Blood Runs Deep

Part V

They sat on the benches Wendy had installed in the back of the van tapping their feet impatiently. A terrible quiet aura had come over them that none much liked. The only one that seemed unaffected by it was Wendy in the driver’s seat, humming to something in her earphones, mumbling to herself like a lunatic. A halfdone joint sat neatly in the ashtray on the dashboard smoking bluely in the cool morning. Jisoo looked at her from the passenger’s seat and grimaced and turned to the others as if for confirmation that she was indeed human and not some strange degenerate ghoul shored up from the depths of a river somewhere.

‘Irene,’ said Wheein.

‘What?’

‘Are you sure about this girl?’

‘As sure as I can be.’

‘That’s not what she asked,’ Seulgi said.

‘Look, babe, you need to stop getting caught up in the semantics of this , okay? You know her, I know her, that’s all that matters right now.’

‘I’ve met her twice.’

‘Three times.’

‘Can’t be all that memorable, then.’

Irene turned to Wheein on the bench opposite. ‘I can trust her.’

‘Fully?’ Wheein asked.

‘I can absolutely trust her.’

‘Is she sane enough to help us? She’s not another borderline psychopath that can’t function in the real world, is she?’

Irene thought about this for a moment. Then she said: ‘I can absolutely trust her.’

‘Who is she?’ Joy said.

‘An old friend of mine, from my art collecting days.’

‘Collecting,’ Seulgi muttered.

‘Whatever you wanna call it. She’s, uh, eccentric. And rich. Very rich.’

Hongki ran a hand through his non-existent hair. He had an enormous machete perched precariously between his legs and a sharpening stone in the other and he stopped sharpening the blade and looked at Irene across the width of the van. She thought she saw in his eyes a kind of lust for violence that was both comical and rather disturbing if she thought about it for any extended period of time. So she did not. ‘Rich,’ he said. ‘She’s rich.’

‘That she is, chief.’

‘She going to fight them off with her stacks of money?’

‘It’s not the money. It’s what she can do with it. What she’s already done with it. She’s a bit, let’s say…out there. Yeah. That’s the best way to describe it. And she’s got connections like you wouldn’t believe. More than anyone I’ve ever known. If you want something, she can get it, and probably without attracting the attention of the former Soviet Union like our friend in the front over there.’

‘What?’ Joy said.

‘Nothing. Inside joke. Or not. But whatever.’

‘How much further?’

Wendy called back from the driver’s seat, ‘Couple minutes. We’re almost there now. Hold onto your butts.’

‘What?’

‘Jurassic Park, man. Never seen it?’

To this Joy didn’t bother responding.

‘So,’ Hongki said, ‘she’s got money, she’s a couple screws short of a full workman’s toolkit, and she’s got money. Anything else?’

‘You’re not listening, chief,’ Irene said. He looked at her with an expression so sour she wished for a moment she’d said nothing. ‘Look, what I mean is…this sort of stuff she can get for us, I promise you it’s better than whatever we could get otherwise.’

‘And she’s just gonna help you? Just like that? Did you explain the situation earlier?’

‘That’s a good point,’ Seulgi said. ‘What did you actually say to her when you were on the phone earlier?’

Irene shrugged nonchalantly. ‘I just told her the truth,’ she said.

‘The truth truth, or your truth?’

‘The truth truth.’

‘Which is?’

‘Our crazy new detective boss wants us offed and will go to literally any possible length to see that accomplished and she’s also in cahoots with a foreign Private Military Contractor and has ties to various gangland organisations across Korea. Oh, and also she helped try and steal the Cube from the Leeum. And she’s already tried to kill us a few times. And we died and came back to life. Oh, and then we broke out of jail with the help of this merry band of rogues. But don’t worry, I didn’t mention any of you by name. Not that it would’ve mattered.’

‘You said all that?’

‘Uh huh.’

‘Word for word?’

‘Give or take, yeah.’

‘And what did she say?’

‘She said sure, what do you need?’

Seulgi had to laugh.

‘What?’

‘Are you serious?’ Seulgi said.

