Ko Jeong-un (2)
Ko Jeong-un's wake was set up at Seoul Mirae Hospital.
The funeral was decided to be a government-level service, and several employees from the National Security Office stayed at the memorial hall until it was over.
Seong Ha-yeong volunteered for the duty.
Kang-hae did the same.
Before the condolences began, the National Security Office staff held an internal memorial service first.
Floral tributes were laid in order—deputy director, bureau chief, division chief, then staff.
Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong bowed before the framed portrait along with the other employees.
After bowing twice like that, Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong, unlike the others, raised their hands in salute instead of standing in silence.
Seong Ha-yeong's fingertips trembled as she saluted, and her tears would not stop.
To Seong Ha-yeong, Ko Jeong-un had never been just a superior at work.
He had been the first direct superior she met when she was commissioned as a soldier.
Unlike the other superiors, who had been awkward and uneasy around the chairman's bloodline from the Ilseong Group, Ko Jeong-un treated her as nothing more or less than a soldier.
She had been grateful for that.
He had scolded her so harshly more than once that she’d ended up in tears, but Ko Jeong-un had never once dealt with her for anything other than official reasons.
She had learned a great deal from him.
As a soldier.
And as an adult.
When the brief memorial service for the National Security Office staff ended, the condolences began.
The president, the prime minister, and cabinet ministers came to the wake, and the footsteps of lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties, along with current and former soldiers, never seemed to stop.
At two in the morning, Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong ate their first meal in the hospital cafeteria set up for the wake.
People who had come late at night were still drinking in the cafeteria, talking about the deceased.
The two of them sat in a corner and forced down their food.
Then, while trying to swallow a mouthful, Seong Ha-yeong broke down again.
Kang-hae handed her a napkin.
“Thank you……”
Seong Ha-yeong said as she wiped away her tears.
“I never thought the director would go like this……”
“……”
And Kang-hae fell into thought.
Lee Na-yeon, who knew about the external hard drive, was dead.
Ko Jeong-un, who had taken possession of the external hard drive, was dead.
Could this be a coincidence……?
Seong Ha-yeong called to Kang-hae, who was lost in thought.
“Kang-hae.”
“Yes.”
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
Kang-hae looked around.
People were still drinking nearby, but if he kept his voice down, it didn't seem like they would hear.
Lowering his voice, Kang-hae said, “I went to the officetel where the late Ms. Lee Na-yeon died because I was looking for the external hard drive.”
“The external hard drive?”
“There was an external drive that Lee Jeong-tae had been keeping. It contained materials on the people who had backed Han Shin Textiles in the Kaesong Industrial Complex.”
“Then……?!”
“I gave that external hard drive to the director.”
“……!”
“And I was supposed to meet him tonight.”
Seong Ha-yeong looked startled.
“Then are you saying the director……?”
Kang-hae nodded.
“I think it’s possible.”
“……”
Shocked, Seong Ha-yeong was unable to speak for a while, and only much later did she shake her head.
“No…… that can't be it……”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because the director was found in his office……”
“……”
“I was the first one to find him like that……”
“You were the first to find him?”
“Yes. I went to the director's office around eight in the evening with a report I had to deliver. He was sitting there with his eyes closed. At first I thought he was asleep, so I called out to him several times. But something looked wrong when I got closer. So I went over to him……”
Seong Ha-yeong stopped there.
It felt like she might break into tears again.
“When I shook his shoulder, he just collapsed right there……”
In the end, Seong Ha-yeong could not hold back the sob that burst out of her.
“It wasn't your fault, Ha-yeong.”
“But if I'd written the report a little earlier and gone into the director's office…… if I'd found him just a little earlier……”
As Seong Ha-yeong had said, Ko Jeong-un's cause of death had been sudden cardiac arrest in his sleep, brought on by overwork.
But……
Kang-hae still could not bring himself to believe it.
Ko Jeong-un had avoided alcohol and cigarettes since he was young, and he had never neglected physical training.
“Ha-yeong.”
“Yes.”
“Did anyone come to see the director today?”
“No…… no one came to the National Security Office……”
“Then did he go anywhere outside?”
“The director?”
“Yes.”
“No. He even had lunch at the cafeteria. With the staff.”
“……”
Kang-hae sank into thought.
Maybe he was being too suspicious.
It was practically impossible for someone in the presidential office to assassinate the director of the National Security Office and make it look like overwork.
And then a strange voice reached them.
“Lieutenant Seong……?”
Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong turned, and a man in his sixties, dressed in a suit, approached them.
He wore a suit, with a National Assembly member's badge pinned to his jacket, and his face was flushed red from drink.
Seong Ha-yeong stood and greeted him.
“Divisional Commander?”
“Hahaha. That's right. I didn't recognize you in a suit. It's been a while.”
“It has, sir.”
The man extended a hand to Seong Ha-yeong, and the two shook hands.
He had been the divisional commander when Ko Jeong-un served as regimental commander of the 53rd Regiment under the 22nd Infantry Division, and after retiring as commander of the Second Operations Command, he had entered the National Assembly as a proportional representative for the opposition party. He was Kim Moon-ho.
Kim Moon-ho was part of the National Defense Committee and led the charge in relentlessly attacking the Kim Jin-cheol administration, but he and Ko Jeong-un had been close seniors and juniors since their days at the Korea Military Academy.
“I heard you'd been working at the National Security Office.”
“Yes. I started there right after leaving the military.”
“Then……”
Kim Moon-ho seemed about to say something, then glanced at Kang-hae.
