“It is quite useful!”


  Mussang marveled. The wire and the weight of the Gorgon matched the explosive power of the 72-millimeter lightweight trench mortar. The material industry was the foundation of manufacturing and defense. High-caliber iron led to a better barrel which led to a broader range. Sturdier fiber led to lightweight bulletproof vests.

  A barrel that gets broken after firing a few shells, a rescue ship equipped with a fish swarm detector, and a tank fitted with a power pack with a bit of instant momentum? Sadly, the valuable material of which the Gorgon was made is made in Japan. But unfortunately, Korea still was limited to producing nylon and tire code paper.

  When Areva intended to share their nuclear technologies with Korea, the government minded the United States and refused. Mussang had been sick of such behavior that refused freebies. Korea still had a long way to

  go.

  An iron door was seen behind when the rubble cleared out. Since every gap was welded shut, it was no longer a door but an iron wall. Someone was knocking at the iron door from inside.

  “This is welded shut too!”


  If Murai and his men kept their mouths shut, the 48 people inside would never be able to see the sun in ten or a hundred years. Instead, they come on the list of long-term missing people.

  “What is this?”


  Mussang looked back at Gim Geukdo with menacing eyes. Gim Geukdo, stepping down the stairs, flinched at the hostile gaze.

  “They only consider the Japanese, Americans, and Caucasians as humans. Murai especially despises Korea. He only considers Koreans as goods that might potentially trade for money. When things didn’t turn out well, he ordered this to get rid of the evidence.”


  “Did you intend to leave them here and flee?”


  “I have no excuse.”


  Gim Geukdo lowered his head with a pale face. He ordered the particular unit to do this. He had no excuse.

  “How did you dispose of the victims until now?”


  “We ground their bodies in an animal feed grinder and threw them away in the river or buried in the mountain.”


  “The mountain?”


  Mussang’s eyes were glaring. Five skeletons of children had been found in the mountain. Mt. Waryong was only 300 meters tall but had deep valleys. It was only 4 kilometers or 7 kilometers away from here. They must have buried the skeletons without a doubt.

  “How long have you been doing this ‘business’?”


  “Since 1965. First, they began trafficking the prostitutes needed in the red-light districts in Japan. Then they expanded to other activities. U Beomseok began child prostitution, and five years ago, when Murai was appointed as the director, we began organ trafficking.” “Quite some vermin then! They shall be thrown directly into the feed grinder too. Novatopia could never use such vermin. They will corrupt other redeemable criminals!”


  Mussang ground his teeth. Without his coincidental intervention, the evil Jap and his Korean collaborator would have continued to leech off Korean society. Murai and U Beomseok, who were to work as tenders of the windbreak forest, suddenly had their fate changed. They needed to suffer what they were afflicted with.

  Mussang knocked on the steel door. The thud reverberated. It must be at least 50 millimeters thick. It was a matter of course that nothing was heard from the inside. He took out Vajra from his emergency pouch. He didn’t need to toil for no reason when he had a good tool.

  With Vajra, he drew a line along the welded line. The steel door was soundlessly cut as if a box cutter cut the paper. With Resonance Wave, he pulled the cut piece out. The cut iron piece was as big as to crush a person.

  He lifted the whole door and leaned it against the wall. He missed Ssamdi at moments like this. Ssamdi was good with physical labor. The characteristic moldy smell of the basement and various body odors from many people assailed their noses.

  Gim Geukdo turned on the switch. The incandescent lights installed across the ceiling began flickering on in sequence. The inside submerged in the pitch-black dark was suddenly showered with light.

  Women banging on the wall screamed and retreated into the basement. Fear was infectious. The rest also huddled to a corner farthest from the entrance. All the faces were full of fear. Then, with bated breath, everyone glanced at the intruders. There were 48 people in the 100-square-meter basement. But an eerie silence permeated the air.

