Hong Kong Business Trip (1)
His left foot came straight for my solar plexus.
I twisted my body at once, letting the kick slide past me to the outside. In the same motion, I caught the instant his foot cut through empty air.
I stepped in off that left leg, locked my arms around his waist, and drove him flat onto the mat.
Back mount.
He thrashed, trying to wriggle free, but both my legs were already cinched tight around his torso.
Less than two seconds later, his hand slapped the mat in surrender.
“Haa... that’s enough for today.”
The gym owner peeled off his headgear and let out a rough breath.
After the two of us had burned through three straight rounds of five-minute sparring, we were both drenched in sweat.
I was still lying flat on the floor when the owner got to his feet and spoke.
“Dohyun, you really don’t want to join the fighter team?”
There it was again.
It had only been two weeks since I signed up, and this was already the fourth time he’d asked.
“If you’re in the right weight class, you could step into an amateur match right away, and you’d probably get a pro license in no time. Man, what a waste. With instincts like yours, you could even aim for the pro circuit.”
His eyes were earnest.
My answer, naturally, was no.
“Haha, if I started doing martial arts now, I think my parents’ hearts would break. I should be a dutiful son.”
I laughed as I said it and took off my gloves.
“Besides, if I open a clinic someday, send everyone from the gym my way. I’ll give you all a special discount on sports rehab. I’m seriously good with acupuncture.”
“Ha. This bastard really is something. Always finding a way to dodge it.”
He clicked his tongue in disappointment, patted my shoulder, and walked off.
A few of the members who’d been watching from beside the ring gave me a thumbs-up.
I just bowed my head slightly and headed for the shower. There was no need to stand out any more than necessary.
As the water hammered down over me, I thought back over the last two weeks.
After I made the deal with Elena, I really had been officially reassigned to the United States Forces Korea command.
That gave me a believable excuse for staying in Seoul when I talked to my parents.
Technically, the paperwork was real, so it wasn’t even a lie.
I still have to stay on call in case I get summoned, though...
Which meant I still couldn’t go back to the family home in Cheongju.
Still, compared with the old quarters on that island, this high-end officetel in the middle of Seoul was heaven.
Best of all, I didn’t have to worry about maintenance fees, and I could even see the night view of the Han River through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Not bad at all.
More than anything, Elena hadn’t contacted me once in those two weeks.
To be honest, I’d been tense at first, wondering what kind of work she’d bring me into, but when nothing happened, I gradually settled in.
I’d wake up, work out, eat, drink coffee.
Sometimes I’d flip through a few books on Korean medicine and fall asleep. That kind of unemployed life wasn’t so bad.
The pay came in on time, too. These days, I honestly felt like I could live this way forever.
And once I realized I had time to spare—
The first thing I did was sign up for this mixed martial arts gym.
There was something I’d learned the hard way in America.
No matter how vivid the memories from my past life were, they meant nothing if I didn’t actually train with my body.
I had to awaken the feel of fighting by striking, being struck, and rolling around in the dirt.
I thought this life would go by without me ever having to throw a punch again.
So for two weeks I trained like a man possessed, rebuilding everything from the basics.
Best of all, learning modern combat sports properly had been the biggest gain of all.
It was a more economical, more efficient way of moving, stripped clean of every unnecessary motion.
It was a completely different world from the martial arts I knew from my past life.
Feels like my body’s finally starting to move the way I want it to.
I was wiping myself off and getting dressed when my phone buzzed.
One look at the message and the good mood I’d been in dropped like a stone.
[South Korea-United States Health Security Cooperation Unit, East Asia Task Force]
The Hong Kong business trip schedule for the local market survey has been finalized.
Detailed information will be provided by the local contact. Please review your schedule.
On the surface, it looked like an ordinary work notice.
But the meaning hidden inside it was clear enough.
I draped a towel around my neck and let out a short sigh.
So much for the unemployed life.
***
Hong Kong International Airport.
The moment I stepped off the plane, the humid, sticky air wrapped itself around my skin.
It was nothing like Seoul’s pleasant spring weather. By late April, Hong Kong was already in early summer.
The inside of my clothes turned clammy in an instant.
“Ugh. Disgustingly humid.”
Once I passed through the gate, a wall of noise surged in from every direction, Cantonese and English and Mandarin all tangled together.
Under the sweeping structure of the terminal ceiling, thousands of people flowed past each other in a constant rush.
After immigration, I came out into the arrivals hall.
Beyond the sea of heads, drivers stood in rows holding placards with names on them.
I’d hoped, for a second, that mine might be there, but of course it wasn’t.
Suddenly, I remembered the phone call I’d had with Elena before departure.
“There’s a deal being handled at headquarters, and all you need to do is accompany the meeting and stay in the room. A staff member who’s worked in the Hong Kong branch for a long time will come pick you up. Just follow his instructions, Lee. I’ll explain the details to you on site.”
She hadn’t said a single direct thing about this trip.
At a glance, it sounded like the kind of briefing you’d get for a business trip at a trading company.
In the end, the key point was simple.
Something was going on in Hong Kong.
My job was just to go along and keep my seat warm.
And that I wouldn’t be in danger. That part matters most.
I looked around the hall once more, but there was still no sign of anyone coming to meet me.
Was I being left to fend for myself right from the airport?
Tap.
Someone came up behind me and patted my shoulder.
I turned and found an Asian man standing there.
Short black hair cut close. A lean face with prominent cheekbones and a sharp jawline.
He was about half a handspan shorter than me, with a wiry build, though the shoulders under his jacket looked hard and solid.
He was staring at me with dark, shadowed eyes.
He looked like an ordinary office worker you’d see anywhere in Hong Kong, but his eyes were different.