‘About what?’

‘That. All of that.’

‘Do you not remember what she was like when we met her?’

‘Kind of. But still.’

‘Well, there you go, then.’

Joy sat forward. She seemed to be listening very intently. ‘So, you said all of this to her, and then she just…what? Said yes?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘To helping us.’

Irene nodded.

‘What did you ask her for?’

‘A couple things here and there. And I told her to surprise us with a few things too, strictly off the radar. Although, I suppose it’s all technically off the radar, right? Whatever.’

‘What did you ask for.’

‘A gun. Something for transport. And a radio. That’s pretty much about it.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Joy said, laughing to herself. ‘I’m having quite a hard time believing any of this at all right now. Like, any word of it.’

‘Relax.’

‘That still doesn’t explain why she’d agree to help you. I mean, you do realise we’re all fugitives, right? If they didn’t know our identity before – and they sure as knew mine, I was a ing informant – then they’re going to after they review the CCTV footage and see us breaking into a ing prison to rescue you. God, why am I even here again? I must be the dumbest human being in the entire world. Maybe all those stereotypes about strippers were true. .’

‘Look,’ Irene said, ‘don’t overthink it.’

‘Kinda hard not to.’

‘You know that you said about you being an adrenaline junkie?’

‘It was a joke.’

‘Yeah, but with her it’s actually, you know…not. She’s a full-blown ing lunatic. I’m telling you, man, she lives for this . She gets high off the danger.’

‘How old is she?’

‘Dunno. Nineteen, I think? Twenty?’

‘Who is she?’

‘You’ll find out. Wendy?’

Wendy held up a single finger, eyes on the morning road ahead. ‘T-minus one minute until touchdown,’ she said. ‘Saddle up, buttercups.’

Jisoo glanced at Seulgi in the back. The expression on her face said: This is the craziest I’ve ever been apart of. And we were in some crazy .

‘Hey,’ Wendy said, ‘anyone want pizza?’

‘What?’ said Joy.

Wheein sat forward. ‘Are you offering?’

Wendy shook her head and coughed. ‘No. I was just wondering.’

‘I’ve got a question,’ Hongki said. He sat forward and stopped sharpening his machete again. Sitting there beside the dim cabin lights he looked like something straight off the set of Apocalypse Now, a righteous zealot in his oversized office shirt and his peanutcoloured tie, polishing his sword in the most literal of senses.

‘Go ahead,’ said Irene.

‘Your rather strange friend in the front there seems more than capable of getting you anything you need. What’s so different this time?’

‘She’s quick about it, is my friend. And no offence to Wendy, but my friend isn’t going to be making everything herself, so we’ll be sure that it works. Or kinda works, at least.’

‘What did you ask her to get you?’

‘Like I said, a couple things to help us out. And like I also said, I told her to surprise us.’

Wendy stopped the van and cut the engine and turned to them in the back. With her gold sequined headband she looked like something out of a Fugees music video and her eyes were bloodshot red. ‘We’re here, dears,’ she said.

‘Where is here?’ Wheein said.

‘Sinsa. Right where Irene told me to go.’

They looked at each other reluctantly. As if unsure of what to do next.

‘Oh, for god’s sake,’ Irene said. ‘Stop being such babies.’

She pushed the back doors of the van open and stepped out into the hue of the late morning. A cool bronze sun rose overhead like a copper coin and the day was mostly cloudless. Across the street there in uptown Sinsa the mansion looked quite like the White House. There was a single expensive Rolls Royce import on the driveway and nothing much else and everything was terribly quiet. The walls and archways were made out of either marble or polished white stone. It even had a lawn.

‘Wow,’ Wheein said, hands in her pockets. ‘It even has a lawn.’

‘How ing rich is this girl?’ Joy said.

Irene shrugged. ‘Her dad’s the COO of SK Telecom.’

They looked at her. ‘Is this Kim Yerim?’ Jisoo asked.

‘She prefers Yeri. Don’t call her Yerim, she gets really upset about it for some reason. Like, strangely, overwhelmingly so. Just let me do the talking for now.’

