Cooperation (2)
Lee Seo-natsuki could not say a word.
“As you know, our official schedule ends today. We’ll be leaving soon. Until then, I’ll be waiting for your call.”
With that, Kang-hae left the café.
He went straight back to the hotel and called Seong Ha-yeong out to the front.
The two of them walked near the hotel, talking as they went.
“That interpreter was one of the National Intelligence Investigation Office agents.”
“I see.”
Seong Ha-yeong didn’t look especially surprised.
The moment she saw Kang-hae suggesting they have tea together, the Chamber of Commerce staff who had come on the trip with them had started whispering that he was making a move on her.
But Seong Ha-yeong had known he was about to start something dangerous.
“Can you change the plane ticket back to Korea?”
“The date?”
“Yes.”
“That shouldn’t be difficult.”
“Then you and the other staff should head home as soon as possible.”
“What about you, Kang-hae?”
“Book me a ticket for tomorrow afternoon.”
“So you’ll be going back tomorrow afternoon too?”
“No. I probably won’t be able to leave tomorrow afternoon.”
“……”
Seong Ha-yeong looked at him with concern.
“Don’t worry too much.”
“Take care of yourself, Kang-hae.”
Kang-hae gave an awkward smile.
After that, the two of them returned to the hotel room, and Seong Ha-yeong changed the return flight exactly as he had asked.
* * *
Tokyo, Chiyoda Ward. Headquarters of the Japanese Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office.
Satoh Haruto, who had been staying at a safe house on the outskirts of Tokyo, returned to headquarters at once and went looking for his direct superior, Hirasawa Shuichi.
“I have an urgent report.”
“What is it?”
Satoh Haruto told him about the proposal Kang-hae had made, and Hirasawa Shuichi stared back in surprise.
“Is that really true?! He’ll hand over the National Intelligence Service black team roster?!”
“Yes, sir.”
“And the condition is that we let him meet Lee Jeong-tae.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you’re sure he’s from the Information Command?”
“According to him, the security on his file was locked down. At first I thought it was because he was a National Security Office employee, but there’s no record of any communications or financial transactions over the last five years.”
“Hmm……”
Hirasawa Shuichi fell silent for a moment.
“Accept the offer.”
He decided to take Kang-hae up on it.
“But something about it is suspicious.”
“What exactly is suspicious?”
“Not any other condition, but asking us to let him meet Lee Jeong-tae just seems…”
But Satoh Haruto couldn’t finish.
It was suspicious, yes, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why.
“You can speak Korean, can’t you?”
“Yes. A little.”
“Then call him right now.”
“Now?”
“Yes, right now.”
Satoh Haruto did as he was told and called Kang-hae.
He already had Kang-hae’s phone number.
The ring sounded briefly.
[Is this the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office?]
Kang-hae’s voice came through.
“That’s right.”
[What are you going to do?]
“Before that, I have a few questions.”
[Go ahead.]
“Why do you want to meet Lee Jeong-tae?”
[That’s none of your business.]
“Then we can’t accept your offer.”
[Then so be it.]
Click.
The line went dead.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
Hirasawa Shuichi shouted.
“We can’t just agree to that offer on the spot. He’s clearly up to something!”
Satoh Haruto didn’t back down either.
Hirasawa Shuichi lowered his voice and said, “Those Chosŏn bastards are full of grudges and jealousy. They’ve always been small-minded.”
Satoh Haruto stared at his superior, who had suddenly started spouting nonsense.
“A month ago, Korean Information Command operatives were arrested in Tianjin, China.”
“I know that.”
“The ones who handed them over to the MSS were the National Intelligence Service.”
“……?!”
Satoh Haruto knew that Korean Information Command agents had been arrested in Tianjin, but he hadn’t known the National Intelligence Service had leaked the information.
“He said he was from Information Command.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So he’s taking revenge. Information Command is trying to settle its score with the National Intelligence Service.”
