Settlement
Hong Kong International Airport.
Marcus stopped in front of the entrance to departures.
From here on, only people with tickets were allowed through.
I stood there with my backpack slung over one shoulder and looked at Marcus.
For a moment, I remembered the first time I’d arrived here and met him.
The wary look in his eyes back then was completely gone now.
“What are you waiting for? Get going. Don’t get cocky just because you’ve got plenty of time before check-in.”
His face as he saw me off was oddly relaxed.
His tone was still as rough as ever, of course.
“Next time, let’s go get dim sum or something. I know a good place.”
With that, Marcus held out his hand.
I took it and answered, “Sure, why not.”
It was a simple promise, like we were just making plans to grab a meal around the neighborhood.
As if that were enough, Marcus nodded and turned away.
Then, with a slight limp, he slowly disappeared into the crowd at the airport.
Not even looking back.
He really had been the same from beginning to end.
And just like that, check-in time came, and I finally boarded my flight back to Korea.
“Aigoo...”
The moment I sank into the cramped seat, a groan escaped me on its own.
The cut from the knife still hurt, and every bruise on my body was still there.
To think all this had happened in just a few days.
No, worse than that—had it really not even been a week since I’d come to Hong Kong?
Pursued by the Triads, fighting Russian mercenaries, even handling several million dollars in cash. What an amazing travel itinerary, seriously.
I was grinning to myself when the plane started moving.
Hong Kong’s skyline slowly shrank beyond the window.
Dense high-rises, the narrow alleys between them, the blue water of Victoria Harbour.
I was finally going home.
Thinking that, I slowly closed my eyes.
***
At Incheon Airport, I caught a taxi and headed back to Seoul.
Outside the window, the sights of May in Seoul drifted past.
Tree-lined streets grown heavy with green, afternoon sunlight pouring across the Han River.
It had only been two weeks, but everything felt strangely unfamiliar. My body still seemed to be stuck in Hong Kong.
Only when my familiar officetel building came into view did the tension in my body finally begin to loosen.
I rode the elevator up, walked down the hallway, and entered the door code.
Beep-beep-beep.
I had no idea how good it would feel to hear that sound.
Just as I opened the door and stepped inside, I found someone sitting on the living room sofa.
Her blonde hair was neatly tied up, and she wore a crisp blouse with black slacks.
It was Elena, whom I hadn’t seen in a while.
She was looking at me with a stack of documents spread out before her.
Meeting those deep blue eyes, I swallowed hard.
Honestly, I was more nervous now than I had been facing Eastern European mercenaries.
“...Uh, long time no see.”
“Sit down.”
She replied curtly.
I remembered her saying Marcus was very angry.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I quietly set my backpack down by the door and sat on the sofa opposite her.
There was a table between us, and the setup felt strangely like I’d been summoned for an interrogation.
“Marcus has already reported everything that happened in Hong Kong to me.”
Elena turned a page and spoke to me.
“Let’s start with the results.”
Her voice was calm, thoroughly businesslike.
“Rescuing the field officer on location and recovering the HSM on your own. First, let me thank you for that.”
She underlined something in the document with her pen.
“I’ve already reported it to headquarters as well. There’s no precedent for a civilian contractor achieving this much. Beyond the business trip allowance and danger pay you’re already owed, we’ll also grant you a special bonus, and I’ve requested approval for the shortened service term we discussed.”
So far, so good. Especially the bonus I hadn’t expected at all—that part really caught my attention.
After saying that, Elena put down her pen and looked at me.
“And now we should talk about the violations.”
Right. Here it came.
“You ignored the return order, conducted a solo operation, failed to report, and lost contact.”
Elena listed them one by one in a dry voice.
Then, unlike before, she added with a slightly angry look in her eyes, “I’m the one who contracted with you, and I’m the one responsible for you, Dohyun.”
She held my gaze.
“What was I supposed to do when I couldn’t even get in touch with you?”
“......”
“At the very least, you should have asked me. Whether support was possible, whether there was anything else I could do. Then we could have come up with a different plan.”
Elena laid the documents flat on the table.
The composure in her voice had completely fallen away. It sounded less like anger than self-reproach.
“Why did you do something so stupid? It was far too dangerous.”
Honestly, I couldn’t defend myself on this one.
It had been an impulsive decision, and I hadn’t thought of Elena at all.
“Hah... Sorry. I got too emotional. And in the end, failing to consider even this level of risk was my mistake. I’m sincerely sorry. This won’t happen again.”
At her unexpected apology, I waved my hands in a hurry.
“No, I was the one who didn’t think it through. I’m sorry too.”
A short silence passed between us.
Elena looked at me.
“......”
I could feel a complicated mix of emotions flicker across her blue eyes for a moment.
Sunlight slanted in through the floor-to-ceiling window, cutting across the table.
“Haah...”
Elena let out a long breath.
She closed the file and leaned back against the sofa.
“Still, you did well.”
Then she added in a firmer tone, “Just make sure nothing like this happens again from now on. At the very least, if you’re the one taking the risk, then I, as the person in charge, should be sharing that burden too. And there should be enough support and countermeasures to match. That’s how I do things.”
“Of course.”
I nodded.
Elena gave me one more look, then turned her gaze away.
