“Good grief. What happened to his face? You should’ve gone easy on him.”
Scott brought Raymond in.
It had taken exactly thirty minutes.
But his face was already a mess.
Scott must have worked him over a little on the way.
Scott seemed plenty angry, too.
And he had every right to be. To Scott, Sandro was someone special.
It was Sandro who had scouted Scott when he was just brawling in the streets.
He had learned under Sandro and grown under him.
Then he had ended up under me.
To Scott, Sandro was like an older brother and a friend.
Normally, he joked around and treated him casually, but Scott had always respected Sandro.
He never crossed the line.
And Raymond had tried to arrest a man like that.
Even if Sandro had done something wrong, Scott wouldn’t have been able to accept it.
But it wasn’t even something wrong. They had tried to nitpick and arrest him.
Blinded by promotion, he had done something he should never have done.
It was hard to forgive.
“This is me barely holding back. If I’d had my way, I’d have ground him up and drunk him.”
Scott’s answer carried his anger exactly as it was.
“Anyway, where’d you catch this bastard?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Huh?”
“He was trying to get on a boat and run to Cebu.”
He was trying to run?
No, if he was going to run right away like this, why did he even start all this?
I couldn’t understand it.
Maybe he thought everything would go according to plan?
Did he think that when the police barged in, illegal situations would be laid out everywhere in every color imaginable?
Did he think things to arrest people for would be spread out like a buffet?
What is this, the eighties?
If you run a business like that these days, everyone gets hauled in.
People operate while obeying the law.
No matter how much La Camara had caught Raymond’s corruption and threatened him, saying they’d discipline him if he didn’t do as we said,
and that they’d promote him instead if he just listened to us, he should have thought at least once about what would happen if things went wrong.
Did he believe them when they said the Sandro Group would be cleaned up soon?
If it could be cleaned up that easily, why hadn’t they done it until now?
Had he never thought of that?
Was disciplinary action scary and promotion sweet enough that he just pretended not to know and snapped up the bait?
Thinking he could run if things went sideways?
But the moment he mobilized them, the commissioner called him in and chewed him out.
There was no evidence on-site, and when the atmosphere started feeling strange, he ran immediately?
When things didn’t go as he’d expected, did he think, I’m fucked?
Then he should’ve at least run properly.
What the hell is this?
Getting caught this easily.
Did he think it was possible to escape our eyes here in Bohol?
How many members does the Sandro Group have?
Merchants, taxis, guides, hotel staff—they’re all our eyes and ears.
If we wanted to, we could find out how many times you chew when you eat sisig for lunch.
That’s why you got caught so quickly.
A taxi driver reported that you’d gotten out at Tagbilaran Port, and Scott moved right away.
There was also a report from an employee working at Tagbilaran Port.
Well, anyway, I respect the fact that you took action like that.
But if you act, you have to take responsibility, don’t you?
And now I’m going to hold you responsible for that action.
Raymond looked at me with his ruined face.
Greed and regret coexisted on it.
That’s why you shouldn’t have been greedy.
“Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
I said to Scott,
“To Mindanao.”
“What about this bastard?”
Scott asked, looking at Raymond.
“Of course we’re taking him. He’s our guest. We should take him to Mindanao and give him proper hospitality.”
The moment Raymond heard the word Mindanao, his face went pale.
To Raymond, who had grown up soft, Mindanao was that kind of place.
A place you couldn’t leave once you entered.
A place crawling with rebels.
A place the police and the military had both given up on.
That was Mindanao.
.
.
.
On the way to Bohol Panglao Airport.
Sandro sat in the very back of the van, watching Alex and Scott hound Raymond like they were catching a rat.
It was cute.
What both of them were doing was just too cute.
Sandro went over what had just happened once more.
Honestly, he could have avoided being caught by the police.
He could have forced his way through, or called the commissioner and told him to get those cops out of there.
But instead, he hadn’t done that and had taken the lead himself, going to the police station.
There was only one reason.
Because the circumstances behind the raid on Emerald Resort were far too strange.
The Bureau of Health, the fire agency, PAGCOR, and even the police all at once?
That definitely meant someone was behind it.
He was curious.
Curious who had pulled something like this.
He thought he’d be able to confirm it if he went to the police station.
