Things He Never Knew
Kang-hae overtook the ambulance carrying Lee Jun-ho.
Then, keeping just enough distance, he hit the brakes.
The ambulance driver slammed on the brakes too, but—
Crash—
the ambulance still ended up slamming into the taxi.
"That crazy bastard...!"
The ambulance driver spat out a string of curses.
There had been a few traffic accidents before, cases where an ambulance carrying a patient had ignored a light and caused a collision in the middle of a busy road.
But those usually happened on curves or at intersections.
This was the first time it had happened on a lonely stretch of road like this.
The driver sprang out of the vehicle at once.
He wanted to grab the other driver by the collar and drag him out, but the patient came first.
As a certified level-two emergency rescuer, he immediately opened the rear door and checked on the patient.
The weak pulse and breathing were no different from before the ride to the ambulance.
Fortunately, there were no signs of trauma from the accident.
"Phew..."
He let out a sigh of relief.
Then, only a few seconds after he felt a sharp pain in his neck, he lost consciousness and collapsed where he stood.
It was Kang-hae.
Kang-hae loaded the ambulance driver beneath the bed where Lee Jun-ho was lying.
Then he injected the new antidote into the IV line running into Jun-ho’s arm.
Within an hour, Jun-ho’s breathing and pulse would return to normal.
Kang-hae climbed into the driver’s seat of the ambulance.
And drove it away.
Ten minutes later.
On the shoulder of a road with no CCTV coverage.
A courier van had been parked there in advance, prepared by the CEO of Smart Fix.
Kang-hae pulled the ambulance up behind it, then transferred Lee Jun-ho from the ambulance into the van.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
An hour later.
Wonju Prison, the warden’s office.
Jeguk-pa boss Kim Seong-han realized something had gone wrong when he received a call from the chief of administration at Harmony Mental Hospital.
"So Jun-ho’s condition suddenly became critical, he was transferred to another hospital, and then he vanished?"
[Yes, Chairman. According to the ambulance driver, someone deliberately caused the collision and then knocked him out.]
"Can we trust this driver?"
[Yes. He’s worked with our hospital for over five years. He’s never once caused trouble.]
"Did anyone come by before Jun-ho was transferred?"
[Two of the employees you keep with you came by.]
"Who."
[A man named Kang Yong-sik, and someone who said he’d come from the Philippines...]
"The Philippines?"
[Yes. I was told he had returned from the Philippines.]
"And the name."
[Kim Tae-woong...? I’m not sure I remember clearly...]
"It would’ve been Kim Tae-yong."
[That’s right, Chairman.]
"How tall was that man?"
[Rather tall. He looked well over 180 centimeters.]
Impossible.
Kim Tae-yong had never cleared 170.
Someone had definitely been pretending to be him.
"I’ll call back."
After saying that, Kim Seong-han ended the call.
And suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hahahahahahaha."
The warden of Wonju Prison, sitting beside him, didn’t know how to respond and let out an awkward laugh of his own.
"Listen, Warden Kim."
"Yes, Chairman."
"It feels like I’ve lived too long."
"What do you mean by that..."
"An employee of mine, far beneath me, has betrayed me."
"Yes...? No, what kind of insane bastard would dare—"
Without a word, Kim Seong-han took out a cigarette and put it between his lips.
The warden hurriedly lit it for him.
Then he studied Kim Seong-han’s face carefully.
The smile was gone, and what remained on Kim Seong-han’s face overflowed with murderous intent.
Unwittingly, the warden swallowed hard.
He had worked at the prison for more than twenty years.
In that time, he had faced all kinds of criminals.
Perverts.
Swindlers.
Psychos.
Killers.
But he had never seen a criminal who gave off an atmosphere as vicious as Kim Seong-han’s.
What’s more, Kim Seong-han enjoyed political protection.
The previous warden had been stripped of his post for ignoring orders from above to accommodate him, and after an audit by the Correctional Service, he had even ended up in prison himself.
"I’ll need to make a little outing."
"An outing...? When, exactly..."
"Now."
"I’ll have everything prepared at once."
The warden called the prison’s dedicated physician.
Ten minutes later.
The prison doctor wrote out a certificate stating that Kim Seong-han was suspected of hypertensive heart failure.
He also added that emergency electrocardiography and an echocardiogram were required immediately.
Of course, those were tests impossible to perform at Wonju Prison.
