Assignment: Seoul

by Allen Kupetz

  CJ found about half of the training to be what he perceived as relevant. Now that he had been in the field for several years, he would argue that less than a quarter of what he learned was required to do the job. Just as two years of core undergraduate college instruction is spread out over four years to allow the student to mature and experience more things, so it must be, CJ concluded, with the operations course.

  The only part of training that really bothered CJ was the incredible waste of money. The instructors would always say, “Don’t worry, it’s not your money,” to which CJ would always respond, “I’m a taxpayer too.” One example was teaching students how to fire light anti-tank weapons, something CJ had yet to have a need for in the field. Jumping out of airplanes was fun at the time, but this too had minimal field applications for officers like CJ.

  CJ enjoyed most the source acquisition training, the hunt. The training was designed to teach how to spot, assess, develop, and recruit new sources of information. He hated the handling part, the tedious security procedures needed to protect the source once he or she agreed to be a spy. He excelled in the former and nearly failed the handling part of the training. How ironic, he thought, that now he was confined to handling. He could not recruit because he did not have diplomatic immunity like those C/Os in embassies overseas pretending to work for the State Department. If they pitched someone and that person reported them to the police, that officer would get expelled from the country. Someone like CJ pretending to be a businessman would get thrown in jail. This was an unacceptable risk for an Agency that had become more and more risk averse after the Ames affair and problems in Tokyo and Paris.

  CJ knocked on Rachel’s door.

  “Is that you, Michael?” laughed Rachel as she opened the door. “I’m sorry, have we met?” she said when she saw CJ standing there.

  “My name is Some Dumb Kim and I’m here to turn down your bed.”

  “I never turned it up.”

  “Then how about Chinese food instead?”

  “I’d love to, but I only go out with lawyers who have money.”

  “I hate to be the one to tell you this, ma’am, but most lawyers don’t have any money. Most are working in hotels turning up and down beds.”

  “Fine,” she said in mock anger, “then I guess you’ll have to do.”

  “Good,” CJ responded. “I did pass the Texas bar and made sure the Chinese place had one too.”

  “You won’t have to get me drunk tonight, CJ,” Rachel said with some seriousness. “I’m still buzzed from the ginger ale. What did you put in it anyway? One of those date rape powders? Glenn, the flight attendant, asked me three times if I wanted to change seats. What does he know about you that I don’t know?”

  “At one point, fairly early on in our relationship, I thought you had stopped breathing,” CJ confessed, “and I got caught checking your heartbeat.”

  “What?” she yelled in fake astonishment. “You made it to second base with me before I made it to first base with you? I’m, what did you say before, shocked, shocked, shocked.”

  “It’s an Inspector Renault line from Casablanca and I haven’t heard anyone use the term ‘second base’ in about 20 years.”

  “Don’t try to change the subject,” she laughed. “Let’s go eat.”

  The Chinese food at the Intercontinental was reputed to be some of the best in the city. It was good, but had too many Korean influences. CJ loved Korean food, but when he wanted Chinese, he wanted New York City or Hong Kong Chinese food. He preferred a place around the corner from the Renaissance called the Lotus Garden.

  The conversation at dinner focused mostly on CJ trying to see what it felt like for Rachel to be in Korea. How did people treat her? Were they polite, curious, or envious? CJ brought up Israel again, noting that he heard on the news that the Prime Minister was staying at the Shilla, a famous hotel north of the Han, the river that divides Seoul into two halves, north and south. But the topic soon drifted back to first date kinds of questions and CJ was convinced he made the right decision to trust his instincts and dismiss Rachel as a suspect in the GOSSAMER case.

  The fortune cookies had just appeared. “Do you remember on the plane that scene in Four Weddings where Andie McDowell’s character is telling Hugh Grant about all her previous sexual encounters?” asked Rachel.

  “I do indeed.”

