Outcast

by Guerin Zand

  Back then, I was the technical lead for NFT, and I was asked to attend the meetings in Seoul. As I’ve explained before, I was on NFT’s payroll as a consultant and not an actual employee. I only went to Seoul to support the negotiation teams if there were technical issues the team couldn’t answer. I spent most of my time in my hotel room, or sightseeing, waiting for a call if I was needed. When I’d get a call, we’d arrange a meeting in my suite. I had a nice suite at the Lotte Hotel with a small attached conference area that was convenient for these offline meetings.

  One morning, I was sitting in the hotel’s dining room enjoying my breakfast. The Lotte, like many hotels, offered an “a la carte” breakfast as well as a very nice breakfast buffet. I chose the buffet which had a good selection of American breakfast favorites as well as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean selections. They had a chef making omelets to order, so I went with that as well as bacon and toast. The dining area was crowded with several guests who were there for the NFT meetings. I found a table off to the side where I could eat by myself and do some reading.

  Lihwa entered the dining room and I don’t think a single man didn’t notice. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Even the little boys in the room were turning to take a look. The women at breakfast also turned to look. Then they scowled and turned away. She was dressed casually in jeans, a button-down blouse, and sneakers, but still, she stood out in this crowd. Of course, I took a good long look myself. She grabbed a bowl of congee, ok, I was paying a lot of attention to her, and then she looked around for a place to sit. I went back to eating and reading the news on my iPad when I heard her speak.

  “Do you mind if I join you?”

  My mouth was full, so I simply nodded yes. Ok, what’s the chance the most beautiful woman in Seoul on that day was going to want to join me for breakfast? My alarm bells went off right away. I knew all the attendees, and I knew she was an industrial engineer working for one of the Korean companies we were meeting with. I also knew she was a Chinese citizen, and I knew what a honey trap was.

  Yes, this wasn’t my first honey trap since starting NFT. There was this cute little Russian girl in Germany and a pretty French lady in England. I fell for those traps, and Katie enjoyed pointing out to me what an idiot I was. Like I was stupid enough to believe all these beautiful women found me so irresistible. In my defense, I was an enhanced, young, virile mutant and not your typical old codger in his late 50’s. Katie enjoyed seeing me make a fool of myself.

  Katie handled a lot of the security for our teams when traveling, so I used our comms to have her dig into Lihwa’s background. According to Katie, it all looked in order, and that was the problem. It looked a little too good to her. There is one thing women and men have in common. If you are blessed with the perfect body, you tend to find careers that take advantage of those assets. These perfect specimens rarely entered engineering or other hi-tech fields. Sure, there were beautiful female engineers, but not drop dead gorgeous like Lihwa.

  “My name is Lihwa Zhu.”

  “Zand, Guerin Zand. It’s nice to meet you.” I couldn’t resist the little James Bond rip since I knew the game we were playing.

  “Yes, I know. You’re the technical consultant from NFT. I’m an industrial engineer with Daewoo Heavy Industries. I haven’t seen you at any of our meetings. I was hoping to ask you a few questions.”

  “I’m only a consultant and not part of the negotiations. That’s why I’m not attending the meetings. If you have technical issues that the team can’t answer, they’d be glad to arrange an offline meeting where I’ll make myself available to answer those questions.”

  A waitress came to the table to take Lihwa’s drink order. I ordered another cup of coffee as well.

  “You speak Korean?”

  “Yes, and several other languages. If you’d prefer we could speak in Mandarin?”

  “English is fine. I can always use the practice.” She smiled at me and I almost melted. Yea, I knew what was going on, but I was still mostly human. “I didn’t have any issues with the technical presentation that weren’t answered. I thought perhaps we could talk so I could, how do you say, pick your brain?”

  “About what?”

