Chapter 1072: Caught in the Crossfire (Patreon)

“Everyone, be smart and kneel over here.” Jack casually lifted the hem of his suit jacket, revealing the pistol holstered at his waist.

Though the local punks couldn’t quite tell who this foreigner was, South Koreans had long grown accustomed to white-skinned soldiers swaggering around on their soil. None of them dared raise a question.

The dozen or so small-time thugs who had just been singlehandedly knocked flat by Lin Zheling now obediently knelt behind their leader—the guy in the red leather jacket.

As for the latter, under the intimidation of Ma Xidao’s massive frame, he had already begun spilling everything he knew.

“There were two guys... they had northern accents. Said they were desperate for money, offered us product for a third of the usual price—it was practically free. So we helped move just a small sample, I swear!

It’s really just a little bit, I swear to god! Let us go, please! I was gonna sell this and head back to the countryside!”

The kid looked pitiful, throwing in a flattering smile as he spoke, trying hard to sell his innocence.

“What is this, a supermarket giveaway? You think drugs come with free samples now?” Kang Jintae scoffed and gave him a solid kick.

Kang, the internet division cop, still held a pretty good opinion of Jack. Back during the black-cop-drug case, this FBI agent had saved his life and protected his family.

While the kid begged for mercy, Lin Zheling wandered into the two container units that made up the makeshift HQ. He reappeared moments later with a black duffel bag in hand.

“This what you meant by ‘just a little sample’?” he said, tossing the bag at the red-jacketed kid’s feet.

The unzipped bag was stuffed with neat bundles of yellow ₩50,000 bills.

“Ah, shit...” Kang Jintae feigned shock. “That’s gotta be at least a hundred million won. Guess you don’t have to worry about retirement anymore—you can grow old in prison instead!”

“Please! Please!” The kid collapsed, clutching his leg like a drowning man grabbing driftwood, spewing spittle as he pleaded.

“Catching a small fry like me doesn’t help anybody. Let me redeem myself! Just this once—please, just this once!”

“How do you plan to redeem yourself?” Kang asked, grinning.

“At noon those guys are supposed to drop off another shipment and pick up the cash. I can help you catch them!” The kid, bruised and battered, wore a grotesque grin full of desperation.

—

“So now northern agents can operate freely in the South? Is reunification finally happening? Congratulations to us all,” Jack joked, flashing a smirk toward Lin Zheling as they hid inside the container unit with Kang and Ma Xidao.

“I thought you couldn’t speak Korean or northern dialects. Truly a cunning American imperialist.” Lin Zheling, who’d had a dark cloud over his face since Jack arrived, finally snapped.

“Hey, hey now, come on,” Kang elbowed Lin and jumped in to mediate. “Jack’s every bit as capable as you are. He saved my life, you know.”

Lin seemed to hold some respect for Kang and turned away without saying more, which only deepened Jack’s curiosity about their history.

Jack recalled Kang’s sister-in-law, Park Minyoung—the beauty who looked just like Im Yoon-ah—once mentioning that Kang and Lin had worked together before. That incident had somehow led to his family being kidnapped, and though the details were murky, the outcome wasn’t good. Kang had been removed from the Major Crimes Unit and exiled to the Cyber Division.

Curious, Jack asked, “After the One-Team case wrapped up, didn’t you get transferred back to Major Crimes?”

His question hit a nerve. Kang’s ugly face scrunched into a grimace. “Ah, shit. Don’t remind me. Those bureaucrats said I acted without approval. They gave me a bonus of only 200,000 won. Barely enough to buy two watermelons.”

Two watermelons? That was nearly 150 U.S. dollars. Jack opened his mouth to ask if fruit prices were that insane in Korea, but wisely held his tongue.

It was just past 10 a.m., and the small-time dealers were still up on the rooftop, playing it cool while waiting for their suppliers to walk into the trap.

With time to kill, both sides casually tested the waters in conversation.

Jack had nothing to hide, but as soon as they compared intel, it became clear that Lin Zheling’s cover story wasn’t going to hold.

“Wait—you were both there during that New York thing?” Kang nearly dropped the bag of pills. His small eyes widened in disbelief. “I heard there were shootouts and explosions. That was a full-on crisis!”

Then realization hit him like a truck. He clapped Lin’s shoulder. “So, this fugitive you came here to arrest—the one you said defected from the North... that wouldn’t happen to be that terrorist, would it?”

Before Lin could answer, Kang’s face turned ashen. “Crap. I didn’t tell my wife the real reason you came. If she finds out we’re going after a terrorist now, we won’t be allowed through the front door.”

“Hyung, I didn’t know I’d be working with you again,” Lin muttered, looking a bit guilty.

Kang shrugged off the concern quickly, used to being trampled by life. “Ah, forget it. Not your fault.”

He glanced between Lin and Jack, then suddenly burst out laughing. “Hey, you remember my little sister-in-law?”

“Minyoung? What about her?” Ma Xidao looked confused.

Kang’s face twisted in embarrassment. “She thinks Lin came back for her. Said all kinds of ridiculous things like, ‘Forgetting me is worse than dying’ and ‘You promised we’d meet again someday.’”

“Huh? I distinctly remember saying, ‘We’ll meet again after reunification,’” Lin said awkwardly, clearly blindsided by the topic shift.

“Exactly!” Kang nodded furiously. “Soon as she heard Lin was coming, she started acting out like crazy. Good thing Jack came too. Otherwise, we might as well send her back to America with you.”

“...Huh?” This time it was Jack who was completely baffled. “What’s that got to do with me?”

“You’ve got no idea,” Kang sighed deeply. “Didn’t you two pose as a couple before? Since then, she talks about you almost as much as she talks about Lin.”