Chapter 88: The Game Widens

One of the lackeys confessed, “We didn’t set the fire intending to kill people from the start.”

In other words, “We set the fire and ended up killing people.”

Another lackey quickly spoke up.

“We just poured a ton of gasoline in secret, that’s all!”

The Prisoner’s Dilemma.

If one accomplice opens their mouth, that guy gets a reduced sentence while the one who stays silent gets a harsher punishment.

So what can the rest of the accomplices do when someone’s already spilled?

“If it were any other time, the building would just burn a little, people would get scared and hand over the money quietly!”

“We’d get more cash from the fire insurance payout, too. That’s how it was supposed to go!”

It’s better to join the confession and get a lighter sentence.

If they kept quiet now, there’d be no escaping harsher punishment.

Meanwhile, Bulkwang-dong Gasoline howled furiously.

“Shut your mouths, you bastards!”

But the lackeys, as if they’d already made up their minds, shouted over each other.

“I just did what the boss told me! Please believe me!”

“We just had bad luck. Even we were surprised, you know?”

Bulkwang-dong Gasoline struggled and screamed.

“You stupid sons of bitches! Are you looking to get yourselves killed?!”

“You’re about to die right now!”

“Better to go to prison! At this rate, we’re really going to die!”

The lackeys didn’t back down either, yelling with all their might.

In the Seobinggo Water Torture Chamber, those guys had no choice but to look out for their own skins.

“Alright. Anyone who cooperates with the investigation will be treated with leniency. I’ll keep my word.”

Uncle Cheol-gu grinned and raised his hand.

“From now on, we’ll do one-on-one interviews. Leave only that guy, take the rest to the interrogation room.”

“Yes, sir!”

The agents from the KCIA led the two lackeys away.

They would be made to write their statements in the interrogation room.

Now, only Bulkwang-dong Gasoline and Uncle Cheol-gu were left in the Seobinggo Water Torture Chamber.

“What kind of crap were you up to behind the scenes?”

“I hear the KCIA makes you confess to crimes you didn’t even commit. I know nothing.”

“Really. What would a guy who doesn’t even smoke be carrying a torch in his pocket for?”

Bulkwang-dong Gasoline’s eyes trembled violently.

“Why would a guy who goes around collecting debts be reeking of gasoline?”

“Don’t say such nonsense! Stop trying to frame an upstanding citizen as a criminal. Enough with this gasoline smell nonsense.”

“So you’re saying you did set the fire with gasoline?”

“Who the...!”

“No one ever mentioned gasoline.”

Bulkwang-dong Gasoline bit his lip hard.

“You’re here already, so just spill it. It’s your only chance to get a lighter sentence.”

With the crime already confessed, if Bulkwang-dong Gasoline kept his mouth shut, he’d take the whole fall himself.

Yet Bulkwang-dong Gasoline stubbornly kept silent.

This was not like the Bulkwang-dong Gasoline I knew.

He was sly, ruthless, and cowardly.

“You know better than anyone that telling everything is your best move now. Why are you still keeping your mouth shut? You’ve got no loyalty to protect at this point.”

“I may not protect loyalty, but I do want to protect my life.”

At some point, Bulkwang-dong Gasoline had even dropped the honorifics.

“Come on. Did you think I’d stir up this much trouble without something to rely on?”

“Who is it?”

“You don’t want to know. You can’t handle it. He’s a big shot.”

“Really, would such a big shot bother to cover for a punk like you?”

“Ever heard of a ‘community of fate’? That’s what we are.”

Instead of denying, Bulkwang-dong Gasoline went out of his way to emphasize his backup.

“So you intentionally ruined Taeseong’s event in the hospital lobby?”

“That pathetic hospital, with its half-assed signs and balloons stuck in a dingy corner? For god’s sake, it’s called a general hospital, but they don’t even have an auditorium, so they hold events in the lobby?”

It was true.

The hospital, just fifteen minutes from the Guro-dong shantytown.

The area was filled with factories, and factory workers’ pockets were usually feather-light.

Patients often skipped out on their bills and ran.

