Sevastyan

Fallout from Bak Sahyuk’s arrest continued throughout the day.

There were compromised shipments, some of them Sevastyan’s, to be redirected, sites to shut down, and individuals who might or might not take advantage of the situation.

Sevastyan confirmed with the Yadro that his target, Gang Junseo, was staying put and behind security and that he had reliable inside information.

Never mind that his insider information was Ellisandre who confidently informed Sevastyan that Jun was safe and well guarded.

Sevastyan made his recommendation that no movement be made to try to get to Jun at the moment, that attempts appeared expected and would be expensive.

“There are not currently the resources on the ground for a successful attempt,” was the summary report.

The fact that California was taking up many available resources went unsaid.

The Yadro appeared to believe him, at least.

Dirk called in the middle of it all. “Tell me you have eyes on the asset.”

Sevastyan snorted. “My assignment is need to know. Let’s say it’s handled. Until the wider situation is battened down, consider your information as coming through headquarters."

Dirk swore colorfully. “At least tell me you have the asset’s location on lock down.”

“My orders are being followed.”

“Goddammit, you Rus. We’re on the same forking side. I got a meltdown on my hands. Throw me a rope.”

“You weren’t included in my brief,” Sevastyan snapped. “Forgive me for following protocol and locking down channels in light of what’s going down out west. Who the hell authorized that clusterfuck?”

Dirk growled but didn’t answer.

“I’m starting to regret ‘helping’ out in Seoul,” Sevastyan snarled. “I have operations elsewhere but instead I’m here.”

“Yeah, well, look at it from my perspective.”

“I don’t know what your perspective is.” Sevastyan snorted in derision through his nose. “What’s even your interest in this?”

“I work with Seoul a lot,” Dirk spat. “Look. I’ll be in California. If you can just stay in Chicago and keep an eye on the target, at least someone outside the clusterfuck is over there for the moment.”

It sounded like Dirk was trying to find a way to “give” Sevastyan instructions. “That’s up to the Yadro.”

Dirk grunted and got off the phone. Dirk lacked a few of the concrete powerhouses Sevastyan had behind him, such as Raska and someone on the same standing as Alexi.

He made up for it by having a larger list of ties to mid-level movers and shakers.

Bak Sahyuk was certainly up there in terms of someone Dirk might have tied himself to.

It was all too much to think about. Hopefully, Dirk would stay bogged down in California and wouldn’t try to bring his blustering attempts at authority to Chicago.

Not that Sevastyan wouldn’t mind taking the man down a peg or two, but Rei and Lisa were too likely to get caught up in the mix.

The question was why he was getting his hands into it at all.

Greed, probably. That was the simple answer.

He’d found some advantage to exploit, or was protecting an advantage he had been enjoying.

Towards evening, Lisa’s fever was almost entirely gone.

Rei kept a timer and made sure Lisa was woken up hourly for liquids and tea with honey.

There was no more throwing up. Rei reheated leftovers and brought them to the living room for himself and Sevastyan.

“I found the link between Bak Sahyuk and Bak Gyeong.

Sevastyan slid his fork into the lasagna.

Spinach and white crumbly cheese squeezed out on both sides.

It was a good, thick meal for a cold night, although potato pierogi would have been better.

Perhaps another day. It wasn’t something Rei had the tools or the training to make, but they could order some.

“Report.”

Rei reached for his tablet and brought up a slideshow of pictures. “They’re cousins. Fathers are brothers.” He handed over the tablet.

Sevastyan swiped through the evidence: obituaries, some public records, and old photographs from a niece's social media. He set the tablet down thoughtfully. “Good work.”

Rei nodded.

Sevastyan motioned him to eat, but continued thinking over Rei’s insight.

“Bak Gyeong sells you into the Merchari network. Bak Sahyuk rises through the ranks to become the head of Merchari operations in California. They don’t really acknowledge each other. Bak Sahyuk rarely goes to Korea from what I’ve been able to tell. He prefers the United States and Australia.”

“And the Caribbean,” Rei added. “He’s shown up in conversations about operations there a lot in the last three years.”

