Sword of God(28)
The flames igniting his rage within.
16
Kia sat next to the old man, no longer fearing him. His name was Dong-Min Kim. After she explained who she was and why she was there, he apologized several times for attacking her with a pitchfork. She brushed it off like it was the type of thing that happened every day, but Kim knew better. He wasn’t the least bit delusional, as she had first feared. He was actually clearheaded and caring. The stereotypical village elder.
The two of them talked in Korean, everything light and conversational. Nothing about the fire pit, the cave, or what had happened during the past week. Those were topics she wanted to save for Payne and Jones. Instead, she talked about her childhood on the army base near Seoul, explaining how blessed she was to be exposed to so many cultures at such an early age and how it gave her a head start on her current career. By age ten, she could speak four languages.
Kim was impressed by her accomplishments, especially her world travels. In all his life, he had never left the island of Jeju. Not even to go fishing. As a young boy he had nearly drowned while learning to swim, and after that he had an intense fear of the sea, which prevented him from going anywhere. No boats. No planes. No traveling of any kind. Instead he poured himself into books, learning the ways of the world from the comfort of his own home. Unfortunately, that was the main reason why he was so outraged by the presence of the cave. He rarely strayed from his village, yet the dangers of the world kept finding him there.
With a wave of his hand, Payne caught Kia’s attention. She excused herself from Kim and walked into the backyard, where Payne and Jones were waiting by the fire pit, the smell of smoke still filling the air.
“Is he lucid?” Payne asked.
Kia nodded. “Very. He knows exactly what’s going on.”
“Good. We’re hoping he can tell us what happened. Any advice on how to approach him?”
“Sir?”
“Will he be receptive to my questions, or should you conduct the interview?”
“Honestly, sir, I think it would be best if I handled it. He doesn’t trust Americans. And I think he’d be more comfortable speaking in Korean.”
Payne nodded, agreeing with everything she’d said. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to fill her in on the latest news about Trevor Schmidt, so he gave her a short list of questions that he and Jones had composed and asked her to look them over. Thirty seconds later she had them committed to memory. It was one of her strengths.
“Try to keep things conversational,” he suggested as he tossed the list into the fire and watched it burn. “Use your rapport to open him up. Then, and only then, ask him the important stuff. We need some honest answers from him. No time for bullshit. Remember, the longer he thinks about a response, the less likely he’ll tell the truth.”
Kia nodded, then returned to Kim, who gave her a warm smile as she approached. Except for his long pony-tail, he looked like her maternal grandfather, a man who’d died long before she was born. Otherwise, Kia’s mother wouldn’t have been allowed to marry an American.
“Sorry about that,” she said in Korean. “My bosses were asking about you.”
“And what did you tell them?”
“I told them you weren’t a flight risk.”
Kim laughed. “That much is true. If I didn’t leave for this ...” His voice trailed off.
“About that,” she said, ignoring Payne’s advice to take it slow. “Can you tell me what happened here? None of it makes any sense to me. The cave. The empty village. The fire.”
“In the past we always left the soldiers alone and they left us alone. It was a mutual understanding, one that has gone on for decades. But this time, fate intervened.”
She said nothing, hoping he would fill in the blanks.
“A few weeks ago, a village boy named Yong-Su came to me and asked about the screams from the cave. I told him about its past, hoping to scare the curiosity out of him. But my efforts failed. Last weekend he went to the cave on his own.”
“What did he see?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “But when he returned, he was covered in blood.”
“His blood?”
“Someone else’s.”
Kia paused, memories of the cave flooding through her mind. Ten seconds were more than enough to make her nauseous. She couldn’t imagine what Yong-Su must have felt when he walked into the cave, completely alone, no one there to protect him. It had to be traumatic.
Kim seemed to read her mind. “The boy came back unable to speak. His mother was crying, simply terrified, unsure of what to do. She cleaned him off and searched for injuries, but found none. Meanwhile the boy’s father, an honorable man named Chung-Ho Park, ran from house to house, asking if anyone had seen what had happened. It didn’t take long to figure it out. The boy had left a trail of blood everywhere he walked. We were able to follow it to the edge of the village and into the woods. Drip ... drip ... drip.”