Vol 6 Ch 19

[The man once called the heir of Germany’s STA, Taeha Kwon, has appeared before the Federal Prosecutors for questioning. The allegations are that he made illegal bids related to oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.]

[That’s right. Back during the subprime mortgage crisis, an organization called “BM” began buying up foreclosed houses in the U.S. It’s said that, in the process, there were ties with the U.S. Democratic Party. Didn’t our country’s minority shareholders also suffer major losses from the subprime crisis?]

[Not just our country. That incident brought about an economic depression. That aside, though his name is Korean, Taeha Kwon is German. STA is also a German company. So why are we taking such a deep interest? Because STA is like a sibling company to Tex, which has close ties with Korea’s leading shipbuilding and marine engineering corporation. Isn’t Tex also commonly referred to as part of the STA group?]

[Exactly. Tex is the major shareholder of the shipbuilding company, and STA is the major shareholder of Tex. In other words, if A controls B, and C also controls B, then inevitably C can influence A. That’s why Chairman Baek Jaetak’s special investigation is drawing attention as well.]

[Haha, from the video it looks like Chairman Baek Jaetak doesn’t need a wheelchair after all.]

[There’s no reason for him to, since nothing about the trial is physically an issue. Morally, though, it’s shameless in the extreme.]

[Still, isn’t STA’s successor a strikingly handsome man? He has power, wealth, and on top of that outstanding looks. For people like us, it’s almost unfair.]

[No one can have it all. Just look at how he cozied up to the U.S. Democratic Party to win that drilling project. That alone makes him an immoral figure. And his lover is Korean, and not only that—he’s a man, isn’t he?]

[He’s said to be a casino dealer in Macau, and apparently their relationship has already been made public. We’ve managed to obtain photos from Macau with some difficulty. Shall we take a look?]

With growing unease, I watched the special program about STA, Tex, and the shipbuilding company—only to see my own face revealed.

It was a photo from last year’s Füssen charity event.

I was stunned. I had turned on the program to hear how the situation was unfolding, but instead they were spewing pointless gossip.

Clearly, the producers were starved for ratings—dogs chasing after sensationalism.

I turned off the TV and collapsed onto the sofa.

Security around the place was still tight.

The sunlight poured directly onto my face, and though I considered drawing the curtains, I simply raised a hand to block it.

Just a few mornings ago, he had to return to Germany after working through the night, as the summons schedule required.

At the door, he hugged me and said:

‘I’ll be back.’

He said it as if he would return by that very evening.

But the situation was dire. He had been undergoing intensive questioning for over a week, and neither Wagner nor I had been able to contact him.

I felt for him.

As Kwon Taeha himself had said, it seemed as if he truly had no one on his side.

Rrring, rrring. Suddenly, my phone buzzed and I shot upright.

But the number glowing on the screen wasn’t the one I’d been waiting for.

I bit my lower lip lightly, released it, and answered.

“What is it?”

[What are you up to?]

It was Aeil Kwon.

“Just here.”

[I just saw you on TV. You looked worse than in person.]

“You called just to say that?”

[Come on, not at all.]

“Then what do you want?”

[I thought maybe we could make a deal, you and I.]

“What kind of deal.”

With my flat reply, Aeil Kwon snapped back, quit being so cold.

[You know, right? Half of WikiLeaks—we’ve got it.]

“……”

[But this stuff looks fake. Old man, no matter how much I tell them it’s fake, someone still has to believe me.]

“Think whatever you like.”

[The real WikiLeaks—isn’t it in your hands?]

He was definitely probing me.

“Think whatever you like about that too.”

[Let’s trade. I’ll help out my cousin, and you give me WikiLeaks. How about it?]

“And why do you even need WikiLeaks, Vice President?”

[You really don’t know? Because otherwise Kwon Yijae is going to swallow everything whole.]

“Swallow everything?”

[His biological child just showed up.]

So it had finally surfaced.

[That fool of an old man sold off massive amounts of stock over years without even realizing it. And I didn’t know either.]

“That’s your problem, Vice President.”

[Huh. You’re not surprised.]

“……”

[Uh-huh, so you knew. If you hand it over, I’ll even tell you who ruined Kim Jaeyeon, make sure Taeha slips out of the prosecutor’s investigation safe and sound, and give you a hefty pile of cash.]

“Vice President. Do you know something?”

[Only if you tell me.]

“There’s a saying: the bus has already left.”

[…]

“When I made that gamble at the casino, you probably thought I was bluffing. But what I staked then was the real WikiLeaks.”

