Safe House

I worked with Lee Ilwoo, using the thick cable ties he handed me to bind their arms behind their backs.

“How did you think of the train?”
“I did some research before we came. Looked at a map, too.”

Lee Ilwoo looked at me with eyes full of wonder.
He immediately followed up with another question.

“And the method of slowing down? That’s a method even I had forgotten for a moment. Because the probability of success isn’t that high.”
“I saw it in a drama.”
“…You watch dramas, Attorney?”

I answered while rummaging through the phone Lee Ilwoo had handed me.

“The media shows what people want, doesn’t it? I was curious what kind of legal professionals people really want, so I watched one or two?”
“It seems legal dramas have car chases these days.”
“Of course. The story has to start with an incident, right?”

I showed the phone with the cracked screen to Lee Ilwoo, who was looking at me with a strange expression.

“These people knew we were coming.”

We checked all the information left on the phone and then took off the men’s balaclavas to take pictures of their faces.

Click, click.

After taking the pictures, I plugged the USB that Im Suho had given me in Korea into the phone.
Numerous letters appeared on the screen and then flickered off.
Not long after I disconnected the port, a text message arrived.

[What a grand scale, right from the start. You could have at least wiped off the blood before taking the pictures. How am I supposed to recognize the faces? Anyway, I’ll look into it and get back to you.]

Lee Ilwoo gestured towards the men with his eyes as I put the phone in my pocket.

“Should I take care of them? There’s no black box.”
“…Your words are too bloodthirsty, Mr. Lee Ilwoo. Just a moment.”

I used one of the men’s phones to call the police.
I lowered my voice as much as possible and made a brief report in English.

“[There’s been a traffic accident on the railroad tracks. All the patients are unconscious. Please dispatch someone.]”

When I finished the call before a response could come and turned my head, I noticed that something in this space had subtly changed.

“Let’s go now.”
“Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”

I started walking towards the car, following his words, but I kept feeling a sense of unease.

“I think something’s changed… The license plate, was it this one before?”
“Ah, I changed it. Just in case.”

Without a sound?
In that short amount of time, both the front and back?
…What exactly is the job of the NIS?
Leaving my question behind, Lee Ilwoo got in the car, checked the map once, and then spoke.

“We can’t be sure it’s just one team, so it would be better to go to a place I know instead of the hotel.”
“Yes, that seems better. Let’s go now.”

And so, we arrived at our changed destination just before the sun set.
The place we arrived at was a village filled only with neat single-family houses, without a single tall building to obstruct the view.

Screech.

Lee Ilwoo only stopped the car when we entered the center of the village.

“If you wait in the car for a moment, I’ll be right back.”

There was never any wasted movement in Lee Ilwoo’s actions.
He moved only as much as was necessary, and it always showed extreme efficiency. Always without a flaw.
After just a few steps, Lee Ilwoo, who had arrived in front of a door, knocked and said something, and a man came out from inside.

‘I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I know it’s Korean.’

[Could he be Korean?]

‘I think so. This place is probably… a safe house.’

[You mean the safe house Mr. Lee Ilwoo sometimes mentioned?]

‘Yeah.’

There must have been a reason Lee Ilwoo had come here.
I glanced at the black bag in the back seat through the rearview mirror.

‘Being able to bring those guns in as they are probably means he has control over this village.’

Lee Ilwoo, who had quickly returned to the car, brought up a completely unexpected topic.

“Attorney, from the moment you get out of this car, you are a rookie agent.”
“…Pardon?”
“Did you see the man I was just talking to? As long as you’re here, if you just go along with what he says, there won’t be any problems.”

After he finished speaking, he reached into the back seat, grabbed the bag full of guns, and got out of the car.

Thud.

I followed Lee Ilwoo into the well-managed yard.
Beyond the low fence, the interior was not much different from an ordinary single-family house.

Whoosh.

Except for that Taegeukgi fluttering in the wind.
(TL Note: The Taegeukgi is the national flag of South Korea.)

