Chapter 45: Whoa, Sweet!

TL: LittlePeach

As far as I was concerned, it was a pretty convincing pitch.

But no one present seemed to agree with my proposal.

"Wait, what the...."

"What kind of insane...."

The North Korean squad leaders, and even the brokers, looked rattled, as if wondering what kind of bullshit this lunatic was spouting.

- A-Agent Sparrow? Have you lost your mind?

- Comms security, comms security?

Even the two other agents eavesdropping over the radio couldn't hide their shock.

Then the first squad leader to come to his senses glared, eyes bulging, and shoved his muzzle at me.

"You... what kind of bullshit are you trying to pull on me? Defection? You call that a serious suggestion?"

"Come now. Let's think this through."

I gave a light snort and took another step toward him.

Whether he had his muzzle trained on my chest or not, my sheer confidence made the one holding the gun flinch back a step instead.

"Look. There are dozens of laborers rioting over there, and they've already taken your subordinates' guns and finished arming themselves. You think the five of you left here can charge in and put down that riot?"

"Th-that's...."

"You'd be shot full of holes and left sprawled out as corpses."

The squad leader's muzzle wavered ever so slightly.

They weren't fools, after all.

Dozens of the People had staged an armed uprising; how could a mere five men hold back that tide?

I jerked my chin toward the freight train.

"And if you go back empty-handed instead, you think you'll survive that? You know better than I do what punishment awaits for the crime of botching manpower management and letting a riot break out."

"...."

The squad leaders' faces went white as sheets.

Summary execution, no trial required.

They must have vividly pictured the horrific future that awaited them, strapped down on an anti-aircraft gun range and blown to pieces.

"Fight and die, go back and die.... But if you cross over to the South, it's a different story. You're all standing there with fistfuls of dollars right now, aren't you?"

At that, the North Korean squad leaders stared blankly at the wads of dollars in their hands.

The enormous pile of cash they'd just pocketed from the defection deal.

"Rather than gambling your lives away and dying for nothing, buy your freedom with that money instead."

"...."

"Isn't it perfect? Everyone gathered here is an expert in the field. Get the brokers' help, link arms, and head to South Chosun together. Couldn't ask for better."

The squad leaders' eyes darted in every direction.

The hesitation was brief; the answer was already decided.

"Wh-what are we to do? My mother back home...."

"Agh! Quit your whining!"

"Aye, think on that later. First we survive, is that not so?"

"W-with this money...."

The murmuring squad leaders soon turned back to me.

Resolve settled in their wide eyes.

"...This Comrade broker speaks the truth! If we return, we are fodder for the anti-aircraft guns anyway. Better to take this money and go to South Chosun!"

"A-aye! Whatever else, we cannot die like dogs!"

Having lost their reason to the sudden turn of events, the squad leaders fumbled to re-sling their rifles.

I decided to push one step further.

"But now that I think about it, just taking that money won't balance the books at all."

"Wh-what?"

The squad leaders' flushed expressions stiffened in an instant.

"There's a riot going on outside, right? In the middle of this madhouse, adding five armed People's Army squad leaders to the list on short notice, no less.... Oh dear. That'll run two or three times the base price in hazard pay. You knew that, right?"

"H-huh?"

"Th-this bastard keeps flapping his lips.... You mean to haggle over our very lives!"

One squad leader, eyes bloodshot, bared his teeth and shoved his muzzle at me again.

But I didn't so much as blink, jerking my chin toward the outside.

Bang! Ba-bang-bang!

Right on cue, a burst of gunfire erupted outside the tent.

The squad leaders' shoulders jumped.

"Shoot if you want. But if you waste bullets on me here, will you be able to put up a proper fight against the laborers who come running wild at the sound?"

"Nnngh...."

"You seem short on cash at the moment, so.... as a special act of generosity, I'll set one other condition instead."

"Wh-what condition!"

I grinned and pointed at the other defectors trembling in the corner.

