Hovering above, the lieutenant colonel watched with satisfaction as the operation quickly wrapped up. From beginning to end, it had taken just over ten minutes to change the destiny of his country. The Supreme Leader was dead. Now it was up to the men who had planned the coup to begin the Phase Two of Operation Long Sword. Within days, the world would see a new North Korea, one no longer burdened by famine, no longer living in fear from imperialist retaliation. Like the mythical Phoenix rising from the ashes, the world would soon have to deal with a new North Korea, and the world would tremble.
12
The long night slowly began to recede. On the horizon, the pink light of dawn crept up in the east.
It was just after five in the morning, and Seoul had yet to come to life. Soon the downtown core would turn into a teeming metropolis. Home to over ten million South Koreans, the city was more than just the nation’s capital… it was its heart.
Quietly sitting in a stolen Hyundai Santa Fe, two men sipped lukewarm coffee and incessantly smoked cheap Chinese cigarettes while they stared at the closed entrance to a towering downtown apartment’s underground parking garage. Tipped off by a South Korean government informant, they had been parked outside for hours and were beginning to think that their night, like so many others recently, was going to end in failure, when the garage’s metal door began to noisily rise up from the ground.
Both men leaned forward in their seats, watching intently as a highly polished black limousine drove up and then out onto the nearly deserted street. Turning left, the limo slowly drove past the parked Santa Fe, paying no heed to the men sitting inside, before turning onto a side street heading north.
A broad-shouldered man with a deep scar running down the left side of his face sat in the passenger seat and waited until the limousine was out of sight, and then quickly punched in the limo’s plate into his cell phone. His heart began to race in his chest while he waited for a reply. Less than a minute later, an agreed-upon code word appeared on the phone’s screen. With a wide grin on his face, he nodded to his partner, placed his phone away, and then stepped out of the car. After being cooped up for hours, the cool morning air felt revitalizing. Taking a deep breath to calm the growing anticipation inside him, he reached back and grabbed his peaked cap from the rear seat. Placing it on his head, he became indistinguishable from the thousands of other men who served in Seoul’s police force. After checking in the car’s side mirror that his blue uniform looked presentable, the broad-shouldered man looked over at his compatriot, dressed in an identical uniform. He reached down, drew his pistol from its holster, and checked that it was loaded and that the safety was off, before placing it back.
Without saying a word, both men strode purposefully to the front entrance of the apartment and then waited while a white-haired man in a navy blue uniform hurried over to open the locked door for them. The high-rise, located in the heart of the downtown core, catered exclusively to Seoul’s rich and elite. Most South Koreans never made enough in a year to afford a single month’s rent in the expensive building.
“May I help you, officers?” asked the white-haired man.
“We received a call of an attempted burglary on the eightieth floor,” replied the broad-shouldered man as he flashed his badge at the old man.
“I heard nothing about this,” said the old man as he leaned forward, trying to read the number on the badge.
“Well, we have,” said the second police officer, barging his way inside.
“I’ll have to accompany you,” said the guard, stepping back from the door.
“Sir, with all due respect, you’re a little too old to be coming with us. You can best assist us by staying at your desk and calling us if someone comes down the elevator that you don’t recognize before we do.”
“How will I call you?”
“We’re on frequency four,” said the broad-shouldered man, waving his Motorola in the air.
“Oh, very good then, I’ll monitor frequency four and call you if I need to,” replied the old man, eagerly nodding.
“Thank you, sir,” said the second police officer as he indicated with his hand to the guard’s workstation, letting him know that his services truly weren’t needed.
Mumbling to himself about being left out of everything, the guard dejectedly shuffled his feet as he made his way back to his desk.
A minute later, with a chime, the elevator doors opened and both men stepped out onto the dull, red carpet that ran the length of the eightieth floor. They looked both ways to ensure that they were alone. Quickly they walked to the far end of the hallway and stopped outside of apartment 8002.
Tension built up inside the men like an approaching lightning storm. Both were ex-cops, kicked out for drug trafficking, assault, and a myriad other offences. Selling their services to those who could afford them, they had become quite rich. Murder, arson, and blackmail had become their specialties. Hired to do another dirty job, they couldn’t wait to get it over with so they could enjoy the hundred grand each that they had been promised by their mysterious employer. Although they had never met their employer face-to-face, they knew from speaking with the middleman, another crooked cop, that the man was known to be reliable and always paid well for services rendered. The broad-shouldered man took a second to compose himself before looking over into the cold, dark eyes of his accomplice. With a slight nod, the other man told him that it was time. Raising his hand, he rapped his knuckles on the door and waited.
At first, nothing happened. The broad-shouldered man was about to bang his fist on the door when he heard a young woman’s voice ask who they were.
“Sorry to bother you, Miss. My name is Assistant Inspector Kim. I am with the police,” said the broad-shouldered man. “It’s important that we speak to you.”
“Show me your badge,” said the woman from behind her closed door.
“Certainly,” said the man, bringing up his badge to the peephole in the door.
“The other man, too.”
“Of course. I am Senior Police Officer Lee,” said the second police officer as he brought up his badge for her to see.
“What do you want?” asked the woman.
“Miss Sook, there’s been an accident involving your father,” said the broad-shouldered man.
The door was unlocked. In the doorway stood a beautiful and very slender woman in her early twenties. She was wearing a white robe over top of her bright blue silk pajamas.
“What has happened?” asked Miss Sook, her voice cracking with fear.