Seong Ha-yeong introduced him.
“This is a colleague who works with me at the office.”
“Is that so……?”
Kim Moon-ho looked around and said, “Lieutenant Seong—no, Seong Ha-yeong—served that friend of ours, Ko Jeong-un, for a very long time.”
“He was a man worth respecting.”
“Then let me ask you just one thing.”
“Go ahead, sir.”
“Are you on Ko Jeong-un's side, or Kim Jin-cheol's?”
“What do you mean by that……?”
Kim Moon-ho looked around once more, then lowered his voice even further.
“That friend of ours, Ko Jeong-un, called me last night.”
“The director?”
“Yes. He hadn't called me even once since he became the director of the National Security Office. Well, I can understand that. I'm a National Assembly member on the opposition's Defense Committee, and he's serving the president, so of course it makes sense. Ko Jeong-un has always been the type to keep public and private matters separate.”
“……”
Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong listened intently as Kim Moon-ho, thick with the smell of alcohol, went on.
“But then Ko Jeong-un calls me and asks me to set up a press conference at the National Assembly.”
“The director asked you to do that?”
“That's right.”
It was not common for a cabinet-level official appointed by the president to ask an opposition lawmaker to arrange a press conference.
“Did the director say what he planned to announce?”
“You know how stubborn Ko Jeong-un is. I asked him several times, but he only said he'd tell me on the day of the press conference.”
“……”
“Anyway, if anything comes up, call me right away. Ko Jeong-un might be watching from heaven.”
“Understood.”
With that, Kim Moon-ho left the cafeteria.
Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong sat back down and each fell into thought.
But they were thinking the same thing.
There was something here……!
“Kang-hae.”
“Yes.”
“The director, appointed by the president, asked an opposition lawmaker on the Defense Committee to hold a press conference at the National Assembly. So whatever he was going to say probably wasn't good for the president, right……?”
“Probably not.”
“Kang-hae.”
“Yes.”
“Now that I think about it, there's something a little strange……. The day after you came to the office, the director met with the chief secretary. His expression was extremely grim then.”
“……”
“After that, he met separately with the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, and the day before yesterday he told me to look into active-duty soldiers assigned to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.”
“So there was something going on.”
“What was the director planning to announce at the press conference?”
“It might have been the material on the external hard drive.”
“That could be it……”
“……”
Kang-hae regretted not making a copy of the external hard drive.
He had been afraid that trying to copy it might damage the drive, and, more than that, he had not wanted to know the evidence inside it.
Once he learned what that evidence was, it would feel as though he had no choice but to keep working as a National Security Office employee.
“For now……”
Kang-hae said, starting slowly.
Seong Ha-yeong looked at him.
“We should look for the external hard drive.”
“I'll help too.”
“Then I'll search the director's office. You go check the director's house.”
“All right.”
The two of them stood.
Kang-hae drove a National Security Office vehicle to the presidential office.
Seong Ha-yeong got the address and the door code from Ko Jeong-un's wife, saying she would bring some clothes for her, and then took a taxi to Ko Jeong-un's house.
* * *
Director's office, National Security Office, Presidential Office, Yongsan District, Seoul.
Kang-hae searched the office from corner to corner, but the external hard drive never appeared.
“Hoo……”
He let out a long breath and called Seong Ha-yeong.
[Yes, Kang-hae.]
“Did you get there?”
[Yes. But I don't think it's here either……]
“Understood.”
[Yes, I'll look a little longer and then head back to the funeral hall.]
“All right.”
[Ah, Kang-hae.]
“Yes.”
[Your place is near the presidential office, isn't it?]
“Yes, that's right.”
[Then pack some clothes too. Tomorrow will be even more hectic.]
“Will do.”
[Okay. See you later.]
After hanging up, Kang-hae headed to his goshiwon.
Following Seong Ha-yeong's instructions, he put underwear, socks, and toiletries into his bag.
After leaving the goshiwon, he opened the unmanned parcel locker.
The duffel bag full of weapons that he had taken from the owner of SmartFix was there.
Kang-hae took out one MP-443 from the bag.
It was a next-generation standard-issue Russian military pistol, one that held seventeen rounds.
He put the pistol and two magazines into his bag.
Then he drove back toward the funeral hall.
The roads in the early morning were quiet.
The car Kang-hae was driving was a midsize domestic sedan, and it exited the area near the presidential office before entering Hannam Bridge.
The city lights shivered across the Han River.
Then Kang-hae saw a dump truck closing in fast from the rear-left side mirror.
It was a dump truck that had not been visible until they entered Hannam Bridge.
Kang-hae changed lanes.
The dump truck changed lanes too.
Something was off.
Kang-hae changed lanes again.
Again, the truck followed.
Then the dump truck accelerated, sticking close behind the car Kang-hae was driving.
Bang—
The dump truck rammed the rear of Kang-hae's car, and the vehicle lurched.
Kang-hae worked the wheel and stepped on the accelerator.
He barely shook the dump truck off, but it kept gathering speed.
Bang—
Bang—
The hair-raising chase went on, and the dump truck kept smashing into the back of Kang-hae's car.
There was no time to hesitate.
He had to make a choice before the truck crushed the car like a sheet of paper.
And then Kang-hae spotted an entrance ramp.
He pushed down on the accelerator, and instead of following the curve, the car shot straight toward the outer wall.
Bang—
The car struck the guardrail and went over the edge.
And the car Kang-hae was in began to fall toward the Han River below.