Roseanne's Summer Vacation- Chapter 27

“Bireomeogeul! It’s gone!”

It was not until dawn that the coast was clear. Tae-jun dozed off for a while, but he woke up when the police slammed the entrance doors on their way out. Tae-jun walked out into the lobby, discovering he was the only resident inside. Half of the hostel was covered in police tape. How do these people work? It’s surprising they didn’t tape the ceiling.

Tae-jun immediately rushed to the storage unit and found out it was empty. The boy paused in shock. Then he groped around the dark cupboard, but felt nothing. He even ripped out the carpet, but nothing, absolutely nothing was in there.

“For fuck’s sake!” Tae-jun got mad and kicked a wall. A piece of plaster fell off it. “Think, you idiot, think!”

How come the backpack wasn’t there? Did the police confiscate everything? No, they had no reason.

Tae-jun tried to cool off. He did the box breathing technique to slow down his heart rate. Finally, he imagined the most probable sequence of events.

“Those meddling kids and their teach. They left the hostel and took it with them!”

Having arrived at the conclusion, Tae-jun ran to his computer. He had to localise them somehow, even if they were outside of Gdynia by now.

His first idea was to check the timetable of the trains, but then he remembered that he had his phone. Instagram! Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, you greedy, ginger pillock!

He hooked up his smartphone via USB to Red Star OS—a top-of-the-line DPRK technology. Red Star is a Linux distribution mimicking macOS with its layout and functions. It was developed by the Korea Computer Centre in 2008.

Tae-jun cracked his knuckles and opened Unmyeong. This was a special application-hacking software for espionage and cyberwarfare use only. All it took was to open up Roseanne’s IG profile in the Naenara web browser, and the hacking program took it from there. Within a few minutes, Unmyeong found Roseanne’s phone number, which he subsequently used to gain access to her Google account and open the Google Location Centre.

The service showed one phone currently connected to the account. A click on the icon of Samsung Galaxy A16 revealed that Roseanne was still in Gdynia, and not so far from Tae-jun, in fact.

The Korean spy boy punched the air in triumph. “Success!”

He could clearly see in his mind what he had to do during the day. It was now or never. His single goal was to retrieve the backpack and evacuate at once. He was done with the European hell-hole.

Tae-jun selected a contact on the screen and called Murphy, the baseball cap man.

“Hello?” Murphy answered at the other end of the line. They weren’t meant to contact each other by phone unless it was an emergency.

“Yes, hello, is it the dentist’s office?” Tae-jun asked.

“Yes, it is.” Murphy recalled the code for the situation.

“I’m calling you because I’m in pain. I think my tooth needs extraction.”

“Which one is it?”

“A wisdom tooth.”

“A wisdom tooth? That’s tough.” Murphy wanted to know more. “Tell me, are there any signs of an infection?”

“The gums are inflamed, but I will bring it down with anti-inflammatory drugs,” Tae-jun said. “Can you extract the tooth by 9:30 p.m. this evening?”

“I’m busy, but if a tooth needs an extraction, it needs an extraction. I will prepare the diamond drill to make the operation quick and smooth.”

Tae-jun hung up the phone. His escape plan was settled with the baseball cap man. Having no time to waste, he got up and changed into a new hoodie. According to the schedule pasted on a wall, he had an afternoon shift at the Oppa Spot, but he won’t be at work today or ever again, for that matter.

He left to start reconnaissance at the Houston Hotel.

Back to Section Break The Third Day <----> Move to Chapter 28