Time passed quickly.
Humid clouds heavily blanketed the sky of this high-altitude city, cradled by the Andes mountain range stretching from east to west. A few raindrops fell and then stopped. Red sunset burned beyond the Cordillera Oriental mountain range, piercing through the mist and steam.
At six o’clock,
Yang Ye-ri brought dinner.
After cutting a piece of greasy steak and picking a bean from the quinoa salad, Lee Young-jin wiped his hands and stood up. He disabled all of the mansion’s security systems. At 6:15 PM, for the next twenty minutes, all the mansion’s CCTVs would only replay meaningless static images.
Lee Young-jin picked the lightest and most comfortable coat from the closet and pulled out a small Boston bag from his suitcase. Sticking his hand inside the bag, he felt around the bottom, unzipped it, and inserted his fingers into a flat pocket. Soft fabric touched his hand. It was a clumsily folded inner shirt. Lee Young-jin unfolded the shirt, and from inside, a bundle of crisp fifty-thousand-won notes fixed with a paper band came out. Pristine cash that had never been circulated since the Bank of Korea first issued the fifty-thousand-won note. He stared at the bundle of notes for a few seconds before slowly starting to count: one, two, three, ten, fifteen… up to a hundred, methodically counting before placing it back deep inside the bag.
He unplugged all connected cables from the laptop, packed the laptop and charger into the Boston bag.
He picked up the bag.
Exiting the room, he silently crossed the corridor and opened the emergency staircase next to the elevator leading down to the first floor. Normally, it would have been locked and under camera surveillance, but not at this moment. The door opened smoothly. The latest CCTV at the junction where the wall and ceiling met three sides blinked meaninglessly.
Lee Young-jin passed under the blind mechanical device without any emotion.
He pushed the door leading to the sunroom on the first floor. The door, its lock disengaged, opened weakly. The door from the sunroom leading outside was the same. The glass greenhouse surface immersed in the pale sunset and the burning Andes mountains beyond were visible. Everything quickly darkened.
The air was damp, and occasionally, raindrops mixed with the wind.
Lee Young-jin effortlessly left the mansion through the side path of the garden.
The blind mechanical watchers looked down at him.
He didn’t stop walking but checked the time on his smartphone. 6:26 PM. Still plenty of time. He hastened his pace away from the mansion.
The road was damp, moss filled the spaces between the old tiles. Streetlights flickered in the dark alley. He walked two more blocks south. Next to an old green sign, a black Uber taxi was waiting for him. He opened the taxi door.
“Para aeropuerto? (To the airport?)”
“El Dorado.”
“Okay.”
The taxi driver nodded cheerfully, waiting for Lee Young-jin to get in before starting the car.
Occasionally, thin raindrops hit the car window.
Soon, the taxi joined the traffic congestion on El Dorado Avenue as expected by Lee Young-jin.
Cars crept slowly over the wet pavement.
The traffic lights at a busy intersection turned red, bringing the taxi to a halt. Old pop music played from the radio, and the driver hummed along. The taxi moved forward a little, only to stop again after a couple of wheels’ roll. The pedestrian signal turned on, and people started pouring onto the street.
Click. Lee Young-jin opened the car door.
The taxi driver turned around in confusion, shouting something in Spanish, probably about how far they were still from the airport. Lee Young-jin extended a dollar bill towards him.
“Keep the change.”
And then he closed the door.
Raindrops fell on his forehead.
Crowds out to enjoy Friday evening spilled onto the sidewalks and streets. Bars and restaurants with their doors open enticed pedestrians with their colorful signs. Lee Young-jin wove through the walls of people, heading into an alley. Between a restaurant and a tourist souvenir shop was a narrow door, barely fifty centimeters wide. A neon sign hung precariously above it, flickering. [MONEY EXCHANGE $ € ¥] Lee Young-jin pushed the door and entered.
Inside the cramped store, behind an equally cramped counter, an old man with magnifying glasses was looking at a newspaper, doing a crossword puzzle. He was so old that his gender or race was hard to discern, easily over a hundred years. Lee Young-jin approached and took out a smartphone from his pocket. The smartphone, procured in Toronto by Jang Young-hee, had its SIM card removed and data wiped, transformed into a clean device. The old man looked up as the latest model smartphone was placed on the counter.
No words were exchanged.
The old man flipped the palm-sized device made of cutting-edge logic boards and lithium-ion batteries, examined the screen, ran a few functions, and took a picture with the camera. The entire process took less than five minutes.
Then, Lee Young-jin pulled out a bundle of fifty-thousand-won notes from his bag and pushed it forward. The old man estimated the thickness of the bundle with his eyes, then pulled a calculator from one corner of the counter. His occasionally spasming fingertips tapped the calculator buttons, and after a few exchanges, they reached an agreement quickly.
The old man’s sleepy eyes rummaged through a drawer inside the counter, pulling out a bundle of money. He counted the dollars, wetting his fingers, and pushed the bundle across the glass counter. Lee Young-jin took it.
He left the pawnshop.
The raindrops had grown larger. People around started opening their umbrellas.
