Forensic Service.
The report stated that the only substance detected was the deceased’s regular blood pressure medication and that there were no signs of foul play.
Since it had been an expected result, Ko Jeong-un felt little emotional turbulence.
He had pushed for the autopsy because some faint, lingering part of him had hoped for confirmation.
Long ago, he had learned that intelligence agencies such as the CIA in the United States, Mossad in Israel, the Ministry of State Security in China, and Japan’s Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office all used drugs capable of inducing cardiac arrest without leaving a trace.
The NIS and Information Command were no different.
Ko Jeong-un was convinced that Lee Sang-woo had died from such a drug.
But without evidence, the case remained mired in uncertainty.
For now, Ko Jeong-un resolved to deal with what lay directly in front of him.
So he called in Seong Ha-yeong and Kang-hae, who were waiting outside.
A moment later, the two entered his office.
"You called for us?"
"The two of you should go to Hong Kong."
Unlike Kang-hae, who looked puzzled, Seong Ha-yeong remained composed.
It was the face of someone who had already anticipated this might happen.
After Ko Jeong-un assumed the post of National Security Office Director, the first order he had issued was to investigate North Korea’s suspicious financial dealings.
And Seong Ha-yeong had been put in charge.
Only days earlier, she had confirmed suspicious money transfers in Hong Kong accounts held by senior North Korean officials and reported them to Ko Jeong-un.
Ko Jeong-un had reported it to Kim Jin-cheol as well.
"I can go alone."
Seong Ha-yeong was reluctant to go abroad with Kang-hae.
It wasn’t that she disliked Kang-hae. Rather, she simply didn’t think a soldier from Information Command would be of much help on this job.
"No. Sergeant Na Kang-hae will go as well."
Ko Jeong-un rejected Seong Ha-yeong’s request at once.
"Understood."
Seong Ha-yeong did not ask again.
With a brief nod, she left the office.
The moment she stepped out, Kim Jeong-min, head of the Crisis Management Center, approached her.
"Did the Director give you any orders?"
"He told Mr. Na Kang-hae and me to go on a business trip to Hong Kong."
"Hong Kong? Why Hong Kong?"
"I’m not at liberty to say."
The trip would have to be accounted for anyway, so there was no need to hide it.
But what they would be doing there was another matter entirely.
At Seong Ha-yeong’s reply, Kim Jeong-min’s face turned as cold as ice.
Ever since Ko Jeong-un had taken over as Director, Kim Jeong-min had felt that the National Security Office’s hierarchy and chain of command had broken down.
It started with the appointment itself.
He thought the very fact that a mere Army major general had been put in charge of national security was already a mistake, a break from precedent.
And that wasn’t all.
He kept making offhand remarks that rattled the president at every turn.
Because of that, Kim Jeong-min had been forced to endure the complaints of staff from other ministries.
"Hey, what the hell is wrong with your Director?"
"Your NSO is really going too far."
"Chief. You know exactly how things are with us, so why are you asking for materials from ten years ago?"
"You know your Director’s nickname these days? Walking dynamite. The moment he opens his mouth, it all turns to a disaster."
Just then, Kang-hae came out of the Director’s office.
Kim Jeong-min looked him up and down.
A man who wasn’t even part of the National Security Office, a mere temporary transfer, yet enjoyed the Director’s favor simply because he came from the Director’s former unit.
"Mr. Na Kang-hae. Come over here a second."
Kim Jeong-min called Kang-hae over to his desk.
"What is it?"
"You’re not telling me you’re going to Hong Kong too, are you?"
"I am."
Kim Jeong-min let out an exaggerated sigh, as if to make sure everyone heard it.
Heat surged inside him.
He could understand Seong Ha-yeong, but sending Na Kang-hae as well was unfair.
"Fine. Go and do your work."
Kim Jeong-min said it with his anger tightly caged.
As Kang-hae returned to his desk, Kim Jeong-min glanced over the expressions of the other staff.
They too had heard Kang-hae’s answer a moment ago.
Every one of them wore a displeased look.
For a moment, Kim Jeong-min considered walking into the Director’s office to say something, then decided against it.
He’s leaving anyway.
Kim Jin-cheol was leaving.
And so was Ko Jeong-un, whom Kim Jin-cheol had appointed.
In the end, it might be better for the future to remain on such cool, distant terms with Ko Jeong-un.
Whirrrr—
At that moment, Kim Jeong-min’s phone, lying on the desk, buzzed.
He looked down at it.
The screen showed a number saved as “2.”
The number referred to the Second Deputy Director of the National Security Office.
* * *
A high-end traditional Korean restaurant in Gwanghwamun.
"Come on, have a drink."
Park Geun-hyung, the Second Deputy Director of the National Security Office, offered alcohol to Kim Jeong-min, who sat across from him.
Kim Jeong-min quickly lifted his glass and accepted.
"I’ll pour one for you too."
As soon as he had received the drink, Kim Jeong-min picked up the bottle.
Then he poured for Park Geun-hyung and for Seo Seong-guk, who sat beside him.
"The atmosphere at the NSO has been something else lately."
It was Park Geun-hyung who said it as he accepted the drink.
It was a test of allegiance.
He was checking whether Kim Jeong-min was friend or foe.
Kim Jeong-min drank slowly.
And in that brief moment, he began to calculate.
Park Geun-hyung, the Second Deputy Director of the National Security Office, had gone to the Korea Military Academy before the current Director, Ko Jeong-un.
And Seo Seong-guk, the former Minister of National Defense sitting beside him, had even studied abroad with him at West Point during their cadet years at the academy.
After the armed provocation, Kim Jeong-min and the other NSO staff had expected Seo Seong-guk to become the next National Security Office Director.
And they believed that was exactly how it should be.
Ko Jeong-un might have the president’s trust for now, but whether that would still be true later was another question.
Rumor was already spreading through the Presidential Office that Kim Jin-cheol’s trust in Ko Jeong-un had cracked because of the autopsy issue involving the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs.
Seo Seong-guk, on the other hand, was a retired general who had served as Minister of National Defense and was one of the leading candidates in the upcoming by-election.
He would be far more useful than Ko Jeong-un, Kim Jeong-min thought.
"Deputy Director, I’m honestly very worried about the new Director."
At Kim Jeong-min’s words, Park Geun-hyung’s face brightened.
"Is that so?"
"Not just me, but all of our staff are worried."
"Then I’d like to ask Chief Kim for a little favor."
"Name it. Anything."
"From now on, could you report every single thing the Director does to me?"
"Of course."
Park Geun-hyung smiled with satisfaction and refilled Kim Jeong-min’s empty glass.
Their drinking went on until late into the night.
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