Chapter 106: An Unexpected Midnight Kidnapping

TL: LittlePeach

It was news worth celebrating.

Kite No. 3 and Chae A-ra.

The two had started out as a sham married couple, only to eventually become husband and wife for real.

'So that's why he transferred to a domestic department.'

Now I understood why a man who had adapted so well to life in the field had requested a transfer back to Korea.

“What did your parents say?”

Unlike me, he had his parents and all his other relatives in Korea.

And since his wife, Chae A-ra, was a North Korean defector, I was honestly a little worried about how his family might react.

“They were thrilled. Their son, who they had no idea where or what he was doing, suddenly came home with a daughter-in-law and a child in tow.”

“How much do they know about your situation, sunbae?”

“They thought I had an office job at a trading company in China. I'll just tell them I changed jobs, and I'll be given another cover identity soon.”

The first rule for a black agent was to keep even one's own family in the dark about what one actually did for a living.

Like most agents assigned to domestic departments, he would probably be given a plausible position at some trading company.

“Let's eat first.”

“Sure. You're having a beer, right?”

“Of course.”

Sizzle.

As the meat cooked, we immediately cracked open a bottle of beer.

Glug, glug, glug.

Apparently itching to talk even while filling our glasses, Lee U-jin continued excitedly.

“Originally, I was going to send A-ra ssi to Korea while I stayed in Dandong. The extra hazard pay for the Kite code is pretty nice, you know.”

“Hmm.”

“But A-ra ssi insisted that if I was going to stay, she'd stay in Dandong too and remain by my side.... So in the end, I decided to come back to Korea. Honestly, I got lucky. HQ decided that since China's sanctions against North Korea are going to tighten soon, there probably won't be enough need in Dandong to justify keeping someone with the Kite code there.”

“That makes sense. Have they finished assigning you to a department?”

“Not yet. I'm on leave right now.”

“What about the shop?”

“My brother-in-law is running it for us at the moment. I talked to HQ, and they said they want to hire him as an overseas asset.”

“Ooh.”

Come to think of it, two months ago there had been Chae A-ra's younger brother, whom I'd slipped out while pretending to be a defection broker.

Chae Ji-jun. Apparently he was going to take over as the local asset in Dandong in place of Kite No. 3.

“If you're ever in Dandong again, stop by.”

“I will.”

Since he wasn't a professionally trained black agent, there was no way he could be expected to fill the same role as Kite No. 3.

But simply having him remain in Dandong and serve as a local asset would give us countless ways to make use of his help.

After we'd emptied several bottles of beer and replaced the sizzling, charred grill plate a few times.

Bang.

“Young Master!”

“Oh.”

At last, the person we'd been waiting for flung open the restaurant door.

As the door burst open, the fair-skinned Chae A-ra approached with a radiant smile.

“It's good to see you in Korea, hyeongsu-nim. Have you been well?”

“I have been well! To be standing on Korean soil, I cannot tell you how deeply moved I am....”

“I was actually thinking of heading to Dandong soon and getting you to make me some spicy cold noodles.”

“Ah! Do not worry. I taught my younger brother every last one of my secret tricks.”

“Really? That's a relief.”

“Is there perhaps nothing else you should be asking me about?”

“Ah, right. I heard the news. Congratulations.”

“Ahem.”

Seeing her beaming from ear to ear finally made it sink in that we really were in Korea.

And at the same time.

'I was originally planning to head to Southeast Asia.'

I decided where I would begin my first assignment as an Eagle agent.

It made me want to see some familiar faces again for the first time in a while.

***

That night, after meeting Kite No. 3's family.

“Deokun seunim. I'm going back to work starting tomorrow.”

“Are you? You're leaving without even being introduced?”

“Huh?”

When I told her I was returning to work, Deokun seunim smiled and tossed out a teasing remark.

“That young lady who's a kindergarten teacher seemed like quite a decent person to me.”

“...Please don't start too, seunim.”

“Hoho.”

I was a black agent.

Love and settling down were luxuries I couldn't afford.

When I shuddered in disgust, seunim merely smiled.

“Where are you going this time?”

“Somewhere close. China.”

“I see. Take care of yourself.”

“I'll see you again when I'm on leave.”

After sharing a brief hug with Deokun seunim, I took nothing but my passport and wallet and headed for the airport.

And so I arrived in China.

[Our plane has now arrived in Shenyang at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport. Passengers, please....]

Sniiiff.

The moment I stepped off the plane, I drew in a deep breath through my nose.

Acrid air, a dry wind mixed with dust, even that strangely foul smell.

“Phew. It's been a long time since I smelled the air here.”

While I was at it, I pulled out the notebook and flipped it open.

