Chapter 61: Special Operations Group, Team 5 Leader

TL: LittlePeach

The outskirts of downtown Dandong.

Owl No. 8 stepped into the rooftop hideout wearing a gloomy expression.

It was the fifth day since he'd taken over his predecessor's duties.

Just hauling himself up to the rooftop room felt like a chore, but before the server crashed, he had to transmit footage at least once a week, one way or another.

Now shuttling back and forth between the two hideouts, he was just about to transmit the first batch of surveillance footage.

Ding.

"Huh?"

At that moment, a notification window popped up on the computer screen.

[Orders for Owl No. 8]

[Hand off original duties to Owl No. 5]

Owl No. 8 stared blankly at the message window.

Before long, without realizing it, his eyes went wide.

Then, all at once, it welled up.

"Uhk."

At the violent surge of emotion he couldn't hold back, the man's face crumpled.

He immediately snatched up his phone.

Brrring, click.

Unlike before, the call connected right away.

-Oh, Yong-jun. Funny thing, I was just about to call you...

"Ah, fuck, Gi-ung hyung!"

-Wh-what? Why the sudden cursing...

"Why the hell haven't you been picking up? Do you have any idea how many times I called after I heard you'd gone missing?"

-...What. Are you crying?

"I thought you were dead, of course I'm crying!"

At Owl No. 8's whining voice, Owl No. 5 let out an exasperated little laugh on the other end of the line.

It wasn't a reaction that found the complaint all that unwelcome.

-Haah. Alright, alright. As it happens, Sparrow No. 7 told me about you. Said if you hadn't been sobbing and pleading, he'd never have thought to come to Russia. So yeah, you're my savior, kid.

"You met Agent Sparrow?"

-Sure did.

"No, but how did you even meet him in the first place?"

The barrage of questions pouring out of Owl No. 8, one after another.

Owl No. 5, who'd been quietly hearing him out, opened his mouth with a sigh.

-Hah, seriously... If you knew what I went through in Russia, you'd probably faint. You know how terrifying those Russian mafia guys are, right?

"Oh please. You're the one who'll faint if you come back to this hideout. There was a mass defection here, I'm telling you."

-Kid. That's just business as usual over there.

"No, I mean it. The defectors were snatching up guns and starting a full-on riot..."

The two of them spent a while trading war stories.

Then, once they'd more or less gotten their emotions under control, Owl No. 8 let out a soft snort of a laugh.

"And I've got something to show you, too, hyung. It'll blow your mind, probably."

-What now?

"You'll see. You're gonna piss yourself, seriously."

His face much lighter now, Owl No. 8 glanced down beneath the desk.

"Somebody left behind one hell of a lost-and-found item here."

A little box, like a small brick, sat there all alone, waiting for its owner.

*****

After a short trip in Busan, I headed straight back up to Seoul.

"Seunim. Is there anything else you'd like me to do?"

"Work, nothing. Come over here and have some watermelon."

"Yes'm..."

Bomunsa, which I'd come back to visit.

For once, I was at Deokun-seunim's side, sweeping the yard and setting roof tiles, wandering around hunting for any little odd job that might be of use to the temple.

But even after scurrying about all day like a lost puppy, there was nothing left to do.

All the more so because it was a small temple.

Crunch, crunch.

While I loafed on the wooden-floored porch, biting into cool watermelon, Deokun-seunim watched me, and her expression softened.

"Seeing as you can't sit still and rest even after coming back from a job, I take it you're itching for something to do?"

"Haha..."

How did she know?

I nodded with an awkward smile.

Just as she said, my whole body was itching.

'Whenever I'm stuck in Korea, it's always like this.'

Itch, itch, itch, itch.

"Truth is, these days work's the whole joy of living for me. To the point where I feel like this is my true calling."

"That's a fine thing. When so many people wander in search of their path without ever knowing what makes life worth living. So, then, how long is your leave?"

"I'm not sure. My position's kind of up in the air right now. It seems like headquarters still hasn't decided where to send me."

Taking over the surveillance role in Dandong, China, in Owl No. 5's place.

Blowing up the Shanyuan Society broker's hideout.

And after that, even stowing away on an illegal sea passage to Russia and back.

Honestly, an agent putting up numbers like that should have the higher-ups clawing at the walls to put me to use somehow, right away. That would be normal.

So I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they were leaving me to sit idle like this.

'Maybe there's some kind of power struggle between the NIS Director and the First Deputy Director. Given that someone tried to poach me and spirit me away.'

That was the likeliest hypothesis I had, at least.

Of course, even if the hypothesis was right, in the end it was just a political fight among higher-ups, one I could do nothing about.

For my part, all I could do was sit and wait for a call to come.

Then, one day.

Brrring.

"Oh."

While I was roaming the Bulgwangcheon walking course near Bomunsa, my phone, which had stayed silent all this time, finally rang.

The number on the screen wasn't an unfamiliar one, either.

It was Special Operations Group team leader Choi Min-sik's number.

