“Why should some have so much and others so little?” she inquired.
He laughed aloud. “Don’t you see that Communism has failed miserably everywhere it’s been tried?”
“We are fine with it.”
“Really? Your people are starving to death, while your cousins in China are finally pulling themselves up to the middle class. Now it is true that some in China are becoming billionaires while the factory workers make things they can’t afford to buy. But where do you want to end up when North Korea starts to become rich like your brothers and sisters here in the South? Do you want to work in a factory making cheap tennis shoes? Or would you rather own the factory? The choice could be yours.”
Try as she might, her mind could not work that far in advance. After all, someone had just tried to rape or kill her in the alley moments ago.
Finally, Jee said, “Is it not always better to be the boss in your society?”
“Of course.”
“We have been taught that all jobs are equally important.”
“All jobs are important, Jee,” the Lobbyist assured her. “But some simply pay better than others.”
She could never trust this man. Perhaps she could never really trust anyone. Over the years she had used her skills and her body to keep herself safe and secure. Some in high power had taken advantage of her, and those were on her internal list to eventually eliminate. A few had already found their fate.
“And those you paid to attack me outside?” she asked the Lobbyist.
He shrugged. “It’s nice to know how proficient you are. Did you kill them?”
She shook her head and drank more of her coffee. “What do you need me to do?”
The Lobbyist closed the distance across the table, leaning in to Jee, and he gave her the plan for the next two days.
28
Jake startled up in his bed, his hand instinctively grasping the gun under his pillow and aiming toward the door and muffled voices.
“Jake, it’s me.” Lori went to her knees and put her hands over her face.
Lowering his gun and setting it on the bed, Jake shook his head and swung his legs to the floor. The room was now dark.
Lori got up and sat on the bed next to him. “Are you all right?”
He checked his watch and saw that it was six p.m. “Wow. I haven’t slept like that in a while. Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I looked in a couple times to make sure you were still breathing,” she said, “but I was afraid you might shoot me. I guess I was right.”
“I’m sorry. I just had two guys coming for me less than twenty-four hours ago.” He wished it was just that. But maybe Toni’s death had put him a bit on edge.
She put her hand on Jake’s leg. “The station chief showed up. Pam Suh. A nice woman. She has great taste in clothes. Brought me some really nice stuff.”
“Have you heard anything about your abandoned room in Gyeongju?”
“I took care of that,” said Pam Suh at the bedroom door. The stylish station chief stepped into the room in high heels, wearing black from top to bottom. “The security team was quite concerned.”
Jake shook his head. “I was trying to teach those idiots a lesson. I’m not sure how they could have let those two men past their security folks. Even worse. They didn’t even recognize one of only two women in the congressional delegation. That’s unconscionable.”
“I agree,” Pam said. “I’ve made sure the man in charge was recalled to DC. His replacement, along with six more agents, lands this evening.”
A good reaction, Jake thought. Perhaps he should turn Lori over to this new team. After all, the men were coming for him and Lori would just be collateral to any attack. He got up and put on his leather jacket. Then he collected both guns, sliding one into a sleeve at the base of his back and the other into his right jacket pocket.
“Where’s Kim?” Jake asked.
Pam put her hands on her hips. “Where are you going?”
“This place might have been compromised.”
“No way.”
“There’s always a way. Where’s Kim,” he repeated.
The station chief looked confused. “I brought him his car when I came here, and he went back to the office for a while. Why?”
“Does he have his phone on?”
“Yes. Why? What’s going on?”
“Do you have your phone?”
Pam took out her phone and showed it to Jake.
“Is it on?” Jake asked.
“Of course.”
Jake shook his head. “You have a security problem in your office.”
“There is no way,” Pam protested.
He explained how someone must have gotten into their system and found Kim’s phone encryption. “If they got his, they could have gotten yours.” Jake paced back and forth, his mind going over the possibilities. He could use this against someone tracking them. Have the NSA track down any breech into the Agency system. See who might have taken a peek. But right now he needed to find out the location of the two Slavs.
Jake got onto his own phone, bypassed Kurt Jenkins at the Agency, and went right to his contact at the NSA. He waited while the NSA checked on their location. “Are you sure?” Yes, he was sure. He thanked them and hung up.
Pam and Lori had been anxiously awaiting Jake’s word. Now they looked at him for answers.
“Looks like they’re on the move,” he said. “And just a mile from here.”
“We have no car,” Pam said.
“Where are the rest of your people?”
“A couple with Kim, and the rest are up at the DMZ today working with the advance team for the six-party talks.”
“What about local law enforcement?” Lori asked.
“Go,” Jake demanded to Pam. “Take Lori on foot to the closest subway.”
Lori looked concerned. “What about you?”
“We need to split up.” He reached out his hand to Pam and said, “Give me your phone. If they’re tracking it, they’ll think we’re still here.”
“You’re not staying here,” Pam said.
“No. You two go to the subway and I’ll hike off in the other direction.”
“All right. There’s a back exit.”
The three of them hurried out the door and locked the place tight. After a couple of blocks, they all stopped when they heard a large crash. Jake guessed they had crashed through the front gate, which would set off alarms at the station headquarters.
“Go on,” Jake said. “I’ll call Kim and tell him we’re out of the place so he doesn’t try to mount a rescue.”
“Good idea,” Pam said. She took Lori by the hand and started off.
But Lori pulled up and said, “When will we meet up again, Jake?”
He had no good answer for her. So he lied. “I’ll find you at the DMZ meeting.”
Lori hugged Jake and then reluctantly pulled away. The two women then ran toward the subway.
Jake hesitated, making sure they escaped, and then he simply wandered casually in the opposite direction, picking up the subway on another line within a mile.
On the train Jake got onto his phone, punched in his encryption code and checked his e-mail. He had only a couple messages. One was a forwarded message from his business e-mail, the one used by potential clients to hire his services. But this wasn’t a client. It was from Toni’s sister Francesca. Over the years he had only met the woman a couple of times. She was Toni’s older sister. Divorced with no children. For obvious reasons most Agency officers kept their family uninformed and obscure to the point of near non-existence while the officers were active operatives. Francesca’s message was short: “We need to talk.” He guessed she was right, but he wanted to do that in person.