TOIGC 91

Chapter 91 …

Two Kinds of Traitors (2)

W-Who the hell are you guys…

Kim Ki-duk tried to force the words out, but they never made it past his lips.

Crack!

… !

A heavy club came down straight across his head, knocking Ki-duk out cold instantly. The only one left standing inside the office was Im Si-chan, who managed to scramble to his feet just in time.

Wh-Who the hell do you think you are!

Instead of an answer, a barrage of wooden batons rained down on Si-chan from the surrounding circle of police officers.

An 180-centimeter frame? A rugged, athletic build? None of that mattered in a situation like this. Winning a brawl against an armed squad of cops was something that only ever happened in the movies.

Gah! Argh!

Unlike Ki-duk, he hadn’t taken a direct shot to the skull, so he didn’t black out. But ironically, that just meant Si-chan was left wide awake to scream and curl into a tight ball on the floor.

Ten minutes later.

Ugh… ughhh…

Watching Si-chan piss his pants in sheer agony, Superintendent Seo In-pyo gave his men a curt, indifferent order.

“Drag him out.”

Down in the subterranean depths of the Jongno Police Station, the sound of wailing began in earnest.

The full-blast electric fan treatment was applied unreservedly to Im Si-chan and his subordinates.

The next day.

Hauled before his interrogators, Si-chan bristled with resentment when ordered to rat out his backers.

“This is completely unjust! We aren’t those kinds of people!”

Thanks to his naturally robust constitution, Si-chan was still able to bark back defiantly even after weathering the fan routine, but that was about all he could manage. After all, he was currently strung up by his wrists from a ceiling hook, with only the very tips of his toes grazing the concrete floor.

“This little punk won’t quit, will he? Hey, bring him in!”

Acting on Seo In-pyo’s direct order, a junior detective dragged another prisoner from a neighboring cell and shoved him face-to-face with Si-chan.

“Y-You…!”

Si-chan could hardly believe his eyes. It was Choi Hyo-dae, his face and body covered in crusting scabs.

Though his features were badly swollen, there was no mistaking the man he had personally met and spoken with on multiple occasions.

“Still want to keep playing dumb? This kid spilled his guts. He says you’re the one who pushed him into pro-North activities. That makes you the big fish, doesn’t it?”

Driven to the absolute brink of despair, tears welled up in Si-chan’s eyes.

“No! I don’t know a damn thing about this! Are you telling me this kid was a commie?!”

“Still running your mouth, huh? Hey! Hyo-dae! Tell him! Tell him everything you told us!”

At Seo’s prodding, Hyo-dae forced what little energy he had left through his bruised, swollen lips.

“D… Director Im… he… he told me that… believing in North Korea would make me rich… promised me wealth and luxury… The North Korean flag and the Marx books… Director Im gave them all to me…”

Hyo-dae let his head drop heavily against his chest after those final words, but it was more than enough to make the reality of the situation sink into Si-chan’s brain.

The bastard’s trying to drag me down to hell with him!

He didn’t know the full backstory, but the kid hanging his head right in front of him had been nabbed by the police on communist charges. And under intense interrogation, Hyo-dae had pinned the blame squarely on him.

Y-You goddamn piece of shit!

It was a spiderweb with no escape. With a tortured Hyo-dae pointing the finger, Si-chan knew there was zero chance he’d walk out of here with a whole skin.

T-There’s only one way out.

Desperate, Si-chan turned his bloodshot eyes toward Seo In-pyo.

“I… I work for Seth! You know who I are, right? The massive conglomerate, Seth!”

“Seth? What the hell does Seth have to do with you?”

“I was buying up land in Jamsil under Seth’s direct orders. I’ve worked for them for years. Seth can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m no communist. Please, just let me make one phone call to Seth! Once you contact them, everything will be cleared up.”

The worm-like veins on Superintendent Seo’s forehead began to writhe.

“Hhmm… is that right? If Seth is willing to vouch for you that far, we might have to reconsider…”

Seeing Seo hesitate, Si-chan was certain he had just hooked a lifeline.

“It’s the truth! Just call the number I give you and drop my name. They’ll explain everything!”

“Alright then. I’ll hold off on treating you and your boys for now, so start by giving me the number.”

“Yes! The number is…”

Wearing the look of a man pulled back from the jaws of death, Si-chan frantically rattled off the direct contact info for his superior.