The USB I brought from Macau was no longer than a fingertip.

But trapped inside this villa, it was difficult to keep it out of Aeil Kwon’s sight.

I dismantled the USB, removed the microSD chip containing the actual files, and after leaving the villa, I transferred it onto my phone’s SD card.

I sent that phone to Jahan when I visited Kwon Jaehee’s house alone a few days later.

And I told him: ‘If I ever return to Macau and say it out loud, that will be the signal. Bring this phone to me.’

The core of WikiLeaks had been with Jahan all along—something even Kwon Taeha didn’t know.

He was too focused on the fact that I cherished Jahan, and thus didn’t want to drag him into this world.

Of course, the USB back then had only held half the data, and it should have ended as Kwon Taeha’s victory.

But so what?

All that mattered now was screwing over Aeil Kwon.

[Louis, don’t regret this.]

“I won’t.”

[Helping me means saving Taeha. Think it over carefully.]

I dismissed it as nonsense and hung up.

The call I had truly been waiting for never came, and I wasted my nerves trading empty words with the wrong man.

The shareholder meeting date for STA and Tex remained undecided.

Since Kwon Taeha was under investigation, they couldn’t just hold a shareholders’ meeting whenever they pleased. But in the meantime, Kwon Yijae’s biological son had appeared. The reason for exposing Taeha’s ties with the U.S. Democratic Party to the press was, in the end, about succession.

Kwon Yijae would use this chance to transfer a portion of his shares to his son. In Germany, if a company is gifted and for seven years there are no layoffs or wage cuts, then it’s eligible for 100% tax exemption. Even if there are layoffs or wage cuts, as long as the company continues operating for five years, 85% of the taxes are waived.

Though Kwon Yijae’s son was still a student, with the shares he inherited, he would gradually increase his influence within STA Corporation.

They cornered Kwon Taeha and introduced a new figure. Mental illness or not, Kwon Yijae must have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. In the world Kwon Taeha lived in, there wasn’t a single person who was easy to deal with.

As Taeha’s investigation dragged on, they also needed a card to put Baek Jaetak at a disadvantage. The shareholders’ meeting could be held without him, but Tex could not be completely separated from Baek Jaetak’s corrupt dealings.

Since Tex held 36.1% of the shipbuilding company’s shares, everything had been done with its tacit approval.

Then what about Kwon Jaehee?

Why had Kwon Yijae dragged his eldest son into this mess?

It was an open secret among shareholders that Kwon Yijae suffered from mental illness. Because of that, while he still held shares, he had stepped away from the front lines and was not a president who inspired trust among shareholders.

The one who would support the new successor wasn’t Kwon Yijae. He had chosen Kwon Jaehee to back up his still-student son. There must have been some kind of deal involved, and it might not even have been Jaehee’s choice. In other words, until Kwon Yijae’s biological son became the true representative, Jaehee was likely to serve as a puppet president.

I glanced up at the clock and judged the timing. Roughly about now. In plain terms, it was time to make a scene. I immediately picked up my phone and called Tangbang.

[Did you enjoy the voyage?]

Still a grudge-holder. He was referring back to when I didn’t reply to his message during the Max departure.

“Not really. I just looked at the sea and came down.”

The reason Tangbang knew I had boarded the Max was because I had warned him in case the USB was destroyed or I was threatened.

[Things are a mess. CEO Kwon’s cornered, Baek Jaetak’s in trouble too.]

“Isn’t that good for you?”

[This little?]

“That thing I asked you for… release it now.”

[And what do I get in return?]

“Compensation for your lost future.”

[As always, Joo Hawon knows how to use people on the cheap.]

“So are you doing it or not?”

[For now, I suppose I must follow the king’s will.]

“I’ve never had such an arrogant servant as you.”

[Haha, then at least call me a treacherous subject. Check the news in an hour. Ah~ what do I do? I’m so excited my fingers are tingling.]

What I had handed him was WikiLeaks containing the truth about the “Yure” case.

Some parts had already passed the statute of limitations, but it could still cause considerable damage.

Back in 1998, the shipbuilding company had purchased about 300,000 pyeong of greenbelt land near XX port at 20,000 won per pyeong in order to secure convenient port usage. Later, that greenbelt was reclassified as residential zone 2, where apartments could be built. The company then sold the land it had purchased for 20,000 won per pyeong to the city of XX for 250,000 won per pyeong. They had bought it for 6 billion won and sold it for 75 billion.

