The Noose Draws Tight
"...A close associate of Joo Sung-cheon?"
"He was the political desk chief back when I was a rookie reporter at the Daehan Ilbo. And he was also the man who single-handedly buried every article and every request related to the incident fifteen years ago. Everything your husband reported was cut off at his desk, too."
Fifteen years ago.
Back when the resistance of Tae-jun and Lee Seo-hyun had been crushed flat under the weight of money and power, Kim Young-hwan had become the errand boy of Joo Min-ho's father, Joo Sung-cheon, presiding over one pillar of the media blackout.
Which was to say, this man was by no means unconnected to Tae-jun's vengeance.
"Honestly... I won't pretend there wasn't some intent behind it. This man is a target for your husband's retribution, but he's an enemy of mine as well."
It was why she had suggested the MZ gangsters as prey for Tae-jun, who needed quarry — and, among them, the 21st Century Gwanak Gang, the outfit entangled with Kim Young-hwan.
It wasn't the whole reason, but she could hardly claim there was no intent at all.
"I'm sorry. I should have told you in advance..."
"Excellent."
"...I'm sorry?"
Seo-hyun watched his face anxiously. But Tae-jun paid it no mind.
On the contrary, he praised her choice.
"What did I say just a moment ago?"
"Fear is... most effective the closer it gets?"
The moment she answered, Seo-hyun understood what he was driving at.
If, with every opportunity, you start peeling away the outer edges of the circle of people connected to the incident fifteen years ago...
At some point, they would notice.
They would notice the noose that had begun to settle against the napes of their necks.
The six devils — and the parents who had spawned them.
"Do you understand now?"
"Yes. I know exactly what you mean."
"Mm."
Tae-jun murmured as his gaze returned to the dossier of information on Kim Young-hwan.
"We start with this one."
Seo-hyun answered with equal vigor, gathering up the pack in front of her.
"Then I'll do what I can do on my end. This time the target's a fairly big fish, so..."
Still.
If there was one problem—
"...Um, oppa?"
"Speak."
"I hate to ask, but could you carry this for me...?"
The cash was manageable somehow.
The problem was the backpack stuffed with gold bars.
"...Ah."
Tae-jun understood in an instant and lifted the pack of gold. It was a weight that was simply impossible for his sister-in-law to carry, in every conceivable way.
"What exactly is this supposed to be?"
A luxurious villa in Gapyeong.
At the arrival of what was now commonly known as the Shadow Joint Investigation Task Force, National Assemblyman Kim Young-hwan asked with visible displeasure.
"We could not rule out the possibility that you yourself might become a target of the Shadow. Therefore, we intend to secure your safety first before moving to arrest this criminal known as Shadow, which is why we've imposed on you at this late hour—"
"No, no, that's not the point."
Kim Young-hwan cut off Team Leader Kang Hyung-joon mid-sentence and spoke in a voice dripping with authority.
"What do you lot think you're going to accomplish all by yourselves?"
"...Pardon?"
"How many of you are there? Twenty?"
"To be precise, the task force consists of four detectives and twenty officers from the police special assault unit—"
"Twenty-odd men, and you expect to catch anyone?"
"..."
"Can you even protect me properly?"
That was the source of Kim Young-hwan's displeasure.
Frankly, whether they caught the Shadow or not was beside the point. The only question that mattered to him was whether they could actually keep him safe.
Viewed through that lens, the number twenty-four was deeply unsatisfying.
"...The police special assault unit has been deployed as security personnel for those judged most likely to be targeted, which is why we had to ration our numbers. But every one of them is armed with automatic weapons and counter-terrorism equipment, so you may rest assured."
In truth, even twenty men was an extraordinary allocation. If the Shadow had named a specific target in advance, that would be one thing — but committing twenty special assault officers to a man on mere speculation? Without the exceptional nature of the Shadow case, it would have been flatly impossible.
"Tch. If only I could believe that."
Even so, Kim Young-hwan remained dissatisfied. Perhaps it was the situation — his life under threat — but the man no longer bothered to wear even the thinnest mask of the dutiful congressman he'd cultivated for the cameras. He tipped back the whiskey sitting on the table and drained it.
"Um, Assemblyman."
Team Leader Kang Hyung-joon spoke to him cautiously.
"As I mentioned, our task force and the special assault unit have prepared an operational plan."
"So what?"
"To execute that plan smoothly, we would need you to release the personnel you've arranged—"
"You're telling me to send my boys outside away?"
"...I'm afraid that would be for the best."
The reason Kim Young-hwan had hidden himself at this villa rather than his own home might have looked, at a glance, like an ideal setup for becoming the Shadow's target. In reality, it was anything but.
He had already pulled no fewer than twenty detectives from the Gwanak Police Station to serve as his bodyguards, and had even mobilized organized criminals, positioning them throughout the villa grounds.
To the task force and the special assault unit, it was a deployment that could only get in the way.
"How am I supposed to trust you people? You couldn't catch the killer while all those people were dying — couldn't even figure out who he is or why he's doing it."
"I completely understand your feelings, Assemblyman. But this is precisely when you need to trust us—"
"Now you're just talking nonsense."
"..."
"Hey. Kang Hyung-joon, was it? Team leader?"
"Yes, Assemblyman."
Kim Young-hwan made a point of confirming his name, then wet his throat with whiskey and went on.
"I clawed my way up here on gut instinct alone. And that instinct is telling me something right now. If you send those boys outside, you're all dead — every last one of us, finished. Do not, and I mean never, trust a word you people say."
"..."