  Gim Geukdo glanced at Mussang and smiled bitterly. The members of the particular unit were routinely dressed in jeans, navy jackets, wide-brimmed hats, and sunglasses. Coincidentally, the man had a similar outfit. Since they have been bullying the people since last night, it was no surprise that they would be surprised.

  Mussang stepped on the threshold and scanned the frightened people. His gaze scanned the children huddled together. They gazed at Mussang too. They looked like they hadn’t even graduated from elementary school.

  The crouched posture was like that of a wounded animal. Faces full of anxiety and fear, about to burst into tears at any moment. Empty, unfocused gazes. The pink lipstick on their lips. The blue mascara on their eyes.

  “Fuckers!”


  Mussang felt as though a hot ball of rage was soaring in his throat. He didn’t expect child prostitution, which was commonplace in Africa and the Middle East, to run rampant in Korea. If consenting adults participated in prostitution by their judgment, it was their own business and not their own. But child prostitution was an entirely different matter. Children, whose minds and bodies were ruined early, find it impossible to have an everyday life. The filthiest scum on Earth was the clients of child prostitution.

  “Who is her?”


  Mussang pointed at the girl holding the hen of a middle-aged woman. She seemed to be around six. The child’s prominent forehead, revealed between two pigtails, reminded him of someone. He hadn’t expected them to exploit such a young child. Even 12 or 13-year-olds are children too.

  “She is a heart donor. Someone sent by the recipient in Japan is here in Korea.”


  Gim Geukdo lowered his voice and whispered.

  “What?”


  He had spotted a man in a suit in the waiting space of the living quarters. He must be someone sent by the recipient.

  “A grandson of a prominent Japanese political figure, who had his atrium ruptured in a traffic accident, is waiting for her heart. The best surgeons in the country are doing their best to keep him alive, but they seemed to be at wit’s end now. That girl has a price tag of 200,000,000 yen. That matters too, but because of the status of the recipient in Japan, the Hamon clan is doing their best too.”


  “Are you taking her to Japan? There must be many checkpoints.”


  “Prosecutor Gim Dalsu agreed to lend his

  car.11

  “The wretched lump of shit is at it again.”


  Mussang was speechless. Technically speaking, prosecutors and judges are the last bastions for social justice. Of course, it was well known that many such positions are bribed to the brim in Korea, but he hadn’t expected anyone to be as corrupt as Gim Dalsu.

  Mussang’s gaze moved from the young girl to the middle-aged woman. She was well past her heyday, but her facial aesthetics were still well maintained, and so was her body. She smiled at Mussang with her eyes. The smile felt familiar. It was as if a ripple of a smile spread from the inner side of the eyes toward the tails. Mussang flinched.

  ‘I Minju!”


  Mussang almost yelled out her name. She was Ms. I, Hyeyeong’s birth mother. She spearheaded the modern feminist movement in Korea. She was also once elected as a congresswoman. He had heard about her often from Hyeyeong but had only met her once. That one encounter proved fatal. He had wanted to rip her apart. Why was she here?

  ‘Has that woman ever showed motherly love?’


  He wondered. I Minju cold blood running in her veins. She had done everything in her might to marry Hyeyeong off to the nephew of the head of the ruling party. She was one of the reasons why Hyeyeong left for America. She had even sold the house Hyeyeong lived in when she refused the marriage. Mussang himself had to be arrested five times because she had pressured the police. The world was vast, but old connections kept resurfacing.

  “Who is her?”


  Mussang feigned ignorance and asked Gim Geukdo. He didn’t feel like letting on that he knew her and had no reason to do so. When you step on some dogshit, that could ruin your whole mood for the day. So the best policy is to evade it.

  “Her blood type is the rarest in the world, Rh-null. There are only six known people in the world with that blood type. She is the seventh, and of course, it is not known elsewhere.”


  “What is even that?”


  Of the Rh blood types, the bar-D-bar-bar-D-bar (-D-/-D-) was quite well known, but he had never heard about the Rh-null type.