‘I don’t like this,’ Seulgi said.

‘Babe, lighten up.’

‘No, I mean, I don’t like you doing the talking. Never really ends well.’

‘I love the trust. Really, I do. It’s endearing.’

Seulgi ignored her. They went all the way up the drive beyond the lawn and knocked and waited. There was no answer. Irene rang the doorbell twice and waited some more. A minute or so later the door opened and a small girl with long hair peered her head out and saw Irene and broke into a great ditzy grin. ‘Oh my god!’ Yeri said, drawing Irene in for a hug. ‘I can’t believe it’s you.’

‘Yeah, uh…it’s me.’

‘It’s been so long!’

‘Like, two months.’

‘So long.’

She looked at all the others in turn and pulled Seulgi in for an equally massive and uncomfortable hug. ‘You!’ she said. ‘I can’t remember your name, but it’s you! So good to see you again. And all of you! Nice to meet you, I’m Yeri.’

They waved at her without introducing themselves. Hongki and Wheein remembering her only vaguely as some rabid lunatic worse than Irene or Wendy or even Hongki himself. Yeri motioned them to follow her into the house and through into one of the two vast kitchen complexes toward the back. The floors were a polished marble and the countertops the same and everything was either black or white. ‘Nice crib,’ Wendy said, hanging at the back of the group like an outcast. ‘You colourblind or something?’

‘What?’

‘Oh, you know…the colours. Never mind.’

Yeri ignored her. Or perhaps lacked the attention span to truly care. She seemed to almost be unaware they were even there any longer. She opened the step-in fridge and removed a bottle of champagne in a small ice bucket and poured herself a smoky glass and drank from behind the worktop. When she had downed the entire glass she looked at them again. ‘Oh, sorry,’ she said. ‘Did you want some? It’s free. On the house. Whichever you prefer the sound of.’

Irene smiled awkwardly. ‘We’re kinda in a bit of a rush,’ she said. ‘Like, a lot of one.’

‘. Yeah, right. Sorry about that. We should go.’

Jisoo and Seulgi glanced at each other uneasily.

‘Go where?’ Irene said.

‘To my warehouse.’

‘Your warehouse?’

‘Where I’ve got all your presents. Oh my god, Irene, you’re gonna love them! I just know it! Everything you asked for, and more! This is, like, the craziest I’ve ever bought, you know? You have no idea how many hoops I had to jump through last night after you rang me to get all this put together so quickly. So much more of a challenge than any of my stupid art parties. Like, so, so much more.’

‘You have a warehouse?’

‘Well, duh. You didn’t think I’d keep it all here, did you?’

‘Uh, kinda.’

Yeri snorted. ‘Don’t be silly,’ she said. ‘It would ruin the aesthetics of my driveway.’

‘What?’

She was rewarded with absolutely no answer at all besides, ‘Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Gwangjang. You can drive, right? I can’t be bothered. And there’s a lot of you here.’

‘Uh, yeah. Guess so.’

She shifted off her stool and sauntered out into the hallway without looking to see if any of them were following her. They turned to Irene, Wheein moderately amused. ‘What?’ Irene said. ‘What’s so funny?’

‘Nothing. Just rare to see you so lost for words. Never seen someone pull you down to their level like that.’

‘Neither have I,’ Seulgi said. ‘Must say, it’s quite cathartic.’

‘Shut up,’ said Irene. ‘Both of you.’

When they were outside the house and Yeri had closed the door Wheein nodded all along the drive and said, ‘Nice lawn.’

‘Thanks. Are you driving?’

‘No. She is.’ She nodded at Wendy and Wendy gave a hazy smile. They piled into the back of the van and Yeri gave Wendy the address and they backed up and disappeared the way they had come minutes earlier. The quiet that followed them was almost unnerving. The only sound the slow and wretched whine of steel as Hongki sharpened the fine blade of his machete between his knees. ‘Nice sword,’ Yeri said.

‘It’s a machete.’

‘Uh huh. Say, Irene, where are we going?’

‘What?’

‘I mean after this. After we’ve got my presents. Where are we going?’

