The Safe House (Dal-Geon)
Finally, they reached the gate to the house, which was the only visible way to get inside. Dal-Geon stopped the car and got off to open it, leaving the motor running. He went to the left of the gate where the control panel was, punched in a code of ten characters, lightly pressed his right palm against the screen for print verification, then pushed his hat up and removed his mask halfway, letting it dangle from one ear, to allow a cornea and face scan. The security system was the best money could buy, Lily made sure of it. There were three barriers that separated the outside from the inside, each with a unique code and separate control panel that communicated with the main one inside.
The gate started moving, slowly sliding to the right. He put the mask back on, returned to the car and went in through the gate, which automatically closed as soon as the car was in the clear. He parked the jeep in front on the second barrier, turned the car off, got out and went on to open the door, leaving Hae-Ri to wait in the car. He punched in another code, pressed his palm flat against the screen, and uncovered his face again to allow a scan.
"Approved", the security system announced, and he turned the handle, pushing the door open. It was made of iron and very heavy, and took a bit of effort to open it wide. He slung his mask back over his ear to cover his face and pulled down his hat over his brow before going back to the car. He opened the trunk and stuffed Hae-Ri's purse into his rucksack, grabbed it and Black Sun's duffle bag, and closed the door. Dropping the bags to the ground, he leaned them against the back tire, and shoved a hand in his pocket to extract the little key he stored there last night, before moving on to open Hae-Ri's door, keeping in mind that her injured wrist was still cuffed to it.
He snaked his arm inside, trying to keep the opening as narrow as possible to avoid tugging at her wrist too hard. After managing to get the cuff off the door handle, he opened it wide and took a step toward her after replacing the key in his pocket. As much as he wanted to trust that she wouldn't cause any trouble before they got inside, he couldn't. Knowing that he would have to carry her up the stairs due to her injury, he worried that if he just let her be she would definitely go for his gun, mask or hat when she got close enough, and he couldn't allow that.
He also didn't want to waste time restraining her in case she tried to fight him off, a thing that she would surely so, he believed. He wasn't so worried about her running away, though. The gate could be easily opened from inside, but even so, with her sprained ankle in addition to being so far from the road and a good distance away from other residencies in this area, he would catch her in no time. Though he felt bad, he decided to play it safe and just have her cuffed for two more minutes until they got inside.
He reached for her free arm, and as expected, she pulled back forcefully, trying to release his hold on her. He tightened his grip and brought her wrists together, placing the unoccupied cuff around her left wrist. He then pull her halfway out of the car and hoisted her over his right shoulder, picked up the bags and ignored her rather vocal, and physical, protest. First she tried kicking him, but probably thought better of it as she turned to fists instead. She was strong, and the pounding against his back was quite uncomfortable, but nothing he couldn't manage. And besides, if he was being honest with himself, he deserved a lot more than just a few blows to the back.
He briskly marched through the door, kicking it close with some effort, the latch immediately extending into place, locking behind them. He took a step inside and the lights automatically turned on in the short corridor that led to a flight of stairs. For this part of the earth, that suffered lacking to completely missing infrastructure, the house was extremely well off. Being in the desert, all that was needed was to slap a few solar panels on the roof and let the sun do the rest.
At the end of the stairs was a landing that led to the third and last barrier. Dal-Geon reached the door with Hae-Ri hanging from his shoulder, dropped the bags to the floor, and punched in yet another unique code. Again, he pushed back his hat and uncovered his face, letting the system run a scan to verify his identity for the last time.
"Approved", the system announced again, and the door unlocked loudly. He readjusted his hat and mask, picked up the bags and stepped inside, closing the door behind them, hearing the bolt move into place.
The apartment was dark. All windows were tinted and curtained in order to give the impression that the place was always empty, I case someone happened to look from outside. The place was an old Arabic house that was comprised of two levels, design to accommodate two generations of the same family, one on each floor. The house was planned to have 2 more floors, but the work was stopped halfway, which left it abandoned for many years once the family that occupied it decided to leave. For obvious reasons, Dal-Geon and Lily thought it was a good idea to preserve the impression that the house was unused even while occupied. It was too far on the outskirts of the village, and too small for the average family, which consisted 3 or 4 generations at any given time, for anyone to take interest in it, which was perfect.