Sevastyan nodded. “So, we have to assume that they are actually close with each other in some way. Does BBB3’s legal issues with Gang Junseo have ramifications for Bak Sahyuk here in the United States, or is Sahyuk getting arrested soon after Gyeong loses control of Gang Junseo a coincidence?”

“Are there charges yet?” Rei asked.

Sevastyan shook his head. “The Merchari lawyer may know, but I don’t want to poke that hard. They don’t know what we don't know yet. Whatever it is, Dirk probably does know.”

Rei waited to see if Sevastyan would say anything else, then took a bite of food.

Someday, bright one, you won’t need to worry about showing respect on this level.

Someday. But not today. Not with Lisa literally sleeping in their den.

They’d crossed so many lines already. The only saving grace was that Lisa hated the Merchari.

What remained to be seen was if he would use his knowledge to bring Sevastyan down, or keep his mouth shut because he understood that Rei was better off with a master who was sometimes lenient.

Everything was a risk. Either Lisa was going to become more trusted, or he was going to end up at the bottom of the river. Alexi would survive. Sevastyan could probably even pass the death off as self-inflicted.

Around midnight one of Sevastyan’s contacts messaged with the charges against Bak Sahyuk. He’d been traveling under a stolen identity. Not the most unusual behavior. The name itself, though, was.

“Jun River.” Sevastyan passed his phone to Rei to read the message.

Rei’s eyes flashed to Sevastyan’s face. Neither had to say what they were thinking.

Jun River was the name Jun had told Rei when they were kids. His English name. Rei left the clothes he was folding and grabbed his laptop. Sevastyan left him to it. Rei’s brain moved fast and silent. He preferred to work things out, then bring his findings when he was finished.

Sevastyan was more instinctual, thinking with his gut.

His gut was signaling that Dirk knew more than he was saying and wanted more than he was asking for. He sent a message to Alexi.

Alexi rang. “Entertain an old man.”

“What time is it even there for you?”

“Time is a human construct.” Alexi sounded relaxed, perhaps under the influence of weed or alcohol.

“Dirk is putting pressure on me to get closer to Gang Junseo. The Yadro agrees with my assessment to wait. There’s no good reason to get closer right now. The resources aren’t even assigned. I’m alone. Reevesworth Industries has multiple forms of security on him twenty-four seven.

My informant is keeping me updated on where he is, but physically getting cameras on him would require an act of god and the resources of a major world government.”

Alexi laughed. “You’re as good as one or the other.”

“Yes, well, if I could duplicate myself, it might be sufficient, but that technology is sadly lacking.”

Alexi chuckled even more. “You should fuck your slave. You sound stressed.”

“Don’t feel like it,” Sevastyan said. Even he could hear the petulance in his voice. “Been changing shipments to Canada and Mexico all day. Some idiot out west got himself arrested.”

“Heard about that.”

“Think it’s connected?”

“Hadn’t considered it.” Alexi paused for a moment. “You do, though.”

“Tell me about Dirk. What do you have on him?” Sevastyan went into the kitchen and set about making coffee. Maybe it would calm his nerves enough so that he could sleep.

“Oh, that will cost you.”

“Yes, well, your little fox tried to die on me yesterday. Thirty-eight-point-nine fever and vomiting. He’s almost out of it now, but the reason I’m not fucking my slave is because he’s busy keeping your slave alive.”

“You poor boy,” Alexi said. “How is my fox, though? You didn’t say much yesterday when you said he was there.”

“He wasn’t sick then and he’s recovering now. It was rough, though.” Sevastyan turned on the coffee pot and leaned against the counter, crossing his arms. “Had to use suppositories and IV fluids. He couldn’t keep anything down.

“Thank you for looking after him. I don’t know Dirk well. He’s the kind that finds someone and rides their coattails. I don’t have much time for ass lickers. He ran through his good will over here in Europe, but got himself established in Oceana and a bit in North America. Best of my knowledge,

he’s never even set foot in the Yadro. Honestly, I wouldn’t know his name except for the bad taste he left in some mouths over here.”

“Add mine to the list. He’s pushing for intel directly from me on my target.”

“Tell him to fuck off.”

“Oh, I did. Just concerned it’s not sticking and he should know better. So, what’s making him find his balls now?”

“Perhaps it’s who’s making him find his balls.” On the other end of the phone it sounded like Alexi was pouring himself a drink.

