novelraw Chapter 94 : You Have to Make a Scapegoat
Chapter 94 : You Have to Make a Scapegoat
Chapter 94: You Have to Make a Scapegoat
“Just what kind of operation do you think this is!”
The man’s roar shook the night sea louder than the sound of a heavy machine gun.
“Chief Superintendent Park Sang-gu, what do you think you’re doing right now! Let go of him, now!”
“Let go? My subordinates almost died! Do you call this an operation, or is it just the KCIA gentlemen venting their anger? No information sharing, no regard for on-site command authority! What do you expect to happen when you start shooting however you please!”
Park Sang-gu glared at Oh Chung-seong with bloodshot eyes.
His rage was not simply resentment over an overreach of authority. It was a mixture of a commander’s sense of responsibility for having sent his subordinates into a death trap, and a deep-seated distrust toward the KCIA, which trampled over law and procedure.
“The situation was urgent. Those bastards attacked first. We fired blank rounds and warned them twice, yet they ignored it and charged at us. Didn’t you see it yourself? And as for turning the ship into a beehive, wasn’t that the Coast Guard, not us?”
“…….”
“Were we supposed to just take it? Hand our necks over to their axes? Answer me, Chief Superintendent Park Sang-gu. Even the Coast Guard thought we were in danger and used a heavy machine gun, didn’t they?”
Not a single round from the Coast Guard’s heavy machine gun flew toward the boat I was on.
They were fired exclusively at Wang Hai’s two ships. Those ships had already been riddled beyond recognition, barely deserving to be called ships at all, and were slowly sinking.
At the fierce confrontation between the two men, a hair-trigger tension spread between the KCIA agents and the Coast Guard personnel.
At this rate, it was a situation where allies could end up pointing their guns at each other.
I quickly stepped between the two. Seeing me holding a bloodstained axe, Park Sang-gu’s gaze stabbed sharply into me. Ignoring that look, I opened my mouth.
“Now doesn’t seem like the time for us to be arguing over responsibility.”
My voice was cold, yet strangely calm.
Amid this hellscape filled with the stench of blood, the smell of gunpowder, and the aura of death, my composure would have seemed eerie. It appeared Park Sang-gu felt the same.
“And who the hell are you?”
Furrowing his brow, Park Sang-gu released Oh Chung-seong’s collar and glared at me.
“I was the bait used to catch the sea whale.”
“……Bait?”
Park Sang-gu’s head snapped toward Oh Chung-seong.
“Have you completely lost your mind? Using a civilian as bait?”
“I volunteered. I heard there were many people suffering because of the sea whale.”
“Even so, a civilian—”
I cut him off. There was no time.
“We need to rescue the survivors, collect the dead, and secure the evidence loaded on those ships. If we waste any more time here, dawn will break and nearby fishing boats will gather. Then we’ll have a real problem on our hands.”
I looked straight into Park Sang-gu’s eyes and continued.
“Chief Superintendent Park. I understand your anger. But the operation succeeded. The ghost sea whale off the coast of Busan has been eliminated. All that’s left is clean-up. Who gets credit for this will depend on what happens from here on, won’t it? The KCIA will take most of the credit, but…… the Coast Guard that cooperated in the operation will also be included in the commendations.”
This was persuasion, and at the same time, a warning.
“But what if this secret operation becomes known to the world? If the media were to make a fuss over this incident, which is no different from a massacre, who do you think would get hurt? Manager Oh Chung-seong? No. The KCIA would slip away cleanly, and the center of all controversy would be the Coast Guard.”
It was a worst-case scenario of the worst kind, but it wasn’t impossible. Park Sang-gu, who understood that, flinched.
I jerked my chin toward one of Wang Hai’s subordinates who was groaning on the deck.
“The sea whale is dead, and those guys are his underlings. But is this really okay? If they survive and start talking, everyone in the Coast Guard who took bribes will be exposed.”
At my words, Park Sang-gu’s face turned pale. I had touched on the very reason he was raging at Oh Chung-seong.
According to Han Do-gyeong, many high-ranking officials at Coast Guard headquarters and the Busan branch had taken bribes. He said they didn’t know about him personally since the money was delivered through intermediaries, but Park Sang-gu was among them.
Even if the head at headquarters might be overlooked, there was no way they wouldn’t grease the palms of Park Sang-gu, the man responsible for Busan.
As expected, Park Sang-gu had said he’d been informed of the operation in advance. Of course, that information never made it as far as Wang Hai.