That was Hirasawa Shuichi’s conclusion, and Satoh Haruto’s mind became tangled with it.
No matter how bad the relationship between the National Intelligence Service and Information Command might be, it was hard to believe they’d actually turn their guns on each other.
Then one of the agents monitoring the Korean team reported that the flight departure date had been moved up.
And that Kang-hae alone still had a different date.
“Ha! His intentions are written all over his face.”
Satoh Haruto agreed with his superior’s assessment.
Moving the return date forward was nothing less than a warning—or a threat.
“I’ll call him again.”
Hirasawa Shuichi said that, and Satoh Haruto phoned Kang-hae once more.
[Changed your mind already?]
“Why are you giving us the National Intelligence Service black team roster?”
[Because I need to meet Lee Jeong-tae.]
Back to square one.
“You’re committing treason right now. If this gets back to Korea, you’ll rot in prison for at least ten years.”
[I don’t need your presumptuous advice.]
“……”
[So, are you going to let me meet him or not?]
“I’ll contact you again.”
This time, Satoh Haruto ended the call.
“Listen here, Satoh Haruto-kun.”
Hirasawa Shuichi called him in a flat, businesslike voice.
Satoh Haruto knew that when Hirasawa Shuichi added both a surname and an honorific, he was furious.
In the end, he understood the matter would proceed according to his superior’s will.
“What exactly is the problem?”
“It’s suspicious that he approached us after identifying himself first.”
“Satoh Haruto-kun.”
“Yes, Director.”
“Among intelligence agencies around the world, Korea’s National Intelligence Service ranks in the top five.”
“……”
“Unfortunately, our Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office falls a little short of the NIS.”
“……”
“Do you know why I transferred here to the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office after working in Nagatachō for over twenty years?”
“I don’t……”
No, Satoh Haruto did know.
Everyone knew that one of the two deputy directors had planted Hirasawa Shuichi, a man who’d spent his career rubbing shoulders with politicians, as a parachute appointment so he could go into politics after retirement.
And Hirasawa Shuichi undoubtedly knew it too, but from his mouth came grand words all the same.
“For the development of the intelligence services of our Great Japanese Empire!”
His voice kept rising.
“This is an opportunity to monitor the activities of NIS Black itself! Do you understand what that means? We might be able to expose every human intelligence asset those NIS bastards have planted. There are definitely people inside this building leaking to the National Intelligence Service too.”
“……”
“So bring him here.”
“Understood……”
In the end, Satoh Haruto couldn’t sway his superior’s will, and he called Kang-hae again.
They set up the meeting.
That night, a black nine-seater vehicle appeared in front of the hotel where Kang-hae was staying.
Satoh Haruto and Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office agents were waiting inside for him.
As soon as Kang-hae answered the phone, he left the hotel and got into the car.
The Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office agents immediately searched his body and ran a metal detector over him.
When the search was over, Satoh Haruto glared at Kang-hae and said, “What the hell are you trying to pull?”
“I told you. I need to meet Lee Jeong-tae.”
“You’d hand over state secrets just to meet some Korean gangster?”
“You’re making me sick repeating myself.”
Satoh Haruto pulled out his gun and aimed it at Kang-hae’s face.
But Kang-hae’s expression didn’t change at all.
He looked straight at Satoh Haruto and said, “If you’re not going to let me meet Lee Jeong-tae, then get out of the car.”
“You think we’d just let you walk away?”
“Going to shoot me?”
“Think I can’t?”
“I’m here in Japan as an official South Korean civil servant. Wouldn’t it be better for you if I return to Korea in perfect condition the day after tomorrow?”
“……”
Satoh Haruto swallowed his anger.
If Kang-hae were carrying out his mission as a black operative, they could have kidnapped or killed him without consequence.
And South Korea couldn’t make an issue of it either.
But as Kang-hae had said, he was currently in Japan officially as a South Korean government employee.