“Good. I’ll go check it out, so sit tight.”

The moment Seo stepped out of the room, Si-chan turned to the remaining detective standing guard in the cell.

“Excuse me… what time is it?”

“Why do you want to know?”

Faced with the detective’s hostile glare, Si-chan offered a groveling, servile smile.

“I just… I’m worried that if it’s too late, I won’t reach anyone at the office.”

Annoyed, the detective glanced down at his wristwatch and spat out the answer.

“Nine.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much…!”

The detective unhooked Si-chan from the ceiling, slapped a pair of handcuffs on him to secure him to the wall instead, and hauled Hyo-dae out of the room.

One hour passed.

Si-chan had no way of tracking the exact minutes, but the fact that Seo hadn’t returned yet actually brought him a sliver of relief. He figured they must be deep in conversation.

But as the moon climbed to its zenith, giving way to the dead of night and eventually the pale light of dawn, a cold seed of dread began to take root in his gut.

When the guards tossed him a lump of cold rice ball for breakfast, and then another for lunch, Si-chan finally panicked and shouted out:

“What happened with the call?!”

“How the hell should I know, kid? Mind your own damn business.”

With the guard snapping at him in sheer irritation, Si-chan’s anxiety ballooned like an over-inflated balloon ready to burst.

When 6:00 PM rolled around once again.

“They said they don’t know a damn thing about you, you lying piece of trash!”

The unconditional full-blast fan treatment resumed for Si-chan and his men.

“Yoongi, negotiations with Seth are wrapped up.”

As Chul-gyu stepped into the study, Geun-tae was the first to speak up.

“How did it go?”

“They accepted every single one of our terms. What other choice did they have? If they didn’t, things were gonna get real ugly for them real fast.”

“That’s a relief.”

Geun-tae let out a long sigh, while Yoongi wore an expression of quiet satisfaction.

“That said, are you really okay stopping there? If we played our cards right, we probably could’ve squeezed them out of the duty-free shop inside the hotel, too.”

Yoongi shook his head.

“I doubt we could’ve pushed it quite that far. Fabricating evidence that Choi Hyo-dae was a long-time plant is one thing, but tying it directly to Seth in an ironclad way is a whole different beast. That’s a bit too heavy for just Superintendent Seo to pull off alone.”

The reason Seth had caved and accepted Yaikai Department Store’s demands was simple: they needed to dodge the catastrophic blowback of being exposed for “unofficially employing subversive communist operatives.”

“If the narrative had been ‘Seth is running an underground red cell,’ maybe we could’ve pushed for more. But that’s a tough sell legally. Given the current hand we’re playing, this is more than enough.”

In exchange for a signed confirmation clearing Seth of any connection to Im Si-chan and his crew, Seth handed over several major concessions to Yaikai.

First, they transferred ownership of all the land plots they had recently acquired in Jamsil. Of course, it wasn’t handed over for free—Geun-tae and Chul-gyu bought them back strictly at original market value to prevent any legal loopholes down the road.

Second, they coughed up one billion won in hard cash. While the nominal sum wasn’t astronomical, the fact that it left zero paper trail made it an immensely valuable slush fund.

Third, they agreed to a five-year ban on opening any competing department stores in the region. While this was technically a gentleman’s agreement that would evaporate the moment ties between Yaikai and the New Military Regime soured, it effectively locked out a major competitor for the next five years. To top it all off, Seth had lost a highly capable, dirty-work asset, which was guaranteed to hamper their future operations.

“What happened to Hyo-dae?”

This time, Geun-tae answered.

“Since his initial slip-up was technically triggered by a momentary lapse in judgment under pressure, he was officially released. Though, his real punishment is just beginning.”

When Hyo-dae walked out of police custody, what greeted him was a padlocked front gate and all his household belongings piled up out on the street. Worse still, his mother and wife were desperately trying to fend off local neighbors who were actively looting their furniture.

[Thieves! Thieves, help us!!!]

[Somebody help!]

Despite his family’s frantic screams, not a single person stepped in to help. The looters simply shoved his wife and mother aside, eager to snatch whatever they could carry. The brazen looting slowed down only after Hyo-dae himself rushed onto the scene, but there was no way to protect the property. His mother and wife lacked the strength to haul large furniture, and if Hyo-dae tried to move anything himself, the rest of the pile would get cleaned out in the blink of an eye.