Irene looked at Wheein for an answer and Wheein just shrugged.

‘Well?’

‘I’ll explain later,’ Wheein said. ‘We don’t have much time.’

‘How much time is not much time?’

‘The rest of the day at most, before she’s gone.’

‘Who’s gone? What’s happening?’

‘Like I said, I’ll explain later.’

They fell quiet again. Seulgi shifted awkwardly and stuffed her hands into her pockets. ‘So,’ Jisoo said, leaning back from the passenger’s seat, ‘what presents are you talking about?’

‘Oh, just some stuff,’ said Yeri. She spoke with such an air of nonchalance. ‘You’ll see when you get there. They wouldn’t be presents if you knew what they were ahead of time, right?’

‘Sure.’

‘I hope you like them. I think I went a bit overboard, but…whatever. Hey, did you really break these two out of prison?’

Joy nodded reluctantly.

‘Holy , awesome. What was it like? I always wanted to break into a prison. Who knows what you’d find? Prisoners, I'd expect. Being a prison and all.’

‘It was certainly something.’

‘Hey, maybe we could break into one on the way?’

‘No,’ Irene said.

‘Why not?’

‘That’s not part of the plan.’

‘What is the plan?’

She looked at Seulgi as if to say: That’s a very good question.

‘How far is this warehouse?’ Wheein asked.

‘Not far at all. Few minutes. I had my dad buy it for me to hold a bunch of stuff I didn’t want at the house.’

‘What stuff?’

‘Uh, party stuff mostly. Although it hasn’t been there for a while. Yeah, it’s been empty. Up until this morning, I mean. Wow. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get all of this stuff on such short notice. Wait. I’ve already said that bit. Whatever. But I mean, I had to reach out to some real scary people, so this trip better be worth it, you know? Better be a whole load of fun. More fun than all the other times. Irene. Hey, Irene.’

‘Do you ever shut up?’ Hongki said. Yeri looked at him and screwed up her face and slouched back against the side of the van. The rest of the trip passed in a short and anxious silence. They listened to the rolling of the tires when Wendy went a little too fast. Other than that there was nothing. Ten minutes later Wendy pulled up beside an enormous brick building that looked abandoned and cut the engine. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘Destination Bingo.’

‘Sweet,’ Yeri said, ditzy grin on her excited face. ‘Oh, . Wait. I forgot the keys.’

‘What? Keys to what?’

‘The front garage door.’

‘Are you ing kidding me?’ Joy said.

‘Uh, no. But it doesn’t matter. We can just break in the back. Yeah, no one’ll notice. No one except me, I suppose. But whatever. I don’t mind. And it's a weird front door, too. Yeah, like, you can unlock it from the inside without a key but...well, we're not inside. Whatever.’

She led them around the back to a single door. She tried the handle and shook her head. ‘No luck,’ she said. ‘Oh, well. Better luck next time, I suppose.’

Joy and Wheein laughed in disbelief.

‘Step aside,’ Irene said. She took a hairpin from her pocket and played about with the lock and was rewarded with a small click.

‘Woah. That’s crazy cool. You back to your old habits, Irene?’

‘Something like that.’

Yeri led them inside one by one. It was a massive empty hangar room that looked like it could have housed a plane. But there was no plane. Just a handful of wooden crates covered in green tarpaulin and the shape of something huge and grotesque covered in the same tarpaulin near the front of the room. From the size it looked like it could have been a boat of some description. They stood by the broken door shifting about. ‘What the is that?’ Irene said.

‘That’s my present, silly.’

‘What is it.’

‘I’ll show you.’

She led them over like a tour guide. The tension was strangely palpable, the smile on her face of madness and excitement. ‘Are you ready?’ she said. They shrugged. ‘Okay. Here goes.’

Yeri pulled the tarpaulin back and let it drop to the floor in a green puddle of material. It was a great black truck, larger than any of them had ever seen. At first glance it looked like an American Hummer but it was far bigger. The tires were almost as tall as Irene. The paint was an ominous matte black and the windows were tinted and it looked about ten feet tall at minimum. When they walked around it the trip seemed to take minutes.