"You hand those defectors gathered over there back to the brokers who were originally supposed to take them, untouched. How about it?"

With that, I turned to the other brokers, who stood frozen in dumbfounded silence.

"Bosses, am I right? When people show up wanting to defect out of the blue like this, it costs double, doesn't it?"

"Ah, r-right? Of course, with all these unscheduled extra bodies about to pack in.... naturally it costs more."

"Ahem. That's right, indeed."

The brokers, who had been watching how the game unfolded, were quick on the uptake and played along.

From their standpoint, it was work that had come flooding in unannounced, but at the end of the day, if they wanted to earn their keep, they'd have to row.

At that, the North Korean squad leaders fidgeted anxiously and hurriedly thrust out their bundles of dollars.

"Th-that is no longer our concern!"

"What do we care whose hands that baggage ends up in? Take them and sort it among yourselves! Q-quickly!"

"I-if it is money you want, here. We shall give you all of it, only let us live!"

They were too busy nodding along to hesitate for even a moment.

With getting off the scene alive their top priority, which broker took charge of those defectors was no longer even on their radar.

And so the deal seemed to be closing at lightning speed.

But then.

"W-wait! What kind of nonsense are you all spewing!"

Yu Jong-pil, belatedly realizing the situation was unfolding entirely without him, frantically shoved his way in.

He had paid his dollars but not yet received the defectors, and he had never agreed to my proposal in the slightest.

"D-don't listen to this man's bullshit! I... I'll help you instead! Leave it to me! I will escort you safely to the Republic of Korea! F-free of charge!"

His tempting offer gave the North Korean squad leaders pause, but only for a moment.

"But you all saw this man, just a little while ago, playing petty money games with me, didn't you?"

"...."

"Who's to say he won't change his tune right before you enter South Korea and demand a massive surcharge?"

At the words I tossed out, the squad leaders clenched their fists tight around their wads of dollars.

Just as I'd said, the petty behavior they had witnessed firsthand moments ago was seared deeper into their minds than a hundred words could ever be.

Flustered, Yu Jong-pil now went so far as to grab hold of one of the squad leaders and cling to him.

"Th-that money is my money, I just handed it over! Whatever else, if you took my money, you hand the people over to me!"

"Shut your mouth, you bastard!"

At that, one of the squad leaders, eyes going wild in turn, slammed his rifle butt square into Yu Jong-pil's solar plexus.

"Hurk!"

"Money? We are about to croak, what do we care who owns that pittance!"

"If you do not want bullet holes in that body of yours, shut your trap and stay down!"

"Khack! Gaahhh...."

While Yu Jong-pil crumpled to the ground, dry-heaving, the squad leaders, their resolve hardened, roughly tore the armbands from their shoulders.

"Wh-who will take charge of me?"

"Anyone here from Pyongan Province?"

"I am. But why ask where we hail from?"

"We each tend to handle different regions, that's why. Hamgyong Province, over here."

"Me! H-Hamgyong, that is me."

"Me as well!"

In an instant, the inside of the tent turned as chaotic as a fish market.

Not only the defectors Yu Jong-pil had nearly snatched away, but even the North Korean squad leaders were assigned out to different brokers as the traffic control got underway.

"Ngh, f-fuuuck...."

Meanwhile, Yu Jong-pil, clutching his belly as he fled, glared at me with a twisted face.

I gave the departing man a breezy little wave.

'That's payback for making me spend an extra twenty thousand dollars.'

While I smiled to myself behind my mask, the situation gradually settled down before long.

The brokers, their defection deals concluded, approached me with smiling faces.

"Say, friend. We owe you a great deal for today."

"That's the truth. Thanks to you, we got to see quite the satisfying show."

"And that silver tongue of yours, truly something. Let's stay on friendly terms from here on."

They began handing me slips of paper.

No names on them, just their phone numbers, written out by hand.

"The gratitude's all mine. I'll be staying in Dandong for a while, so I'll be leaning on you sunbae-nims now and then."

