Chapter 32: You Don't Use Guns?

TL: LittlePeach

The place the man drove to was a Japanese restaurant on the outskirts of Eunpyeong District.

It was an extremely upscale place, with private rooms lining every corridor.

"Earlier, whew.... you really gave me a scare."

The moment we sat down, lavish plates of sashimi were set in front of each of us.

I was starting in on the glistening salmon belly, happily popping it into my mouth, when the man let out a low chuckle and raised a bottle.

"When you started groping at your waistband right then and there, I couldn't help bracing to get shot. Scared me half to death."

"Ah."

I held out my cup, and he poured a trickle of clear sake.

I couldn't tell what kind it was, but the mellow aroma alone told me it was expensive.

"A gun? What a joke. You can't even board a plane carrying one."

"Exactly my point. I knew that in my head, but one look at your eyes, Agent, and my body reacted on its own. Even though there's no way carrying firearms would be permitted in Korea...."

"Right. That's why I only carry a knife. Just in case."

"...Pardon?"

"You don't need a blade-possession permit for this one."

I drew a hefty combat knife straight from my waistband.

The man's shoulders flinched.

"It's hard to spot when it's on your belt, and when you need it, one quick stab and done."

"...."

I gave the air a couple of light jabs with the drawn blade, and an uneasy twitch crossed his face.

"Please understand. Overseas, when someone suspicious shows up out of nowhere, drawing your weapon first is a basic survival rule. If something feels off, odds are they're an assassin."

"Ah, haha. Of course.... You overseas department agents live on constant alert. Every time I meet one of you, I'm reminded how much hardship you carry."

Even under the same NIS roof, domestic department agents grind through, at best, paperwork, surveillance of domestic corporations, and political maneuvering.

To their eyes, overseas department black agents like us probably look like lunatics with a few screws loose.

"As it happens, that's exactly what I wanted to discuss with you today, Agent. How about taking this opportunity to come over to our domestic department?"

"Which part of the domestic department?"

"Before I go into detail, allow me to introduce myself once more. I'm Kim Do-hyeon, team leader of the Special Intelligence Team, Domestic Intelligence Bureau."

Only then did he segue naturally into the main topic.

The man, Team Leader Kim Do-hyeon, produced a business card from his jacket and held it out.

[Seshin Trading]

[Industrial Rubber-Packing Distribution]

[Kim Do-hyeon, Senior]

Naturally, the card carried no information whatsoever connected to the NIS.

It was a cover card for an ordinary trading company, so all it offered was a name and a phone number.

What actually mattered was the introduction he'd given aloud.

Special Intelligence Team, Domestic Intelligence Bureau.

The name alone gave me no clue whatsoever what the place actually did.

"By the way, Team Leader, there's something I'd like to ask."

"What is it?"

"How did you find me? That temple isn't even registered as my residence."

Honestly, this whole situation of him showing up out of the blue and shoving a business card at me wasn't exactly pleasant.

An overseas department black agent's movements being exposed this easily defied common sense.

The fact that I belong to the NIS should be known to no one beyond the NIS Director, the First Deputy Director, and my direct superior, Team Leader Choi Min-sik.

And yet an agent from another department had pinpointed my location, and even gone to the trouble of showing up in person?

"Heh heh. There are ways."

Apparently he had no intention of giving me a straight answer.

Watching him smile it off like a sly old snake, I silently knocked back what was left of my drink.

"There's been a great deal of talk about you lately, Agent. From the lowest rungs of the NIS all the way up to the Director, there isn't a soul who doesn't know that every major result the overseas department has posted recently was finished by your hands."

"That's embarrassing. Just got lucky."

"Honestly, that's what we thought at first, too. Come on, surely it was just an insane run of luck, that's what we all kept saying. But as of two days ago, the mood changed completely."

Two days ago.

That was around when the additional rumor spread that I'd shot dead a large chunk of a North Korean assassination squad.

"Frankly, it felt like being blindsided. That is simply not something luck can explain."

"You flatter me."

"No, it isn't flattery."

Whether the man kept heaping on the praise or not, glistening flounder belly kept rolling busily into my mouth.

Team Leader Kim Do-hyeon fixed me with a burning gaze.

"It genuinely pained me to see it, which is why I came to you in person like this. It seems to me you're squandering that precious talent in far too precarious a place."

What he was driving at boiled down to one thing.

Come to the domestic department.

Stop risking life and limb in dangerous places; come work somewhere safe and comfortable alongside them.

I picked up a thin slice of saury sashimi with my chopsticks.

"So what's in it for me if I go domestic?"

As if he'd been waiting for exactly that question, the man's eyes changed completely.

"Setting everything else aside, I simply have to start by explaining the special-activity funds."

"Special-activity funds?"

I couldn't help asking back.

Among overseas department black agents, special-activity funds were something of a mirage.

Wherever the budget was being siphoned off to, I had never so much as laid eyes on those famous special-activity funds.

'If I assume it all goes into building safe houses and Rabbit Holes, the math roughly works out. But would the domestic department be any different?'

As I smacked my lips, unimpressed despite myself, Team Leader Kim Do-hyeon puffed out his chest with a proud look.

"Come to the domestic department, and you'll be issued a special-activity funds card you can swipe freely, without a single receipt or scrap of documentation. A million won per person, every month. You can't withdraw cash, that's all; it's practically base salary."

"Oh."

"And depending on your role and rank, five million, no, even more gets allocated, no questions asked."

"Wow...."

My jaw dropped from sheer disbelief.