Having gone completely pale, Park Sang-gu stared at me without saying a word for a moment. Finally, as if he’d made up his mind, he called out to Oh Chung-seong.
“Manager Oh.”
“……Everything that happened here today gets buried. Do you have any bullets left?”
Oh Chung-seong nodded and handed him the gun.
“One round left.”
Park Sang-gu took the gun, hesitated briefly, then walked up to the groaning man and shot him on the spot.
“There are no survivors.”
After handing the gun back to Oh Chung-seong, Park Sang-gu lifted the corpse and tossed it straight into the sea.
Despite witnessing his actions, none of the Coast Guard personnel even flinched.
“There are no survivors of the sea whale today.”
“Yes, Captain!”
At Park Sang-gu’s command, the personnel moved in perfect unison. They shoved the Wang Hai organization members they had barely rescued back into the sea.
Splash! Splash!
Water sprayed again and again in the darkness. All evidence was disappearing into the cold depths of the ocean.
“For the after-action report, Manager Oh and I will get our stories straight.”
Park Sang-gu had now become a complete accomplice. Oh Chung-seong nodded silently.
I watched them, then quietly threw my axe into the sea.
Everything was over.
That was when Lee Cheong-ho approached me and whispered. Urgency clung to his voice.
“Xiao Long is nowhere to be seen.”
“Didn’t you bring him along?”
“If that’s the case, then it’s a relief, but…….”
Considering Wang Hai’s brutal nature, he seemed to think there was no way he would have let his now-useless adopted son live.
I walked over to Jin Tae-rim, who was cowering in a corner, trembling in fear at the gunshots and screams.
“Mr. Jin Tae-rim?”
“Y-Yes? Yes…….”
I lightly patted his startled shoulder and asked,
“Do you happen to know where Wang Hai stays?”
“Ah, yes. I do.”
“Even President Han didn’t know.”
“I acted as a go-between, moving back and forth between both sides, so…… I know everything.”
“Mr. Jin Tae-rim was the key, then.”
If the KCIA had known that, no matter how much I pulled strings, they never would have released Jin Tae-rim so easily.
I approached Oh Chung-seong, who was still arguing heatedly with Park Sang-gu, and grabbed his arm. After asking Park Sang-gu for his understanding, Oh Chung-seong came over to me.
“Withdraw together with the Coast Guard. I’ll secure the evidence and bring it to you.”
“Together—”
“No. If the Coast Guard comes along, the evidence could be damaged. For now, withdraw together. I’ll contact you soon.”
“Understood.”
Oh Chung-seong also seemed completely rattled. Park Sang-gu was watching the two of us closely, but I deliberately avoided his gaze.
A short while later, those among Han Do-gyeong’s crew who were severely injured, along with the KCIA agents, all boarded the Coast Guard patrol boats.
With a loud engine roar, the patrol boats disappeared into the deep, pitch-black darkness.
The sea, after the night of madness had passed, now held only our ship, Han Do-gyeong’s ship, and Wang Hai’s ship, which was slowly sinking.
“Is it over now?”
Han Do-gyeong finally approached and asked. On his face lingered fatigue, along with a strange sense of exhilaration belonging to someone who had carried out a major deed.
“No. There’s still something left. We have to go to Wang Hai’s base.”
“Hm……. I said I didn’t know the location either, didn’t I?”
Instead of answering, I turned my gaze toward Jin Tae-rim.
“Ha……. Right, that bastard was still here.”
Han Do-gyeong walked up to Jin Tae-rim. Faced with his oppressive presence, Jin Tae-rim’s shoulders shrank.
“You know the location?”
“Yes, yes! I’ve been there about twice before.”
“Oh yeah? Then guide us.”
Jin Tae-rim instinctively feared Han Do-gyeong. Watching him look like a herbivore standing before a tiger, I spoke up to stop Han Do-gyeong.
“Don’t intimidate him too much. He’s someone who took our side.”
“What intimidation? I just talked to him. Isn’t that right, Tae-rim?”
“Y-Yes. That’s right, President.”
If he hadn’t stuttered, I might have pretended to believe him. Jin Tae-rim swallowed dry saliva hard enough for his Adam’s apple to bob, then rattled off the coordinates.
Following his guidance, we steered Han Do-gyeong’s ship back into the darkness.
After some time had passed, where his finger pointed, a small uninhabited island not even marked on the map revealed itself.
