Arrival in São Paulo
Because of its image as a nation of passion and samba, people tend to assume Brazil is hot year-round — but that isn't quite true.
Yeon-woo stepped off the plane and buttoned up a shirt of slightly heavier fabric.
Situated in the Southern Hemisphere, Brazil's seasons run opposite to Korea's. That didn't mean Brazil was locked in midwinter while Korea sweltered through summer, but the nights were cool enough that a light jacket was warranted.
"You must be exhausted."
"Mm, I'm still fine."
Yeon-woo smiled as he answered Kim Min-su's question. The one asking looked far more worn out — dark circles had sunk all the way down his face.
"What about you, noona?"
"Honestly, I'm dizzy. I just want to get there and sleep."
Lee Ye-eun shook her head at Yeon-woo's question.
Security and scheduling were entirely SL Electronics' responsibility, so they'd come with a lean crew. Manager Kim Min-su, stylist Lee Ye-eun, and Yeon-woo himself — just three of them — followed a security officer off the plane and into São Paulo's Guarulhos Airport.
The singers performing at the concert had left a day early for rehearsals. The charter Yeon-woo was on today carried Korean celebrities invited to the concert, just like him.
There was no direct commercial flight from Korea to São Paulo. Most airlines routed through at least one stop — Dubai, Rome, Doha. When coordinating everyone's schedules around those connections became impossible, SL Electronics had chartered a private jet.
And from the models chatting in the seats behind him on the way over, Yeon-woo had overheard that one of the invited celebrities had accidentally mentioned today's Brazil trip during an SNS live stream.
No wonder the airport was packed…
He'd expected a relatively quiet arrival under a private itinerary. Instead, the throng of press and fans swarming like a cloud had left him puzzled.
"Hwaaam. I can't stop yawning."
Yeon-woo smirked as he watched Lee Ye-eun trail the security officer, yawning nonstop.
She had every right to be wiped. Even on a charter flying "direct," Brazil was simply too far to cover in one stretch. So the so-called direct flight had still touched down in Los Angeles for maintenance along the way — refueling, a pilot and crew swap. After the long haul, they finally landed at Guarulhos, and once immigration was done, Yeon-woo stretched and worked the stiffness from his body.
"This way, please. We'll take you straight to the hotel by vehicle."
"Yes."
As Yeon-woo and his party boarded the bus with the other celebrities, he caught a security officer keying his radio.
"VIP boarding complete. Moving out immediately."
Watching the officers guide them onto the bus, Yeon-woo noted the rigid tension in their neck muscles. Their faces were carefully composed, but the strain was plain to his eye.
Probably because whoever leaked the schedule exposed the arrival route — extra pressure on security.
Brazil's public safety record left a lot to be desired, so they were clearly on high alert. Yeon-woo's own expression, however, was perfectly calm.
This wasn't his first or second trip to South America. Most Ponzi fraudsters and drug offenders who fled Korea started in Southeast Asia, but eventually they all drifted toward South America — a region where Korean investigative jurisdiction barely reached, and where even local authorities struggled against the cartels. When that happened, the ones dispatched on-site were almost always black ops agents like Yeon-woo in his previous life. Tracking down criminals whose whereabouts were unknown, by any means necessary, and repatriating them — Yeon-woo had effectively done the full South American tour.
From that experience, he knew that when a major event like this was staged in a South American country, every effort was made to ensure nothing went wrong. Of course, the ones exerting that effort weren't the police or the government.
Hosting a concert this size means there has to be some kind of arrangement with the cartels.
SL Electronics wouldn't have contracted with a criminal cartel directly — but a local broker would absolutely have cut them in on the profits to keep the event running smoothly. Which meant no halfwit with a brain would dare touch Korean celebrities whose presence was generating revenue for the cartel that controlled São Paulo. There was even a dark joke that if a cop got slapped somewhere, he'd go snitch to the cartel — that's how deeply organized crime was woven into every corner of South America.
And just as Yeon-woo expected, they arrived at the hotel without a single incident.
"Managers and company representatives traveling with guests, please gather briefly in the hotel lobby. We'll distribute individual schedules."
When the SL administrator posted on-site addressed the group stepping off the bus, Kim Min-su looked at Yeon-woo.
"Security already handled check-in, so go on up first. I'll get the schedule briefing and join you."
"Min-su hyung, those dark circles look like they've dropped to your chin. You've been working hard."
Kim Min-su grinned at that and headed for a corner of the lobby. Yeon-woo went up to his room.
The moment he stepped inside, he pulled a custom ultra-compact wireless earpiece from his bag, fitted it into one ear, and opened his laptop. Connecting to the server put him straight through to Han Hae-un back in Korea.
"I've arrived in São Paulo."
"Yeah. It was already past midnight when we landed."
Yeon-woo nodded at Han Hae-un's report.
"Figures. They're coming commercial, so they'll need another six hours at least. Local time, they'll get in tomorrow morning. What about Kim Su-hyeok?"
"Local time last night?"
São Paulo time last night meant Kim Su-hyeok had come in roughly six or seven hours ahead of Yeon-woo.
"My schedule runs a full week anyway. No rush — tell him to rest, keep his condition sharp, then link up with the other two in the morning."
"I'll keep the channel open on-site the whole time. Report immediately if anything comes up."
