Chapter 47: Foregone Conclusion

TL: LittlePeach

The next morning, I headed out to Dandong Paradise to hang around, same as always.

I'd thought about taking it easy, but there was no way I could keep my restless body cooped up in that cramped hideout.

"Hi, Mister!"

"Hello there. Haven't seen your faces before. You kids from this neighborhood?"

"Yeah! Wanna come play with us, Mister?"

"I'd be honored. What are we playing?"

"Hide-and-seek!"

For the past few days, the alleys had finally begun filling with children running around in packs, a sight I caught more and more often.

I don't know how they recognized me, but every time we crossed paths, the kids would fold at the waist in deep little bows.

The kind of sight that makes it all feel quietly worth it.

"Do you know hide-and-seek, Mister?"

"Sure do. But want to play something even more fun?"

"Like what?"

"Let's play freeze tag."

"Freeze tag?"

"You don't know it? Alright, everybody gather round. I'll teach you the rules."

While I ran around playing with the kids, I could see the neighbors watching, their expressions gradually softening.

That day, the kids gave me the nickname Champ Mister.

"Alright, ice cream for everyone. One each."

"Yaaaay!"

"Champ Mister's the best!"

"Mister, can I have two?"

"You'll get a tummy ache. I'll buy more tomorrow, so just one each today, okay?"

"Okaaay."

"Nom nom."

And while I kept the kids entertained, the long, long remodeling job finally entered its home stretch.

Before I knew it, Dandong Paradise's opening day was right around the corner.

"Hyeong-nim, could you give us a hand with this?"

"With what?"

"They say the boss has to hang the banner himself for good fortune to find the shop."

Zhang Qi had called me over about hanging the banner outside the bar.

All three of the Black Panther Gang trio had bustled outside and stood waiting for me.

"We replaced the signage completely, too. What do you think?"

"Wow..."

While I hadn't been paying attention, the exterior of Dandong Paradise had transformed into something pretty respectable.

The biggest change was the colorful neon signage, which made over the whole atmosphere.

'What the? They decked this place out way better than I expected.'

The decrepit old speakers that used to crackle and tear had been swapped for ones with booming woofers, and instead of tacky Chinese pop, a club beat heavy with bass thumped out of them.

The battered tables that used to block the view had all been cleared away, and the stage area had been widened so people could roam around and enjoy themselves freely.

It had gotten to the point where young people from the area, sensing a new bar going up, were already loitering near the entrance.

'At this rate, the place might actually do good business.'

Personally, as someone who only dropped by to hang out, I'd liked it best when the place idled along dead quiet, with nothing but flies for customers.

"Hold on, why am I the boss?"

"Of course you're our boss, hyeong-nim. You covered the fine and the whole remodel."

"Good grief..."

While I climbed the tree with the banner and took my time tying the cords, the ground below me grew noisy.

I stole a glance down and saw the neighborhood kids clinging to the tree trunk like cicadas.

"I wanna climb too!"

"Me too, me too!"

"Teeheehee!"

While the kids laughed and chattered and ran about, the nearby shopkeepers came out to take in the whole rowdy spectacle.

"Is the position good?"

"Yes. It's perfect, hyeong-nim."

The drab, lifeless Dandong alley had somehow turned into a neighborhood where people actually lived.

[Dandong Paradise Grand Reopening]

[Piles of freebies to celebrate our reopening!]

The banner hung above the entrance, flapping big and proud.

As they watched me hang the banner, the Black Panther trio were each, for some reason, wearing misty-eyed looks and scrunching their noses.

"So, when are you planning to open?"

"As it happens, the promotional flyers we ordered arrived just today."

"Oh, really?"

"We'll start handing out flyers today, and we should be able to open for business as early as tomorrow."

"Wow... it's really come that far already."

"It truly has."

"How are you planning to distribute the flyers?"

"We thought we'd drive around and spread them all over the neighborhood."

"Give me a stack. I'll hand some out on my way home."

"Ah, thank you, hyeong-nim."

At long last, Dandong Paradise's opening day was upon us.

That evening, after even I had handed out flyers with a giddy heart and returned to my rooftop hideout.

Ding.

"Hm?"

I'd been in the middle of relaying camera footage to the satellite, a task I could handle deftly by now.

A message popped up on the computer screen out of nowhere.

[URGENT]

[Orders issued to Sparrow No. 7]

[Operation Number 972C212]

And they were orders with an operation number attached.

