A Good Proposal
Langley, Virginia, USA. CIA Headquarters.
When Elena walked back into the office for the first time in three months, she immediately felt the unfamiliar mood hanging over the place.
“Long time no see.”
“Hey, Elena. How’s the shoulder?”
“Glad you’re back.”
Her coworkers, people she hadn’t seen in ages, greeted her warmly.
But the office itself was cold and heavy.
More than half of the floor that had been packed to the walls just a month ago was now empty.
Desks stood vacant in rows, and because of it, the whole place felt strangely disordered.
In the three months she’d been away, two massive storms had swept through Langley.
The first was the new director’s sweeping purge, carried out with the arrival of the new administration.
Under the banner of the Deep State, countless veteran agents had their security clearances stripped and were sent packing. Their places were filled by contractors and private-sector operatives in the name of cost-cutting and efficiency.
The second storm had started with Elena herself.
The data she had brought back from Nevada at the risk of her life contained a buried report detailing a severe information leak from the newly recruited civilian workforce.
Thanks to that, the new director’s faction and most of the civilian staff had all been dragged into an investigation.
That was the reason she’d finally been able to come back to Langley.
Elena stood in front of her old desk after all that time.
Dust had settled thickly over the monitor. When she slowly brushed it away with her finger, a smear was left behind on the screen.
“How does it feel, being back at your own desk?”
A familiar voice came from behind her.
It was a little rough around the edges, with a rhythm of its own, and carried that unmistakably husky timbre.
“Home sweet home. There’s no place like it.”
Smiling, Elena turned around.
David Hoffman. Her boss, and the CIA’s acting Deputy Director of Operations, was grinning back at her.
His wrinkled white shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and he had a thick stack of files tucked under one arm.
“Still the same, Dave.”
Messy gray hair. A face worn down by exhaustion. A scruffy beard. Everything was just as she remembered.
Only now, after not seeing his face for months, the shadows under his eyes seemed even deeper.
“Can you believe this? It’s only been four months since the new director took office, and look at the place.”
Dave let out a long sigh as he looked over the empty office.
“This headquarters is a complete wreck.”
“What about East Asia?”
“Wiped out. The field personnel who can actually operate are practically gone, and the intelligence network’s frozen solid.”
The East Asia branch had been hit hardest by the leak in this incident.
There were plenty of people implicated, and plenty more who needed to be cut loose. In the end, all that was left were empty desks.
“Still, you managed to make it back alive. The chase team must’ve been vicious.”
At his words, Elena shrugged.
“There was just this… interesting little incident. I got lucky.”
“What kind of incident?”
Dave narrowed his eyes in curiosity, but Elena said nothing more.
An incident, huh…
The unreal sight she had witnessed at the desert diner.
The movements of that Asian man crushing six armed mercenaries with his bare hands.
Whether that had truly been some trivial little incident, or something far bigger.
I’m going to find out starting now.
***
The hellish three weeks in Nonsan were finally over.
My hair was still cropped short and scratchy, and that alone felt weird, but what mattered most was getting out of that sweat-soaked training camp.
I was only there for three weeks and it already makes my teeth grind.
Thankfully, the training itself hadn’t been difficult.
Thanks to my steady exercise and inner power, I’d scored full marks in both the physical tests and marksmanship.
It wasn’t a big deal, but I even got a commendation as the representative recruit.
After the reserve training ended, I was sent to the Central Job Training Center.
Here, I had to wait for my posting while taking job-related classes.
Of course, there was only one thought in my head the whole time.
Come on, please… please don’t let it be an island. Please…
The posting for public health doctors was assigned randomly by lottery.
It was a slim chance, but sometimes people got dumped on an island or in some remote backwater.
“We’ll take a short break.”
The instant the instructor said that, I headed for the restroom.
As I walked down the hallway, a man approaching from the opposite side blocked my path.
“Are you Doctor Lee Dohyun?”
He wore a dark navy suit and had his hair neatly combed back.
At a glance he looked Korean, but his eyes and bone structure made it obvious he was mixed-race.
