Episode 8
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8. Betrayal and the Circus
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The next day, the Second Command Center, located in the basement of the National Intelligence Service Special Operations Office.
“Since we have new personnel joining us, we will go over the basics once more. Make sure you are familiar with them so there is no confusion in communication.”
Team Leader Park Hyo-seok, standing at the front, opened the floor.
“The call sign for our operation team this quarter is ‘Sandpiper.’ I hold the overall command, and Senior Agent Kang Ji-seul holds the field command.”
Jae-hak glanced at Ji-seul, who was sitting next to him. So, this person was quite high-ranking.
“Our operation team is divided into three squads. First, the Intelligence Squad. Intelligence Chief Kim Hyeon-gyu will oversee it.”
At the back of the command center, at a spot where tables had been pushed together and piled high with laptops and various documents, four people raised their hands.
They were professional analysts who collected information and derived connections.
“Second, the Liaison Squad. Liaison Chief Jo Yun-seong will oversee it.”
Three men raised their hands. One wore a military uniform, one a police uniform, and the other a suit.
They were personnel dispatched from the military, the police, and administrative/judicial agencies, respectively. They were responsible for coordination with their respective organizations.
“Finally, the Operations Squad. Operations Chief Kang Ji-seul will oversee it.”
Jae-hak had assumed the Operations Squad would have many members since they had to work in the field. However, this was proven wrong. Including Ji-seul, there were only three people who raised their hands. Field agents were scarce these days, and the essence of the National Intelligence Service was, after all, an intelligence agency.
If they needed force to deploy to the field, it was far more effective to draw personnel from special forces.
“And Mr. Seong Jae-hak. Your position is that of our civilian contractor.”
A civilian contractor. An entity usually referred to as an ‘Asset’ or ‘Informant.’ In exchange for providing secret information and assistance to the NIS, they received the NIS’s protection and compensation.
Assets residing within the NIS like Jae-hak were rare; most had their own jobs and were integrated into society, receiving directives from their assigned Case Officer.
“Mr. Jae-hak, you cannot participate in the operation team’s decision-making process and must follow our instructions completely. Do you agree?”
To put it simply, he was told to only answer when asked and to do as he was told. It was a natural expectation.
“Yes.”
“Then, if there are no further questions, we will proceed with the morning briefing. Intelligence Chief?”
“Yes.”
Intelligence Chief Kim Hyeon-gyu cleared his throat a few times and stood up. *Beep.* The large monitors in front of the command center turned on in unison.
In the center, the largest monitor displayed a complex vertical line. It was the timeline of how this operation team had been tracking the mysterious group trying to kill Jae-hak.
“…….”
And the last few days of this timeline had been reconstructed to include what Jae-hak had experienced.
“Based on Mr. Jae-hak’s testimony, our Intelligence Squad has derived a few points of contention.”
Kim Hyeon-gyu explained slowly.
“First, how did they find out so quickly that Hunter Jeong Doyeong had passed the Core to the police officers he happened to meet?”
*Beep.* A photo of Jeong Doyeong appeared on one side. A young, boyish face, very different from what Jae-hak remembered.
“Second, was it merely a coincidence that they approached Officer Seong-min before you, Mr. Jae-hak, who possessed the Core?”
“……The patrol log.”
Jae-hak muttered. That is correct, Kim Hyeon-gyu said.
“Officer Seong-min said he uploaded that day’s patrol log under his own name, considering your situation. We can hypothesize that they saw that and sought out Officer Seong-min first.”
“Who are the people who can see that patrol log?”
“In terms of rank, there are quite a lot. Far too many. So, we accessed the Nowon-gu Police Station system and checked who had viewed the patrol log for that day.”
*Beep.* The faces of three people appeared on the monitor. They were all Jae-hak’s former colleagues. Team Leader Park Hyo-seok gave an immediate order.
“Establish surveillance around their homes and the Nowon-gu Police Station. Run background checks and track their accounts. Report to me immediately if there is anything suspicious.”
“Let’s try to scare them a little.”
Ji-seul raised her hand calmly and said.
“Scare them?”
“We’ll intentionally tail them in a way that is just barely noticeable. If they are innocent, they won’t notice at all or they will report it. But if they are guilty……”
“……They will try to run or contact their accomplices.”
Ji-seul shrugged.
“The probability is high.”
“Good. Let’s do it.”
At Park Hyo-seok’s gesture, one of the Intelligence Squad analysts left the command center.
“Is there anything noteworthy in Hunter Jeong Doyeong’s past?”
“We are still digging, but…… there is nothing unusual. He awakened in his adolescence, served in the Internal Front Command, and retired due to injury before staying in a nursing home.”
“What is his Awakened rank?”
“His last physical examination record was 6.55%…… which is Level 5.”