"I intend to live. Even if it's not the Shadow that comes for me but King Yeomra himself, I intend to live~ you hear me?"
"..."
"So forget all this comfort-talk about operations and whatnot. Hmm? Use the bastards outside as shields, use them as bait, do whatever you like — just keep me safe. I don't need anything else. Protect this Kim Young-hwan, and I'll take responsibility for dragging you all the way up the ladder. So, Team Leader Kang Hyung-joon—"
"..."
"You can see the Gwanak station chief standing sentry out there, can't you? That's a man who spent his whole career pocketing petty cash through the back door, and I'm the one who put him in that chair. When he retires? I've already secured him a seat at a very respectable law firm."
"..."
"If I can promise even that halfwit a comfortable retirement, just imagine how far I can carry our Detective Kang Hyung-joon, already leading a joint task force on a case this grave."
"..."
"Think it over carefully, and when you've reached a decision, act accordingly."
Kim Young-hwan's attitude had long since left arrogance behind entirely. Of the devoted family-man image he had built up through the media, not a trace remained.
"...Understood, Assemblyman. Then please rest."
Realizing that reasoning with the man was hopeless, Kang Hyung-joon withdrew from the villa and spoke with the special assault unit commander, his expression grave. With Kim Young-hwan behaving this way, revising the operation was unavoidable.
"I could maybe swallow the Gwanak detectives, but what kind of operation are we supposed to run with gangsters in the mix?"
The reaction from the special assault unit was perfectly understandable. But there were others growing heated as well.
"What did you just call us? Watch your mouth."
"You're a public official, mind your language. You're fouling the mood of every gangster within earshot."
The mobsters Kim Young-hwan had pulled in were every bit as full of grievances.
"What? You miserable punk sons of bitches, who do you think you're—"
"That's enough. Enough. We'll speak to the Assemblyman and get your lot withdrawn somehow, so—"
An uneasy cohabitation between police personnel and mobsters, with Team Leader Kang Hyung-joon attempting to mediate between them.
"...Huh?"
That was when it happened.
"Is that... fog?"
"No. That's not fog, that's—"
A pitch-black mist — or darkness itself — began to creep and unfurl across the villa grounds. And it was a flow they had all seen time and again on the security footage from the Shadow's crime scenes.
"...The villa! Everyone into the villa! It's the Shadow!"
This was the moment immediately before the Shadow's appearance — a kind of harbinger phenomenon, so to speak.
Which meant Kim Young-hwan was in danger.
CRASH!
At the command, every officer of the special assault unit stormed into the villa. The living room where Kim Young-hwan sat was already drowning in the bizarre darkness the Shadow had spread.
How on earth did he get in? There shouldn't be so much as a rat-sized gap he could slip through...
No exaggeration — every conceivable kind of personnel was guarding the villa, inside and out. So how had he made his way in?
...No. Now is not the time to be wondering that.
Team Leader Kang Hyung-joon swiftly donned his night-vision goggles. Every officer of the special assault unit did the same — the conclusion drawn from the Shadow's crime scenes, where darkness always swallowed the light.
"Ggh—kk!"
The two mobsters standing guard nearby were already sprawled on the floor. Kim Young-hwan, too, was in the grip of a faceless assailant, a hand clamped on the back of his neck.
Kang Hyung-joon leveled his pistol and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Halt! Hands above your head! If you fail to comply within three seconds, we open fire!"
He didn't know how the man had gotten in, but that no longer mattered — what mattered was that he was surrounded. Special assault officers and detectives at his front, and behind him nothing but walls without a single window. Whatever tricks he might have, there was no way out of here.
At least, Kang Hyung-joon was absolutely certain of it.
But.
CRACK!
The assailant paid Kang Hyung-joon's warning no mind whatsoever.
He snapped Kim Young-hwan's neck with nothing but the grip of his hand.
Psssssssss...
And then something astonishing unfolded before their eyes.
Kim Young-hwan's freshly broken body was... crumbling?
Is that... is that what happened to the corpses at the other scenes?
Only now did Team Leader Kang Hyung-joon grasp the truth behind the Shadow's crime scenes. His mind churned for a moment — and then he forced a decision, fast.
He could not let him escape here. He had to catch him, whatever it took. If capture was impossible, then shoot him dead.
"Open fire!"
The instant Kang Hyung-joon gave the order, gunshots erupted — rounds meant to take down the Shadow. Suppressive fire, abandoning any pretense of taking him alive.
And yet what they witnessed next defied belief.
Fluidization
The assailant who had been plainly visible through their night-vision goggles only a heartbeat before vanished in an instant. They scanned the room — nothing. He was simply gone, swallowed between one blink and the next.
"Th-this... what on earth..."
And it wasn't only Team Leader Kang Hyung-joon who was stricken with disbelief. Every single person who had stormed into the villa felt exactly the same thing.
What was happening right now? Could what they had just witnessed possibly be real?
"Ugh... UAAAAAAGH...!"
"What the hell is this guy?! WHAT IS HE...!"
"S-save... m...!"
Then, at that very moment, screams rang out from beyond the villa walls.
The screams of the mobsters Kim Young-hwan had gathered.
"Now what the—!"
By the time the special assault unit rushed outside, everything was already over. The mobsters who had abandoned their posts to flee instead of protecting Kim Young-hwan had been slaughtered.
Every last one. Not a single man spared.
"...Ha. Haha."
An utterly surreal situation. All Kang Hyung-joon could manage within it was a hollow, broken laugh.
And then—
"What... what in God's name are we up against?"
There was nothing left in him but a vast, bottomless despair.