She slid a document envelope across the table.
“Here. I’ve organized the allowances you’re to be paid. There’s a limit to what a field officer can authorize at their own discretion, so compared to the work you did, it’s modest. I’ll request more from headquarters, but for now, this is the best I can do on my end. The deposit should go through within a few days.”
Then she gathered her bag and stood.
As she headed for the door, she suddenly looked back and called my name.
“And Dohyun.”
She hesitated for a moment, then spoke.
“...You worked hard. I’m glad you came back.”
Her voice was a little softer now.
Closer to the bright tone she’d had when we first met.
And then the front door closed.
“Haah...”
I let out a sigh and leaned back into the sofa.
Only after all the tension drained out of me did I finally notice my surroundings.
The apartment was surprisingly clean.
The dishes that had piled up before I left in a hurry, the laundry—everything was gone.
The papers scattered around, even my clothes, had all been tidied up.
And there was exactly one person who knew this place’s door code. Elena.
So she cleaned the place up before I got back.
And then she left without saying much, without even getting properly angry.
“Haaah...”
Damn it. Now I just felt even worse.
***
Several days passed after that.
For a while, I slept so much I was honestly sick of it.
Then, as I was rolling around on the bed, my phone rang.
Ping.
It was a deposit notification.
Travel expense: $5,000. Danger pay: $15,000. Special bonus: $80,000.
In total, about $100,000. More than 140 million won.
“Wow...”
I sat bolt upright in bed and looked at the screen again.
One hundred thousand dollars. I hadn’t misread it.
And then came a text from Elena.
I reported your accomplishments to headquarters, but additional compensation has been put on hold. Still, your shortened military service term was approved, so please keep that in mind. 270 days.
The number 270, written there without any explanation.
Obviously, it was referring to my service term.
One trip, and I’d shaved off nine months.
Wow, that’s actually pretty sweet.
Then I thought of my Singapore account.
The shell company account Marcus had said he’d set up for me.
I still hadn’t received it yet, but the money in there was already $1.25 million.
If I add everything up, that’s $1.35 million. What, about 1.9 billion won?
Was there any way to get that much money all at once besides winning the lottery?
By then, I was starting to seriously consider it.
This is actually kind of amazing.
***
Langley, Virginia. CIA Headquarters.
The afternoon sunlight was slanting in through the blinds.
In an office by the window, David Hoffman stood leaning against the glass with a thick stack of reports in his hands.
Messy gray hair, a wrinkled dress shirt, a face full of fatigue.
His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and on his desk sat the same old cup of cold coffee as always.
“Hmm...”
As Hoffman read the report, a strange expression crossed his face.
It was the report on the Hong Kong incident.
Single-handedly evaded Triad pursuers and rescued an injured operative.
Subdued eight armed Triad members in the process, barehanded.
Neutralized two former special forces mercenaries armed with firearms.
Recovered the stolen HSM without support from headquarters.
The more he read, the more absurd it became.
He lifted his coffee, then set it back down without even taking a sip.
“Looks like someone brought me a novel instead of a report. Is this the new spy thriller?”
He muttered in disbelief, and the staff member standing beside him shrugged.
“Both Burns and a Chinese source cross-checked it. In fact, the Chang side even requested corrections, saying Lee’s role had been understated.”
Hoffman gave a low laugh.
“Hah. Well, I’ll be damned.”
He flipped another page.
After a moment, he asked, “This kid—he was the one Burns contracted, right?”
“That’s correct. Civilian asset contract, signed this past April.”
“...Hm. So he had something going for him after all. Good.”
Hoffman looked out the window.
Leaves were swaying in the afternoon breeze.
“Ah, and that SAC officer who went to Japan. Any word on him yet?”
At the question, the staff member’s expression hardened slightly.
“The local field officer at the Osaka base is still checking, but the Japanese intel network has also developed major gaps because of the previous incident, so it’s slow going.”
Hoffman rubbed his forehead.
“Ha. Of course it is. Sterling really did leave a glorious pile of shit behind. That old bastard’s a headache.”
Then, after a brief thought, he said, “For now, pass this to Elena. She’s in Korea anyway, so she’s nearby. Tell her to pull this kid in if needed.”
“You mean Lee?”
“Yeah.”
Hoffman answered that and returned his gaze to the report.
He tapped the name Lee Dohyun with a finger and said, “Get DA to put together a package on this guy. Where he was born, how he grew up, who’s around him. Internet search history, card usage records, SNS, text logs—strip the whole thing bare and bring it to me.”
“I’ll submit the request right away.”
Hoffman nodded, then seemed about to wave the man off before stopping short.
As though something had just occurred to him, he asked, “Oh, and how’s the Farm these days? Think we could spare a slot?”
“If you mean Camp Peary... this training cycle is already underway, but I think we can make an unofficial slot.”
The staff member said he’d check.
Hoffman nodded and muttered, “Terrible. We’re too short-handed. I’m seriously dying here.”
In the end, he took a sip of the cold coffee. Then he immediately frowned.
It tasted like stale cigarette ash, maybe a little exaggeratedly so, but the office coffee had always been awful, and now even the one person who actually made decent coffee had vanished because of this mess. That was the most goddamned part of all.