"Chairman."

Do-beom Hwang came hurrying into Tak-hyeon Lee's office.

"Chairman. This is serious."

"What is it?"

"One of Mun-jong's secretaries, Secretary Lee, has confessed, they say."

Tak-hyeon Lee had been on the sofa with a newspaper; he raised his head, looked at Do-beom Hwang's face gone ashen and asked,

"Is that the one who did the killing?"

"No. The one who used his own hands is Secretary Park; Secretary Lee is the fellow who went about beside him."

Tak-hyeon Lee took a moment to put together who it was Do-beom Hwang meant, and said,

"You mean the fellow who came out of the Special Forces."

Do-beom Hwang couldn't hide the alarm on his face as he said,

"Chairman. What shall we do? With a confession made, the prosecutors may use it and come up as far as Mun-jong."

"If they mean to come up, let them come up."

Tak-hyeon Lee's face, unlike Do-beom Hwang's, was nothing but calm.

"The prosecutors will call Mun-jong in and question him a few times, I expect."

"Chairman."

"I blocked it this far, and that's as much as was worth doing."

Tak-hyeon Lee shook his head as though there were not a grain of regret in him, and said,

"What are we to do if he's frightened even of being questioned? A little questioning, what of it?"

Tak-hyeon Lee showed his displeasure openly and leaned back against the arm of the sofa.

"Never mind that."

Tak-hyeon Lee stayed against the arm of the sofa, tilted his head and named the thing that struck him as odd.

"Why has he suddenly come forward to confess? Didn't you say there was no sign of it?"

If there had been a sign, they would have tried to shut his mouth first.

But as of yesterday there had been no such sign, and so Do-beom Hwang and the secretariat had set their minds at rest and taken their attention off Ho-yeong Lee.

That same Ho-yeong Lee had changed his mind in a day, so Tak-hyeon Lee assumed there was a reason for it.

Do-beom Hwang made an awkward face…