At those words, Lee Young-jin was overcome with shock as if his breath stopped. He involuntarily raised his head and stared at the man. Their eyes met. Like the wet, shady, winter-like gray snow of Shanghai. Those eyes were silently looking down at Lee Young-jin. Lee Young-jin lost his initial momentum, becoming immobilized and stiff like when he had just been captured.
He shouldn’t trust this man.
His heart rate slowed and the inside of his skull cooled.
Lee Young-jin barely opened his mouth.
“Trade with me.”
The tenacious gaze seemed to continue for a while, but the corners of the man’s mouth went up.
“Why should I?”
“That code.”
“Aha. Right. Finally, the code talk begins.”
“I don’t know exactly what that code is or where it’s written, but there’s something else hidden in it.”
Fortunately, his voice gradually became calmer as he continued to speak.
“There’s an easter egg in the code. What I’m saying is. There’s a hidden code.”
“Is it time for me to say thank you for the expert’s kind explanation?”
“The item. There’s two, right?”
It seemed like the bomb that Lee Young-jin had thrown wasn’t an unexploded bomb.
At that moment, the man’s eyes widened. In an instant, his face turned cold. The back of his hand with his arms crossed seemed to twitch, but it slowly loosened. Suddenly, he pushed his foot hard against the floor. The legs of the sofa scratched the tiled floor and screeched terribly. Cold air hung over the space between them the width of a table.
A strange expression appeared on his face, cold and straight like an ice statue. Only the left corner of his mouth raised slightly, giving an expression that couldn’t be told if it was a smile or something else.
“Did the easter egg say there are two items?”
“Similar.”
“I don’t know who made it, but it’s a very intuitive idiot.”
Lee Young-jin wanted to agree with him, but at the same time, he didn’t want to show sympathy for the man, so he just kept his mouth shut.
“And so?”
The man asked again with a very interested tone.
“Alright. You found out that there are two items. Very well done, great. By the way, what deal do you want to make with me?”
There was laughter in his voice and a smile on his face, but his eyes were cold. Lee Young-jin swallowed his dry saliva. He must answer well. This would determine whether he could get out of here safely, or whether he would be buried in the deep seabed of this maritime city.
“In the easter egg…it’s my guess, but it should give you a rough idea of where the items are.”
“Guess?”
“It’s almost certain. At least a hint of the location.”
“Aha. Therefore?”
“I’ll hand it over.”
“Don’t you remember? I already retrieved one item. Thanks to the smart someone who opened the HSBC vault door. Of course, the other one will be recovered soon.”
Lee Young-jin shook his head.
“If you really did, you wouldn’t have made me crack the code.”
“No. The code was really important. Unfortunately, I couldn’t solve it because the skills of my subordinates were not enough. Thank you again.”
“I-I’m not stupid.”
Lee Young-jin desperately worked on his vocal cords.
“The reason why you had to solve the code in a hurry, even with my help… i-it was simply because the code was important and related to the item, otherwise, there’d be no need to take the risk and make me do it. If you really have the item, that is.”
This man couldn’t get the item completely.
He said things got very, very f*cked up.
A person who could buy all the other eight bidders and end the auction at once to obtain the item wouldn’t suffer from minor troubles in the process of taking over the item. There’s no need to threaten Lee Young-jin with the life of a colleague. After dealing with them, just take the item and leave.
But if not, then why…
“You only got one of the two items that were sold at the auction. And that code might be…the second item’s enabler code or security code or something. I don’t know what it is, but maybe you’re having trouble getting the second one?”
Lee Young-jin uttered those words in one breath then closed his eyes.
There was no response from the man. His thin eyes stared at Lee Young-jin’s closed eyelids and long eyelashes hanging over his cheek.
Seconds passed.
It was a few seconds that felt like hours or tens of thousands of hours.
The man broke the glass-like silence.
“Oh my. Right. That’s right. I’ve already figured out that there’s an easter egg, so why should I leave it up to you when I can just get my men to decipher it, even if it takes time? Don’t I have several underlings who are capable enough even if they’re not as fast as you?”
If all his subordinates are like that sundried tomato man, what use is ten or twenty of them? Isn’t 1 raised to a millionth power still 1?
Lee Young-jin shook his head.
He’s different from twenty people who were like the sundried tomato man.
“Not anymore.”
There’s no reason to leave it there.