“I just thought it was a New Year’s talent show to cheer up some sick kids. Would you really think that was a legit Taeseong event? Who’s more dumbfounded here?”

Taeseong Hospital hadn’t been under Taeseong’s ownership for long.

No wonder I’d been surprised by the new high-pressure chamber and the coffee vending machine.

With all the money Taeseong Group had pumped in, you could tell just by looking at the place how much their fortunes had changed.

“Guro Hospital—no, Taeseong Hospital? That was the kind of place where workers with crushed hands or stabbed gangsters got brought in, and people constantly went to the funeral home.”

Despite its small size, its surgery skills were the best in Korea, which made it all the more surprising.

Maybe that was why Taeseong took over the hospital, even though it was deeply in the red.

Bang!

“Stop dodging the question. Who’s backing you?”

Just then, the door to the Seobinggo Water Torture Chamber flew open.

“Park Cheol-gu, that’s enough.”

It was a familiar face.

The senior agent who’d once tortured Uncle Cheol-gu—and the guy who got a beating after sneaking into our house.

What was his name again? Seo Moon...something.

“It’s the Director of Internal Affairs’ order. Park Cheol-gu, step back.”

“I can’t! These guys are arsonists!”

“Park Cheol-gu, don’t make reckless accusations without evidence.”

“Maybe I don’t have it yet, but I have the statements—!”

“These?”

Seo Moon-whatever held up a few crumpled sheets of paper.

Then he flicked his lighter and set fire to the edge of the papers.

“What are you doing?!”

“Too bad. There goes the evidence. And the statements, too.”

“Senior!”

A few KCIA agents grabbed Uncle Cheol-gu.

If it were him, I thought he’d knock them all down, but he didn’t throw a punch.

The agents whispered awkwardly.

“Calm down. Don’t make this any bigger, Cheol-gu. Okay?”

“Even you guys?!”

Seo Moon-whatever dropped the half-burnt statements onto the floor.

They landed in a puddle and hissed as they soaked up the water.

“Don’t get cocky. Or you might end up in that water tank again.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“It’s a warning.”

“Last time, at least I was accused of taking bribes, but now...!”

“Hey, Park Cheol-gu. Are you naïve or just stupid?”

Seo Moon-whatever released Bulkwang-dong Gasoline.

“KCIA makes people confess to crimes they didn’t commit. You seriously didn’t know?”

Uncle Cheol-gu’s tightly clenched fist trembled.

Seo Moon-whatever jeered at him.

“That’s why you’re still running errands outside. Clueless idiot.”

Bulkwang-dong Gasoline whistled, as if to show off.

“See? It’s good to have backup. That’s the power of money, the power of authority. Ordering KCIA agents around like servants.”

He waved at Uncle Cheol-gu, who was still being held by the agents.

“Well then, take care. Looks like I shouldn’t expect a proper send-off.”

Bulkwang-dong Gasoline scratched his temple with his fingertip.

“About the guys who wrote those statements, there probably wasn’t anything important in them. At best—”

“Shut it. I’ll be the judge of that.”

Bulkwang-dong Gasoline instantly shut his mouth.

Seo Moon-whatever gestured to the KCIA agents.

“Deal with those guys from earlier in the water torture chamber. Make it thorough.”

He meant to silence them completely.

Seo Moon-whatever left the chamber with Bulkwang-dong Gasoline.

Uncle Cheol-gu yelled after them.

“Don’t tell me you’re involved in this too, senior?!”

There was no answer. The door closed.

“I asked if you’re involved in this, too, senior!”

Even the agents holding Uncle Cheol-gu had no answer.

Bang!

A man in a suit kicked open the water torture chamber door.

“Let go of Park Cheol-gu.”

“Director!”

“You Internal Affairs bastards, didn’t you hear me? Let go of my man—he’s done nothing wrong!”

The agents who’d been holding Uncle Cheol-gu quickly stepped back.

The man called Director took a deep drag from his cigarette and dropped it on the floor.

The half-burned remains of the statement Seo Moon-whatever had set fire to lay, soggy, in a puddle.

“Woo-gwang has stepped in. The Chief is on his way down.”

