Critical Incidents: The ROK - Land of HAN (A Jack Gunn Mystery Thriller Book 1)

by Thomas H. Ward

  I didn’t know what to say, so I pulled out a smoke and she lit it for me. Midori said, “Jack-san, take off your jacket and be comfortable.” I was surprised at how well she spoke English.

  “That’s ok, I’ll keep it on.” I didn’t want to expose my weapons.

  Midori was a happy person, always smiling, and laughing, in a bimbo kind of way. She made small talk and asked me if I worked for the American Embassy like Ted. That surprised me, because Ted is not supposed to let that fact be known, for security reasons.

  “No, I don’t work for the embassy. We’re just friends.”

  She was very curious about what I did for a living and kept asking me questions. I told her I was a salesman for RCA. She wanted my name card, which of course, I didn’t have. I found out she was a waitress for the Golden Dragon and so was Keiko. It happened to be their night off.

  Ted and Keiko came back to the room after about an hour of dancing. Ted seemed disturbed and commented, “Let’s leave and go somewhere else.”

  “Why, what happened?” I asked.

  “While we were dancing a few guys kept bumping into me.”

  “Well, that’s dancing, Ted. It’s crowded.”

  Keiko commented, “No, they were doing it on propose. They wanted to start a fight. Let’s leave before there is trouble.”

  “Wait, I have to pay the bill,” Ted replied.

  “Don’t worry about the bill. It is our treat,” Keiko said.

  Outside, as we were walking to Ted’s car, we heard a voice behind us. “Gaijins. Hey gaijins, come here!”

  I told everyone to keep walking to the car.

  A man yelled, “Gaijin! You no leave until you pay.”

  Without looking, I could hear several voices behind us and footsteps. They were quickly approaching us. Standing next to the car, we all turned around. Three men were standing there in long black leather coats with the red bandanas around their heads. I glared at the man who stood closest to me, and glanced at the two standing behind him.

  I asked, “What do we owe you money for?” He had on aviator sunglasses, even though it was dark out. His hair was long, covering his ears. He was a skinny little punk trying to look tough in his black leather jacket and red bandana.

  “The whores. Gaijin take whores, you pay five hundred thousand yen.” he replied, while grinning. The other two dorks laughed at his comment.

  I did a quick calculation in my head. In U.S. money that was almost five thousand dollars. This guy is out of his freaking mind.

  I wanted to wipe that shit-eating grin off his ugly little face. “What are you talking about,” I said, as I turned my head to look at Keiko.

  The other two men chuckled at my response. I could tell they were either drunk or had taken some kind of drug. They all moved in closer, within five feet, which was starting to invade my personal space.

  “He’s full of shit, Jack-san. We are not whores,” Keiko said, as she stormed up to his face.

  They started speaking Japanese very fast and I couldn’t follow what they said exactly. Keiko shook her finger in his face, and screamed something in Nihongo. I did manage to hear his name, which was Nakanishi.

  All of sudden this jerk, Nakanishi, grabs Keiko’s finger and bends it. I heard it snap as she dropped to her knees crying. Nakanishi laughed and said, “No wave finger my face, whore!”

  He looked at me and held out his hand. “Give money now. Me break gaijin fingers.”

  All this time Ted and poor little Midori just stood there speechless, not knowing what to do. I didn’t want them to do anything, so it was ok with me that they stayed out of the way.

  I said, “Ok, I’ll give you the money,” as I stepped up to him. He still held his hand out waiting for the payment. I stuck my hand out to shake his. “No hard feelings. Let’s shake.”

  He kind of looked at me like I was nuts. As he reached out to shake, I swiftly grabbed the thumb of his right hand and bent it back. Using all my strength I twisted it to the right, while at the same time grabbing his hair with my left hand, I pulled his head back. I heard his thumb snap, dislocating it, and Nakanishi yelped in pain.

  While still holding his hair, pulling his head back to expose his neck, I punched him in the throat with my right fist. He couldn’t breathe and fell to the ground, clearly out of action. The fight was over in a few seconds.

