But the stranger didn’t reply. Instead, he only mentioned the next meeting.

“We’re going to meet soon. Let’s talk in detail when we meet. By the way, I got rid of this kidnapper. Let me send you a text message about his location.”

As soon as he hung up the phone, the stranger sent him a message.

Hyunwoo gave his chief bodyguard a direction quickly.

“My parents are now at Daejon Station. Please send someone there to pick them up.”

“Got it!”

This time Hyunwoo showed him the stranger’s message.

It said he got rid of the kidnapper, which implied that the location might be a scene of murder.

“Send the security team there with the policemen. There is a high possibility that there is the body of the man who kidnapped my parents.”

The chief bodyguard had a stunned expression.

Hyunwoo also headed for Daejon Station. As he happened to be at the Samryong Motors factory in Dangjin, he was rather far from the station. But if he used his own personal helicopter, it would take only an hour to get there.

Hyunwoo quickly got in the helicopter, which was the latest model equipped with Toughtex.

Five minutes after he got on the helicopter, he heard from the chief bodyguard that his bodyguards found his parents at the station.

“Give me your phone,” Hyunwoo said to the chief bodyguard sitting next to him.

The chief bodyguard handed the phone to him.

“How about their condition?”

“They don’t have any injury, but they do look exhausted. Let us take them to Daejon Hospital now.”

“Yes, please. Let me talk to my father.”

In no time, Duyoung got through to him.

“Son, I’m okay. You must have been worried a lot.”

“Were you injured?”

“No. I was tired as the kidnapper dragged me and your mother here and there. But he didn’t treat us roughly.”

“How about mother?”

“She is okay, too. She will feel much better after some rest.”

“Can I talk to her?”

This time he talked to Jisook. She kept saying she was alright to reassure her son.

“Just go to the hospital now. I’m coming to see you now.”

A little later after the call, he had a call from the security team sent to the scene of murder.

As expected, there were three bodies, each had bullets in their heads.

“Obviously, they were killed by a very able sniper,” they said.

Hyunwoo suddenly got curious about the guy who called him in a voice with a North Korean accent. If he was that sniper, he must have been dispatched by North Korea.

‘Is he really a North Korean sniper?’

The possibility was low, given the recent inter-Korean relations that improved recently.

‘Who is he anyway? Is he another Russian spy?’

There was a possibility that he was. Right now, Russia was in serious internal confusion. If there is a pro-Russian group, there must be an anti-Russian group. The sniper might have been dispatched by the latter.

But he still couldn’t understand one thing.

‘If that’s true, why did he release my parents? Did he choose a gift instead of a threat?’

In the meantime, the helicopter arrived at Daejon Hospital.

Hyunwoo quickly ran to the patient’s room where his parents were hospitalized.

Noticing Hyunwoo coming, Duyoung and Jisook waved at him.

“Son, I told you we’re just fine.”

“We’re all good now. You must be worried a lot.”

Only then did the medical staff step back after learning their son just arrived.

Hyunwoo approached them and held their hands.

Their hands were boney and their faces looked haggard. It seemed that they grew ten years older in just six days.

He just felt sad to see them. His eyes welled up with tears.

“I’m so sorry. I will make sure this should never happen again.”

Patting him on the shoulder, Duyoung said, “Don’t worry, son. I think you have resisted well. In fact, I was a bit worried you might hand over the technology to Russia. I even thought of committing suicide to relieve you of any trouble, but that wasn’t easy.”

“Oh, no, dad. The technology on Toughtex is not a big deal, compared to your life. To me, my family does really matter.”

Duyoung nodded his head as if he understood Hyunwoo’s intention.

This time Jisook asked with a worried look.

“How about your wife? Looks like she must have been surprised a lot. Is the baby okay?”

“I didn’t tell her about you. I just told her you went on a trip. And I had her stay away from watching TV for several days. Perhaps, she still thinks you’re travelling.”

“Good job! That’s what I was worried about. I feel so relieved now.”

Jisook let out a sigh of relief.

Duyoung and Jisook stayed one more day at the hospital before they were discharged then moved to Hyunwoo’s villa in Daejon to stay there for three days.

In the meantime, the government formed a special investigation team at the Police Headquarters to identify the killed kidnappers,

One week later, Hyunwoo’s parents had recovered.

Yu Zuung also got to know what happened to them.

