Page 88 of Forge the Blade

Rei sat on the floor at the coffee table between the couches and the two over-stuffed white chairs. Ellisandre lounged on one couch and Sevastyan on the other. Lisa faced Rei over the table. Rei had printouts spread across the surface and his laptop was open to a slide deck. Sevastyan leaned forward, elbows on his thighs, to read over Rei’s shoulder as Rei worked his way down the list of individuals expected to be in Seoul and then a separate list for those at the Yadro. This was what they often did before Sevastyan left on a mission. It was odd to have two more people present. Odd, but comforting. Because of who they were.

Rei kept the screen sideways so everyone could see. A woman in her fifties was on the screen. Rei gestured towards her. “Code-named Black Flower. She’s under pressure to have a public guilty verdict for the killer of her husband. There are rumors that he died ingloriously, maybe on the wrong side of the law, and that’s impeding a marriage between her son and a powerful chaebol family. Until she clears her husband’s name, the wedding agreement is on hold. Her cousins in the Merchari also want blood money.”

Ellisandre had their chin in their hand, eyes fixed on Rei’s screen as he ran through details. Rei had outdone himself. While Sevastyan had spent intensive time with Lisa, Rei had dug through archives, public records, and the dark web, occasionally reaching out through Sevastyan to ask innocent enough questions.

“Her husband is the one who died,” Ellisandre said. “Why do her cousins want blood money?”

Rei glanced at Sevastyan. Sevastyan nodded.

Rei answered Ellisandre. “One of her cousins is a local Merchari member. He disagreed with the Yadro sending my master in to stop the sale.”

Ellisandre glanced towards Sevastyan.

Sevastyan nodded, confirming what Ellisandre was guessing. “His disagreement ended in extreme prejudice.” Sevastyan waved him to continue.

Ellisandre had another question. “Do local Merchari not recognize the Yadro’s authority?”

Rei glanced at Sevastyan again.

“Answer all Ellisandre’s questions,” Sevastyan said. “This is your brief.”

Rei squared his shoulders and faced Ellisandre fully. “The Merchari is made up of a string of agreements and patronages. All major groups and regions choose their own representatives. The body of representatives vote on electing members to a council. The council agrees on three directors. The directors have ultimate authority, unless completely overruled by the council. Elections are every three years. New representatives and council members must be agreed to by existing representatives and council members, respectively. Someone could be elected by their local group but not accepted by the representative body, in which case the group has to choose someone new to represent them or not be represented.”

“So each region or group has voting rights for who is on the council but not direct membership in the council,” Ellisandre summarized. “There must be significant politicking.”

“It leads to a lot of subgroups banding together,” Sevastyan agreed.

“Of course,” Ellisandre said. “So you’re saying there’s authority and then there’s authority. It’s all negotiated. And Sevastyan negotiated on behalf of the Yadro, lethally.”

Rei nodded. “Seoul has sent several representatives over the years who have been rejected, requiring replacement candidates to be offered. And they’ve only had two representatives ever rise to council positions. Compared to the amount of money they funnel through the Merchari, they feel disrespected. Sevastyan punishing their member for disobedience hasn’t sat well.”

“Is their case unusual, that they’ve had difficulty seating members?” Ellisandre asked Rei.

Rei tilted his head back and forth. “Not very much. But there is a Chinese director currently. And there was a Japanese one before that. Japan hasn’t had a representative rejected yet. Their leadership has been very diplomatic in their choices.”

“Ah.” Ellisandre nodded. “And some of the South Korean groups have been less so?”

“The group that runs operations in Seoul is family focused,” Rei said. “They choose what feels right for them, without regard to outside approval. Groups like the one based out of Busan are less guided by internal pressure. They’ve chosen representatives who have worked better with others.”

“So it’s not a regional attitude but a particular family’s leadership,” Ellisandre clarified.

Rei nodded. “The Seoul group is set in their ways. They stick to internal family rankings for promotions and when assigning credit. Black Flower had status with them because she married someone in the police force who they were able to control. He was useful and so was she, by extension. But she’ll be ascribed less rank in the family’s eyes if she can’t marry her son into the chaebol family and continue her beneficial connections. Her son’s rank will also fall if his family’s name is tainted in both criminal and civil societies. Jun has not publicly named his buyer, but there are enough people who whisper and who have been given access to Jun’s sworn testimony that the rumors are being spread. Black Flower isn’t Merchari herself, but she trades heavily on her family’s Merchari membership. This is costing her.”

Ellisandre waved their fingers, stimming as they strung all the pieces of the puzzle together. “Let me make sure I understand. If Jun’s version of events stands, even as a whisper amongst those in the know, Black Flower and her son become a liability to the criminal parts of her family. She and her son will also both be closely associated with a man who died committing a crime.”

Rei continued nodding.

“So she needs a guilty verdict to settle her immediate reputation and secure future wealth and status. She can’t let her husband be labeled or even suspected of dying ignobly.”

“She really needs to make the rumors go away,” Rei said. “Or she needs something else just as valuable.”

“Money. Enough money that one side or the other or both want association with her.”

Rei nodded, rocking back and forth, the way he did when thinking hard. “That and she needs to pay off the cousins who lost their brother. They’re blaming her for her husband’s reckless decisions to buy Jun the way he did. They want money from her as an admission of guilt. If they are paid, they can point to that transaction as admission on the part of their buyer and not their recklessness as sellers. Usually, the Yadro will assign penalties after something is this mishandled. My master filed a complaint with the Yadro over their non-cooperation and an explanation of the execution. It will be a mark against the group’s record for several years, unless they can bring evidence to counter Sevastyan’s testimony. Blaming a dead client would soften the penalty if they can get it to stick.”

“Black Flower’s cousin was the reason I didn’t reach Jun earlier,” Sevastyan said. “He wouldn’t divulge the location of the sale.”

“One wonders why they were even allowing Bak to make the calls he was making,” Ellisandre said.