Ordinary, Park Hyo-seok thought. Too ordinary.
How could such an ordinary Hunter get his hands on that Core? A Core capable of artificially awakening people?
Regardless, it was something they couldn’t know for now, so the morning briefing ended with a review of Jae-hak’s testimony and a discussion of future investigative directions.
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“This is your first time here, right?”
“Yes. Is anything here good?”
“The fried rice is delicious, and the udon dishes are decent too.”
Lunchtime, the NIS cafeteria. Jae-hak sat at a table with the meal group assigned in shifts. After some deliberation, the food Jae-hak ordered via the kiosk was fried tofu udon. He chose it because it had started to drizzle outside again.
And that choice was ultimately correct.
“……This is delicious.”
“I told you it was.”
The man who recommended the menu smiled as if to say, ‘See?’ Honestly, he had expected it to be a mediocre, cheap udon with a tongue-tingling MSG flavor, so it was a surprise. Jae-hak took another bite of the soft, tender fried tofu. The warm broth soaked into his body pleasantly.
“I’m Han Sang-jun from the Operations Squad.”
The man introduced himself. A solid, clean appearance. A face closer to a banker or an announcer than an agent.
“I’m Seong Jae-hak.”
“I know.”
Han Sang-jun smiled affably. A picturesque smile that would win anyone’s favor. In other words, it was the kind of smile a well-trained spy would wear.
“I’m Cha Eun-ha from the Intelligence Squad……”
A woman who had brought her tray and sat next to them interjected hesitantly. Short black hair and a small frame. She seemed like the type who was shy but still tried to fit in socially.
Their gazes naturally gathered on the last person who hadn’t introduced himself yet. He was about to bring a spoonful of shrimp fried rice to his mouth but put it down with a sour expression.
“……I’m David Lin. Operations Squad.”
Fluent but strangely awkward pronunciation. A name whose nationality was hard to guess.
“Um…… if it’s not too rude, I’ve been curious about this for a while.”
Cha Eun-ha cautiously voiced the same question as Jae-hak.
“Are you…… of mixed heritage?”
“Mother is Korean, father is Taiwanese. But my nationality is American. Born in the States.”
“Oh…… I thought foreigners couldn’t join the NIS.”
“Normally, they absolutely can’t.”
Han Sang-jun interjected.
“But this guy is a bit of a…… special case.”
“A special case?”
“Hmm……”
Han Sang-jun looked at Lin with a slightly troubled expression. It seemed like a sensitive story to be telling others. After a brief silence, Lin raised both hands as if giving up and confessed.
“I did some…… bad things in Korea and got caught. A plea bargain. Working here instead of going to prison.”
“Is…… is that allowed?”
Perhaps because she still had the principled innocence of an NIS analyst, Cha Eun-ha even stuttered.
“It’s a case of valuing his abilities more than the risk, something like that. Haha.”
Han Sang-jun skillfully changed the subject. Lin sighed softly and chewed on a shrimp. It seemed there were more complicated circumstances than what he had said.
“So, Mr. Jae-hak, is the dormitory livable? It’s not too noisy or anything, right?”
“Oh…… yes. It’s quiet.”
Jae-hak was currently living in a dormitory inside the NIS. It was decided that even if he changed his face, it was dangerous to walk around outside recklessly.
“Really? When I was training as a new agent, it was like a marketplace.”
“Same for us.”
Cha Eun-ha giggled.
“Did you guys do that too? The ‘Riding the Haetae Statue’ thing?”
“We did. We did.”
It seemed to be a tradition passed down in the NIS. David Lin shook his head with an expression that said, ‘Are you two talking about inside jokes again?’
“…….”
Jae-hak realized he had been starving for this kind of mundane conversation. There was an inexplicable warmth in the act of laughing and chatting about topics that held no danger, no tension, and no importance.
But that peace did not last long. That dawn, Chief Choi Yong-deok of the Security and Traffic Division at the Nowon-gu Police Station, one of the three who had viewed Seong-min’s patrol log, had fled to Incheon.
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-Repeating. The top priority is the capture of the target, ‘Iago.’ The decision to use lethal force is at the discretion of the field commander.
Team Leader Park Hyo-seok’s radio call echoed inside the minivan speeding through the dawn. At this point, two facts were certain.
Chief Choi Yong-deok had driven a car somewhere around 2:00 AM.
And a ticket for a cargo ship heading from Incheon Port to Weihai Port in China had been sent to Chief Choi Yong-deok’s phone.
-Also, it has been confirmed that the ship Iago intends to board, the Cheong-chung, is a Chinese-flagged vessel. We do not have the authority to search a Chinese-flagged vessel. We must secure Iago before he boards the ship, no matter what it takes.
Iago was the call sign given to the target, Choi Yong-deok, for this operation. He was the villain of Shakespeare’s play ‘Othello’ and one of the most famous traitors in history.
