"Let's see if we can't push it over there," Burke said, leaning into one end of the large carton. Brittany joined him and they slid it slowly across the carpet toward her desk.
Jerry managed to get his office into a semblance of order just in time to interview a secretarial prospect. It was a Korean girl he had learned about from the manager of the store where they bought the office furniture. She had resigned from her last job to look after her parents, who had been injured in an automobile accident. Her father suffered serious brain damage and had recently died. Jerry checked with her former employer and received an excellent recommendation.
Song Ji-young was a small girl with a quick smile and an abundance of black hair, attractively teased into a fluffy hair-do. In her late twenties, she was dressed Western style, a long-sleeved white blouse tucked into her blue skirt, a pair of shapely legs rounding out the trim figure. She spoke English with only an occasional stilted phrase and gave answers to Jerry's questions that marked her as a sensitive, intelligent young woman who enjoyed meeting and working with people. She held a degree in education but had decided to forego teaching for a career in business. Jerry had her fill out one of Worldwide's employment application forms and promised to get back to her as quickly as possible.
"I hope she checks out," Jerry said after she had left. "She strikes me as exactly what we need."
"Have you decided how to handle your background checks?" Burke asked.
"We talked about your policeman friend, remember? Think he'd run a check for a police record, maybe recommend a good private investigator?"
"I'll give him a try. Wish I had something to tell him on that hit man. Hopefully I'll know something tonight."
He telephoned Captain Yun and confirmed that he had put in the request for information on Hwang Sang-sol and for a copy of the manuscript from Dr. Lowing. He planned to call Washington again late tonight. If he learned anything, he would contact the Captain first thing in the morning. Then he brought up the idea of checking out a prospective employee. Yun said it would be no problem to see if she were in the bureau's computer.
"You may be interested to know that I followed your suggestion," Yun added. "I questioned the taxi driver. You were right. There was a lot more to it than a simple case of drunkenness, though he hadn't realized it until I started questioning him. It seems he picked up a passenger in front of the Seoul railroad station a little before midnight. The man gave him an address in Songdong. He had a small bag, like a carry-on, and he pulled a bottle out of it as soon as they left the station. He insisted the driver have a drink. Of course, the idiot took it. After a few minutes, he began to feel light-headed. The passenger said he was in no hurry, so the driver pulled over to the side of the road, where he was offered another drink. The fool said he thought that might make him feel better. Some fools are worse than others. After turning up the bottle a second time, his vision blurred. He's not at all sure what happened after that. Not until he woke up at home with a terrible hangover. Drug induced, I would imagine."
"Did you show him the drawings of Hwang?"
"Yes, along with a few others as a control. He was fairly certain the man resembled one of Hwang's drawings. That strengthens the possibility that Dr. Lee's manuscript has some connection with the other murders."
And it makes it even more imperative that Nate come up with something on the assassin, Burke thought. He had a feeling this Hwang Sang-sol was going to complicate matters for him before it was all over. In reply to his final request, Yun gave him the name of a former National Police officer now working as a private detective.
Jerry immediately contacted the investigator and arranged for a quick but thorough background check on Song Ji-young. He was anxious to get a secretary in place. There was a lot of work to be done, and he wanted to have an answer for her early the following week.
Late that afternoon, the phone rang as Captain Yun sat at his desk feeling unusually weary after a day that had wound up in a singularly unspectacular fashion. He hated meetings with a passion. That was no doubt the source of his weariness. They were boring. The speakers unbearably long-winded. After the session with the taxi driver, about all he had accomplished for the day was to query the police computer on the name Song Ji-young. At least it meant good news for Burke Hill. The person the computer turned up was obviously not the young lady he was interested in. This one had a string of arrests for petty theft and hooliganism, no college degree, and her age was listed as forty-five. Considering the way the day had gone to this point, it was no surprise when he answered the phone and found himself greeted by a voice that instantly struck a sour note. The strident voice of Prosecutor Park.
"Well, Captain, did your little trap succeed in snaring the suspect in those long-suffering homicide cases?"
Yun was not surprised by the call, nor was he surprised that his first impulse was to hang up and pretend the connection had been broken. He knew his grace period had about run its course. It was time, as the Americans liked to say, to put up or shut up. "The surveillance has proved unsuccessful," he said, working hard to keep the animosity out of his voice.
"You indicated there was an additional route that might be taken, which you would discuss when the time came." Park paused for dramatic emphasis. "The time, I would say, has arrived, Captain. I shall be looking for you in my office tomorrow morning at nine. And, oh yes, I suggest if there are any additional homicides in the morning, you request that they be handled by someone else. Your calendar appears to be quite full."
Yun replaced the phone and glared at it. Hill had promised to call first thing in the morning, if anything turned up. He would just have to wait and see. And hope.
Chapter 30
Mitch Steele gazed out the window at the large paved parking area with its freshly-painted lines. Beyond it, the ground began a gentle slope toward the hills, where the sun was fading in slow motion. The area had been newly landscaped, with grass and shrubbery filling spots where construction vehicles had scarred the earth. At least on the outside, the Taesong Nuclear Power Generating Facility was ready to go. He turned back to his desk and consulted his checklist. The electrical testing under "no load" conditions had gone well. All instruments had been calibrated. Hydro testing of the liquid and gas systems was completed. Under the functional tests, everything had performed as designed. The "hot-ops" check had put all equipment under hot operational service conditions. The zero power test was now under way. After loading the fuel rods, physics testing of the reactor core would measure operational parameters and assure the safety of the system. So far the news had been mostly good. For that he was thankful. The Korea Electric Power liaison who had replaced the ubiquitous Chi at the end of the summer was a real hard-ass. It wasn't that the project manager had any thoughts about trying to cover up problems. He just didn't like to be hassled.
They would soon start the final phase, power testing. The plant would "go critical" and operate at various power levels, with steam dumped to the condenser through the turbine by-pass system. It would culminate with the plant running at 100 per cent power for several days. He had guaranteed to have it ready to go on line by Christmas, and by damn he'd do it or die of a ruptured ego.
He wondered idly what had happened to Chi. No one seemed to know. At least the only thing anyone would tell him was he'd been transferred. Why or where was anybody's guess. They had become fairly close. He was a little surprised he hadn't had a phone call or at least a postcard.
Steele had heard from some of the Korean engineers that the company was already diverting considerable amounts of power around the system to make up for a reduced load at the Kanggu site. He suspected that meant part of Kanggu's megawatts were being directed to some new project, though he had no idea what it might be.