12. Shall we begin?
Ding-dong.
Minseong's face hardened at the sound of the front doorbell ringing when no one should be visiting.
He rose from the sofa and drew the Glock handgun from the small of his back.
When he checked the intercom monitor, he unexpectedly saw a familiar face standing there.
That woman. It was Osuyeon.
Minseong peered at the monitor once more to confirm it was really her, then furrowed his brow.
He had thought their business was finished; why had she come back?
Minseong hid the handgun behind his back and opened the officetel door.
Osuyeon, who had been about to press the bell again, withdrew her arm and spoke.
"I thought you weren't home."
Instead of answering, Minseong turned his head and checked both sides of the hallway.
Seeing that it was quiet with no one around, Minseong's eyes grew sharp.
Despite his blatant gaze asking what business she had, Osuyeon calmly opened her mouth.
"Can't we talk inside first?"
"I don't think we have anything in particular to talk about."
"You might change your mind if you hear me out."
"Maybe."
Though it seemed more likely to become seriously annoying.
Still, as Osuyeon had said, he couldn't just stand in the hallway that was exposed in all directions, so he stepped aside.
As if to say she'd already been here before, Osuyeon entered the officetel quite naturally.
Minseong glanced at her confident back, surveyed his surroundings one last time, and then closed the front door.
Osuyeon caught a glimpse of the handgun gripped in the hand Minseong had hidden behind his back, her eyes flicking toward it.
"You must really hate having guests. Pulling out a handgun and all."
"That's because being careful at all times is how you live long."
Minseong tucked the handgun back into the small of his waist.
"So, what do you want?"
Under his gaze, Osuyeon straightened her back and faced Minseong seriously.
"Do you happen to need a partner?"
"What?"
It was so unexpected that his voice rose involuntarily.
"If taking me on immediately is too much, a contract position is fine too."
"Hold on."
Minseong made an absurd expression.
"Do you even know what I do?"
"I learned well enough last time that your work involves handling guns without blinking, so don't worry."
Osuyeon spoke as if she'd noticed that much a while ago.
"You probably roughly figured it out, but I'm ex-military. Of course, I've been discharged now."
Come to think of it, smashing gangsters' heads hadn't looked like an easy feat.
"All I learned was how to kill people and brawl, but it turned out to be completely useless in society. I was wandering alone when various incidents erupted... Hmm."
Perhaps it was still difficult to bring up her friend so casually; Osuyeon hesitated for a moment.
"But then I met you."
"So why me?"
"There was someone who could put my skills to one-hundred-percent use; I didn't want to let that slip by."
It was a story that bordered on forceful, but the serious way she spoke made her look quite desperate.
'Is this how women job hunt these days?'
Like saying what you learned was thievery, and that you'd make a living off that.
In truth, Minseong didn't know, but she had been scammed right after her discharge and lost most of the money she'd saved, which made her all the more desperate.
"I'll never be a burden. If you keep me at your side, I'll be quite useful combat strength, so I hope you'll let me in on your work from now on."
Minseong let out a sigh and crossed his arms.
"Is this because of the money I gave you that day?"
As if he'd hit the nail on the head, Osuyeon averted her gaze slightly.
"It's not easy making big money while doing work that suits you."
He'd fought bad guys with her, cared for her when she collapsed, and even shared money with her, so she must have thought that if she stuck right by his side, at the very least she wouldn't come out at a loss.
Her laying her cards on the table honestly wasn't entirely unpleasant.
Minseong recalled how she'd rampaged fiercely at the nightclub that day.
Indeed, she seemed more than capable of pulling her weight, just as she claimed.
'Come to think of it, it's not a bad proposal for me either.'
He himself had been worrying about what to do from now on.
The first thing he'd had in mind was to find the guys who'd ambushed him and his colleague in Singapore and pay them back.
He had a clear goal of taking revenge, but had no proper way to track them down right now. Since he didn't know what difficulties lay ahead, having a colleague he could trust at his back would broaden his options considerably.
