“You’re fired.”

“Come again Mr. Kang?”

“Read my lips: YOU-ARE-FIRED.”

“Wha-at? I just started! I’ve never ever in my entire life been in a live fire fight before! My dad’s an Echelon! He will kill me if I don’t make it! My grandfather was an Echelon too! He will come back from the dead just to pull me down with him! Please Mr. Kang! What did I do wrong? I can totally change! TOTALLY! Please let me stay, I know that I am not the best rookie ever, I---”

“Enough Mr. Kim. Here’s your letter. You don’t have to come tomorrow, or the day after it. Your father has been a good friend of mine. Please send my regards to him.”

_______

That’s Mr. Kim. Kim Jonghyun. Currently one of the top operatives in The Echelon. A proud member of THE Supreme Echelon, an elite squad of highly trained, or in this case, highly experienced young men.

And so he was fired, from The Echelon, his files stamped as ‘FIRED due to bad conduct’ and archived in a discreet location in the Echelon headquarters.

_______

What am I gonna do now? I can’t go home. Dad is gonna strangle me! Mom would be so disappointed!

Just then, an expensive looking black sedan pulled over by the sidewalk and pulled Jonghyun into the car. Jonghyun struggled, but his captivators seemed to be much stronger. His screams were muffled by their hands as they closed the car door.

“What the hell?! Who are you? Look, I’m not a rich kid, you kidnapped the wrong person! I--- Mr. Kang? What is this? A conspiracy to make me pee my pants or something? Just when I thought that today can’t get any worse. Hey, look, I just got kidnapped by my boss----this is ridiculous!”

“Mr. Kim, I only got a while to spare, so listen. Technically, you are no longer a member of The Echelon, BUT, you are still an Echelon, it’s just that you will be working solely under me, you are to report to me and only me. You have been chosen for this highly confidential mission, because I believe in you! Your exceptional skills in hand-to-hand and melee combat can almost guarantee your survival in this mission. It’s a dog eat dog world out there, so we need the best of the best.”

“Almost? You mean I might die in this?! I don’t even know what my mission is! What do you mean by ‘the best of the best’? There are plenty of senior agents, why me?”

“The main point here is that you are new. You are chosen not just because of your skills and bravery, but because of your anonymity among the dealers and bosses in Korea’s black market. You will start off as a rookie in one of Korea’s most prominent gang, The White Dragons. Your goal is to make it to the top of The White Dragons hierarchy, preferably, a trusted assistant of our most wanted black market boss, Cho Tae-Hyun. You are to provide information and help the Echelon create a solid ground to charge Cho Tae-Hyun and his accomplices to immobilize The White Dragons operations once and for all. I’ll be honest, it won’t be easy, but I can assure you, once you complete the mission, you will not only become an Echelon again, your rank will be raised to become one of The Echelon’s honorary operatives, akin to a legend.”

“And if I fail, I get the honour of having my name engraved to a tombstone. Big deal. What makes you think I would do this?”

“You have no choice. Take it or leave it. This is the only way for you to reopen your file, the only way for you to become an Echelon again. Do I have your agreement? Or you can get out of this car and show the letter to your father.”

A moment of silence soon ensued.

“All right, I’ll take it, either way I have to go down and see my grandfather. When can I start?”

“Immediately, according to my sources, they are having a recruitment session in a club nearby, I’ll drop you off, and you shall never mention me, or the organisation to them, do you hear me? . . ...

_______

In a cheap motel in a seedy area in Korea,

“It’s been three years boss! Three freaking long years! Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through? I’ve been kicked, punched, slashed, you name it. I’m sick and tired of this! I can’t see my family, my mother, my father, my sister, everyone in the world thinks I’m a thug, a useless son! I almost died the other day! Cho Tae-Hyun almost sniffed me out! Why the heck am I doing this?!”

“Mr. Kim, I think we are really close to solving the case, now, what you have to do is to regain Cho Tae-Hyun’s trust again, don’t give up, I have faith in you boy. Think about your family, when this is all over, you can see them again.”

_______

“Mr. Kim, I think the information that you have brought us today is the final piece of the puzzle, I can’t confirm it yet, so you keep your cover, as soon as The Echelon nabs Cho Tae-Hyun and his accomplices, which will include you, I will personally see to it that you are freed and you will regain your post as an Echelon. Five years of hard work Jonghyun, good job. You are going to be a free man soon.”

_______

Finally, it’s over. I’m a free man now, is it even worth it? According to Mr. Kang, I am now a part of a new elite unit called The Supreme Echelon, what is it? Who will be the members? I’m lost. My sense of self-worth is lost. The Supreme Echelon will just be another fancy name like The White Dragons where I work my off. So what if I’m like a legend, it’s the stares, the whispers from my so-called colleagues that I can’t bear.

“I heard he was an undercover. He must be pretty good at stealing data huh?”

“He can’t be trusted, you can never trust an undercover. Who knows what kind of dirty work he did in the gang?”

“He might even be a mole for Cho Tae-Hyun, for all you know.”

The Supreme Echelon, is it as good as it sounds?