  “My list is quite, quite a bit shorter. I pretend to be all flirtatious and all, but it is just to cover up how shy I am.”

  “If you are shy, you do a good job of hiding it,” laughed CJ.

  “I’m trying to be serious. I think we may end up lovers this evening, okay? I actually bought some condoms from the pharmacy downstairs before you came over. I can’t believe I’m saying this. I cannot believe I’m saying this. I just don’t want you to think I know what I’m doing and be disappointed. I’m almost a virgin. I know, I know you can’t be almost a virgin,” Rachel started to ramble, “but I’m not a one-night stand kind of girl and I don’t want you to be disappointed and then just disappear. I don’t have the Find CJ app,” she laughed nervously. “I’ll never find you if you leave.”

  “You don’t know me very well,” said CJ trying to sound reassuring. “After 15 hours on a plane together and now Chinese food, you’d think someone would know you pretty well.”

  Rachel laughed and tried to smile. CJ thought he saw a tear or two and could tell Rachel was embarrassed.

  “I’ve already been to second base with you,” CJ continued. “And I still asked you out for Chinese food. Does that sound like a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy?”

  “Are you making fun of me?”

  “Absolutely not. Listen. Let’s go to your room, order a nice bottle of wine from room service, and just relax. I think you’re a little nervous and I know I’m really nervous, so let’s go relax and just see what happens without any preconditions.”

  “Can we go to your room instead?”

  “Of course. Why?”

  “Well, I may have been born in America, but I’m still part Korean, okay? I don’t want the people who clean my room to think a man stayed there. Does that sound silly? I can’t help it.”

  “Let me pay this bill and we’ll catch a cab to my place.”

  “Thanks for dinner. I have to run to the bathroom and I’ll meet you in front of the restaurant.”

  Neither said a word in the cab ride to the Renaissance. Rachel sat right next to CJ and their legs touched from the knee to the hip. She put her head on his shoulder and held his arm tightly with both hands. They entered the room and he turned on the light in the foyer by inserting the key card into a card reader on the wall; the sole light cast shadows. Rachel turned off the light and locked the door. She gently pushed CJ against the wall, but kissed him passionately. He put his arms around her and held her close. She put her cheek on his chest and held him tight.

  “Let’s save the wine for another time,” Rachel suggested in a soft voice. “I’ve already told you way too much so here goes some more. There is a lot of sexual tension here. Can we just do it once, quickly, and try to end the tension? We can worry about the finer points in the future. For now, I just want to make love to you.”

  The room was dark and CJ couldn’t see her face, but he pushed her away a little and turned her face toward his as if to look at her. . He started to undue the buttons on her blouse and Rachel started to do the same to him. Soon they were both naked, never having touched their own clothing, still standing in the foyer. He took her hand and they headed through the suite to the king-size bed. A light was sneaking through a space between the curtains and CJ could see the maid had turned down the covers. Chocolate sat on a leaf on one of the pillows. Rachel swept the candy flower onto the floor and pulled CJ down next to her on the bed.

  “Damn,” she said. “I left my purse near the door. Let me go get what I bought at the pharmacy.”

  “I’ll get it,” said CJ. He hurried back to the foyer and turned on the small light over the
minibar. He opened her purse and saw an old Korean phone. He thought it was odd that Rachel would carry such an old phone. He checked it, but there were no messages in the memory. He turned it off and took the pack of condoms back to the bedroom.

  The light was cutting a path across Rachel’s body. CJ lay down next to her and soon they were wrapped in an intimate embrace. He felt her body stiffen and then relax. Then she collapsed on top of him. She pulled herself face-to-face with CJ and kissed him passionately.

  “That was really nice,” she said with the sigh that all men like to hear.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t last longer,” said CJ. “I’ve been thinking about doing this with you since I was standing behind you in line at DFW.”

  “It doesn’t take me long as you now know. I’m lucky that way. You were behind me at DFW?” she asked once CJ’s statement sank in.

