Suspicion (2)
'Someone's coming...!'
Na Kang-hae quickly pulled out the IV and got out of bed.
Then he drew the curtain around the bed and crawled underneath it.
If this were someone with ordinary business, they wouldn’t be climbing four floors up the side of a wall.
Kang-hae thought of the men who had fired on Ha-jun and him at the Paju MDL, the Military Demarcation Line.
Could it be one of them?
Kang-hae hoped to God it was.
He had no intention of killing them cleanly.
After he exposed the people behind them, he would make them suffer until they begged him to kill them.
Swish—
With the sound of the hospital window opening,
Slip—
someone entered the room.
From beneath the bed, Kang-hae watched a pair of black combat boots step into view.
The intruder moved as lightly as a stray cat.
Not a sound.
It was stealth.
No doubt about it, he was trained.
Snap—
the moment someone yanked the curtain aside, Kang-hae shot out a hand and seized the man by the ankle.
Then he put his strength into it and slammed him down.
The instant the intruder hit the floor, Kang-hae was on his back, climbing onto him in one smooth motion.
He locked both arms around the man’s neck.
It was a technique known in jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts as a Rear-Naked Choke.
The essence of the move was simple: compress the carotid arteries with both arms, cut off the oxygen to the brain, and render the opponent unconscious.
But the man twisted free of the choke.
Before he could even roll over and push himself up, Kang-hae drove a kick into his abdomen.
If he was given time to draw a weapon, the situation could turn ugly.
The man hastily brought his elbows and knees together and blocked the kick.
Kang-hae didn’t expect to drop a man like this with one shot if he was clearly trained.
He kept hammering at the man’s vital points with fists and feet.
Special forces and intelligence services around the world all trained in military martial arts developed in-house.
Israel’s Krav Maga, Russia’s Systema, and the Philippines’ Kali Arnis were famous examples.
The South Korean Intelligence Command had its own style as well.
And as Kang-hae kept trading blows with the intruder, he realized something.
They were using the same martial art.
“Who are you?”
Kang-hae stopped attacking and asked.
The man slowly pulled off his mask.
“Senior Hyeon-woo...?”
The masked intruder who had come looking for Kang-hae was Joo Hyeon-woo, three years Kang-hae’s senior in the Intelligence Command.
Hyeon-woo had enlisted in the Intelligence Command at twenty.
He had served there for six years after that.
He was the best of his class, and his easygoing, no-nonsense personality had earned him plenty of younger men who followed him.
After leaving the Intelligence Command last year, he’d been brought into the National Intelligence Service through a special hire.
“You bastard, Na Kang-hae. Kicking your senior like that.”
Hyeon-woo brushed the dust off his clothes and said,
“How did you get here?”
“What do you mean, how? I climbed the wall.”
“I mean...”
“I heard you got shot. You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“What happened?”
Hyeon-woo got straight to the point.
Kang-hae hesitated for a moment.
Can I really tell Senior Hyeon-woo everything?
While Kang-hae was still wavering, Hyeon-woo spoke again.
“Kang-hae. Director Lee was like a father to me.”
The “Director Lee” Hyeon-woo referred to was Lee Woo-hyung.
Not only Hyeon-woo, but many people in the Intelligence Command thought of Lee Woo-hyung as a father figure.
Kang-hae had thought the same himself on more than one occasion.
He knew very well how Hyeon-woo felt about Lee Woo-hyung, so Kang-hae decided to tell him everything.
And Hyeon-woo is with the NIS.
He might be able to help uncover the truth.
“The enemy already knew we were coming.”
“So everyone got taken out then?”
“No. Ha-jun and I escaped.”
“Then Ha-jun got hit by the pursuit team?”
“No. It was men in South Korean uniforms.”
“Our own military shot Ha-jun...?”
Hyeon-woo stared at him in disbelief.
“They could’ve been wearing disguises. We need to verify it.”
“Verify it? How?”
“I need the roster of troops deployed to the 1st Division MDL three days ago.”
