Deal Breaker - Chapter 71
Kanghyeon already knew that Borodin was extremely irritated by the fact that he had taken Hyeji.
It’s your own fault, so what do you want me to do about it. Why the hell did you have chest hair in the first place.
Reading his thoughts, at first it had just been mild regret, but as Kanghyeon’s abilities grew rapidly and Borodin found himself overwhelmingly pushed out of the Esper market, he seemed to have realized Hyeji’s true value. That regret must have turned into obsession.
The thought of kidnapping Hyeji couldn’t have come to him just yesterday.
Hyeji was always under protection, and Korea had far too many CCTVs, so kidnapping her without leaving evidence would have been difficult. If she disappeared during an operation on land that was underdeveloped and crawling with terrorists, Borodin wouldn’t draw suspicion. That was why he waited for a chance like this, and happened to get information from the Russian mercenary company participating in this operation.
That was everything Kanghyeon had read, bit by bit, every time their eyes met.
He had been waiting with his mouth open, ready to gulp her down the moment she came, but Hyeji didn’t come. What a shame.
Borodin was ranting passionately, veins bulging blue against his smooth skull.
[ Then until we get an inhibitor, don’t let him make eye contact. ]
A sack was pulled over Kanghyeon’s head again.
[ If he gets annoying with telepathy tricks, punch him in the gut. Scare him properly so he never tries that crap again. ]
Kanghyeon sighed inside the sack.
He had been devising a plan to escape by placing suggestions or hypnosis on the guards once his abilities stabilized. But Borodin had very kindly taught them exactly how to neutralize a mental type Esper, making things difficult.
Doing this to someone in the same line of work. What a bastard with no professional ethics.
* * *
For the next four days, the sack was never removed from Kanghyeon’s head.
During that time, they dragged him around once a day, moving locations. It seemed to be a trick to avoid being tracked, but with his eyes covered, there was no way he could figure out his location and report it.
He had no way of knowing whether it was day or night. He only knew that four days had passed because he asked Hyeji via telepathy back in Korea.
There were times when they removed the sack, but something annoying always happened. Like now.
Kanghyeon stared at Borodin, who was sitting across from him in a cramped, musty basement, while his hands and feet were tied to a chair.
As soon as Borodin sat down, he dragged a rusted table over in front of himself and took out a small ziplock bag. He carefully poured the white powder inside onto the table, scraped a bit of it into a long line with a military dagger, then pressed a ten thousand ruble bill rolled like a straw to his nose and inhaled it. Watching Borodin do this every day, Kanghyeon thought,
Good thing he doesn’t know the Korean custom of always offering your own stuff to others.
The memory manipulation he had done to that executive had been flawless, even by Borodin’s standards. Kanghyeon had wondered how he managed it, and the answer turned out to be drugs. Among narcotics, there were some that enhanced mental abilities, but only temporarily.
At this rate, he’ll burn out early.
Watching Borodin’s pupils gradually lose focus, Kanghyeon spoke to Hyeji.
‘Secretary Noh.’
‘Yes.’
‘Even if I die, don’t go to Borodin.’
‘Why are you suddenly saying that. Did something happen?’
Had he worried her for no reason by mentioning death. No, Noh Hyeji worrying about me? Well, it was probably concern about her livelihood. Still, you’ve got thirty people’s livelihoods besides mine. No, twenty nine if you exclude Borodin.
Anyway, that wasn’t his concern.
‘No, nothing’s wrong… Anyone else is fine, but that guy’s not.’
‘Did he get permanent chest hair removal?’
‘Why? Would you go then?’
‘Seriously.’
He heard Hyeji let out a big sigh through telepathy. As accustomed as she was to conversing with him mentally, Hyeji was excellent at blocking thoughts he wasn’t supposed to hear on the telepathy channel. Which meant that sigh was very much intentional.
‘Director, no matter how much of a self-made monster I am, I do have loyalty.’
What kind of self-made monster is that. As he was holding back a laugh, Borodin lifted the head he had been leaning back. When their eyes met, Kanghyeon wrapped up the conversation.
‘I’ll contact you later.’
From here on out, it was time for torture.
Borodin wanted to torture Kanghyeon in any way possible.
He understood. He had come expecting to receive only a Guide as compensation, but the Guide didn’t come, and on top of that, he couldn’t even kill his irritating rival. He was about to return empty handed, and the moment he got off the plane, Interpol would likely be waiting with handcuffs.
Anyone would be furious.
But there was no way the group’s leader would allow physical torture. In fact, he even suspected that Borodin might harm Kanghyeon, and had assigned guards around the clock. Even now, behind Kanghyeon stood a member of the organization holding an AK-47 rifle.
