Episode 10
— — —
10. Coffee and Footsteps
— — —
The harbor was churning. Ji-seul leaned her weary body against the breakwater and pulled out a cigarette. She fished a cheap karaoke lighter from her pocket and clicked it.
*Click.*
But it didn't light. That was to be expected. After being battered by such a storm, there was no way the lighter would be in working order. The flint and the fuel line were soaked through, completely dead.
*Click, click, click.*
“...Sigh.”
Giving up, Ji-seul sat down on a protruding piece of concrete with the unlit cigarette still between her lips. She stared blankly ahead.
The harbor, now that the rain had stopped, was beautiful in a way that felt like a lie. The surface was black and deep, with moonlight shattered into sparkling fragments across it. It looked like another Milky Way bestowed upon humanity by the heavens.
Yet, into that tranquil sea, a thick line of wire descended like an umbilical cord.
“Pull!”
*Whirrrr—* The crane winch began to rotate with a low mechanical groan. The wire pulled taut, and two crushed cars were dragged up from the dark blue depths. They were the cars belonging to Choi Yong-deok and Jae-hak.
It felt like a surreal sight, Ji-seul thought.
“Is it about done over here, too?”
She turned to see Sang-jun trudging toward her. He must have had a rough time as well; the Silla Construction uniform he wore was slick with the blood and viscera of a Pale Skin. It was a rare sight to see Sang-jun, who always kept his appearance perfectly groomed, looking this disheveled.
“Ahahaha.”
“...Hey. You don’t exactly look like a fashion plate yourself.”
As Ji-seul burst into laughter, Sang-jun grumbled weakly.
“Where’s the rookie?”
“Over there.”
Ji-seul pointed behind her. Seong Jae-hak was lying unconscious in a medical tent that had been set up in a hurry.
“Wow, he actually survived.”
“It was close.”
Seong Jae-hak, Sergeant Jang Jeong-woo, and Choi Yong-deok had been rescued moments ago by the safety divers at Incheon Port. It was thanks to Team Leader Park Hyo-seok at headquarters, who hadn't hesitated to pull strings with the Incheon Port authorities to order the rescue operation.
They said it would have been extremely dangerous if they had been even a little later, or if it had been the East Sea, where the water was much deeper.
“He’s a strange one.”
Han Sang-jun said, looking down at the unconscious Seong Jae-hak.
“...I know.”
Ji-seul recalled the moment Seong Jae-hak was carried out of the sea. The way his hand had grabbed her sleeve just as they were trying to lay him down carefully in the medical tent.
*By my side.*
With a face trembling from hypothermia, that was what Seong Jae-hak had asked.
*The soldier who was by my side, is she...*
Only after she had reassured him several times that the Sergeant was fine—that although he had lost a lot of blood, his life was not in danger—did Seong Jae-hak seem relieved enough to lose consciousness. Ji-seul wondered why that haggard face lingered in her memory so vividly, and why it felt so pitiful.
A man whose parents and friends were killed. Is someone who worries about the safety of a person he met for the first time today, rather than the whereabouts of his enemy, a saint?
Or is he someone who has been broken somewhere along the way?
— — —
* * *
— — —
The interrogation of Department Head Choi Yong-deok took place the following morning. To ensure the prisoner didn't have time to concoct an elaborate lie, it was standard practice to conduct interrogations as early as possible.
“Permanent marker, permanent marker... Ah, there it is.”
It went without saying that Jae-hak could not participate in the interrogation process. The regular agents were the same. For reasons of confidentiality and security, access to the interrogation room was granted only to Team Leader Park Hyo-seok and the squad leaders. Jae-hak could only guess that they were using methods that shouldn't be made public.
It was well known that the American CIA, for instance, committed torture under the name of "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques." The National Intelligence Service likely wasn't much different...
And so, four days passed.
Only the faint light leaking through the crack in the interrogation room door showed that the questioning was still ongoing.
As for what Jae-hak did during that time?
There was absolutely nothing for him to do.
“Excuse me, could you please get the power strips from up there...?”
“Will one be enough?”
“Uh... just in case, maybe two?”
