Traitor (3)
"You don’t need to worry about Mirae Construction, Your Excellency."
Yoo Jeong-hun raised his voice again as he spoke.
Last night, Yoo Jeong-hun had met with reporters and handed them a dossier full of corruption tied to Mirae Construction, whose CEO was Kim Jin-cheol’s second son.
"Don’t worry? You’ve already done the damage, and now you’re saying that?!"
Kim Jin-cheol’s shout spilled out beyond the presidential chief of staff’s office.
But Yoo Jeong-hun only wore an easy, unruffled look.
"The opposition will surely demand a special prosecutor and make a scene……!"
"The opposition floor leader, Jeong Young-su, was the Minister of Land and Transport at the time. Have you forgotten?"
"……."
"Not only Jeong Young-su, but other opposition lawmakers on the Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Committee also took money from Mirae Construction. You know that very well, Your Excellency."
"……."
"The opposition won’t be the one to push for a special prosecutor."
"Then the media? Do you really think the prosecution can just ignore demands for a reinvestigation?"
"You still have more than three years left in your term. The prosecution will never bare its claws."
If public opinion boiled over, the prosecution would be forced to investigate in some halfhearted way.
But the material Yoo Jeong-hun had given the reporters mixed truth with lies.
In the end, it would all dissolve into noise, and nothing would come of it.
Yoo Jeong-hun was confident he could make that happen.
Confident he could control the prosecution, too.
But he did not tell Kim Jin-cheol that part.
He needed a chain around Kim Jin-cheol’s neck.
Knock, knock, knock—
At that moment, a knock sounded at the door.
The presidential chief of staff’s door opened, and a presidential aide stepped inside.
"Didn’t I just tell you to leave?!"
Kim Jin-cheol bellowed at him.
The aide bowed in flustered apology.
"I’m sorry, Your Excellency. It’s urgent."
"What is it."
"National Intelligence Service Director Oh Ji-hoon was found dead early this morning."
"……!"
Kim Jin-cheol looked at Yoo Jeong-hun.
The question in his eyes was plain enough: Was this your doing?
Rather than meet his gaze, Yoo Jeong-hun looked at the aide and asked, "How did he die?"
"The police are treating it as a traffic accident."
"The location?"
"Near Gungpyeong Port in Hwaseong City."
Kim Jin-cheol pressed a hand to his forehead.
Since yesterday, far too many things had been happening.
Without his even realizing it.
"Go on out for now."
Kim Jin-cheol sent the aide away.
And as soon as the aide was gone, he turned on Yoo Jeong-hun.
"Was that you?"
He needed to be sure.
"No, Your Excellency."
"How am I supposed to believe that?"
"You already know I’ve had people killed, don’t you?"
"……?"
"A man like me has no need to lie again, does he?"
Yoo Jeong-hun no longer bothered to hide his true face.
Then, looking at Kim Jin-cheol, who stood there dazed, he said, "Please don’t worry. I’ll handle it myself. Like I always have."
The words like I always have stung Kim Jin-cheol’s pride, and he clenched his fist.
Yoo Jeong-hun ignored his reaction.
Then he spoke again.
"And there is one thing you’ll need to do for me, Your Excellency."
* * *
The NIS conference room.
The First, Second, and Third Deputy Directors, the head of the Planning and Coordination Office, and the directors of each department were all seated in the room.
But there was no sign of anyone mourning the director’s death.
It only made plain what kind of reputation Oh Ji-hoon had inside the NIS.
"I received a call from the Presidential Office a moment ago. I’ve been instructed to act as director until the new one arrives."
First Deputy Director Cha Tae-yeon said.
The other deputy directors were reluctant, but they could not defy an order handed down from the Presidential Office.
So naturally, it was Cha Tae-yeon who took the lead in the meeting.
"Inspector General. What is the current situation?"
"Yes, Deputy Director. The body has been transferred to a nearby hospital, and our investigators arrived at the scene an hour ago."
"Any unusual findings?"
"There are said to be signs of damage to the driver’s seat in the director’s vehicle."
"Damage?"
"We need to look closer, but according to the investigator at the scene, it appears to have been caused by a weapon."
At the Inspector General’s words, the room stirred.
Everyone had assumed he died in a simple traffic accident.
But now that even the smallest suspicious detail had come to light, they could not simply let it go.
Separate from whether they liked the NIS director or not, the agency’s honor was on the line.
Most of the people gathered there had spent their entire lives loyal to the organization called the National Intelligence Service.
If someone had murdered the director, it was an attack on the NIS itself.
* * *
Seong Ha-yeong had been taking calls since the early hours of dawn.
The phone never stopped ringing, from reporters she knew to employees working in the Presidential Office.
Everyone wanted to know about the allegations of corruption surrounding the president.
And Seong Ha-yeong had to repeat the same answer again and again.
That she didn’t know anything.
Awakened like that, she took a shower and began getting ready for work a little earlier than usual.
Then, while riding the bus to the office, she checked the breaking news headlines on a portal site.
- NIS Director Oh Ji-hoon found dead early this morning
The moment she saw the article, Seong Ha-yeong shut her eyes tight.
The thing she had feared had finally happened.
After getting off the bus, Seong Ha-yeong broke into a run toward the Presidential Office without thinking.
And as soon as she reached the National Security Office, she went looking for Kang-hae.
But Kang-hae still hadn’t arrived at work.
Seong Ha-yeong waited anxiously for him.
Twenty minutes later, Kang-hae finally appeared at the National Security Office.
"Kang-hae, I need to talk to you."
As soon as he arrived, Seong Ha-yeong led him to an empty conference room.
Click.
The moment they stepped inside, she lowered the blinds.
