Chapter 92: The Type to Keep Business and Personal Strictly Separate

TL: LittlePeach

Posillipo is counted among the finest spots in all of Naples for its view of the sea.

And a good part of what makes that view so spectacular has to be these sheer, knife-cut cliffs.

Clack.

Whooosh.

A loose stone kicked up at my feet tumbled a long, long way down into the dizzying drop.

While I glanced down after it, a sea breeze came climbing over the cliff face and licked at my cheek in passing.

"Higher than I thought."

Late at night, close enough to dawn.

This vertigo-inducing cliff was the entire reason I'd taken up mountaineering in the dead of night.

Looking down at the resort tucked in far below the cliff, everything that had gone down at the Shanyuan Society apartment a few days back came drifting back through my head.

That had been my personal record for a free fall, and tonight I was set to break it without breaking a sweat.

"Looks about three times higher than that one...."

To rappel down from this height, the rope alone would weigh a good ten kilos.

Not having to bother with any of that was one more reason to be grateful for this body of mine.

Anyway.

I'd reached the lip of the cliff, so there was nothing left to hesitate over.

Hop!

"Hup."

Whoosh!

The weightlessness that washed over me right after the jump raised goosebumps all over, but only for a moment.

Whoooosh.

After that came gravity, pressing harder and harder, shoving me down.

It didn't take long for the predawn air rushing past my cheeks to sharpen into a knife-edged wind.

The closer the ground came, the more my whole body twitched and shivered.

Before long, boom.

The garden's soil erupted and sprayed out in every direction.

'Entry successful.'

The superhero landing, nothing new by now.

Somewhere along the way it had become as natural as breathing.

I let out a light breath, expelling the last of the tension left in me.

"Whew."

I pulled my arms and legs out of the dirt where they'd sunk in halfway, like radishes out of a field, and checked my surroundings first.

Apart from two cameras trained on the entrance, the resort had nothing worth calling a security system.

The walls were high enough that no outsider was getting in, and any more cameras than that would count as a privacy violation by European sensibilities.

For an uninvited guest like me, there was no finer courtesy.

'The bodyguards are all inside on standby.'

My plan went roughly like this.

Storm into the resort, take the case clean off them, and stroll right back out.

The fact that there were four armed North Korean State Security Department agents in there was no problem whatsoever for me.

That's the whole briefing.

A good body makes for an easy mind, as they say, and there was no need to overcomplicate any of it.

'Simple enough.'

Of course, without this indestructible body of mine, it wasn't a plan anyone would dare attempt.

In that sense, the NIS brass who'd assigned me to this mission had truly excellent judgment.

'Let's begin.'

Having made it onto the grounds, I headed straight across the garden, which didn't hold a single obstacle.

The moment I reached the door, I tensed my brow and launched into my performance.

Bang, bang, bang!

I started hammering on the resort's front door with everything I had.

"Uurgh, aaaaargh!"

In acting, what matters is always the concept.

Unfocused eyes, limbs gone slack, and drool running freely down my chin.

From this moment on, I'm an Italian-grown junkie, doped to the gills and out of my mind.

Bang, crash, bang, bang!

"Wurghaaaargh!"

No sooner had I set to pounding on the door than a flurry of movement came rushing up on the other side.

Slam!

"Who goes there!"

Thwack!

The man who threw open the resort's front door and stepped out planted a kick square in my chest without a word of warning.

Driven back by the boot to my solar plexus, I rolled across the ground, then crawled after him like a zombie, staggering closer.

"Uurgh, ah, aaahgh."

"Wh-what in the...."

The State Security Department agent, pistol gripped tight, looked me up and down with a frozen expression.

Eyes rolling loose and unrestrained in their sockets, drool sliding down my chin.

One look and he'd clearly sensed something was very wrong.

"S-stay back!"

"Hrkaaaaagh!"

The moment when neither of us could give any more ground.

Phut!

A thin metallic snap came from the pistol with the suppressor.

Apparently the concept had landed; the State Security Department agent, spooked out of his wits, had jerked the trigger and put a round into me.

"Hurgk...."

Timing it to the flat little crack of the shot, I staggered back a few steps, then pitched forward.

Thud.

"Gurk."

"Hah. Haah.... Where in the world did this damned bastard come in from?"

Thanks to him, my objective was achieved with ease.

From here on, I switch my concept to a corpse killed instantly by gunfire.

"What was that, an intruder?"

