by P. R. Adams
Most of the plants were long dead, leaving only the hardiest to battle the weeds. Rimes glanced at Chae. Chae looked as disturbed as Rimes felt.
The apartment’s façade was better maintained, but even it seemed forgotten. Chipped stone, cracked wood, dented metal—it was a blemish on the campus’s complexion.
Hwang opened the front door and escorted the two of them inside. The air inside the apartment was thick with rot and filth. The door opened onto a foyer. Crumpled food containers, tattered wrapping paper, and moldy food covered everything, but Hwang showed no sign he was aware anything was amiss.
“Some tea?” Hwang asked.
Rimes shook his head; he’d be afraid to drink it. “Doctor, I was hoping you might be able to help us with a serious problem.”
Hwang ignored him, shuffled into the equally filthy kitchen, and gathered a teapot from the top of the stove. Charred bits of food and containers covered the black cooking-stone stovetop. With a gentle shove, he cleared space at the overflowing sink to fill the teapot, unleashing a domino effect that sent tottering piles of dishes, pots, and pans onto the counter and floor with a crash.
Hwang didn’t react to the clatter.
After filling the teapot, Hwang set it on the stove and turned on one of the heating elements, then stared at it, unmoving.
After a few moments, Rimes said, “We’re looking for Kwon Myung-bak.”
Hwang turned, his eyes focused on nothing. “What has he done?”
“Well,” Rimes said, looking to Chae for support. “We believe he’s involved in something that extends beyond the LoDu metacorporation. He seems to be operating without their approval.”
Hwang frowned.
“He assassinated a high-profile politician in Indonesia recently,” Rimes said. “He also seems to be connected to an operation in India involving a T-Corp research facility. LoDu has made it clear these were unsanctioned operations.”
Hwang searched through a pile of dirty dishes, clumps of molding rice, and discarded packaging until he secured a mug. He scraped black paste out of it, dumping it on the floor. He muttered, then opened an empty cupboard, searching it repeatedly.
“Dr. Hwang?”
Rimes looked at Chae, who shrugged.
After several seconds, the muttering resolved into words, first Korean, then English. Hwang turned to look at Rimes as he spoke. Hwang’s brow wrinkled as he struggled to concentrate.
His voice sounded clearer, less shaky. “What makes you believe LoDu?”
“They’ve provided a good deal of evidence implicating Kwon,” Rimes said.
Hwang looked into the cup, then returned to the sink and rinsed it. He sighed. “What evidence?”
“Videos, communication records. Images. Enough to hold up in court. Lee Sang-woo … was our intermediary.”
Hwang looked at Chae, who nodded.
“Brother turns on brother,” Hwang said, eyes drifting to Rimes. “Do you have children?”
“One on the way.”
The teapot began to whistle. Hwang poured water into the cup, then stared at the steam.
“I have dozens. They are stars in the sky while we are … rocks. Dirt. You understand?”
Rimes shook his head. He assumed Hwang was referring to the genies’ engineered superiority, but the old man’s mind seemed fragile and unpredictable.
“My final children for LoDu were 729, 730, and 731,” Hwang said. He stared into the distance as he breathed in the steam rising from the mug. “Lee, Kim, Kwon. They were my favorites, my best work. Kim and Kwon, at least. 729 was a disappointment.”
“Kim was your favorite?” Rimes asked.
Hwang smiled gently and nodded once. “Kim Jang-yop, they named him. They always gave them names, sometimes made up, sometimes from someone in history. To make them special. They were brothers, and I was their father.” Hwang sipped his water. “And now he is gone.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Rimes said. They must have told him.
“Nothing pleases a father so much as a son who succeeds him.”
“I understand, sir.”
Hwang stared into his mug. His brow wrinkled. “How did he die?”
Rimes hesitated. “In battle. He fought bravely.”
Hwang took another sip. “We have fallen.”
Rimes looked at Chae. “I don’t understand,” he whispered.
Chae watched Hwang for a moment, then said in a hushed tone, “The family’s honor has been undone. Lee because of his weakness, Kwon because of this betrayal. Kim’s reputation will be undone. Their failures will reflect on Dr. Hwang. They will destroy his legacy.”
