Seo Seong-guk (1)
The investigation into Tianjin Team 1 had more or less wrapped up.
The agents were back in the Armed Forces Capital Hospital, finishing the treatment they’d started there.
And Kang-hae went to see Lee Min-su.
Swish—
Lee Min-su, the leader of Tianjin Team 1, was lying in bed.
When he saw Kang-hae enter the room, he lifted one hand and said, "Oh, Masochist."
"How are you feeling?"
"As you can see."
Kang-hae studied him carefully. There was a faint bruise around his eye, and he looked gaunter than he had in Tianjin.
"I tore every ligament in my knees. They say I’ll be limping for the rest of my life."
"......"
Kang-hae fell silent, not knowing what to say.
Lee Min-su went on as if it were nothing.
"I heard."
"Heard what?"
"That idea you came up with—catch the Chinese agents who came into Korea and trade them back. You were the one who suggested it, right?"
Several days earlier, Go Jeong-un had come to see Tianjin Team 1 separately.
He had explained the whole sequence of events to them.
"Are the others all right?"
"Yeah."
"That's a relief."
"When the Chinese bastards got their hands on us, I figured that was it. Thought I was dead for sure. But here I am."
"I'm glad you made it out alive."
"Thanks to you."
"What happens to you now?"
"Who knows. My identity’s already been exposed in China, and my legs are ruined. Getting back into the field will be difficult."
As he spoke, Lee Min-su’s face carried both relief and regret.
"Aren’t you going to get revenge?"
"Hey, Masochist."
"Yes, sir."
"There’s a stone monument in front of the barracks at the Development Group. Remember?"
"Yes. I remember."
"What does it say?"
"If you bite once, you finish the job."
"Right. You have to bite. You have to finish it."
As he said it, a feral smile crept onto Lee Min-su’s face.
"If there’s anything I can do to help, I will."
"Someone else will do it for me. You won’t have to."
Kang-hae knew exactly who Lee Min-su meant, but he didn’t let it show.
"Call me after you’re discharged. I’ll come see you again."
"All right."
After bidding farewell, Kang-hae turned and walked away.
"Hey."
Just then, Lee Min-su called out to him as Kang-hae reached for the door.
Kang-hae looked back.
"Thanks."
It was a sincere thank-you.
Kang-hae gave a quiet nod and left the room.
Then he headed for the parking lot.
Seong Ha-yeong was waiting inside the parked car.
"How did it go?" she asked when Kang-hae got in.
"He’s okay."
"What condition is he in?"
"Doesn’t seem like anything major."
"That’s a relief."
"Yeah."
"What do you think will happen now?"
"I don’t think they’re going to sit still."
"Then maybe......"
"......?"
"Will you be doing something too, Kang-hae......?"
Seong Ha-yeong asked with clear concern.
She didn’t want Kang-hae dragged into anything dangerous.
"No. The seniors will probably handle it."
Hearing that, Seong Ha-yeong seemed a little relieved.
She started the car.
The radio came on with the ignition, and an anchor’s voice drifted out in conversation with a former politician.
Just as they said, Seo Seong-guk’s press conference sent the political world into convulsions.
The man who had until recently been the president’s most trusted ally had stabbed him in the back.
For the opposition, it was a gift.
Seo Seong-guk was soon being mentioned as a candidate for the opposition in the coming by-elections for the National Assembly.
After Seo Seong-guk’s press conference, the presidential office issued a rebuttal through its spokesperson.
The prosecutors’ investigation, which had been handled quietly as an internal review, was now formally underway.
But Seo Seong-guk ignored the summons to appear.
There had been no official document recording his order to leak Information Command’s intelligence to Tianjin Team 1.
So the case had to rest on testimony.
Seo Seong-guk claimed that the people giving testimony were lying under pressure from the presidential office.
And because the matter was so sensitive, nothing could be laid bare completely.