Initially, she thought it strange that Hyunwoo had her stay away from the TV set, but now she realized why.

These days Hyunwoo spent more time at home. Though he increased the number of bodyguards around his house, he was kind of nervous when he went outside.

The stranger with a North Korean accent called Hyunwoo again.

Actually, Hyunwoo was anxiously waiting for his call.

“I would like to meet you. You can come with your bodyguards. I’ll be seeing you with my coworker. You can choose the time and place that you want. I can even go to a police station if you want.”

That meant he had no intention whatsoever to do any harm to Hyunwoo.

“Where are you now?” asked Hyunwoo.

“I’m in Sosan City, not far from your house.”

“Let’s meet now. The location is Tapgokri Park in Sosan City.”

“I know where it is. If I drive there now, I can reach there in 30 minutes. See you then. I will carry a fan.”

Hyunwoo quickly moved. He mobilized a large force of bodyguards and placed them around the park and selected four of them to protect him.

Hyunwoo went to the appointed place a bit earlier, looking around.

A little later a middle-aged man carrying a fan was seen. He was sitting on a bench with his co-worker.

Only then did Hyunwoo appear.

As soon as he saw Hyunwoo, the stranger introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you here. As you might have expected, I’m a spy from North Korea, trained in special tactics there. My name is Cholgyu Lee.”

Hyunwoo didn’t anticipate that he was a North Korean spy. He thought Cholgyu was a member of an ant-North Korean government organization.

But he didn’t look surprised.

Bowing politely to him, Hyunwoo said, “Thanks for saving my parents’ lives.”

“I appreciate your acknowledgment. In fact, it was a tough job. It was hard to find out his location and harder to save your parents.”

That was true. The South Korean government mobilized a total of 20,000 soldiers and policemen to search for the kidnappers, but in vain. Cholgyu found them and save his parents’ lives.

Hyunwoo was still in doubt about that. He wanted to know why Cholgyu wanted to involve himself in this very dangerous situation like this.

“Well, the main instigator this time was a guy named Youngwoo Cho with the Overseas Intelligence Bureau of Russia. He was a North Korean defector who became a naturalized Russian citizen.”

Cholgyu Lee was very well aware of the Russian spy agency and Youngwoo.

Actually, North Korea infiltrated the Russian spy agency, and one of them used to get along with Youngwoo.

Accordingly, North Korea could detect the Russian spy agency’s operation in advance and stop Youngwoo from carrying out his plan at the right time.

Hyunwoo expressed thanks again, but he kept on his toes.

“I think North Korea must have expected something in return when you saved my parents. I would like to ask what you want from me.”

The middle-aged man’s face hardened. But he now confidently told Hyunwoo what he wanted.

“North Korea now needs a new leader, so some of our core members are planning a revolution. We hope you can help our North Korean people.”

At that moment, Hyunwoo’s eyes popped on. Basically he wanted Hyunwoo to help with their carrying out a coup in North Korea.

Though Hyunwoo was the world’s richest man with vast personal wealth, he had to be scared about the word ‘coup’ in North Korea.

Cholgyu quickly explained, as if he understood Hyunwoo’s concern.

“Of course, we don’t want you to participate in the coup. We don’t want to drive you into a dangerous situation.”

“Then, what do you really want?”

“I think our coup will be successful. We’ll expel current leader Kim Jungun and build a new country in North Korea, but we need money for this. If our revolution succeeds, please support us financially.”

And then he presented his own vision about a new North Korea.

“As you know, North and South Korea were originally one country. But they can’t be one because of each other’s greed. If our revolution succeeds, we in the North are going to make concessions first for the unification of the two Koreas.”

The unification formula that the new North Korean government created after their successful coup was similar to that presented by South Korea, called the Korean Community Unification. It featured a gradual and phased unification by forming a common economic and political community out of the two Koreas.

Of course, Hyunwoo didn’t believe him entirely.

But he had no reason to reject Cholgyu’s proposal.

“This is not something that I have to decide for myself. Let me see the President and consult with him.”

“As you know, the success of the revolution depends on keeping it secret until the last moment. So, keep it under wraps.”

That was totally understandable. That’s why even Cholgyu didn’t elaborate on who was orchestrating the coup. He just asked for Hyunwoo’s financial help when the coup succeeded.

Hyunwoo nodded and said, “Of course.”