Shin
Who they are
The leader of the cell: a student planted years earlier, in the country long enough — C06 says three years — to find the softness of British life a strain. He reports nightly to The Supreme Leader and receives his instructions the same way (C08), and he runs three companions and a corpse with the flat competence of a man who has done the paperwork.
He is the book’s antagonist in the narrow sense: not a fanatic performing for cameras but a technician following a template, which is the point. C10 has him tell Emma Flyte that the whole world will be watching, and speak of the snake eating its own tail; C13 has the cell drive at the church at Abbotsfield while Shirley Dander stands in the aisle.
What they want
To complete the list. Destroy the village, poison the watering hole, cripple the railway, kill a populist leader (C06) — the stages of The Watering Hole Paper, which is a British document he is executing against the British. His one deviation is Kim Park: C08 has him killing her, C10 has him letting her live, and C11 has Danny accusing him of it.
Book 5 — London Rules
- C06 — In the van with Joon’s wrapped body; the cell’s discipline is shown through Danny’s inability to criticise him.
- C07 — Tells the others “It’s already done” as the van pulls away from the hall in Slough.
- C08 — Reports to The Supreme Leader; Danny recalls Kim being drugged and Shin killing her.
- C11 — Talks to Flyte: the world watching, the snake eating its own tail; and lets Kim live.
- C12 — Accused by Danny of letting Kim go; An shoots Danny in the face in front of him.
- C13 — An presses him for the order as the van drives down towards Abbotsfield.
- C14 — The attack: the van knocks an unarmed officer into a wall and opens fire; Coe picks up a rifle and walks out to meet them.
Open questions
Whether “It’s already done” in C07 means the cell killed Gimball — C08’s An says they did not — and whether Shin’s decision to spare Kim is mercy, a broken instrument or a message to the man he reports to. His own fate at Abbotsfield is not stated.
Related
An · Danny · Kim Park · The SSD · The Watering Hole Paper