Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Lee Seung-uk approached calmly. Closing the distance against a short dagger was extremely dangerous, another move that defied the conventions of ordinary combat.

The man's eyes began gleaming.

"As I thought, there's something unusual about you. Let me see that again···."

Lee Seung-uk slipped inside the reach of the man who was still babbling. He ignored the flashing blade, keeping his eyes fixed solely on his opponent's.

"Hah!"

With a short exhalation, the man's dagger descended like lightning. It was a killing stroke aimed directly at Lee Seung-uk's throat.

Lee Seung-uk could sense enough force to split a boulder in that blade, though it moved as lightly as a flower petal. This fellow was certainly formidable.

For a moment, he regretted not being able to test the man's skills(?) a little longer, but he needed to finish things here. His opponent was still overconfident and unleashing his strength without restraint. Once he grew genuinely wary, defeating him would take considerably more time.

Lee Seung-uk didn't evade the descending blade. I'm faster!

Feeling the blade's sharpness against his skin, he drove a strike straight toward the man's solar plexus.

His shoulders remained relaxed, and his hand was neither fully clenched nor completely open. The movement looked almost ambiguous, but its effect was devastating.

"Keugh!"

The man slowly sank to his knees. His breathing faltered, and he tried to clutch his chest, but he couldn't even raise his hand.

"Whew."

Lee Seung-uk straightened and roughly wiped the sweat streaming down his forehead.

This was no opponent he could afford to take lightly. The bastard had spent years refining traditional Chinese martial arts and had also mastered killing techniques used by the military.

"Who the hell is this guy?"

How had someone like this been deployed as though he were an ordinary field operative? In the military, he'd have been more than qualified to lead a special operations team.

"Impressive."

Hearing the sudden voice, Lee Seung-uk spun around in alarm.

A man was approaching. His steps were composed, his movements almost leisurely.

The instant their eyes met, Lee Seung-uk swallowed hard. He could distinctly feel goose bumps rising across his skin.

Someone like this actually exists!

"The man you just defeated was Team Three's leader in the Secret Shadow Unit. He was quite a distinguished operative within the MSS, yet someone like you managed to beat him."

The man spoke quietly in clipped English, but to Lee Seung-uk, every word sounded as clear as though it had been spoken directly beside his ear.

'He can use qi.'

Apart from Master Bodeok and the elders of Guleopsa, Lee Seung-uk had never encountered anyone in the outside world who could manipulate qi so skillfully. And certainly never in such a rough, destructive manner.

'Can I beat him?'

For the first time since he'd grown old enough to understand what it meant to fight an enemy, Lee Seung-uk experienced that particular feeling. He slowly raised both hands.

This time, he would surely have to stake his life.

* * *

Yi-hyeon raised the pistol he'd drawn, holding it steadily before him. He preferred to avoid using firearms whenever possible, but this was hardly the moment to worry about that. The men emerging from the vehicles already had guns in their hands and were about to fire at him.

Bang, bang. Bang, bang.

Yi-hyeon's calm shooting brought down four men: two climbing out of the front seats and another two attempting to emerge from the rear. None managed to fire a single shot.

Yi-hyeon's rapid fire had inflicted fatal wounds from a distance of more than thirty meters. The men outside the vehicle had been completely exposed, so their deaths were understandable. But even the men still inside the car had been killed. Anyone witnessing it might have thought a ghost was responsible.

Alarmed by the gunfire, the second vehicle stopped some distance behind the first. The men inside were plainly terrified.

Yi-hyeon charged straight toward it anyway. He'd already made up his mind and saw no reason to show mercy. Besides, he was worried about Lee Seung-uk. He had the distinct feeling something had gone wrong in that direction.

Bang, bang! Bang, bang!

The men inside the car leaned out just enough to fire at him. Seeing Yi-hyeon charging toward them, they were shooting almost reflexively, even though he was still beyond the effective range of their pistols.

But apparently, not everyone in that vehicle was incompetent. Both rear doors suddenly flew open, and two men jumped out. They immediately moved behind the vehicle and took up firing positions.