And so Kim Seong-han left Wonju Prison in an ambulance.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The first place Kang Yong-sik headed after slipping out of Harmony Mental Hospital was the nearest emergency room.
He had betrayed the organization he’d once belonged to.
And if he wanted to stay alive, he had no choice but to hide himself.
But he couldn’t endure the pain shooting through his broken ankle.
So Kang Yong-sik stormed into the ER and shouted for painkillers.
"I’m telling you, no."
But the nurse was unyielding.
Kang Yong-sik grabbed a pair of medical scissors from the emergency room.
The nurses screamed.
And Kang Yong-sik cut off the cast Kang-hae had put on him before he went to Harmony Mental Hospital.
But the scissors didn’t work very well.
Kang Yong-sik put more force into his hands and tore the cast off.
The ankle beneath it was swollen to the point of grotesquery, mottled with bruises.
Kang Yong-sik thrust out the ankle, reeking faintly, and shouted.
"If you’ve got eyes, use them! Does that look fine to you?!"
"Even so, you can’t just demand painkillers like that."
"Then go get a doctor, I’m telling you!"
A moment later.
At the nurse’s call, the doctor who had been operating in the emergency surgery room appeared.
"What is it?"
"Shit, what were you doing that you’re only showing up now!"
Kang Yong-sik threatened the doctor as though he might strike him.
"Let me take a look. Lie down first."
Kang Yong-sik lay down on the bed.
The doctor examined the ankle from every angle.
"Aaaagh!"
Every time he did, a scream burst from Kang Yong-sik’s mouth.
"Let’s get an X-ray first."
"What X-ray? What the hell do you mean, X-ray! You’re a doctor, aren’t you? Can’t you see? Just give me the painkillers!"
"I can only prescribe after making an accurate diagnosis."
"Shit, seriously..."
"And stop making a scene. One more outburst and I’ll call the police."
"..."
After issuing that warning, the doctor ran back to the emergency surgery room.
Once he was gone, Kang Yong-sik looked at the frightened nurse and snapped, "Shit, when the hell are they taking the X-ray?"
"Please wait a little. We have a lot of emergency patients."
"Damn it, seriously..."
Kang Yong-sik looked around.
As the nurse had said, patients in grave condition were lying on the beds.
"Hoo..."
He let out a long breath.
Then he pulled out his phone and called a smuggling broker he knew.
[Oh, Mr. Kang.]
"Yes, sir."
[What’s the matter at this hour?]
"I need you to get me a boat."
[A boat? For when?]
"As soon as possible. I don’t care where it goes."
[There’s a boat leaving Busan for Japan in three days.]
"Three days? That’s too late. Don’t you have anything faster?"
[You must be in a hurry. I’ll look into it and call you back.]
"I’d really appreciate it."
Kang Yong-sik said that, then started to end the call.
But the broker called out to him.
[By the way, Mr. Kang.]
"Yes?"
[Where are you right now?]
"At a hospital."
[A hospital? Which one?]
"It’s the hospital near the outlet in Icheon..."
Right as he said that much, Kang Yong-sik shut his mouth.
Something felt wrong.
Shit, why is he asking where I am...?
This had never happened before.
Kang Yong-sik hurriedly hung up.
And just as he got to his feet and was about to head outside, the nurse called after him.
"You can go get your X-ray now."
Kang Yong-sik hesitated for a moment.
Should he leave the hospital right now?
Or should he get the X-ray and take the medication?
Then a fresh jolt of pain shot through his ankle, and in the end Kang Yong-sik headed for the X-ray room.
"Shit, let’s hurry it up, will you, come on!"
He badgered the radiographer, and he did the same after returning to the emergency room.
"It’s a bimalleolar fracture."
The ER doctor said, looking over the X-ray.
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
"The fibula on the outer side of the ankle and the tibia on the inner side are both broken."
"So, shit, are you giving me the medicine or not?"
"I’ll prescribe it for you."
The doctor said it with a look of contempt.
Normally, Kang Yong-sik would have picked a fight with a doctor like that, but there was no time.
He limped out of the ER.
Then he paid at the cashier and picked up his medicine from the in-hospital pharmacy.
The moment Kang Yong-sik got the medicine, he shoved one packet into his mouth in a frenzy.
Then he swallowed the pills without water.
Gulp.
Maybe it was just the placebo effect, but the pain in his ankle seemed to ease a little.
Kang Yong-sik limped out of the hospital again.
And there, blocking his way, was a black SUV.
The car door opened.
"Good to see you, boss!"
