Lee Young-jin didn’t know how much that kind of money was or what specifically he could do with it. That’s why he decided to move under the assumption that he could do anything. Anything. For example, stopping a plane just before takeoff and checking each passenger one by one.
Fortunately, the passengers were not a bunch of meek sheep.
A man with two young children began to ask the flight attendant something in a loud voice. The flight attendant responded with a perfect smile, no different from when she was checking his boarding pass and passport just moments ago. The voices gradually became louder. A few other passengers joined. Someone was grumbling and shouting to get out quickly.
Thanks to this, Lee Young-jin gained time.
He calmly unbuckled his seat belt and took the laptop out from beneath his feet.
He opened the lid.
He took down one of several unsecured networks. The airline’s temporary passenger management database was accessed. This temporary database was used before boarding for the convenience of cabin crew instead of the airline alliance shared database, which was slow and had time errors in real-time data, and its security level was relatively poor. He erased his flight record from the database. Of course, there would still be records in the main database, but at least the crew wouldn’t have time to compare the differences and discover him.
Lee Young-jin closed his laptop and packed his bag. Then he got up from his seat and went back down the hallway in the opposite direction from the people.
The crew was all so busy that no one stopped him.
The cabin galley was empty.
Lee Young-jin opened the upper galley cabinet. Flight attendant uniforms and bright orange flight jumpers were provided for emergencies. He pulled it out. He didn’t have time to check the size or anything. He took off his clothes and slipped his feet into the white pants. The top was also white with a sailor collar. He picked up the aviation jumper and headed through the other side of the galley to the doorway at the tail of the aircraft. Because the plane was still waiting, the doorway was unlocked and the temporary staircase remained in place.
He stood on a makeshift staircase and put on an orange aviator jumper.
A few small raindrops hit his cheeks and the top of his head. He inhaled the cold air for a moment and then went down the stairs.
A round forklift was completing the task of loading luggage into galley, going back and forth on a road covered in a hazy fog. Beep, beep, beep, beep. A loud shouting sound indicating something was mixed in between the subsequent reverse guidance sounds.
Flight attendants were guiding a group of passengers who had escaped from the aircraft.
Lee Young-jin naturally made his way through it.
He bowed his head slightly, hiding his face, and walked quickly toward the gate. He passed through the aluminum hallway. Inside the gate, a woman who appeared to be an office manager and a man in a suit with an overbearing attitude like a high-ranking government official were talking about something. The office manager had a grim expression and the civil servant was arrogant. The conversation between the two was unfriendly. They lowered their voices and spoke at a volume that could not be heard by those around them, but the hostility expressed in their facial expressions and intonations was clear.
Lee Young-jin glanced sideways at them for a moment.
His heart was beating fast and a lukewarm cold sweat broke out on the back of my head.
He passed them by as casually as possible.
Several footsteps began to be heard from far away in the hallway. It was a fast, urgent, and clear sound. If Lee Young-jin had received some special training like Ji Jung-hoon or Park Eun-young, he would have realized that there were five people, and one of them was an Alpha, who was 190.3 cm tall and weighed 81.7 kg. But he just thought about avoiding those footsteps.
The tension gradually became sharper.
His heart was beating too fast and it hurt.
He turned the corner of the hallway and came out to the immigration hall. At the same time, Lee Young-jin’s eyes caught several people squeezing in among the passengers waiting for their early morning flight. It seemed as if they were just going back and forth through the immigration hall without any purpose. However, Lee Young-jin noticed the unique habits of trained people in their gait.
The palm holding the bag automatically gained strength. There were bluish veins on the back of my hand. A drop of lukewarm sweat ran down the back of his neck.
He stood still and hesitated.
He stood out.
An extraordinary species and Asian.
This place was not Seoul or Shanghai, but Medellin, Colombia. It was not the middle of Bogota, which was bustling with crowds on a weekend night, but a quiet immigration hall in the early morning, where sleepy-eyed people yawned and waited for their flights.
If they were looking for Lee Young-jin, then they probably were, but the chances of getting out of the airport without being caught were slim.
Lee Young-jin had some training, but he was not trained for cases like this. His job was in support, not on site.
He took a couple of steps back.
His mouth went dry. He bit his dry, crispy lips.
Think about it. He had to think.