Lily and her North Korean minion made sure to make the necessary adjustments so the structure was self-sustained, having its own electricity and water supply. While the electricity part, though pricey, was rather easy to install, water was a different story. The house boasted a purifying system that reused water, but in order to reuse water, you need water to use. The desert being what it is, it was impossible to count on rain for water supply. Instead, they just used the common solution locals picked when they weren't connected to a main pipeline, and kept several water-storage tanks on the spacious roof, each with the capacity to hold up to 2000 liters. While the locals had to refill the tanks every so often, frequency depending mostly on the size of the family, the water-reuse technology at the safe house made that unnecessary for the most part. With two people, it would take maybe a year for the tanks to need a refill.
Thanks to the deep pockets of ex-president Jeong, who put no limit on the amount Dal-Geon could use for his cause, the construction, which including altering the first level completely, was made possible and didn't take too long to complete. The previous safe houses Lily prepared in other countries weren't so remote and high-tech, as their stay was never longer than a few weeks while he was being sent on missions all over the world. This time, she decided to go big after he joined his current unit, which operated exclusively in North Africa and the Middle East, with its main base situated in Kiria, that wasn't too big and conveniently bordered with all the right places.
Seeing all the work that was put into this place, it was easy to understand why Lily constantly nagged him, saying that this time he should refrain from taking out his entire unit, and just stay put instead of being moved around again, which made her job inconvenient. Thinking of that made him reluctant to let her know of his current endeavor.
It hasn't been too long since he's been there to set up the security system, just a couple of months ago, but it seemed entirely different. He knew Lily stocked this place with anything he might need for a prolonged stay, but hasn't seen it for himself. Last time he was here, the place was almost entirely empty. Now, it seemed ready to move in to. Once again he was in awe of how capable and thorough she was, and mostly, was glad to have her on his side rather than as an enemy.
He switched the lights on and the room turned bright. He gently lowered Hae-Ri to the floor, holding onto her until she was stable enough, gingerly balancing herself after the prolonged time she had to stay seated. He stepped into what was now a bedroom, boasting a twin bed that wasn't there before, dropped the bags and went straight to the stack of boxes on the far end of the room, where all necessary supplies should be.
Keeping in mind that Hae-Ri probably needed to use the bathroom, he started going through the boxes in a hurry. The first two boxes he opened contained food provision, the third was filled with towels. He picked up one, and though the smell was a little musty, he thought it was good enough. He found more food going through another box, and then, on the next one, he found what he was looking for – clothes.
He picked out a set of shirt, pants and jacket, and started walking back to the living area, just in time to find Hae-Ri trying her luck with the door. The security system was set to level 2, which was maximum verification coming in, but none was necessary to go out. All the doors they had passed to come inside could be opened from within. Wanting to avoid another chase, this time on foot, he closed the distance in a few quick strides, and slammed the door shut just before she managed to stick her head out.
She turned her head around to look at him, then looked away rather pouty. Dal-Geon held in his urge to laugh. She must be comfortable to pull out a face that was so much like her normal self, exactly how he remembered her. Though it warmed his heart to see her wearing that expression, he hated the thought that she was getting comfortable with a criminal. Though it made his plan to keep her safe until he could send her off much easier, he felt like it wasn't the smartest move for her. If her kidnapper wasn't him, she could be in grave danger if she let her guard down.
Chasing the dreadful though away, he made her hold the clothes and towel, which she grabbed with a questioning look, and then supported her weight while guiding her to the bathroom. Walking her inside, he took the key out of his pocket and uncuffed her, hoping that he would never have to use the cuffs again, and walked away, closing the door behind him. He assumed he had about 20 minutes before she came out.
The most pressing thing was setting the security system. Walking to the door, he punched in his code on the main control panel, chose the highest security level, which required verification of identity by scan to get in the apartment, and verification of identity by print going out of it. It also turned on a powerful signal jammer, locked all the windows and activated laser motion detectors around the structure, in the garage and in the corridor outside the entrance door, and announce any human form detected within a 30-meter radius around the house. He punched in his code again and pressed his palm against the panel to apply the new settings. "Level 5, approved", the system announced, and when he gave the door a try, he was satisfied to find it locked.
Grabbing a bag of rice, tin can and a bottle of water from the bedroom, Dal-Geon went to the kitchen and opened up the cabinets one by one until he found a pot. Filling it with rice and water, he placed it on the electric stove with the lid on. Setting the timer on his watch, he went back to the bedroom. There was a large chest of drawers that came with the house against the wall to the left of the bed. He pulled the heavy wooden box away from the wall until there was enough room for him to squeeze in.