In order to make a deal, it had to be left only in Lee Young-jin’s head.
“…you’re amazing.”
The expressionless smile on the man’s face was finally broken. A hard expression appeared on top of those cold features. On the contrary, the fear disappeared and his courage grew little by little. To this man, a smile was rather being expressionless and composed. The joy of breaking his composure encouraged Lee Young-jin.
“You shouldn’t have sat me in front of a computer.”
“Thank you for the advice. I will consider it in the future.”
The man answered in a soft, low voice that even felt warm. Words followed immediately.
“Great. What do you want?”
“Let me and my comrades go.”
“That doesn’t pay off for me.”
“Then give up.”
“You’re not good at negotiating.”
A smile appeared on the man’s face again. Lee Young-jin was startled and inadvertently lifted his hips off the sofa, then stopped.
“Think again. It’s not an easy chance to sit down at the negotiating table against me.”
“Then…”
“You are not the only one holding a hand. Shall I present it again? Why don’t you hand it over in exchange for a promise of humane treatment to you and your colleagues?”
Lee Young-jin shook his head.
Even if he put aside the secondary question of what the criteria for human treatment were, the conditions were truly ambiguous. Humane treatment? Until when? Forever? Until death?
“Let us go. That is my condition.”
“Think carefully. Because Article 12 of the Constitution is not always absolute.”
The man’s voice was still soft and not at all excited, but for that reason it was rather frightening.
“The method of SIS is outdated. The CIA is inefficient. MAD and DGSE are too reserved. Personally, I like the way of MSS or GRU, but I bet you think differently.”
Lee Young-jin’s felt the hair on the back of his neck stood up and goosebumps sprouted on his forearms. He didn’t move even one step, but he was gasping for breath. His mouth was dry. He barely swallowed his saliva. His throat was tight.
It’s a threat.
A very efficient and reliable one.
But he couldn’t give in.
Lee Young-jin lowered his wet eyes.
The easter egg of the encryption code was the only weapon Lee Young-jin was holding right now. Humane treatment? This man was neither a cop nor a soldier. There’s no guarantees in his promise.
“Do whatever you want.”
Lee Young-jin answered quietly.
After a very long silence of about ten seconds, the sharp corners of the man’s eyes and dark eyebrows twitched briefly.
“What great camaraderie. It’s touching.”
There was no hint of sarcasm but it sounded completely sarcastic.
“Okay.”
And finally, the words that Lee Young-jin wanted came out of the man’s mouth. But just before he let out a long exhalation of joy and relief, the man added a word.
“Choose two.”
“What?”
“Literally.”
The man spoke as if with a mask with only his lips moving like when he smiled.
“No matter how I think about it, letting all three of you go meant losing too much business.”
“No. No way. Negotiations are broken. Unless you let go of all three of us, there’s no deal.”
“Hey.”
The man spoke quietly.
“I am a businessman. I don’t do deals that don’t pay well.”
“Do you mean the calculation doesn’t fit? Aren’t the items important? On the other hand, we know nothing. All three of us just do what we’re told, and we’re just tails that can be cut off at any time…”
“Choose two.”
He cut off Lee Young-jin’s words as if there’s nothing more to hear. A picture perfect smile appeared softly on that face that didn’t have any body temperature like a bronze statue. But unlike before, there were cracks in that smile. It was no longer an effective mask.
His patience would never be long.
A word automatically came to Lee Young-jin’s head.
Torture…
He had undergone video training in various types and modes of torture. Since his training leaned heavily on theory, practical tips to withstand them were not included in the course. Lee Young-jin could roughly predict the kind of torture he would be subjected to, but he couldn’t predict whether he’d be able to withstand it.
At that moment, the man smiled as if he had read his thoughts.
“The attitude of not yielding to torture is imaginary.”
The man reached out without hesitation and lightly tapped Lee Young-jin’s cheek with the tip of his index finger.
“Why don’t you think of your colleagues?”
Ah.
Lee Young-jin’s lips parted.
He was about to say something.
But failed.
The cold eyes were signaling the end of his patience, and Lee Young-jin had few options.
And this man, who evaluated torture as efficiency, would get what he wanted more quickly and accurately by torturing his colleagues rather than torturing Lee Young-jin in order to open his mouth.
Lee Young-jin’s stiff tongue barely managed to make a sentence.
“My colleagues…let them go.”
Leave a Reply