Simultaneously, Lee Young-jin noticed a black SUV in the rearview mirror. An ordinary domestic car. His gaze shifted from the rearview mirror back to the road ahead. At the crossroads leading to Mokak-ro, under the temporary traffic light, Lee Young-jin stopped the car. The SUV also came to a halt. After waiting a few seconds, he aggressively pressed the accelerator, making a sharp left turn without signaling, onto the national road. The speedometer quickly hit 50, 60, 80, 100 km/h. He sped through a tunnel in a blink and then found the SUV maintaining a safe distance behind him again. His gaze quietly returned to the front.
It took only a moment to cover the 11 kilometers to the nearest gas station. Lee Young-jin slowed down and smoothly turned right into the gas station. The SUV that had been following passed the gas station at a slow pace. Screech. The car stopped precisely in front of the first pump. A uniformed attendant ran out. Lee Young-jin rolled down the window and leaned out.
“Could you watch my car for a moment while I run to the convenience store?”
The young attendant, with acne scars on his nose bridge, smiled widely and replied.
“Yes, sir! You can leave the engine running!”
“Fill it up, please. Here. Keep the change.”
Lee Young-jin handed him cash, then got out of the car. The suddenly enriched attendant shouted his thanks. The cool breeze circulated inside the gas station located in the middle of the national road. He passed between the fuel pumps and entered the familiar franchise convenience store under its sign. The automatic glass door opened with a ding, and the sound resonated inside the convenience store. The clerk was too engrossed in his smartphone to notice. Lee Young-jin swiftly moved to the back of the store and opened the door leading to the storage room. Inside, a slim man gestured for him to come closer.
There was no conversation.
The man handed Lee Young-jin a black hooded jacket, and in exchange, Lee Young-jin gave him his padded jacket.
Instead of voices, only their quiet breathing filled the cramped storage room.
Before a minute passed, the man wearing Lee Young-jin’s padded jacket casually left the storage room. He picked up a chocolate bar from the shelf and headed to the counter. The clerk yawned as he scanned the barcode on the chocolate. Ding. The automatic door opened again, the man left, and it closed.
Lee Young-jin stood among the shelves, staring out through the glass window.
The man in his padded jacket casually climbed into the gray wagon. The attendant bowed his head in greeting as the wagon started with a roar.
Lee Young-jin picked up a cup noodle, then put it back down, held an isotonic drink, then set it aside, and moved past the triangle kimbap, bulgogi lunchbox, sandwich, and smoked eggs. The convenience store clerk glanced at Lee Young-jin before returning his gaze to his smartphone.
Lee Young-jin took out his smartphone to check the time. 12:47. He grabbed a bottle of sparkling water, paid for it, and left the convenience store.
He slipped his hand into the pocket of the hooded jacket.
The car keys were there.
A 1.5-ton truck was parked in the corner of the gas station, and Lee Young-jin walked towards it without hesitation, inserting the car key into the driver’s side door lock.
***
Seo Seung-hyun swiped his finger across the smartphone screen. Several blurry photos followed. It was a round electric car with a Jeju license plate. Registration location, Seogwipo City, Jeju. Purpose, car rental business. Owner, Jeju Trip Rent-A-Car. Renter, Kang Seung-soo. Rental period, 24 hours. Seo Seung-hyun leaned his elbow on the couch armrest and tilted his body slightly. He had acquired this CCTV footage five hours ago. Naturally, no further information was obtained. His fingertips began tapping on the armrest.
He was accustomed to this kind of chase.
Jang Young-hee stood in front of him, tie tightly knotted.
“For now, a few informants left in Jeju are tracking down some leads…”
“Forget it. He’s already gone from there.”
Seo Seung-hyun cut off his secretary’s words.
“Not Lee Young-jin, start with those around him.”
He remembered the abilities and achievements Lee Young-jin had shown during a short period of just over a month. Opening the HSBC bank vault, cracking the code, uncovering the Easter egg, revealing the list of auction participants.
Seo Seung-hyun softly pulled up one corner of his mouth to smile. That smile, too perfect, appeared to mock instead.
“You’ll never find him if you track him directly. So, let’s start with those around him.”
“Yes. Shall we start with Park Eun-young and Choi Yoon-seok then?”
“Hmm. Yes. And…….”
Seo Seung-hyun paused for a moment.
A conversation he had with Jang Young-hee in Shanghai flashed through his mind. At the end of the deal involving the sex video, what had Jang Young-hee said after releasing Lee Young-jin’s colleagues as he had demanded?
‘If you let them go just like this, the prosecution smelling a rat will catch them soon.’
And what was Seo Seung-hyun’s response?
‘Do I need to worry that far?’
And it happened just as they predicted.
Kim Gang-sik had been blabbering about Seo Seung-hyun here and there, leading not only the National Intelligence Service, the Security Office, and the Prosecutor’s Office but also the National Defense Intelligence Command to suspect his movements were related to Seoran Defense, and even the Chinese security authorities got involved, with all sorts of informants on high alert over Seo Seung-hyun’s every move. Suddenly, under Seo Seung-hyun, Ji Jung-hoon and Park Eun-young emerged. The rest followed naturally.
A deep furrow briefly distorted his neatly arranged eyebrows. The space between his thick eyebrows narrowed slightly then returned to normal. An acute intuition was telling him something.
Did Lee Young-jin not know about it?
Impossible.
If he knew, since when?
Since he got his hands on a computer and internet access in Toronto, Canada? Or even before that……
His thoughts halted there.
Jang Young-hee was silently watching him, waiting for an answer. Seo Seung-hyun met that steadfast gaze. He remembered that this loyal secretary had raised concerns about Lee Young-jin’s reliability before. The secretary’s prediction had come true, but the starting point was Seo Seung-hyun himself. Lee Young-jin had risked his life and body to protect his colleagues; it was wrong to let them go unprotected like that.
“…Ji Jung-hoon. Find him first. At all costs.”
“Yes.”
The chief secretary bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle and responded.
Seo Seung-hyun watched the chief secretary’s large back disappear beyond the heavy door of the CEO’s office, then slid his thumb across the screen of the smartphone he was holding. He opened the email app and scrolled down. [Fwd: The report you requested.] He tapped to open the email forwarded by Jang Young-hee. Soon, the attachment at the bottom of the email floated up on the slick smartphone screen. Seo Seung-hyun’s long eyes scanned the top of the neatly scanned PDF file.
[Genetic Testing Report – Lee Young-jin (23 years old)]
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