Chapter 38: Large-Scale Defection

TL: LittlePeach

A beautiful woman turns a simple walk into a photo shoot.

On the screen, even the back view of Yang Mi-ryeong striding into the Dandong Public Security headquarters carried an undeniably bewitching air.

Enough that every staffer she passed couldn't help but turn his head.

"What? See someone you know?"

"Yeah. Well, sort of...."

As I stared holes into the screen, Owl No. 5, who'd been packing up the satellite antenna, glanced over.

While I mumbled a vague answer, her parting words, tossed off like a joke, flickered through my mind.

'If you're ever in Dandong, call me anytime. I'll always keep the position of my cover lover open for you.'

I shook my head inwardly.

I had no intention of contacting her during this mission in the first place.

I wouldn't be needing Agent Crow's help, and with any luck I'd be out of this town within a week.

'What's the Kowloon Society's Dandong branch chief doing walking into Public Security headquarters?'

The curiosity crossed my mind, but honestly, it wasn't my problem.

It was on camera; the analysts back at headquarters could sort it out themselves.

"Right. That's the tour of the hideout."

"So I just stay holed up in the hideout every day?"

Owl No. 5 let out a dry laugh.

"You'll lose your mind if you stay cooped up in this shoebox."

"I only need to last a week, though?"

"You never know how things will go. Anyway, if you stay shut up in your room, the neighbors will decide you're a spy and report you themselves."

"Hmm."

"That's why I'm officially commuting to a trading company near Dandong these days. You'd be better off wandering around, picking up a part-time job or something."

"And if my cover gets blown?"

"Turns out people care a lot less about other people's business than you'd think. As long as you don't go around announcing who you are."

Sparrow agents like me are taught that the best policy is to see nothing, know nothing, and avoid getting tangled up with the locals wherever possible.

But for an agent stationed long-term, the playbook has to change.

Kite No. 3 was proof of that, and hadn't Owl No. 5 just been trading easy greetings with the neighbors a moment ago?

"Hungry? Let's go eat."

And so, to knock out an early lunch, we stepped into a nearby restaurant Owl No. 5 swore by.

While we picked at the cold meat platter that arrived in no time, Owl No. 5 cracked open a bottle of beer.

"So when do you leave?"

"Any minute now. I fly to Incheon, then on to Vladivostok, Russia. Busy, busy."

As I sipped that lukewarm beer China is famous for, Owl No. 5 gave a light shrug.

"We got intel that North Korea, apparently pleased with the missile tech from that successful launch, is about to make brazen backchannel contact with an arms broker from the Russian military-industrial complex. And wouldn't you know it, the Special Operations Group's Russia Team suddenly has a manpower gap. So I'm being rushed out on assignment."

"A manpower gap, meaning...."

"A few Team 1 agents in Vladivostok have gone dark."

"There too?"

"Yeah. Around the same time as Crane No. 13. Quite the coincidence, huh?"

Something about it didn't sit right.

Until now, I'd assumed Crane No. 13 died because he'd missed a step in his identity laundering amid all the chaos of the past few days.

But maybe the personal files of certain agents had leaked from inside the NIS.

Just in case, I wet my lips with my tongue.

"Do you happen to know a place near Vladivostok called Bolshoi Kamen?"

"Sure, I know it."

"There's a factory there that processes frozen cod. Called Ocean Sigma."

"Ocean Sigma?"

"Yes."

It's old news at this point, but back in my Defense Intelligence Command Special Task Force days, I was stationed mostly in Russia.

From Russia all the way down through the Middle East, one connection at a time, I flew around that world like it was my own backyard.

To the point that a running joke at Defense Intelligence Command headquarters was that I must be gunning for Russian citizenship.

"If anything goes wrong during the operation, go there and ask them to get you back to Korea by illegal sea passage."

"Oh.... You've got someone there?"

"A guy I got close to while working in Russia is the boss of that plant now. Fellow named Nikolai Nikolaev. Tell him Sunny Kick sent you, and he'll probably clear you a spot in a container bound for Busan."

As a rule, Russia, keen to stay on friendly terms with North Korea, holds fast to a policy of forced repatriation for every North Korean defector who crosses into its territory.

Defense Intelligence Command had struggled to carve out a defection route through Russia by whatever means it could, and that had been my assignment.

In the end, the mission failed.

Officially, that is. Through my personal contacts, I'd quietly set up a few unofficial defection routes of my own.