‘Ta-da!’ Yeri said. ‘You like it?’

‘What is this?’

‘It’s called a Marauder. Or a Crusader, I think, but I’m pretty sure it’s the Marauder. Whatever. The point is…look at it! Badass, no?’

They said nothing. There was nothing they could really say that would suffice.

‘Look at the size of this baby! I love it!’ She made a strange excited squeak and ran her hand along the side of the bodywork. ‘It’s got a top speed of about seventy miles an hour, three hundred horsepower under that bad boy engine. This armour is ing inches thick! Inches! It might even be a whole foot. It can withstand small arms fire for seventy-two hours straight.’

‘Seventy-two hours,’ Wheein said.

‘Yep.’

‘You ever been shot at for seventy-two hours straight?’

‘No. Have you?’

‘No. Because that would be literally impossible.’

‘Not literally,’ Seulgi said. ‘Just practically.’

Yeri pointed at it again with a tad too much enthusiasm. ‘It can shrug off a blast from a roadside bomb, or a rocket! Or twenty rockets! Or rockets for seventy-two hours straight! Nothing’s getting you inside this thing. Amazing. You wanna know what I called it?’

‘What?’ Seulgi said.

‘The name. You wanna know what it’s called?’

‘What.’

‘Irene.’

‘Really now,’ Irene said.

‘Creative, right?’

‘Uh huh.’

‘I tried to get the version with the big .50 cal machine gun on top but turns out nobody in Korea had one they could ship over to me within six hours. Strange, really. Anyway, hope you like it.’

They looked at each other. ‘I don’t mean to be rude,’ Seulgi said, ‘but is this it?’

‘What? No! Don’t be silly. Come on.’

She showed them to the tarp-covered crates. There was a small prybar on the floor beside them and she used it to peel away the crate lids and toss aside the polystyrene and the protective foam inside. Everything had that brand-new smell to it. She pulled out a gun and waved it wildly toward the ceiling. ‘This is a USAF-issue M4 Carbine assault rifle. 5.56 NATO ammo, thirty-round magazine, extended foregrip with ACOG four-times magnification scope. Foldaway shoulder stock is optional, but I said hey, what the hell? It’s comfort, right?’

‘Yeri.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Why do you know so much about guns?’

‘C’mon, it’s just basic stuff.’ She leant into the first crate and pulled out another identical rifle. ‘There are sixteen of these,’ she said.

‘Why sixteen?’

‘Didn’t know how many I’d need, so I packed extra for the ride. Hey, hold this for me a sec?’

She handed the rifle to Joy and Joy looked at it uneasily. Yeri leant down again and hauled up a plastic box filled with spare magazines and ammunition and bullet belts and dropped it on the floor with a shrill clang of the shellcasings. ‘In case you find yourself pinned down by enemy gunfire, you’ve got enough ammunition to last you a good few hours. But that’s not all. Look at this!’

She pryed apart the second crate and showed them the contents. There were police-issue Colt pistols and spare magazines and a small box of hand grenades and smoke bombs and a Benelli M4 Tactical shotgun and a pair of aviator sunglasses from 1986 and two sets of brass knuckles and a handful of bulletproof vests and even a helmet for added protection. When she had showed them everything they all glanced at each other as if they were all small parts of a collective dream. All but Hongki, holding his sharpened machete over one shoulder and frowning at nothing in particular.

‘Well,’ she said, ‘what do ya think? Good present, no?’

‘Should I ask?’ Irene said.

Wheein nodded.

‘Where the did you get all this?’

‘Couple friends,’ Yeri said with a shrug. ‘Don’t sweat it.’

‘Why did you get this?’

‘You asked for it.’

‘I asked for a gun. A gun. Singular. And I asked for a radio. Did you get a radio?’

‘Ah. No. Sorry about that. But I got all this instead.’

‘Unbelievable.’

Jisoo picked up one of the M4 rifles and cocked back the charging handle and inspected the scope and foregrip and ejection port with the kind of practiced ease that suggested extended use sometime in the past. ‘You know all of this is illegal, right?’ she said, and immediately realised how stupid that sounded.