"Ahem. Sunbae-nim, you say.... What seniority is there to speak of in our line of work?"

"Come on. Just think of it as having picked up a junior, and look kindly on me."

"Heh heh heh. Well now, we've got ourselves one shady junior."

"Hahaha."

Into the notebooks they slyly held out, I scribbled down the number of the phone I was currently using.

While the brokers, contact info exchanged, left the scene in high spirits, only Chae Ji-jun and I remained under the tent.

I grinned and turned to him.

"Well then, let's get going too."

"I-is it truly all right to simply leave like this?"

"Of course. Don't worry about it. By the way, Chae Ji-jun-ssi, your nose really takes after your sister's, you know?"

"Ah, haha.... I hear that a great deal."

"Now that I look, the eyebrows too."

"That is so."

Chatting away with Chae Ji-jun as we headed out of the marshalling yard, I checked the radio anyway, just in case.

And a voice came through.

- Whoa, sweet!

Click-click!

- How much is all this?

Click-click-click!

Over the radio, Owl No. 8's whoops and the sound of a camera shutter poured out without pause.

*****

Within the NIS headquarters were several offices whose purposes no one could name.

They usually sat empty, and yet they were covert spaces no unauthorized person could ever set foot in.

Whirrr, whirr.

The hum of the air conditioner filled the empty room.

"You went into the Dandong Public Security building a few days ago. Did something happen inside?"

In one of those offices, Deputy Director Kim Jin-taek was on a call.

From the other end of the phone flowed a languid voice.

- What, are you interrogating me now?

"You failed to report something that should have been reported. From where I stand, I have no choice but to suspect a change of heart on your part."

- Didn't you say I'm the most capable of us all? You should have simply assumed I'd handled it on my own.

The woman's tone was leisurely from start to finish.

Deputy Director Kim Jin-taek's expression grew even calmer.

- If I really had turned coat, would I have walked openly through the front gate of the Public Security building, right where the NIS cameras are so obviously pointed?

"...."

- I didn't report it because it was nothing. The new Dandong Public Security Bureau director just took his post, so I stopped by to pay my respects, that's all. He kept prying about the Kowloon Hotel's defenses; seems he wants to increase the Public Security personnel stationed at the hotel.

"And? Your answer?"

- I refused, obviously. I was finally catching my breath now that the North Koreans have taken their hands off the hotel entirely, and stuffing more Public Security police in there would defeat the whole point, wouldn't it?

Yang Mi-ryeong laid out her recent affairs in an unhurried tone.

At that, Deputy Director Kim Jin-taek scratched his brow and spoke with something like a sigh.

"From now on, report properly and on time. So that I never have to suspect you again."

- ...Ha. Deputy Director-nim. Do you miss the days you ordered me around with a jerk of your chin that badly?

Yang Mi-ryeong snorted, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

At her stinging retort, Deputy Director Kim Jin-taek's eyes settled coolly.

- You seem not to have grasped this, but I'm not your subordinate anymore. I'm a collaborator.

"...Spend enough time among hoodlums, and you've become a genuine hoodlum yourself, I see."

- And who was it that liked this hoodlum temper of mine so much he brought me in through special recruitment?

In that instant, Yang Mi-ryeong's voice suddenly sharpened.

- You seem to think rubbing shoulders with gangsters has made me stupid along the way.... I'd like you to understand that my silence is not stupidity.

"Silence? About what?"

- Crane No. 13. Why did he die?

At the question, with its strange resonance, Deputy Director Kim Jin-taek closed his mouth instead of answering.

- Did you think I would just sit there in a daze doing nothing?

"...."

- With this much time passed, you should have known I'd have dug up more than enough about why that man had to die and how all of this came to pass.

For a fleeting moment, a look crossed Deputy Director Kim Jin-taek's face, the look of a man who had gone and poked a hornet's nest for nothing.

Yang Mi-ryeong.

Just as she herself had said, she was, among all the Crow agents, an exceptionally outstanding one.

*****

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