"What's going on!"

State Security Department agents came spilling out the door, drawn out in a rush by the sudden gunshot.

One of them grabbed my shoulder and rolled me onto my back.

"Ugh."

"Goddammit...."

At the ghastly sight of me, eyes wide open, drool streaming, tongue lolling halfway out, they clicked their tongues and backed away without even bothering to check for a pulse.

They'd swallowed my dead-man act whole, that much was obvious.

"...Is this really the intruder?"

"Tsk. Isn't he just some junkie from around here?"

"Looks that way...."

Then, before long, one more person came out after them from deeper inside.

"What is all this in the middle of the night?"

"Ah.... Th-that is, Comrade Minister. A suspicious individual was pounding on the door of the lodging, so I discharged my weapon in haste."

"And so, who is this?"

"How he got in I do not know.... but he appears to be a junkie who was wandering the area."

"Tsk. You have made needless trouble."

"My apologies. There was no call to kill him...."

Minister Ri Jong-il looked me over from one angle and then another, distaste plain on his face.

I didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow, keeping my focus on the corpse performance.

They'd openly fired a gun in the middle of an Italian resort town and produced a body; it was obvious how complicated things had just become inside their heads.

"Nothing to be done. We shall have to change the plan. Prepare to depart, quickly, right now."

"Understood."

"Someone outside may report this, so bring the body inside the resort for the time being."

"Yes. I shall stuff it somewhere out of sight."

Two of the bodyguards took hold of my limp arms and legs and hauled me into the resort.

Eyes still open, I swept the place quickly, taking in the building's layout.

"Nngh. Why is this bastard's body so heavy?"

"Bit too well built for a junkie, is he not? Filthy heavy, this one."

They dumped my body, slack as any corpse's, into the bathtub in the bathroom.

While one State Security Department agent wiped the sweat from his forehead and stepped out to see to his duties, the other stood watching my body, and a puzzled look crossed his face.

"Hm? Hold on a moment. He was shot, so why is there no blood?"

He muttered it in confusion, fumbling at my chest, and that was the moment.

Crack!

"Ngh-ulk."

I moved fast and snapped the man's jaw clean around.

Without so much as a scream, the State Security Department agent's eyes rolled back and he sagged to the floor where he stood.

I got up quickly and folded his limp body neatly into the tub in my place.

"Augh, ahh."

I rubbed at my jaw and cheeks, working the stiffness out.

Playing dead with my tongue hanging out that long had left my facial muscles thoroughly cramped.

Now this was Assassin's Creed.

A perfect infiltration without spilling one drop of blood.

Not having to waste any effort on infiltrating the place was wonderfully convenient.

"Hah. Infiltration successful."

Now it was time to begin the real operation.

A search of the man's coat turned up a car key and a pistol fitted with a suppressor.

A Chinese-made Type 06 suppressed pistol.

I had no intention of using it if I could help it.

'No killing.'

I, Kang Hae-chan, a man among men, am the type to keep business and personal strictly separate.

I'd been slapped by a Mafia bastard and come storming in here, and that was no reason to waste my anger on the wrong people.

Pile up a heap of needless bodies here and the police and Interpol would come swarming.

I couldn't let that blow the real plan still waiting for me down the line.

That was when it happened.

"Who has the car key again?"

"Comrade Pak Song-chol has it."

"Did he not drag the body off to the bathroom a moment ago?"

Clomp, clomp.

Heavy footsteps came toward the bathroom where I was hiding.

The instant I pressed myself flat behind the door, a State Security Department agent came walking in.

"Comrade Pak Song-chol. Quit loafing about in here and go start the car...."

Thwack!

"Ngh-ulk?"

One hard chop to the wide-open back of his neck and the man's body crumpled limply.

I crammed this unconscious agent into the tub as well, then stepped straight out of the bathroom.

Two of them left now.

"Comrade Choe Yong-nam, do you not understand that we must hurry?"

The moment I came out, my eyes locked with another agent who happened to be coming down the loft stairs.

The man's eyes went wide as saucers at the sight of me.

"Y-you, you're...."

It was the very agent who'd shot me earlier.

The instant he recognized me he fumbled frantically at his waistband, and in that moment I shot out a hand and yanked hard on the ankle right in front of me.

Crash, bang!

"Aaargh!"

With a tremendous racket, the agent's body tumbled down the stairs.

I strolled over at my leisure and put a light kick into the man's jaw.