"Yes, team leader."

-Ah. Uh-huh. Y-you been doing okay?

But somehow Choi Min-sik's reaction on the other end was oddly reluctant.

He seemed uncomfortable dealing with me, yet was trying his best not to let it show.

Even so, he couldn't quite hide the faint tremor in his voice.

'I guess it would be a little awkward for him.'

The scale of what I'd pulled off lately, moving between Dandong and Vladivostok, was nothing a mere team-leader-level guy could handle.

It was no wonder he'd react like that.

To play along with the effort he was making, I spoke up in the most cheerful, unbothered voice I could manage.

"Since you're reaching out to me directly like this, does that mean my leave is finally over?"

-Yeah, yeah. That's exactly why I'm calling.

"Perfect timing. I've been waiting with bated breath for you to call me back in."

-O-oh, really?

"I've been itching for it. Should I come in first thing tomorrow?"

-Right. You can report to headquarters tomorrow, but...

For some reason he swallowed his next words and hesitated.

As I sat there blankly waiting for the rest, a hollow chuckle came through from the other end.

-Well, anyway... Congratulations, I guess.

"Sorry?"

-I'm just telling you ahead of time. Even if you come in tomorrow, I won't be there.

Won't be there? Had he been reassigned somewhere else?

While I blinked in confusion, he went on in an unburdened tone.

-Anyway, you'll understand everything once you show up tomorrow. Be at headquarters by 8 a.m.

"Understood."

-Take care of yourself, then.

And with that, the call cut off.

I stared at the darkened screen and tilted my head for a moment, but there wasn't much I could figure out on my own right then.

'I'll find out tomorrow, I guess.'

I turned right back toward Bomunsa to deliver the news that my leave was over.

The next morning.

"Don't get yourself hurt. Come back safe, and let's see each other again."

"I'll be sure to. You've never once seen me get hurt, have you?"

"I know it well."

I embraced the warmly smiling seunim and we shared our farewells.

After paying my respects at Grandmother's memorial tablet in the little back room as well, I headed straight for the NIS headquarters.

This time too, I went in and sat down inside an office tucked away in some dank corner of the basement.

"From here on out, you're the leader of the Special Operations Group's Team 5."

"Oh."

The moment he saw me, group director Oh Dong-cheol threw out that greeting without preamble.

It was sudden, but it also made me realize why Choi Min-sik had congratulated me in such a hollow voice the day before.

A rookie who hadn't even been at the NIS half a year as a probationary hire had made team leader overnight, so from his standpoint as a team leader himself, it was understandable.

Beyond just an unconventional appointment, it was probably an unprecedented event in NIS history.

'Team leader... but wait, Team 5?'

There was just one thing that puzzled me.

As far as I knew, the Special Operations Group was organized with only up to four teams.

Russia's Team 1, the Middle East's Team 2, the Northeast Three Provinces' Team 3, Southeast Asia's Team 4.

'If there's a Team 5 on top of that...'

Did that mean they'd created a whole new department?

When I didn't bother hiding my puzzled expression at all, Oh Dong-cheol grinned and nodded.

"I can see what you're thinking, but let me explain the situation step by step first."

Seated across the table from me, Oh Dong-cheol pulled out a few documents and spread them out in front of me.

The Sinuiju operation, the operation to abduct the Investigation Bureau director, the North Korean assassination squad incident, the Shanyuan Society hideout operation, the Russia rescue operation, and so on.

Reports on all the operations I'd been involved with so far were laid out in a row.

I was especially curious how the Russia operation had been written up, so I let my eyes flick over and hurriedly scanned the contents of the report.

"Over these past few months, our Special Operations Group has been able to confirm, quite thoroughly, that you're an agent capable of remarkable feats across every front, whether assassination, infiltration, rescue, or anything else, regardless of region or environment. So, after heated discussion, we concluded we'd assign you a special role."

"A special role?"

"We judged that confining a talent like you to one specific region, one specific team, the way we would with the Northeast Three Provinces or Russia, would be far too much of a waste from our Special Operations Group's perspective."

"Which means..."

"So we decided to create an entirely independent Team 5 and grant you team leader authority. Of course, we still haven't decided how many members to place under you, and we were only at the stage of deliberating where to deploy you."

Just as I'd figured, the higher-ups had also decided that leaving me idle was a waste.

But handing me a team leader post was outside my expectations.

"Then we reached a conclusion, provisional though it is. I'm thinking of sending you to Southeast Asia first."

"Oh."

Southeast Asia.

Usually when people hear "Southeast Asia", they picture resorts and tourist spots, Vietnam first and foremost.

But from the NIS's standpoint, the picture shifts a bit.

The Triad organizations that had operated in China had been pushed off the mainland and, over a long stretch of time, had relocated their base to Southeast Asia.

The majority of Southeast Asian countries had been eaten away by Triad capital and had their key industries seized, to the point where these days even government policy and direction were handled with an eye on the Triads' mood.

