A Splendid Debut (2)
A few days later, a woman in her early thirties visited the law firm.
“Hello. You must be Attorney Kwon Ho-gyun?”
“Yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Yeo Eun-ju from QS Security. The chairman sent me here. He told me to come see Attorney Kwon Ho-gyun, so I assume I’m in the right place?”
This must be the hacker I requested through Chairman Kwon Byung-do. When I thought of a hacker, I had pictured some young guy in a hoodie with earphones in, hands shoved in his pockets, head down, wandering back alleys with a laptop. But the woman standing before me was nothing like that image, and I was mildly surprised. A female hacker in a full suit—black slacks and jacket—with her long hair tied in a ponytail. Still, there was no need to show my surprise, so I extended my hand for a handshake.
“Yes, welcome. It’s a pleasure.”
Yeo Eun-ju took my hand with a slight bow of her head. “Likewise. The chairman said I should hear my assignment from you directly. What exactly will I be doing?”
Ahem.
While we were exchanging greetings, an uncomfortable cough sounded from behind us. I turned to find Oh Il-mu staring at the two of us.
“I’ll explain the details in my office in a moment. This is Attorney Oh Il-mu. Attorney Oh, this is Yeo Eun-ju from QS Security, here to assist us.”
“Hello, I’m Yeo Eun-ju.”
Oh Il-mu didn’t even respond to the introduction. He gave a half-hearted handshake before retreating into his office. Ever since he was humiliated in court, he had been acting this way—waiting to see if I would fail at the task he couldn’t handle. It didn’t matter. I would prove my superiority with results.
I led Yeo Eun-ju into my office and asked a few questions to gauge whether she was someone I could trust with the work.
“I’m not sure if you were told, but I asked QS Security to send me a hacker. Are you capable of hacking?”
Pfft. She let out a small laugh at my question.
“What exactly are you trying to hack? The Blue House? The National Intelligence Service? Or JB Group headquarters? Those would take time, and doing them alone might be a bit much.”
“I may need to breach places like that later, but right now the target is an individual.”
“That’s simple. Everyone gets their SNS or email accounts hacked at some point, right? It’s that easy. For the record, I joined QS Security after winning an international hacking competition. But later? I’m only here on a short assignment.”
“I also need someone skilled in hacking at the firm. Since you’re a competition winner, if this job goes well, would you consider joining us?”
Another soft laugh, this one sounding pleased. “A law firm, huh. The biggest concern for hackers is legal trouble, but working with a law firm would take care of that. As for the offer, I assume the salary would be higher than what I’m making now?”
“Yes. We’ll provide full legal support, and I’m confident we can offer better compensation than your current pay.”
“Sounds good. I was getting bored with the routine work at QS Security anyway. This place seems much more interesting. So, what exactly will I be doing? From what you’ve said, it sounds like this is my entrance exam.”
“Of course.”
* * *
I immediately handed her the information on the swindler Song Jeong-pil that I had received from Choi Sang-seok, president of QS Resort.
“I need all the emails and messages this man has sent and received over the past five months. Is that possible?”
“Who is he?”
“A land tycoon.”
“Doesn’t sound too difficult. It would help if you told me exactly what you’re looking for.”
When I briefly explained the QS Resort land ownership dispute, Yeo Eun-ju nodded quickly in understanding.
“So you need me to focus on the conversations between him and JB Construction’s President Jang Gang-tae—specifically whether money changed hands and whether they plotted to forge a contract termination agreement.”
“Yes, that’s right. How long will it take? The next hearing is only two and a half weeks away.”
“Whew, I thought you needed it today and got nervous for nothing. If I can’t finish in time, I’ll just hand in my resignation.”
She hadn’t produced results yet, but her confidence alone made me want to keep her around. She seemed like someone who would be a great asset, not just for this case but for the future as well.
“That’s a relief. There’s one more thing I’m concerned about—could this hacking be traced?”
“Just like the law you practice, there’s no such thing as 100% certainty in hacking. I can’t say there’s zero chance of getting caught, but if I get traced doing something this simple, I’d have to resign out of sheer embarrassment.”
She could meet the deadline and the risk of detection was extremely low. There was no reason not to proceed.
“Then I’ll leave it in your hands.”