  It turned out that Lihwa wasn’t just a pretty face. She actually knew her subject as well as anybody I’d talked to. The questions she had were more related to how I’d come up with these ideas, and that raised another red flag. I couldn’t tell her an alien dumped the information into my mutant brain one night. She wasn’t dumb though. She knew I was unheard of in this field prior to NFT, and she knew my background as well as I did. She also knew how I gained this knowledge was really the important question. Her questions, a subtle interrogation, was meant to uncover my real secret.

  I avoided many of her questions with the excuse that what she was asking entered into NFT confidentiality issues. This went on for a little while until she decided I wasn’t going to be of much help. At least not in this setting.

  “Are you planning on attending the dinner party tonight?”

  “No. That sort of thing isn’t really something I enjoy.”

  “Well, perhaps if you change your mind I’ll see you there. I’d enjoy talking to you more about your work.”

  “Sure. If I change my mind, I’ll see you there.”

  Lihwa stood up to leave. “It was nice meeting you, Mr. Zand.”

  “Likewise, Ms. Zhu.”

  I had no intention of attending the dinner party they were throwing for the NFT employees that night. It really wasn’t my cup of tea.

  Later on that evening, I was getting ready to go out for dinner, and maybe a few drinks, when the doorbell rang. I answered the door to find Lihwa standing there. She was dressed in a very attractive summer dress and my mind sort of went blank for a few moments. My mouth was just hanging open but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t drooling.

  “Hello, Guerin.”

  “Um, hi. How did you know what room I was in?”

  “One of the NFT women told me. I think her name was Katie McDougal. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Oh, sure. Katie probably thought I’d screw up again and she’d have something else to give me crap about. This is just the sort of thing I’d expect from Katie. She and Julie were a lot alike.

  “I was just getting ready to head out for dinner.”

  “Would you mind if I joined you?”

  “I guess, if you want to. Maybe you should change into something more casual?”

  “Where were you planning on going for dinner?”

  “Jjukkumi alley. I think you’re a little overdressed for that area.”

  “Ok. I’ll go get changed and I’ll meet you in the lobby in about 10 minutes?”

  “That sounds good. I’ll see you then, Lihwa.”

  While I waited for Lihwa in the lobby I went over to talk to a young lady working the reception desk. I asked if she had any suggestions for a restaurant on Jjukkumi alley. She said she did and then she wrote down some instructions, along with the name of the restaurant, on the back of one of the hotel cards. Jjukkumi alley is a whole street with restaurants that feature only one main dish, Jjukkumi. It’s a stir-fried baby octopus in a very, very spicy red sauce.

  Lihwa found me at the front desk as I was just finishing getting directions. She had changed into jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers. We weren’t going to a fancy restaurant. We were going to a little dive on Jjukkumi alley and her dress was more appropriate for what was to come. I search for local dives like this when I travel. Everyone knows the best local food is found in these dives, no matter what country you’re visiting.

  “Are you ready?” I asked her.

  “Yes.”

  “Then let’s grab a cab. The receptionist gave me the name of her favorite restaurant on the alley, so that’s where we're heading. I hope you like spicy food.”

  “I was born and raised in Chengdu, Guerin. It’s you who’d best be worried.” We both laughed as the cab pulled up.

  The cab dropped us off near th
e bronze octopus sculpture that marked the entrance to Jjukkumi alley. I took out the card from the receptionists and we followed the directions from there. She wrote the restaurant’s name in English, Yongdudong Jjukkumi, and Korean, so it was fairly easy to find.

  A woman greeted us as we entered and gave us a couple of bright orange aprons. We found a place to sit and donned our aprons. Our waiter brought us our banchan, little side dishes or appetizers, some white rice, and then placed a shallow metal bowl with the Jjukkumi on top of a burner at the table. He turned on the burner for us and we proceeded to stir fry our meal to our own liking.

  As far as hot and spicy foods go, this was one of the hottest dishes I’d ever had. I was thankful they hadn’t bothered to send us an American, less potent version. I’ve been to several Asian restaurants where they believe Americans can’t actually handle the real deal. We ordered several bottles of Soju to help fight the fire. Soju is basically an under distilled version of vodka, only about 40 proof, which is quite sweet in comparison. It’s perfect with spicy foods.

