Crossing The East Sea

17 The Stowaway

The team had been back in Tokyo for slightly over a week when Shinsou and Ryoko received an unexpected message from Chongryon: the Shiramine, instead of waiting till the following month, was going to sail again in a few days. It was summertime, and Chongryon wanted to have more "Fatherland Visitation" tours for the students in their schools, and so they were increasing the frequency of their trips there.

This was a setback for Nakajima, for he had wanted Kaneshiro to come with them to Wonsan, the next time around. Kaneshiro would have easily been able to locate the building where the smuggled goods were being housed – all he had to do was walk around the city centre, and place his hand on each building.

But there was no time for him to apply to work on the Shiramine, now. They had thought that they had a month to prepare, so Kaneshiro and Nakajima had been away in Niigata City during the first week, to see if they could locate the warehouse where Choe had been storing the goods that were to be smuggled. They had found the warehouse mentioned in the order form that Nakajima had taken from the deliverymen, but it was half empty and the goods there were mostly clothes destined for China and Vietnam.

Kaneshiro had posed as a deckhand before, while working on another case, so he could easily pass the certification test; and even if the training company couldn't issue the certificate on time, the Directorate could have forged one for him. But Chongryon was not recruiting new crew members at the moment.

In the end, Nakajima got Shinsou to brainwash a few Chongryon officials into setting the ball rolling for the paperwork required to recruit a few more deckhands. This was reasonable, for ships often employed more crew than the minimum required. Once this was done and the invitation for applicants had been issued, Shinsou could then brainwash the officials into accepting Kaneshiro's application. In the meantime, they would just have to proceed without him.

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Nakajima had woken Yeonha from her brainwashed state once they had reached her apartment that night, and had scolded her roundly for interfering in things she knew nothing about, and which were none of her affair. She had already disrupted their operations twice, he informed her, and wasted their time, not to mention put all of them in danger.

She had cried, and promised not to do it again. And so, when the Kirogi next docked in Wonsan, she was not there to receive Shinsou. Watanabe had told her that they would be busy during the daytime, and that Nakajima and Shinsou would visit her and her mother that night instead.

The three Japanese agents spent the day trying to locate the warehouse. They singled out five prospective buildings in the city centre, all of which were in the later stages of construction, and checked each one systematically, floor by floor, but came up with nothing.

"This is no good," Nakajima finally said, frustrated, "we'll just have to wait until Kaneshiro comes, next time."

It was around five in the evening by then, and they decided to have a meal before going over to Park Soojin's apartment. Watanabe led them to a pojang macha, or tent bar, which was a makeshift stall that sold street food and alcoholic drinks late into the night. They had kimbap, which Shinsou usually considered to be a Korean version of sushi, and which he had eaten often enough at New Life Church with the church Kims. He had expected Nakajima to order soju for drinks, but Watanabe said rather excitedly that he'd heard that the nongtaegi at this pojang macha was good, and so they had that, instead.

Nongtaegi referred to a homemade alcoholic drink, usually made from corn, fruit, or ginseng. It was Shinsou's first time trying it, and he didn't realise how potent it was until they had finished the meal and were halfway to Park Soojin's.