The sun fought to rise over the mountains, obscured by swirling clouds, the prospect of snow inevitable, as Jake departed the Parisian-style bakery carrying a bag of croissants and a cardboard container with three large cups of coffee. They had driven through the night, with Lori sleeping the entire way and Jake making sure Kim stayed awake.
Jake got into the rental car and passed food and coffee to the others. “Other than the hot Korean girls behind the counter, I would have guessed we were in Paris,” Jake said.
Kim smiled and then burned his lips on the coffee. “I guess I should have bought.”
Jake shook his head. “On your Agency pay?”
“Good point.”
They sat and ate in silence until all the croissants were gone. Then Kim started the car and pulled out into the light early morning traffic.
“How far to the safe house,” Lori asked.
Kim looked at her in the rearview mirror. “Not far, ma’am. About ten minutes.”
“Good, because I really have to pee.”
“Wow,” Jake said. “I wasn’t sure congresswomen did that.”
She smacked the back of his chair.
The safe house was a stand-alone structure behind a tall stone wall with a remote-control metal gate that would have been strong enough to secure most third-world embassies. The only thing missing was armed guards. And those would have only brought attention to the place in this high-end neighborhood a few blocks from Gyeongbokgung Palace in the central Seoul region. This palace was the city’s most famous, and sat in a huge park that also contained the National Museum of Korea.
Kim drove straight into a garage and closed the door remotely with his cell phone before any of them got out.
The inside of the safe house was modestly adorned with typical South Korean contemporary furniture that could have come from Ikea, Jake guessed.
Lori wandered around and checked out the place. She was looking at the aesthetics while Jake checked out the security of the place. He had seen worse safe houses, and much better. The house blended well with the neighborhood. That was a good thing. It was never good to stand out. But the door from the garage was solid metal and the front door was solid wood reinforced with metal inside. Both would hold against small arms fire, as would the windows, which would stop bullets and shrapnel from a blast outside. But nothing would protect them against a direct assault with larger weapons. Not that Jake guessed that would come, though. No, these people wanted him alive. At least long enough to get him to break the encryption for them.
“Not a bad place,” Lori finally said.
Jake sat on a leather sofa and swiped his finger across the coffee table. “When did you use this last?”
Kim shrugged. “Before my time here. I’ve only been here once during my first week in Korea. We have two places in the Seoul area.”
“Why don’t you hit the rack first,” Jake said. “You’ve been driving all night.”
Nodding, Kim said, “I didn’t see you sleep either. And you aren’t getting any younger.”
“Listen you smartass punk. I was pulling all nighters when you were still in diapers.”
“Boys,” Lori interjected. “Why don’t you both get some shut eye? It looks like you have a video collection here. I’ll make a pot of coffee and watch a couple movies.”
Jake considered that prospect and agreed it made sense. He had done a decent job of keeping his mind off of the death of his old friend Toni, but now he guessed he would have to also face that. “All right,” he said. “But don’t check your e-mail or anything. Do you still have your battery out of your phone?”
“Yes,” she said. “Why?”
“Keep it that way.” Jake turned to Kim. “Did you text Pam that we made it to Seoul?”
Kim nodded. “Yeah. And she said she’d bring some clothes by for the congresswoman this afternoon.”
“Wait.” Lori looked confused. “Why can Kim keep his phone on?”
Jake explained. “He has an Agency phone that’s encrypted and the signal routed through a dozen countries. You’d have to have the encryption codes to track it. And only the Agency has that.” When the words came out of his mouth, he considered one of the last things that Toni had told him — there was a leak somewhere in the Agency. Maybe he should have made Kim turn off his phone as well.
“Something bothering you, Jake,” Kim asked.
“Lori might have a point. After all, my contact mentioned that our friends were somehow on their way to Seoul as well.”
Kim shook his head. “I don’t know how they could track my phone. What about the rental car?”
“No. You rented that with your fake Agency credentials. Unless they somehow were able to hack into your server and extract the charge card info. Give me the keys. I’ll dump the car a mile from here and take the subway back. Meanwhile, take the battery from your phone and get some sleep.” Then he instructed Lori on how he would knock on the front door.
Jake drove out of the area and left the car in the Myeongdong area, a few blocks from the hotel he had stayed at when he first got to Korea. Then he found his way to the subway and caught the next train toward the safe house, making damn sure nobody was following him. While he rode the train with the morning commuters, his mind drifted for a while as he thought back at all the times he had traveled by subway in so many cities across the world. Other than the ethnicity of the passengers, he could have been in Rome or London or Paris or Budapest. He thought about Toni now, and how they had traveled this way together. There was a hole in his heart and soul that would not soon be filled. Maybe it never could be. What if she was to be the love of his life and that time had now passed?
Suddenly, a hand touched his arm and he woke with a start, instinctively blocking the arm away. When he noticed it was only a startled old man, he bowed his head slightly and said he was sorry.
The old man pointed to the sign above the door with a map of the subway system. Then Jake noticed the train was not moving and he was alone in the car with the old man. They had reached the end of this line. Somehow he had slept through the ride and missed his stop.
He checked his watch and realized Lori would be wondering what happened to him.
Jake thanked the man with a smile and left the subway train. He’d have to quickly catch one in the other direction.
When he got back to the safe house, he was dead on his feet. He almost forgot the knock sequence he’d give to Lori. But she was watching for him anyway and opened the door before he could knock.
“Where have you been?” she asked with genuine concern.
He closed and locked the door behind him. “I was more tired than I thought. Fell asleep on the subway to the end of the line.” He wished he could tell her it had never happened before. Seriously, though, he was starting to get concerned that he had lost a step. But his body was starting to shake from the lack of sleep.
“You need to get to bed right now.” Lori pointed toward the hallway with the bedrooms.
Jake agreed with a nod and started for his bedroom, but he stopped when he saw the large LED TV screen locked on a man and woman kissing. “Is that Dirty Dancing?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t judge me. I’ll watch Die Hard next.”
Shaking his head, he went to the bedroom, put a gun on the nightstand and another under a pillow, and fell asleep in his clothes on top of the covers.
Alex and Danko sat in chairs at a kitchen table in a house owned by…well, neither of them were sure who owned the place. The older intel officer from the north, Kwan, had arranged the place. They would hang out there for the day while they formed their plan to extract Jake Adams from wherever he was. Their contact Milena had lost the signal of the Agency man’s phone. They probably got smart and turned it off. But they had their last location and Milena had used Google Maps to bring up images of that location — a high priced house in a nice area of Central Seoul.