The Director ground out his cigarette with his shoe.

“This is hopeless. You should back off, too.”

---

A blue scene from some unknown point in the future faded away like mist.

I let go of Bulkwang-dong Gasoline.

‘I hoped it wasn’t arson.’

All the effort and risk I’d taken, scrambling around to save people from dying or getting hurt in the Taeseong Chemical fire...

When I saw the fire accident on TV, I had sighed deeply, thinking, ‘What’s meant to happen will happen.’

But it wasn’t a natural disaster or accident.

It was people who’d planned and executed it.

‘The Taeseong Chemical fire—so these bastards and Woo-gwang did it together.’

Otherwise, there’s no way Woo-gwang would step in to cover for Bulkwang-dong Gasoline.

Listening to Bulkwang-dong Gasoline boast about his backup, I couldn’t help but be convinced.

—Ever heard of a ‘community of fate’? That’s what we are.

You sons of bitches!

‘If Woo-gwang is so desperate that even the Director of the KCIA has to get involved, this is no ordinary matter.’

To get the head of the KCIA moving just to rescue a lowlife loan shark? Even a dog would laugh at that.

That’s why I had strong doubts.

‘Why did Woo-gwang go so far as to set fire to the chemical factory?’

If it were Taeseong Chemical, maybe I’d understand.

But why burn down a factory he’d already taken over, causing his own losses?

According to the Taeseong Group meeting, the property damage alone was over a billion won.

A billion—like it’s someone’s dog’s name.

‘He must be risking losses for something bigger, some greater gain.’

Otherwise, there’s no reason to burn down your own factory.

There’s something else that bothers me.

‘If they were going to get rid of the lackeys who wrote the statements, why not take out Bulkwang-dong Gasoline at the same time? Why make things complicated?’

Instead of an easy kill, Woo-gwang went through the trouble of mobilizing the KCIA Director to rescue Bulkwang-dong Gasoline.

There must be a good reason for that.

‘It means Bulkwang-dong Gasoline has real dirt on Woo-gwang.’

What kind of dirt could a lowlife loan shark possibly have?

‘Bulkwang-dong Gasoline must know the true identity of the person who ordered the Woo-gwang Chemical fire.’

I have my own suspicions.

A cunning, ambitious man who’d use the fire to climb even higher.

A sly, ruthless bastard who’d commit any dirty deed for profit.

‘I’ve only got a hunch, but no hard proof. Bulkwang-dong Gasoline, on the other hand, might have decisive evidence.’

Otherwise, would Woo-gwang go to such lengths to save him?

‘Woo-gwang moved the powers of law on purpose.’

Even after Uncle Cheol-gu dragged them into the KCIA, they got out easily.

If the Director himself said it was a lost cause and told me to drop it, that says it all.

‘If Woo-gwang is this deeply involved in the fire, things are different. Since the Blue House is furious about this case, it could be the leash that chokes Woo-gwang, a trap he can never escape.’

Suddenly, I remembered the testimony draft Uncle Cheol-gu had written, shining golden in my mind.

When the disaster happened, I’d thought Taeseong would only suffer losses, never gain anything.

But if I could put a leash on Woo-gwang and make him pay for his crimes, it’d be a good deal after all.

‘If you make a mess, you gotta pay for it.’

Now there’s only one thing left to consider.

‘How should I handle this? My way? Or the chaebol’s way?’

The chaebols usually get things done by mobilizing state power.

They move the police, prosecutors, the KCIA, dispatch legal teams, pressure the courts and the media.

In short, they bury it with a mix of legality and loopholes, using power and the system.

‘Looks like I need to make this game even bigger.’

If Woo-gwang can do it, so can Taeseong.

If it’s a matter that gets Woo-gwang moving, I’ll make sure Taeseong gets involved too.

‘Then maybe I’ll start by handling things my way.’

The method I usually use is simple.

1. Catch them, by any means necessary.

2. Wreck them.

3. Rope in everyone involved and crush them together.

See? Simple, right?

Of course, I’ll have to borrow some chaebol tactics too.

The more cards I have, the better.