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The Company
Time: Saturday, August 3, 2013.
Place: Seoul, South Korea.
Last Event: Having a Gae old time.
Despite the "interesting" direction in which the night's events appear to be headed for Anabel, Jili, and Wen, the Agents decide to remain at the party and play along. If nothing else, it seems worthwhile to get into Mr. Park's confidence. Before long, Mrs. Gae reappears to make good on her invitation. She glides up to Wen, Anabel, and then Jili, and escorts them and a handful of other guests away from the crowd and toward the inner mysteries of her palatial residence (leaving Qoqa behind to keep an eye on the vodka). Along the way, Anabel strikes up a conversation and manages to learn that Mr. Gae is a multibillionaire who made his fortune in electronics.
Several twists and turns bring the group to a passage filled with erotic sculpture and steam, suggesting nothing so much as a cross between an art gallery and a spa. Mrs. Gae comes to a halt outside an ornate door, where a pair of attractive young women in traditional Korean dress politely ask everyone to exchange their clothing for robes. The girls also request that the guests check their cell phones. Given how events are shaping up, the Agents aren't surprised by the "no clothes, no phones, no photos" policy, and opt to play along.
The party-within-a-party proves to be the orgy that the Agents were expecting, with naked and mostly naked people lounging about a spacious, dimly lit playroom. Many servants are in attendance, shuffling about to fetch refreshments . . . and toys. And there are lots of toys, of every kind. Wen, who's quite handy with a whip (for reasons never explained to her colleagues), takes a liking to a lash that she's told is a work of art worth $100,000. Jili gravitates toward the electronic gizmos, as always – though in this case, that means violet wands. Naturally, Anabel sets her sights on the big fish: Mr. Gae.
It doesn't take Anabel long to catch the eye of most of the men and several of the women in the room. It takes only a little longer for her to convince Mrs. Gae to introduce her to the man of the house. Indeed, Mrs. Gae seems almost too eager to show off Anabel to her husband! Anabel smoothly displaces the two sweet young things who were with Mr. Gae when she strutted in, and starts mixing business with pleasure.
Anabel discovers that Mr. Gae knows who she is (which is to say, who she claims to be) and of her arrangements with Mr. Park. He explains that if everything goes well, his factory will be manufacturing phones for ". . . your people back in the U.K." Upon learning this, Anabel decides that getting close to Mr. Gae is essential. She keeps things memorable but classy, making an effort to come across as a kinky businesswoman in control of the deal rather than a sexy "gift" sent by the money behind it.
Meanwhile, Jili and Wen work the scene as well as they are able. Jili's fascination with electronic gadgets leads her hook up with a geeky chap who has similar interests. Her mark proves to be one of Gae's top researchers – a top-shelf engineer who, in addition to inventing sex toys, handles research into low-voltage microchips. Jili manages to wow the boffin with her brains as well as her looks. She even finagles an invitation to come see the man's work!
Wen gets up to some entertaining acrobatic naughtiness with her whip, always poised to intervene if Anabel or Jili seems to need rescuing. While keeping an eye on things, she spots a man who's clearly extremely uncomfortable with the orgy. He's sitting apart from everyone else and not-so-subtly watching Mr. Gae converse with Anabel. Wen works her way over to Anabel and manages to point out the man without being obvious about it. Then she returns to her decidedly X-rated rendition of Gangnam Style, with emphasis on the "gang."
Shortly thereafter, Anabel excuses herself to freshen up. As soon as she's out of sight of Mr. Gae, she finds his wife and asks her about the nervous-looking fellow whom Wen spotted. Mrs. Gae has no idea who the man is, but her guess is that he's a business associate of her husband's, uncomfortable because, well, orgies aren't for everyone. Anabel lies that she's going to go make him feel comfortable, and convinces Mrs. Gae to watch her back.
As always, Anabel's charm does the trick; she soon strikes up a conversation with the stranger. He introduces himself as "Jung" and claims to be an executive in one of Mr. Gae's divisions: "I'm in, err, Consumer Electronics." None of this rings true with Anabel – the man is outright lying, and not particularly well. However, he's too nervous and defensive for Anabel to learn more. Anabel eventually excuses herself.