Now that I was officially kicking off my first assignment as an Eagle agent, I already had one target in mind.

[Crane No. 14]

I'd run into this man exactly once before.

During the Sinuiju operation, after I brought Hyon Yong-chol and his family across the Yalu River Bridge in a North Korean military truck, he was the agent who took the truck from me, drove it around along a deliberately tangled route, and abandoned it somewhere secluded.

[Special Notes: Numerous missed or delayed weekly regular reports within the past two months. Low focus on assigned duties.]

And HQ had been keeping a close eye on him, very much for the wrong reasons.

***

Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province, China.

Codename Crane No. 14.

His cover identity was a self-employed transport operator named Zhang San.

His role in the field wasn't particularly difficult.

When defection brokers cooperating with the NIS handed over North Korean defectors, all he had to do was load them into a fifteen-passenger minibus and transport them safely to the next waypoint on the route to Vietnam.

Starting from Dandong, he would drive for a full twelve hours and drop the defectors off at an intermediate lodging prepared in Datong City. His role ended there.

From that point onward, another Crane agent would take the invisible baton and handle the next leg of the transport. In that fashion, over the course of seven grueling days, they moved the defectors step by step across the vast Chinese mainland until they safely reached Vietnam.

'It does bother me that there have been fewer defectors lately, so I'm basically getting paid for doing nothing.'

There was absolutely nothing wrong with his main job.

The problem was that this was China.

In China, self-employed transport operators were sometimes approached out of nowhere with dubious requests.

'Just take one small package to Tianjin.'

'Move a few people to Dalian without going through the checkpoints.'

At first, he refused.

But there were some requests he couldn't casually turn down.

These weren't ordinary favors. Refuse a request from the underworld, and he might end up dead somewhere without anyone ever knowing what happened.

So, just once, when circumstances forced his hand.

Then one more time, because he had no choice.

'Take it. That's your pay for this job.'

After getting his hands on a considerable amount of money a few times like that, his thinking gradually began to change.

Spend enough time in the dark, and before long, one started turning black without even realizing it.

'I'm heading that way anyway. There's nothing wrong with carrying a few things for someone I know.'

Before he knew it, Crane No. 14 had begun traveling from city to city with unidentified contraband loaded into his cargo compartment.

Sometimes he even went so far as to transport criminals on the run from Public Security or undocumented migrants.

Then recently, he'd begun taking steady work outright.

Sometimes he delivered a few wooden crates brought in through Dalian Port all the way to Shenyang. Other times, he smuggled goods out of Shenyang through Donggang Port.

In other words, he had become a smuggling courier.

He had even ripped out the entire back bench seat of his minibus just to fit one extra crate inside.

'Move just one more of these, and I won't even need to think about those other little side jobs.'

Of course, it wasn't as though he had no reservations whatsoever.

A month ago, the contact overseeing the handoff of the goods had suddenly been replaced by someone he didn't know.

'Did another organization take over?'

In this line of work, a face suddenly changing was a fairly dangerous variable.

And yet, every time he saw the stacks of yuan handed to him at the destination, those little worries vanished without a trace.

“I look forward to working with you again next time.”

After finishing yet another lucrative side job, he headed home.

That night, Crane No. 14 went to meet his girlfriend with a spring in his step.

It was a shabby little noodle shop near his house.

“You're here? Beef noodle soup again today?”

The petite woman behind the counter smiled brightly at him.

Her name was Wei Yan.

He'd realized she was interested in him when, one day, she started adding toppings he hadn't ordered to his noodles every time he came in.

“Enjoy.”

Just look at it even now.

He'd ordered the basic beef noodle soup, yet once again there were several slices of boiled meat and a soft-boiled egg on top, neither of which was even listed on the menu.

Slurp, slurp.

He slowly finished his noodles while waiting for Wei Yan to close the shop.

“You must be tired every night.... Thank you so much. I can't tell you how reassured I feel having you around, Zhang San ssi.”

“Ahem. The streets are dangerous at night, after all.”

Once business was over and the sign lights went dark, the two walked side by side through the nighttime streets.

There could hardly have been a better excuse for him to escort her home every night.

There had already been plenty of disturbing rumors lately about people disappearing overnight around Shenyang's back alleys.

Some said it was the work of an organ trafficking ring. Others said people were being kidnapped by the underworld.

There were plenty of rumors going around, but either way, he couldn't let a woman walk alone at night.

They entered a narrow, dark alley where not even moonlight could penetrate.

'Hm?'

As he strolled along, Crane No. 14 spotted a homeless man lying beneath a cardboard box among a pile of trash.

'Never seen him before.'

His occupational instincts sharpened in an instant.

