Chapter 31: REWIND 4 <<<< [--:--am]                                                                                           

Changsun pressed his body hard against the corrugated metal of the building. He held his breath and told himself harshly to not move. Footsteps grew close, two people from the sounds of it, and Changsun swore they would be able to hear his pounding heart, but against all odds they didn’t. Only once he could hear them no more did he let out a sigh of relief.   

Not for the first time that night did Changsun curse himself. Byunghee was far too trusting and it was up to him, Lee Changsun, to find out what the BlackBeards wanted with his brother. But Changsun was discovering in a horrible sudden rush just how foolish that plan was becoming. As children the two had played spy games, sneaking through shadows, stalking ‘targets’ and whispering through invisible walkie-talkies. But this was a whole new level of dangerous. And Changsun’s heart was definitely not made to be a spy.

Finding the Blackbeard’s base had been easy enough. It wasn’t like the gang kept it a secret. All Changsun had to do was make a few inquiries to the right people and in the right places, and bingo. Everyone knew the rumour, that getting in was the easy part. Becoming a member and staying a tad more difficult.

The Blackbeards were notorious for three main reasons. One was that they accepted anyone so long as you could pass their initiation test. Two, they were the closest thing to family as anything. You hurt one of their fold and they would pay you retribution tenfold. And thirdly, they were ruthless in whatever they did. 

It was a strange mix of familial warmth and cold violence. Changsun wasn’t sure he liked the sound of it. Particularly not as he was creeping closer to a window and peering over the edge on red alert. No one. He took a deep breath and then quickly flipped himself over the windowsill. He may not have had a talent for confidence, but he damn well had a good talent for sneaking around and soon enough he was cocooned behind a larger pile of boxes and shadows. Settling down he pricked ears, dissecting the buzz of conversation into separate words and meanings.

 “…Cargo needs to be transported today or else it won’t get there in time…”

“…That’ll be forty thousand won…”

“…Hah, you lost again?!...”

And then a pair of voices, throaty and low towards the back of the room, “Hey, you know about the plan? The one that involves the Byung-guy.”

Changsun’s ears pricked at the other man’s response, “You mean Byunghee? Jung Byunghee?”

“Yeah that one.”

“What about him?”

“Well…is everything going to plan? It’s a delicate operation you’re giving him. Does he even know what’s he going to transport?”

As the other man spoke, there was a tone of disapproval present. “Do you doubt our boss’s decision?”

“Well…”

“Spit it out.”

The first voice, higher-pitched and whiny, spoke almost reluctantly like he was afraid of ticking off the second person. “Why him? Why does he get such an important job?!”

The second person let out a groan. “Petty jealousy. Is that what this is about?”

“Hey!” the first person protested. “I’m not jealous, I’m just…worried!”

“Yeah right,” the second man said. “I know you’re jealous, but don’t be. This plan isn’t one for glory…it’s…”

“It’s what?” the first one asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

The first man frowned. “I shouldn’t be saying this…”

“Oh please!”

 Changsun rolled his eyes at the man’s plea and then stretched himself as tall as he could without being spotted. Of the two people one was heavy-set with thick muscles and a plethora of piercings along his ear. He ran one hand through his short crew-cut buzz as if he too was annoyed at his company’s whining. His company was a smaller, rat-faced man, complete with jerky limbs and a soft wisp of hair. 

“Well if you keep this to yourself,” the heavy-set man said, pulling the rat-like one to the side, away from the main crowd of pirates whom he eyed warily as if worried his words would carry. “I’ve only heard bits and pieces from the boss…but this is a set-up.”

“A set-up?” the rat-like man gasped, his beady eyes nearly popping out. Changsun felt his heart do an unwieldy little flip.

“Yeah,” the first man grunted, one finger thoughtfully rubbing his lip piercing. He looked uneasy with telling the younger man the story, as if he doubted his compatriot’s ability to keep his mouth shut. But whatever his thought processes were, he continued.

 “Word is that the boss had got red against Byunghee.”

“Why?” Rat-face squeaked.

Piercings winced. “Well if you shut up long enough then I’ll get round to telling you.”

Rat-face flinched and his hands flew over his mouth. “I’ll be silent,” he mumbled. “But why?”

Piercings shot him a dark look. “Ever since the previous boss died, the boss hasn’t been the same. You’ve noticed that as well, right?” Rat-face gave him half a dozen nods in a matter of seconds. Piercings sighed. “Eunji was a good boss. As good as her father. As good as her brother’s trying to be…”

“Trying? Are you saying Eunhyuk doesn’t match up to Eunji’s level?”