Anabel works her way back over to Wen with a plan. She says that she'll put on a good show with Mr. Gae to hold Jung's attention for about 30 minutes, and then do her best to get invited to stay the night. She figures that once she disappears to attend an even more exclusive "party" with her host and hostess, Jung will realize that he's out of luck and decide to leave. She asks Wen to get dressed, slip back out to the main party, wait for Jung, and follow him when he departs.
Wen does exactly as Anabel asked. Within minutes, she's at the bar bringing Qoqa up to speed on Anabel's scheme. She also texts Paul and asks him, Klas, and Lev to come as quickly as possible and wait outside. About half an hour later – just as Anabel calculated – Jung wanders into sight, looking perplexed. Wen surreptitiously snaps his photograph and sends it to Paul, who texts back: "We're outside."
Jung has one drink, as if making a forced effort to seem casual, and then shambles toward the exit. Wen skillfully follows him through the crowd, while Qoqa simply puts on her jacket and leaves, looking convincingly as though she's tired, drunk, and on her way home. Outside, Paul immediately spots Jung and joins Wen on his trail. Klas and Lev link up with Qoqa, and the three of them hang back as if waiting for a car. Back at the orgy, meanwhile, Anabel ensures that she and Jili are invited to spend the night . . .
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, Paul and Wen find themselves following Jung one and then two blocks from the towering Gae residence. Given the classy area and the number of wealthy guests being picked up out front, his behavior seems odd. It isn't as if the Gaes' doormen couldn't have called him a car, and the neighborhood has little to offer at 03:00. The district is full of steel and glass towers – a mix of urban palaces and high finance.
Monitoring the situation from afar, Klas spies nothing odd. Nobody is tailing Wen and Paul, nobody else is shadowing Jung, and there are no suspicious people or vehicles in the area. However, once Jung is three blocks from the party, a large black car rounds a corner and picks him up. Wen darts into the shadows and notes its license plates, while Paul puts on a good show of drunkenly hailing a taxi. Down the road, Qoqa also summons a cab, figuring that Paul and Wen can keep her, Lev, and Klas up to speed via text messages.
Fortunately for Paul, there are several taxis in the area, doubtless intent on picking up big tippers from a swanky party. Even luckier, the cabbie speaks passable English. Paul's street-smart manner and generous cash bribe soon have the taxi driver following the black car under the pretense that it contains Wen's husband, who has been seeing a mistress. Wen and Paul can't judge the extent to which the cabbie seriously believes that a white private investigator would be shadowing a cheating spouse around a tony Seoul neighborhood, but that doesn't matter – the man does a good job of tailing Jung's car. Wen sends Qoqa regular text updates, and Qoqa has her own driver keep up, explaining that her drunk friend keeps changing her mind about the next party spot.
After 20 minutes of driving around like this, the black car pulls over and lets Jung out in a bustling nonresidential area. Gambling that Jung is a pawn (whence his nervousness and lack of tradecraft), while the real party of interest is in the mysterious car, Paul urges the cabbie to keep following the vehicle. After another 15 minutes, things get interesting: the car turns down Embassy Row. Ultimately, it disappears behind the security barriers at the United States embassy. Wen texts this information to her associates while Paul bribes the taxi driver to forget what he just saw and drive to a good all-night restaurant.
Before long, the entire team – minus Anabel and Jili, of course – is having a late-night snack at a dumpling joint. Consensus is that Jung was watching Mr. Gae rather than Anabel, and was pressured to do so by American spies. It smells of economic espionage, and doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Company's deal. After all, there's no official paperwork on that arrangement as yet. Wen texts a brief report to Anabel, and after a few minutes gets a short reply in which Anabel suggests that Mr. Park brought the female Agents to Gae's party mostly to sweeten the deal with a little risqué action on the side. Anabel, too, thinks that it's Gae who needs to watch his back, and says that she'll warn him somehow.