  “The type lacks all the 160 antigens found on red blood cells. As a result, any donor can receive so-called golden blood. Its real value is seen during organ transplant surgeries. If we give the blood to the recipient, it greatly lowers the immune resistance. One 400-ml pack of her blood costs roughly 100,000 dollars.”


  “Huh. She was quite someone. So, the woman and the girl come together.”


  “Yes. That woman is not aware of this, but she can easily make ends meet by selling her blood all her life. Even the Japanese government was involved in finding that particular combination.”


  “That is quite absurd. How much does she cost?”


  “The woman demanded lunch with Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro in return for her donation. Also 10,000,000 yen. The special unit was going to be rewarded with 500,000,000 yen in a lump sum.”


  “Hmm. Deliver two people and get 4,000,000,000 won. If you can locate the ‘products,’ it’s quite a lucrative business.”


  “Yes. With the right circumstances, one operation could yield 10,000,000,000 won. We didn’t bother with drugs because organ trafficking alone was lucrative. Everyone knows that, but it requires active cooperation from the hospitals and building an extensive database. It’s a high-tech industry. No one can easily get their hands on it.”


  “Ten billion won!”


  Mussang was startled. This was the precise reason why the significant criminal gangs in the world participated in organ trafficking. He remembered the time when the head of Areva asked him to sell his sperm. Superior sperm and eggs had long been commercialized in Western European countries. Human hearts, kidneys, livers, etc., were being sold in the black market like parts of beef.

  “The old man had said that he will pay 400,000,000 dollars if I find Ange Sikager for him. Black Mamba is quite good at business. He would be sad if he knew that Ange Sikager had turned into a purple chicken. Would he also be aware of Garuda’s secret?’


  An irrelevant thought passed through his head.

  “How will you handle them, sir?”


  Gim Geukdo asked cautiously. There were a total of 48 months. It was quite a troublesome situation. “There is no need to hesitate. The ones with a home shall return there. The ones without shall be compensated and be sent off. I will tend to the orphaned children.”


  “Aha, it is so!”


  we

  Gim Geukdo nodded as if enlightened. There were two kinds of participants. First, the promise of sound money attracted the abductees and volunteers. The children involved in prostitution were all orphans. Except for the ten orphans, they could release the rest and send them on their way.

  He didn’t care if what happened here became known in the world. The participants barely knew anything, but it was better if they ran their mouths. He wanted the incident to be widely known in Korean society and a warning. Mussang considered that too.

  “No!”


  The young girl burst into tears. She must have been frightened of the scary men discussing something standing at the entrance. Everyone’s gaze landed on the child. In it were mixed anxiety, nervousness, and irritation.

  “Shut up!”


  Someone told her off in a calm voice.

  “Make her stop crying!”


  Some women yelled, and people’s gazes fell on I Minju.

  “Yeongsuk, stop crying. We are going on an airplane and flying soon. If you don’t stop crying, we cannot get on board or eat ice cream.”


  I Minju comforted the girl.

  “No!”


  “No!”


  “Save us, sir!”


  When the girl cried, the child prostitutes joined in.

  “Be quiet!”


  “We are in a pickle!”


  As the children continued to clamor, people’s anxiety grew. Deep furrows appeared on Mussang’s forehead. When people are faced with hardship, their true colors are revealed. In a crowded cage, pigs snap at each other’s tails. Chickens peck each other. Humans were no different.

  “Be quiet!”


  A low voice rumbled in the basement. Then, as if he had just waved a magic wand, children stopped crying at once. Mussang strode up to the young girl. She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “Are you Yeongsuk?”


  “…”


  The child stared at Mussang. A smile bloomed across Mussang’s face. The child smiled too. This was true Resonance Wave. Mussang squatted and opened his arms wide.

  “Come to me.”


  The girl shook Minju’s hand, ran up to Mussang, and was drawn into his embrace.

  “What is she doing?”


  I Minju wondered.