  The dinner was great no matter what Lihwa’s motivations were, I had a good time. She was fun to be around, and fun to talk to. Maybe she was just well trained. If that was the case, I appreciated the effort anyway. We grabbed a cab and we made our way back to the hotel. She suggested we stop in the bar for a few more drinks since the night was still young. I agreed. We split a few more bottles of Soju and the bartender suggested a snack which was another type of spicy stir-fried seafood.

  When we finished our drinks, Lihwa asked if I’d like to join her in her room for a few more. I thought about it. Actually, I probably thought about it for several minutes. I knew she wasn’t really asking me because she found me so attractive. Even though it would have been a lot of fun, I figured I’d show Katie I wasn’t that stupid. I guess you could say I was cutting off my nose to spite my face.

  “Thanks, but I should get some sleep. Your people should have had enough time to search my room by now.”

  “What are you talking about, Guerin?”

  “You know. The team you sent to my room when you met me in the lobby. What do you think Katie was doing while we were out to dinner?”

  “I don’t know anything about a team searching your room, Guerin.”

  “Never mind. Everyone says I’m a little paranoid.”

  We walked to the elevators and entered the next available car that arrived in the lobby. We both pressed the buttons for our respective floors. We arrived at her floor first and the door opened. Lihwa leaned in and gave me a very nice kiss. One I’ll probably never forget. She looked at me with those eyes of hers and asked, “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to join me for another drink?”

  I wanted to say yes so badly, but what would have been the point? As much as I had enjoyed my evening, something about knowing she was just playing with me made me refuse.

  “No, but thanks for the offer. I had a nice time tonight, really. It’s just...”

  “What?”

  “Nothing. I should just go. Thanks again for a nice evening.”

  “Ok. Thank you for dinner. I enjoyed myself as well.” She gave me one last kiss and a look as she left the elevator. I bet she’d never been turned down before. Being the first didn’t make me feel any better about my decision. The rest of the night I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

  When I got back to my room I found Katie there.

  “What are you doing here, Katie?”

  “I just finished removing the bugs Lihwa’s team planted here. So you actually turned her down? I must say, I never expected that.”

  “Were you listening in the whole time?”

  “Yes. Roger used his admin permissions to let me monitor your comms.”

  “I should have left the earbud in the room.”

  “Then her team would have found it. Don’t worry. There wasn’t really anything juicy for me to hear. Now if you’d taken her up on her offer, then I would have had something to entertain me for a few minutes.”

  “Very funny, Katie. She was really nice. I know she was just playing with me, but still.”

  “So, why did you turn down her offer? It’s not like she was fooling anybody.”

  “I know, but it just didn’t seem right I guess. Maybe she was ok with using me, but I couldn’t just use her like that.”

  “My God you’re an idiot, Guerin Zand. You know nice guys don’t get laid, don’t you? Don’t go falling for her act, Guerin, because that’s all it was.”

  “I know that, Katie. I’m just not used to this shit like you are. I’m not a spy. I’m still just an engineer.”

  “An engineer your friends have turned into a mutant genius killing machine. You’re going to have to get used to things the way they are now. If you don’t, you might find yourself in real trouble. What were you thinking telling her you knew about her team searching your room?”

  “I don’t know. I just thought if I let her know I knew, she might be honest with me.”

  “Jesus, Guerin. Are you falling for her? Look. I can make a quick call and have a really nice girl up her in a few minutes. You can both have a mutually rewarding evening, and maybe it will help you think straight.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Katie. Thanks for the talk. It really helped.”

  “Ok. If you change your mind, let me know. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

  Katie left. Don’t do anything stupid, right. It’s way too late for that I thought to myself. The thought that I would never be able to really trust anyone was probably the most depressing realization I’d had since this whole little alien incursion into my life started. I opened the minibar and grabbed several little bottles to end the night.

