I woke up early in the morning.
To go into Mindanao to retrieve Ascend.
Scott came by in the morning to go over the schedule and told me.
The men who had been in the conference room yesterday were waiting in the lobby.
Thinking they were probably waiting because Simon had named a ransom and they wanted me to smooth it over, I let out a bitter smile.
So I had no choice but to leave through the entrance the staff used to avoid running into them.
What the hell was I doing first thing in the morning?
Handle your own work yourself.
When I entered Mindanao, Simon welcomed me warmly.
“Welcome, Alex.”
I thanked Simon first.
“Simon, thanks for helping this time.”
“Don’t mention it. Thanks to you, we earned some pocket money. We’re the ones who should be grateful.”
“But will South Korea pay? I heard you asked for ten million dollars. I didn’t know you’d call that much.”
“They won’t. But those guys wouldn’t pay even if we asked for a million.”
“Really?”
“How many hostage negotiations do you think we’ve had with governments? Those government bastards all follow the same pattern. First, they say, please wait. We’re discussing it internally. As a matter of principle, we cannot negotiate with terrorists. However, we are looking for a solution. If you lower the amount, we’ll consider it positively. And behind the scenes, they send in the military. Then everyone ends up dead. That’s basically why we don’t trust governments. What they say to your face and what they do are always different. They should just live openly as bad guys like us. Cowardly bastards.”
“Kahaha. True. They do have that side to them. Then why did you ask for money you won’t even get?”
“Just because. To make them suffer a bit? And once in a while, there are guys who do pay. If it’s ten million dollars, even if we knock off a lot, it’s still a profitable deal.”
“Hahaha. True. If you get the money, take care of the boys a bit.”
“Yes, yes, yes. Understood, boss.”
“Then I’ll get going.”
“You’re not going to see that guy?”
“Who?”
“The guy we caught yesterday.”
“He’s someone I don’t know anyway. What’s the point of seeing him?”
“True. He still hasn’t come to his senses. Guess he was under a lot of stress. He won’t wake up.”
“Treat him well. If Korea suddenly says they’ll pay and tells us to bring him back, it’d be ridiculous if he’s in terrible shape.”
“That’s true. We should take good care of him.”
“Then I’m off.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Take a look at this.”
Simon brought something over.
“That day, when that guy was getting beaten by the New People’s Army (NPA), it looks like all his teeth got knocked out. Among the teeth, there’s one like this. It looked a little unusual, so I kept it. Want to take a look? Is it just an implant?”
I carefully examined the tooth Simon had brought.
It was definitely a tooth, but something about it was strange and awkward.
It was unusually large for a molar, too.
It was odd, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
Well, it wasn’t like I was a dentist. How would I know what was wrong with it?
But I felt like I’d seen this somewhere before.
Back when I was at Special Warfare School, I think I saw something about World War II spies or whatever.
I vaguely remembered seeing that if they were caught spying, they swallowed the poison inside one of these.
I had just skimmed past it.
Because I was absolutely never going to swallow something like that.
Was it a similar concept?
Did it have poison in it?
I didn’t know.
And I didn’t need to know.
“Just keep it somewhere safe. It does seem like there’s something in it, but if you try to force it open, you’ll ruin it.”
“Okay.”
“Then that’s it, right?”
“No, there’s one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“What are we going to do with the New People’s Army (NPA) guys we caught yesterday?”
“Why are you asking me that? You can deal with them, Simon.”
“If I do it, I think I’ll kill them all. These bastards pissed me off.”
.
.
.
“These are the guys?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s the head?”
“This guy.”
Where Simon pointed, there was a man reduced to rags.
The broker who had tried to squeeze the data out of Sin Junggi was sprawled there in a battered heap.
“You should’ve gone easy on him. What is this?”
“Sorry. The more he talked, the more he pissed me off. I lost control.”
“Good grief. Still, what is this? Untie him.”