Rimes wasn’t sure if it was anything he could use to get Dr. Hwang to tell him what he wanted to know. Besides, direct questions seemed more effective for the moment, despite Hwang’s erratic behavior.
Is he senile? Crazy?
“Dr. Hwang, can you tell me about 731? About Pingfang?”
Hwang’s eyelids fluttered. He looked around the kitchen as if seeing it for the first time, wincing at the filth. His eyes traveled across Rimes and Chae’s faces blankly, then returned to Chae’s face, squinting.
Rimes and Chae exchanged looks of surprise.
Pingfang? 731? Something had changed. A trigger word?
“I know you,” Hwang said, his voice stronger, his hands suddenly steady. “I can help you. Quickly.”
“Dr. Hwang?” Chae said uncertainly.
“For the moment, yes,” Hwang said tersely. “Your questions. You must be quick. You seek information on Kwon?”
Rimes nodded. “Lee embedded false information into the data he provided, a fake operation Kwon ran in Pingfang District, China. He supposedly assassinated an EEC spy there, but the mission data pointed back to another article Lee somehow planted in a printed media digital archive. The article referenced Sim Duk-ryong.”
At the name, Hwang flinched.
Rimes kept going. “I couldn’t make any sense of it. I thought it might be some sort of code.”
“Sim Duk-ryong was real.” Hwang looked at Rimes, his gaze intense and sharp. “I worked for LoDu for forty years, and I was head of their genetics engineering effort for the last twelve. Always, the elderly must step aside for the young. I mentored a brilliant young man, Dr. Kang Tae-suk, for the last four years. He replaced me. He was forty years old. Forty,” the old man snarled.
“In the past, the policy was that no one would ascend to a senior post such as I held until they were sixty-two. Age reveals wisdom and patience. Kang was brilliant, but he was not patient. The LoDu leadership were not patient, either. They approved his promotion.”
Rimes shook his head. “I don’t understand, sir. How does Sim Duk-ryong relate to Dr. Kang Tae-suk?”
“Dr. Kang was Sim Duk-ryong’s father,” Hwang said.
“Sim Duk-ryong was … in the article, he was a World War II hero. Dr. Kang couldn’t have been his father.”
“Dr. Kang created a genie with the same name. Sim Duk-ryong … was his favorite. He was, as far as LoDu was concerned, the future.”
“What, a brilliant scientist?”
“Not a scientist,” Hwang said. “Brilliant, but not a scientist. You mentioned Pingfang District. Are you familiar with its significance?”
Rimes shook his head. He was struggling to contain mounting frustration and fear. He suspected the lucid Dr. Hwang would only be around for a short while. “Pingfang” must have been a trigger word of limited use.
Hwang needed to get to the point now, or the search for Kwon would come to a dead end.
“When the Japanese invaded China in the 1930s, they established a terrible operation in Pingfang District. The operation involved vivisection—live surgery, you understand?—biological experimentation of an inhuman nature. The operation was run by Unit 731. Biological agents, chemical agents … mostly, the victims were Chinese. Even among our Asian family, the Japanese had a special contempt for the Chinese.
“There was one Korean who was fina
lly proven to have died there.”
Chae bowed his head. “Sim Duk-ryong.”
Hwang nodded. “We needed something to be proud of, after that war.
“Kang’s main rival was a Japanese researcher. Sim was Kang’s poke in the eye, you see? 731 was mine. So many rivals out of Tokyo, always looking down on us. Even within LoDu, there is division.”
Rimes chewed his lip. “I’m still not following, Dr. Hwang. What’s Sim’s connection to Kwon?”
“Just as Kang replaced me, Sim replaced Kwon. Our original designs were humans, but faster, stronger, hardier. Alien DNA was used to take us into our future, not to … Kang saw that as lacking ambition. Sim was created using newer theories. He was the first to render us completely obsolete.”
“Us?” Rimes “You and your comrades?”
Hwang shook his head. “Humans.” He blinked slowly and stared into his mug. “You can walk the corridors of memory forever in dreams.”
“Dr. Hwang, wait, concentrate.” Rimes loudly snapped his fingers. “Doctor? Please. Sim renders us obsolete?”