They couldn’t treat such a man carelessly.
“Where is the National Intelligence Service black roster?”
Without a word, Kang-hae tapped his own head with a finger.
“Hand over the NIS roster, and I’ll let you meet Lee Jeong-tae.”
“I’ll give it to you after I meet Lee Jeong-tae.”
“……”
The two men stared at each other in silence, and a taut tension filled the car.
After a long moment, Satoh Haruto motioned to one of his subordinates, and the man handed Kang-hae an eye mask.
Without saying a word, Kang-hae put it on.
A moment later, the car carrying him began driving toward a Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office safe house on the outskirts of Tokyo.
* * *
Lee Jeong-tae was waiting for Kang-hae in the interrogation room.
Clack.
The door opened.
And Kang-hae saw Lee Jeong-tae sitting there in the interrogation room.
It was the moment he had waited for so long.
He was finally face-to-face with one of the pieces of trash who had helped kill his brother.
“Jesus fucking Christ… how many times are you people going to question me?”
Lee Jeong-tae assumed the man entering the room was just another interrogator.
Without a word, Kang-hae sat down across from him and studied his face.
He was past fifty, and maybe because his health was poor, a sickly red tinge colored his complexion.
Like all men who’d lived their lives carelessly, his eyes were dull.
“What are you glaring at? You trying to bore a hole through my face?”
“Lee Jeong-tae.”
“What is it?”
“I have something to ask you.”
“Jesus, what the hell could you possibly be so damn curious about—”
Since the first day he’d arrived at the safe house, Lee Jeong-tae had been tormented by the interrogators’ questions until he went to sleep.
“You acquired Hanshin Textiles, which had moved into the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, and then deliberately delisted it.”
“Heh-heh-heh. I made a nice bit of money off those retail investors back then.”
“But how did a delisted company continue to remain in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex?”
“Well, that’s because……”
Lee Jeong-tae trailed off.
“Tell me who covered for you.”
“……”
And Satoh Haruto, watching from beyond the glass wall, hurriedly told his superior, “Director.”
“What is it?”
“The line of questioning is suspicious.”
“What’s suspicious about it?”
“Isn’t it strange that he’d hand over the National Intelligence Service black roster just to find that out?”
“So?”
“We should stop this now and begin our own interrogation.”
“By interrogation, you mean torture?”
“We could use drugs too.”
“And if something goes wrong?”
“……”
Hirasawa Shuichi repeated what he had said before.
“That man isn’t here as a black operative right now. He’s here in Japan as a South Korean National Security Office employee. If you torture someone like that, both you and I will end up stripping off our own uniforms.”
“……”
“Listen, Haruto-kun.”
“Yes, Director.”
“During the Cold War, do you know how many double agents there were between the United States and the Soviet Union?”
“……”
“It doesn’t matter what kind of scheme that bastard has in mind. What matters is that we’ve got a leash around his throat.”
“……”
“What do you think will happen if Korea finds out he handed over the roster of his own intelligence agency—its black team, no less?”
“Wouldn’t they dispose of him?”
“Do you think that bastard doesn’t know that?”
“……”
“I don’t know why he came to meet a Korean yakuza, but I’m sure he knows this much: the second we even open our mouths to Korea, he’s a dead man. So stop worrying about that and think about how we can use him.”
“……”
Satoh Haruto thought his superior was looking at the situation far too simply.
And he decided that, at the first opportunity, he would force a confession from that bastard Na Kang-hae with truth serum and find out what his real purpose was.
Then a commotion broke out outside, and one of his subordinates came rushing in, white as a sheet.
“What is it?”
“Th-there’s been a cutoff in the external power supply!”
“……!”
The safe house had its own power generation equipment, so there was no problem inside.
But the CCTV cameras and security systems installed outside might no longer be functioning properly.
Satoh Haruto glared at Kang-hae inside the interrogation room.
There was no doubt about it.
This was his doing.