At my words, one of the guys standing behind him came over and untied the rope.
I opened a bottle of water and handed it to the man.
“Man, you’re in rough shape. Drink.”
Instead of taking the bottle, the man glared at me.
“Why are you glaring at me? I’m just giving you a bottle of water in case you’re thirsty.”
“……”
“I’m giving you a bottle of water out of humanitarian concern. Don’t be suspicious, just drink it. When someone shows you goodwill, accept it. Don’t start by doubting them.”
“How am I supposed to trust you?”
“No, who told you to trust me? I’m telling you to drink some water because you might be thirsty! Do you not understand? Why are you slamming the accelerator all by yourself?”
“Forget it. How would I know what you put in that water?”
“Hahahaha. No wonder Simon got pissed off. If you don’t want it, don’t drink. Do I have to explain my reason for giving you a sip of water and beg you to drink it? I didn’t know. If I’d known that was how it worked, I wouldn’t have offered. I take back the water.”
I took a sip of the water in my hand just as it was.
It was an action to show there was no poison.
“But you know what? I don’t think you understand the situation.”
“What?”
“No… What would make us so desperate that we’d go through the trouble of putting something in your water? If we want to kill you, we can just kill you. If we want to check what’s in your stomach, we can cut you open and check. Why would we go through the hassle of putting something in water? What a pain.”
“You…”
The broker wanted to refute me, but because it was too true, he couldn’t say anything.
“Anyway, it looks like you’re not thirsty, and you still seem fine, so tie him up again. This time, tie him up tighter. So he can’t move. He shows no sign of reflection. Still full of energy.”
“Yes.”
When Simon’s subordinates standing behind him moved to tie up the broker, the broker suddenly charged at me.
I guess I looked like the easiest target.
The broker threw a punch at me, and I lightly dodged it with the weaving I’d learned long ago, then planted a left hook into his jaw.
Thud.
The man collapsed helplessly.
Beside me, Simon said,
“Ah! This bastard is damn good at fighting. Guess he didn’t know. I should’ve told him.”
.
.
.
“Let him down.”
At my words, the broker hanging upside down was barely able to support himself on the ground.
Even as he panted for breath, he did not hide the hostility in his eyes toward me.
“Name.”
“……”
On my way back from Darapanan after collecting Ascend.
I hadn’t intended to do this, but I was so angry I couldn’t stand it.
So I stopped by again.
Originally, I was going to talk to him a bit.
“Let’s live carefully.” “Let’s not touch each other’s territory.” “If you do that, we won’t touch the New People’s Army (NPA).”
I was going to say that and let him go.
Something had happened, but from now on, let’s try to get along.
Let’s live well in each other’s territory, doing gangster things and rebel things.
I was even willing to help if they needed help.
But this bastard was turning me into the bad guy.
As if he were an innocent man who had done absolutely nothing wrong, and I were the villain.
He was acting like he had done nothing wrong, and I had dragged him here to torment him.
Even though he’d been scamming people and trying to eat the data for free before getting caught.
He acted as if he were an independence fighter, a persecuted believer, a pioneer.
He looked at me with eyes that said he could withstand torture like this as much as he needed to.
I really didn’t like that.
I could understand why Simon had gotten so pissed off.
In times like this, no matter how much I shouted that I wasn’t the bad guy, it was useless.
Even if I acted kindly, these were the type of bastards who would curse it as hypocrisy.
Even if I spoke nicely, they wouldn’t believe me, and later they’d say something else.
Did I have to prove? Persuade? Convince? Explain? That I was a good guy?
Why should I?
And I wasn’t even a good guy.
At times like this, it was easier to just become the bad guy.
When goodwill was taken as malice, you simply treated them with malice.
Why make the effort to get along?
Just crush them with force.
I would become the bad guy, and the broker would become the guy who submitted to the bad guy.
“This bastard’s still lively. We’ll have to hang him up a little longer.”