His head spun so tight it hurt.
It was at the very next moment that the arrows of thought that were shooting up in all directions stopped when they touched the business card that said to do anything.
Business card.
Lee Young-jin pressed his tongue against his dry palate and hurriedly pushed his hand into the bag. There was this and that stuck on the tip of my finger in a deep bag. A crumpled receipt, a few loose change, a scrap of napkin, and a piece of hard paper touched at the end.
Lee Young-jin brought it out.
A business card with crumpled edges and a little tattered.
[ WE DO ANYTHING 🙂
+52 55 5139 7001 ]
He looked at it, crumpled it in his hands, and immediately turned around. To be as inconspicuous as possible, he walked quickly, keeping his gaze about 45 degrees downward. He went into a public restroom. He took off his striking orange jumper and flight attendant uniform and changed back into his original clothes, which he had crumpled in his bag. He later realized that he had left his coat on the plane, but now he couldn’t go back to get it. He crumpled his uniform in the bathroom trash can and came out.
The moment he came out of the bathroom, someone blocked his path.
If Lee Young-jin had died at that time, the doctor would have diagnosed his cause of death as an acute myocardial infarction caused by a rapidly contracted cardiovascular system due to shock.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
He was a security guard wearing a navy blue uniform. He had a friendly smile on his face. It was about ten seconds later that Lee Young-jin noticed that friendly smile.
“¿Está bien? Parece pálido. (Are you okay? Your complexion is pale.)”
He couldn’t understand a word of Spanish, but it didn’t seem like they were going to drag him around like a piece of luggage or try to take the bag out of his hand.
Lee Young-jin blinked his eyes and looked up at the security guard. His long eyelashes fluttered in the wind.
As usual with security guards and security company employees, they were extraordinary species. Looking at his physique, it was clear that he was an alpha.
Lee Young-jin was uncomfortable with this approach because he was the type of person who felt awkward rather than familiar with his peers.
The security guard was very friendly. He was so friendly that he kept saying something. Lee Young-jin couldn’t understand a word. He seemed to be trying to give directions. Or he might have thought he was a tourist and was trying to help guide him through the airport. Or maybe he’s trying to tell him about a flight delay or something. He even took out his smart phone and seemed to be trying to use a translator, so Lee Young-jin hurriedly waved his hand away. He felt sorry for this kind man, but he didn’t have time.
He said goodbye to the security guard (he held out his smartphone a few more times, offering to help, but unfortunately he really didn’t have time to respond any further) and a pair of people, walking with clearly trained movements, stopped 30 meters in front of him. (Because it was so close.) He hurriedly turned around and walked down the hallway.
The two public phone booths between the public restroom and the corner of the hallway were both empty. Lee Young-jin entered the booth to his left. He picked up the receiver and took out the coins that were rolling around inside his pocket. Click, click, click, the sound of three coins rolling inside the machine rang out. Lee Young-jin carefully dialed the number. Brazil’s country code 52 was followed by ten digits. A few beeps went off.
With each successive beep, the tension increased.
After eight beeps, a click was heard and the sound of someone picking up the receiver at the other end of the wire was heard.
[Alo. Diga por favor. (Yes, I received a call.)]
A voice that is soft and at the same time familiar to the ear.
Lee Young-jin swallowed dry saliva.
“Uh… .”
Fortunately, the other person seemed to also remember Lee Young-jin’s voice.
[Ah.]
A Korean response came back. This was truly a relief.
[You got the passport… Right?]
“That’s right.”
Lee Young-jin answered while looking outside the booth.
A laughing voice asked again from the other end of the phone.
[What can I help you with this time?]
“Can you deliver the goods too?”
[Of course. There’s nothing we won’t do, whether it’s marijuana, cocaine, people, parts of them, or even corpses. How far and what do you want to move?]
Lee Young-jin knew that the answer was no joke.
“To Seoul. Me.”
Of course, this wasn’t a joke either.
[There is an additional charge for being alive… Still, you won’t resist, so I’ll take that out.]
Lee Young-jin, who hesitated and missed the right time to say thank you, heard the voice on the other end speak cheerfully again.
[I’ll go right away. Where are you now?]
“Medellin Airport… .”
[Wait thirty minutes, no, fifteen minutes.]
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