“...Yes, that’s me.”
“Would you come with me for a moment?”
“Huh? I’m in the middle of training right now.”
Ignoring me completely, he reached into his jacket and showed me an ID.
There was a photo, a name, and the seal of the U.S. Department of State stamped at the top of the card.
So, as expected, he was someone from the American embassy.
The bold letters U.S. on the card left me speechless.
“I’ve already spoken with the training center. There won’t be any problems, so let’s go.”
Since he said America, a memory flashed through my mind.
The Nevada desert. Men carrying guns. A woman with blue eyes.
...No way.
A bad feeling slid down my spine.
With a guilty little prickling in my gut, I quietly followed the man to the back courtyard of the training center.
The April sunlight poured down brilliantly over the yard.
In one corner of the parking lot, where green leaves rustled overhead, a black sedan was waiting for me.
The windows were tinted so darkly that I couldn’t see inside.
“It’s not far. Get in.”
The man opened the back door and said that much.
I let out a short breath and climbed inside.
***
The car took me to the underground parking garage of a luxury officetel in downtown Seoul.
I had to switch elevators twice, swipe a key card, and go through a fingerprint scan.
By then, irritation had given way to curiosity. What on earth had brought me here?
“This way, please.”
Following the man’s lead, I stepped inside.
It was a wide, spotless living room. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass, the city of Seoul spread out in full view.
The Han River glittered silver in the sunlight, and far off in the distance, the silhouette of Namsan Tower stood sharp and clear. A place like this probably cost several million won a month in rent.
Someone was waiting for me on the sofa in the middle of the room.
A blonde woman, sitting with her long legs crossed as she read through some documents.
Ah… damn it.
Her hair was tied up neatly, and she wore a crisp blouse with black slacks.
Unlike the last time I’d seen her, there was color in her face now, and she looked much brighter overall.
Then, slowly, those deep blue eyes turned to me.
“Long time no see, Dohyun. You look much younger with your hair cut. It suits you.”
She flashed me a bright smile and greeted me.
It was Elena.
“...I didn’t expect to run into you here again, Elena.”
“You remembered me. I’m glad. It’s nice seeing you again, too.”
With looks that striking, she wasn’t easy to forget.
Watching her speak so calmly, I let out a helpless laugh.
“Looks like you were a bigger deal than I thought. Bringing the U.S. embassy into this and all.”
Even when I spoke with a sarcastic edge, Elena didn’t seem bothered at all. She just smiled.
“Thanks to you. Thank you, Dohyun.”
With that, she placed something on the table. It was an ID.
The words Central Intelligence Agency were stamped clearly across it.
“Let me introduce myself properly. You probably guessed it already, but I’m not a civilian. I’m a CIA agent.”
Elena gestured for me to sit on the sofa opposite her.
Then, in a gentle voice, she added, “I told you I’d repay you for helping me back then. I meant it. That’s why I came looking for you.”
“I think I already got enough compensation back then. In the form of your contact info and having my records cleaned up.”
With that blunt retort, I flopped down onto the sofa.
Even after my rude tone, Elena propped her chin in her hand and smiled, her eyes curving into crescents.
“Of course. That day, you took a bus from LA to Las Vegas and arrived safely without a single problem. You weren’t caught up in any incident along the way, and there’s no record of you at all. Perfectly clean.”
She counted off on her fingers as she continued.
“Once you got to Las Vegas, you stopped by a pharmacy and bought some pain patches and painkillers… ah, and you ate at Shake Shack. You even enjoyed the casino a little. Then you returned to Korea after a very ordinary, very pleasant trip.”
Her tone made it sound as if she’d been watching me every step of the way.
Before I knew it, my voice had gone cold.
“...You investigated me?”
“Not on purpose.”
Elena waved her hand with an apologetic look.
“I was only checking things to make sure you wouldn’t get dragged into anything while I cleaned up the records. I had to work pretty hard to erase everything as neatly as possible.”
“Then I suppose that should’ve been the end of it. You didn’t need to come all the way to Korea for this.”
