Marcus found the transit route at 1830.
*Section 9 uses a medical courier service for inter-district biosample transportâregistered, legitimate, the kind of courier company that moves pathology samples between hospitals and doesn't attract regulatory attention.* A pause. *The company has an after-hours pickup window: 1800 to 2100, from registered client addresses. Tonight, they have an unscheduled pickup logged at a commercial storage address in Gangnam-gu.* Another pause. *The address is a climate-controlled storage facility. Not a hospital. Not a clinic. A commercial facility that has no obvious medical use.* Another pause. *Caden. The unscheduled pickup was logged at 1612. Forty-five minutes after Section 9 flagged Bae Seong-woo's files as compromised.*
He read it.
*The Seoul samples,* he sent.
*Or what's left of them. Whatever Section 9 has in climate-controlled storage in Gangnamâthey're moving it tonight through a legitimate courier under a service account that doesn't require manifest disclosure.* A pause. *If the samples leave that facility through the courier, they can be at a secondary holding point before midnight. After that I lose the trail.*
He looked at the time.
1837.
The pickup window ran until 2100. Two hours and twenty-three minutes.
"Vera," he said.
---
She was at the table already, reading the message relay on the secondary device.
"The Gangnam facility," she said. "What are we talking aboutâa physical intercept of the courier pickup."
"Or the samples before pickup," he said.
"A climate-controlled storage facility in Gangnam at 1900 on a Thursday evening," she said. "What's the physical security profile."
"Marcus," he said.
Marcus was already on it. "Commercially operated facility, mixed-use storage, security guard on the ground floor, electronic access system for individual unit corridors. The Section 9 unitâassuming they're using a registered commercial unitâwould be accessed by card key." He paused. "No way to know which unit without going in."
"And going in without knowing which unit meansâ" Vera said.
"We're relying on Ground Sense to locate which unit has movement in the current window," Caden said. "Forty, fifty units in a facility like that. Ground Sense has a range of roughly thirty meters through concrete floors. We'd have to get inside and get to a central position."
"Past the ground floor security."
"Yes."
Vera looked at him.
"And if we're inside the facility and Section 9 has personnel with the samplesâ"
"Then it becomes a different situation than a sample retrieval," he said.
She was quiet.
He thought about Bae Seong-woo's office. The eleven seconds. The sound.
"How many did you fight in Gimpo," she said. Meaning the extraction team. "Four operatives."
"Yes. But in Gimpo I had the layout and positioning. In the Gangnam facility I'd be going in without knowing the configuration."
She looked at him steadily.
"And Shin," she said.
There it was.
"And Shin," he said.
---
The Dealer relay messaged at 1902.
*Section 9's Seoul samples are moving tonight. This was anticipated as a possible consequence of the document retrieval. The samples' movement was not the primary target of the retrieval operationâthe Lee Jae-won documentation was. That documentation is now in the evidence chain.* A pause. *Caden. Do not attempt to intercept the Gangnam transfer. The risk profile of the operation does not support itâunknown facility configuration, Section 9 personnel likely present, no operational benefit that justifies the exposure compared to what's already been secured.* Another pause. *Your time and attention are needed on Shin Min-jae's situation. Which has developed.*
He sent back: *How has it developed.*
*Epsilon has completed their entry assessment of the building. Their operational readiness assessment indicates possible execution window tonight rather than tomorrow.* A pause. *Kane can provide more detail. I'm flagging that the timeline you've been operating on needs to be revised.*
He put the relay down and called Kane.
---
Kane picked up on the first ring.
"You've heard," Kane said. It wasn't a question.
"Tell me what you have," Caden said.
"Epsilon completed entry assessment between 1600 and 1830. Their operational readiness communicationâwhich I'm receiving through the back channelâindicates Major Cho has requested an expedited authorization for tonight, citing the IG investigation timeline." A pause. "The request framing: completing the extraction before the IG disciplinary board formally convenes creates a different legal posture than completing it after. Cho's argument is that the authorization challenge has complicated the inquiry's subpoena authority and the current twelve-hour window before the board convenes is the cleanest opportunity."
"0300," Caden said.
"Possibly 0200. Their entry assessment took four hoursâstandard protocol suggests a six-to-eight-hour staging window after assessment, which puts execution between 2200 tonight and 0400 tomorrow morning." A pause. "My best estimate: 0200 to 0300."
Caden looked at his watch.
1918.
"Four to six hours," he said.
"Yes."
"The IG disciplinary board convenesâ"
"At 0900 tomorrow morning," Kane said. "The timing is deliberate. Epsilon executes tonight, Chae's authorization is technically still active at execution time, the extraction has a legal basis even if it's morally compromised."
"What happens to Shin after extraction," Caden said.
A pause.
