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Kang Chan arrived at Lanok’s office at around 9:40 am.
“Mr. Ambassador, I apologize for getting here a little earlier than expected,” Kang Chan said.
“That’s actually even better. How do you feel?” Lanok stood up from his desk, then pointed to the table that was in the middle of the office. “Since we still have time to spare, would you like to have a cup of tea with me?”
Lanok ordered something by giving a look to someone, then guided Kang Chan to the table.
Lanok tilted the silver kettle and poured out some tea onto cups, the strong scent of black tea permeating the room.
Kang Chan lifted the cup and took a sip, then carefully put the cup down.
“I need to smoke a cigar. Would you like a cigarette?” Lanok asked.
“I brought my own.” Kang Chan took out a cigarette as Lanok cut the end of a cigar with a cutter, then bit on it.
“We’ve confirmed that C-4 has been brought into the country this morning, and we also got an intelligence report from more than three organizations that people are going to attempt a terrorist attack at the event venue. However, we are yet to find out who the key force behind this is,” Lanok said.
People wouldn’t purchase C-4 just to enjoy fireworks. They were obviously going to attempt a terrorist attack.
“It’s going to be a very difficult event,” Lanok continued.
“Alright.”
“I ended up being the face of the event, Mr. Kang Chan, which means you might be shown on TV as well. Moreover, if a problem arises at the event tomorrow
” Lanok continued while looking straight at Kang Chan, “You have to guarantee Anne’s safety.”
Why would Lanok say this?
Kang Chan cocked his head.
“Mr. Ambassador, if you have speculations, it would be best to tell me about them. I don’t know much about being a security guard, but there’s a huge difference between knowing and preparing for what could happen and getting attacked while oblivious to the dangers present.”
“That’s not it, Mr. Kang Chan. I simply told you about the dangers that come with this kind of gathering because, naturally, many variables come into play when multiple Intelligence Bureaus gather to meet.”
Kang Chan took another sip of his tea. He doubted the sly Lanok would say anything even if he pestered him.
Tsk!
Kang Chan was so absorbed in talking about Anne that he couldn’t even question his face appearing on TV.
When would I be able to win against this sly person in terms of pure conversational skills?
Knock. Knock. Knock.
As Kang Chan thought about something unnecessary, Lanok’s assistant came in and said, “Mr. Ambassador, it’s time.”
“Everything you require is in the room next door. We’ll leave whenever you’re ready,” Lanok told Kang Chan.
“Got it.”
Kang Chan stood up and followed the assistant to the room next door.
“Bonjour, Monsieur Kang.”
Louis and one agent were waiting for him.
“You can change into this, then prepare whatever weapons you want,” Louis told Kang Chan.
“Will do.”
Kang Chan got changed as soon as Louis and the agent left the room. He then examined the weapons on the desk.
‘What are they telling me to choose?’
The pistol options he had were only the Beretta 93R[1] and two kinds of Glocks.
Kang Chan took two gun holsters and sheathed Glock 19s into them. He fastened one of them on the right side of his waist and the other on his left ankle. Afterward, he put magazines in four magazine pouches and fastened them on the back of his belt. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any bayonets prepared for him.
‘Is Lanok saying that any fights we’ll get into are a product of information warfare, so we should be able to end them quickly using pistols?’
Smirking, Kang Chan opened the door. Louis, who was waiting for him outside, handed over a walkie-talkie.
Damn it! If you were going to give something like this to me, you should’ve done so before I put on my jacket.
Kang Chan took off his jacket and hung the walkie-talkie at the left side of his waist, the microphone on his sleeve, and the earphone on his ear. He then put on the jacket again.
Whoo! I’m done preparing.
“We’re the only ones going inside the venue. We were told that they limited the number of agents allowed inside to two agents per Intelligence Bureau,” Louis said.
Kang Chan nodded.
On the contrary, for events like this, having fewer people in there could be better.
As Kang Chan headed to the office, Lanok walked out of it.
“Are you ready?” Lanok asked.
“Yes. We can leave whenever.”
Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
Lanok walked through the hallway while smiling like a European mask.
Crowds of reporters had already swarmed to the yard of the embassy.
The shutters of the reporters’ cameras kept going off from every direction. Lanok waved at them and turned from side to side a couple of times, then immediately got in the car.
Kang Chan sat next to Lanok, and Louis sat in the front.
When the car left, a van followed behind them.
“When we arrive, ten agents will look for you. Your codename for today is God of Blackfield. Is that okay?” Lanok asked.
“Sure.”
“Mr. Kang Chan.”
Kang Chan turned toward Lanok.
“A meeting with the Intelligence Bureaus is similar to a gathering of immature boys. Overpower them, and they will no longer be able to exercise their power. After all, it’s difficult to speak up in a situation where they can’t protect themselves. I believe you understand what I’m trying to say here.”
Kang Chan turned his gaze toward the front while laughing out loud, and Louis, who was glancing at them, quickly looked forward.
***
[One by one, the representatives of all countries in charge of the Eurasian rail are now coming into the presentation hall. They are either going to stay at their respective embassies or will be at the international building for the first meeting, which will be at noon in Korean time. Ah! The Head of Russia’s Intelligence Bureau has just entered.]
“Honey, I’m strangely nervous,” Yoo Hye-Sook said.
“Why? I know this will be a historical event, but you don't have to be nervous. Just watch and enjoy it.”
Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook were sitting on a chair. Employees were around them, some having brought over their own chairs and some just standing in front of the TV.
Nearly all of the salespeople had either their morning appointments canceled or didn’t have any to begin with, so they decided to watch TV together today. Their office was quiet enough for even the female employee of the foundation to be able to watch TV with them.
[The Ambassador of France is now coming into the presentation hall as well. He’s the key figure of the Eurasian rail, having taken on the role as its Founder and the first Operation Committee member. The Ambassador of France is this project’s real decision-maker.]
A car stopped on the screen, and as Lanok got out of it, the door on the right opened as well.
“Oh! Honey! That’s our Channy!” Yoo Hye-Sook exclaimed.
“Huh? It really is!”
When the camera zoomed in on Lanok waving his hand toward his surroundings as if he was waiting for Kang Chan.
***
“Wow!”
A roar loud enough for the Shinmuk High School to reverberate rose from the school.
Since the event was happening at the same time as the start of the second semester, the students were watching the broadcast instead of having class.
Having heard the news that Kang Chan had been admitted to a national university in France as a full scholarship student, the students were already watching the entrance of the Ambassador of France with interest. Hence, when they saw Kang Chan, they screamed as if they had gone crazy.
[It seems Ambassador Lanok is currently accompanied by an Asian. However, we don’t know who he is yet.]
“He’s a student in our class!” a male student yelled.
“That’s right!” the students chorused. Unable to hold in their excitement, some of the kids even smacked their desks.
Kim Mi-Young watched the screen with her hands tightly clasped in front of her chest.
Kang Chan looked so cool that she felt as if she was having trouble breathing.
The other kids in their class looked as if Kang Chan had bewitched them as well.
Wearing a form-fitting suit, Kang Chan didn’t seem to shrink down even as he stood next to Lanok.
The kids felt deeply touched when they saw Lanok waiting for and entering with Kang Chan despite being the Ambassador of France, the Founder of the Eurasian rail, and the first Operation Committee member.
“Wow!” The students exclaimed when the camera focused on Kang Chan’s face as he looked at a French person, who the students didn’t know the name of, get out of the car.
Kang Chan smirked.
“Wow!”
“He still smiles like that despite where he is right now!”
The kids kept yelling while watching Kang Chan smirk.
Lee Ho-Jun, who was sitting at the very back, tightly clenched his fists while looking as flushed as Kim Mi-Young. He wanted to become a man like that.
***
“Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! Our President is so cool! I can’t handle this!”
Aside from the wardrobe employee who had yelled in excitement, all of the D.I. employees were spellbound as they focused on the TV.
It would’ve only been natural for anyone to be intimidated in that situation, but when they saw Kang Chan smirk at the last moment, the expressions of the female employees and the trainees were almost similar.