“This is the owner of the house we’ll be staying with, and this is the rookie from our team I just told you about.”

Lee Ilwoo naturally introduced me to the large, middle-aged man.
Before I could even open my mouth, the man laughed heartily and pointed at Lee Ilwoo’s hand.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a rookie. Welcome! But this rookie is quite undisciplined! How can you let your senior carry the luggage?”

Lee Ilwoo gave a slight nod.
Having confirmed the affirmation out of the corner of my eye, I hurriedly reached out to Lee Ilwoo.

“I’ll carry it, senior. Where should I go?”

I looked around repeatedly, like a moderately disciplined and moderately clumsy rookie.
Lee Ilwoo cleared his throat, barely suppressing a laugh.

“Follow Ilwoo, rookie! Quickly, quickly!”
“This way.”

He strode up the stairs with his long legs and stopped in front of a room.
And he put his index finger to his lips.

Nod.

Lee Ilwoo took out a device from his coat, which I had no idea when or where he had gotten, and checked every corner of the room.
Under the bed, inside the lamp on the side table, the light on the ceiling, all the drawers in the room, inside the closet, the cracks in the floor, and finally, the bathroom…
After about ten minutes, Lee Ilwoo put the device away and spoke.

“You can speak now. There are no listening devices.”

Listening devices.
I managed to close my gaping mouth and asked the question I had been curious about.

“Where is this?”
“It’s a safe house for agents. The man from before, his name is Kim Dongmyeong. The name he uses here is Kevin. He’s the manager of this safe house.”
“Is it okay for me to be here? And you, Mr. Lee Ilwoo, now that you’ve…”
“You don’t have to worry. An agent’s retirement or employment is kept strictly confidential. That’s also information.”

Lee Ilwoo took the bag from me and checked the firearms inside.

“You knew how to lie too, Mr. Lee Ilwoo?”
“I didn’t know I could use it in this way either. Don’t they say you become like the people you’re with?”

I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at his words.
In the end, nothing had happened, but I had just been the target of an assassination attempt.
I knew this joke was his way of lightening the mood.
And it was more effective than I thought.
Because my body, which I didn’t even know was tense, relaxed and began to ache.

“That way of speaking reminds me more of Attorney Won.”
“I must be becoming half of each of you.”
“Then soon, no one will be able to beat you, Mr. Lee Ilwoo.”

Lee Ilwoo grinned, shrugged like Won Youngoh, and reminded us of the reason we were here.

“Is the next step what I’m thinking it is?”
“Probably. We have to find Cas Vegas’s headquarters now.”

Korea, while Cha Yohan was away, and the lights of Dike, which never seemed to go out, were turned off.
Not long after, a slender figure walked down the stairs, one step at a time.
It was a leisurely walk, neither hasty nor anxious.
Choi Yikang got into a car parked about five minutes away from the office.
He started the car, took an old cell phone out of the glove box, and made a call.

Ring, ring, click.

Choi Yikang stepped on the accelerator at the same time.

[I didn’t think you’d call first. How’s the situation?]

The old cell phone spat out the other person’s voice with a crackling noise.
Choi Yikang rubbed his lips with his thumb out of habit and opened his mouth.
As if it didn’t matter if his pronunciation was slightly slurred.

“Nothing special. Except that Attorney Cha Yohan suddenly took a vacation. Attorney Won Youngoh is handling all of his work.”
[A vacation at a time like this… Do you know where he went?]

The other person expressed their doubt.
Choi Yikang felt the same.
Everyone had reacted as if it were normal for Cha Yohan, who had been at work for only a few days, to be away.

Tap, tap.

Choi Yikang tapped the steering wheel and smiled with interest.
It was a smile he had never shown at the office.

“No. The others don’t seem to want to tell me. But the strange thing is, those two seemed very used to this situation.”
[Nothing else?]
“Ah, I haven’t seen that one bodyguard lately either. Though the office manager said he was on a business trip.”
[Hmm, that doesn’t seem very credible. Still, what’s your impression of Dike?]

