Chapter 93: All in the Family

TL: LittlePeach

Taebaek No. 7 sent out an urgent emergency call.

Following his report that suspicious movement had been detected inside the resort where the target was staying, he fired off a series of frantic radio messages saying a gunfight appeared to have broken out.

At the news, the Taebaek Team agents sprang into action and raced to the scene as one, as if they had been waiting for exactly this.

There was no way to know the precise situation, but not one of them grumbled as the tension ratcheted up.

Krzzt.

-Squad 2, in position and standing by.

-Comms security. Squad 1, nothing to report.

The resort where Minister Ri Jong-il was staying sat in a remote spot; the only way out was a narrow single-lane road winding beneath a sheer cliff.

The outline of this operation had Squad 1 blocking the front of the road with a van, while Squad 2, waiting behind the parking garage, sealed the rear with a sedan to cut off any escape.

Click. Clack.

In case armed State Security Department agents came pouring out, the agents each drew their pistols and checked their loads.

Before long, a black sedan rolled out of the resort's garage at a leisurely crawl.

Krzzt.

-Garage door opening. Target vehicle on the move.

-Copy. Commence operation. Moving in.

Vroom.

Squad 1's van, hidden in the darkness with its headlights off, went into action at once.

It stomped hard on the accelerator, cut across the sedan's path, and flicked its high beams on full.

Screeeech.

-Target vehicle slowing.

-Copy. Squad 2, position?

-Right on its tail. It's got nowhere to go.

The operation was clicking together perfectly.

Like driving a frightened rabbit down a road blocked at both ends, an airtight net closed in, step by step.

Screech.

-Vehicle at full stop.

-Everyone out. Prepare to engage!

The order had barely dropped before all four Taebaek Team agents piled out of their vehicles.

Using the car doors as cover, they trained their muzzles on the sedan as one.

In the still pre-dawn, Taebaek No. 1's voice boomed across the cold night air.

"Driver! Hands on your head and step out slowly!"

"...."

"Don't try anything! Come out right now or we open fire!"

A suffocating standoff.

Click.

Before long, the driver's door swung open.

It was the exact moment the Taebaek Team agents, wary that the man might spray gunfire through the gap, curled their fingers tight around their triggers.

"Whew, that's bright. Could've been a real disaster."

"...?"

A voice so relaxed it had no business in a powder-keg standoff.

A lone figure climbed unhurriedly out of the sedan and walked forward, hands obediently raised above his head.

An unfamiliar face.

He was most certainly not one of the SSD agents they had been watching all this time.

"Hello there. Would you happen to be agents of the Taebaek Team?"

The man's greeting scrambled the agents' brains.

Had the operation been blown?

How does he know our callsign?

Is this an SSD trap?

Amid the confusion, the man spoke again.

"Lovely night. I'm the Team 5 leader, dispatched from HQ for this operation."

"...."

"Nobody's hurt, I hope? As you can see, I'm fine too."

The eyes of the Taebaek Team agents, who had the man surrounded without a single gap, went wide.

Veteran NIS agents, every one of them, yet not one so much as thought to lower his gun; they just stood there, stunned.

"So, I did secure the target briefcase, you see. But things got a little out of hand. Minister Ri Jong-il says he'd like to defect to the Republic of Korea."

"...."

"He's currently hunkered down in the back seat, and he has one condition. He'd like us to spirit out his family, who are staying at the embassy in Britain."

"...."

"Could you get in touch with the British side and help arrange their asylum?"

Whoooosh.

A cold sea wind swept eerily up along the cliff face.

-...Team leader. What do we do about this?

Whisper, whisper.

His teammates' voices trickled in over the radio.

Regardless, Taebaek No. 1 was still standing there in a daze.

"My arms are starting to go numb. I can put them down now, right?"

"...."

It felt like being in a dream.

He was certain that once he woke, it would feel exactly like a nightmare.

*****

In the history of the Republic of Korea, there had been a handful of cases of North Korean diplomats defecting, but the highest-ranking among them topped out at secretary level.