At a large supermarket in Naegok-dong, Jae-hak followed the instructions of Cha Eun-ha, who had come out to buy stationery, and pulled two power strips from the top shelf to put into the shopping cart.
“Next is...”
Binders, staples, sticky notes, a container of clips.
After paying for the pile of office supplies, three plastic bags were packed full.
“Ugh.”
“Give me one. Give me another one. I’ll carry them.”
Carrying the three bags between them, Jae-hak and Eun-ha left the supermarket. As the automatic doors slid open, a different kind of air rushed in.
“Wow, it’s cool...”
September in Seoul, after the long rainy season, had already taken on the hues of autumn. The season, having cooled down like a fleeting fever of love, wore a thin cardigan, and the noticeably higher sky carried a slightly lonely scent.
“Thank you for coming with me.”
“It’s nothing. I don’t have anything else to do anyway.”
Jae-hak said with a smile. It was the truth. No matter how much he had contributed to the last operation, Jae-hak was, in the end, merely a civilian contractor. Usually, civilian contractors lived their ordinary lives when there were no specific orders. But in Jae-hak’s case, the problem was that he didn't have anything that could be called an ordinary life. Officially, he was already a dead man.
Sleeping in the NIS dormitory, no job, no friends to meet, no daily routine, no orders... even his smartphone was suspended. The only thing left for Jae-hak to do was to help with these trivial errands.
To be honest, if he were allowed to be a bit greedy, he was feeling a little impatient. At this very moment, the bastards who killed his mother and Seong-min were likely moving about somewhere.
“But don’t you usually have office supplies like this delivered? That’s what we did when I was a police officer.”
“I wish we could do that, too... but you know how our company is. Everything is security, security...”
Eun-ha, walking while hugging the plastic bags, pouted. It seemed the agents called the NIS "the company" when they were outside.
“I can’t even tell my family where I work... and when I go on blind dates, I just have to say I’m a freelancer...”
“Really?”
“And even when I get married later, if my spouse doesn't pass the background check, I can’t get married...”
This wasn't what she had imagined when she applied, Eun-ha sighed. It turned out she was a rookie who hadn't even been an NIS agent for half a year. She was the youngest in the operations team with no peers, so all the miscellaneous errands fell to her.
And so, as it happened, Jae-hak, who had been tasked with office support for the past week, became the person she spent the most time with.
“Then you should meet someone inside the NIS.”
“That would be nice, but... if only there were someone.”
“Why? Sang-jun looked really handsome.”
“Sang-jun senior is a bit...”
Eun-ha made a troubled expression.
“Why?”
“I heard Sang-jun senior is a bit... very active...”
“Isn't it good to be active?”
“That’s not what I meant...”
“...Ah.”
Jae-hak shut his mouth. It seemed it meant he had many women. It wasn't hard to imagine. Han Sang-jun was the archetype of the handsome spy one would typically imagine.
“Oh?”
As they walked and talked like that, a cafe appeared on the side of the road. It seemed to be an independently owned cafe with a small, modest interior. On a blackboard hung by the roadside, "Today's Coffee" was written in fluorescent board markers.
“Let’s go get something to drink.”
Before he could even answer, Eun-ha trotted into the cafe and ordered two iced Americanos. The cafe at three in the afternoon had no other customers, so the ordered coffee came out in transparent cups quickly.
Eun-ha squeezed four pumps of syrup into her coffee. Wouldn't that be too sweet? Jae-hak thought to himself.
“Oh, and you know that David Lin guy? They say what he’s wearing on his wrist isn't a bracelet, but a monitoring device. I guess it was true that he was a criminal.”
“Isn't Ji-seul senior really cool? I heard she used to be a soldier. A... sniper? Something like that. It’s cool how she’s friendly with everyone but still draws clear boundaries...”
“Still, when you think about it, it’s fortunate that many Gates in our country open in sparsely populated areas. I heard the impact was severe in the UK because one opened right in the middle of London.”
As expected, Eun-ha, feeling better after having something sweet, began to chatter away. In fact, she was particularly affectionate toward Jae-hak, more so than toward others. Perhaps she had been lonely as the youngest in the strictly hierarchical NIS and perceived Jae-hak as a peer who had joined late.