In that regard, Osuyeon was good because she didn't seem to have a prickly personality, had sufficient combat ability, and above all, her desires were clear.
You couldn't form a team with someone who might be hiding ulterior motives.
He'd worked in teams in his previous life too. Minseong was more comfortable this way as well.
'A colleague, huh...'
"I happen to have something that needs to be done."
As he followed his train of thought, an old memory welled up and tried to choke him; suppressing it with effort caused his voice to come out cold without him realizing it.
"Let's test our teamwork with that. If it works out, we'll work together. If not..."
"Alright."
As if she hadn't expected to be accepted as a colleague right away anyway, Osuyeon nodded.
"So, what is this thing that needs doing?"
"The Black Society guys seem to have lost their minds and are trying to take revenge. So I'm thinking of striking first."
"Oh."
Osuyeon's eyes sparkled as she broke into a bright smile.
"If it's that, I absolutely can't miss out."
Minseong rose from the sofa, went into the inner room, and brought out a long black waterproof tactical gun case, placing it on the table.
"Do you know how to use this?"
When Osuyeon unzipped and opened the gun case, an L115A3 sniper rifle lay inside.
The L115A3 was the British designation for the modified Arctic Warfare Magnum sniper rifle, a bolt-action sniper rifle that used 8.58mm .338 Lapua Magnum rounds.
When using .338 Lapua rounds, it boasted world-class performance with an effective range reaching 1,500 meters.
In fact, a British sniper in Afghanistan had recorded an ultra-long-range kill against the Taliban at a distance of 2,475 meters.
Osuyeon's mouth fell open, apparently having never imagined she'd see such a thing in a corner of an ordinary officetel room in South Korea.
"How on earth did you get this?"
"There's a way for everything."
There wasn't enough trust between them yet to explain every minor detail.
Osuyeon seemed to catch on roughly and dropped the subject without pressing further.
"Still, I didn't expect a sniper rifle to come out just to deal with some gangsters. Are you planning to start a war?"
"You saw back then, right? Those guys use guns like it's nothing. Did you think I'd fight them barehanded?"
"...You have a point."
Minseong asked the now somber-faced Osuyeon in an emotionless voice.
"Can you use it?"
Osuyeon took out the sniper rifle and spoke confidently.
"Yes. My specialty was sniping when I was in the 35th Special Mission Battalion."
"Perfect."
As Osuyeon held the sniper rifle and inspected its condition here and there, she asked anew.
"But really, what are you?"
At those words, Minseong scoffed.
"Well. I was planning to figure that out from now on."
It sounded like he was trying to gloss over it; Osuyeon furrowed her brow, but Minseong merely smiled.
***
Two days later, Incheon Port container terminal.
In a vast container yard packed with large and small containers, giant cranes were moving ceaselessly, lifting containers loaded on cargo ships and lowering them down.
Large trailers loaded with the moved containers lined up and exited the terminal gate.
A trailer with a large Mercedes emblem halted in front of the gate, hauling a 40-foot container behind it.
A customs officer holding a clipboard in one hand walked to the trailer's driver's seat.
"Where is this shipment headed?"
"Anyang. I have the documents here, so check them if you want."
The driver, resting his elbow on the window frame, handed over folded transport documents.
"The items?"
"Potassium carbonate, as written there."
The customs officer glanced at the container loaded on the trailer.
"Is it all going to one place?"
"That's right."
The driver scratched his head with an expression that showed he was annoyed at answering questions one by one.
"This ain't my first or second time doing this, so let's keep it brief. I'm just a guy who drives where the higher-ups tell me to. Ask me anything and I don't know squat."
The driver cracked a joke.
The customs officer compared the clearance list on the clipboard with the documents, then finally nodded and returned the papers.
"Drive carefully so you don't get into an accident."
Then he stepped back and signaled for them to pass.
The trailer passed through the main gate with a loud engine roar and exited the terminal.
Minseong, who had parked his car on the road opposite the terminal gate, watched the trailer passing in front of him and spoke.
"It's 4904, right?"
"Yes. But shouldn't we follow it quickly? At this rate, we'll lose it."
