12 THE TEST FLIGHT
The Kirogi eventually docked at Wonsan and, acting on Nakajima's instructions, Shinsou hung around the ship's hold, waiting for the four men to come on board and remove the bottled water. He tried approaching them when they appeared so that he could brainwash and interrogate them, but Yoshi leapt at him, growling, and refused to allow him to go anywhere near them.
"It's all right," Shinsou heard Nakajima say quietly from nearby, "The dog certainly seems to be in cahoots with them. Go back to your duties. I'll join Watanabe outside and see if we can't follow them and get more information."
Shinsou didn't hear from Nakajima again that night, but the next morning Watanabe appeared, once more dressed as a government minder, and after he had ushered Shinsou off the ship, said in a businesslike tone, "We're going to a jangmadang at the far end of the town. We managed to get up close to them last night before the hooded man teleported them all away, and I think I've recognised one of them. His name is Baek, and as far as I know, he's into drug dealing. I've seen him occasionally patronising a stall that sells home-brewed alcohol in this particular jangmadang, so we're going to hang around there and see if he shows up."
They flagged down one of the few taxis that were plying the empty streets, and Nakajima, who had joined them, made them invisible once they were inside the car. He told Shinsou to brainwash the taxi driver so that he wouldn't notice that his passengers had vanished.
The jangmadang was much larger than the one near Park Soojin's apartment, and had a far greater variety of goods. Since the famine, these markets had evolved from simple ones into something much more diverse, and North Koreans now had a saying that the only item one could not buy in a jangmadang was a cat's horn. Cosmetics, car batteries, rice cookers, DVD-players, cans of Coca-cola, and illegal DVDs of South Korean and American movies were all available.
Shinsou even saw doctors there, offering their services. Watanabe, seeing his bemused expression, told him that the doctors here couldn't survive on their meagre wages, and although what they were doing was illegal, even the officials who were supposed to crack down on them ended up being forced to receive help from them, because the government health care system had also collapsed during the famine.
Although it was still early in the day, a fair number of stalls were already open, and quite a few customers were making their way around, browsing through the various products. Watanabe noticed a man dressed in the olive-green uniform of a Party cadre, moving from stall to stall.
"See him?" he said to the others, nodding at the Party cadre and shaking his head, "He's a fake. People who set up stalls at jangmadang have to pay a stall tax to keep their slots, and this fellow has been masquerading as a tax-collecting official, cheating the stallholders of their money. We should get Youngjae here to brainwash him and teach him a lesson."
"Not now," said Nakajima, impatiently. He had stopped being invisible, because it was too crowded and people would bump into him. "We've got more important things to do now than play Robin Hood."
They had been walking around for less than ten minutes when Watanabe gave a small grunt. "That's him, Baek. The one in the grey jacket."
As more than a third of the men present were wearing drab grey, this wasn't very helpful, but Shinsou was able to figure out that Watanabe meant a stout man in a dark grey windbreaker, carrying a couple of shopping bags, a few stalls away from them.
They split up and began following Baek separately, trying not to make it too obvious, stopping now and then to browse at a random stall.
Shinsou had moved ahead, and he paused at a stall that was selling street food. It was a very makeshift sort of stall, for the food was simply spread out on a mat on the ground, unlike the other stalls which consisted of proper kiosks. There was injogogi, made from rice, kimchi and soy bean paste, and seokdujeon, which was made by mixing cornmeal powder and water. These were cheap and easy snacks to make, and a lot of housewives tried to garner some extra income by selling them at the market.
He glanced ahead, trying to see where Baek was, but the next thing he knew, one of the street food stallholders noticed him, and began homing in rapidly on him.
"Youngjae-oppa!" she squeaked excitedly, beaming at him.
"Yeonha?" Shinsou was dumbfounded. "What are you doing here?"
"I skipped school today," she whispered mischievously, "Samchon forged a medical letter for me. I'm here helping my neighbour sell her mother's snacks." She indicated a girl who was seated on the floor nearby. "I get a commission for all that I manage to sell." She smiled winsomely at him. "Would you like to buy some?"
At this unpropitious moment, Nakajima came up from behind. Spying his errant daughter, he immediately deduced that she was playing truant.