There was another control panel on the wall that wasn't affected by bumping up the security level, as it was design for quick usage in an emergency. He punched in the code, "CH0612B357" and with a snap, a section of the wall about half the size of a standard door suddenly sunk in with a subdued hiss. He pushed it back until he heard a "click", and the sunken section of the wall automatically slid to the right.
The opening led to a hidden space behind the wall, a little windowless chamber that boasted many types of different weapons and other tactical necessities, including tranquilizers, flamethrowers, shoulder-fired missiles, and anything else the curious mind of Lily came up with. Though he thought it was rather excessive, it didn't hurt. Having not even the least bit of interest in the logistical responsibly, he didn't care how she chose to spend the money that was allocated for equipping the safe house, trusting her to do a good job.
The little room was also connected to a flight of stairs that led to the garage, or further down another flight of stairs, to an underground passage which enabled leaving the house a couple of meters away from the structure, in case the garage was compromised. Leaving via the underground passage was very inconvenient, and Dal-Geon hoped he would never have to use it. While escaping on foot in this area was bad enough, the shower of sand upon exiting the passage made it even worse.
Not bothering to go in, he carelessly threw the bags inside and emptied his belt and pockets of all weapons. He then used the control panel to close and lock the hatch, and moved the chest of drawers back against the wall to conceal the secret door. Proceeding to his next task, he quickly opened the door, going through the tedious process of passwords and prints, first at the entrance, and then at the door to the garage.
He went straight to the jeep and extracted a pen and a crumpled piece of paper from the gloves compartment. He the put on the headset that rested on the passenger's seat, setting it to the frequency he used to communicate with Lily and Do-Soo, which boasted an impressive wavelength range that allowed communication over great distance.
"Reporting in", he spoke in a low voice, for the first time in so many hours. His voice sounded rough and unfamiliar from disuse. While waiting for a response, he started to write down in what he knew was a poor excuse for Arabic, roughly translated as "food fresh, all meat, salt, woman need", and folded it over a couple of times. Though he could understand spoken Arabic sufficiently and maybe even answer back coherently, as he has been doing his best to learn the language, his vocabulary was still rather poor, and his grammar was as good as nonexistent, but he hoped it was enough. He stepped out of the car, with his headset on, and marched to the control panel by the gate.
"You're alive?", a completely uninterested, sneering voice came from the other side, sounding almost disappointed.
"Put her on", Dal-Geon rarely had patience for Kim Do-Soo's antics, and today was no different.
He punched in the code, had his hand print read, and the gate opened. Dal-Geon stepped outside and opened what was an extra-large mailbox built into the wall, dropped the note inside and came back in, the gate closing after him.
"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. MIA. What's going on? All BS frequencies are dead," now it was Lily's voice that reached his ears, uncharacteristically serious.
"Target was Go Hae-Ri", he replied simply, feeling his time before Hae-Ri was out of the shower was running short.
"She's with you at Cameltown?", she asked after a long pause, voice levelled. The security system used satellite communication to inform its owner, Lily, of any approved or denied access to the structure. It was no surprise that she knew he was there.
"Yes."
"Good job," she said, surprisingly. He expected her to be outraged by his choice to risk their combined effort to get him to where he was, but she sounded calm and approving. Though her main motivation was money and she had no personal interest in his cause, she came to be invested in it and very dedicated to its success.
"Do-Soo and I will try to sniff around. Will join you if needed," she set their plan.
"Tuned in for news, replies in dots and dashes," he said, letting her know he will respond in Morse code, as verbal communication wasn't possible around Hae-Ri.
"Copy that," from her side marked the end of the exchange.
He took the headset off let if rest around his neck, then walked to the back of the jeep and grabbed his rifles after tucking the sniper rifle into its case. When he was about to close the trunk's door, something caught his eye. A beam of light from outside was shining the interior of the car brightly. Dal-Geon, who couldn't quite believe what he was seeing, hurried to the back door to the left. Opening it, he leaned inside, and was shocked to realize that he was right. The left side of the passenger's headrest was pierces, the edges of the leather seared. With quite a bit of effort, he managed to pull the bullet out, and stared at it in bewilderment. He felt his blood starting to boil, his pulse was throbbing in every part of his body as he filled with rage.
He didn't even realize just how close they have gotten to her. He wrapped his fingers around the bullet and squeezed it tight inside his fist, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, just as the timer he set on his wristwatch suddenly went off. He dismissed it quickly, tried to shake off his anger and went on, fuming, to look for an earpiece in the front of the car, replacing it for the headset which was discarded on the passenger's seat. He hurried inside, going through all security stages on both doors yet again.