  I quickly eyed his two buddies, who backed away a few steps when they saw their leader fall to the ground in pain. Then one drew a short sword from inside his leather coat. The other pulled out a throwing star or hira-shuriken. I saw his arm wind-up and he threw it. I tried to dodge it, but it hit me in the right side of my chest. I definitely felt the impact.

  The man with the sword screamed something and suddenly charged me. As he raised the sword, I swiftly drew my Glock from its Kydex holster. I managed, just in time, to put three rounds into his body at close range, while firing from the hip. As he fell forward the blade sliced into my jacket, cutting it open from the shoulder down. The star thrower turned and ran away, as his buddy hit the ground with a thud.

  I ordered Ted and Midori to get in the car. Midori was standing there in apparent shock. Going over to Keiko, I helped her up, as she held her finger. It was a nasty break; her index finger was completely bent backwards. Nakanishi was still on the ground trying to breathe.

  I held my gun down at my side in case Nakanishi got up. The dork that ran away soon returned with the big Sumo, who was stationed at the door, along with two other men. I stood my ground as they walked up. I carefully peered at each one for weapons and saw none. They all glanced at the Glock in my hand. The two smaller men helped Nakanishi get up, while Sumo boy checked the man I shot.

  In a deep voice Sumo said, “He dead.” He peered at me and Keiko. He saw her broken finger, my cut jacket, and the shiny ninja star stuck in my chest.

  I told Keiko to get in the car. Glaring at the Sumo, I said, “We don’t want any more trouble. We’re leaving now,” as I slowly backed away while facing them.

  Sumo replied, “Go, gaijin. No come back.”

  I slid into the passenger seat. “Let’s get the hell out of here, Ted.”

  “Where are we going?” Ted asked.

  “Take Keiko to a hospital. Her finger is really fucked up.”

  “What about you? You got a star stuck in your chest. Doesn’t that hurt?”

  “No, not at all.” I pulled the star out and held it up. “My bullet proof vest stopped it.”

  I examined the ninja star. The nasty little thing had four sharp, razor like, points. If this had hit me in the eye it could have killed me. I threw it out the car window.

  We all laughed in relief, and Midori said, “You no salesman, Jack-san. You are secret agent man, with big weapon.”

  “Yes, you’re right, Midori. I do have a big weapon.” Ted laughed out loud.

  Keiko and Midori giggled and whispered something to each other in Japanese.

  Arriving at the hospital, I said, “We’ll drop you here. Will you be ok?”

  “Yes. I will be ok,” Keiko said. “Thank you.”

  “What about your job and Nakanishi?”

  “No problem. Nakanishi is not the big boss. Big Boss is my good friend. He is in big trouble now, for breaking my finger. Maybe Boss will cut his finger off.” As we drove away they waved goodbye.

  Ted wanted to report the incident to the police. I told him, “That would be a big mistake. The Yakuza won’t report what happen. So we need to keep our mouths shut.”

  Ted replied, “But … you killed a man.”

  “Yeah, in self-defense.” I started to get pissed. “Listen, these guys kill each other all the time. They won’t report it because they don’t want the police snooping around in their business. The police are probably on the take, and they don’t wanna be involved either. Believe me nothing will happen. If you report this, then we might lose our jobs and I could go to a Japanese prison. We have to keep this a secret. Do you agree?”

  Ted
nodded ok. “I see your point, Jack. I promise, I’ll never tell anyone.” We shook hands on the deal.

  That was the last time we ever spoke of the incident. I never saw Midori and Keiko again, but often wondered what became of them. Shortly after this, I was assigned a desk job back in the states. Ted was promoted and transferred to somewhere in Africa.

  *****

  BACK TO PRESENT TIME

  Thinking about that critical incident made me realize that some of the problems I ran into involved my friends trying to hook me up with wild women.

  Then I realized the one friend I could discuss the Korea situation with was Ted Stevens. Yes, I would bounce the information off of him. He’s a smart reasonable man with good judgment, sometimes, so let’s see what he says.