"Yeonha!" he exploded, "What are you doing here?"
Yeonha was startled. "Abeonim?" She suddenly looked exceedingly guilty.
"Why aren't you in school?" said Nakajima sternly, "Does your mother know you're here?"
"There's no school today," lied Yeonha.
"No school? Are you sure?" said Nakajima disbelievingly, "You're going to get into trouble if you skip classes!"
Watanabe had also come up, but because he was in disguise, Yeonha didn't recognise him.
Nakajima was scowling.
"Youngjae," he said, glancing at Shinsou, "Bring her back to her school. The two of us will continue with our business here."
"What?" said Watanabe, glaring at Nakajima, "We need him, you idiot!"
He brought Nakajima to one side, and they began to have a whispered argument.
"If we catch up with Baek, Youngjae can brainwash him!" hissed Watanabe.
"That's my daughter, and she's going to get expelled if she plays truant like this!" retorted Nakajima.
"Don't be silly!" spluttered Watanabe, "Students do it all the time nowadays! It's standard practice. They just pay the teacher a few yuan the next day!"
"Those are for normal high schools," said Nakajima inflexibly, "these elite foreign language schools are different!"
"Well, stop worrying about it!" said Watanabe, "I forged a medical letter for her!"
"You did what?!" said Nakajima, furiously.
"They didn't get any living expenses this month, you dolt," whispered Watanabe heatedly, "because Choe was livid that your 'son' knocked your daughter out in some match. The only way she can get any pocket money is at these jangmadang stalls!"
"You interfering busybody!" said Nakajima, incensed, "Why didn't you just give her money instead of letting her play truant? You know that I'd reimburse you later! How is she going to pass her exams if she keeps skipping classes?"
"Abeoji," Shinsou interrupted at this point, "I think our quarry is moving on to another stall."
Nakajima turned to look, and then cursed under his breath.
"Bring her back to school, and then make your way to Dongmyong and meet us there," he ordered Shinsou, before disappearing in the direction of the elusive Baek.
Watanabe was scowling. "Enjoy playing nursemaid, Youngjae," he said to Shinsou, before turning and following Nakajima.
Shinsou turned to look at Yeonha. She hadn't been able to hear any of the whispered conversation between her father and Watanabe, but she had heard Nakajima's final order to bring her back to school. She was looking at Shinsou, a defiant expression on her face. She had her lips pressed together, and he guessed that she had figured out how his Quirk worked; she wasn't going to allow him to brainwash her into following him.
He dug his hands into his pockets and sauntered off, looking for the bogus tax-collecting Party cadre whom they had seen earlier. So Yeonha had lost her allowance because of him; he'd see what he could do to reimburse her.
Presently, he located the cadre at a stall selling electronic goods, having a heated argument with the stallholder. From what Shinsou could gather, the stallholder was insisting that he had already paid his tax the previous week.
He went up to the two arguing men. He had no idea how to address a Party cadre in Korean, so he settled for the standard 'excuse me' – "Jeogiyo."
The cadre turned, and glared at him.
"Stay out of this," he snapped, and then his face went blank.
"Come with me," said Shinsou, coolly.
As they approached Yeonha's stall, he saw her sitting on the ground with her neighbour and another boy. They were watching the Party cadre's approach with growing apprehension, for their stall was a makeshift one that was usually set up at random at various jangmadang, so that Yeonha's neighbour could avoid paying the stall tax.
Shinsou and the cadre stopped in front of the stall.
"Yeonha-ya, stand up," said Shinsou.
Yeonha stood up, looking nervous.
"Buy everything in this stall from this girl and give her the money," Shinsou said to the man.
Yeonha's two friends watched in shock as the cadre bought up the entire stall, and gave her a stack of US dollars and Yuan notes.
Yeonha herself was looking stunned. She had obviously never handled so much money in her life.
When the man had departed, loaded down with food, Shinsou heard Yeonha's neighbour asking her who her friend was.
"I can't believe it!" exclaimed the girl exultantly, "We sold everything!" She counted out Yeonha's share of the money and passed it to her, and then, casting a sidelong glance at Shinsou, giggled. "Your friend looks so hot, Yeonha-ya, and he does such interesting things! I don't mind getting to know him better!"