Just as the Shanyuan Society, the organization whose hideout I'd blown up in Dandong not long ago, was based in Cambodia, the Triads and Southeast Asia were inextricably linked.

"Do you happen to remember the Shanyuan Society hideout you smashed up in Dandong last time?"

"Of course. Vividly."

"Head to Cambodia and, first of all, verify the Shanyuan Society's movements."

I'd just been thinking about Cambodia, and out of Oh Dong-cheol's mouth the name Shanyuan Society came out just as naturally.

He tapped one of the documents on the desk.

It was the operation report on the Shanyuan Society hideout I'd smashed.

"Even though you brought down the Shanyuan Society hideout set up in Dandong, judging by the armament and security level at the time, there's a strong chance it was only a very temporary setup."

"Er."

"So go there in person and check whether the Shanyuan Society is sending in additional personnel to build a new hideout, or making contact with a different broker to spirit away defectors."

Oh Dong-cheol said as much, but the Shanyuan Society hideout I'd blown to pieces back then was nowhere near the level of a temporary base.

It was the genuine, a forward outpost they'd poured considerable funds and manpower into, and losing the whole thing overnight would have been a painful loss for the Shanyuan Society, too.

It seemed that because I'd reported my exploits scaled down to a reasonable degree, headquarters was rather badly misreading the situation at the time.

"Yes, understood."

But there was no real need to correct that here.

The first principle of working life.

Play dumb when you know; play dumb when you don't.

"As soon as I arrive in Cambodia, I'll get straight to the investigation."

"Good. Once you're there, get help from Southeast Asia's Team 4. Most of the personnel are still in Vietnam, but some have crossed over to Cambodia for now. Handle your mission there while also lending Team 4's operation a hand."

"Understood."

Having said that, Oh Dong-cheol abruptly held out a memo slip.

It was a scrap of paper with a local contact number written on it.

"Once you arrive on-site, call this number. It's the contact for the Cambodia situation manager. I'll tell them to provide whatever support you need to operate."

"Thank you."

And so, with that meeting with Oh Dong-cheol, I boarded a flight to Cambodia right away.

*****

Cambodia, the country nestled between Thailand and Vietnam.

"Ugh."

The moment I stepped off the plane, hot and humid air greeted me.

The textbook tropical climate, where the temperature never drops below 20 degrees all year round.

"Nice and toasty."

That said, I was as tough against heat as I was against cold.

I'd gotten around just fine even on Russia's frozen tundra and near the Gulf of Aden in the Middle East, after all.

"Now then, let's see..."

Right after leaving the airport, I flagged down a taxi and headed for Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

On the way, I immediately called the Southeast Asia team agent Oh Dong-cheol had given me.

Brrr, click.

"Huh?"

But the instant I placed the call, the ringtone cut off, didn't it?

Before I even had time to wonder, a text message flew in a moment later.

-Phnom Penh, Boeng Keng Kang 1, Temple Coffee, 3rd-floor terrace, Table 5.

A truly meticulous contact message.

Reading it made me think that maybe I'd been living my life as a black agent far too complacently up to now.

'Is there really any reason to go this far?'

I wondered for a moment, but for now I decided to play along with the Southeast Asia team's methods.

"Let's leave the hotel for later."

Right now I looked every bit the Cambodian tourist.

All the luggage I had was a single backpack stuffed with a few changes of clothes and my wallet.

Nothing cumbersome to weigh me down, so I headed straight for the appointed café.

"Is this the place?"

The 3rd-floor terrace of Temple Coffee, which I'd finally reached.

It was a shop ringed all around with climbing vines, like it had been set down in the middle of a jungle.

Maybe because it was the time of day when the blazing Southeast Asian sun beat down hardest, there wasn't a single soul out on the terrace, not so much as an ant.

The Southeast Asia team agent didn't seem to have arrived yet, either.

"Warm and pleasant."

While I sat on the terrace and took in the scenery of Phnom Penh, for some reason it felt like I was on vacation.

With Cambodia's vista of vermilion triangular rooftops stretching all the way to the horizon giving off an exotic air.

"Oh, right."

Since it crossed my mind, just in case, I sent off a text.

-I've arrived. Take your time.

The sun blazed so hot that a coffee with ice cubes bobbing in it turned into plain water in under ten minutes.

I passed a good while under the pouring sunlight, as if sunbathing.

Time passed like that, and by the time the sun had climbed to right overhead.

-When do you think you'll be here?

On the off chance, I put in a second text.

For some reason, there was no reply.

I waited in that state until the sun dipped low and began to set.

Only then did the tourists come out to the now more bearable terrace seats and start chattering away here and there.

"...."

And in the midst of that, I'd become the uninvited guest hogging a terrace seat with a single cup of coffee ordered.

The staff shot me sidelong glances with sour expressions, and their gazes stung sharper than the midday sun.

In that moment, I knew it by instinct.

'This is them giving the new guy a hard time, right?'

For whatever reason, the Southeast Asia team didn't seem inclined to welcome me.

*****

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