Thwack!

"Guhh...."

His eyes rolled back and he sprawled out across the floor, and at that very moment.

"Intruder! We have an intruder!"

Phut, phut-phut!

From the loft on the second floor, the last remaining agent started firing in a panic.

I dropped to the floor at once, playing shot.

Flop.

"An intruder! Everyone, get out here!"

The agent bellowed at the top of his lungs, with no idea he was the only one left.

The man came hurrying down the stairs, and maybe just to be sure.

Phut!

He put one more round into my chest where I lay.

"...."

When I went on lying there without so much as a twitch, he lowered the muzzle, apparently relieved.

And that was exactly when it happened.

Snatch!

"Guh!"

I hooked the ankle of the man loitering by the stairs, same as before, and hauled on it with everything I had.

Crash, bang!

"Urgh...."

Flat on his back before he had time to panic, the man groaned and thrashed.

He still seemed conscious, so I got straight up, closed in, and drove a headbutt into his skull.

Crack!

"Ngk."

Only then did the man's body spread across the floor like a balloon with the air let out.

And that was that.

"Whew."

After catching my breath, I left the agents twitching where they lay and headed up to the loft.

Two agents had come down from the second floor, which made it obvious that Minister Ri Jong-il was staying up there as well.

"...."

Someone had clearly been startled by the sudden gunfire, because I could sense the faintest movement beyond the master bedroom door.

I threw the door open to check, and that was when.

Phut, phut-phut!

"Die!"

Bullets came pouring out through the open doorway.

I had no intention of standing there taking rounds for him, so I left the door hanging open and put my back to the wall.

Click, click!

"Why, why is this happening!"

Rotten luck, that.

The pistol had suffered a malfunction, and all it gave him was the rattle of the trigger.

There was nothing left to wait for, so I walked straight into the room.

"Ee-eek!"

When I leveled the pistol at him as a threat, Minister Ri Jong-il flinched violently and threw both hands into the air.

A corpse that moments ago had been lying there with its eyes rolled back and drool running everywhere had just walked into the room perfectly alive, so his terror was understandable.

Even as he threw his pistol to the floor in a gesture of surrender, was he trying to hold on to one last scrap of pride?

"S-stay back! Do you know what will happen if you so much as touch a hair on my head? I am a diplomat of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea!"

In English, he trotted out his diplomatic status and tried desperately to intimidate me.

"To harm a diplomat like me is a direct provocation against our Republic and a declaration of war!"

He seemed to be hoping I was a simple burglar who'd back off on my own, but all that bluster earned from me was a snort.

"Right. Pardon the intrusion, Minister Ri Jong-il. I'm only here to collect one item."

"...Wh-what?"

At my greeting in Korean, Ri Jong-il's mouth fell open.

He clearly hadn't seen it coming; his lips trembled.

"What is this! You, you're a South Chosun intelligence agent?"

"Who's to say? You're free to imagine whatever you like. There's an item I came for, and once I have it I'll be on my way nice and quietly."

Whether he stood there dumbstruck or not, I took my time looking the place over.

And there, under the bed in the master bedroom, lying at his feet, was an 007 attaché case.

"Aha. This must be the one."

"W-wait!"

The moment I picked the case up, he lunged and clung to my leg.

From how frantic he was, there was no need to ask; this was it.

"S-spare me! If you take that case, I am a dead man! The Party will drag me off and I will die like a dog!"

"What's inside this case?"

"...."

He couldn't bring himself to answer; he only shook.

It was a pitiful thing to see, privately speaking, but given what was in that case, there was nothing to be done.

"Sorry about this. The State Security Department agents outside are only unconscious, so when they come to, all of you should make your way back to the embassy carefully."

I shook Ri Jong-il's hands off with a light kick.

At that he scrabbled across the floor and seized my ankle all over again.

"D-defection! I want to defect!"

"...?"

"I will defect to the Republic of Korea!"

I stopped in my tracks before I knew what I was doing.

I glanced back, and there were his two eyes, desperate.

"If I go back like this, I will truly die!"

"...."

"Please, let me defect!"

The NIS brass who'd sent me out here obviously hadn't anticipated anything remotely like this.

The defection of a minister-grade diplomat; as far as I knew, there was no precedent for it.

'All I wanted was to grab the case.'

Somehow, entirely unplanned, something very odd had come rolling into my lap, right there in the master bedroom.

*****

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