Which meant HQ had drafted them and handed them down directly.

[Make contact with Cuckoo No. 1]

Along with the transmitted orders, a photo of a business card was attached below.

[Zhang Jiao Tour Bus]

[Tours from Sinuiju to Hwanggumpyong available on our 25-seater bus]

[Bus charters, rentals, and job placement available]

Presumably Cuckoo No. 1's contact information.

For operations assigned an operation number like this one, a Cuckoo agent was usually dispatched to take direct command of the situation on the ground.

'It's nighttime, but that shouldn't matter, right?'

The operation had come out of the blue, but there was nothing to hesitate over.

I picked up my phone and dialed the number right away.

Brrring, brrring.

The ringback tone went on for a while.

Then, click.

-Yes. You've reached us.

A voice steeped in exhaustion came through the phone.

At the unfamiliar voice, I checked the business card one more time and ran my tongue over my lips.

"Hello. This is Zhang Jiao Tour Bus, right?"

-Yes, sir. Bus charters available. But North Korea's been firing off missiles these past few days, so Sinuiju tours are blocked for the time being.

"I see. What about Hwanggumpyong, where that explosion happened a few days ago? Are tours there possible?"

-....

A brief silence flowed from the other end of the line.

The man asked back, his tone uncertain.

-...May I ask your name, sir?

"Sparrow No. 7."

-Operation number?

"Let's see... 972C212."

-Ah, right. So, Sparrow No. 7. You can't have been deployed to Dandong long. Warmed up yet?

"As a matter of fact, I've been itching for some action..."

The moment he learned who I was, the mood on his end lightened.

Just as it was starting to grate a little that he knew me while I had no clue who he was.

-It's me, Crane No. 12. We met back during the Sinuiju operation. Remember?

"Ah!"

Only then did I realize who he was.

Right after I'd loaded Hyon Yong-chol and his family onto a North Korean army truck in Sinuiju and crossed the Yalu River Bridge, three Crane agents had joined the operation immediately.

No. 13, now dead and gone.

And No. 12 and No. 14.

Of the three, Crane No. 12 was the agent who had taken Hyon Yong-chol's family and departed.

"But then how does... So are you a Crane right now, or a Cuckoo?"

-Most of HQ's personnel are off in Russia at the moment. Dispatching anyone is tough, so I'm just holding the code temporarily.

"Ah."

-Good to hear your voice again, though. As it happens, I was going to contact you separately soon anyway.

"Me?"

-Yeah. I'm the one who sets up the Rabbit Holes in Dandong.

"Ah!"

-I got word from Group Director Oh Dong-cheol a few days ago. I was just about to deliver the goods.

Come to think of it, no one was better suited to managing the Rabbit Holes in an operational area than a Crane.

The Crane code handled local personnel transport and broker work, so they were often on the road behind the wheel.

At the welcome news, I found myself squirming in my seat.

-Have you eaten? Since it's come to this, let's grab a meal together.

"I was just starting to get hungry myself."

-Great. Text me the address. I'll come to you.

About ten minutes passed after I texted him the address.

Ding.

-I'm here. Come on down.

I checked the message and went down from the rooftop room to find a sedan parked in front of the entrance.

As I climbed into the passenger seat, he flicked his eyes up toward the building's rooftop room.

"Coming out of Owl No. 5's hideout, huh? So you took over his role while he's off in Russia."

"Whoa. How did you know that?"

"Of course I know. I'm the one managing the status of the black agents in the Dandong region right now."

"Oh."

"It was originally Crane No. 13's job, but when he died, it got delegated to me."

"Ah."

Crane No. 12 hid his expression behind a sly smile.

They'd shared the same code, and the dead man had been the very next number after his own; say what you will, that's the kind of thing that can't help but show.

I nodded along, playing it his way.

"You're incredibly busy. The Crane code, Rabbit Hole management, Cuckoo duty, and status manager on top of that..."

"People like us? If they say do it, you do it. It's manageable, all things considered."

"Haha."

"Anything you feel like eating?"

"I'll eat whatever you pick, Agent-nim."

"Yeah? There's a dim sum place around here that does it right. Let's head there."

Crane No. 12 was a man with a decidedly smooth, easygoing air about him.

With faint trot music drifting from the car stereo, we soon arrived at a dim sum restaurant by the roadside.

"Wait in the car a minute."