Public opinion gradually shifted further and further in his favor, with more and more people insisting he was being wronged.
Then the anchor’s voice on the radio turned urgent.
Before she even knew it, Seong Ha-yeong let out a shout.
"What the hell......!"
Kang-hae kept his expression under control, but he could tell something was terribly wrong.
He took out his phone, searched for Seo Seong-guk on YouTube, and played the latest video.
Kang-hae turned off the phone.
Seong Ha-yeong had been watching the video too, and her face was shocked stiff.
"This has gone too far."
"Let’s wait and see for now."
Kang-hae didn’t think the Information Command seniors would be able to move easily if they wanted revenge.
The next day.
The Liberty Korea Party held a press conference demanding the truth, and hardline supporters gathered in front of the presidential office to protest.
Public anger boiled over.
The presidential office was in emergency mode, and the National Security Office was busier than ever.
Then Go Jeong-un called Kang-hae in separately.
Knock, knock—
"You wanted to see me?"
"Statements have come in from internal NIS personnel."
"What is it?"
"They say Seo Seong-guk issued the order directly to the head of the NIS Northeast Asia intelligence operations division."
"Then isn’t it all over now?"
"Not long ago, the division chief, Ahn Hyun-beom, was repatriated from China and interrogated by the prosecution."
Kang-hae already knew that much.
"But they say he disappeared last night."
"......?"
"The NIS seems reluctant to go after one of their own. Even when the higher-ups order them to arrest him, the people below are dragging their feet."
"......"
"So you’ll have to catch him."
"Understood."
"His name is Ahn Hyun-beom. He’s probably got the recording file Seo Seong-guk ordered. We need to find him."
"Understood."
After leaving the director’s office, Kang-hae went straight to Seong Ha-yeong.
It happened to be lunchtime.
As he ate with Seong Ha-yeong, he told her about the order he had just received from Go Jeong-un.
"So the key player is a division chief in the NIS intelligence operations bureau."
"That seems to be the case."
The prosecution and NIS inspection team had been investigating the chain of events.
Former NIS Director Seo Seong-guk had ignored the chain of command and ordered the chief of the NIS strategic assets management team, who oversaw NIS black operations, to leak Information Command’s intelligence.
The strategic assets management chief then passed that order to Ahn Hyun-beom, head of the NIS Northeast Asia intelligence operations division.
And the Northeast Asia division carried it out.
Everyone involved was being investigated.
Ahn Hyun-beom, the head of the NIS Northeast Asia intelligence operations division, who had been in China, had also been repatriated to Korea.
And after being interrogated once by the NIS inspection team and once by the prosecution, he disappeared.
If they found him, they could set Seo Seong-guk’s lie straight.
"Do you think that Northeast Asia chief...... might already be dead......?"
"It’s possible."
"......"
Kang-hae thought of the NIS employee who had told Tianjin Team 3 leader Jo Seong-jun about it and then died in Tianjin.
Ahn Hyun-beom might well be dead too.
"For now, we need to find Ahn Hyun-beom."
Seong Ha-yeong looked at Kang-hae with worried eyes.
And as always, there was no trace of fear on Kang-hae’s face.
"Hey, Kang-hae."
"Yes?"
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"......?"
Kang-hae looked at her without saying anything.
"If you think about it, setting Seo Seong-guk’s lie straight is something the National Security Office should be doing too."
And of course, that wasn’t the only reason.
Seong Ha-yeong simply didn’t want to leave Kang-hae alone in a dangerous place.
"Then......"
"......?"
"If anything dangerous comes up, you step away."
"Deal."
Seong Ha-yeong nodded with solemn determination.
* * *
Residential neighborhood, Hanam, Gyeonggi Province.
Jo Su-mi, the wife of Ahn Hyun-beom, head of the NIS Northeast Asia intelligence operations division, stood in front of the apartment complex, holding the hand of her five-year-old daughter.
After a moment, a yellow kindergarten bus appeared.