Michelle looked as if she could no longer hide the emotions brimming in her heart. Seeing Michelle’s reaction, Eun So-Yeon lowered her gaze to her tightly clasped hands.
***
As they were walking toward the venue, Lanok turned and leaned his head toward Kang Chan.
“Aren’t you nervous?” Lanok asked.
“Should I be?”
Lanok lifted his head and walked onward. His expression seemed to say, ‘As I expected.’
Following the direction of the sign that said ‘main conference room,’ they arrived at a spacious area the size of a sports field.
Circular tables were all over the place. The guide by the entrance confirmed Lanok’s identity and led them to their seats, which were the closest to the platform.
Since the four Intelligence Bureau Heads each had two of their own entourages sitting with them at each circular table, the tables were big enough for all twelve people to sit at.
“Mr. Kang Chan!”
Ludwig and Vant, who were already sitting at the table, stood up from their seats and exchanged cheek kisses with Kang Chan. Two people came over from the table right next to them and happily greeted Kang Chan as well. As a result, the people naturally started paying attention to him.
“Let me set the frequency of the walkie-talkie,” Louis approached Kang Chan as if he was Kang Chan’s subordinate, then set the walkie-talkie’s frequency.
“There are only twelve people tuned in to this frequency. If you want to change the channel, press this button,” Louis explained.
Kang Chan nodded, then looked at the people sitting at the same table as him, including the agents across him.
They all looked unique—one of them was bulky, another had fierce and sharp eyes, and another looked nimble. However, none of them gave off an eerie feeling similar to the man he ran into at the hotel.
Looking around the vast hall, Kang Chan finally understood what Lanok meant.
‘This is why Lanok wanted to bring me here with him.’
Unlike the eleven people that had said that they would follow Kang Chan, each table had one or two agents that gave off an eerie feeling.
Only those who were born with a natural talent and had gone through a lot of battles could have the same look in their eyes.
Regardless of whether they had natural talent or not, it wasn’t easy surviving on awful battlefields for ten years since they were twenty-one years old.
And leaving the battlefield and becoming an agent again and gaining experience was a different story. Plus when they were over thirty years old, their senses and strength decreased.
Kang Chan understood at least a little bit why Lanok strongly recommended becoming a citizen of France.
Click. Click.
When the two exits closed, employees in uniforms placed two plates—a salad and a steak—in front of the attendees.
There were eight circular tables. According to basic math, that would mean there should be a total of ninety-six attendees.
Despite that many people inside, it was quiet.
The eyes of those at the other tables, as they glanced at Kang Chan, showed they were being cautious, but Kang Chan didn’t really care.
As the food was being prepared, Lanok stood up and took the microphone in front of the stage. He then greeted, “Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming. I’m Lanok.”
Three or four people wore the headsets hung on their chairs, but most people were just listening to Lanok speak French.
“I welcome everyone that gathered here for this historic moment. After our meals, we will be moving to the main conference room. I hope we can create a cooperative framework for the peaceful establishment and operation of the Eurasian rail.”
Even though there were close to a hundred attendees, only occasional coughs could be heard. The rest were just the sounds of people putting down their food.
‘The eyes of the elderly are fucking fierce,’ Kang Chan thought as he looked at his surroundings.
Some of the people were overweight and had a lot of wrinkles. One of them had thick glasses, but his eyes glinted so much that it looked as if he wouldn’t lose to anyone.
Kang Chan’s eyes kept going to the three nimble-looking men sitting two tables diagonally away from him.
They had pale skin, thin faces, and firm physiques.
They seemed to be from Russia, and they all had extraordinary impressions.
The atmosphere made Kang Chan feel as if he had gone back to after he applied to be a mercenary in Africa. He was sitting with those who passed through the first round of training, and some of their competition had already been eliminated and sent home.
The current atmosphere was the same as back then—it made Kang Chan feel as if someone like Dayeru or GĂ©rard would suddenly jump out from somewhere and glare at people. The only thing different from that time was that they were currently wearing a suit and had a steak in front of them.