He figured he could trace it upward from there, so he followed along obediently.
But that bastard had apparently already tucked his tail and run.
Apparently, after getting chewed out by the commissioner once, he had run just like that.
For someone who had run away like that, being brought in so pathetically made him look almost pitiful.
But it didn’t matter even if he had run.
If the police ran, then he could smash the Bureau of Health and the fire agency.
No, he was going to smash them too.
There was no need to hurry.
He knew who had come to inspect them, after all.
There was no hole for them to escape through.
He could slowly, one by one, gnaw them down and destroy them.
Since he had come all the way to the police headquarters anyway, he thought he might have a cup of coffee with the commissioner, but it was noisy downstairs.
All hell had broken loose.
He could hear things being smashed here and there.
When he came down with the commissioner and looked, Alex and Scott were diligently smashing something.
Haaah—That wasn’t how you did it.
That wasn’t how you raised hell.
No matter how much of a big shot Alex had become, he still seemed to be lacking in a lot of ways.
Since he wasn’t originally a street thug, there was a lot he didn’t know.
It seemed Sandro would have to teach him more.
But why was Scott like that?
He hadn’t grown at all.
In any case, he watched the two of them making a mess with a satisfied expression.
Doing that wasn’t going to solve the problem.
It wasn’t helpful at all, but he could feel every bit of their sincerity.
It was like
receiving a completely useless paper crane from a nephew in kindergarten.
Even if he received it, it would be of no use anywhere, but his nephew must have folded and unfolded the creases dozens of times in order to give it to him.
The crumpled creases and the limp paper crane spoke for that.
That clumsy, unprepared rampage looked to Sandro like a crumpled paper crane.
Useless and a total mess, but full of sincerity.
In Sandro’s eyes, the rampage the two of them caused was better than any rampage.
It seemed like the finest performance.
But then Alex suddenly changed the genre to arson.
He started lighting a fire.
That had to be stopped.
Fire could grow in an instant if something went wrong.
It could become hard to control altogether.
So he stopped him.
“What are you doing?”
“What are you doing? Playing with fire?”
He should have seen Alex’s expression then.
When Alex saw him, he looked as if he might burst into tears at any moment.
It was a shame; it would have been nice to take a picture of it.
But Alex wasn’t the only one who felt like tears might come.
Faint tears also welled in Sandro’s eyes.
His heart ached for no reason.
They didn’t show their tears, but they knew.
They knew that they were living with the same heart.
.
.
.
Panglao International Airport.
“You got the private jet already?”
Sandro asked in surprise.
He was the one who introduced it to me, and he was the one acting surprised.
“Yeah. I haven’t paid the balance yet, but they gave me the plane first. Said they were sick and tired of it. I rode this over from Mindanao too.”
“But it looks completely new.”
Scott admired the private jet.
It looked new to me too.
“They said they received it new and barely flew it a few times. Because the situation got bad. But they also said a private jet leaks money just sitting there.”
“Good thing the plane’s in good condition. The interior’s clean too.”
As soon as we boarded the plane, there was an announcement from the captain that the plane was departing.
The one and only advantage of a private jet.
You don’t have to wait.
Other than that, everything is a downside.
The plane took off from Panglao Airport.
On board were me, Sandro, Scott, and Raymond.
Sandro sat in front of Raymond.
“Alex, I need to work this bastard over a little. But it’d be a bit much if blood splattered inside the private jet, right?”
Obviously, no.
It was new. Blood couldn’t splatter on it.
Of course, I knew there were many things he was curious about and wanted to ask quickly.
Even so, this was an airplane.
Blood couldn’t splatter.
It was new.
“Sandro, can you wait a bit?”
“How long?”
“About an hour?”
“Why?”
Instead of answering, I held out a sheet of paper and a pen in front of Raymond.
“It’ll take one hour to Zamboanga Airport. Until then, write down the background and circumstances that led to this incident. Who gave you what orders, how you contacted them, what you were supposed to receive, and who was involved. You have one hour. If what’s written there doesn’t satisfy me by the time we arrive, I’m going to throw you straight out of the plane. I bought a private jet to throw bastards like you out of it. I hope you don’t become the first tester.”
Raymond, thoroughly cowed, looked back and forth between the paper and the pen.