Daylight on Sunday finds most of the team back at their hotel while Anabel and Jili have breakfast with the Gaes. The meal is truly amazing – as is Anabel's segue onto the topic of Jung. Showing Mr. Gae her picture of Jung, she claims that the antsy party-crasher worried her, so she had "her people" follow him, and they discovered that he's reporting to American spies. Gae is impressed with Anabel's tip and promises to beef up his defenses against corporate espionage. Anabel also gets him to agree to let her know if Jung reemerges.
Eventually, Anabel and Jili decide to take their leave. Anabel does what she can to disguise the two of them using ordinary makeup, and then the women thank their hosts, say their farewells, and catch a cab downtown. Anabel texts Paul from the taxi and asks him to wait for them at their destination and make sure they aren't being followed. Then Jili and Anabel move from cab to subway to cab a few times, with Paul shadowing them most of the way. As far as Paul can tell, nobody is tailing the two.
The Agents spend the rest of the day keeping a low profile and reviewing what they learned. Nobody comes up with any new, brilliant insights, however. An attempt to report in to Chaturvedi meets with no success – but given how busy he must be pulling the strings on the electronics deal, that comes as no surprise.
On Monday, August 5, the courier packet from Sakata arrives as promised. It contains a high-capacity USB key with the engineering diagrams and diagnostics for the captured CIA or NSA "phone." Jili peruses these and announces that they look good; she also makes a copy, just in case. Then Anabel calls Park Ventures. It seems that the Company has already arranged the financial side of things, and that once Mr. Park has the technical specs, Mr. Gae is willing to make a deal. Anabel promises to hand-deliver the package this afternoon.
The Agents decide to visit Park Ventures in force. Anabel, Qoqa, Jili, and Wen will reprise their roles as the dealmaker, the executive assistant, the technical consultant, and the intern. Klas, Lev, and Paul will stay at ground level to keep an eye on the front door. Everybody dresses respectably, and then the two squads set out in separate taxis. Upon reaching the office tower, the four women march straight in and catch the elevator up.
The first sign of trouble is when the elevator halts abruptly on the 28th floor. Attempts to text Klas, Lev, and Paul for assistance are stymied by a "No Service" message, making it even clearer that something is amiss. Setting Jili to work blinding the camera in the elevator car, just in case, the other three listen carefully. Anabel hears sounds in the shaft above, while Wen can barely make out a muffled conversation outside the elevator door. The thud of someone landing on the roof causes the Agents to spring into action.
Wen manages to get the door open wide enough for Qoqa to peer out . . . whereupon Qoqa is almost shot in the face with a Taser! Leaping back from the exit, she warns her friends that there are four Taser-wielding goons outside – and now they're alerted. The sound of someone removing bolts from the ceiling panel motivates the Agents to try to move out anyway, before they're caught between two groups of foes.
Jili is the first one out of the elevator. Wen yanks open the door and Jili leaps through, gets zapped, and falls to the ground twitching. Anabel follows on Jili's heels and narrowly avoids getting stunned herself. As Qoqa and finally Wen boil out, there are more Taser shots, but no hits. With the Tasers out of darts, the four men in the hallway switch to heavy injectors that by now seem all too familiar to the Agents.
Hand-to-hand combat is Wen's forte, however. Ducking evasively between enemies, she effortlessly wards off their blows while delivering swift shin kicks. Anabel and Qoqa mostly focus on not getting injected with poison, but their presence keeps the men from ganging up on Wen while she takes them apart. When the thugs finally realize that all the danger is packed into one small package and focus their attention on Wen, Qoqa surprises one of them with a bone-shattering punch to the jaw, followed by bowling her victim over and dragging him to the ground. Before he can react, Wen lands on him feet-first, ending the melee.
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her decidedly X-rated rendition of Gangnam Style, with emphasis on the "gang."
Deftly writ !
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Well, only Anabel, Jili, and Wen are on their way to the private party. Qoqa is stuck at the bar, and the three lads are back at the hotel where they were left.
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There are only three players, yes. Stéphane (who played JB and Hamid) left the group because the campaign direction didn't suit him; Martin (who played Zhang) moved to France, and not surprisingly wasn't up to gaming via Skype from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. in his TZ; and my good friend Mike (who played Vinnie) passed away last April.