“Yes.”
The organization members started pulling the rope he was tied to again.
Creak, creak.
The pulley turned, and the rope tied to the man’s feet slowly began to rise.
The broker’s expression changed.
It had to be painful.
In truth, hanging upside down is extremely difficult.
The blood that should go toward the legs rushes to the head and upper body, raising intracranial pressure and intraocular pressure.
Breathing becomes difficult, and heart rate and blood pressure also start having problems.
If left that way a little too long, his life would be in danger.
He wasn’t saying it, but that bastard was probably scared too.
If he went up all at once, he wouldn’t have time to think about this, but we bought a pulley for the sake of employee welfare, so they wouldn’t have to waste effort.
So the broker, tied up, was slowly being lifted bit by bit from his legs.
The sound of the pulley turning—creak, creak—could be heard.
His back was stuck to the floor, and only his legs were rising.
He was in an L shape.
And now, once his waist gradually left the ground, he would be hanging perfectly upside down.
His hands were tied behind his back too, so it must have felt terribly suffocating.
“You don’t want to talk? Fine, suit yourself. We have plenty of time, plenty of money, well, plenty of everything. So let’s take it slow.”
“……”
“Still, since I’m the one doing it, I’m being gentlemanly. If someone else had come, you wouldn’t have a single fingernail left by now. Maybe your thumbs would’ve disappeared too. Have you ever seen someone without thumbs? The thumb might not seem like much, but it’s really important. If the other four fingers are missing, it’s just a bit inconvenient, but if the thumb disappears, the hand can’t function as a hand at all. Without a thumb, you can’t grab or pick things up. You can’t even hold a cup. So usually, people cut off the pinky first to scare someone, but there are bastards who start with the thumb. They say if they’re going to cut it off anyway, they don’t have time, so they should hurry up. Efficient bastards, the lot of them. They don’t understand the aesthetics of waiting.”
“……”
“I really hate that kind of efficiency. I prefer doing things very slowly, for a long time. You give pain that’s bearable. Like a frog in a pot. Partly to see just how much they can endure. That’s why I always keep a doctor on standby. They can’t die, after all. We keep them alive and start again, keep them alive and start again. In that sense, you are a very excellent item. I hope that spirit of yours doesn’t break.”
“……”
“Hang that bastard up for one hour.”
“Yes. I’ll keep watch beside him.”
I gave orders to the guys turning the pulley beside him.
“Good. Don’t work too hard at something this unproductive. Watch YouTube and just glance at him once every five minutes or so.”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll see you in an hour.”
“Yes. Understood.”
I was about to leave when the man finally opened his mouth.
“What do you want? What do you want to hear?”
“Every last detail?”
*******
“Director. This is Park Dojin from Overseas Team Two.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“We’ve identified Sin Junggi of the ADD.”
“You have? Well done, especially under the circumstances. You said it was the Philippines, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Bring him back at once.”
“Well…”
“Why?”
“The side protecting Sin Junggi is demanding a ransom.”
“What? A ransom? Wasn’t Sin Junggi trying to sell classified information? Then what ransom?”
“Sin Junggi was the one who got played. He was scammed by a broker and getting beaten when another organization rescued him. And that organization is asking for the cost of rescuing him.”
“If it’s reasonable, just pay it. Team Leader Park, you can handle that much with your special activities fund.”
“The… amount they demanded is ten million dollars.”
“If it’s a thousand dollars, that’s about 1.4 million won. Why would you call me over that?”
“It’s not a thousand dollars. It’s ten million dollars.”
“What?? Ten… ten million? Fourteen billion won? These bastards have completely lost their minds. Send a letter of protest to the Philippine government and ask for cooperation.”
“The thing is… the place where Sin Junggi is being held is Mindanao.”
“What about it?”
“That area is completely controlled by rebels, and even the Philippine military can’t enter.”
“There should be military units stationed in Mindanao, shouldn’t there?”