"Well you can't, you've got to pack your mother's things and bring them back to her!" snapped the boy, sounding angry.
Shinsou watched as the girl, still casting occasional coquettish glances at him, packed everything up and left. He decided that he might as well leave, too.
"Since you've got a medical letter, there's no point me bringing you back to school, is there?" he said to Yeonha, "You'd just get into trouble if you suddenly turn up for classes halfway through the day. I'll be off, then."
"Oh, but you're not leaving yet, are you?" said Yeonha anxiously, "Your ship only comes once a month, and I don't have much chance to talk to you!"
"But we were supposed to go out, this afternoon!" protested the boy, who was still standing next to her. He shot a jealous glance at Shinsou.
"What do you mean?" said Yeonha, looking at him, perplexed, "We were supposed to be here at the stall all day!"
"That's all right," said Shinsou with alacrity, "You can go out with your friends, now that the stall has closed. Why don't you and your friend go and – and watch a movie, or something!"
"A movie!" exclaimed the boy, "That's a good idea! We can go and get the tickets, now!"
"A movie?" said Yeonha, looking appalled. The movies screened in North Korean cinemas consisted mostly of dull government propaganda. She glanced at Shinsou. "Well then, Youngjae-oppa, you can come with us!"
"No I can't, I'm supposed to meet my father at Dongmyong Hotel," said Shinsou, trying to escape.
"Well, I'll come along with you, and we'll persuade abeonim to excuse you this afternoon, so that you can spend it with us, instead," said Yeonha, determinedly. She turned to the other boy. "Sung-jin, you can go buy tickets for us, first! We'll meet you at the movie theatre!"
"Better not buy for me," said Shinsou, "in case I can't come, after all."
"Why don't I just come along to the hotel, too," said Sung-jin, glaring at Shinsou with dislike.
"No, no, you … you have to buy the tickets before they're sold out!" said Yeonha, "We'll see you later!" She turned, and began hurrying Shinsou out of the jangmadang.
"Whoa, what's the matter?" said Shinsou, when they were out of earshot of Sung-jin, "Why didn't you just let him come with us?"
"You don't understand," said Yeonha, sounding ashamed, "He's my classmate at the foreign languages school, and I don't want him to meet my mother, or he'll know from her speech that she's a Zainichi Korean, and tell everyone else. In high school when they found that out about me, I was ostracized because of it."
"He's your classmate?" said Shinsou, "So he skipped school so that he could be with you? It sounds as if he likes you a lot!"
"He won't like me once he finds out I'm a Zainichi Korean," she said, looking downcast. "I don't really fit in at the foreign languages school. The other students there are all from a higher songbun than me," – songbun referred to one's social class, based on one's political and economic background – "I wouldn't have gotten into this school if it wasn't for Choe Yong-gon. I don't really belong there."
They were outside the jangmadang now, and Shinsou saw the taxi that he'd sat in earlier. It was parked by the road, and the driver was staring into space. Shinsou suddenly realised that he'd forgotten to wake the man up from his brainwashed state after they had paid him the money.
"Let's take a taxi to the hotel," he said to Yeonha, "it's too far to walk."
Yeonha seemed to think that the taxi would be too expensive, but Shinsou assured her that he had enough money. As the taxi set off, he could tell by her face that she had never sat in one before, perhaps not even a car.
"Better become invisible," he commented, "you're supposed to be ill, and if anyone from your school sees you, it won't be good."
"All right," she said, still looking around the taxi in fascination. She cheerfully linked her arm through his, and made the both of them vanish.
Shinsou was startled. He had meant that she should make herself invisible, not him as well, for although he would have liked to have disappeared, he couldn't think of an excuse as to why he should not be seen. It was just as well she seemed to have misunderstood, he reflected. It felt odd having her arm linked through his, though, but she didn't seem to think anything about it. She appeared to be watching the taxi driver, for she started asking Shinsou if he knew how to drive, and whether it was easy.
When they reached the hotel, they found Nakajima and Watanabe not at the restaurant, but at a small café on the ground floor. Park Soojin was there as well, for the restaurant had hardly any customers that day; winter was setting in and the hotel had very few guests at the moment. Watanabe, seeing that the waitresses in the restaurant had nothing to do, had managed to charm the manageress into allowing Soojin to take half an hour off and accompany them to the café.