“And actually, the Einspanner is the best at this cafe. I didn't order it because it’s hard to drink with one hand...”
“Let’s have it next time. When we come again.”
Jae-hak answered, walking a little slower to match the stride of the short-statured Eun-ha.
— — —
* * *
— — —
*Knock, knock, knock.*
Someone knocked on the office door of Park Hyo-seok, the Team Leader of Current Operations.
“Yes.”
It was Ji-seul who opened the door and entered. Park Hyo-seok put down the pen he had been writing with and turned his head. Ji-seul reported without waiting.
“The results are mostly consistent with other sources. I don’t think there’s any need for further interrogation.”
“Did you hand it over to the Intelligence Division?”
“Yes. I shared it with the Intelligence Chief in real-time. They said they’re starting a detailed analysis immediately.”
“I see...”
“What should we do with Choi Yong-deok?”
Park Hyo-seok rubbed his brow with a weary face.
“...”
Smuggling monsters into downtown Incheon and intentionally releasing them. As a result, five people, including two civilians, were seriously injured, and property damage was still being tallied. It was a stroke of luck that no one had lost their life, but... this alone was enough to warrant anything from life imprisonment to the death penalty.
“Send him to Ansan. We might need him if any further interrogation needs arise later.”
“Yes.”
Ansan was home to one of the black sites operated by the NIS. The NIS held special judicial authority over crimes under its jurisdiction. That was how they could handle it this way.
For a long time to come—perhaps for the rest of his life—Choi Yong-deok would never see the light of freedom again.
“And, there is one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“About the asset that joined recently.”
Ji-seul brought it up. Park Hyo-seok asked back with a puzzled look.
“Seong Jae-hak?”
“Yes.”
“What about Seong Jae-hak?”
“I intend to utilize him as a combatant for the operations team.”
Park Hyo-seok did not answer immediately. His eyes glowed faintly as if he were prioritizing his various questions, and finally, he asked the most crucial one.
“...Do you believe that will serve the national interest?”
“Yes.”
The answer was without hesitation. Park Hyo-seok stared at her for a moment, then closed his eyes and nodded.
“What about training? There should still be some time left until the training for the next batch of open recruits.”
“The Internal Front Command is conducting a commissioned training course for Awakened combatants next week... and one of my peers is an instructor there. If I ask, they’ll be able to get him in.”
The Internal Front Command. It was a command newly established after the Gates opened to respond effectively to the Gate era. It was a unit characterized by its specialization in anti-monster warfare rather than anti-personnel combat, and it was the group that possessed the most standardized Awakened combat experience in South Korea today.
And the Awakened combatant training course conducted by such an Internal Front Command was one of the most attractive credentials a novice Hunter could possess.
“Your eye for combat power is likely more accurate than mine, but... as for his mental state, that remains an unknown.”
Park Hyo-seok said, slowly resting his chin on one hand. One might call it an old-fashioned mentality, but in this line of work—especially for those working in the field—no one ever ignored the importance of the mind. When pushed into the most grueling situations, it was always the mind, not the body, that crumbled first.
“To be honest, I also want to measure him against an objective standard.”
In fact, it was not rare for the National Intelligence Service to utilize civilian combatants. When they needed force during classified operations abroad, they often resolved it through contracts with local mercenaries or the like.
However, Jae-hak’s case was a bit different. To allow him to live within the National Intelligence Service and participate in operations, they would likely need to apply much stricter criteria...
“...I believe he has potential.”
Ji-seul thought for a moment before answering. Is that so? Park Hyo-seok said.
“Does that Awakened combatant training course you mentioned have a pass or fail?”
“Yes. I understand they usually set the cutoff at about 20 to 30 percent of the total. If 100 people apply, the 20 who survive until the end are the successful candidates.”
20 out of 100.
“So it’s a survival test. That would be appropriate for gauging his grit.”
“Should I hire him only if he passes finally?”
“...No, 3rd place.”
Park Hyo-seok said.
“If he finishes in the top three, I will allow it.”
0 Comments