“Those military units and the rebels act together.”
“These crazy bastards.”
“Would ten million dollars be impossible?”
“Do you think it would be possible? Honestly, Sin Junggi isn’t what matters, is he? The data is what matters. You secured the data, of course?”
“We have not secured it yet.”
“Are you insane? Then what the hell did you go to the Philippines for? Sightseeing? Are you off doing island-hopping tours or something? Give up on Sin Junggi and find the data first. Bring it back. Got it?”
Click.
The call ended, and Bak Dojin let out another heavy sigh.
If anything, things had been better before they found Sin Junggi.
Back then, all they had to do was find Sin Junggi. Now they had found him, and there was still nothing they could do.
They couldn’t go pick him up, nor could they ask him where the data was.
All he could feel was helpless.
******
Sin Junggi opened his eyes.
Everything was so bright that he wondered if he was in heaven.
When he looked more closely, it was a hospital room.
A hospital room that seemed to have been set up temporarily, at that.
At some point while he was being beaten, Sin Junggi had lost consciousness.
Don’t hit my face. It’s my last night in this world, so I’m going to enjoy it a little more—he remembered acting tough like that, but after that, he remembered nothing at all.
The first thing Sin Junggi did after coming to was check tooth number 18.
The large molar at the very back of the upper right side.
He moved his tongue to check, but he felt nothing.
There was nothing where the tooth should have been.
He tried to get up quickly and check in the mirror, but as soon as he moved, pain tore through his entire body.
Just how badly had they beaten him?
Dragging his battered body in front of the mirror, he opened his mouth and checked his teeth.
It was gone.
He had put all the data into a specially made microchip shaped like a tooth, and now it was gone.
This was a disaster.
While he was being beaten, he had shouted so desperately for them not to hit his face in case it fell out, but apparently that had been pointless.
He hadn’t thought he would be beaten badly enough for a tooth to come out.
Then again, it hadn’t been implanted that deeply.
No, in the first place, he hadn’t calculated that he would be beaten at all.
He should have just been moderately annoying.
Regret washed over him, but it was already in the past.
He had to come up with a new plan.
Sin Junggi without the data had no value at all.
Sin Junggi without the data was just a psychopath chained to his routines.
The data was important.
He had to find that data.
And no one could know that he had lost it.
He had to act as if the data was being safely kept somewhere.
Sin Junggi prayed.
He prayed that his lost tooth had simply been thrown away.
He prayed desperately that no one had seen it, and that it had disappeared along with the blood at the scene.
********
“Do me a favor.”
“Well, it’s not like we have anything to lose. When do you want us to start putting it out?”
“Starting next week.”
“Okay. We can just leave it out on the counter, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right. If there’s someone you want to give it to, you can do that too. Someone you don’t like.”
“If that’s all, I can do as much as you want.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
I gave a little Ascend to Lafei of the Golden Lotus.
With this, all the preparations were complete.
Months of buildup had come to an end.
It was time to release the Ascend I had steadily laid down from far away.
I wouldn’t release it all at once.
I would start with Macau.
Beginning in Macau, then through Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai, in that order.
Following the coastline, I would release the goods slowly, timing it out.
Inland, I would release Ascend as if moving upstream along the rivers.
There was no particular reason.
It was to create the impression that someone was supplying the drug through smuggling.
That was why I chose coastal cities where smuggling existed.
The setup was that the drug entered Guangzhou through Macau,
and that through smuggling, it flowed into places like Xiamen, Fuzhou, and Shanghai.
If they wanted to stop the drug, they would go after the smugglers first.
But the inland supply had already been prepared long ago.
They would never be able to stop it.
Inland, each location would open sequentially along the rivers.
Why do it this way?
They say opium spread like this during the Qing dynasty.
Ascend wants to follow that path too.
Just as opium nearly devoured the Qing dynasty,
I hope Ascend devours China as well.