‘So,’ Yeri said, ‘let’s get all this stuff sorted out. Who wants what? Although, I suppose there’s enough to around for everyone. A rifle for each of you. A pistol. Whatever else you want. Oh, but sorry about the bulletproof vests. Yeah, I could only get seven, which means one of us is going without, and well…it’s not me. But don’t worry! You can have the helmet.’

‘Can I have the glasses?’ Seulgi said.

‘Sure.’

They passed the rifles around and inspected them. Half of them had never held a rifle in their life. Then they tried on the bulletproof vests, enough for all of them except Irene. She fastened the straps on her helmet and turned to Seulgi and gave a little twirl on the spot. ‘How do I look?’ she said.

‘Stupid.’

‘You too, so I guess we’re even.’

‘You can have mine.’

‘What?’

‘My vest,’ Seulgi said. ‘You can have it. I’ll take the helmet.’

‘Nah, I’m good. I don’t think it’s as fashionable.’

‘This isn’t about fashion.’

‘Yeah, well. Point remains.’

Hongki stepped forward. He swung the machete about close enough to almost take off Jisoo’s head and pointed it at the shotgun in the crate. ‘I want that,’ he said. ‘And I’m going to have it.’

‘Oh, ,’ Yeri said. ‘Yeah, dude. Go ahead. Take what you like. Are we going now? Like, sorry, but I’m bored already. I wanna do some mad . Get into some action.’

‘I feel like I’m taking crazy pills,’ Joy said.

Seulgi looked at Wendy stood behind them. She had her hands stuffed deep into the pockets of her puffer jacket and she was chewing on something rather loudly. ‘Wendy,’ she said.

‘Hey, man.’

‘Are you not going to grab anything?’

‘Who, me? Oh, no, man. No no no. I’m a pacifist. Peace and love, you know? Peace and love, bro. It’s all water under the bridge. Sunny days are here to stay. And all that jazz.’

‘Right.’

‘You dig?’

‘I dig,’ Irene said. She laughed. ‘God, I’ve missed saying that.’

‘C’mon,’ said Yeri. ‘Let’s go.’

‘No,’ Wheein said. ‘We’ve got time to kill first.’

‘Before what? Are you gonna explain anything now?’

‘Okay. Yeah, I will.’ She waited until they were all stood in front of her. Then she continued. ‘We’ve got a short window of time to act. Basically, if we don’t do this by tonight, we’ll never get the chance to do it.’

‘What are we doing?’

‘Taking down Kim Taeyeon.’

‘Who?’

Wheein ignored her. ‘When I went into hiding after the whole thing with you two,’ she said, ‘I was smart about it for a change. I sent copies of everything I had on her – all the dirt, the evidence of the transactions, bank accounts, drug deals, back alley , whatever else – to every department in every city in the country. Sent it all out, email, fax, you name it. That was about an hour before we came and broke you out yesterday. So, by my calculation, she’ll have realised by now that she’s truly and utterly ed. Like, completely ed. Her entire operation’s just gone up in smoke.’

Irene and Seulgi looked at each other. It was obvious to them that they were thinking the same thing. Irene said, ‘So, why are we even here at all? Why not just, y’know…wait for the police to do their thing?’

‘Because like I said, she’ll know. She’s not stupid. Stupid people don’t get into the position she’s in. And she’s not going to wait around for someone to come and tag her and slap her in a pair of handcuffs. She’ll be gone by nightfall if we don’t do something about it, and that’ll be that. We’ll never see her again.’

‘But if we never see again, who cares? Like, can’t we just go on with our lives?’

‘It’s not about that. It’s about doing the right thing.’

‘Well, you’ve convinced me.’

‘Good. I’m glad.’

‘I was being sarcastic. But it, whatever. Not like I have much of a choice, really, is there? Besides, I’m not leaving you, babe.’

Seulgi smiled.

‘Okay,’ Wheein said, ‘good. Glad we’re all onboard.’

‘That doesn’t answer what we’re doing,’ Jisoo said.