"She becomes a witness in Hunt custody rather than parliamentary custody," Kane said. "They'll use her testimony regarding the original Section 9 briefing she attendedâshe's a material witness to the program's exposure, and having her in custody allows them to manage what she says and to whom." A pause. "It doesn't mean she's physically harmed, Caden. Cho runs a clean operation. But she becomes unavailable to the inquiry in the way that matters for Yeo's proceedings."
He ended the call.
---
Vera had been listening.
"Four to six hours," she said.
"Yes."
"The Dealer says don't touch the Gangnam facility," she said.
"Yes."
"The Dealer also flagged the Epsilon timeline," she said. "Which means they know."
"They usually know," he said.
She looked at him.
"Say it," she said.
He put the phone on the table.
"If Epsilon takes Shin tonight, the Dealer benefits," he said. "Documented illegal extraction of a parliamentary protected witness, executed while the IG investigation is active, while the authorization challenge is pending. It's a significant political and legal incident that strengthens the inquiry's standing and creates grounds for Kane to push the disciplinary board toward immediate action."
"At the cost of Shin being in Hunt custody for however long the proceedings take to resolve," Vera said.
"Yes."
"Which could be months," she said.
"Yes."
She sat down.
"The Dealer is working the outcome they want," she said. "Not necessarily the outcome that's right."
"Those might be the same thing," he said. "The inquiry's political standing matters. If Shin's extraction is documented as illegal, it changes the Assembly committee's calculation on the authorization challenge. It gives Yeo cover to continue regardless of the partial ruling."
"It also puts Shin in a room under Hunt management for an indeterminate period," Vera said. "While the proceedings sort out."
He looked at her.
"I know," he said.
"So," she said. "The Dealer's play is sound strategically. You're deciding whether to follow it."
"Yes."
She was quiet.
"I'll tell you what I think," she said. "Not as advice. Just what I think."
He waited.
"The Dealer has been right about the strategic picture consistently," she said. "The 24-second flag, the prepared locations, the framing of the international component. Every time the Dealer has been a step ahead, the step has been correct." She paused. "But the Dealer is making a calculation that treats Shin as a variable in a legal-political equation. She's not a variable. She's a person who asked Na-young for a book."
He looked at her.
"You're going to help me move her," he said.
"I was going to do it regardless of what you decided," she said. "I wanted to know if you were coming."
---
Na-young answered on the second ring and said nothing for a long moment after he'd explained.
Then: "Moving her breaks the protective order's location requirements."
"I know," he said. "What are the actual consequences."
"If Epsilon attempts extraction and the location is vacatedâlegally, the extraction attempt becomes grounds for documenting their operation, which is good for the inquiry. But if she's not at the registered address, Na-young's protective custody framework has a technical violation that Chae's lawyers can use to argue the order was already invalidated." A pause. "It becomes complicated."
"Compared to Shin being in Hunt custody."
A long pause.
"Compared to that, complicated is manageable," Na-young said. "Where will she go."
"A second location in your network," he said. "One that Epsilon hasn't had time to identify."
"I have one," she said. "I've had it prepared since last week."
He thought about that.
"Since last week," he said.
"Since you told me Epsilon was narrowing sectors," she said. "Yes. I prepared it as a contingency." A pause. "I wasn't going to tell you about it unless it became necessary."
"You were going to move her yourself," he said.
"I was considering it," she said.
He thought about Vera saying the same thing six minutes ago.
He thought about the Dealer, two steps ahead on every critical point. He thought about Na-young preparing a secondary location without being asked. He thought about Vera deciding independently that the move was necessary.
He was the last person to reach the same conclusion.
"Tell me the location," he said. "We move at 2100."
"I'll meet you there," she said.
---
At 2000, the authorization challenge court issued an extension of its deliberation periodâno ruling tonight. Tomorrow morning at the earliest.
Marcus flagged it without comment.
Caden looked at the time and started packing the operational gear into the bag he'd been living out of since Gimpo.
"Marcus," he said.
"I know," Marcus said. "I'll stay on the Gangnam facility. If the courier pickup happens and I can trace the destinationâ"
"Don't put yourself in front of it," Caden said. "Remote tracking only."
"Yes," Marcus said. "Obviously."
Vera was already at the door with her jacket on.
He looked at the Dobong unit one more timeâthe west-facing window, the table with the coffee rings, the particular functional emptiness of a place designed for temporary occupation.
He thought about the Dealer's instruction.
*Do not attempt to intercept the Gangnam transfer. Your time and attention are needed on Shin Min-jae's situation.*
He was going to Shin's situation.
He just wasn't going to wait for Epsilon to create the incident the Dealer had planned around.
He picked up his bag and went to the door.
"Hell's odds," he said.
Vera gave him a look.
"That's not a plan," she said.
"No," he said. "But it's an accurate description."
Min was waiting downstairs.
---
END CHAPTER 96