  Mi-young woke up and ate a cold breakfast. We spent the day together until about three in the afternoon, just watching TV and getting caught up on some lost loving. Then she went to work at the Tiger House.

  Lee phoned ahead of time that he was coming over at five to discuss our plans for dealing with the situation. As usual, he arrived at my room on time.

  I told Lee, “Last night that NIS car followed me back to the Chosun. I’ll bet there’s a tail outside now waiting for me to leave the hotel.”

  Lee said, “Well, you’re not doing anything wrong. Kwon just wants to know where you are going. He certainly doesn’t trust me to tell him.”

  I poured us each a drink and asked him, “Ok, what are your ideas about the changes in the NIS?”

  “Well, like you said, I can’t call the President. Kwon’s men probably won’t even let me talk to him. And his line is bugged so they would hear every word.”

  “Yeah, no doubt about that,” I said.

  “To tell you the truth, I don’t have any good ideas, Jack. Do you?”

  “Yes, I do. It so happens that our new Ambassador here is Ted Stevens. He’s a really good friend of mine.”

  “How can he help us?”

  “I have a meeting with him tomorrow at 7 am. I’ll bounce our information off of him and see what he thinks. Maybe he can arrange a meeting with your President and take me with him.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Lee responded.

  “Once I got the President’s ear, then I can call you on my phone and you can talk to him in person about the situation.”

  Yeah, that sounds good. I’m sure President Roh will talk to me.”

  “Tell me more about Kwon’s background and the NIS Director. Oh, did you find anything out about Ellington and the Korean man in the picture I gave you?”

  “Nothing on the identity of the Korean man in the picture yet. Nothing on Ellington either. It takes some time because I’m not going through the normal channels.”

  “Do you think we’ll have it by tomorrow?”

  “I doubt it,” Lee said. “All we know about Kwon is that he was educated in the United States and his only family is in North Korea. The same holds true for the Director Suk.”

  “You mean Suk’s family is in the north also?”

  “Yes. And oddly enough, Suk and Kwon went to the same university in the United States.”

  “Which one?”

  “Both went to ULA at the same time.”

  “Interesting, very interesting.”

  “Why is that interesting?” Lee asked.

  “Because, ULA is a very liberal university. It’s geared towards obtaining an education in politics. Who knows what kind of crazy commie ideas they picked up there?”

  “So, that’s not good?”

  “Maybe it’s not good. What else do you know about them?”

  “Nothing, because their files are sealed.”

  “What about the new bodyguards? Who are they?” I asked.

  “There are no new bodyguards. Just Kwon and ten ROK Marines are assigned to guard the Blue House.”

  We sat there thinking for a minute.

  “Ok, I’ll just advise Ted what we know so far and see what he says. When we obtain more intel, we can inform him.”

  “That sounds good to me, Jack.”

  “What about your phone? Don’t you think it’s being monitored?”

  “I’ve been using my wife’s phone,” Lee said.

  “No, don’t do that; it’s probably tapped also. Go buy a burner phone.”

  “What’s a burner phone?”

  “It’s a prepaid phone. You buy it, use it a few times, and throw it away. No one knows it’s your phone.”

  “I should have thought of that. I’ll buy one on the way home.”

  We finished our drinks, and Lee went home for dinner since it was Sunday night.

  I would be eating a late-night dinner in the room with Mi-young, who was coming over after work. To kill some time, I went downstairs to the lobby for a cup of coffee and do some planning for tomorrow.

  Sitting there, sipping on my coffee, I was surprised to see Ellington come in the lobby along with the Korean man. They sat at a table over in the corner, far from anyone else.

  Ellington got up and went to the elevator, while the Korean stayed seated. He glanced around the room and I lowered my head, pretending not to be paying any attention. I picked up a newspaper off the coffee table, and held it up in front of my face.

  Fifteen minutes later, Ellington came back with a briefcase. I observed the Korean and Ellington exchange cases as they got up to leave. I wondered what was in the briefcases. The Korean headed for the main exit, and Ellington went to the front desk where he checked his case into the hotel safe.