“We're already here.”

“Ah, y-yeah. We are.”

But the scent of Wei Yan's shampoo drifting beside him soon made all that tension melt away.

They had arrived at a small multi-family building made of red brick.

As usual, Crane No. 14 stopped in front of the iron door on the first floor.

“Then I'll see you again tomorrow. Sleep well.”

He said goodbye and was just beginning to back away reluctantly, as he always did.

Rustle.

Wei Yan gently caught his sleeve.

Crane No. 14's eyes widened, and she blushed as she whispered shyly.

“Um, my roommate suddenly had to go back to her family home this morning.”

“....”

Wei Yan shared her two-bedroom apartment with a female roommate.

Because of that, Crane No. 14 had never managed to find a chance for the two of them to spend time alone.

“The truth is, I don't sleep very well when I'm alone.”

“You mean....”

“For some reason, I think I'll feel especially scared and lonely tonight....”

Crane No. 14's heart began pounding.

With blood surging hotly through his entire body, rational thought became impossible.

“Would you like to come up and have some tea in my room?”

“....”

No answer was necessary.

Wei Yan gave him a shy smile and led the way up the stairs, with Crane No. 14 following close behind.

As he climbed, a faint floral scent lingered around the tip of his nose.

Click.

Wei Yan unlocked the door and stepped inside first.

“Come in.”

He took one step farther into the dark little room.

Fwap!

“W-Wha?!”

Something dropped over him from behind.

As though he were being swallowed whole in a single gulp, a rough burlap sack clamped tightly around his head.

“Mmph! Mmph!”

“Shut up!”

Thud!

Thud, thud!

Fists and feet from who knew how many people began raining down all over his body.

It felt as though the whole world were beating him senseless.

“Tie him up and load him into the car. Gag him first so no sound gets out.”

Before long, Crane No. 14 went limp.

***

For once, I felt like I was actually living the life of a proper black agent.

Just look at me.

I'd spent days with a musty cardboard box over my head, smeared head to toe in grime while disguised as a homeless man.

I was even starting to feel a strange sense of accomplishment.

“Hey. This is my turf. If you don't want to croak, piss off somewhere else.”

“....”

“You paying your turf fee before you beg here? You're running an illegal business, you know.”

Of course, compared with actual homeless guys, my disguise was so pathetic I couldn't even hold my head up in front of them, but still, it was better than nothing.

Anyway.

After spending several days disguised as a homeless man and sticking close to Crane No. 14's tail, this was more or less what I'd concluded.

'He's really diligent.'

Crane No. 14 had exactly one problem.

He was doing a little too much side work compared with his actual job.

After tracking his movements for several days straight, I found that he really did a lot of things on the side.

Transporting illegal entrants, delivering unidentified contraband, that sort of thing.

If someone from the HQ Inspection Office had seen all this instead of me, they probably would've clutched the back of their neck and collapsed.

'But still, at this level....'

Honestly, weren't side jobs like this basically standard among black agents?

Even I'd ditched my actual job just the other day and fried a bunch of Samgor members with electricity.

By my standards, his little side hustle was positively modest.

'Besides, side work is tacitly encouraged as part of blending into local life.'

The moment I saw him walking along all bashful and lovestruck with the employee from his regular beef noodle shop earlier, I immediately understood why he'd missed a few regular reports.

Flowers could bloom even on sheer cliffs.

Considering how lonely and difficult it was to struggle through life in a harsh foreign land, this much deviation seemed worth overlooking.

'This is basically just a little misconduct for the sake of making a living. I'll let it slide.'

Having reached my own conclusion, I awkwardly pushed myself upright in the corner of the alley.

I'd gotten used to life on the streets by now, but at this point I really wanted a shower.

“Ughhh....”

I stretched and was just about to leave the foul-smelling alley.

Creeeak.

“Hm?”

The iron door of the multi-family building Crane No. 14 had entered with his girlfriend only moments earlier opened with a stiff groan.

Two burly men came out.

“Huh.”

And slung over their shoulders was a person rolled up like a rug.

His body hung completely limp as though unconscious, but his shoes looked oddly familiar.

They were the shoes Crane No. 14 had been wearing when I'd watched him from the alley floor only a few minutes earlier.

“....”

The kidnappers shoved the unconscious Crane No. 14 into the rear cargo area of a van parked at the mouth of the alley.

One climbed into the driver's seat, while the other took the passenger seat, and they started talking among themselves.

'Yeah. Now this is China.'

At the absurd sight, a dry laugh escaped me.

*****

For 20 advance chapters, you can check out my Patreon here -->

If you enjoy this novel, please review and rate it at Novelupdates. Thanks! 😊