First Mission: Divide and Conquer (2)
Early the next morning, at the Crown Hotel headquarters. Jaehyuk, dressed in the suit Seongjun had bought him, arrived for work and took in the interior of the hotel. Around him, hotel staff moved about handling their various tasks. Then his phone buzzed. He checked the message that had come in.
Jaehyuk headed down to the basement. Dozens of Gangryonghoe men affiliated with the Crown Hotel came into view. They stared at him with uneasy expressions, whispering among themselves.
“That’s the guy, right? The one the boss handpicked in Suwon.”
“I heard he took down Manager Kim and Chief Seo.”
“He does look pretty tough. But is it really true he beat Chief Seo?”
It seemed the rumor that Jaehyuk had defeated Seo Myungwoo—Ha Seongjun’s right-hand man—had already spread. The syndicate men were clearly on edge around him. It made sense. Seo Myungwoo, known as Ha Seongjun’s left arm, had been beaten by a nameless street thug. Of course they’d be wary.
Just then, a large thug brushed past Jaehyuk’s shoulder and immediately picked a fight.
“What the hell? Watch where you’re going, rookie.”
So he’s deliberately starting trouble? He must be pretty bothered by the fact I beat Seo Myungwoo. Probably wants to test me himself.
Jaehyuk didn’t back down. He shot back immediately.
“You’re the one who blocked my path. Who the hell are you trying to blame?”
“Ha, instead of apologizing you’re flipping the script on me?”
“Apologize? For what?”
The thug swung a fist at Jaehyuk. Jaehyuk dodged the blows, then threw a left straight at the man’s face. The thug raised his right arm to block. But Jaehyuk followed with a right hook, forcing the man’s attention onto it, then drove his left fist hard into the now-exposed right side of the thug’s ribs.
“Guhk…!!”
The thug clutched his side, staggered, and collapsed. Jaehyuk looked down at him with a mocking smile.
“Want some more?”
When the thug glared up at him, Jaehyuk swept the man’s left leg with a low kick to break his balance, then used a judo reap to hook his left foot behind the thug’s right and slam him to the ground. Once the man was down, Jaehyuk grabbed him and rained punches into his face. The other thugs shouted and watched the fight like it was an MMA match.
“Hey!! Knock it off!! What the hell do you think you’re doing!!!”
At the shout, everyone fell silent at once. Jaehyuk stood up and turned toward the voice.
“Throwing hands first thing in the morning? What a fucking classy way to start the day!! Huh!!!”
Kim Kangshin. Crown Hotel Promotions Director.
At Kangshin’s roar, every thug straightened up like model students. The man stood at an imposing 196 centimeters tall. His already fierce face twisted even more savagely as he adjusted his tie.
“Rookie!! You and I are going to have a little talk later.”
“……Understood.”
“Anyway, we’ve got an exchange with the Katsuyama-gumi scheduled in Busan for a week starting soon. Basically, we’ll be sharing business intel, negotiating smooth transactions, and building rapport. Ten of us will be accompanying the boss.”
He looked directly at Jaehyuk.
“You’re definitely coming along, rookie.”
All eyes turned to Jaehyuk. Kangshin continued, calling out the other names.
“The ten of you will leave for Busan with the boss at four o’clock this afternoon. Don’t think of it as a vacation—think of it as overtime. If you bring me back a present, I’ll be grateful.”
“What should we get?”
“Anything. I hear Samjin Fish Cakes are pretty good. Just saying.”
After ending the briefing, Kangshin gestured for Jaehyuk to follow him aside.
“……Sorry about the disturbance earlier.”
“I didn’t call you over for that, idiot. If someone picks a fight, you beat the shit out of them. You did good. Just don’t do it in front of the boss. He hates it when we fight among ourselves.”
“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Anyway, that’s not why I called you. I’ve got something to tell you. Have you ever met any foreign crews before?”
“Not yet.”
That was what he said, but in his previous life Jaehyuk had encountered numerous overseas organizations—excluding the Red Mafia—while conducting undercover investigations inside Gangryonghoe.
“The Katsuyama-gumi guys we’re meeting this time are active in Korea, especially Busan. They mainly trade pills and weapons with us.”
So they deal primarily in drugs and firearms.
“We’re tied up with them in multiple businesses, so don’t do anything that’ll make them dislike you. Like badmouthing their boss, for example. Anyway, the guys who go along usually get a bonus, so make sure you collect it. Should be around three million won.”
“Yes. Understood. Are we the only ones meeting with the Yakuza in Busan?”
“No. Crown Entertainment and Crown Mu-yeok will be participating too. They said they have business negotiations with the Katsuyama-gumi as well. Pay attention and learn what you can. There’s a lot to pick up from dealing with foreign organizations.”
