Hearing Jeong Tae-ui mutter something like he felt ashamed, Kyle was silent for a moment.
“No, at least take something for dinner. This is too sudden.”
‘Ah, I want to do that too, but Ilay seems to be in a hurry. He said he has to return to the Hong Kong branch by tomorrow.’
“That’s his problem. You should send him off first and stay a bit longer yourself.”
‘Is that something I can decide?’
“Say you won’t go no matter what.”
‘……Then I’d really be dead.’

Suddenly, the voice on the phone grew gloomy. Kyle’s mood darkened as well. He understood all too well the reality behind those words. He thought there weren’t many people as unlucky as himself who had a younger brother with that peculiar temperament, but suddenly he wondered if there might be someone even more unfortunate than him.
“Alright, then be careful going there. It’s a shame. If you come to Germany next time, be sure to drop by.”
‘Yes, I’ve really been indebted to you. Thank you.’

Neither Kyle nor the young man on the receiver wanted to drag the conversation over decisions already made.
The young man exchanged a few more greetings and hung up, and Kyle sighed lightly as he put the phone back in his pocket. After staring at the ceiling and blinking a few times, he picked the phone up again from standby.
“Sorry, did I keep you waiting long?”
‘Two minutes and a bit. It’s fine. I was just wrapping up some work. So, what did Rick say?’
“Hmm. It was a farewell. He said he’s heading straight to Hong Kong now.”
‘…….’

A brief silence came through the receiver. He was obviously thinking about the connection between Rick and the farewell.
“He’s your nephew, right? Ilay’s number came up, so I thought it was him, but it wasn’t.”
‘Ah. Tae-ui? He’s going to Hong Kong? Not Tanzania? ……Ah. Well, Rick called him.’

“Poor kid,” murmured the voice on the other end, not joking. Kyle sincerely sympathized with the remark. He was silent for a moment. Then, suddenly, a muttered phrase slipped out between his lips.
“That’s really strange, strange……”

That quiet and ambiguous mutter must have been audible on the other side of the line, but his friend didn’t ask anything. After all, who would think only himself strange? Kyle pondered briefly but couldn’t come to a conclusion, so he asked his friend.
“What the hell did Tae-ui do to Ilay to run away like that?”
‘……I guess. He lived quietly, but at some point his stress levels must have exceeded the limit……. It’s partly my fault.’

His friend’s voice grew gloomy too. Kyle tilted his head in puzzlement. Though his head was still fuzzy, he decided to drop the subject for now. He had just skimmed the fax in his hand.
“By the way, your nephew…—the genius who almost became our lab’s greatest enemy, must be in Serenge, right?”
‘Got any new info?’
“Hm. It seems to be Raman Abid Al Saud.”
‘Raman……Ah. Is he the one under Prince Al-Faisal?’

Kyle closed his mouth and raised his eyebrows.
It wasn’t really surprising, but sometimes this friend still amazed him. He knew that side had its own subordinate intelligence agency, but knowing that man was a different matter from having an info network.
“You sure know him well. He quietly stayed under the radar without standing out much. I only heard his name while searching for Jeong Jae-ui’s whereabouts.”
‘No, it’s coincidence. It was a few years ago, but I met that man. More precisely, I only saw him accompanying Faisal, so we barely talked. Even among royalty, his succession rank was quite low, so he stuck in my memory.’
“Remembered him because of low succession rank?”
‘Yeah… a pity, really.’

After choosing his words carefully, the friend ended with a cautious tone. Kyle muttered a soft “ha.”
“A pity, huh. Faisal early on changed course from the throne struggle, and that guy was responsible for Faisal’s growing business. It’s not widely known.”
‘Ah, like James at T&R then.’

Kyle bitterly clicked his tongue at his friend’s amused voice.
“Well, you could say that. Meaning he has real power. Anyway――that guy seems to have taken our researcher very politely, secretly, and somewhat coercively.”
‘……. But I thought Faisal ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) didn’t handle military supplies.’
“Yeah, that’s the thing. We can consider a few possibilities. We need to investigate more.”
‘Hmm. Does Raman have a villa in Serenge?’
“Yes. He bought an entire expensive piece of land. Also, for about a year, Raman’s health has deteriorated, so he rarely leaves there.”

The friend murmured “hmm” and Kyle could almost see him nodding on the other side.
Kyle looked through the materials Gabe had sent once more. Based on them, he wrote notes about what to verify and what to investigate further to eliminate possibilities. He thought handing these notes to James would bring even more work and imagined the sharp gaze he would receive. He felt heavyhearted. It would be nice if a hefty bonus solved it all, but this situation was beyond what money could fix. (If he said that, he’d probably get nagged that he should work because the money was his to give.)
“Hey, Chang-in. I’m scared of James.”

Reading the investigation documents that were devouring a few pages of notes, Kyle muttered heavily. His friend said nothing, just softly agreed to comfort him.
“So, you take responsibility for pulling Jae-ui out of there.”
‘Huh? Ah… yeah, sure. Don’t know if it’ll work out though.’
“James isn’t the only scary one. Our research director is scary too. Just mentioning Jae-ui’s J makes his eyes bloodshot with rage. He’s set on dissecting that damn genius’s brain before he dies. To do that, he seriously started looking into the neuroanatomy department a while ago.”

His friend laughed loudly at something amusing, and Kyle sighed. “It’s no joke,” he muttered weakly, but his friend kept laughing for a long while.
‘Yeah, if Gabe checked and contacted us, Jae-ui’s probably there. Then we have to wonder why that lucky kid was kidnapped and held for months…….’

