Hwang Gi-cheol had recognized the new drug's value early on.
He had thoroughly concealed the research results and inflated the clinical trial expenses, steadily eroding the company's balance sheet.
To line his own pockets, he intended to drive a perfectly viable company into deliberate default and send hundreds of employees to their doom.
"So a filthy rat dared covet a dragon's wish-granting pearl."
I gave a disbelieving laugh and switched off the monitor.
By now, Hwang Gi-cheol would be praying desperately for headquarters to cut off the funding.
Only once the company collapsed completely could he spirit away the patent he had hidden.
'But what a shame for you.'
I casually shoved the red file into my briefcase.
'That pearl you were planning to swallow?
As of today, I am going to snatch it right out of your mouth.'
As a grim reaper from the Restructuring Division, I would deliver the 'death sentence.'
Then, backed by Rubicon Partners' vast dollar reserves, I would stage the 'interception.'
In a single second, I had devised the perfect, brutal recipe for carving up Taeseong Pharmaceuticals.
I rose and put on my coat.
It was time to head down to Suwon, where Taeseong Pharmaceuticals had its headquarters, and crush that greedy rat's throat beneath my heel.
***
A few hours later, at Taeseong Pharmaceuticals headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.
Ominous rumors were circulating that the company might default at any moment.
The corridors were filled with the sighs of employees gripped by panic.
But the scene in the executive director's office was utterly removed from that hell outside.
"Hahaha! That's right, Attorney Kim. Headquarters will cut off the funding tomorrow morning, and we'll be in court receivership within a week."
Executive Director Hwang Gi-cheol was Chairman Choi Man-ho's younger second cousin and the real power at Taeseong Pharmaceuticals.
He lounged on a leather sofa, puffing on a cigar as he held the telephone receiver.
"Then immediately submit a letter of intent to purchase the patent through the company we set up in Hong Kong. Everyone thinks it's a hollow pharmaceutical company anyway. Even if it goes to auction, we can pick it up at face value without a single rival bidder."
He was celebrating the collapse of the very company he had been eating away at.
His was the face of a greedy snake, swollen with anticipation at the thought of keeping the hidden golden egg all to himself.
CREEAK-.
Just then, the heavy office door opened without a knock.
"What is it? Can't you see I'm on the telephone? Who dares come in without even knocking……!"
Hwang turned irritably, only for his furious voice to break off.
An unfamiliar man in a black coat stood there, his expression cold and blank. Me.
I approached his desk and set down my blue employee ID for him to see.
"Baek Do-jin, the employee responsible for implementation at Taeseong Group's Restructuring Division."
"I am here on the division head's orders to carry out Taeseong Pharmaceuticals' final liquidation and placement into court receivership."
"The R-RD?"
He flinched and put down the receiver.
But once he confirmed that my rank was merely 'employee,' his lips twisted into an unpleasant smile.
"Ha! A little time at the chairman's side, and that bastard Oh Se-dong has lost his mind. How dare he send a brat of a junior employee to deliver a liquidation notice?"
"If you're declaring us in default, leave the paperwork and get out. I already knew it was coming. Don't you dare act above your station."
The mockery and contempt were unmistakable.
But rather than bow, I gave a short laugh and flung the red approval folder onto his desk.
"Read the documents first. All funding from headquarters will be frozen at nine tomorrow morning. This is the 'Consent to Implementation of Court Receivership and Restructuring,' which will take place within a week."
"I have already obtained the figurehead CEO's signature."
"But without the seal of the executive director who holds the real power, headquarters' subsequent legal 'asset disposal' procedures will become troublesome. Please sign."
"You insolent little bastard……!"
His face flushed with anger.
"Fine! It's a bottomless vessel anyway. What difference does it make whether it shatters today or tomorrow?"
He snatched up his fountain pen and angrily scrawled his signature in the approval box.
He made a show of outrage, but I saw it clearly. His greedy eyes were exulting.
The 'complete severance by headquarters' he had longed for was now official.
Once the company collapsed, he would use his Hong Kong shell company to swallow the valuable patent and nothing else. It was the perfect scenario.
"Good work. Your job is done. Now get out of my office."
He pushed the folder toward me and jerked his chin imperiously.
I collected the signed documents and slowly leaned forward.
Then I looked straight into his shifty eyes.
"Now that you have signed the restructuring consent, I should explain the 'ancillary measures' that will accompany its implementation."
"Ancillary measures? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"When headquarters cuts off a tail, it is not foolish enough to throw away the useful organs with it."
I took another thin document from my inside pocket and held it right under his nose.
"The formulation patent for 'TS-702,' the new hair-loss drug that secretly passed Phase II clinical trials at Taeseong Pharmaceuticals' Second Research Institute."
At those words, his composed face turned as white as a sheet.
"Effective immediately, under the authority of the Restructuring Division, ownership of that patent and the right to dispose of it will be vested entirely in headquarters."
"……Wh-what?!"
"The records showing how you embezzled research funds, deliberately omitted the clinical trial results, and planned to siphon the patent into a Hong Kong shell company at a pittance? Our RD has already secured them all."
"Y-you bastard! How did you……! That was top secret! Nobody knew!"
He sprang to his feet, trembling like a leaf.
His bloodless lips quivered uncontrollably.
I delivered a cold, merciless death sentence.
"Your pathetic phantom company will not get a single won's worth of this patent. Headquarters will absorb it the moment the company defaults."