While I sat waiting in the passenger seat, Crane No. 12 went inside and came back out in no time.

"The dim sum here is really something. There's talk we need to have in the car, so I got it to go on purpose."

"Ah, right."

Talk about this operation, presumably.

As I took the steaming boxed dim sum, Crane No. 12 started the car again and headed off somewhere.

'Huh?'

Where we soon arrived was, by sheer coincidence, near the storage yard right next to Dandong Station.

Every trace of the North Korean freight train's visit was gone; the marshalling yard lay in plain view, swept clean.

The strange coincidence put me in a strange mood to match.

"Let's eat first."

The unease didn't last long.

We each opened our box of dim sum and dug in.

"Mmm. That's the stuff. Good dim sum, right?"

"Mmph."

It was unspeakably good.

The springy bite of the shrimp inside the shumai alone was enough to tell me this place was the real deal.

And right in the middle of my full-combat eating.

"Oh, right. You hear about this?"

"Mmm?"

"A few days ago, a North Korean freight train pulled into Dandong Station... right over there?"

"...."

Crane No. 12 dropped that on me just as I'd popped a glistening, oil-slicked xiaolongbao into my mouth.

Even without the broth bursting across my tongue, I would have kept my lips sealed and just blinked.

"Turns out a mass defection took place inside that freight train."

Yikes.

"The whole of Dandong is in an uproar over it. Seriously."

Yikes, yikes.

I caught myself furtively glancing around.

'...He's testing me right now, isn't he?'

Because, as it happened, I was the star of that very uproar.

Gulp. First, I swallowed the mouthful of broth.

Even then, I didn't dare open my mouth.

'Is he about to chew me out for moonlighting as a defection broker?'

I wasn't the only one moonlighting, though...

Sniff.

Whether or not I was wound tight inside, Crane No. 12 carried on in a leisurely tone.

"Anyway. What I want to talk about is something a little different. A piece of intel came in to HQ recently."

But then he abruptly changed the subject.

I'd been bracing for a slap across the face, so it felt like getting smacked in the back of the head instead, and it left me bewildered.

While I just blinked, he picked up another dim sum and ate it.

"Among the Triad outfits that have recently set up shop in Cambodia, there's one called the Shanyuan Society. Word is they're buying up North Korean defectors to use as manpower for their criminal operations."

"...Cambodia?"

"Yeah. Apparently Cambodia's pretty hot with crime syndicates these days. Vietnam's been opening up its borders and raising hell about wiping gangsters off the map, so it seems they've decided there's no more fun to be had over there."

Thankfully, it wasn't about the North Korean freight train.

With the conversation drifting to a topic I'd never expected, I relaxed considerably and busied myself finishing off the remaining dim sum.

"The thing is, it seems one of the defection brokers operating in Dandong has been co-opted by the Shanyuan Society. We don't know who, but he's apparently going to handle siphoning off defectors and delivering them to the Society."

"What on earth do they want with defectors?"

"Honestly, where else would you find labor that cheap and that easy to work into the ground? They can't even prove their own identities, and they speak the same language as South Koreans, which makes them perfect as voice phishing callers."

"Mmm."

A groan escaped me before I knew it.

The Shanyuan Society bastards were a criminal organization born and bred, fine, but the defection broker lending them a hand was the scummiest of the scum.

"They say the Shanyuan Society has set up a temporary hideout near Dandong, but we don't know the exact location yet. Naturally, there's also been no confirmation of how many Society men are inside, or how many defectors are being held there."

Throat dry, apparently, Crane No. 12 gulped down some bottled water.

I didn't need to hear any more to know the gist of the operation he was getting at.

"So the first order of business is tracking down that scumbag broker."

"Right. HQ has narrowed down a list of brokers in Dandong, but we still don't know which of them is making contact with the Shanyuan Society."

Crane No. 12 pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket and handed it over.

Unfolding it, I found a list of some twenty names.

"Besides you and me, several other agents are on the move at this very moment. The plan is to assign three brokers to each of us and watch their movements by tailing the ones on the list."

As I scanned slowly down the list from the top.

[Yu Jong-pil]

[Korean-Chinese descent. Sharp increase in Dandong activity over the past two months]

One very familiar name caught my eye.

The very same scumbag defection broker who'd spent an entire night trading blows with me in front of that North Korean freight train.

"Tsss."

The moment I saw the name, an uncanny certainty ran down my spine.

'It's this guy.'

*****

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

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