These bastards weren't bad!

Yi-hyeon slowed his run. The distance between them was roughly forty meters.

Then he began walking toward them, his gun hand lowered.

"Hiss—"

The men watching him from cover on either side of the car held their breath. They were preparing to fire.

But they couldn't pull their triggers. The instant they saw Yi-hyeon's face as he walked toward the vehicle, their bodies became completely immobile, as though they'd been submerged deep underwater beneath crushing pressure.

This was a nightmare!

They bit their lips hard enough to draw blood and strained until their hands trembled, yet they couldn't muster even the slightest strength to pull a trigger.

Yi-hyeon finally reached the terrified men and expressionlessly raised his pistol.

Bang, bang. Bang.

He shot all three of them, including the man trembling inside the vehicle, then turned away.

He needed to find Lee Seung-uk.

North.

Yi-hyeon ran northward toward the lights of the Sai Van Bridge.

Night was deepening, but the air had grown even more humid, leaving his entire body sticky.

* * *

At that same time, at the National Intelligence Service headquarters in Naegok-dong, Seoul.

"Are you absolutely certain?"

"Yes, Deputy Director."

Bureau Seven Director Lee Gyu-seong answered with his back straight. The man before him was the NIS's First Deputy Director, who oversaw its overseas operations(?).

First Deputy Director: overseas affairs.

Second Deputy Director: North Korean affairs.

Third Deputy Director: domestic affairs.

That was the general division of responsibilities, although the duties of the first and second deputies sometimes changed depending on the administration. The domestic affairs position had even been abolished at one point to prevent surveillance of civilians within South Korea.

In any case, a deputy director of the NIS generally needed extensive experience in intelligence work to handle the position. While the director himself was appointed and dismissed for partly political reasons, the deputies below him were usually living repositories of South Korea's intelligence history.

Occasionally, even a deputy directorship went to a political appointee, with predictable consequences.

That was why people sometimes said the bureau directors and office chiefs below the deputies were the agency's true elite professionals.

Director Lee Gyu-seong disliked the First Deputy Director sitting before him. The man had worked at the NIS until about ten years earlier, then resigned amid shifting political fortunes and spent years in political obscurity. He'd finally returned after securing the support of an influential figure in the newly installed administration.

He was a textbook political appointee. Worse, people like him tended to be obsessed with protecting themselves. They avoided responsibility whenever something dangerous happened, yet invariably tried to claim a share of the credit whenever an operation offered personal benefits.

Even now, the man's expression had become ambiguous when Lee Gyu-seong reported the crisis unfolding in Macau. Finally, he said exactly what Lee Gyu-seong had expected.

"Does this really concern us? What I mean is, if you become involved and something goes wrong with the Chinese government···."

This bastard···.

There was no conceivable way the NIS could be unaware of what was happening in Macau.

Historically, Macau had been an important overseas base for North Korean intelligence organizations. North Korea had once maintained considerable influence there and enjoyed good relations with the Macau government. Consequently, the territory was a location the NIS watched closely.

Naturally, the agency had quite a few operatives stationed there, and reports on the incidents surrounding Yi-hyeon were arriving almost in real time. Intelligence organizations from numerous countries were also on high alert, alarmed by the extraordinarily unusual movements of the Chinese government and the MSS.

And in a situation like this, the man wanted them to pretend ignorance simply because getting involved might be troublesome, whatever the underlying cause?

"Deputy Director, this is the kind of incident that automatically gets reported to the Director General. After all, a Korean citizen, Song Yi-hyeon, is involved. We can't simply pretend it has nothing to do with us."

First Deputy Director Im Yeong-sik's face hardened.

It was already well past nine at night. Before the end of the workday, the Bureau Seven director had said he needed to make an urgent report, so Im Yeong-sik had waited several hours. Only now had the man returned from whatever business he'd been conducting outside, and his report amounted to a request to intervene in the Macau incident.

And what was that? The Director General would automatically receive a report on the matter?

