AGENT 10

“I will be back after a short phone call.”

Yongnae hurriedly entered the chatroom with the Section Chief and saved Detective Moon’s number. After that, he reported that he would be stepping out for a moment to make a call and headed outside. As he passed by, Dawon made a face showing she was dying of curiosity about what was going on, but Yongnae lightly ignored that look and made the call immediately upon stepping outside.

Normally, he would have started by deducing the reason, tracing back his own actions while wondering, Why are they looking for me? but for some reason, his heart was racing now. Yongnae placed the call first and then thought about the reason.

Ring, ring—

Since it didn’t seem like he had made any particular mistake, they likely called to say thank you for helping yesterday even though it wasn’t an official request.

Ring, ring—

And before the ringtone passed the second mark, click. Detective Moon answered the phone on the other end.

[Yes— I’ve picked up.]

“Hello. This is Researcher Kim Yongnae from the Jeollabuk-do Provincial Government.”

[Ah! Researcher, hello. This is Detective Moon, whom you met yesterday.]

“Yes.”

[Thank you for cooperating yesterday despite the sudden request.]

As expected, it was a greeting of gratitude. Yongnae answered while pretending to be calm, but his heart was actually in a hurry. Once this trivial exchange of greetings was over, he wanted to quickly ask about what had happened to the detective who had collapsed.

However, before Yongnae could ask about Detective Park, Detective Moon brought up Detective Park first.

[By the way, do you happen to remember Detective Park, whom you met yesterday?]

“…Yes.”

[Do you remember how Detective Park was at that time?]

“…Yes. I remember.”

However, at the story regarding Detective Park coming through Detective Moon’s mouth,

[Could you perhaps come to the Seoul Police Agency right now?]

“Pardon…?”

Yongnae could not help but lose his words.

The Seoul Police Agency sent an official document straight to the Imsil Research Institute. The content stated that they required Yongnae’s rapid appearance as a witness.

The quiet Imsil Research Institute, where a boring daily routine usually repeated, became rowdy because of that news; the flustered Section Chief soon had eyes sparkling and hurriedly took Yongnae out of the institute, saying he would give him a ride to the train station.

Afterward, while moving in the car, he wanted a brief explanation of what had happened, and Yongnae relayed exactly what he had heard from Detective Moon. This story will likely spread rapidly within the institute through the Section Chief’s mouth.

“I suddenly ended up cooperating with the police instead of the Seoul researchers, so I went to a hotel and performed gas collection.”

“Suddenly? Why you? Why did you go to a hotel with the police to collect samples?”

“Did you see in the news today that five drug offenders in possession of methamphetamine were caught at Y Hotel?”

“Ah, I have a rough idea. But why did they make you do it? What about the Seoul people?”

“They all said they didn’t know how to handle the ASC—2000 equipment, and while I said I would train them in the morning, Detective Moon said there was no time and took me away.”

Rough curses burst out refreshingly from the Section Chief’s mouth. Excluding the profanity, the content was about why they were working a person from someone else’s research institute who had just come for an advanced site field trip, but in truth, Yongnae was doing all the work alone here as well. It wasn’t really a situation where the Section Chief should be cursing out the Seoul researchers so roughly.

“Anyway, the problem is… Since Detective Park was waiting at that hotel, the task I was given was to perform gas collection in the room next to Detective Park. And I met Detective Park and finished the collection well together.”

“Yeah. And?”

“But, that person called Detective Park…”

“Yeah. Why? Is there a problem? Is he hurt? Is he dead?”

In truth, Yongnae felt like he was the one who wanted to spit out rough curses.

“…They say it wasn’t Detective Park.”

[Detective Park woke up, and he says he never performed a collection with the Researcher. He says someone covered his mouth from behind while he was tearing open the vent, and he has no memory after that as he fainted immediately. Whew… I was worried that could happen since the bastards were in the room right next door, but to think it actually happened… If so, the Detective Park the Researcher met can be considered the culprit who knocked out the real Detective Park. But the problem here is…]

Yongnae, who opened a water bottle and took a gulp of water, lifted his head and looked up at the Seoul Police Agency. So he ended up doing the sightseeing he couldn’t do yesterday like this after all. Entering through the main gate, Yongnae’s face looked parched.

[The thing is, we really can’t figure out that guy’s intention. The sample the Researcher collected came back positive, and since there was evidence, we obtained a warrant and raided the scene where ‘E8’ was being manufactured, but there was no drug manufacturing scene or circumstances there; only three high-ranking members of the methamphetamine distribution syndicate we had been chasing for a long time were tied up. As if they were telling us to take them away.]

For the entire two hours coming up from Jeonju to Seoul, Yongnae could not think of anything else. He only thought about Detective Park—no…

He only thought about the man who impersonated Detective Park.

[We had also confirmed via CCTV through an informant that five Chinese nationals entered room 1202 to manufacture ‘E8’. So we thought it was a sure thing… But setting aside the fact that we missed them again, they say there were no circumstances of manufacturing ‘E8’ in the room, so perhaps they weren’t making drugs in the first place? To say that, there was enough smoke to turn on the vent, so it seems correct that they were manufacturing. And why did he knock out Detective Park but help the Researcher with the collection?]

Why did that man pretend to be Detective Park and help him collect the air? Why did he stop the drugs he was manufacturing and leave behind three drug offenders who had nothing to do with ‘E8’ before departing?

“Oh boy, you’ve come a long way. Researcher.”

Detective Moon, who came down to the first floor to pick up Yongnae, greeted him warmly. Although the tone of his voice was high, his face looked deeply troubled. It was understandable, since he thought he had met Detective Park yesterday and collected air together, but that hadn’t been Detective Park and they had failed to raid the manufacturing scene of ‘E8’.

“You can sit over here.”

Yongnae was an important witness, but because he was a fellow civil servant and had been called in a hurry, he was guided not to an interrogation room that creates a shrinking atmosphere, but to a place that looked like a conference room.

“This is Prosecutor Ma from the Narcotics Department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. He took the time to come because he wanted to hear the Researcher’s story directly.”

“Hello. I am Ma Gyeongil.”

And the investigation began as the prosecutor in charge also sat down—a man who introduced himself as a prosecutor and already had wrinkles between his brows despite his young age, as if he possessed a quite sensitive temperament.