“Sim makes us obsolete, yes. All of us.” Hwang stared into the distance, slumping. “He has destroyed the family, replaced it with his own. Kwon does not see himself as an outsider anymore. He does not see me as his father anymore. Kim did. Kim was the good son. Not like 729.”
“How has he made us obsolete?” Rimes grabbed Hwang’s shoulders. “Dr. Hwang? How has Sim made humans obsolete?”
Hwang smiled feebly. “His mind. It is everywhere. It is in everything. He is Sansin. He abandoned LoDu. The metacorporations transcend nations, even Earth itself. Now they have been transcended by their own creation. And they fear Shiva.”
“Shiva?” Rimes swore quietly as the last vestige of intelligence left Hwang’s eyes. He released the old man, who shuffled around the kitchen, muttering.
Rimes looked at Chae. “Sansin? Shiva? Does that make any sense?”
“Sansin was a powerful mountain spirit,” Chae said.
“A spirit? Like a genie?” Rimes asked.
Chae thought for a moment, then he nodded.
“What about Shiva? Is that the same?”
Chae shook his head. “That is a Hindu god, I think. Sansin was from ancient Korean beliefs.”
Rimes sighed. He pulled up a reference to Shiva on his earpiece, skimming through it as he watched Hwang stumble, as though he didn’t see the garbage under his feet.
“Creator and destroyer,” Rimes said, shaking his head. “Does that make any sense to you? Any connection?”
Chae stared at the ground. “I don’t see one, no.”
Hwang sat at the cluttered dining room table, picked up a pot and a spoon, and began singing happily.
With a heavy sigh, Chae led Rimes out.
The sun was a red scab low in the eastern sky as they drove back to the city.
23
6 March 2164. Seoul, Korea.
* * *
Rimes showered. The filth of Hwang’s apartment had disturbed him even more than the induced dementia. He staggered out of the shower and dried off; then he sneaked in a quick nap.
As he walked into the hotel restaurant, Rimes wondered how Lee felt, knowing his father lived in such a state.
Not happy about it, I bet. A prisoner to his own memories. LoDu sells cures for this sort of thing, but they inflict it on their own. How horrible.
Kleigshoen and Metcalfe were sitting in a corner booth when Rimes walked in, both smiling at him. He wasn’t sure what to make of their promptness, much less their demeanor after yesterday’s surliness. He returned their smiles.
Kleigshoen pointed across from her. She was breathtaking in a bright red top, sleeveless and low-cut, with her hair hanging down and curled onto her left shoulder. Metcalfe’s eyes drifted over her, lingering a moment, before he scooted over to make room for Rimes.
“You’re early.” Rimes ordered a vegetable and rice plate with slices of steamed tofu, then added a boiled egg, figuring the Bureau wouldn’t complain about that extravagance compared to the data bill he’d piled up.
Kleigshoen looked at Metcalfe, mouth and eyebrows twitching. Metcalfe nodded at her.
“We’ve had a break,” Kleigshoen said. “A huge break.”
Rimes looked from Kleigshoen to Metcalfe, then back again. “Aren’t you going to tell me what it is?”
Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.
“They’ve got Kwon,” Kleigshoen said.
Rimes’s heart raced. If they’ve got Kwon, it changes everything. They aren’t going to care about what Hwang told me.
“They?” It didn’t really matter who had Kwon, so long as someone had him. There were so many questions to be answered. Kwon was the key to most of them.
“The Australian police,” Metcalfe said. “They’ve got him locked up in Darwin. High security, someone watching him every minute of the day. He’s pretty banged up, so he’s not going anywhere.”
Kleigshoen said, “Doesn’t look like he was as rogue as LoDu wanted us to believe. But they’ve got four agents in the Darwin morgue right now and another two in ICU.”
Rimes rubbed his forehead. “He killed LoDu agents?”
“That’s what we’re hearing,” Kleigshoen said.
“Sounds pretty rogue to me.” Rimes rubbed his forehead. “So LoDu knew where he was all along?”
“Apparently,” Metcalfe said. “Or they knew enough to find him when they really wanted to. This changes the complexion of the case completely. Lee’s data is pointless now. Fifty-thousand dollars wasted. Jim’s going to ride my ass for that.”