Bright, alert, and full of wariness, like a hunting dog sizing up prey.
“Lee?”
Just one short word.
Lee. My English cover name.
“Yes, that’s me.”
When I nodded, the man slowly looked me up and down.
Height, build, hands, posture. He inspected me with the meticulous care of someone appraising merchandise.
Then his gaze stopped on my face, and he clicked his tongue in clear dissatisfaction.
“...Come on. The car’s outside.”
Marcus Cheng.
A veteran case officer who had survived twelve years in the Hong Kong branch.
Elena had said he was highly capable.
Just looking at the back of his head was enough to tell me exactly what kind of opinion he had of me.
***
We left the airport and headed into the city.
After crossing the Lantau Bridge, the Hong Kong skyline unfolded before us.
Trams moved slowly between tightly packed skyscrapers, and the narrow roads were crowded with signs in both Chinese characters and English jutting out in every direction.
A different kind of density from Seoul. The buildings were jammed so close together they seemed to have forgotten how to breathe, and in between them people moved at a brisk pace.
Marcus took the wheel of a Toyota sedan and threaded us through the maze of lanes with practiced ease before speaking.
“Burns said a lot of good things about you.”
Burns.
Elena’s last name.
“Since Burns vouched for you, and headquarters recommended you, I didn’t bother refusing. But...”
Marcus shot a glance at me from the passenger seat.
“Don’t get it twisted. You’re backup on this job. You just watch. Don’t do anything unless I tell you to. All you need to do is breathe. You get me?”
His tone was sharp enough to cut glass.
Not hostile, exactly, but edged with the hard clean lines of a man who believed in procedure.
He didn’t seem thrilled about bringing someone he didn’t know into the field.
“Of course. I’ll do exactly what I’m told.”
Don’t do anything? That was the best news I’d heard all day.
I was thrilled, honestly.
My immediate answer seemed to surprise him, and Marcus narrowed his eyes.
For a moment, silence hung between us as if he were weighing something.
“...I’ve worked with Burns before, so I know her pretty well. She’s never had bad judgment when it comes to people. Just don’t cause trouble. For now.”
He seemed to loosen up, just a little.
Looking out the windshield, he began to explain.
“The situation’s simple. A piece of property leaked out from headquarters, and it’s in Hong Kong now. The people holding it are willing to deal. We just pay the money and take the item. Easy.”
Marcus spoke in a flat, matter-of-fact voice.
Just the essentials, no fluff.
I could already see the shape of his personality.
“The other side’s already agreed in principle. The deal date hasn’t been set yet, but it’ll probably be within two or three days. Everything up to here has already been reported back to headquarters.”
He paused for a moment, then continued.
“For now, we’re going to look over the site and the surrounding area before that happens. You’ve probably never been around here, so just come with me.”
He said it lightly, but the meaning was clear.
If I was backup, I needed at least a basic understanding of the area and the situation.
“Understood.”
I nodded and looked out the window.
Across Victoria Harbour, the skyline of Hong Kong Island glowed red in the evening light.
Doing nothing sounded great. Really, it did.
But there were too many things nagging at me to relax completely.
Most of all, there was the holster under Marcus’s linen jacket.
And naturally, something heavy was tucked inside it.
He said this was already a settled deal.
If the deal was really that simple, why would he need to carry a gun?
Something Marcus hadn’t said was setting off alarms in my instincts.
***
The car stopped in Sham Shui Po on the Kowloon side.
Never heard of it? Of course I hadn’t either until I came here.
The glittering skyscrapers I’d seen earlier were nowhere in sight.
This wasn’t one of the city’s showcase districts; it was just an old residential neighborhood, far removed from all that.
Along the narrow alleyways stood rows of aging five- and six-story tong lau buildings packed in so tightly they seemed to lean on one another.
Laundry hung from every window, and tangled power lines webbed overhead like spider silk.
At the mouth of one alley, a street vendor was frying something in oil, and the smell drifted out in greasy waves.
Mixed into it were the fishy stink of seafood and the sour reek of mold.
“Hm...”
I was still pausing to look around when Marcus rolled down his window and pointed at one of the buildings with his chin.
“If you were expecting some glittering hotel, sorry to disappoint you. But from a security standpoint, this place beats a luxury hotel. There aren’t many cameras around here, and nobody gives a damn if another unfamiliar Asian guy shows up.”
Whoosh.
Marcus tossed me a key.
“Room 302. Get settled and rest up. I’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning.”
Before I could say a word, the window went back up.
The car slid out of the narrow alley and disappeared in an instant.
Just like that, I was left alone.
“He really did dump me here.”
The humid night air wrapped around the back of my neck.
Somewhere nearby, mahjong tiles clicked and clacked without end, and from upstairs came the sound of someone shouting in the middle of a nasty argument.
The only light in the alley came from the fluorescent glow spilling out of a convenience store on the ground floor, barely enough to push back the darkness.
I shifted my bag on my shoulder and looked up at the old building.
Rust-stained railings. Cracked exterior walls. Window frames with the paint peeling away.
It was a world away from the gleaming officetels in Seoul.
“...A hell of a first day on the job.”
Muttering to myself, I stepped inside.
The stairwell was narrow and dark. One flickering fluorescent light buzzed overhead.
With every step I climbed, dampness seemed to seep out of the concrete walls.
Third floor. Room 302.
I turned the key and opened the door.
Click.
It was a cramped studio room.
An old bed, a small refrigerator, and through the window, the wall of the building across from me.
That was it.
I set my bag down and sat on the bed.
The springs gave a squeaky protest in the quiet room.
“Haa... There won’t be cockroaches, right?”
Everything else was fine, but please. Anything but cockroaches.
Clinging to that desperate prayer, I lay back on the bed.
---