Then, in a hushed voice, she asked, "The NIS director who died early this morning…… don’t tell me you did it……?"
She wanted him to say no, more than anything.
"Yes."
But Kang-hae didn’t.
"What on earth are you thinking!"
"He was a man who deserved to die."
"Even so! That doesn’t mean you can just go around killing people……!"
Seong Ha-yeong stared at him.
There wasn’t the slightest flicker of emotion on Kang-hae’s face.
For a brief instant, she wondered if he might be like some deranged villain from a superhero comic, so consumed by a twisted sense of conviction that he had mistaken himself for a hero.
If not that, then maybe he was just a psychopath addicted to killing.
But then she remembered how he had stayed with Jo Gwang-il, one of the 35th Bureau agents, until the very end in Macau, and how he had spared the twin assassin sisters who had come from Macau.
She shook her head.
"Do you always think you’re right, Kang-hae?"
"I only killed a man who killed people."
At that, Seong Ha-yeong glanced around.
Even though she knew she and Kang-hae were the only ones in the conference room.
She still worried someone might have overheard them.
"That doesn’t make it right."
"If you think it isn’t right, then do what you believe is right, Ha-yeong."
"Do you think I won’t report you?"
"That wasn’t what I meant."
While Seong Ha-yeong looked at Kang-hae in troubled silence, the conference room door opened.
The person who entered was an employee of the National Security Office.
"Mr. Na Kang-hae, the director is looking for you."
Kang-hae left the conference room without a word and headed for the director’s office.
Knock, knock.
After knocking once, he stepped inside to find Ko Jeong-un seated behind his desk.
"You called for me?"
"Are you planning to kill the presidential chief of staff as well?"
"I believe I have to."
"Even if I object?"
"It can’t be helped."
"Then I’d have no choice but to report you as the man who killed the NIS director."
"Even if I went to prison, nothing would change."
"What do you mean by that?"
"No matter how long it takes, I’ll do it anyway."
"So in the end, you intend to kill Yoo Jeong-hun."
"Of the people who took part in Operation Storm, only Ha-jun is buried at the National Cemetery. The seniors who died in the North were never even given a proper grave. They were probably put on display in front of some People’s Army unit."
Ko Jeong-un fell silent.
As Kang-hae had guessed, the bodies of the intelligence command agents who had taken part in Operation Storm had been brutally mutilated by the Korean People’s Army.
But Ko Jeong-un had not told him that, fearing the shock might be too much for him.
Knock, knock.
At that moment, a knock sounded at the door.
The employee who had summoned Kang-hae entered.
"U-um, Director."
"What is it?"
"The President is asking for you."
"Now?"
"Yes, he wants you there immediately."
"Understood."
After the staff member left—
"We will continue this later."
Ko Jeong-un said that and left the director’s office.
The place where Kim Jin-cheol had summoned Ko Jeong-un was not the president’s private office, but a conference room.
And there, besides Kim Jin-cheol, were Yoo Jeong-hun, the judicial secretary, and the special inspector.
Ko Jeong-un exchanged brief nods with the others, excluding Yoo Jeong-hun, then said to Kim Jin-cheol, "I understand you asked for me."
"Please, sit down first."
Once Ko Jeong-un took his seat, Yoo Jeong-hun, sitting opposite him, slid a single sheet of paper across the table.
"What is this?"
"Director Ko. At this morning’s senior secretaries’ meeting, the matter of an inspection related to the National Security Office’s recent work came up. This is the formal notice."
That—what Yoo Jeong-hun had told Kim Jin-cheol he needed to do—was this.
"On what grounds am I being inspected?"
Rather than Yoo Jeong-hun, it was the judicial secretary who answered.
"Recently, an intelligence command agent and a National Security Office employee dispatched from the National Security Office, along with a counterintelligence command soldier, were sent on a business trip to Hong Kong and Macau, correct?"
"Yes."
"Yesterday, you met with John Smith, the CIA chief for East Asia, at the Four Seasons Hotel near Gwanghwamun."
"That’s right."
"And the personnel who were on that trip made contact with CIA agents in Hong Kong."
"Yes."
"There are a few matters here that need to be confirmed."
"What matters?"
"The release of diplomatic secrets."
"Diplomatic secrets……."
Ko Jeong-un barely swallowed the bitter laugh threatening to escape him.
Then he stared straight at Yoo Jeong-hun.
Yoo Jeong-hun showed no expression at all.
The judicial secretary spoke again.
"As of this moment, your duties as director are suspended. Naturally, you are also barred from accessing the inside of the National Security Office, and you are not to contact any of its employees."
Ko Jeong-un turned to look at Kim Jin-cheol.
Kim Jin-cheol averted his eyes.
Earlier that morning, when the corruption allegations involving Kim Jin-cheol broke in the press, Ko Jeong-un had wondered if this whole scheme might be Yoo Jeong-hun’s work.
But he had not imagined Kim Jin-cheol would back down so easily.
"Then please come with me to the inspection office."
The special inspector rose from his seat and said, "Let’s go."
Ko Jeong-un also stood, following the special inspector.
And for one very brief moment, he saw the corner of Yoo Jeong-hun’s mouth rise and then fall.
In that instant, the blood of a man who had spent thirty years as a soldier began to boil.
And Ko Jeong-un made up his mind.
Yoo Jeong-hun had to die.
At the same time,
the Presidential Office inspection team stormed into the National Security Office.
It was before Ko Jeong-un had even left the presidential conference room.
Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong had no choice but to go straight to the inspection team’s interrogation room.
And the Second Deputy Director of the National Security Office was placed in charge as acting director.
It was like a coup that had been prepared in advance.
---