Nakajima frowned when he saw Yeonha, but Shinsou said, "School would have ended by the time I brought her back there, so there was no point. She's got the afternoon free, and is going to watch a movie now."
"Movie?" said Nakajima, "What movie?"
Shinsou shrugged.
"You're going to watch a movie and you don't know what it is?" said Nakajima.
"Well, I'm not going," said Shinsou, "She's going with her classmate. He's gone to buy the tickets."
"He?" said Nakajima, "She's going with a boy?" He glared at Soojin, who looked at Yeonha and shrugged, with a small smile.
"Well, it isn't proper," said Nakajima disapprovingly, "Youngjae, you'd better go along and keep an eye on them."
Park Soojin and Watanabe burst out laughing at the expression on Shinsou's face. Yeonha looked surprised, but pleased, that Shinsou was coming along.
Shinsou was furious.
"Why should I go?" he burst out, "I'd just be in their way!"
"That's the idea," said Nakajima grimly.
"But – " spluttered Shinsou.
"Bring her straight back after that," added Nakajima.
Shinsou opened his mouth to protest further, but Park Soojin came forward and took his arm.
"Best get going," she said, smiling and firmly leading him to the café entrance, "You should know not to cross your father. Once he's made his mind up, it's made up."
When they were outside, Yeonha looked at Shinsou, and giggled.
"Oh, your father's so funny!" she said, "Anyone would think he was my father instead of yours!"
Shinsou gazed at her, speechless.
"You never said a truer word," he said, at last.
He shook his head. "Look, I'm not going to the movie. Besides, by now your friend will have bought tickets for you and for himself, and I won't be able to sit with you, anyway."
"Oh, don't worry about it!" she said brightly, "You can use my ticket. I'll become invisible and sneak in. The cinema's usually quite empty. We can easily find three empty seats and sit together!"
Shinsou gave a small sigh, and resigned himself to the inevitable. Pausing outside the hotel, they saw their taxi driver there, still in a brainwashed state. Shinsou had merely ordered him to continue with his work as usual. He was waiting hopefully for some passengers from the hotel, but was unlikely to have much luck, since there were so few guests at the moment. Shinsou figured that he might as well bring them to the movie theatre.
"So, what's this Sung-jin like?" asked Shinsou, as the brainwashed driver started off with their invisible selves settled in the back seat. "He's obviously interested in you."
"He has been so uptight and frustrated lately," lamented Yeonha, "I think he's desperate to defect because he'll be called up for military service soon. Military service is compulsory for males in North Korea, and it lasts ten years. He's been trying to persuade me to defect with him."
"Defect?" said Shinsou, "Well, would you?"
"I can't leave my mother," said Yeonha, "She'd be sent to a labour camp right away, if I defected. Besides, I could never leave her here, all alone."
"She could go with you," suggested Shinsou.
"Yes, but Sung-jin wants to eventually escape to South Korea by first crossing into China," said Yeonha, "and I know Eomma won't want to go to South Korea. She thinks it'll be as bad as being here. Samchon and this missionary we know, Titus, have been trying to persuade us to go to America. I think Sung-jin somehow guesses, although I didn't mention it to him. He seems desperate to get me to go with him. He feels trapped here, and has been very reckless lately, complaining about the regime."
She paused, then continued.
"It's dangerous, you know. If you're caught stealing or vandalising property, you might spend months in a labour camp, but you'd be released in the end. And nowadays you can even bribe the police into letting you off. But if you're caught criticising the regime, especially the Supreme Leader, that's serious. You'd be locked away permanently, or even executed on the spot. Sungjin has been secretly watching and reading too much foreign material that's been smuggled into the country. He's become very critical of the regime, and frustrated with life here. We watch South Korean dramas, you know, and we can see that the living conditions are so much better there. The smallest thing sets him off. And he gets jealous so easily."
"I think I had really better not turn up for the movie," said Shinsou, remembering how hostile Sung-jin had been, "I'd just be playing gooseberry – "
"No, please come," begged Yeonha, "I don't have another Zainichi Korean friend my age whom I can talk to freely, and you only come once a month."