“Understood.”
Afterward, I watched her work for a while. Hacking turned out to be more interesting than I had expected. According to her explanation, she planned to install a keylogging program on Song Jeong-pil’s computer. The program would send her every keystroke he made, and she was particularly after the IDs and passwords he entered when logging in. Once the time she set elapsed, the program would delete itself, leaving no trace. When I asked if it was really that simple, she said creating such a program wasn’t easy. Using publicly available tools would make detection more likely once antivirus software ran, so she always built her own.
Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap.
Yeo Eun-ju stared at the monitor, wielding the mouse like a blade and hammering the keyboard. Watching her, I thought “keyboard warrior” might not always be an insult. That night, she turned to me with a smile.
“I think I’ve got all the files Attorney Kwon was looking for.”
Already? She hadn’t been exaggerating when she said she planned to finish today. I hurried over at the good news.
“May I see?”
“Of course. I pulled them for you. If you need anything else, just let me know. It’s been a while since I stretched my skills—quite fun, actually.”
Scroll. Scroll.
I sat in the chair she vacated and scrolled through the data on the screen. Whoa. This was huge. She had extracted every message exchanged between JB Construction President Jang Gang-tae and the swindler Song Jeong-pil over the past six months. From the way Song Jeong-pil addressed Jang Gang-tae as “senior,” it seemed they had known each other since school. What a waste of a precious connection—using it to stab a company that would soon be mine in the back.
Reading further confirmed my suspicions about how the case had been fabricated. Both Chairman Kwon Byung-do of QS and Chairman Jang Iksu of JB were the type who slept soundly only after landing a blow on the other. While trying to impress his father, Jang Gang-tae heard that his acquaintance Song Jeong-pil had sold land to QS Resort—the very plot JB Construction had been eyeing. He came up with a scheme to handle company business and earn his father’s approval at the same time: wire the land purchase money to Choi Sang-seok’s personal account, forge a contract termination agreement to frame Choi for embezzlement, and claim the land for his own company.
Forging the termination agreement had been simpler than expected. JB Group already possessed QS Group’s document templates, and they simply carved a replica of Choi Sang-seok’s seal. Song Jeong-pil’s signature required no forgery since he could sign it himself. In exchange for participating in the scheme, Jang Gang-tae offered Song Jeong-pil 330 million won—ten percent above the land price. After Song Jeong-pil’s demand, the amount was raised to 350 million won. Thankfully, the message logs even included the bank name and account number Song Jeong-pil had used to receive the money.
The only slight disappointment was the attached files exchanged while forging the termination agreement.
“Yeo Eun-ju?”
“Yes, Attorney Kwon. How’s the data? Do you like it?”
“It’s excellent. I didn’t expect you to find such high-grade information so quickly. But these attached files—can’t we open them?”
“I already downloaded those too. If you have a spare USB, could you lend me one? I’ll put the chat logs and the attachments on it for you.”
“Of course. One moment.”
A short while later, after transferring the hacked data onto a USB drive, Yeo Eun-ju handed it to me and asked, “Does this mean I passed the law firm entrance exam? I’d like to work here—it’s much more exciting than what I do at QS Security.”
“Yes. I’m very satisfied with your work. It’s late, so you should head home. I’ll contact you with good news soon.”
At my answer, Yeo Eun-ju opened her wallet, took out a business card, and offered it. “Please call me directly instead of going through the chairman.”
“Understood. There’s no risk of the hacking being discovered, right?”
She glanced at the watch on her wrist before replying. “Five minutes left until the program I installed deletes itself. After that, every trace will vanish. I’ve also wiped the data cleanly from my own computer with a secure deletion tool. Five minutes from now, the only people who will know how that data ended up in your hands are you and me.”
Impressive. She had even timed the automatic deletion to match her estimated completion. The more I saw, the more I wanted to recruit her. Wasting such talent in a backwater like QS Security would be a shame.
“Thank you. Get home safely. I’ll see you again soon.”
“I’ll be waiting for your call.”
After sending Yeo Eun-ju off and watching Oh Il-mu leave as well, I leaned back in my chair at the now-empty firm and stared at the ceiling. At that moment, I felt certain—this case was one I absolutely would not lose.