  That’s how I met Lihwa. I didn’t see her again during my stay in Seoul. There was only one day before I left anyways. I didn’t stop thinking about her though.

  It was several years before I heard of Lihwa again. We had opened an NFT office in Shanghai and Lihwa had applied for a job there. Katie brought it to my attention, as well as Roger’s, and I told her to tell the office to hire her on my recommendation. Katie and Roger thought I was crazy. I told them we knew there were several agents of different governments working throughout NFT worldwide. At least we knew about Lihwa, and there was a chance she could be useful.

  I had Katie inform security that any issues with Lihwa would be handled by me directly. If they had any issues with her they were to contact me and take no further action without my authorization. We had several of our own agents scattered throughout the NFT offices to keep us informed, so this sort of special instruction was not unheard of. There was one incident reported to me from security regarding Lihwa and I simply sent her a message on the corporate network.

  “Be more careful. G.Z.”

  When China started its move in the IOET, the International Organization for Emerging Technologies, against NFT, the Shanghai office was nationalized. Many of the local staff remained, but many foreign workers were given the option to move to one of our other offices. I arranged for the Tokyo office to make her an offer to move there, along with a man she was currently involved with. Yes, I had been watching her closely. I thought she would be more likely to take the job in Tokyo if we made the offer to both of them. They accepted. After they were settled into their new positions, I contacted Lihwa over one of our secure video links.

  “Hello, Lihwa. I hope you’re happy with the move.”

  “Yes. Thank you, Guerin. I must say, I was surprised to receive the offer.”

  “You shouldn’t be. You’re an asset I would have hated to lose. Which brings me to why I am calling you today.”

  “Is there something I can do for you?”

  “Yes, there is. I would appreciate if you’d pass on a message to your government for me.”

  “I don’t know how I can help with that, Guerin. I’m just an engineer. I’m sure you have better ways to pass a message on to the Chinese government.”

  “Yes, of course, but if you w
ouldn’t mind just hearing me out. You can do whatever you think best with the information.”

  “Alright.”

  “We know the Chinese government is harboring some visitors that they were required to report per their IOET membership agreement. We’re not looking to cause problems for China, but if they don’t live up to their agreements, we will make this a formal complaint at some point. I’m hoping that you can understand my position and relate this back to your government. Coming directly from me, it may be seen as less than a friendly request. I’d like you to relay this message in a way that would avoid such a misunderstanding.”

  “I’m not sure what I can do, Guerin, but I will pass on your message to some friends back home. Perhaps they will know what to do about it.”

  “That’s all I can ask, Lihwa. Have a nice day.”

  I don’t know exactly what happened to my message. I assumed Lihwa passed it on, but China never responded. As we know, the problems with China continued to escalate. After the Chinese staged the “supposed” terrorist attacks in New York City, the ones that resulted in my wife Anna’s death, the world was on the brink of war. When we released the list of the active Chinese intelligent agents to the public in response to the attacks, I had Lihwa’s name removed from that list. I messaged her once again.

  “Don’t Panic! You’re safe. G.Z.”

  Roger and Katie questioned why I was still protecting Lihwa. I didn’t have a good answer. It was a feeling I had about her. I didn’t think she was involved in the incidents in New York City. The truth was, a lot of the agents whose names we released were probably not connected to those actions as well. It’s not like many of them were innocent bystanders either. I still considered Lihwa as someone I could turn to. A backchannel that we still needed.

  About six months after the Chinese incident was resolved, Lihwa and her partner tendered their resignations to NFT. They moved back to China. I wasn’t sure how her return would be received by the government. A lot of those responsible for the recent hostilities were still in power. She was one of a very few MSS agents working outside of China who escaped to make it back home. Her return might have been seen as suspicious. There was going to be an internal purge in the Chinese government over the recent incidents. I was sure that this purge would reach inside of the Chinese intelligent services as well.