Like Kite No. 3's back-alley doctor, they were my own personal top-secret assets.

"I doubt it'll come to that, but.... Sunny Kick?"

"It's my nickname."

"Got it, anyway. Thanks for looking out for me."

Once we'd finished eating, Owl No. 5 packed his rucksack and headed straight for Dalian International Airport.

"Wish I'd had time to talk more. Sorry."

"Don't be. The handover was thorough."

"Right. See you again soon."

"Stay safe."

I saw Owl No. 5 off as his taxi pulled away, then headed straight back to the rooftop hideout.

The computer screen saving the camera feed in real time, the mini fridge rattling away, even the musty smell of the rooftop room.

'This is it.'

I hadn't been gone all that long, and yet this was the field scenery I'd missed so badly.

*****

My job couldn't have been simpler.

No need to attach commentary to the footage; all I had to do was upload it to the server as-is and transmit it via satellite.

The moment the footage reached headquarters, it passed through the hands of multiple analysts, got broken down subject by subject, and each person was steadily entered onto a list according to position and priority.

'The whole staff is falling over themselves for that guy. Is that the newly appointed Dandong Public Security Bureau director?'

Watch and report.

Truth be told, most of what black agents do boils down to exactly that.

But sitting around the hideout made me itch so badly I couldn't stand it.

While I was thinking of it, I picked up my phone.

Br-r-ring.

- Yes, hello?

"Sunbae. It's me, Sparrow."

- Oh?

On the other end, Kite No. 3 recognized my voice, sounding puzzled.

- Wait, what's with this number? This isn't an international call?

"I'm in Dandong right now."

- Huh? Why, again?

"Long story short, they needed a warm body to plug a gap."

A faint chuckle came through the phone.

- Heh. Just yesterday you were grinning ear to ear about your paid leave, and now look how that turned out.

I didn't bother mentioning that I'd been glad to be deployed.

He'd only call me a lunatic.

"Tell me about it. Anyway, I brought a gift. Mind if I drop by today?"

- A gift? What for?

"You'll see."

- Okay, then. I had something to ask you anyway, so this works out.

"Ask me what?"

- You'll see. Anyway, time your visit for when the customers clear out.

The moment I had the green light, I grabbed a shopping bag and hopped in a taxi.

Switching cabs several times, on the off chance anyone was tailing me.

A trip that should've taken under thirty minutes ended up taking a full two hours.

"Hyeong-nim, you've been well?"

"Oh! Right. You left in such a hurry... did everything back home get squared away?"

"Yes. Thanks to you, hyeong-nim, it all worked out."

As Wang Chunsam and his younger friend from back home, we shook hands naturally, each wearing our cover identities.

Chae A-ra, who must have heard I was coming, approached with a delighted face as well.

"Welcome, Young Master. You must be weary after so long a journey."

"Weary? I came running because I couldn't stop dreaming about the spicy cold noodles you made me that first day, hyeongsu-nim."

"As it happens, I have had it prepared and waiting for some time."

I'd deliberately arrived just as the lunch rush wound down, so the restaurant was empty.

It had only been days since I left, yet how welcome a sight the place was.

"Here, your gift."

"I was wondering what you'd brought. What is it?"

"Handmade gochujang and wheat rice cakes."

"Oh!"

Apparently the gift got a warmer welcome than I did.

Kite No. 3 eagerly wrenched the lid open, jabbed a finger deep into the gochujang, and tasted it.

Then he made a face like the blood had come rushing back into his veins.

"Ahh. That's the stuff."

"Make it last. I had no idea, but handmade gochujang turns out to be seriously expensive."

"Right? Even the mass-produced stuff runs nearly triple the price in China. So even when you're craving it, you can't just have it whenever you want."

While we warmly caught up, the spicy cold noodles I'd been pining for arrived at the table.

We each dug into a late lunch, and the conversation flowed on its own.

"Anyway, you've been through it. I heard you took out a twelve-man North Korean hit squad all by yourself?"

"It just sort of turned out that way."

"Unbelievable, seriously.... By the way, what the hell was that whole Garibong-dong thing about?"

"That? It's kind of a long story."

"Long or short, I'm dying to know, so spit it out."

I gave him a brief rundown of everything I'd been through in Korea.

Not wanting to poke a hornet's nest, I left out the part about the NIS domestic division agent who'd come looking for me.

As for the burner car, I framed it as coming from an old acquaintance; whatever could be trimmed, I trimmed to the bone.