Shinsou, of course, couldn't tell her that he wasn't a Zainichi Korean at all, and that he wasn't even Korean but Japanese. He was trying to decide if he could get out of the situation by brainwashing her, but before he could think of a solution, the taxi arrived at the cinema.
Sung-jin looked wrathful when he saw that Shinsou had come along together with Yeonha. He had already lost his temper with one of the cinema staff because, after buying the tickets, the cinema had promptly suffered a power failure, and the staff member had informed him that all shows had been cancelled for the day, but had refused to give him a refund.
Shinsou took one look at Sungjin's face, and made up his mind.
"Look, I'm leaving," he said firmly to Yeonha, "You can spend the afternoon with him. My father will probably be visiting your place tonight – I'll see you then."
He didn't wait for her to reply, but quickly strode off. He turned to look back, though, to make sure that she was with Sung-jin, and saw the two of them having a heated argument.
Shinsou watched, concerned. Sung-jin suddenly seemed to lose his head. There was a propaganda poster with a picture of the Supreme Leader next to them, and he suddenly reached out and ripped it off the wall and tore it in two, in frustration.
He then let the pieces fall to the ground, his hands shaking, realising what he had done. He looked around; the cinema staff and a small number of other movie-goers present were watching him in stunned silence.
He was unlucky. Several men, whom Shinsou later discovered were state security department officials, had been walking by, and when they saw what had happened, they began advancing in on him. Sungjin backed away, and then turned and ran. Yeonha seemed paralysed, but the officials ignored her; it was Sungjin they were after.
Shinsou hurried back, but just as he reached Yeonha, there was a sharp scream and the sound of an explosion from the alley behind the cinema. Shinsou recognised the sound; it was similar to the one produced when Chongryon Kim had made the umbrella burst into flames.
Yeonha was trembling, and she was as white as a sheet.
"Come on," said Shinsou, taking her by the arm and leading her away, "I don't think they noticed you, but just in case, you'd better get out of here, as well."
He saw that their taxi was still there. The driver had been waiting there after dropping them off, hoping that some cinema-goers might want a ride.
"Kalma Airport," Shinsou said to the driver, as they got into the taxi. He didn't know why he said it. Yeonha was looking so shaken that his first thought was to let her calm herself by looking at some aeroplanes, since she seemed so fond of them.
Yeonha linked her arm through his and made the two of them invisible, but Shinsou could still feel her trembling.
"Are you all right?" he asked, in concern.
"He's dead," she said with a small sob, her voice shaking.
Shinsou gave a small sigh. He felt shaken himself; it was the first time he had actually seen the brutality of the secret police here. What had just happened was shocking – Sungjin's life had ended so abruptly and violently, and over such a trivial matter. He put his arm around Yeonha, and she promptly burst into tears.
She had calmed down somewhat, and stopped sobbing, by the time they reached the airport. Shinsou had thought that their long-suffering taxi driver might at last get some passengers there, but the drop-off point was deserted. He had forgotten that Kalma Airport, although it had cost millions to build, had remained inactive ever since it had been completed, except for the period during the Air Festival.
Shinsou paid the driver the fare, and then dismissed him.
The airport looked extremely modern and impressive, spacious with glass panels and LED lights for decoration. The flooring was of polished marble, and glass lifts connected one storey to another. There was, however, hardly anyone around; although the facility was meant to be an international airport and was supposed to have a capacity of two thousand passengers a day, no international flights had ever landed on its runway; the only air traffic the airport had seen was a few domestic chartered flights.
The place appeared to be operating on minimal staff, and there were so few people around that the two of them felt quite odd being there, so Yeonha slipped her hand into Shinsou's and made them invisible again.
Shinsou had never met a girl who so casually took hold of a boy's hand. It was true, of course, that she needed to touch some part of him in order to make him invisible. He didn't have any rope that they could use, the way Nakajima did. He found her quite odd, and wondered if she did this to everyone.
She seemed subdued, probably still thinking about Sung-jin, but tried to talk to Shinsou about the airport. She had been there a few times, hoping to see some aircraft, but had given up after a while. They were strolling through the departure hall when Shinsou noticed two men in the distance, dressed in what looked like the pilot's black uniform of Air Koryo, the North Korean national carrier.