A traitor.
“So, Chief Choi…… sold me out?”
Jae-hak asked in a small voice.
“Probably.”
Ji-seul, who was checking her pistol in the seat next to the minivan, answered emotionlessly. Across from them, Lin and Sang-jun glanced at Jae-hak’s complexion. Like Ji-seul, Lin was wearing a black tactical suit. Sang-jun, on the other hand, was wearing work clothes with the company name ‘Silla Construction’ printed on them.
“…….”
In contrast, Jae-hak was provided with neither weapons nor protective gear. Jae-hak’s role was to wait at a distance and identify Chief Choi Yong-deok’s face; that was all.
No matter how tight the National Intelligence Service’s budget was, they could not deploy an untrained civilian asset into the field.
"Has the location been pinpointed?"
Ji-seul asked briefly, clutching her radio.
-Iago’s vehicle was confirmed to have stopped in front of a house in Incheon seven minutes ago. A background check indicates it is a villa Choi Yong-deok purchased under his sister-in-law’s name.
"What about the field forces?"
-Two platoons from the 17th Division are providing support and are currently establishing a perimeter.
"Copy that." Ji-seul put down the radio. *Boom.* Thunder rolled, and a torrential downpour began. Damn it. The reinforcement agent in the driver’s seat turned the wipers to their highest setting.
It was going to be a long night, Jae-hak thought.
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* * *
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-The number you have dialed is not in service.
-The number you have dialed is not in service.
"Damn it..."
Choi Yong-deok threw his burner phone onto the cheap bed in his hideout. Communication with those people had been completely severed. Did they think he was useless now that they had paid him off?
'Stay calm.'
Ignoring the sound of the wind and rain battering the window, Choi Yong-deok repeated the mantra to himself.
The current time was 4:30 AM. The *Chungcheong-ho* was scheduled to depart at 5:00 AM.
Thirty minutes. He just had to hold out here for thirty minutes.
'If it comes to it...'
Choi Yong-deok pulled a small switch from the drawer. He extended the antenna and turned it on; a green light flickered to life. *Gulp.* Choi Yong-deok swallowed hard, his throat dry with tension.
The insurance policy they had left him with. He just hoped he would never have to press it.
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* * *
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Incheon at dawn, shrouded in darkness. In the pouring rain, crosses dotted throughout the city glowed a deep red, and the damp air was thick with the faint, briny scent of the port city.
"Ah, Agent."
As Ji-seul stepped out of the van, the platoon leader of the riot police who had been waiting approached her.
"It’s that place right there."
The platoon leader pointed to a two-story house in an alley about two blocks away. Choi Yong-deok’s car was parked at the entrance.
"We’ve deployed troops to every road within a 50-meter radius. There’s no way out."
"What about the snipers?"
"They’re on standby on the rooftop of that commercial building over there. It has the best line of sight in the area. Shall we head up?"
"Good."
The agents and soldiers moved quietly to their respective positions. The pouring rain muffled most of the noise. Jae-hak, who had stepped out last, moved to another car parked a few blocks away.
"..."
As Jae-hak climbed into the passenger seat, a soldier with the rank of sergeant gave a curt nod. It seemed he was his escort in case of any unforeseen danger. Jae-hak’s orders were to wait here until the situation was resolved.
-Alpha Team, standing by.
-Bravo Team, standing by.
-De Niro, begin.
The last voice was Ji-seul’s. Yes. Sang-jun, wearing a Silla Construction uniform, adjusted his cap. He slowly climbed the stairs of the two-story house and knocked on the door.
*Knock, knock.*
"Is anyone home?"
No answer.
*Knock, knock.*
"The pipes burst because of the rain, is anyone home?"
Still, no answer. Sang-jun signaled to Alpha Team below the stairs and quietly drew his pistol. Just as he was about to knock one last time—
*Screeeeeech—*
A piercing signal rang out. An unrecognizable noise. Instinctively sensing a bomb, all the soldiers threw themselves to the ground. But several seconds passed, and there was no explosion.
The signal wasn't a bomb; it was a sound meant to trigger something entirely different.
For several days—a period that was hard to pinpoint exactly—an old, rusted cargo truck had been parked behind the wall of this two-story house. Because large container trucks were a common sight in a neighborhood so close to the Incheon port, the local residents, the police, and even the riot platoon leader hadn't paid it any mind...
-District Transport, Bravo One. Reporting that the truck behind the house has lit up.
Along with the signal, the rear door of the container on the cargo truck began to open slowly. And the things that had been trapped inside all this time opened their eyes.
Pale skin, tongues red as blood. Two arms bent at grotesque angles.
-District... District Transport, Bravo One, there’s a monster in the truck. There’s a monster in the truck...!
And then, the first scream rang out.
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