At a diplomatic mission, the post of minister is the number-two seat, right below the ambassador; these are elites who have climbed North Korea's core elite track.

Bringing over a senior diplomat of minister rank was a truly unprecedented, headline-grade event, and it was plain as day that NIS headquarters would soon be turned upside down.

Sluuurp.

"The latte here is really good. This place knows its milk."

"...."

Meanwhile, here in Naples, Italy.

A peaceful morning, with everything more or less wrapped up.

We were in a corner of the storeroom of a roastery café the Taebaek Team was using as a temporary hideout.

The café belonged to a local asset in Italy. I didn't know much about the coffee, but the milk was excellent.

"...."

Sitting across from me was the Taebaek Team's team-leader-grade agent, Taebaek No. 1.

He had rugged features and lips pressed firmly together.

Meeting the wary gaze he had trained on me, I was just starting to form a prejudice or two, when...

"...First, my apologies. Deliberately ignoring and shelving the communications of an agent officially dispatched from headquarters was entirely my own decision. My team members are blameless."

He owned his mistake cleanly and bowed his head first.

I was quietly surprised at how forthcoming he was.

It was only a single remark, but I had a feeling we would get along better than expected.

"That said, even without you, Team 5 leader, our Taebaek Team was fully capable of completing this operation on our own."

But then again, where would the pride of a man of team-leader rank go?

He too was a veteran agent who had seen it all.

As he looked me dead in the eye and said it, I ran my tongue over the foam on my lips.

"Sure, of course. I'm certain you'd have done a fine job without me. One look at how cleanly your agents sealed off that escape route last night tells me that much."

"...Thank you."

When I conceded the point without a fight, Taebaek No. 1's expression turned oddly sour.

From the start, I had no intention of getting dragged into the pissing contest he'd opened.

"But you'll admit that thanks to me, this whole thing ended without a single person hurt, yes?"

"...."

At my claim, Taebaek No. 1 bit down hard on his lip.

His face said it all.

'How is that even possible?'

How does a man walk alone into a resort crawling with armed SSD agents, fight through a gun battle, complete the mission, and come out alive? He had to be dying of curiosity.

But in the end, he held his tongue.

He knew perfectly well that digging into it would only put him at a disadvantage.

I changed the subject to clear the air.

"Oh, right. What's happened to the SSD agents left behind at the resort?"

"...They've each expressed their intent to defect as well. They're currently en route to the airport under Taebaek Team escort."

The good news just kept on coming.

On the heels of the massive win that was Minister Ri Jong-il's defection, four SSD agents had followed suit, one after another.

"They must have taken quite a shock last night. A few of them were babbling some kind of nonsense."

"What kind of nonsense?"

"That they'd gone up against some ghost of a man who wouldn't die no matter how many times they shot him."

"That'd be because I'm actually a martial arts master trained at the Shaolin Temple. Bullets don't work on me."

"...."

The mood seemed oddly grave, so I tossed out a light joke.

If anything, it made Taebaek No. 1's expression even graver.

It was pretty close to the truth, but he apparently took it as me tightening the screws on him.

'And here I was going to ask if I could get another latte....'

Judging by the mood, that wasn't happening.

Sluurp.

I was playing innocent and finishing off the rest of my coffee when it came.

"...What would you have me do?"

Taebaek No. 1 had finally raised the white flag.

Whether I chose to bury them or spare them, whatever I wanted, he would comply without a word of protest.

Truth be told, the conclusion had been settled from the start.

Taebaek No. 1 bore the responsibility for stonewalling a dispatch order from above, and I was both the victim of that turf-guarding and, in the end, the mission's MVP.

I made a show of mulling it over, giving my chin a rub.

But hey.

"Have the Taebaek Team write up the after-action report for this operation however you see fit."

"...I beg your pardon?"

"Exactly what I said. It's not like I did any of this to put the Taebaek Team in a bind."

From the beginning, I had zero intention of strutting around and lording this one over anyone.