Into that open mouth went a piece of fatty tuna belly, which melted away on my tongue.

Come to think of it, this expensive sashimi spread I was being treated to today was obviously being swiped on that very special-activity funds card.

'Tax money, melting away like butter.'

Whether I sat there dumbstruck or not, the man's fervent sales pitch didn't stop there.

"And that's not all. The domestic department's real strength lies in authority. With our credentials alone, you get a free pass through the police and prosecution intelligence networks. Even if some personal headache of an incident occurs, one phone call and it's buried, just like that. That is the power of the domestic department."

"One phone call takes care of all that?"

"Absolutely. And, Agent...."

For some reason, as if to set the mood, Team Leader Kim Do-hyeon glanced around.

Then he leaned in low over the table and continued in a deeply hushed voice.

"Have you ever heard the rumors about the head of the overseas department, the First Deputy Director?"

"What rumors?"

"You do know that since he took office as First Deputy Director, the number of overseas department black agents who've turned Crow has risen dramatically?"

"Ah, that. I know it well."

First Deputy Director Kim Jin-taek.

Credited with dramatically elevating the overseas department's intelligence capabilities, and blamed for the surge in Crow agents.

He was a man who drew exactly that kind of double-edged assessment.

"The rumor going around is that he's turning overseas department black agents into Crows on purpose."

"On purpose?"

"Yes. That he subtly maneuvers capable black agents into turning Crow. That way he skims only the cream of the NIS's talent, then quietly works them like his own hands and feet."

"How would that even be possible...."

"When a black agent turns Crow, their records are completely erased, aren't they? Which means you get a ghost unit that appears nowhere in the NIS ledgers, a unit that exists for that one man alone. He's building himself a private army."

"Hmm...."

"Isn't that the real reason he's managed to reign from the same seat for years while administrations came and went?"

I tilted my head.

In a way it sounded like a conspiracy theory, but it was a fairly plausible hypothesis all the same.

At that moment, though, an odd memory flickered through my mind.

'For our part, it's genuinely difficult to gauge how far we should tolerate their role. The overseas department is short on talent as it is, and our people keep getting lured away by them. Don't get too close to them. You may trade favors, but in the end you're strangers destined to go your separate ways. Wouldn't you agree?'

If that rumor were true, why would Deputy Director Kim Jin-taek have gone out of his way to warn me against getting friendly with Crow agents?

The story didn't add up.

But when I nodded along as if convinced, Team Leader Kim Do-hyeon lit up and poured on even more fervor.

"That's why I'm trying to bring you into our domestic department, Agent! Every single month, without fail, at least one person drops off the grid, gets written up as missing, or comes home from foreign soil as a corpse. What reason is there to stay in an overseas department like that?"

"Well...."

His speech was so relentlessly on point that I found myself falling silent.

Did he think I was halfway sold?

"There is no reason whatsoever to pour that young, brilliant talent into the dirt of some faraway country!"

"...."

"I mean, frankly speaking, the entire time you work domestic, you will never once need to fire a gun! How peaceful is that!"

That last line.

My chopstick hand froze.

Halfway to the plate, I lifted my eyes and glanced at Team Leader Kim Do-hyeon.

"...You don't use guns?"

"Of course not! Isn't the Republic of Korea a gun-free country?"

He puffed out his chest proudly, as if that were some magnificent employee benefit.

With no idea what was going through my head.

"Ah, well, of course I can't promise it's absolute. Even we occasionally have to carry for an operation. Still, over a whole career you could truly count those times on one hand."

"...Then what about grenades?"

"Grena.... Come on! What kind of terrifying talk is that?"

"Claymores?"

"...Pardon?"

At that moment, the man's expression turned very strange.

He couldn't quite hide his flabbergasted look, as if he'd just heard the most deranged thing in his life.

"...Claymores?"

"Yes. Claymores."

"Why on earth would you need a Claymore...."

"...."

"...."

We sat there for a while, staring at each other with sour looks on our faces.

The breathless silence stretched on.

"Ahem! Hm, hrm!"

Then, as if deciding to pretend he'd never heard it, he cleared his throat loudly.

"A-anyway.... What I'm trying to say is that the overseas department is far too dangerous. Sure, you get a fat bonus for every operation, but take one bullet and do you really expect to walk away alive?"

"Urk, hmm."

I let out a sigh despite myself.

Did it look like I was actually agreeing with him?

"That's right. No guns to fire, no bombs going off, not a single situation where the blood rushes to your head and your heart lurches! A perfectly safe, comfortable, peaceful environment! How great is that, I ask you!"

"...."

But by this point, honestly, there was nothing left to think over.

The moment I heard the man's conviction-filled appeal, my mind was firmly made up.

"How about it, Agent? Come join us!"

"First of all.... thank you for the generous offer, Team Leader."

"Right? Excellent, Agent. You've made a truly outstanding decis...."

"I'll think about it."

"...What?"

"I said I'll think about it."

Whether Team Leader Kim Do-hyeon gaped at me dumbfounded or not, I started shoveling the remaining pieces of sashimi into my mouth.

Think about it, my ass.

It was, for all practical purposes, a roundabout refusal.

"E-excuse me? Agent? I didn't mishear you, did I?"

"I said I'll think about it, didn't I?"

"...."

However glossy the terms he rattled off, I'm built for the overseas department after all.

Just like I'd felt at the Kowloon Hotel, I felt it now.

An itch.

My body was itching for it.

"A-Agent?"

Ah, not buying it. Not buying.

Hawk, ptooey.

*****

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