Three blocks away was a large, respectable café. He entered. The place was crowded due to the rain, with the scent of coffee, chocolate, and bread mingling with the moist smell of rain. He ordered the cheapest coffee, found a corner seat, and opened his laptop. He connected to one of the public WiFis and accessed a heavily secured private website. Posts in various languages from around the world scrolled by. Lee Young-jin managed to search for ‘Validated passport’ with his limited English. A few posts appeared. After several layers of security checks and encrypted communications, emails were exchanged.
An hour later, he had roughly finished what he intended to do.
The coffee, half-drunk, had turned lukewarm.
The café had gotten even more crowded.
Lee Young-jin hesitated, his fingers resting on the keyboard, about to close the laptop.
During a mission or when something unexpected occurred, all contact should be avoided. It was a strict instruction from his teacher and also a habit of Lee Young-jin.
But this time, the situation was too complicated.
He had never been in such a predicament before.
‘He might be worried about me. No. He surely is. He shouldn’t worry too much.’
Which was the true wish, Lee Young-jin himself couldn’t tell.
He ended up writing a single line of email.
[mailto: Unknown]
He wanted to ask about Ji Jung-hoon and Park Eun-young but restrained himself. He simply wrote that he would be returning home soon.
With the laptop under his arm, he bought a baguette sandwich and a bottle of water and left the café.
He barely found a bus stop and boarded the bus. The fumes, traffic jams, and motion sickness were severe. Clutching the laptop tightly, Lee Young-jin endured for another thirty minutes, making sure not to miss his stop. He finally got off. The streets were narrow, the buildings closely packed, and the streetlights dim. Thankfully, the rain had eased. A group of teenagers, looking about high school age, were smoking cigarettes and riding skateboards in a dark alley. The darkness helped Lee Young-jin go unnoticed. He walked a block and entered a deeper alley. An old white Toyota Camry, on the verge of being scrapped, was parked, with two women standing in front, thinly rolling a marijuana joint. Lee Young-jin approached them. The slightly older one noticed him.
There was no conversation.
The woman opened the car door and entered the driver’s seat to show him the meter and fuel level. She alternated between pressing the accelerator and brake, moving the car forward and stopping, and turned on and off both the headlights and taillights. Lastly, she opened the console box above the side brake. Inside the lid, a worn, large pistol glittered. A Glock 17 standard, using 9mm rounds, with three rounds in the magazine.
After verifying everything, Lee Young-jin handed over a pre-counted bundle of dollars to her.
The younger one took the money, wetting her fingers to count each bill one by one. After verifying all twenty bills, she gestured towards the car.
Lee Young-jin got into the car.
The women disappeared into the darkness of the alley.
The chattering noise faded away.
This car was probably stolen or illegally salvaged from being scrapped. Either way, it didn’t matter. Lee Young-jin only needed the car for tonight.
The car rattled severely but moved nonetheless. He noticed one of the windshield wipers was missing only after merging onto the northern highway. Fortunately, the rain had subsided.
Though traffic was heavy, he could move without stopping after entering route 45A.
The road was one-way, making it not too difficult to navigate.
Lee Young-jin focused solely on driving ahead.
The Camry, likely over 20 years old and lacking a navigation system, didn’t hinder him; he knew the way by heart. The route to the Campestre Golf Club was almost straight from here.
A darkened park cemetery passed by on the left.
Soon, a desolate amusement park appeared on the right.
Lee Young-jin slowed down and made a U-turn to the opposite side of the road.
He parked the car by the side of the road, lush with large mango and papaya trees. It was 8:20 PM. He turned on all the lights in the car and quietly opened his laptop again.
If everything had gone according to plan, the auction should have ended by now.
[I’ll contact you once the auction is over.]
After sending the message to Xi Xiping, he waited for a while.
He cracked open the window slightly. The smell of wet soil, unripe fruits, grass, and rain wafted into the car. Lee Young-jin twitched his nose, catching a hint of the sweet scent of mangoes.
He didn’t have to wait too long.
[I’m at the terrace!!!!! How do I get out?]
The number of exclamation points conveyed urgency. Lee Young-jin calmly placed his fingers on the keyboard.
A message with a small map marked with arrows.
[Turn left and move forward 18.3 meters. Down three steps to the staff door.]
Soon another message arrived.
[But I need a pass to get in!!!!]
[I’ve unlocked it.]
Lee Young-jin sent another message in quick succession.
[Follow the passage leading to the pantry and wine cellar to the end. Halfway up the stairs, exit through the door (unlocked), move 15 meters straight. Turn right. 7 meters. Turn left. Small side door leading to the parking lot. (Unlocked) Follow the path in the southeast of the parking lot for 25 meters. Pedestrian exit opposite the vehicle entrance.]
[Which way is southeast?]
Lee Young-jin had to access the parking lot’s CCTV.
[The side where the red van is parked.]
[It’s too dark to see.]
Lee Young-jin diligently addressed his complaint.
[Opposite the side where the 1.5-ton truck is parked.]
[Found it.]
[Walk 1.2 kilometers straight.]
Fortunately, there was no reply for a while.
Lee Young-jin turned his head to look outside the car window.
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