His friend finally stopped laughing but still had a hint of amusement in his voice. Kyle gave a short, concise answer to the unspoken question his friend was clearly thinking about.
“He probably doesn’t want to get out of there.”

There was no other answer. Unless that amazing luck of Jeong Jae-ui disappeared overnight. But why would luck lasting decades suddenly vanish?
‘Well……. maybe the string got cut and that’s how it ended up like that.’

His friend muttered that ambiguous phrase as if talking to himself. Kyle raised his eyebrows but said nothing and pressed the button to call James while picking up the next document.
“Anyway, that’s the news for today. I leave the rest to you.”
‘Yeah. It probably won’t be smooth. ……I feel suddenly resentful toward Morrow too.’

After pondering something briefly, his friend sighed and muttered a few greetings before hanging up.

Today, the Repo Center looks unusually ominous.
Jeong Tae-ui thought that for a moment and then shook his head. No, it wasn’t only today. There would probably never again be a day in his life when the Repo Center looked ordinary. Unless T&R left that place……
“No, even if it moves, the Repo Center has already become a deep trauma in my mind.”

Jeong Tae-ui muttered while staring wistfully through the transparent glass at the Repo Center straight ahead.
Maybe a Chinese geomancer was quite effective after all, he thought, and then turned his head away. He pulled out a beer from the minibar in his room.

It had been several days since arriving in Hong Kong. Jeong Tae-ui was confined in a hotel room across from the Repo Center.
Actually, it was somewhat different from the literal meaning of ‘confinement.’ Jeong Tae-ui could freely play at the hotel’s casino or bar as he pleased, or even go outside and roam Hong Kong’s streets. He could call anyone freely, though there was hardly anyone to call.
Right now, too, Tae-ui had grown bored while reading books he had bought and stacked in the room a few days ago, so he was wandering around the streets and had just come back.

“But even so, if there’s surveillance, that’s confinement. What else could it be?”
Jeong Tae-ui muttered quietly. Maybe there were surveillance cameras or listening devices in the room. But he didn’t care. Let them listen if they wanted. He wasn’t wrong. For several days already, Jeong Tae-ui had been trapped in invisible bars.

As soon as he returned to Hong Kong, Ilay had locked Tae-ui alone in the hotel and gone alone to the UNHRDO Asia branch. Ilay just told him to behave quietly for a few days and vanished without any further explanation. Tae-ui was stunned for a moment.

Ilay was gone.
Without Tae-ui trying to run or seize a chance, Ilay had cleanly turned his back and disappeared first.
For a brief moment, Tae-ui thought, “What a blessing,” but the thought vanished quickly.

Thinking back, unless he devised a clever plan, even if Ilay disappeared from sight, Tae-ui had no way to run. Without a passport or other ID, no means to leave the country, no illegal entry or anything like that. And of course, no fool tries to illegally enter a country without ID if they plan to escape properly.

ID.
It was the most basic requirement for illegal activities. There were very few things one could do without ID. Considering safety, practically none.

He even considered forging a new ID again, but the thought vanished immediately. Ilay wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice, and the ‘technicians’ who could make proper forged IDs were limited. Tae-ui didn’t know how to contact such technicians without others, and even if he tried, he clearly pictured Ilay sitting there at the meeting with the technician.

Forget it. Even if he behaved quietly, his life was always on the line; there was no point in risking death.

Jeong Tae-ui lay sprawled on the bed but suddenly stood up. He looked out the window.
The Repo Center, standing ominously, was the first thing that caught his eye, and he reflexively frowned. He suspected Ilay had deliberately booked this room because it was in a very visible location. Tae-ui quickly turned his head away.

The sun had long set, but the neon-lit streets were as bright as day. Looking down from this vantage point, this vast metropolis seemed strangely unfamiliar, and Tae-ui thought it strange to have returned not long after leaving.

Having fled boldly, it felt a little pathetic……
Tae-ui scratched his head awkwardly and turned around.

It was his first day back in Hong Kong, where he hadn’t expected to return anytime soon. And now he was alone. For a bleak and miserable future, he decided to sit by a harbor overlooking Kowloon Peninsula and drink a beer alone.

He wondered if someone would block him by standing guard right inside the room when he opened the door, but no one stopped him as he left the hotel. Literally without any obstacle, Tae-ui left the hotel. For a brief moment, he foolishly hoped he could escape like this. He had just taken ten steps outside the hotel door.

Then Tae-ui suddenly stopped walking.
‘…….’

He sighed as he looked up at the reddish night sky, where no stars were visible.
Let’s see, how many are following me… one…… two…… …No, just one.

Tae-ui was walking lightly out the hotel’s front door when he suddenly stopped about ten steps away from the door and stared blankly at the sky. Behind him came a bellboy’s puzzled gaze. From somewhere further away, another pair of eyes watched him.

Standing still for a moment, Tae-ui suddenly smiled and resumed walking, limping on his still injured leg.

They wouldn’t have looked at him as such a fool, and given the bodyguards, Ilay must have known Tae-ui would soon notice. With his broken leg like this, it would be hard for him to escape even if the guard was mediocre. Somehow. Yes, they wouldn’t release the prey from the cage and walk away leisurely. More than that, this was not surveillance. It was simply a means to let Tae-ui know he was not left alone. Wherever Tae-ui went, that place was inside invisible bars.

Actually, it wasn’t particularly unpleasant, but if he wanted to feel unpleasant, there were plenty of reasons to do so…….