"Oh, and a criminal complaint alleging embezzlement and criminal breach of trust will soon be filed against you with the Prosecutors' Special Investigations Division."
"N-no……! Do you have any idea what that patent is worth? How much I've put into it?!"
Bracing himself against the desk, he howled like a beast.
A golden egg potentially worth trillions of won was slipping away before his eyes, and he was facing prison as well.
It was enough to drive him out of his mind.
"I-I'm the chairman's younger cousin! I'll give you as much money as you want, so please, let's pretend this never happened!"
He lunged desperately for my lapels.
I stepped aside with ease and gave him a cold sneer.
"Pretend it never happened? Then there is only one way."
"Within a week, bring the amount headquarters has repaid on Taeseong Pharmaceuticals' behalf, plus the funds you embezzled. A total of 'fifty billion won in cash.'"
"F-fifty billion……? Where am I supposed to find fifty billion in cash in the middle of this hellish IMF crisis?!"
"Then headquarters will take the patent. Prepare yourself for prison."
As though there were nothing more to discuss, I turned my back without hesitation.
"N-no! Baek! You said your name was Baek Do-jin, didn't you? I was wrong! Please, give me some time!"
Ignoring the desperate cries striking my back, I walked out of his office without a backward glance.
There. I had trapped the rat in a sealed jar and left it to starve.
If he wanted to keep the patent and stay out of prison, he desperately needed fifty billion won in cash within a week.
With even merchant banks collapsing one after another and every domestic source of funding dried up, he had nowhere in the world to turn.
Except one place: a hungry foreign fund's 'bundles of dollars.'
***
After I left, his office descended into complete chaos.
The crystal ashtray lay shattered across the floor, and he had torn at his tie and was shouting into the telephone, his eyes bloodshot.
"Listen, you bastard! I'm the Taeseong chairman's younger cousin! Discount promissory notes, borrow from the loan sharks in Myeongdong, whatever it takes! Can't you raise fifty billion?! Tell them I'll pay thirty percent interest. No, fifty percent!"
"Sir, even the private lenders in Myeongdong have run out of won cash trying to get hold of dollars! Besides, rumors that Taeseong Pharmaceuticals is about to default are already everywhere……."
"Useless bastards!"
SLAM-!
He slammed down the receiver and furiously clutched at his hair.
'Fifty billion. Fifty billion in cash……!'
Time crawled past, bleeding him dry.
At nine tomorrow morning, headquarters would freeze the funding.
If he wasted any more time, he would not merely lose the patent. He was certain to be thrown into prison for embezzlement and criminal breach of trust.
"Somehow…… I have to get that cash, no matter what!"
The next day.
Just as promised, the RD ruthlessly implemented the funding freeze.
Taeseong Pharmaceuticals was hurtling toward formal default, its days all but numbered.
Hwang was biting his nails until they bled, gripped by extreme panic.
CREEAK-.
The office door opened, and his trusted subordinate, Attorney Kim, rushed in with an anxious expression.
"Good. You're right on time. Why are you so out of breath? Come on, we need to work out a solution!"
"B-before that, sir! You have a v-visitor!"
"A visitor?! What visitor?"
"D-dollars! He's the head of a foreign fund, and he's brought dollars in cash!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a man in an immaculate suit strolled in behind him.
His neatly adjusted glasses framed a sharp, intelligent gaze.
It was CEO Joo Yun-ha, the public face of Rubicon Partners.
"Executive Director Hwang Gi-cheol. I am Joo Yun-ha, CEO of 'Rubicon Partners.'"
"Wh-what? Ru…… Rubicon? Why have you come here?"
Joo offered a slight bow and his business card, but Hwang's suspicious gaze remained.
Smiling at ease, Joo took a document from his bag and slid it across the table.
[Foreign Currency Deposit Balance Certificate: USD 100,000,000]
"O-one hundred million dollars……!"
Hwang's eyes widened as though they might burst.
With the exchange rate spiraling wildly, this was an ironclad guarantee of dollars in cash worth two hundred billion won.
A lifeline had dropped into the depths of hell.
"Let me get straight to the point. I hear you urgently need 'fifty billion won' in cash. You made quite a few telephone calls last night."
"……What do you want?"
"Rubicon will refinance the entire fifty billion won you owe headquarters."
"We place a high value on Taeseong Pharmaceuticals."
Joo sat on the sofa and casually crossed his legs.
"Ha! Fifty billion? You think I'll hand over Taeseong Pharmaceuticals just because you put up that paltry sum?!"
Hwang blustered, forcing anger into his voice.
It was a transparent attempt to seize the upper hand in the negotiations.
"We have no interest in a hollow shell like Taeseong Pharmaceuticals."
Joo gave a derisive snort and produced a second document.
[Proposal for the Comprehensive Acquisition of Management Control and Equity in Taeseong Pharmaceuticals]
"But the 'core' hidden inside that shell is another matter. The TS-702 formulation patent that passed Phase II clinical trials at the Second Research Institute. That is what we want."
"Wh-what?! How do you know about that?!"
'No, fuck! First that brat from Strategic Planning, and now some foreign investment firm? How does everyone know this top-secret information?!'
Panic shook Hwang Gi-cheol like an earthquake, his eyes darting wildly.
As he panted in utter confusion, Joo drove his point home.
"Do not underestimate Wall Street's intelligence network. I will get straight to the point."