“You don’t have to write. I have plenty of places to go. I’ll go to the fire agency, I’ll go to the Department of Health, and I’ll go to PAGCOR. I’ll keep alive only the one bastard who writes things the most concisely, easiest to understand, with a perfect beginning, development, turn, and conclusion. The rest go skydiving right away. But let me tell you one unpleasant fact. If you fall from a plane into the sea without a parachute? It’d be great if you died from the fall, but that won’t happen. You’ll live. But even if you live, it won’t be living. You’ll be eaten by fish while still alive. Even if you’re lucky enough to wash up on shore, you’ll live as an idiot. How about making a stupid choice only once?”
After hearing my words, Raymond hurriedly picked up the pen and began writing something.
I turned around and went to Sandro.
I poured Sandro a glass of whiskey and handed it to him.
“Isn’t this whiskey too high-end to drink on a plane?”
Sandro laughed and joked.
“Our Candy Tour’s service for first-class customers is incredible, you know.”
“I like that.”
“Puhaha.”
I laughed.
It felt like we had returned to ourselves again.
We drank whiskey and fully enjoyed the private jet.
Around the time we arrived at Zamboanga Airport, I looked at the paper Raymond had written.
The paper was packed with letters.
Wow.
This was really nice.
Like the interrogations before, there was no need for a battle of nerves or emotions.
No need to pry into every little detail, and no need to see blood.
No need to run my mouth until it hurt.
All I needed was paper and a pen.
I could read it and ask only about the parts that were lacking or the things I was curious about.
There was no need to memorize it, and that itself became evidence and a record.
I should’ve done this sooner.
I think buying a private jet was a good decision.
I think I understood why a private jet was necessary.
After that, the private jet repeatedly took off and landed.
Carrying many people.
Each time the plane took off, the number of papers people had written only increased.
*******
“The customer’s phone is turned off, so you will be connected to voicemail.”
Mao Qin kept calling Du Man-sik, but the call would not connect.
He couldn’t reach Gang Pal-chun either.
Something had surely happened, but he couldn’t figure out what.
If they had been caught by the police, there would have been news, but no such news appeared.
He told his subordinates to contact anyone they personally knew, but all he got back were replies saying they couldn’t reach anyone.
Suddenly, he remembered what Gang Pal-chun had said, groaning, every time they talked on the phone.
“Selling drugs in South Korea is no ordinary task. The crackdowns are way too harsh.”
“And it’s not just the crackdowns. The Daehoon-pa blocks us like crazy.”
“You don’t know? There’s an organization called the Daehoon-pa that controls more than half of South Korea. But it’s like those guys have some grudge against drugs. Whenever they see drugs, they report it, steal it, and beat people like mad.”
“Before that, drugs used to bring in pretty decent money for us too, but because of those bastards, all our smuggling routes got caught.”
“No, I’m not whining. I’m saying we need that much operating money for us to proceed.”
“If you get caught by the Daehoon-pa while selling drugs, you really die.”
“Damn, that’s strict.”
Every time they talked on the phone, he said he was dying. That he had no money. That he needed more money.
That they needed operating funds to do the job.
Because he complained so much, Mao Qin had roughly let it go in one ear and out the other. But now, an ominous thought came to him: perhaps they had been swallowed by an organization called the Daehoon-pa.
Mao Qin went to see Triad Chairman Zhang Tian.
“Chairman. We’ve lost contact with the special envoys sent to Korea.”
“And?”
Zhang Tian, who had been sitting in his study reading a book and drinking tea, looked at Mao Qin over his glasses.
“I think we need to send more personnel to assess the situation in Korea.”
Listening to this, Zhang Tian closed his eyes and fell into thought.
Then, slowly opening his eyes, he asked.
“You think sending them will solve it?”
“Pardon?”
“I asked if you think sending more people will solve it.”
Mao Qin was surprised by Zhang Tian’s response.
So just leave it?
An organization member has lost contact?
She couldn’t understand Zhang Tian speaking like that.
“We’ve lost contact with the special envoy, so shouldn’t we find him? Shouldn’t we do ‘whatever it takes’ to find him?”
Mao Qin spoke with a hint of indignation.
“So what you’re saying is that ‘whatever it takes’ means sending more people. There’s no other way?”