The Bureau Seven director was practically conducting business around him, bypassing his authority. Of course, Im Yeong-sik was well aware that the bureau directors and office chiefs responsible for actual operations didn't think much of him.

He'd accepted that much as inevitable. Even he understood the nature of intelligence organizations well enough to recognize that career officers wouldn't be particularly eager to pledge their loyalty to a deputy director who would serve for a couple of years before departing.

But this Bureau Seven director had always been especially bad about it. Lee Gyu-seong was a former Special Warfare Command operations staff officer who'd been recruited by the NIS. His dismissive attitude infuriated Im Yeong-sik, but there was little he could do about it, so he'd pretended not to notice.

"Very well. If you intervene, how exactly do you intend to proceed? And what will you report to the Director General?"

Watching Im Yeong-sik fold his arms and adopt an expressionless face, Lee Gyu-seong answered quietly but firmly.

"I've already placed our operatives in the region on emergency alert. North Korean movements there have reportedly become unusual as well. A deployment team is standing by at headquarters. Once I've reported to you and obtained the Director General's authorization, I intend to send them in immediately."

"And what exactly do you intend to accomplish by sending them?"

Lee Gyu-seong released a long breath at Im Yeong-sik's question. How could the man still be asking something so ridiculous after everything that had happened?

"Naturally, we intend to extract the Korean citizen Song Yi-hyeon. Have you forgotten? He's already a person of interest to the CIA. I submitted a separate report about him during his service in the Special Warfare Command, and based on that report, he's been classified and managed as a Level Two person of interest."

Im Yeong-sik smacked his lips and nodded, apparently remembering at last.

Judging by the situation, there was little he could do. Since the matter would be reported to the Director General, he probably wouldn't be held personally responsible.

"All right. Submit the approval request."

He meant electronic authorization. Lee Gyu-seong bowed and left the room. In fact, he'd already briefed the Director General verbally, so the operation could proceed immediately.

He had spent the entire afternoon rushing from one matter to another. He'd met an elder of the Dongseong Society, who had subsequently held certain discussions with another individual. It had been a frantic day.

Now that authorization had been secured, he needed to dispatch a team to retrieve Song Yi-hyeon. They had to get him out before he fell into the hands of China's MSS. But first, there was something else to do: contact Lee Jung-ho.

He issued instructions to Yu Min-seon, who had been summoned to his office and ordered to remain on standby. With the emergency underway, going home wasn't even a consideration.

"Contact General Lee Jung-ho. Tell him I want to meet him immediately."

"What? Now, at this hour?"

Lee Gyu-seong frowned at her question.

"You know as well as I do that we're running out of time. General Lee will still be at his office. Do you think he'd go home while his boss is in danger?"

"Understood. I'll contact him as we leave, then. His office is in Sinsa-dong, so we can meet somewhere nearby."

For security reasons, Director Lee Gyu-seong traveled to Sinsa-dong in a car driven by Yu Min-seon rather than his own vehicle. It was so late that restaurants were closing, so they headed to the office Sky Team used as a safe house.

And now Lee Gyu-seong and Lee Jung-ho met. When Lee Jung-ho entered the office, its door held open by a subordinate, Lee Gyu-seong, who had arrived earlier and was waiting, hurriedly rose.

"I'm Lee Gyu-seong, General."

"General? Come now. It's been ages since I took off the uniform."

Lee Jung-ho, ordinarily expressionless, chuckled and extended his hand.

"I've heard you're doing good work as Bureau Seven's director. I understand you've also been looking after Representative Song well."

"You're too kind. I'm simply doing my job."

A straightforward expression and a straightforward answer.

Lee Jung-ho nodded as he studied Lee Gyu-seong. He liked the man's blunt manner.

* * *

While preparations to rescue Yi-hyeon were underway in Korea, Yi-hyeon himself encountered an opponent unlike any he'd ever faced before.

And lying on the ground in front of that opponent was Lee Seung-uk, already beaten nearly to death.

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