“That’s doable.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
“Got it. Get some rest.”
Hyeon-woo walked to the window.
But before climbing out, he called Kang-hae back.
“Kang-hae.”
“Yes, Senior.”
“If it turns out...?”
But Hyeon-woo couldn’t finish the sentence.
He only looked at Kang-hae.
Kang-hae understood what the silence meant.
“If you think I betrayed you, come find me anytime.”
“Kid... you’ve always been quick on the uptake. I’m going.”
With a crooked grin, Hyeon-woo slipped back out through the window.
* * *
Gwacheon, Republic of Korea Counterintelligence Command.
The members of the Special Investigation Team, which operated directly under the Chief of Staff of the Counterintelligence Command, were on their second day without going home.
Third Team leader Major Ha Seok-jun had ordered his subordinates to dig up any charges they could pin on Na Kang-hae.
Thanks to that, the investigators had been forced to comb through every old handwritten case file stored in the warehouse.
But most of the cases in those files were things like sexual assault, military procurement corruption, indiscipline, and insubordination.
It was hard to find anything connected to operations.
Especially anything involving operations the Intelligence Command had conducted in North Korea.
Ha Seok-jun had reached the end of his patience and was cursing the subordinates who still hadn’t found a single thing after two days.
“And you call yourselves Counterintelligence Command personnel?! Damn it, if there’s nothing there, then make something up and bring it to me!”
The men in the Counterintelligence Command kept their mouths shut and bowed their heads.
At that moment, the section chief who had accompanied Ha Seok-jun to visit Kang-hae came rushing into the office.
“Team Leader. I think you need to look at this.”
Gasping for breath, the section chief handed over a document.
Ha Seok-jun immediately checked the contents.
As he read, a sly smile spread across his face.
“Get the arrest team ready. Right now.”
He gave the order to the section chief.
After that, Ha Seok-jun headed for Seoul First General Hospital with the arrest team.
Finally...!
The thought that he could shove Kang-hae into the military prison had him practically vibrating with excitement.
So he barked at the driver behind the wheel.
“Faster! Run the lights if you have to.”
That was how the Counterintelligence Command vehicles, after speeding and blowing through signals, arrived at Seoul First General Hospital.
Like the boss of a gang, Ha Seok-jun strode down the hallway with the arrest team on both sides of him and headed for Kang-hae’s hospital room.
Then, the moment he flung open the door to Kang-hae’s room,
he found someone familiar besides the man lying in bed.
It was Chief of the Intelligence Command Ko Jeong-un.
“What is this?”
Ko Jeong-un asked, looking at Ha Seok-jun.
Ha Seok-jun snapped off a salute toward him.
But his salute had all the discipline of a terminal corporal’s.
Besides, it wasn’t exactly the sort of salute one bamboo leaf could render to a two-star general.
“Major Ha Seok-jun, Special Investigation Team, Counterintelligence Command. I’ve come to place Sergeant Na Kang-hae of the Republic of Korea Intelligence Command Special Mission Battalion under emergency arrest.”
“On what grounds?”
“I’m not at liberty to disclose that.”
The faces of the Counterintelligence Command men who had come with him went pale.
However much they were Counterintelligence Command, the other party was still a two-star general.
Of course, there was a reason Ha Seok-jun could act so smugly.
A few days earlier, the commander of the Counterintelligence Command had visited their investigation team as a morale-boosting gesture.
At a meal with the officers, the commander had said that Ko Jeong-un had been marked by the Minister of National Defense, who enjoyed the full trust of the president.
Thanks to that, he said, Ko would be forced into retirement soon.
He also said that the team investigating the senior brass had already begun auditing Ko Jeong-un.
Ko Jeong-un wasn’t merely a toothless tiger—he was nothing more than an aging male lion in Africa.
“Then I’ll call the Counterintelligence Command commander.”
Ko Jeong-un took a phone from his pocket.
Ha Seok-jun spotted his opening in that split second.
