My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 85

“So, we should assume they’re being controlled by this Heo Kang-soo guy.”

“That’s right. They’ll move according to his orders. Heo Kang-soo himself will never move directly.”

Park Do-joon spoke with a troubled look.

“The crucial factor right now is their reaction time.”

The golden window: 48 hours.

Everything hinges on that timeframe.

Currently, about 40 hours have passed.

The perpetrator usually tries to wrap things up quickly for their own safety, so they’ll definitely be trying to resolve it somehow by now.

Ring!

At that moment, Park Do-joon’s phone rang. He answered it.

“Team Leader?”

-“Hey, Do-joon. We’re screwed. The kid is in danger.”

“Yes?”

Where did that come from? Suddenly, the victim is in danger?

-“They got to him. Those bastards took the money and ran.”

“What happened?”

-“We got played, big time.”

The team leader explained the situation. They were instructed to prepare the money and wait, but then suddenly received a call telling them to bring the money out.

The director went out, visibly shaken… and sure enough, they made him switch bags in a deserted, secluded location.

Of course, the police couldn’t follow directly. The area was so isolated that any presence would have been obvious. After the bag switch, they sent a call taxi to pick up the bag and move it, and only then did they follow from a distance.

But the destination was a completely mountainous area.

The director, panting, took it up the mountain, and the police had no choice but to follow.

Then, two people on mountain bikes suddenly appeared, snatched the bag, and sped down the mountain, abandoning the director.

No matter how fast a person is, they can’t keep up with a mountain bike on that terrain. Moreover, there are no CCTVs on the mountain, making tracking impossible.

Since the mountain bike itself isn’t large, they could easily transfer it to a truck or vehicle once they reach the road, making it impossible to know where they’re going.

-“If you called the police, forget about seeing the child again.”

“This goddamn….”

Park Do-joon squeezed his eyes shut. The situation had taken a turn for the worst.

‘Mountain bikes, what the hell.’

Indeed, with mountain bikes, tracking would be impossible. They switched the bag, so there wouldn’t be any tracking devices either.

-“Did you find anything? At this rate, the kid is going to die.”

The team leader’s voice was full of urgency. At this rate, the child will die. It’s not just a threat; they’ll really kill him.

These guys have now discovered a profitable crime method.

Of course, they’ll want to continue making money this way, and to do that, they need to stop the police’s movements.

What if the child died?

‘It would be a definite threat to the parents.’

What would happen if the culprit informed the victim’s parents that the child couldn’t be saved and died due to the police’s incompetence in the last case?

Naturally, most parents would give up reporting to the police and choose to pay the money.

In fact, there are kidnapping organizations that operate that way around the world, and most of them don’t hesitate to kill children.

That’s how they send a clear message.

“Ugh….”

Park Do-joon gritted his teeth.

Time was running out. Two hours left. There’s a high possibility they’ll kill the child and disappear within that time.

Of course, they’re roughly suspected, so they’ll be caught someday, but by then, the child will likely be dead.

“The main culprit is Heo Kang-soo, who used to be the leader of a pseudo-religious group. The ones who carried it out are Do Shik-han, who had to give up his athletic career about four years ago due to an assault case. About five people were disqualified as athletes at that time due to that incident. They’re probably the culprits.”

-“I know that, but the key is where they are right now. We can’t save the kid if we catch them later!”

“I know. Just a moment, just a moment.”

Park Do-joon grabbed his head.

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it…!’

Where could they be hiding?

First of all, it’s not a place that Do Shik-han knows well. Of course, there’s a high possibility that Do Shik-han is the second-in-command of the organization.

He met Heo Kang-soo first, and he’ll naturally receive a lot of favor.

But that doesn’t mean he can be the core of the case. Then what’s left is Heo Kang-soo. But Heo Kang-soo also has a problem. He was a cult leader, but now he’s lost his fundamental power.

The organization he led, the religious group Heo Kang-soo created called the Cosmic God Church, has already been taken over by another guy under the name of the Galaxy Order.

Go near there?

He’s sure to die if he does that. So he won’t go near there.

‘And he has to hide the child.’

He could lock the child in an abandoned space, but he needs a stable space to keep not only Do Shik-han but also other foolish followers.

Brainwashing needs constant stimulation. The moment that stimulation disappears and other stimuli begin to appear, the so-called ‘reality check’ comes.

‘This guy is a pseudo-religious person. He knows that better than anyone.’

So, he’ll have a dormitory-like setup to maintain his influence.

However, it’s different from the human trafficking case last time.

At that time, those guys had some assets. So they were able to rent a run-down motel and do business there.

But these guys have no money at all. So where could they be?

‘Where could it be? Where….’

Park Do-joon tried to read Heo Kang-soo’s mind.

‘A pseudo-religious group that is no longer his. He’ll want to rebuild it. To do that, he’ll need money and a place. A place that can be a kind of symbol. Where could that place be?’