A waitress appeared and set their plates in front of them. Metcalfe tore into a slice of tofu drizzled with a garlic sauce and washed it down with a sip of hot tea. He gloated as he chewed, looking from Rimes to Kleigshoen.
Rimes kept thinking of Dr. Hwang, making “tea” and winced.
Metcalfe laughed. “We’ve got him, Jack. Aren’t you happy?” He sucked tofu from his teeth before scooping up a large mouthful of rice.
“How did they get him?”
“The police report isn’t clear,” Metcalfe said around another sip of tea. “No one’s in any condition to talk, but it looks like the agents went to Kwon’s hotel and expected him to cooperate. Security video shows them approaching his door clumped pretty tight. Unless they were rank amateurs or extremely stupid, they weren’t ready for a fight. He killed two of them before the others had any idea what was going on.”
Rimes picked at his food and considered the scenario Metcalfe described. It was possible LoDu was so internally compartmentalized that their agents hadn’t been informed Kwon had gone rogue. Yet something seemed wrong about it.
Rimes finished the last of his vegetables. “I don’t like it.”
“You don’t like it?” Kleigshoen looked to Metcalfe.
“What don’t you like, Jack?” Metcalfe smiled condescendingly over the top of his steaming teacup. “We’ve only been doing this job for a of couple decades between us, so we’re probably missing something your sharper, fresher eyes have caught? Maybe you could share your insight with us, walk us through this little maze we’ve stumbled into?”
Kleigshoen’s brow furrowed. “Brent—”
Metcalfe waved Kleigshoen down. “It could be the key piece we’ve been missing all along. Maybe he’s dreamed up a solution to this whole puzzle. Have you, Jack? You put it all together and figured it out?”
Rimes sighed. Metcalfe was trying to turn the situation personal again, and it didn’t serve anyone.
“All I’m saying is that it doesn’t add up. The agents show up in Australia, and he kills them? Do we have the agents’ communications records? How long were those agents in Australia before they went to his hotel room? How long was he in the hotel room before they arrived? Why was he there?”
Metcalfe chuckled. “Maybe we should just ask LoDu to tell us what they’re doing.”
“Brent.” Rimes sighed and shook his head slowly. “I
don’t need the hostility, all right? I’m just trying to understand. Because right now, nothing is fitting together. Not for me.”
Metcalfe snorted. “Well, why don’t you ask Kwon for his help? We’re on the next flight to Darwin. That is, assuming you want to come along?”
Kleigshoen caught Rimes’s eye. “We thought this would be good news to you.”
“It is. Obviously. It’s a huge break.” Rimes peeled the boiled egg, hoping the mundane activity would help defuse the situation. “But I’m not very good with things that aren’t what they appear to be. You know how it is, Dana. It works against all my training and what I do. See the battlefield, know the battlefield.”
Metcalfe poured them each more tea. He sighed, set the pot down, and looked Rimes in the eye. The smugness was gone.
“You’ve picked this all up so quickly, Jack. And I mean that when I say it. Dana said from the start that you’re a sharp one. Thing is, you’re still new to the game.”
Rimes took a bite out of the egg. He tried to find serenity in the moment, but he suspected that Metcalfe was just setting him up for another personal attack.
“There’s a world of difference between the sort of wetwork you do and the work we do,” Metcalfe said. “It’s probably tough to stay engaged in all the reading and listening and research we have to do when you’re used to action and reaction.”
Rimes felt his face flush. “I think I’m doing okay.”
Metcalfe winked. “Sure. And I’ll be the first to admit there are a lot of things about this case that we haven’t connected yet. It happens. This one’s complex. You have to be patient in this line of work. Keep your eyes open, watch for the clues. It’ll come to you, eventually.”
Metcalfe looked at Kleigshoen, as if waiting for some sign. If she gave it, Rimes couldn’t sense it.
Metcalfe took a sip of his tea. “Anyway, we had a call with Executive Assistant Director Marshall this morning. He’s very pleased, especially now that we have Kwon.”
Rimes cocked an eyebrow. “He understands we don’t actually have Kwon, right?”
“The Aussies do,” Metcalfe said impatiently. “They’ll cooperate fully. They’re great allies.”