Choi Yikang lowered the hand that had been rubbing his lips and gripped the steering wheel.

“I think I need to stay longer to find out. I’ll call you again.”
[Okay.]

The luxury sedan glided silently through the night.
When he turned his head, the night view came into sight.
The lights, invisible during the day, were twinkling as if asking to be seen.
He likewise muttered quietly.

“…The day is too noisy, after all.”

He stopped the car in front of a hotel, as he was used to, and handed the car key to the man guarding the lobby.
Choi Yikang let out a short laugh while waiting for the elevator.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve had this much fun.’

The man with picturesque features smiled like in a movie.
He got on the elevator, pressed the top floor, and stared at the rapidly changing numbers.
The smile had completely disappeared, and a spark of curiosity lit up in his black eyes.

Lee Ilwoo and Kevin had left the house.
I checked the email I had received from Im Suho under the light of the lamp that Lee Ilwoo had been diligently checking.

“There’s no chance of any trouble here, so why are you dawdling like a bear with its paw in a honey pot? Let’s go!”
“Kevin, it’s not that…”
“What, can’t that rookie even pull his own weight? Ilwoo, are you his guardian?”
“Don’t worry about me and go, senior.”

It was a bit funny that the place Kevin had dragged Lee Ilwoo to was a supermarket.
And it was also funny that Lee Ilwoo had been trying not to go, saying he couldn’t leave me alone…

[Mr. Lee Ilwoo really has an extreme job. He must be anxious because of what he’s seen, so he can’t leave you alone… Did you see the look in his eyes?]

Come to think of it, his gaze was quite pitiful.
Still, I brought up another topic, as if I hadn’t heard Gram’s teasing.

‘It’s nice to be alone for the first time in a while. It really feels like I’m on vacation, not an excuse.’

[Attorney, are you not listening to me?]

‘Is there any chance of running into Beom Taeho here?’

[Attorney!]

Ding.

Gram’s shout and Im Suho’s email arrived at almost the same time.
I massaged my ears, which were ringing, and checked the files Im Suho had sent one by one.

[I’ve found a little more information on your client and Cas Vegas. The guys who attacked you are professional contractors, and we’re in the process of identifying the client.]

After sending a thank-you reply to Im Suho, I looked at the files again and again, enough to memorize them, and more time had passed than I thought.

‘The more I look, the more things bother me…’

The reason Lee Ilwoo had checked for listening devices a few hours ago was ‘information’.

“Obtaining information on one agent of a country is no different from obtaining the average of the agents belonging to that country.”
“The average?”
“Yes. Because they select agents of similar skill and give them the same training. Of course, there are outstanding agents among them, but most are on a similar level.”
“Then if you just properly analyze one person, you can analyze the other forces to some extent.”
“Yes, that’s right.”

That’s why Lee Ilwoo had added that there were sometimes cases where local safe house managers installed listening devices or cameras to sell information.
There was a reason that conversation had suddenly come to mind.

‘For what reason did such a large criminal organization suddenly cut off its tail?’

The law, regardless of who the real shadow of the criminal organization is, judges only administratively.
When the ‘role’ is arrested, the police or prosecution declare that the organization has been dismantled.

‘So sometimes they find someone to serve the sentence for them or set up a stand-in.’

But why would an organization of this scale?
There is a motive and a need for everything.
Cas Vegas had no ‘need’ to handle things by cutting off its tail, using recent graduates as proxies.

‘These bastards definitely had an easier way.’

It’s a bitter thing to say, but reality is cruel.

‘If they had properly lobbied the local police, it would have been easily resolved. The same goes for Korea.’

Then they could have easily slipped through the cracks of the law.
I had seen similar cases several times in my past.
The more I look at it, the more it seems like they put on a ‘show’…
Unless they had lost all their funds for some reason, Cas Vegas was still the largest gambling site in Southeast Asia.

‘They wouldn’t have been short on dirty money. Why.’

As I repeated that thought, the worst-case scenario unfolded in my mind like a scenario.

“…Don’t tell me?”

So much so that I had to voice the question.