"Mom, I’m off."
The little girl climbed aboard after saying goodbye to Jo Su-mi, and Jo Su-mi smiled and waved as the bus pulled away.
Still, there was a shadow hanging over her face.
As the bus carrying her daughter drove off, Jo Su-mi turned to head back toward the apartment entrance.
"Mrs. Jo Su-mi."
Someone called her name.
Jo Su-mi turned around.
A beautiful woman in her mid-twenties was walking toward her.
"Who are you......?"
"I’m Seong Ha-yeong, from the Crisis Management Center at the National Security Office."
Seong Ha-yeong offered her a business card, but the other woman exploded in irritation.
"I told you, I don’t know anything!"
Since Ahn Hyun-beom disappeared, the police and prosecution had come to her several times.
Two days earlier, the prosecution had even shown up with a search warrant and torn the house apart.
They’d taken her phone.
"Could we talk for a moment?"
"How would I know where my husband went?! I don’t know either!"
She kept snapping back, increasingly on edge.
"Then I’ll ask just one thing."
"I’ve got nothing to say. Go away."
"I’m here because I’m worried about you and your daughter, Mrs. Jo."
At the mention of her daughter, Jo Su-mi’s expression darkened.
"I’m not here about your husband, Ahn Hyun-beom. I came to tell you that you and your daughter may be in danger."
"......!"
Fear flashed over Jo Su-mi’s face.
"Have any strange people come around lately?"
"I don’t know...... Until a few days ago, the police and prosecutors were coming around, but......"
"Then have there been any suspicious things at night? A doorbell ringing? A porch light coming on? Any strange vehicles?"
Jo Su-mi searched her memory.
Then she shook her head, close to tears.
"I don’t know. I can’t remember very well......"
"If anything suspicious happens, call me right away. Our people are standing by in the area."
Jo Su-mi immediately began looking around.
Her eyes swept over the parked vehicles nearby.
Then she took the business card Seong Ha-yeong had offered.
"Don’t worry too much."
"Thank you......"
Her irritability had already changed into gratitude.
At that same time, Kang-hae went to meet the president of SmartFix.
After once nearly being killed by Kang-hae when he’d taken orders from former chief secretary Yoo Jeong-hun and tried to kill Go Jeong-un, he had moved his office from Itaewon to Daerim-dong.
When he saw Kang-hae appear at the office, he turned pale with fear.
"What brings you here......?"
"You moved."
"Yes. Just in case......"
The president had helped Kang-hae investigate the Imperial Faction and handled a few jobs in the process, and he worried they might retaliate.
So he’d moved offices.
"Still working these days?"
"I’m only doing people-finding jobs now. There’s so much infidelity these days. Haha."
Kang-hae stared at him without speaking, and the terrified man started babbling before being asked anything.
"Business is so bad these days, isn’t it? So I help people who’ve been stiffed on their money, taking the money back for them. And school violence is a huge mess right now, right? So I go after the perpetrators on behalf of students who’ve been hurt by school bullying, pretending to be their uncle and giving those bastards a scare. That’s all I do. I swear. I’m absolutely not doing anything like I used to."
"Really?"
"Yes! Really. Please believe me."
"No."
"Yes......? What do you mean, no......?"
"You’re going to do the old work again."
"The old work would be......?"
"Killing people."
"......?!"
"A woman in her thirties, a housewife, and a five-year-old girl."
As he spoke, Kang-hae set two photographs on the table.
They were pictures of Ahn Hyun-beom’s wife and daughter.
"You’re serious......?"
"Yeah. Get ready as fast as you can."
"......"
The SmartFix president was thrown by the sudden murder request.
He wondered if Kang-hae was testing him.
"As fast as you can."
Kang-hae said it, staring him down.
Before he knew it, the man answered.
"Y-yes, sir!"
"Call me when you’re ready."
"Yes."
With that, Kang-hae left the office.