“Ah… Yes.”
But inside, Jaehyuk thought:
Learn what I can? Bullshit. It’s all just crime.
Kangshin left the room, and Jaehyuk followed him out.
“We’re going to Busan?” Jeonghan asked Yoo Kwangjin.
Kwangjin had a disassembled American Colt R0935 assault rifle laid out on the table and was cleaning it as he answered.
“Yeah. You and Kyungminsoo are coming too. Including other departments, ten people total will accompany the boss.”
“What kind of business do we have with the Katsuyama-gumi?”
“Weapons and contract work.”
While assembling the assault rifle, Kwangjin continued.
“On the weapons side, our import routes aren’t limited to Russia. We also bring stuff in from Southeast Asian cartels through the Jawolbang, and sometimes from the Hawaiian Mafia through the Katsuyama-gumi.”
After fully assembling the rifle, he went on.
“Sometimes the Hawaiian Mafia smuggles weapons that leaked out of the U.S. mainland, so the guns we get from the Katsuyama-gumi tend to be high-end. Things like MP5s or M4s. Occasionally they come with extra accessories too.”
He pointed at the R0935 assault rifle on the table and grinned.
“Just so you know, this short-barreled M4 also came through the Japanese guys from Hawaii.”
“I see. So we receive the weapons directly?”
“No, they all come disassembled and scattered across the country. Bolts from Mokpo, triggers from Busan, magazines from Daejeon—stuff like that. We cycle the parts around, gather them at one location, then ship the complete set here to headquarters.”
I might be able to pick up some clues about the gun trade after all.
Thinking that, Jeonghan asked another question.
“Is the assembly location fixed?”
“No. It changes randomly on a set cycle, but I don’t know the exact details.”
“I see.”
“As for the contract work, let’s use an example. Say the target we’re hired to kill flees to Japan. How do we catch him?”
“Wouldn’t we have to sneak into Japan and do it ourselves?”
Kwangjin shrugged.
“That works, but there’s a more efficient way. You pay a certain amount and outsource it to a local company. In Japan, the local outfit we’re connected to is the Katsuyama-gumi. Of course, they can also hire us. Previously the commission was forty percent of the fee, but we’re planning to negotiate it down to thirty-five percent minimum when we meet them this time.”
Then, as if something had just occurred to him, Kwangjin asked.
“Now that I think about it, you still haven’t received a gun yet, have you, Jeonghan?”
“No, not yet.”
“Then grab one and come with the boss. You’re part of Crown Entertainment now. You should at least have a pistol. Everyone else carries one. It’d be awkward if you were the only one running around with a knife. Follow me.”
He led Jeonghan to the same armory he had shown him before.
“I’ll recommend a few good ones. But didn’t you Special Forces guys shoot every gun under the sun?”
“Some units do, some don’t.”
“Ah, so it depends on the unit.”
A short while later, Kwangjin brought over five boxes, set them on the table in front of Jeonghan, and opened them all to reveal the contents.
“Here we go. From top left to right: Glock 19, SIG P226, H&K VP9, Beretta 92FS, Walther P99 AS. All have a standard fifteen-round capacity, so they’re pretty generous.”
Jeonghan examined the pistols, then pointed at one.
“I’ll take this one.”
“VP9? Good eye. It’s German-made, so the quality is solid. Polymer frame makes it light, and the grip feels great. Standard capacity is fifteen rounds, which is decent, but if you find it lacking, let me know. We have seventeen- and thirty-two-round magazines too. I’ll ask the foreign guys to get some for you later. We’re out of stock on both right now.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“After we get back from Busan, test-fire it. If it feels uncomfortable, tell me. I’ll switch it for something else.”
“Yes.”
Jeonghan took the box containing the pistol and left the armory with Kwangjin.
Some time later, in Busan. Jaehyuk, Seongjun, and the rest of the group arrived at the Crown Mu-yeok headquarters in Busan.
“Is the Crown Mu-yeok headquarters in Busan?”
“Yeah. Not all the subsidiaries have their main offices in Seoul. Crown Construction’s headquarters is in Gwangju.”
While two thugs behind Jaehyuk were chatting, Seongjun asked the Crown Mu-yeok men who had come out to greet them.
“Where’s Director Cha?”
“Well… he’s in a very bad mood right now…”
The man stammered, clearly terrified. Jaehyuk thought, Just as I expected.
He’s probably throwing another tantrum because something didn’t go his way. The problem is how extreme those tantrums get.
“Some poor bastard must have rubbed him the wrong way.”
Seongjun let out a sigh.
“Basement, right?”