Without thinking, Kang Yong-sik bowed ninety degrees toward the inside of the car.
Shit, why is the boss here...!
Kim Seong-han was sitting inside.
Cold sweat broke out across Kang Yong-sik’s body.
His heart felt as if it might burst.
"Get in."
Kim Seong-han said, staring at him.
At that instant, Kang Yong-sik forgot that his ankle was even broken and ran.
But he didn’t get far before Jeguk-pa members who had gotten out of the car caught him.
"Call the police!"
Sprawled on the ground, Kang Yong-sik shouted at the people around him.
But the terrified onlookers remained where they were and did nothing.
Jeguk-pa members bound Kang Yong-sik’s arms and legs with cable ties.
And like a puppy being taken to a slaughterhouse, they loaded him into the trunk.
Only after the car glided away from the hospital did the people finally call the police.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
An abandoned factory on the outskirts of Anseong, deserted by people.
Once a lumber mill, the floor was now strewn with rotten timber and sheets of plywood.
The air stank of mold.
And Kang-hae was waiting for Lee Jun-ho, who lay sprawled on the floor, to wake up.
Thirty minutes...
An hour...
An hour and thirty minutes...
Two hours...
Jun-ho stirred.
Then slowly opened his eyes.
Kang-hae waited until he had fully come to his senses.
Another thirty minutes passed.
Then Kang-hae inspected Jun-ho’s pupils.
"Looks like you’re awake."
After saying that, Kang-hae brought down the hammer in his hand on Jun-ho’s knee.
With a thud—
"Aaaaargh!"
Jun-ho screamed.
"This time, I hope you don’t lie."
Jun-ho clutched his knee and screamed for a long time.
After the screams subsided, he was left gasping hard for breath.
"Hah, hah, hah..."
"Did my brother make cryptocurrency in Cambodia?"
Jun-ho, still panting, nodded.
"I want you to be more specific."
"Y-your brother and we were business partners..."
"Partners?"
"Y-yeah, partners."
Thud—
This time it was his thigh.
Kang-hae brought the hammer down on Jun-ho’s thigh.
"Aaaaargh!"
Jun-ho screamed again.
"I distinctly said I hoped you wouldn’t lie."
"It, it’s true...!"
"What kind of partners?"
"We commissioned him to make cryptocurrency, and your brother made it for us."
"Hard to believe."
"I-it’s really true..."
"The word partner, as I understand it, means equals. Do you really think trash like you thugs were equal to him?"
It was well known that Korean gangsters running voice phishing and illegal gambling sites in Southeast Asia often held IT specialists captive.
And in that process, crimes like assault and murder would often take place.
Would cryptocurrency experts have been any different?
Kang-hae did not believe Jun-ho.
So just as he was about to lift the hand holding the hammer again—
Jun-ho hurriedly blurted out, "Y-your brother was a technician...! B-back then, there weren’t many cryptocurrency developers! Especially not someone as skilled as your brother...! So we had no choice but to treat him well!"
It was still hard to believe.
And he didn’t want to believe it.
Kang-hae did not like the fact that his brother had worked with gangsters.
"Why the hell did those thugs make cryptocurrency?"
"W-well..."
Thud—
This time it was the back of the hand.
The metacarpal bones—the ones people call the fist bones—along with the surrounding joints, were all smashed to pieces.
Jun-ho burst into tears again as he screamed.
He panted as though he might stop breathing at any second.
"Talk."
"S-South... North Korea... because we had to do business with North Koreans..."
"What the hell would gangsters even have to trade with North Korea?"
"Drugs, damn it... The stuff from North Korea has the highest purity..."
"So you’re saying they sent money to North Korea with cryptocurrency and got the drugs in return?"
"R-right."
Kang-hae stuck a syringe into Jun-ho’s neck.
The syringe was filled with a mix of scopolamine derivatives and ketamine, the party hallucinogen.
The drug, which affected cognitive function and the autonomic nervous system, was often used by intelligence agencies to induce confessions.
He could have used it from the start.
But Kang-hae thought that would be mercy.
That was why he hadn’t used it on Jun-ho.
Still, there was one thing he needed to confirm.
A short while later.
Jun-ho’s expression began to go vacant and hazy.
"Is everything you just said the truth?"
Kang-hae’s voice was gentle now, unlike before.
And Jun-ho slowly nodded.
Kang-hae asked again.
"Then did my brother know all of that too?"
For Kang-hae, that was the most important thing.