  “The girl at the counter, Suzi, helped me to sit next to you.” I told her I was going to marry you.”

  “Well, we’ll have to invite her to the wedding.”

  “You’re not mad that I arranged for a not-so-chance chance encounter?”

  Rachel took CJ’s hand and placed it on her heart. “Feel that beat,” she said. “That’s not anger.”

  They stayed next to each other and fell asleep.

  CJ woke up a little past four in the morning probably from a combination of jet lag and nervous tension about meeting GOSSAMER later that day. Rachel was still sleeping and CJ decided to let her continue. He got out of bed quietly and pulled the covers over her body. He went into the other room and plugged in his computer. He considered logging on to receive Langley’s latest wisdom, but decided not to for security reasons. Although the Koreans could not read his encrypted e-mail, they could tell the message was encrypted if they had his line tapped. Encryption was illegal in Korea and it might bring some unneeded attention his way from the local service. Instead, CJ booted up and set an electronic trap so later he could check and see if anyone else had tried to boot up his computer. He powered it down, but left it on top of the desk in the business side of the suite.

  He heard sounds back in the bedroom and returned to find Rachel awake.

  “I don’t know why I’m awake,” she said sleepily. “I don’t know why you’re awake. Answers please.”

  “It’s about 2:00 p.m. back in Dallas. That’s why you’re awake. I have to go out soon and earn some money to pay for this room. That’s why I’m awake.”

  “No one does business in Seoul on a Wednesday morning before 8:00. Besides, I thought you were only paying the regular room rate.”

  “That regular rate is still about $300 a night and some of the people I do business with want to meet very early before their regular jobs begin,” CJ said laughing to himself at the total honesty of that remark. “You know with traffic so bad, some folks are leaving their homes now.”

  “Those folks don’t have me in bed, naked.”

  “It’s 4:00 in the morning.”

  “Are you bored with me already?” Rachel said with a fake sniffle.

  “Hardly, but it’s business before pleasure, irrespective of how pleasurable it was and is and will be to be with you.”

  “You know my mom is really open-minded and incredibly naïve for an old woman. She once told me I’ll never catch a man because I don’t put out.”

  “That’s open-minded?”

  “Well not the thought, perhaps, but her de facto permission for me to have premarital sex.”

  “I don’t think that would pass for permission in a court of law.”

  “We’re not in a court of law, counselor, we’re in a fancy hotel room in Seoul. I’m sitting here naked and, by the way, you’re naked too.”

  “So I am,” said CJ, who was used to being alone in hotel rooms and having the freedom to walk around naked. “I’m not used to company.”

  “Good. This company wants to play so be a good host and indulge me.”

  “I wasn’t kidding,” CJ said seriously, “I have a meeting at 8:00 for which I need to prepare. I’ll need to leave here about 6:00.”

  “Okay, okay. I have work to do too. I need to meet some wholesalers. Lunch later?”

  “Sounds great; my meeting won’t take long. How can I reach you?”

  “I kind of have a phone,” Rachel said. “But let’s choose a place and time now.”

  “Where are your wholesalers?”

  “Near Namdaemun, near the Chosun hotel. They are actually up at this hour, along with us.”

  “How about lunch at the Japanese restaurant in the basement of the Chosun at 12:00?”

  “I heard it was good, but I’ve never been there. Alright, but let’s make it 11:30 to miss the lunch crowd.”

  “What if I’m running late?” inquired CJ. “How can I reach you?”

  “Just leave a message with the restaurant; I’ll wait for you. My phone is so old it’s basically just for texting now. I’ll give you the number.”

  That’s what CJ wanted to hear. “What’s the number?”

  “011-244-9426. I’ll text you back. If your message is important, type 8282 after your message so I’ll know it is from you and I’ll call right away.”

  “8282?”