“Yes. But Director Cha’s mood is quite…”
“It’s fine. I doubt he’s in a bad enough mood to throw a fit at me too.”
With that, Seongjun started walking. Soon they reached the basement.
Just as disgusting as it was in my previous life.
A thick metallic stench of blood hit Jaehyuk’s nose. The dark basement atmosphere combined with agonized screams echoing from every direction created an undercurrent of subtle terror.
Seongjun opened the door to the room where the screams were coming from. An utterly horrific scene greeted them.
Naked bodies hung upside down in a row. Their stomachs had been split open, spilling yellow fat, chunks of flesh, and blood-soaked organs onto the floor. A man who looked to be in the extreme upper 180s in height with broad shoulders stood with his back to them, manipulating something. The screams came from the man lying in front of him.
At that moment, the man turned around, saw Seongjun, and greeted him.
“Oh, Seongjun. You’re here.”
Cha Junkyung. Representative of Crown Mu-yeok. Ranked 6th in Gangryonghoe.
“What the hell is this mess?”
Seongjun tossed the question out casually, as if this kind of horror was nothing new to him. Junkyung pointed at the man lying on a nearby cot. The man’s tongue had been clamped by a pulley-like device.
“These bastards were badmouthing me at the restaurant I just visited. Said my fashion sense was shit, that I looked pathetic, that I was definitely a virgin loser.”
He slowly turned the pulley. The clamped tongue stretched out longer and longer, dripping thick red blood. The man on the cot let out a blood-curdling scream. Junkyung spun the pulley even faster. With a sickening crunch, roughly twenty to thirty centimeters of the man’s tongue was ripped out, ragged and torn, still caught in the clamp. The man’s eyes rolled back white, blood gushing from his mouth, and he died instantly.
Seongjun’s subordinates who witnessed the nauseating sight were horrified. Even Jaehyuk, who had seen it before, broke into a cold sweat.
I get being pissed off… but that psychotic personality that makes him kill people like this hasn’t changed at all.
“Hmm… Is it taken care of now?”
“Yeah. I pulled his tongue out, so it’s handled. He won’t be spitting out any more disgusting shit.”
Seongjun shook his head. One of his subordinates spoke to him carefully.
“U-um… B-boss… J-just a moment… I feel sick… Urk!!”
“Yeah. Go ahead. Anyone who feels like throwing up, head upstairs. I’ll finish up here and be right—”
Before he could even finish speaking, eight of the ten men Seongjun had brought quickly fled the room. Jaehyuk watched Junkyung casually scan the corpses and recalled an event from his previous life involving the man.
Rain poured down on an abandoned factory. Traces of a fierce gunfight were everywhere. Exhausted, Jaehyuk caught his breath and asked Jeonghan beside him.
“Jeonghan… How many bullets do we have left…?”
He glanced at his Beretta 92FS, its slide locked back after running dry. Jeonghan tossed his empty Walther P99 onto the floor.
“I’m out…”
“Fuck… Why did that bastard have to come after us of all people…”
Jaehyuk looked at Cha Junkyung’s corpse lying in front of him, riddled with over a dozen bullet wounds.
“Shouldn’t we take guns, ammo, and magazines from the dead guys?”
“No time. We can’t afford to search for working ones. And the magazines we can see aren’t compatible with any of the guns that are still intact. The only working guns we have left are these two that are already empty. We can’t use those magazines or bullets with them.”
“Ha… This is fucking bullshit.”
Jaehyuk sighed and cursed. Jeonghan answered helplessly.
“Let’s at least grab some blades and head to the rendezvous point.”
“If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve asked Youngseok, Suho, and Dongchul to bring extra guns.”
“What’s the point of regretting it now? Let’s just go.”
Jaehyuk and Jeonghan started moving. Because they had run out of ammunition in this battle, both of them were killed by Ju Taeyeol in the next fight.
“Hey. Hey.”
Suddenly a gunshot rang out. A bullet grazed Jaehyuk’s temple and embedded itself in the wall behind him. Snapping back to reality at the abrupt shot, Jaehyuk looked forward. Cha Junkyung was aiming a Tokarev TT33 pistol at him, smoke curling from the barrel. He spoke in an irritated tone.
“Why the fuck are you staring at me like that, you piece of shit? When someone calls you, you’re supposed to answer.”
Junkyung pointed the pistol at Jaehyuk’s bleeding temple.
“Hey. Do I look like a fucking joke to you? Is that why you’re ignoring me like this? Huh?”
Shit… How do I get out of this situation…?
Jaehyuk swallowed dryly as he stared at the gun barrel pointed at him. Seongjun’s expression hardened into something truly terrifying.