Jack searched through the nearly totaled van, but aside from the small revolver sealed in an evidence bag and a few scattered "HYPER" pills in the trunk, he found nothing else.
He then swept his flashlight around the area, but there was still nothing—no bloodstains, not even a drop.
Jack's gunfire earlier had actually startled Ma Seok-do. Unlike Jack, Ma Seok-do didn't have superhuman vision and couldn't see the attackers clearly from several hundred meters away under the dim streetlights.
But considering the distance, the fact that he was shooting left-handed while driving, and that the car was in motion, it was entirely reasonable that he missed every shot. Those three guys had reacted fast, and their luck had been pretty damn good.
Even though the SIG Sauer P320-XTen used high-power 10mm AUTO rounds capable of easily piercing Level IIIA body armor, it was still just a handgun—not a rifle.
Once the bullets went through the thin double-layered metal of the rear car door, their trajectory was left entirely up to chance. But Jack's main objective had been to save lives, and in that regard, his quick decision had proven correct.
Those three attackers were ruthless. If he had hesitated even a moment, the rest of the detectives might have been slaughtered. As it was, one of the Yakuza members had died in the crash, while the other had his brains beaten out.
"This is a standard-issue police weapon in your country, right? Why is it in an evidence bag?" Jack handed the small revolver to Ma Seok-do.
"The captain said he found it along with the drugs at the Yakuza's hideout before he was taken to the ambulance. We haven't had a chance to ask where it came from yet."
Ma Seok-do took the revolver, snapped a photo of its serial number, then handed the evidence bag to a nearby officer. He hesitated for a moment before speaking again.
"Thanks for earlier. But I need to ask another favor. I want to check in with some former colleagues at a nearby station to gather intel. Can you stay at the hospital and keep an eye on them for me?"
Jack nodded, signaling that he didn't mind.
—
After catching a nap on a bench in the hospital corridor, Jack felt refreshed. He washed his face in the restroom and then went to check on the injured detectives in their hospital room.
He could only shake his head at them—being weak in combat was one thing, but knowing they were going after drug dealers and still not carrying guns? That was just reckless.
When he had searched the crash site earlier, he found that aside from Captain Jang Tae-soo's taser, the only weapons these detectives had brought were a few mismatched expandable batons. That was just pitiful.
The dysfunctional relationship between South Korean police and the public had clearly forced these officers into a corner. Even when risking their lives, they refused to carry firearms—better to die than to lose their iron rice bowl.
Of course, as an FBI agent, Jack didn't really have the right to judge. It was just one extreme versus another.
Captain Jang Tae-soo was the most seriously injured, a neck brace holding his head in place. He had just finished receiving IV fluids and was fast asleep. The other three detectives sat gloomily by his side. When Jack entered, two of them, who recognized him, immediately stood and bowed deeply in gratitude.
"As long as everyone's okay, that's all that matters," Jack said, quickly gesturing for them to sit back down.
"Who's this?" asked Kang Jin-tae, who had been called in to assist but had never met Jack before. He seemed confused to see a foreigner in the room.
"He's FBI, here to help our big brother Ma Seok-do," one of the detectives explained.
Kang Jin-tae's beady eyes widened. "Huh? The FBI? The 'FBI WARNING' FBI?"
Jack sighed and nodded with a bitter smile. Great—so now he didn't even need to introduce himself. Just saying "FBI" triggered an automatic response.
"Did any of you get a good look at the attackers? There weren't any security cameras on that stretch of road. They were obviously prepared for this, so tracking them down won't be easy."
The older of the two detectives scratched his head awkwardly, then nudged the younger one beside him. "I didn't wake up until you guys pulled me out of the car. I really didn't see anything. Jong-soo, what about you?"
Jong-soo, a young officer with a buzz cut, shook his head like a rattling drum.
"They were wearing hats and masks. We couldn't see their faces at all," Kang Jin-tae added, his expression sour.
"Wait, so you actually saw them?" The two detectives turned to him in surprise.
"I woke up right when they were killing someone. I was so scared I didn't dare move—I just played dead," Kang Jin-tae admitted without a hint of embarrassment.
"Forget it. Just get some rest." Jack saw he wasn't getting any useful information and was about to leave when suddenly, a commotion erupted in the hallway.
"Honey! Honey! Kang Jin-tae!"
"Daddy!"
"Brother-in-law!"
Kang Jin-tae shot up, only to immediately clutch his lower back in pain and collapse back onto the bed with a groan.
The voices grew closer, and soon, the hospital room door swung open to reveal three women of different ages.
The eldest, in her early thirties, still had an alluring charm. The youngest, a girl of eleven or twelve, was delicate and adorable—so much so that she didn't even look like she was Korean. And as for the middle one…
Jack's eyelid twitched. He didn't know many Korean celebrities—most of them looked too similar to tell apart. But this one, he recognized instantly.
Im Yoona. The center of Girls' Generation, the pinnacle of South Korea's "pure beauty" aesthetic. And right now, she was at the absolute peak of her looks, enhanced even further by the cinematic world's strange beauty filter. She was so stunning that it was almost impossible to look away.
—
"Hey, hey, honey, keep it down. There are other patients here. Tae-soo hyung had to get a sedative just to sleep," Kang Jin-tae said, wincing as he held his lower back. He quickly covered his wife's mouth and ushered all three women back into the hallway.
When he saw his daughter's tearful eyes, however, he immediately forgot his pain and scooped her up for a kiss.
Jack quietly closed the hospital room door behind them, still a little dazed.
What kind of cosmic karma had Kang Jin-tae accumulated in his past life? This guy had won the genetic lottery in marriage—despite looking like a complete loser, he had somehow landed an absolutely stunning wife.
The real kicker was that his daughter had inherited none of his unfortunate features—except, perhaps, for her monolid eyes.
"Honey, are you okay? When we got the call saying you were in a car accident, we rushed over immediately," the eldest woman said anxiously, checking him over before sighing in relief. Then she smacked him hard on the shoulder.
"You said you were just helping out! How did it turn into this? If something happened to you, how would we survive? We still have twenty years left on our mortgage!"
"Aish, don't say such unlucky things. I'm doing this so I can get back to the Wide Area Investigation Unit faster and earn more in field duty allowances."
Kang Jin-tae glanced at Jack, looking like he desperately wanted to cover his wife's mouth again. "Can you at least save me some face? There's an outsider here."
But when he turned back, he saw his wife and sister-in-law staring at Jack with starry eyes. The younger woman clutched her chest with a lovestruck expression.
"So handsome," she murmured dreamily.
"How are you?" Jack flashed a perfect, white-toothed smile under the hospital corridor's lights.
"Uh… F-Fine, thank you, and you?" the younger woman stammered in English, her mouth half-open.
"I'm fine too."
Hah. So the Korean and Chinese English textbooks had copied each other after all.
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