The powers that be at the NIS were understandably upset to learn that one of their agents had taken his own life on NIS premises after turning himself in as a mole for Edward Park. They immediately launched a full scale inquiry into the sequence of events that had led to Yoon Han-ki's death.
Cha Dal-geon answered all their questions and made his escape. Go Hae-ri, however, they held onto a little longer. One of the drawbacks of being in a position of authority, he supposed. Fortunately, Gi Tae-ung had turned the camera in the interrogation room on from where he had been watching with Kim Se-hun in the observation room, and it had recorded the entirety of their exchange with Han-ki, so no one could credibly accuse them of making the whole thing up. The footage backed up Dal-geon, Hae-ri, and Hwa-sook's version of events.
Eventually, they released Hae-ri from their clutches, and she found Dal-geon on his couch, staring ahead into nothingness.
She sat down next to him. "Ya," she said softly, bumping her knee against his. "Gwaenchana?"
He shrugged. "Well, all my major arteries are still intact, which is more than Yoon Han-ki can say, so I guess I can't complain. How about you?"
"Better, now that my meeting with Gang Boojangnim is over," she sighed.
"I thought you weren't giving him status updates."
"Ne… turns out I had to make an exception to that rule once a suicidal Edward Park agent killed himself in a NIS interrogation room in front of my entire team. Besides, if Gang Boojangnim is involved, it's not like he wouldn't have known about it anyway. I didn't tell him anything that Edward Park wouldn't have already known, if he told Yoon Han-ki to turn himself in."
"I see," he said distantly.
"So what do you make of it?" she asked in a low voice.
"Which part? The fact that the NIS has had a mole right under our noses all these years, that he turned himself in despite the fact that we didn't have a clue he was involved, or that he killed himself right in front of us, presumably on Edward Park's orders?"
"All of it, I guess."
"Well," he said slowly. "You know I pride myself on my ability to predict human behavior, but I have to admit I didn't see this one coming."
Hae-ri let out a snort of mirthless laughter. "That makes two of us. I still can't believe it. I can't believe Yoon Han-ki was Edward Park's man."
"I can't believe I never noticed Yoon Han-ki was a sociopath," Dal-geon said bitterly.
"I just wish we could have gotten something useful out of him before he—"
"—ruined the carpet in the interrogation room?"
"Before he took his own life less than ten feet away from us," Hae-ri finished.
"Don't despair, Hae-rissi. I believe we learned several useful things from Yoon Han-ki."
"Like what?"
He shrugged. "We learned how Edward Park is always one step ahead of us. We know now that he was the one who told Edward Park about the plan in the warehouse that got Hook shot."
"How did he figure that out?" Hae-ri asked with a shudder. "I know no one on the team told him about it."
"My guess? Good, old-fashioned eavesdropping."
"That was one of his services to Edward Park," she said. "Getting close enough to listen in on the team's plans and passing that information along."
"More importantly, he said that was his most recent service," he said. "Assuming that a geek like Yoon Han-ki failed to crack down computer protocols Hwa-sook set up are working as they're supposed to and there isn't another mole in the NIS, that means your security measures are working. Edward Park has no idea how much we've learned about him since you came up with your little plan to track down his minions."
"What about the bulletin board? Anybody could walk by that thing- I haven't been locking it up at night."
Dal-geon shook his head. "The bulletin board doesn't have anything on it that we didn't already know about when you started this whole thing. You really use it more as a reference point to remind you of what we already know. Presumably Edward Park is already aware of that information, so leaving the bulletin board out in the bullpen couldn't tell him much more than the fact that we've renewed our focus on him, and I'm certain he knows that by now in any case."
"You really think it's okay for it to be out in the open?"
"Ne."
"Okay. What else do you think we learned from Yoon Han-ki?"
He shrugged. "We learned I was right about how he recruits his disciples and how he convinces them to follow him."
She was unimpressed. "You figured that out ages ago."
He shook his head. "Ani. Before it was just a theory. He confirmed my theory was right. Edward Park shows them visions. Based on what he described, I assume he manipulates their perceptions through hypnosis."
"He said Edward Park takes the people most loyal to him to a special place. What do you think that's about?"
"Not sure. But wherever it is, it sounds like he has some kind of initiation for his followers there. Some kind of ritual to bind them to him."
Hae-ri shuddered again. "Creepy."
"Definitely creepy," he agreed. He looked at her. "There's something else you should see."
He produced an evidence bag from his front vest pocket containing a tiny metal object approximately the size and shape of a button.
Hae-ri squinted at it. "Mwoya?"
"It's a bug. Audio and video, I'm afraid, which means—"
"—Edward Park was watching the whole thing," Hae-ri finished.
"Majayo. I gave the transceiver that was inside it to Snow white to see if she can figure out the signal and get a location off it. Hook and Shrek went with her."
"Think that'll work?"
"Probably not," Dal-geon sighed. "He had to have known we'd find it. I think the only purpose of putting it on Yoon Han-ki in the first place was to give Edward Park the opportunity of seeing our reactions when Yoon Han-ki turned himself over to us."
"Why would he want to watch that?"
He shrugged. "He sees this all as a game. We're puppets to him. It's more fun for him if he can see for himself the effect his actions have on us."
He could see Hae-ri running through the conversation from that morning's interrogation in her mind. "Don't worry," he said. "I don't think we gave anything away that we can't afford him to know about."
She exhaled. "Thank God."
"There's one thing bothering me about this whole Yoon Han-ki situation," Dal-geon said with a frown.
"Only one thing?"
"Why would Edward Park give him up to us in the first place?" he said, turning his head to stare back at nothingness again. "What is his game? I was so sure we were making progress in breaking up his network, but it must be even more widespread than I feared if he's willing to dispose of one of his disciples just to mess with us."
"Maybe that's the point. Maybe he wanted to prove to you that one more disciple more or less doesn't make a difference to him."
"Wonderful," he muttered. "So much for my conviction that we're weakening him, after all."
Hae-ri was silent for a moment. "Maybe it's a bluff," she said finally.
Dal-geon turned to look at her again. "A bluff?"
"When we were talking about Ahn Minseok, you said that he wants us to think that it doesn't matter to him when we take one of his people out of commission. Maybe he knows we're starting to doubt that. Maybe this is his way of betting big on a crappy hand. He's putting on a big, showy front to prevent us from knowing how much we're really affecting him when we sideline one of his operatives."
"Maybe," he said broodingly.
Hae-ri looked at him for a long moment. "Come on," she said, standing up. "Kaja."
"Go where?"
"Out." She grabbed his hand and tugged him up.
"Out where?"
She shrugged, and pulled him towards the elevator. "Anywhere."
Dal-geon was amused despite himself. "Oh Go Hae-ri, are you suggesting we play hooky?"
"It's nice outside, and being cooped up with Gang Boojangnim and the rest of the brass all morning has given me a headache," she said archly. "I think a little fresh air would do me good."
"I can get behind this plan," he told her, idly noticing that she hadn't yanked her hand away from him yet.
"Great. Now, come on. I'll let you buy me an ice cream."
Dal-geon smiled. "How can I say no to that?"
She led the way towards sunshine and ice cream. He hung on to her hand and followed.