  “One of my Korean friends taught me that years ago. It is the old way back when people used pagers. The Chinese word for eight is ‘pal’ and for two it’s ‘ee’ so put it together and you get ‘palee palee’ which means ‘faster’ or ‘do it right away’ in Korean. Pretty cool, huh?”

  “Like using 911 after a message in the States back in the day.”

  “Exactly. 011-244-9426.” I bought this phone years ago and my aunt who lives in Hannam-dong pays the monthly fee to keep the number active. The last four digits of her number and mine are the same. I use it for business while I’m here, but that’s less than a month a year anymore. Anyway, if I get a text, I’ll read it immediately; don’t worry.

  “011-244-9426.”

  “Right. You going to shower first or should I?”

  “How ’bout together?” asked CJ.

  “Nope, sorry. I’ll make love to you as many times as you want and do all kinds of other things to your body, but I don’t bathe with anybody and I don’t share my toothbrush. I actually brought mine with me in my purse.”

  “You go first. I’ll just watch.”

  “Now don’t start getting all sexy with me; you had your chance to have this body all over you and you opted to meet Mr. Kim for breakfast instead. I shower alone and I’m locking the door. If you want some action now, try the pay-per-view. I think you can get the porno channel until six.”

  Chapter Four

  Another GOSSAMER meeting. CJ never tired of them, despite the elaborate security measures he had to complete prior to them. He had met GOSSAMER face-to-face only eight times in almost four years, although he had seen him on television frequently. Four of the meetings had been in the United States with one each in Munich, Lisbon, Hong Kong, and Seoul. For the previous Seoul meeting, CJ arrived three weeks before GOSSAMER just to avoid any appearances that the two were in the same place at the same time. It gave CJ a chance to really learn the city. GOSSAMER was traveling alone then, not with the Prime Minister. That meeting was fun as the two could spend some time together and relax. CJ wasn’t worried then that the Koreans might see them together because they wouldn’t suspect anything and he never figured to be back in Seoul. Now, almost four years later, he was indeed back in Seoul as a result of GOSSAMER’s signal that a face-to-face meeting was required immediately and that he could travel out of Israel.

  CJ knew GOSSAMER’s emergency request would not be a false alarm. GOSSAMER would never send such a signal unless he was in trouble. GOSSAMER had secret communications gear. If he had just learned something important, GOSSAMER could have sent it electronically. Why the face-to-face now? None of the other meetings were a result of an emergency signal. They were timed to coincide with a GOSSAMER trip outside Israel. His trips to the United States had afforded La
ngley the chance to train him on how to use new communications gear, detect surveillance, and take pictures of documents using a sub-miniature camera. During one meeting in New York, CJ showed up with a polygrapher. That was a tense meeting. GOASSMER took it as a vote of no confidence. CJ really had to talk fast during that meeting. GOSSAMER passed and the relationship continued, but things were never exactly the same between GOSSAMER and CJ again.

  CJ remembered his own enter-on-duty polygraph.

  “Have you ever stolen anything over $25?” the polygrapher had asked.

  “A couple of cars,” CJ responded, “but if you depreciate them over time, it probably is less than $25 a year.”

  “Ever have sex with a man?”

  “You mean outside my immediate family?” CJ responded.

  After a little bit of CJ’s attempts at humor, the polygrapher said angrily, “If you are not going to take this seriously, you can go home now.”

  “I paid for the whole day,” CJ said with a straight face. “I’ll stay.”

  There were other lifestyle questions about drugs and cheating and CI questions about whether CJ was working for a foreign government. The only question it seemed CJ couldn’t pass was, “Do you have any financial obligations that might leave you open to blackmail?”

  After answering the question “no” about seven times and having the polygrapher keep saying, “Why do you think you are having such a problem with this question,” CJ responded with “My father makes more money in one year then you’ll make in your whole miserable life, so let’s find a new question to keep asking me.”

  The polygrapher sat back with surprise, got up and left the room. He came back five minutes later and told CJ he was done.