“No…” Piercings swallowed his words. “I’m not saying the boss is bad…but he’s too…obsessed. Nothing good comes from obsessing over an old flame. You’re new so I guess you don’t really know, but the boss loved Eunji almost like a mother. She was the one who raised him practically from birth after their mother died and their father immersed himself in building the BlackBeards from scratch. She was all he had. And her death…the boss didn’t take it well at all…”

Rat-face pursed his thin lips. “Well we all know that. He went half-mad when he found her body after the Purge.”

So the boss of the Blackbeards has lost his sister to the Purge. Changsun did not like the direction this story was taking.

Rat-face spoke, cutting off Changsun’s further thoughts. “But what does this have to do with Byung-goo?”

“Byunghee,” Piercings corrected him absentmindedly. “And it has everything to with Byunghee. Because Jung Jongsu was Byunghee’s father and it was his fault that the purge ever happened.” 

Changsun’s stomach gave way, like he was falling backwards into a very deep and dark black hole.

“What?”

Piercings sighed. “You know the story. The Purge was instigated by the government to wipe out all potential coup d’états. That and any participants or supporters of Code:Red. It was going to take too long for the government to root out every supporter, so what better way to fell a tree than to burn it from its roots upwards. That’s exactly what they did. They razed the mid-levels and any possible hope of Code: Red with it.”

“But wasn’t publicly killing Jung Jongsu enough?” Rat-face frowned.

Piercings shook his head. “Jung Jongsu was the tip of the iceberg. He may have been the instigator, but that man was a cautious one and I’d bet my money that he hid the information he hacked in places where other Code:Red supporters could find it. No, the government had to wipe out the current and any future possible resistance. It’s all about power plays.”

“So then what has this got to do with Boss Eunji?”

Rat-face let out a yelp as Piercings rapped him hard on his bald head. “Are you even listening to a word I’m saying? I said that Boss Eunji died in the purge, and the purge was the fault of Jung Jongsu.”

“So?” Rat-face raised his eyebrow high. “What has that got to do with Byung-hoo? I mean if Jung Jongsu is dead then Boss Eunhyuk can’t do anything about it right?”

“Wrong,” Piercings sighed. “And this is where I disagree with the Boss but like I said, he’s obsessing over an old flame. The oldest trick in the book. When you can’t get revenge on the person whose fault it is then you blame the next closest person.”

In other words, Jung Byunghee.

“So the boss is going to kill Byunghee?” Rat-face pressed for more information, interested in the way only a bystander could be and completely unaware of the polar reaction swirling around in Changsun just a few meters away. “Why not just kill him straight out? A bullet to the brain? A hammer to the head?” Changsun thought he would throw up at the thought of such a thing happening to his brother. 

“Because,” Piercings rolled his lip piercing around and bit it between his teeth, pursing and thinking for a moment. “Because the boss wants an eye for an eye, Byunghee’s death to be the same as Eunji’s.”

“In other words…” Rat-face’s eyed widened in realization.

“Yeah. Jung Byunghee won’t realize a thing until he’s blown sky-high. “  

It was as if someone has punched him in the stomach, all air expelled and Changsun was floundering for a lifeline. He rocked backwards on his heel and automatically one hand shot out to grab the closest thing for purchase.  It was a cargo box, but as he grabbed it, the box shifted, letting out a rough scratching sound.

“What was that?” Rat-face turned towards the cargo. For such a scatter-brain he had sharp ears. Changsun winced and turned tail.

“Hey! There! Who’s sneaking around!”

Blood pumping, Changsun ran blindly in a maze of cargo boxes. He could hear the screech of sneakers on floorboard behind him as his chaser skidded, trying to follow his desperate path. But Changsun was nimbler and with ease caught the edge of another cargo box and flipped himself up and over. He felt the whisper of a hand nearly catch his foot, but then that was forgotten as he found himself up high and with a perfect view of the entire warehouse.

There were boxes everywhere, haphazardly piled mostly in the corner of which he stood in. And in the centre were men and women alike with drinks in their hands and raucous laughter filling the air. They looked happy. Like family. The sharp contrast between these faces and the dark expressions of Piercings and Rat-face struck a sour chord. For a second Changsun could not believe why such people would ever want to harm his brother, but then the sound of someone climbing up the boxes behind him brought him back to his senses and he leapt, flying through the window and rolling as he landed.

In seconds he was running as fast as he could away from the warehouse with its laughter and smiles and most of all, its deadly boss planning his brother’s demise.