He quickly stepped inside and ran over to the stove, turning the heat off, then went to the bedroom and opened the hidden hatch again. He added his rifles to the messy pile he left on the floor of the secret chamber and stuffed the bullet he held into a side pocket of his rucksack, before closing the hatch and pushing the chest of drawers back into place. All the essentials were done, he could finally relax.
Seeing as the water was still running in the shower, he assumed he had a few more minutes to spare. He prepared his clothes, towel and a fresh mask, and tried to find a pair of slippers for Hae-Ri to use after her shower, seeing as the floor wasn't as clean as it could be. Rummaging inside one of the boxes that contained clothes, he finally found a new pair of slides, which he place at the foot of the bathroom door.
Hae-Ri turned off the water in the shower, which was Dal-Geon's cue to finish up what he wanted to do. He hurried to the kitchen and grabbed three bowls from the cabinet, filling two with rice, and poured the content of the good-old tin can into the third. He took out two spoons from the cutlery drawer, pushed his mask under his chin, and started to shovel rice into his mouth. While he chewed, he looked for a glass and filled it with water, then went to the refrigerator that was against to wall the left, closed its opened doors and plugged it in. Though they had nothing much to put inside at the moment, he hoped it would change tomorrow.
Ever since the safe house was set up for use, there was a young woman they kept on their payroll. All she had to do was stop by every other day and check the mailbox, and keep silent about it. If she found a note inside, she had to bring what was written in it as soon as possible. If she found something else, she had to get rid of it. Dal-Geon prayed she would stop by today. He couldn't remember the schedule, thinking of it as just another detail to be handle by Lily and sidekick. He hoped his note was clear enough, though he himself wasn't sure what he meant by "woman need". He meant stuff a girl might need, of course, though he had no idea what those could be. Hopefully, things would calm down quickly and he'll be able to send her home before she finds anything that she needed and was missing.
Polishing off his bowl of rice, hungry for another, he put his mask back on and set the table for Hae-Ri, just as he heard the bathroom door open. He put his bowl and spoon in the sink, and quickly made his way to her side. He pushed away any useless thoughts about how she looked in those baggy clothes with her wet, long hair, and supported her weight as she struggled to walk. He guided her to the table and pulled out a chair for her, making her sit down. Anxious to wash away the desert and blood off him, and seeing as there was nothing urgent left for him to do, he grabbed the change of clothes and towel he prepared from the bedroom, and marched into the shower, closing the door behind him.
He wasn't too worried about Hae-Ri barging in. He knew for a fact that she wasn't too shy, had a taste of it first hand, in fact. Even so, he thought as the memory made his face burn, he didn't think she was brazen enough to walk in on a strange, potentially very dangerous man in the shower. Or so he hoped.
He took off his mask and threw it in the trash can, hung his clothes and towel next to Hae-Ri's, and went about his business. He looked under the sink for a toothbrush, the paste already waiting for him on the countertop, and popped the brush into his mouth. He removed the earpiece and radio from his back pocket and left it on the counter next to her earrings, then tossed his hat from where he stood, right into the hamper. Rinsing his mouth and leaving his toothbrush next to Hae-Ri's, he took off his shoes and clothes, and unwrapped his left palm and arm, throwing the bandages away. While the wound in his palm didn't seem too bad, the gash in his arm, and specifically over Black Sun's tattoo, seemed rather angry.
Getting out of the shower, he dried himself up and and put on a fresh pair of boxers and sweats, then looked in the cabinet under the sink again, taking towels and toilet paper out until he found the big plastic box. This first aid kit was more similar to a tiny hospital, packed with almost anything one so prone to injuries such as himself might need. He disinfected and applied antiseptic ointment to the cuts, wrapped it up with bandages, and replaced everything back in the cabinet.
He pulled on a hoodie, replacing his cap for the hood, then put the radio transmitter in his pants pocket and pulled the earpiece from under his shirt and through the neck, replacing it in his ear. He was about to turn the doorknob when he froze in place and remembered his bare face, his mask still hanging from a hook. Turning around swiftly, he knocked down Hae-Ri's towel. He ducked down to pick it up, and straightened up with it in his hand, immediately looking away, feeling like he saw something that he shouldn't have. He quickly replaced the towel over the lingerie, not looking at it directly, as if it would turn him into stone if he did. He put on his mask, pulled his hood down over his brow and stepped out.
What waited for him on the other side he didn't expect, though maybe he should have. Turning back to the living area after closing the door, he found Hae-Ri with a kitchen knife close to his neck, her hand as steady as steel.