In the end, weeping bitter tears, Hyo-dae had no choice but to abandon everything except a few small family heirlooms, fleeing the neighborhood with his family into the unknown.

“Right about where he belongs, then.”

Hearing the report, Yoongi nodded. Geun-tae turned back around from his reporting stance, let out a soft sigh through his nose, and gave himself a quiet, internal nod.

“Good work.”

At Yoongi’s gentle praise, Geun-tae simply bowed his head.

“I’ll make sure an incident like this never happens again.”

“No, an incident like this is bound to happen eventually. As an organization grows larger, it’s practically inevitable.”

“Hahaha…”

As Geun-tae offered a wry chuckle, Yoongi added smoothly:

“We won’t be running any more communist-stitching operations anytime soon, but the core policy remains: traitors get crushed without exception. People make mistakes, but how you handle those mistakes is what matters.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

“By the way, what about Superintendent Seo?”

“Oh, he’s practically grinning from ear to ear. We sold him a parcel of land near the Seth-acquired Zone 2 plots and handed him cash matching the value.”

To keep himself out of the spotlight during the settlement with Seth, Yoongi had funneled the acquired land deeds through Geun-tae and Chul-gyu’s names. Gifting a small slice of that land to Seo had practically bought the cop’s eternal loyalty. In the end, Yaikai had secured themselves a very obedient, well-fed guard dog.

“Sounds like Seo is completely locked down, then. In that case… Uncle.”

“Yeah?”

Hearing his name, Chul-gyu paused mid-reach for a plum, quietly set it down, and turned his attention to Yoongi.

“It’s time for you to take charge of the grand climax for this whole affair.”

The incident that had turned the Jongno Police Station basement into a house of horrors ended with surprising quiet.

Nothing happened.

Aside from a mild rumor floating around Hyo-dae’s neighborhood that “communist materials were found in his house,” Im Si-chan and his men simply walked out of the police station nursing bruised, battered bodies.

In a way, they were lucky. Emerging from a brush with red-baiting charges with only physical trauma was practically a miracle in this era. Furthermore, because Geun-tae had strictly warned Superintendent Seo ahead of time not to permanently cripple anyone, they were left with plenty of bruises and scabs, but very little risk of lasting physical disability.

“Director… what the hell… what do we do now?”

At Ki-duk’s trembling question, Si-chan gritted his teeth against the throbbing pain and replied:

“For now… let’s head back to the office. We’ll rest up and figure it out tomorrow.”

Arriving back at their operational base, the men stared in blank shock as they found the front entrance heavily padlocked, refusing to yield to their keys.

“What is the meaning of this…”

Si-chan rushed out to find a public payphone, but he had no loose change—and neither did any of the twenty-odd men trailing behind him. All the cash and valuables they had been carrying when they entered the police station had long since been divvied up among the officers.

[Please, just give me a single coin…]

After begging passersby for spare change, his subordinates finally handed him enough coins to dial his superior. After feeding dozens of coins into the slot, the line finally connected.

[How the hell did you manage to get tangled up with reds and still have the nerve to call us? As of right now, you have zero connection to us. Consider yourselves complete strangers, so don’t ever call this number again. If you keep bothering us, we might just decide to make you real communists next time.]

Reduced to a discarded tool, Si-chan held the dangling, dead receiver to his ear for a long moment before letting out a hollow laugh that quickly dissolved into tears.

In a desperate gamble, they visited Seth’s other regional offices, but found every single door bolted shut just the same.

“Director…”

“Don’t call me Director…”

Having trudged on foot for hours, physical exhaustion pushed them to their absolute limits.

“At least the nighttime curfew has been lifted…”

At Ki-duk’s muttered observation, Si-chan instinctively flicked his wrist to check the time, only to remember he had no watch. He stared blankly at Ki-duk, wondering how the hell he knew, until Ki-duk pointed toward a clock hanging inside a nearby pharmacy.

“Ha…”

They could have split up and headed to their respective homes, but walking all the way back with empty pockets and broken bodies felt entirely out of reach.

What do we do now…

As panic threatened to consume what little composure he had left, a eerily familiar, friendly voice cut through the air right beside Si-chan’s ear.

“Ah, there you are!”