"Look," he said quietly to Yeonha, "those look like pilots. Let's try talking to them."
The pilots were making for a side door, so they hurried over to a corner where they would not be seen, so that Yeonha could make them visible again, and then rushed after the two airmen.
The pilots were startled, but Shinsou quickly brainwashed the both of them. It turned out that a chartered flight from Pyongyang had actually arrived the previous day at the airport. The aircraft had just had some maintenance because one of its spoilers was faulty, and the pilots said that they were now going to take the plane, an Ilyushin-62, for a short test flight before finally returning to Pyongyang.
"They're going on a test flight!" said Shinsou, looking at Yeonha, his eyes gleaming. "Shall we go along?"
Her face creased into a huge smile.
"Yes!" she said, looking excited.
Shinsou told the brainwashed pilots that they were to carry on with their test flight as usual, but that he and Yeonha were going to become invisible and come along, and that they were to lead them to the Ilyushin. He could hardly believe what they were doing, but they managed to bypass whatever airport staff were present, and soon found themselves on board the aircraft. Since only the brainwashed pilots were there, Yeonha made herself and Shinsou visible again.
This particular Ilyushin was an old aircraft, having been in service for about forty years, and its four engines were alarmingly noisy. The whine with which each engine fired up was exceptional; it was extremely high in frequency, and kept growing steadily in volume, making the rear of the plane vibrate. Shinsou winced, but Yeonha, of course, didn't notice that anything was wrong, since it was her first time on an aeroplane.
They sat behind the pilots in the cockpit during the takeoff, and Shinsou couldn't help thinking that the controls, which were arranged on a turquoise-coloured background, looked dated. Yeonha, however, was enjoying everything, and was quite overcome when the aircraft finally lifted off into the air. It was late afternoon and the weather was fair, so they had a marvellous view of the sea and Wonsan and its surroundings.
Yeonha was looking curiously at the cockpit instruments and wondering how everything worked, so Shinsou ordered the pilots to answer all her questions. He couldn't understand much of the ensuing conversation, which was in Korean and probably contained a lot of technical aviation jargon, but it was enough that she was obviously having the time of her life. She was excited at every little thing, and even the plane tilting to one side while making a turn fascinated her.
The winter days were short, and the sun was already setting when the Ilyushin completed its flight and began descending back to land. Yeonha gave a small sigh of contentment as the wheels touched the runway.
"This is the best thing that's ever happened to me," she said, looking at Shinsou and smiling blissfully, "Don't you think the sunset is beautiful?"
It was dark by the time they had disembarked and invisibly re-entered the airport terminal. Shinsou realised that by now Nakajima must be wondering what had happened to his precious daughter. He was wondering how they were going to get back to the town, for the airport was so deserted that it was unlikely any taxis or buses served it. However, he didn't have to worry, for when they entered the arrival hall, he was astonished to see a small group of tourists there, wandering around.
"Where did these people come from?" he said, taken aback.
"Oh, tourists sometimes ask to come to the airport and have a look," said Yeonha, "The airport staff will then switch the lights on and open some stores for them. But most of the items on the menu aren't available, except for some snacks and drinks."
They followed the tour group until its members began boarding their tour bus. Being invisible, they somehow managed to board the bus undetected, and hid near the back until it reached its destination, which was not Dongmyong but another hotel, Songdowon. Shinsou waited until the group had disembarked and the bus was empty, and then brainwashed the bus driver into driving them to Yeonha's apartment.
It was only when they had gotten off the bus and entered the elevator that he looked at Yeonha, who was still grinning from ear to ear because of the test flight, and realised that he had completely forgotten about adopting his vapid persona that day.
"Today was an epic fail when it came to my vapid strategy," he thought ruefully, as they emerged from the elevator, "There were just too many things going on. Well, at least she's forgotten about Sung-jin for the time being." He frowned, remembering the terrible and grisly end Yeonha's classmate had come to. "Never mind," he told himself, "I'll give being vapid one last try, next month. If it still doesn't work, then I suppose I'll have to do what Kaneshiro suggested – give up, be friends with her, try to help Nakajima get them to defect ..."
With that thought in mind, he resignedly followed Yeonha back to the apartment, where Park Soojin and an impatient Nakajima were waiting for them.
