Deal Breaker - Chapter 19
The fireworks showed no sign of ending anytime soon. As she watched the massive amount of fireworks explode, Hyeji found herself thinking it was like watching her own annual salary going up in smoke.
Just then, a blonde woman passing by her dropped what looked to be a set of expensive car keys.
That was the signal to begin the operation. While the atmosphere in the party hall was at its peak, the blonde woman—that is, the British agent—picked up the keys she had ‘dropped’, then, linking arms affectionately with the target of the operation, headed out of the party hall.
A classic honey trap.
Originally, the chief agent from the client’s side, who was overseeing the operation, had wanted Hyeji to take on the role of isolating the target. Because of her height and long, slender limbs, everyone would believe she was a model, they said. Hyeji immediately understood.
Of course. A honey trap should be carried out by someone beautiful.
They also said Hyeji’s ever-expressionless poker face made her seem reliable. Was that a compliment? She decided to take it as one.
“I don’t let my secretary do that kind of work.”
But as soon as the agent brought it up, Kanghyeon cut him off flatly. He even seemed a bit displeased. Later, when Hyeji was seeing the guests out of the building alone, the agent looked embarrassed as he said,
“I failed to consider the possessiveness an Esper feels toward their matched Guide.”
Possessiveness? To say that Han Kanghyeon felt possessiveness toward Noh Hyeji was as absurd as saying that Noh Hyeji pursued divestment like a Buddhist monk.
From the cold, almost terrifying clauses in their employment contract, to his actions and the things he always said, Han Kanghyeon was not a man who felt possessiveness toward his matched Guide—or toward anyone at all.
It wasn’t hard to guess why he refused the request to involve Hyeji in the mission. She wasn’t a specially trained agent, just a regular secretary, and so unremarkable that people called her a monk. What kind of man would fall for her seduction? Above all, seducing a man was something Hyeji had never attempted in her entire 26 years of life.
Moreover, when accompanying Kanghyeon on an operation, she was strictly forbidden to act independently or to separate from him without explicit instruction. This was a rule that had to be followed for Hyeji’s safety… or perhaps for the safety of everyone in the building.
The two of them exited the hall a few moments after the British agent. Apparently, everyone was so absorbed in the fireworks that they were able to catch an empty elevator immediately and take it down to the fourth basement parking lot. The parking lot, like the elevator, was deserted.
Of course, there would probably be people in the back seat of that high-end SUV with the blacked-out windows.
Pretending to be drunk, arms slung around each other’s waists and staggering, the two of them changed completely as soon as they entered the blind spot of the security cameras. Kanghyeon strode straight up to the SUV and knocked on the back door with his knuckles, and the door opened.
A middle-aged man, his tuxedo bow tie undone and looking completely unguarded, was sitting in the back seat. He looked startled at the sudden appearance of uninvited guests, and started rattling off in a language Hyeji didn’t know. But the moment his eyes met Kanghyeon’s, his face went slack, and he fell silent. Like someone sedated.
<Get in.>
When the female agent motioned them inside, they both climbed into the SUV. The door shut, and in the now completely private, sealed car, a covert operation began in earnest.
The man, who’d thought he was starting his New Year off with a bang, was now unexpectedly the unwilling star of a ‘4P confinement play’.
He was the Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). The agent started a recording app on her phone, then looked at Kanghyeon. He nodded to signal he was ready, and she began questioning the man in Russian.
Although Hyeji couldn’t understand the language, she could guess what the questions were about: the assassination plot against a former government official who had defected, and the spies who’d been sent to Europe to carry it out.
The agent kept pressing him, but the man just stared into space with a rigid face. Hyeji worried that perhaps Kanghyeon’s power wasn’t working on him, judging by his unpleasant expression. Then, suddenly, the man spat out a curt reply.
It seemed like they’d finally gotten an answer, but the agent’s face looked tired. Deep furrows had formed on Kanghyeon’s brow as he stared at the man’s eyes. The man was resisting mentally. Knowing that they needed to wrap up and withdraw quickly, Hyeji grew anxious, glancing around outside.
<How about reading his mind?>
As soon as the agent suggested it, Kanghyeon shook his head without hesitation.
<That consumes my ability way too much. I don’t risk it when there are multiple questions.>
He described using telepathy as a ‘risk’. The agent, knowing full well what that risk entailed, didn’t press the issue.
Right now, Kanghyeon was using suggestion. The man was under the illusion that he was being questioned by his superior, compelled to answer everything he was asked. Yet, all he spat out was an angry curse, telling them to go to hell.
