"Failed?"

"Low-grade Team 31 failed the contract, every one of them."

"Team 31... Korea?"

"Yes, Chapter Master."

"The reason?"

"The police were watching, so the assassins couldn't make contact. Two killed themselves, and the other two are in a vegetative state."

"...And the client?"

"The client's in a vegetative state too, so we couldn't find out."

"Find out. And finish the contract. The Chapter's honor demands it."

"By your command!"

A general in military uniform was receiving his adjutant's report.

The salute wasn't military—it was the old way.

The way they talked was strange, too.

The Chengdu Military Region's 52nd Mountain Division, known even in China as a crack force.

China's most elite unit, every man from the special forces, boasting a punishing training load.

Its commander's office ran by the laws of another world.

Vroooooom.

The car tore through the quiet before dawn.

Jayu-ro was empty.

The car pulled up at a small indoor fishing hole halfway between Ilsan and Paju.

A single car was parked outside.

Two figures in black suits were waiting.

"CEO Jang Tae-san?"

"I'm Jang Tae-san."

"He's waiting for you."

The man who'd called for me was an emperor. Until the IMF crisis hit, he'd ruled giant Korean companies—Daeung Trading, Daeung Shipbuilding, Daeung Motors, Daeung Electronics, Daeung Securities and more.

A toothless lion who'd drifted from country to country until he got a presidential Christmas pardon in 2007.

He owed nearly eighteen trillion won in unpaid forfeitures, and yet he went around with bodyguards.

Common sense couldn't explain it.

"This way."

A bodyguard opened the door for me.

It was no 007 mission, but it was one strange midnight meeting.

I felt out the room as I went in.

It was a spring day on the cusp between March and April, so the weather was still chilly.

But the indoor fishing hole was warm.

The place wasn't big; there were about twenty fishing platforms.

On one of them sat someone with a sports cap pulled low.

His trademark thick glasses stood out.

The float didn't move, and the fishing hole was silent.

Do Un-jung didn't…