“What do you mean by another way?”
“Well, for example, you could easily hire a detective agency in Korea, or report the disappearance to the police.”
“Th-that… that’s not us. It’s not right for outsiders to get involved in organization business, is it?”
Mao Qin was flustered.
It wasn’t the conversation that flustered her.
It was Zhang Tian’s attitude.
He was the chairman who always agreed with her and almost always went along with whatever she wanted to do.
But why was he acting like this today?
It was strange.
“Our organization… how far does our organization extend?”
“Pardon?”
“You think that anything that happens within our organization, we have to handle it all ourselves.”
“That’s correct.”
“I’m asking how far that standard extends. If our member can’t be reached, we have to find them. If our member is sick, we treat them ourselves, and if our member needs weapons, we have to make every single one ourselves too, I suppose.”
“That’s not the case.”
“In my opinion, it’s the same thing? It’s a matter of how far the line extends; I don’t think it’s an issue of outsiders getting involved.”
“….”
Zhang Tian’s voice dropped lower.
“Mao Qin. Listen carefully. Our Samhap Society is not what it used to be. It has changed greatly from before. Our manpower, reputation, and assets have all diminished greatly. Our income has plummeted, while crackdowns have become far too severe. This is no longer an era where we can do as we please like the old days. I have tried to listen to your opinions as much as possible, for your sake, since you lack field experience, hoping you would gain experience in various matters, but I fear it will be more difficult from now on.”
“Uncle.”
Mao Qin called Chairman Zhang Tian her uncle.
In truth, Zhang Tian, chairman of the Samhap Society, and Mao Qin were uncle and niece.
Before Zhang Tian became chairman, Mao Qin’s father had been the chairman of the Samhap Society.
When Mao Qin’s father died, Zhang Tian became chairman.
Mao Qin, who had been studying in America, joined the Samhap Society upon her father’s death, saying she would carry on her father’s legacy.
Zhang Tian gladly accepted her.
However, worried that it would be difficult for Mao Qin to endure working in the field as a young woman, he created the position of intelligence team leader for her.
Perhaps because Mao Qin was a prodigy who had also studied well, she was quite capable.
He had thought that her lack of field experience would be a disadvantage, but it was not.
She had been seeing and hearing things since she was young, and she possessed a certain intuition.
Mao Qin had grown up watching countless gangsters in the house of the Samhap Society’s boss.
In this way, Mao Qin was establishing her place in the Samhap Society, but she could not stop the Samhap Society from declining.
The Samhap Society was no longer the Samhap Society of old.
It was no longer the great Samhap Society that had declared it would unify Asia.
The Chinese government had punished and cracked down on the Samhap Society severely.
Therefore, the Samhap Society could not even enter China now.
Based in Hong Kong, they had set up branches in Southeast Asia and survived by smuggling goods.
These days, the profitable scams, gambling, and drugs were all monopolized by punks called the Millennium Gang.
The Samhap Society, which had survived on usury, casinos, money laundering, entertainment, and the like, had no way out.
Their existing businesses had all shrunk, or crackdowns were too severe for them to break into,
and new markets had already been seized by other organizations.
To seize something from others, they would have to wage war, but the Samhap Society no longer had many members.
Everyone was old and decrepit.
For such a Samhap Society to revive, it needed a new outlet, a new market.
When Mao Qin factored in all the conditions, there was only one market where they could succeed.
Korea.
“We will have to do something to save the Samhap Society. But that something is not Korea.”
Zhang Tian spoke firmly.
“No. There’s nothing but Korea. My analysis says so.”
Mao Qin stood her ground without backing down.
“Uncle. What if we move our headquarters to Korea altogether?”
“What?”
“The reason we’re struggling is because of the lack of information, isn’t it? We have no connections, no infrastructure, so we keep making missteps. So let’s just move our main base to Korea. Korea is a market with plenty of merit, isn’t it?”
Mao Qin spoke in a voice full of conviction.
Zhang Tian was not pleased with Mao Qin like this.
There was something that could not be known through numbers alone.
That was why he said it was not Korea.
Even so, Zhang Tian could not coldly refuse her.
Blood truly ran thick, it seemed.
“You go to Korea. Go see for yourself, then talk.”