  I went to the main entrance to follow the Korean and hurried outside because he had a lead on me. As I went through the revolving door, I spotted him standing there, waiting for the parking valet to bring his car up. He glanced at me, so I turned and walked directly towards him with my head down, and pulled out a pack of smokes. He didn’t pay any attention to me.

  I lit a smoke and slowly walked past him. Standing on the other side of driveway, in the shadows, I watched him get behind the wheel of a white Hyundai. As he drove past me, I jotted down the plate number.

  Returning to my room, I phoned the second floor office and asked them to trace the plate number. They told me I’d have the information by tomorrow morning. I advised them to contact me on my cell phone.

  Mi-young came to my hotel room early from work. We ordered room service and had Donejang jjgae. Also called fermented bean soup by Americans because they can’t pronounce the Korean name correctly.

  Donejang jjgae is a soup, which is more like a stew, and maybe the most popular dish in Korea. The ingredients are: fermented bean paste, tofu, mushrooms, green peppers, scallions, pieces of beef, and anchovy. It also has a lot of red and black pepper giving it a spicy favor. Those not used to it will notice a distinct smell from the fermented bean paste, which many people don’t care for. Side dishes that come with it are rice and kimchi. That’s all you need for a complete meal.

  While we were eating, Mi-young advised me that Ellington and the Korean man were at the Tiger House tonight.

  I asked, “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “I too busy and they come early. By time I phone you, they gone.”

  “Could you hear what they talked about?”

  “Yes, a little,” Mi-young replied.

  I carefully listened to her intriguing story.

  chapter four

  U.S. EMBASSY & AMBASSADOR STEVENS

  I was up at five in the morning, thinking about the story that Mi-young told me last night. It just added more mystery to what I already knew.

  She told me that Ellington and the Korean man, who was in the picture, came to the Tiger House last night about seven o’clock. They requested a private room and a short time later, another oriental man came to meet them.

  Mi-young advised me the oriental man was not a Korean. She told me that both men spoke Japanese to each other, and that surprised me. I wondered why would you speak in a different language?

  I concluded you would only speak in
a different language if you didn’t want other people to understand what was being said. Or if they felt it was easier to communicate in that language. That meant Japanese could be their native tongue.

  My little spy, Mi-young, was also able to sneak a picture of all three men together. Taking a picture concerned me. If she was caught, her life could be in danger. I warned her not to do that again. She assured me that they didn’t see her take it.

  It was 6 am, time to leave for my meeting with Ted. My cell rang and I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered it anyway.

  “Yobosayo (Hello),” I said.

  “Good Morning, Jack,” Lee said. “I’m calling you on my burner phone. I got some information.”

  “Great. Go ahead.”

  “My contacts at the Mossad advised me the man in the picture with Ellington is Kim, Jung-he. Kim is a North Korean who defected to Japan while attending school in Russia years ago, when he was a teenager. He now lives in Japan.”

  “Did they report anything on Ellington?”

  “Yeah, but let me tell you more about Kim. He is a known active communist and is on the Mossad and Japanese security watch list.”

  “Ok, but what is he doing in South Korea?”

  “Sorry to say, no one knows that. As for Ellington, he’s also a communist along with his twin brother, Stan Wright. They were born in Russia and adopted by different parents in the United States. That’s why they have different names.”

  I replied, “Well that explains a lot. I wonder what they’re doing here and if the CIA knows about these guys?”

  Lee said, “I don’t know if the CIA is tracking them or not. These men are dangerous commies, according to the Mossad. Wright and Ellington are also capable of designing weapons of mass destruction.”

  “The CIA probably dropped the ball as usual. Are they U.S. citizens?”

  “Yes, at one time they had Secret Clearances. They blended into the United States by being good citizens and have never had any problems, not even a speeding ticket.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes, that’s all I have for now.”

  “After we hang up I’m going to send you another picture of a Japanese man. Ask the Mossad to check him out. He met with Ellington and Kim last night at the Tiger House. I have to leave for my meeting at embassy now.”