And was the shipbuilding company the only one involved? No. That greenbelt had originally been intended for “Korea Tex,” and parts for German ships were to be produced in Korea for cost-saving purposes. But if Tex, being a German company, built ships in Korea and handed them over to the shipbuilding company, it would still have to pay Germany’s tonnage tax, making it less profitable than expected.

So after considering it carefully, Tex didn’t just sell the land through the shipbuilding company. Instead, it colluded with a member of the National Assembly, changed the greenbelt into residential zone 2, and sold the land at ten times the price.

In short, a German company had engaged in illegal land speculation in Korea.

[If I release this the way you said, STA will also take a heavy hit, won’t it?]

Lose some flesh to gain bone. It was an unavoidable process.

“Do cats care about mice?”

[Haha, when you put it that way, I suppose not.]

“Hawon.”

Wagner called me urgently. I cut the call with Tangbang and rose from the sofa. Behind Wagner, I saw Jade Miller and several white men. The white men wore rectangular name badges on their chests and barged straight into the room, slapping a document onto the table. Jade Miller, who entered right after them, read through the papers carefully and said to me:

“Mr. Joo Hawon, you’ll need to move rooms.”

“What?”

“A search warrant has been issued for Füssen.”

This was troublesome. If they were executing a search in Macau, that meant his residence and company headquarters in Germany were already being searched as well. The white men began combing through the villa from the bedroom to the living room.

Kwon Taeha had already taken his laptop, and the one I had contained nothing related to WikiLeaks.

“What exactly are you hoping to find?”

“Evidence to charge the CEO, I’d assume.”

I grabbed a few essential belongings. Even then, the white bastards rifled through my things. Jade Miller drew close and said in a low voice:

“We’ve prepared a place for you downstairs. And they’re probably searching for WikiLeaks.”

“What?”

“There’s a prosecutor who’s very close with Tex’s vice president. If they find WikiLeaks during the search, it won’t be treated as evidence—it’ll end up in the vice president’s hands.”

I glanced at the men conducting the search and stepped out of the room, asking Jade Miller quietly:

“Do they really think I’d leave it lying around?”

“Since the warrant’s been issued, they’ll at least try.”

Jade Miller’s face looked more worn than usual. Of course, there was nothing left in that room that could be called evidence. But unease still lingered, because I wondered if Kwon Taeha might have hidden something I didn’t know about. Still, was Taeha ever someone that careless?

“Gefunden!” (Found)

At the shout in German, I turned back toward the entrance.

From the living room sofa, which they had practically torn apart, a large stack of documents appeared. Jade Miller rushed forward ahead of me, but the men blocked him. As their voices rose, Jade Miller’s already stern expression grew even harder. The documents were snatched away from him and stuffed into a square seizure box.

I went up to Jade Miller, who was already on the phone.

“What is that?”

Even I hadn’t expected something like that to be under the sofa.

“Things have gone sideways.”

“Sideways?”

“These are documents unfavorable to the CEO. But the question is, why were they there….”

Jade Miller stopped talking to me and began a phone call in German. The conversation sounded serious, and he instructed me to go downstairs first. Wagner, insisting I go ahead, took my belongings instead. I had no choice but to leave through the front door, and I asked Wagner,

“What kind of documents are those?”

“Bidding, I think.”

“Arctic drilling bid documents?”

“Right. Disadvantageous. Bidding.”

“Are you saying it’s really an illegal bid tied to the Democratic Party?”

“Maybe. Don’t know details.”

At the end of the hallway, I looked back at the CEO’s room. Even if there had been collusion, I wanted to believe Kwon Taeha’s words that no trace of evidence would ever be left behind.

I went down to the suite used as a guest room and paced the living room. Wagner brought me bottled water and handed it over.

“Everything good. Worry no.”

“I hope so….”

I couldn’t shake the ominous feeling. I couldn’t even swallow the water properly, only wetting my lips. Buzz—A text arrived. [Mission Complete.] Tangbang had moved faster than expected. With part of WikiLeaks exposed by hacktivists, it would cause a major ripple not just in Korea but also in Germany. Should I have released it sooner? No—if those documents were really exposed, WikiLeaks would be buried under articles about Kwon Taeha. And his downfall would mean my life was hanging by a thread. They wouldn’t just leave me alive, knowing the truth of WikiLeaks.

I hadn’t been blind to the risks of siding with Kwon Taeha, but I still felt guilty that I wasn’t much help after all. The worst option was exposing everything, but if that happened, not just Tex but STA would also go down.

Helpless, I kept chain-smoking.