He showed a relaxed attitude at Osuyeon's words from the seat beside him.
"If we stick too close and they catch on, it's all over."
"But..."
"I prepared something in advance."
Minseong took out a tablet from the console box and handed it over.
"Press the map app there."
With an expression saying she had no idea what was going on, Osuyeon launched the app.
"See the GPS signal?"
Just as Minseong said, a red dot was moving on the map screen.
"No way, a GPS tracker? When on earth did you attach it to the trailer?"
"I stuck it on when I went out earlier."
Since he had known through wiretapping which trailer would be moving the container with hidden cocaine, sneaking out to pre-install it was no trouble at all.
"Who follows someone around tailing them in this day and age?"
Instead of answering, Osuyeon shot him a sidelong glance.
"Anyway, this makes things much easier. Let's go."
"Sure."
Minseong scoffed, then shifted the gear to drive and pressed the accelerator.
The trailer didn't head to Anyang as written on the transport documents, but took the 2nd Gyeongin Expressway before exiting toward Incheon, Gyeonggi-do.
When they reached a place where several large logistics warehouses were lined up under a low hill beside the national highway, Minseong stopped the SUV.
On the tablet Osuyeon held too, the red dot was no longer moving and had come to a stop.
"Looks like they'll unload the goods here."
It was an outskirts area with almost no people, and there was a wide empty lot on one side where the ground had been cleared to build new logistics warehouses.
If one wanted to carry out secret work away from prying eyes, there probably wasn't a more suitable place than this.
Minseong unfastened his seatbelt, turned his head to look at her, and spoke.
"You know what to do, right?"
"Yes. But won't it be dangerous for you to go alone, boss?"
Osuyeon had taken to calling Minseong "boss" before she knew it.
"Don't worry and just make sure to cover me from behind."
The two got out of the car and prepared their respective equipment.
Osuyeon opened the trunk, took out the large tactical gun case inside, and made an expression of mixed emotions at the heavy weight she hadn't felt in a long time.
"Take this too, just in case."
What Minseong held out was a Beretta 92FS handgun.
"Wow."
Osuyeon let out a short exclamation and happily took the Beretta.
Click, clack!
After pulling the slide back to chamber a round, she immediately took a two-handed shooting stance—the series of movements flowing as naturally as water.
At the sight of her eyes sparkling brightly like a woman who'd just received a designer handbag, Minseong shook his head.
"A woman who gets happy receiving a gun."
"That just shows how good the Beretta is."
Osuyeon answered with sparkling eyes, but Minseong spoke as if he wasn't interested.
"Get in position first."
"Yes."
Osuyeon picked up the tactical gun case spiritedly and headed toward the roof of the large logistics warehouse building right in front of them.
After watching Osuyoen's receding figure for a moment, Minseong turned around too.
Coming around the large logistics warehouse building and hiding his body behind stacked green plastic pallets, Minseong poked just his head out and surveyed the empty lot with binoculars.
The trailer bearing license plate 4904 stood in the wide empty lot with the container still attached.
And several Starex vans and sedans carrying Black Society members were scattered haphazardly around it.
There were roughly twenty or so members, along with Deng Shunwang, who had newly arrived from Daryeon, and Hua Ziyuan, whom he'd seen at the nightclub.
When Deng Shunwang took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, Hua Ziyuan quickly lit a lighter for him.
If he used to be Sun Chunlan's lackey before, now he had become a tail-wagger under Deng Shunwang.
"It's more convenient that they're all gathered in one place."
Just then, Osuyeon's voice came through the earpiece in one ear.
[Position secured.]
"I'm starting right away, so if any slip through, catch them there."
[Roger.]
"If there are too many casualties, it could become a headache, so try to neutralize them without killing as much as possible."
[Leave it to me.]
Minseong watched the members busily moving to unload the goods and put on the prepared gas mask.
Then he took out two M7A3 tear gas grenades shaped like cans, pulled the safety pins, gripped one in each hand, and walked out from behind the plastic pallets into the empty lot.
"Shall we begin."