I started to stand.
At that moment, Elena slid a tablet PC across the table toward me.
“...I looked into it a little before you came.”
A map appeared on the screen.
Cheongsando, in Wando County, South Jeolla Province.
“This is your posting. The residence was built thirty years ago, and apparently the air conditioner’s broken too.”
It was the worst possible place, exactly the kind I’d been praying against.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Why are you showing me this?”
“I told you. I came to repay you. I’m here to make you a good offer.”
Elena held out a document envelope.
The words on the cover caught my eye.
[ROK–U.S. Joint Medical Security Project - Medical Advisory Contract]
***
While Dohyun skimmed the contract, Elena calmly continued her explanation.
“Officially, you’d still retain your public health doctor status while being dispatched to the Medical Staff Office under the U.S. Forces Korea command. In reality, though, you’d be working as outsourced personnel for the CIA, mostly in East Asia.”
“...But this says medical advisory.”
“That’s just the title.”
Elena answered lightly and looked him straight in the eye.
“We need someone who can be our eyes and hands in East Asia. Someone who can quickly assess the situation on the ground and respond with the best possible choice. After what you showed me in Nevada, I think you’d be more than capable.”
Dohyun flipped through the contract without saying a word.
“If you sign this, this officetel will become your workplace. It’s one of the safe houses managed by the CIA.”
Elena gestured toward the Seoul skyline beyond the glass wall and muttered, “For the record, this place is pretty expensive.”
The corner of Dohyun’s mouth twitched faintly.
Whether he was holding back a laugh or just stunned, it was hard to tell.
“You’d be paid a salary in U.S. dollars every month, based on the standard rate for a military doctor. If you’re sent on a business trip, travel expenses and danger pay would be separate. And, most importantly…”
As she spoke, Elena let her words trail off for a moment and looked at Dohyun.
Honestly, this was the trump card she had prepared to convince him.
“We’ve already finished negotiating with the Korean side so that your service period can be shortened depending on your performance. What do you think?”
She could see Dohyun’s eyes wavering. Of course they were.
Three years as a public health doctor versus the chance to earn in dollars from a luxury officetel in the middle of Seoul, with early discharge potentially on the table too. It was obviously an appealing offer.
“Hmm…”
Watching him fall into thought, Elena found herself growing a little sentimental.
His short-cropped hair made his features seem even sharper.
But seen this closely, he really did look like an ordinary young man in his twenties.
And the records were perfectly clean, too.
He’d had excellent grades in Korean medicine school.
He’d been exercising seriously ever since the year he entered, six years ago.
Beyond that, there was nothing unusual. Nothing at all.
And yet the owner of that perfectly ordinary record had subdued six armed agents with his bare hands.
It makes no sense.
In fact, getting these conditions approved had been a real struggle.
Her superior’s response had naturally been cold when she proposed registering an unverified civilian as an asset.
But Elena trusted her instincts.
The movement he had shown that night in the diner was absolutely not ordinary.
If he could show even half of that ability again, he might be able to fill at least some of the void left in the devastated East Asia branch.
“All right. But…”
After thinking it over for a long time, Dohyun picked up the pen and muttered, “I’d like to be able to end this contract whenever I want. I wouldn’t mind going back to life as a public health doctor. I don’t really want to do anything too dangerous.”
Elena smiled.
“Of course. Officially, you’d only be serving as a consultant, and if anything went wrong, we’d be in trouble too. We just need someone who can operate naturally in East Asia.”
It wasn’t a lie.
She had no intention of assigning him anything grand right away.
She just planned to learn a little more about this man, bit by bit.
What he could do, what kind of abilities he had.
...And whether he was truly someone she could trust.
Before long, Dohyun had written his name in the signature line.
The scratch of the pen echoed softly through the quiet living room.
“Good. Looks like we’ll be working together.”
Elena smiled brightly and extended her hand to him.
He took it.
“I’ll be in your care.”
“Likewise.”
Now then, she had the piece she wanted in hand.
It was time to start playing the game.
---