Park Do-joon suddenly thought of one possibility.

“Team Leader, try looking for the house where Heo Kang-soo lived. Not the house he lived in recently, but probably the house he lived in when he was young.”

-“You think he’ll be there?”

“Probably.”

-“Would there be a place where he used to live as a child? It would have been sold by now.”

“It won’t be. Heo Kang-soo is a religious con artist. What’s needed for religious fraud is symbolism.”

Con artists want to show off what kind of existence they are. Especially religious con artists; they portray themselves as a kind of god. In that case, the best way is to make the place where they lived a sacred place.

For example, how much of a stir would it cause in the religious world if we could find out where Jesus was born?

A sacred place is a necessary place to strengthen religious brainwashing.

-“Cosmic God Church? Isn’t that being controlled by someone else?”

“But it probably wasn’t handed over to the church.”

Since it’s his house, there’s no reason to give it to the church.

“Even if that’s the case, the Cosmic God Church, or rather the Galaxy Order, has likely abandoned it. The new leader wants to erase Heo Kang-soo.”

-“I see what you mean.”

The new leader drove out Heo Kang-soo and took his place.

Naturally, he’ll try to consolidate the Galaxy Order under his power.

But in that situation, Heo Kang-soo is just a hindrance. But making Heo Kang-soo’s hometown a sacred place? It may be a sacred place from Heo Kang-soo’s point of view, but from the new leader of the Galaxy Order’s point of view, it’s just a reminder of the former leader who has become obsolete.

He probably thoroughly neglected it and prevented anyone from going there.

It would be different if Heo Kang-soo was dead, but he’s alive and well. Moreover, his release was confirmed.

He thought that if he came out, some followers would likely go over to him.

“Let’s move by car too.”

Park Do-joon headed to the parking lot with Kim Seong-gyun.

Not long after, he received a call from the team leader.

-“Fortunately, there’s a house of Heo Kang-soo near where you are. To be exact, it’s a bit far, but you guys go first and save the child with the local police. It’s still possible they haven’t been swayed by money [corrupted].”

“Understood. Is there any data from the church side?”

-“No. You were right.”

The photos of the sacred place that were captured as data from the Cosmic God Church’s case in the past have disappeared from the current Galaxy Order’s website.

In other words, they’re trying to erase Heo Kang-soo as Park Do-joon said.

“There’s no possibility that Heo Kang-soo sold it.”

When he was the leader, that place was a sacred place. So he can’t sell it. And he can’t sell it in prison even if he wants to.

Because he needs a place to go after being released from prison.

-“Okay. Let’s check it out. I’ll send you the address.”

The team leader hung up the phone urgently, and Park Do-joon drove the car to that place.

“A sacred place… he’s doing all sorts of things.”

“Religious con artists originally pay a lot of attention to trivial things. The stronger the symbolism, the easier it is to brainwash people.”

Religion is a combination of symbols. If you look at it with reason, there’s nothing as illogical as religion.

Therefore, religion must build up various symbols and show something that transcends reason.

“But in the case of new religions, there aren’t many things that can have that symbolism.”

So they want to make their starting point a symbol.

“But this address… huh? It’s different? This is a complete backwoods, but the place of birth on record is a maternity hospital in Gyeonggi-do?”

Park Do-joon scoffed at Kim Seong-gyun’s words.

“That’s natural. It’s the 21st century now.”

How many people actually give birth at home these days? Unless a child suddenly pops out, most people naturally give birth in a maternity hospital. But suddenly, a secluded old house in a remote mountain village is his hometown?

“Symbolism shows that he’s different from anyone else. When he calls himself a god, he has to differentiate himself from others. What difference would there be if he was born in a maternity hospital like everyone else?”

“Then what is this hometown?”

“It’s fake. Because there’s no one who’s going to try to confirm it.”

No one who tries to dig into the god’s background can be called a believer.

Moreover, ordinary people can’t even access such sensitive personal information.

So he creates a fake hometown for his mystery.

“A space that’s difficult for people to access, and a space where it’s difficult to confirm the facts. And a space with no people around. It’s easy to sanctify and symbolize such a space.”

If it were a maternity hospital in the middle of the city, it would be easy to access and easy to confirm.

“But even if the light shone brilliantly at the moment he was born in such a place, there would be many people who would testify that it never happened.”

Park Do-joon said that and stepped on the accelerator.

“And places like this are cheap.”

Buy it at a low price, make it a sacred place, and when you make some money, buy up the surrounding area to create a church village.

“This is the process of typical religious con artists.”

Creating a village like that, becoming a king, and enslaving the believers. Most pseudo-religions have developed in that form.

The difference between a real religion and a pseudo-religion is revealed right there. A real religion tries to expand its power and proselytize [convert people to their faith], not to consolidate its power.