Sevastyan wandered over to the window and looked out on the view. He could just make out the frozen lake through the buildings. “Fair point. I’ll keep an eye out.”

They wrapped up their call, Alexi asking to be kept up to date on Lisa.

Rei approached with his tablet. “Bak Sahyuk has a whole life under the name Jun River, including his primary residence.”

Sevastyan’s eyes sharpened. He took the tablet, swiping through the pages Rei had up. It was a quick and dirty preliminary search, but the fact of the matter was clear. “What’s the earliest known date of him using this name?”

“About two years after Jun became a trainee at Bak Gyeong’s company.”

“So, Gyeong gave Sahyuk access to . . .”

“Jun River is a United States citizen,” Rei broke in.

Sevastyan paused, finger hovering above the tablet.

If Gang Junseo was one and the same as Jun River—a United States citizen—and Bak Sahyuk had just been apprehended, then Jun knew he was a United States citizen and had taken steps.

But how had Bak Gyeong and his company BBB3 gotten his hands on Jun as a child?

Jun would have had to choose at eighteen which citizenship to keep.

South Korea didn’t allow dual citizenship.

“Did Jun want to be at BBB3?”

Rei shrugged. “It was where he was. He liked singing and dancing and writing his own music. Sometimes he was sad. We all were. Idol training is strict.”

“Was he ever threatened with being sent home?”

Rei cocked his head to the side, eyes sliding away, a line in his forehead. “Not that I ever heard. He was good. Really good. We all knew he was going to debut. Like me. It was . . . just going to happen.”

Sevastyan sat down on the couch and spread his arm out over the back. “Let’s map this out. Jun’s timeline, the timeline of when we can see Bak Sahyuk using the Jun River name, Jun’s career, BBB3, and whatever we have on Dirk.”

Rei grabbed pencil and paper and spread it out on the coffee table.

It took until nearly morning before every piece of data was sketched out. Sevastyan stared down at the connections. There was a story there, but not definitive proof.

Rei wrapped his arms around his legs, sitting on the couch looking at the map.

“Bak Sahyuk was in the United States eleven years before Jun started as a trainee. That means he was in the United States when Jun would have been born here, if he was born here. Bak Sahyuk only starts rising in the ranks of the Merchari three years after Jun starts training at BBB3,

which is around ten months after Jun started working consistently. The evidence is circumstantial, but what if Sahyuk gave Jun to BBB3, not the other way around? What if Sahyuk had all of Jun’s identification information that he would need to fake a United States identity already?

And he just needed Jun out of the way to use it.”

Sevastyan rubbed his face. “Or worse, he got Jun out of the way and found a way to fund his rise in the Merchari using the proceeds of Jun’s work at BBB3 at the same time.”

“Jun wasn’t stolen. He knew how he came to South Korea. Sometimes I think he was waiting for someone to come back.”

“In which case, we’re looking at a parent or parents.”

Rei nodded.

Sevastyan leaned back and closed his eyes. “So where does Dirk fit into all this?”

Rei’s body weight shifted forward on the couch beside Sevastyan.

“If he’s riding on someone’s coattails like Master Alexi thinks, then he’s reliant on someone who needs Jun back. BBB3, or Bak Gyeong needs Jun and 5N back or the company will go bankrupt. 5N is the big group holding the whole place together. But . . . it could also be Bak Sahyuk.

If Jun’s work started funding Bak Sahyuk back when he was twelve, who knows how much money Sahyuk might be siphoning off.”

“So, Dirk and Sahyuk.” Sevastyan rubbed his face.

“Dirk must be getting desperate. If Sahyuk is taking funds from BBB3, but Bak Gyeong isn’t paying his debts to the Merchari, which is why he had to put Jun up for sale in the first place . . . Fuck, they’re all playing each other.

The Yadro will demand their cut before Sahyuk takes his part of the pie, but Sahyuk has his own group under him that relies on him. Jun’s the golden goose.”

Sevastyan dropped his hands and looked at Rei. “That was insensitive. Sorry.”

Rei grimaced. “I was wondering, did Jun know all the money was going to Sahyuk?”

“Probably not.” Sevastyan pulled Rei closer and his slave leaned into him. “Good work.”