“Commander, there are a lot of eyes on you. The Counterintelligence Command commander is a lieutenant general. Please use the proper title.”
He seized on the matter of honorific rank.
The military no longer used the old deferential system in everyday life, but officers still did.
So what Ha Seok-jun had just said was effectively: You’re only a two-star, and the Counterintelligence Command commander is a three-star, so watch your manners.
And Ha Seok-jun sincerely hoped those words would reach the commander’s ears.
No—he was even planning to have the others spread the rumor.
Ko Jeong-un made the call without any visible reaction.
“This is Ko Jeong-un.”
He exchanged a few words with the commander who answered.
Then he handed the phone to Ha Seok-jun.
“Communications security. Major Ha Seok-jun. I’m taking the call.”
Ha Seok-jun spoke his formal identification crisply and properly.
[You crazy bastard! Where the hell are you right now?!]
The commander’s voice on the other end was full of rage.
The warm tone from a few days ago, when he had tapped Ha Seok-jun on the shoulder and said they should go golf together sometime, was nowhere to be found.
Something was definitely wrong.
Panicking, Ha Seok-jun stammered.
“I-I’m here to, to, to make an emergency arrest of a sus, suspect...”
[You went out without reporting to the Chief of Staff?!]
“T-This was an extremely urgent matter...”
[You little son of a bitch! Get back here right now.]
“What?! Y-Yes, sir!”
[Right now. Put the commander—no, the director—on the phone!]
“What?! Yes, sir! O-Overwhelming victory!”
Ha Seok-jun handed the phone to Ko Jeong-un exactly as ordered.
Only then did he realize his hand was trembling without him even noticing.
Ko Jeong-un took the phone back.
That was when Ha Seok-jun finally understood what had gone wrong.
A moment earlier, the commander had addressed Ko Jeong-un not as “commander,” but as “director.”
Why...?
Ko Jeong-un took the phone back from Ha Seok-jun and pressed the speakerphone button.
That made it possible for everyone in the room to hear the conversation.
[Director, one of our men has made a very serious mistake. I apologize on his behalf.]
Again, that title: Director.
And again, a tone so servile it was almost pathetic.
What the hell...?
Cold sweat ran down Ha Seok-jun’s spine.
Ko Jeong-un brought his mouth close to the speaker and said,
“From now on, I will personally be in charge of Na Kang-hae.”
[Oh, of course, of course. If anything special comes up regarding Sergeant Na Kang-hae, I’ll report to you directly.]
“Thank you.”
[And, ah—my sincere congratulations on your appointment as Director of the National Security Office.]
“I’ll end the call here.”
[Yes, sir. Please take care.]
And then the call ended.
Silence settled over the room.
Ha Seok-jun barely managed to keep his wobbling legs under him.
Then he remembered what the Counterintelligence Command commander had said just moments earlier.
He definitely said Director of the National Security Office... but that can’t be right...
According to the commander, Ko Jeong-un had become the Director of the National Security Office.
The Director of the National Security Office was a minister-level political appointment, but because it was a presidential staff position, its power could exceed that of a minister.
Especially in times like these.
The National Security Office had enormous influence not only over the Ministry of National Defense, but also over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Unification, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
But there had never once been a case in the history of South Korea where a two-star general had become the National Security Office director.
This is insane...
Ha Seok-jun could not believe any of it.
“Was there something else you needed?”
Ko Jeong-un asked flatly, looking at Ha Seok-jun.
“No, sir!”
Only then did Ha Seok-jun come to his senses and answer loudly.
His attitude was completely different from before.
“You must be busy. Get back to work.”
“Yes, sir! Understood!!!”
Ha Seok-jun, his face drained white, snapped a salute at Ko Jeong-un like a raw recruit and stumbled out of the room.
The moment he stepped outside, his legs gave out and he collapsed onto the floor.
And the other Counterintelligence Command personnel understood at once that Ha Seok-jun’s military career had just gone down as hard as he had.
Not one of them helped him back to his feet.
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