The moment Taebaek No. 1 bowed his head without excuses at our very first face-to-face, whatever knot was in my chest had long since come undone.

What reason could there possibly be to burst a blood vessel yelling at a man who had already admitted fault?

"We're all agents risking our lives overseas. What's the point of drawing lines and making enemies of one another?"

"...."

"I'll keep my hands off it. 'Thanks to excellent coordination with the agent dispatched from headquarters, the mission was successfully completed.' One line like that in the report should be plenty."

I am not the type to waste energy getting angry over things that don't call for it.

Besides, my target had been fixed from the very beginning, and there was certainly no need to get angry at my own NIS family.

"The weather in Italy is gorgeous, by the way."

"...Pardon?"

"Spending a day or two resting up in a place straight out of a painting before heading off? From where I sit, that's a pretty profitable vacation, wouldn't you say?"

"...."

Besides, the latte I had just been treated to was far too delicious to spend the morning working myself up over any of this.

Slurp.

I drained the rest of my coffee down to the last drop and flashed a grin.

"...Hah. I see."

Only when I kept sitting there wearing my most harmless smile did a hollow, drained look finally settle over Taebaek No. 1's face.

His shoulders sagged; he let out a deep sigh and nodded.

"A vacation.... I truly envy you. As for me, I'm about to head straight into overtime."

"Oh? Where are you off to?"

"I'll be taking a few of my team over to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. We're set to link up there with Minister Ri Jong-il's family once they're safely out of Britain. We're on close protection duty all the way until everyone boards the charter flight into Incheon."

"Goodness, that sounds rough."

"Where were you originally stationed, Team 5 leader?"

"Oh, I get around. A few days ago I was in Cambodia on vacation. Barely settled in before I got dragged over here."

"My. Is that so? Well, Europe certainly beats Southeast Asia, if you ask me."

"Tell me about it. A blessing in disguise, like they say."

See, that's why there's no need for any of us to get heated with each other.

At the end of the day, we're all just working stiffs grinding it out at our own posts.

The Taebaek Team agents had plenty of hard labor ahead of them, but they'd bagged a monster of a result, and I'd bagged an off-the-books vacation by finishing my mission early.

A win-win if there ever was one, no?

We traded our respective gripes, formed an odd sort of camaraderie, and the atmosphere gradually softened.

"Oh, that reminds me. Something just came to mind. Could I trouble you for one favor?"

Thanks to all that, I could bring up my next order of business in relative comfort.

"What is it?"

"During the operation, it looked like your team was running two cars. Are those registered vehicles, by any chance?"

"Yes. They're registered under the Company's name."

Registered under the Company's name meant that, on paper, there was no visible connection to the NIS whatsoever.

Burner cars, prepped for discreet use here in Italy.

Perfect for my current situation.

"Excellent. Then could I possibly borrow one?"

"...Is it needed for separate official business?"

At Taebaek No. 1's question, I belatedly wet my lips.

At times like this, the best move is to hand the other man a plausible justification.

"Yes. The truth is, I have an operation I'm quietly preparing at the moment."

"Hmm."

Originally, I had planned to pick up some junker of a used car, the way I had in Cambodia.

But this was Italy, the land of paperwork.

Their bureaucracy turned out to be an ambush I never saw coming.

For a foreigner to buy a car legally, the tangle of documents takes a good ten days, apparently.

Rather than politely dance to the tune of that glacial bureaucracy, I had genuinely concluded it would be far more rational to just steal one of the cars littering the streets and get the job over with.

'I'm starting to like Italy less and less. I miss Cambodia.'

When the legal route is closed, one takes the workaround.

The moment I hinted that I would be running a solo operation, Taebaek No. 1's expression turned careful.

"Very well. You can have one."

"Thank you. Is it insured, by any chance?"

"Insured? Yes, well...."

"That's a relief."

With that, all the preparations were complete.

I couldn't hold back any longer.

'There's got to be something worth blowing up at their home base, right?'

I was itching for action.

'There'd better be.'

My whole body was itching for it.

*****

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