The earpiece was so small that no one would notice it unless they peered straight into his ear — so Yeon-woo planned to keep the channel with Han Hae-un open for the entire duration of his Brazil schedule.
He pulled a specially fabricated brooch and watch from his carrier and put them on.
"Run a reception check."
The video streams from the brooch and watch were coming through fine.
"I'll start by checking the exterior routes, then."
Yeon-woo left the hotel room.
Out in the corridor, a security officer seated in a guest chair by the elevators glanced up at him, then shot to his feet.
No CCTV right outside the room — one by the emergency stairs, one at the far end of the hall.
Yeon-woo scanned his surroundings as he approached the elevator, and the officer spoke up.
"Is there anything you need, sir?"
Yeon-woo smiled.
"No. Jet lag, I guess — I'm not sleepy yet. Thought I'd take a light walk and look around the hotel. As long as I don't go outside, that's fine, right?"
"Of course. Our officers have the hotel interior fully secured, so please don't worry."
"You'll be working through the night. Thank you."
Yeon-woo gave a light nod and stepped into the elevator. It was descending toward the first floor when it stopped at the fourth. The doors opened, and a male YouTuber Yeon-woo recognized from the flight stepped in.
"Ohhh?! Hello. I saw you on the flight over but didn't want to be rude, so I didn't say anything. I'm Lee Jong-yeon — YouTuber!"
"Ah, right. You do travel content, don't you?"
"Oh! You know me? That's insane."
As Yeon-woo answered, he sidelong-checked the open elevator doorway.
Same setup — one officer facing the elevators, nothing extra in the corridor. Looks like they station one per floor where the invited guests are staying.
Probably confident enough in the ground-floor security that one officer per floor was all they needed.
"Those security officers SL assigned us are pretty reassuring, right? First time I've ever had protection like this. On the way from the airport I felt like I was the president or something."
"Yeah, it is. Public safety here isn't quite on Korea's level, after all."
Yeon-woo gave the YouTuber — who clearly wanted to keep chatting — just enough answers to keep the conversation going until the elevator reached the first floor.
A security officer was posted there as well. With a corporate event hosting high-profile figures from every field, the ironclad protection was meant to prevent any unpleasant incidents before they could happen — but from Yeon-woo's perspective, as someone who also needed to run operative work, the tighter the security, the more of a hassle it became.
The lobby will have more of them, but one per floor on the rest is manageable enough.
Security officers and CCTV were nuisances for Yeon-woo's activities — and simultaneously, invaluable for providing an alibi no matter what happened. He couldn't openly stare down every camera scattered across the lobby, so he turned his wristwatch this way and that, angling it toward the ceiling. By now, Han Hae-un would be mapping the positions and shooting angles of every CCTV in the feed and calculating the lobby's blind spots.
After wandering around for a good while under the pretense of a stroll, Han Hae-un's voice came through the earpiece.
Good work? There was nothing to it. He genuinely couldn't sleep, so he'd simply walked the hotel interior like a tourist.
"Uwaaam. I'm dead tired."
Arriving at Guarulhos Airport and clearing the arrivals hall, Lee Gyu-jin let out a long, drawn-out yawn and stretched. Park Jung-hyeon, meanwhile, rubbed his stomach.
"I'm hungry. Let's head into the city."
"You ate eight in-flight meals on the way here and you're still hungry? You didn't even go to the bathroom once."
Park Jung-hyeon scratched his belly at that.
"Hmm. Is that so? Better empty it before I eat, then. I'll hit the restroom."
Watching Park Jung-hyeon lumber off, Lee Gyu-jin scratched the back of his head.
"Is that guy's brain made of muscle too?"
"No — I suspect stomach acid runs through his veins instead of blood."
The voice from behind made Lee Gyu-jin jump and spin around. Kim Su-hyeok was standing there.
"T-Team Leader? I thought you were on leave—"
Until a mission was underway, operational security kept a lot of details classified, so Lee Gyu-jin hadn't known Kim Su-hyeok was joining. His eyes went round at the sudden reunion.
"I'm on this mission as well. Not particularly glad to see me?"
"What are you talking about? The thought of running an op with just Park Jung-hyeon was giving me a splitting headache."
While Lee Gyu-jin chattered through a stream of complaints about everything that had happened during Kim Su-hyeok's absence, Park Jung-hyeon — having thoroughly resolved his business across the way — walked back over.
"Team Leader. Good to see you, sir."
"Right. Good work getting here. We'll cover the details once we're in the vehicle."
Both agents nodded and moved out. Once they were aboard the ops vehicle, Kim Su-hyeok pulled ultra-compact earpieces from his bag and handed them to Lee Gyu-jin and Park Jung-hyeon.
"Lee Gyu-jin is comms line four. Park Jung-hyeon is five. Set them up and establish contact with HQ."
"Yes, sir!"
They fitted the earpieces, secured them, then used their phones to complete the link configuration with Han Hae-un back in Korea.
"Connected. Please confirm."
Lambda (λ) · Delta (δ) · Tau (τ)
— Connection Verified —
Lee Gyu-jin tilted his head.
"Come to think of it — Alpha-Beta at HQ plus the three of us makes four. Why do the comms lines go up to five?"
HQ came back on the channel.