But when he heard the part about me ramming the car into the arcade, Kite No. 3's face, which had been listening in a daze, contorted by the second.

"You absolute lunatic...."

At the high praise, I just grinned.

The busy chatter settled into a lull for a while after that.

If only to keep my mouth occupied, I slurped away at my spicy cold noodles in silence.

'Hm?'

For some reason, one side of my face prickled.

Wondering why, I glanced over to find Chae A-ra staring straight at me.

"Hyeongsu-nim? Is there something you'd like to say?"

"Ah, well...."

Chae A-ra hesitated, reading the room, unable to bring herself to speak.

Come to think of it, she hadn't said a word the whole time we'd been talking, and the mood had felt oddly off.

I shot a glance at Kite No. 3, but he kept his mouth firmly shut, as if he'd been briefed in advance.

"Young Master.... It is nothing else but that I dare to have one personal favor I wish to ask of you."

After long hesitation, she barely managed to get the words out.

At that careful tone, I set down my chopsticks and wiped my mouth.

If she was working up to it this hard, it was no small favor.

'I have a rough idea what she's about to ask.'

There aren't many kinds of favors a woman of North Korean defector origin living in Dandong could ask of an NIS black agent.

Kite No. 3 had hedged on the phone about having something to ask me; apparently this was what he'd meant.

"Please, speak freely. If it's something I can help with, then of course I will."

"Whew."

At my answer, Chae A-ra let out a deep breath.

Then, hands clasped tight, she carefully came to the point.

"The matter is this.... My younger brother is presently working at a factory near Ryanggang Province."

Ryanggang Province, home to a dense cluster of North Korea's large munitions factories.

Whatever cargo a freight train passing through there was hauling, it was bound to be military materiel.

"Word has reached me that the boy will soon be conscripted as a laborer, loading and unloading a freight train that passes through Ryanggang Province, and that he is to cross over here to Dandong."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. And I am told that when it happens, my brother and others who have joined the cause are to attempt a large-scale defection together."

"Oh."

My mouth fell open before I knew it.

A large-scale defection.

The kind of news that gets the blood rushing just to hear it.

"Where and how did you hear about this?"

"A North Korean broker I had ties with quietly sounded me out."

The NIS had merely slapped something like an indefinite embargo on the press for security reasons; even now, out of sight, brokers were quietly on the move.

Because defection, in and of itself, is a lucrative business.

But the phrase "large-scale defection" carries a whole different weight.

By the sound of it, more than ten people meant to slip off the freight train at once.

"He is demanding ten thousand US dollars in exchange for smuggling my brother out."

"Ten thousand dollars... that's nearly ten million won?"

"Yes. The money I could scrape together somehow, but.... in truth, there is much ugly talk about that broker. They say if someone displeases him, he will strike a name off the list right before the defection, and that he has pocketed payment and then denied the money ever came in.... Had you not come to visit like this, Young Master, I would have had no choice but to entrust the matter to that man."

"Hmm. Do you happen to know any other brokers?"

"I do not.... My connections do not reach so far...."

It seemed Chae A-ra was hoping I would act as her defection broker.

I'd always had a certain interest in that line of work.

I'd done similar work in Russia, after all.

"Forgive me, Young Master. To lean on your friendship with my husband and make so shameless a request...."

Maybe he couldn't bear watching Chae A-ra shrink into herself any longer.

Kite No. 3, who'd been listening quietly beside us, chimed in with easy cheek.

"For the record, whether you take this job or not, I'll be infiltrating the site regardless."

"Well, sure...."

"Thing is, my left arm's still feeling a little tender. Can't say for certain I'd pull my weight out there, you know?"

At the sight of Kite No. 3 milking it so shamelessly, a snort of laughter escaped me.

But whether he played it up or not, my mind had been made up from the moment I heard the words "large-scale defection".

"Shameless? There's no need for that kind of talk, hyeongsu-nim. Of course I'll help."

"Ah!"

"Do you know how many bowls of spicy cold noodles I've eaten here on the house already? If you'd sent hyeong-nim in alone without even telling me, I'd have been the one feeling hurt."

At that, Chae A-ra's eyes reddened.

Relief finally washed over her frozen expression, and soon she bowed her head low, wiping away tears.

"Thank you, Young Master. Truly, I shall not forget this kindness as long as I live."

Kindness was overstating it.

'I'm the one who should be grateful.'

After all, thanks to her, I was feeling exactly why coming back to the field had been worth it.

*****

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