‘No, of course not.’

‘Go on, then.’

‘There’s a boat in the harbour in Cheongdam, about half an hour from here if we’re not held up by traffic. Have you ever heard of the Enduring Agony?’

Jisoo and Joy shook their heads.

‘Sounds like when I have to listen to Seulgi talk for hours,’ Irene said.

‘Thanks,’ said Seulgi.

Wheein continued. ‘The Enduring Agony is a superyacht currently docked there in the harbour. It’s been there for the past four days. According to the travel records, it’s due to leave at nine PM tonight, and then that’s that. It’ll be gone.’

‘A superyacht.’

‘Yeah. It’s registered to one Ralph Weber. He’s a Swiss billionaire. Owns a fortune in natural gas and stock trading.’

‘The ing Swiss,’ Hongki muttered, as if on cue.

‘I’m willing to bet our Swiss friend isn’t there in person. But I’m also willing to bet his boat being here isn’t really a coincidence. I’m thinking maybe he lent it out to a good friend of his.’

‘Taeyeon,’ Seulgi said.

‘Exactly.’

‘So, what, then? We go down to this superyacht, apprehend her, and then what?’

‘No, we don’t go to the yacht. Because she won’t be there. She’s in a safehouse fifteen minutes north of there, across the bridge in Seongsu. That’s where I’ve tracked her base of operations to. Don’t ask me how, I can’t be bothered telling you. I just know she’s there. And if there’s any other incriminating evidence we can use, it’ll be there. So, we go to this base of operations. We capture her. We bring her to justice. Leave her for the police. Or take her in ourselves. Whichever option sounds better when it comes to it. And if we don’t find her in that safehouse, then we go and try the yacht. But not first.’

‘No,’ Irene said. ‘Absolutely not. Nuh uh. Not in a hundred thousand years.’

‘What? Which part?’

‘How about, I dunno, the whole ing thing? I’ve had bad experiences with police chases on yachts before. Very bad experiences. I was shot through the heart on one.’

‘Shot with love?’ Yeri said.

‘Shot with a bullet.’

‘Oh. I thought it was a metaphor.’

‘Yeah, well. It’s not.’

‘How are you still alive if you were shot through the heart?’ Joy said.

‘I’m not, but that’s another story.’

‘What?’

‘Ignore her,’ Seulgi said. She turned to Wheein. ‘So, what are we going to do?’

‘I dunno,’ said Wheein. ‘Haven’t thought of that part yet.’

‘Great.’

‘Give me a break. I’ve done this much, right? Where would you be without me?’

‘She makes a great point,’ Jisoo interjected.

‘I say we just wing it, you know?’

‘What?’ Seulgi said. ‘No.’

‘Why not? Works for you guys most of the time.’

‘We’re not—’

‘Got any better ideas?’

Seulgi sighed reluctantly. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I suppose not.’

‘There you have it. So, we wait until the evening, then we roll up to her safehouse in this massive ing city on wheels here, and we grab her before anyone’s the wiser.’

‘Why can’t we just go now?’

‘In broad daylight? You kidding me?’

‘We’ve already done so much illegal stuff that I’m not sure any more really counts.’

‘C’mon, man. It’s all about the element of surprise.’

‘But she knows we’re coming.’

‘Sure, but not all together, and not like this. She probably just expects you two to poke your heads around and be your annoyingly competent selves, as per usual. But I bet she doesn’t expect the ing Avengers bursting through her door in an armoured tank.’

‘I guess not.’

‘Great.’ Wheein beamed. ‘Ladies, if anything happens, it’s been nice knowing you all. Except you, Seulgi.’

‘Thanks.’

‘And you too, sir. I mean, it was nice knowing you, sir, but you're not...you know. A lady.’

Hongki had taken a cigarette from his pocket and now he held it unlit between his lips. The machete hung loose from a string loop fastened to his his belt. He raised the Benelli M4 shotgun and cocked it loud enough for it to echo around the cabin of the room. ‘Oh, don’t worry about me,’ he said. ‘Let’s go play ball.'