When we landed on the island, the stench of rotten fish and strong liquor assaulted our noses.
The ramshackle warehouse door at the center of the island was wide open, and from inside, loud singing spilled out, as if a drinking party was still in full swing.
“…….”
At Han Do-gyeong’s slight nod, his subordinates moved silently. They stormed the warehouse from both sides at the same time.
Moments later, after several dull screams, the inside of the warehouse fell silent in an instant.
When we entered, three or four of Wang Hai’s remaining underlings were already kneeling on the floor, bleeding.
“Where is Xiao Long.”
Lee Cheong-ho grabbed one man by the collar and interrogated him. The man, eyes filled with terror, pointed toward a small side door in the corner of the warehouse.
“Th-There……. The captain locked him up and told us to beat him to death…….”
Lee Cheong-ho didn’t even let him finish before running to the side door. When he kicked in the tightly shut door, a nauseating stench of blood burst out from inside.
A dark, cramped room. Xiao Long lay collapsed atop a pile of hay. His entire body was covered in dark red blood and bruises, and his breathing was so faint it seemed like it could stop at any moment.
“Wang Hai, that crazy bastard.”
Lee Cheong-ho spat out the curse as if chewing on it. After reducing the adopted son who followed him to this state, he had gone off to satisfy his own greed.
Lee Cheong-ho hurried over and checked Xiao Long’s pulse.
“……He’s still alive! Still alive. But if we leave him like this, it’s dangerous.”
Clicking my tongue, I watched Lee Cheong-ho hoist the unconscious Xiao Long onto his back.
Meanwhile, Han Do-gyeong and his subordinates were searching every corner of the warehouse for something.
“President. We found it.”
They had uncovered bundles of foreign currency such as dollars and yen, along with several old ledgers Wang Hai had hidden.
Han Do-gyeong looked at me.
“Give me half of that, will you? I need to take care of the people who worked hard on this job. You have to give them something if you want them to keep their mouths shut, don’t you?”
Han Do-gyeong forced down his reluctance and split off half, handing it to me.
“What about the ledgers?”
“Contacts and codes for smugglers from various countries. Why? Do you need them?”
“No. You keep them. Instead, please have Jin Tae-rim bring over just the bribery ledger.”
“What?”
“We sank everything, so we need to make a scapegoat. The KCIA and the Coast Guard need something to say too, don’t they? Are you dissatisfied?”
“No, no. I’ll pass it along. But is it really okay? Chief Superintendent Park is written in there too.”
“Oh Chung-seong will sort it out with him, taking out those to be removed and leaving in those to be left. That’s not something we need to get involved in.”
Han Do-gyeong nodded. He seemed to be sticking his tongue out in amazement at my calculations.
“For now, please take us back to land first. That kid’s condition isn’t very good.”
Only then did Han Do-gyeong’s gaze turn toward Lee Cheong-ho, who was fidgeting while carrying Xiao Long on his back.
“Tsk. I knew he had a rotten personality, but to do that to his adopted son. Let’s depart quickly.”
Han Do-gyeong and I exited the warehouse first. Shortly after, crimson flames shot up from the warehouse behind us.
Catching my gaze, Han Do-gyeong shrugged as if asking what I was staring at.
“You don’t leave loose ends behind.”
Han Do-gyeong had killed even the remaining survivors. At his cruelty, Jin Tae-rim’s face turned pale.
Once we boarded the fishing boat again, it sped off. We were able to reach the pier at Yeongdo before the sun rose.
“Take that car.”
Han Do-gyeong tossed me the car keys. It was an old jeep parked in a corner of the pier.
“Thank you. I’ll make good use of it.”
“No need to return it. I’ll be on my way now. See you tonight.”
The fishing boat carrying Han Do-gyeong disappeared back into the darkness. I handed the car keys to Lee Cheong-ho.
“Take him to the hospital quickly.”
“Thank you.”
After carefully seating Xiao Long in the passenger seat, Lee Cheong-ho got into the driver’s seat. He must have been in such a hurry that he drove off without even saying goodbye.
I slowly walked toward Yeongdo Bridge. My body was exhausted, but I welcomed the chance to quietly organize my thoughts.
‘After seeing Min-soo off today, I should take a day to wrap things up and then head up to Seoul.’
Organizing my thoughts, I walked along the night road. By the time I arrived at Chinatown, the red sun was rising far beyond the horizon.
The brutally long night had finally ended.