“As stated in the schedule that was given to everyone, we will all head to the main conference room together at 2 pm,” Lanok said. He looked around his surroundings, then raised the glass in front of him. “Let’s have a toast to the establishment of the Eurasian rail.”
Following him, everyone raised the wine glass in front of them.
“For the Unicorn,” Lanok continued.
“For the Unicorn,” everyone else repeated.
The meal progressed after Lanok’s speech.
Ludwig and Vant took turns talking to Lanok about nonsensical things, but considering that throughout their conversation words such as ‘elderly’ and ‘treasure’ were seemed to be jokingly mixed in, those terms were probably something that only made sense to them.
Kang Chan ate in a way that followed formal table etiquettes.
It didn’t taste bad, but honestly, he was bored.
Unlike being in the battlefield, sitting as if they were Lanok’s mercenaries made him feel irritating nervousness spreading out to the entire room. When Kang Chan thought about this gathering continuing until tomorrow, he felt like writhing.
‘This isn’t something that a person should do.’
Acting as a security guard at the golf club suffocated him, and feeling his opponents' energies subtly beginning to tighten like a noose around his neck was also exhausting.
Kang Chan couldn’t help but smile faintly to himself when he thought that he would do a really good job if he was told to complete the operation in Mongolia three or four more times instead of doing this.
What would Seok Kang-Ho be doing right now?
Kang Chan just wished Seok Kang-Ho wouldn’t say ‘fuck’ on the walkie-talkie.
There wasn’t even one guy that didn’t get beat up among the guys that pounced on Kang Chan after seeing him do well.
Since he was bored, Kang Chan kept having so many unnecessary thoughts.
After he ate, he smiled a bit at the jokes Vant made every now and then and the jokes he heard from across the table.
“Mr. Kang Chan, please be careful around the Russian Intelligence Bureau. Almost everyone here is watching you right now. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that half of the people that are here already know about the operation in Mongolia,” Lanok told Kang Chan as he pretended to look somewhere else.
“A lot of the people here can also lipread, which is why most people cover their lips like a habit when they talk,” Lanok explained.
They lived quite uncomfortable lives.
Kang Chan nodded to let Lanok know he understood.
“Lanok!” An elderly fat man at the table furthest away from them slightly raised his right hand.
“It seems like the elderly man wants to boast about what he did,” Lanok commented.
Lanok wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up. Louis stood up after Lanok while looking at Kang Chan.
Should I just stay here? No, I shouldn’t be thinking about this. What benefits would I even gain from bringing shame to Lanok here?
Kang Chan wordlessly followed Louis and walked next to Lanok.
Everyone’s eyes, including the Russian agents’, blatantly followed him.
“Long time no see, Jean-Jacques.” As soon as Lanok reached the elderly man, an agent stood up and excused himself.
What on earth is happening?
Listening to what the elderly man was saying appalled Kang Chan.
The man was praising himself and said that Lanok shouldn’t forget about his contributions even though he had become the Founder of the rail and the Operation Committee member.
Damn it. This isn’t a meeting with elementary school students.
The people gathered here were all Heads of the Intelligence Bureaus of France, Russia, Germany, and Switzerland—some of the most powerful countries in the world—yet they were acting like this.
Lanok didn’t show his dissatisfaction while talking to the elderly man named Jean-Jacques. Rather, he pacified him while smiling peculiarly like a European mask, but he didn’t give a definite answer about the things that the elderly man wanted.
Just what kind of person was Lanok?
“I’ll set a separate meeting for us later, then,” Lanok said. He stood up and shook hands with Jean-Jacques, then walked somewhere else.
It was funny, but the atmosphere prevented anyone from laughing. After all, the pride and honor of every country were at stake here.
If the official representatives would be writing the agreement with the fixed framework in the building next door, then this was where they sat down and unofficially made the practical decisions.
There were still a lot of things in the world that Kang Chan had to learn and master.
“Lanok.”
As Lanok walked somewhere else, a Russian that Kang Chan had been carefully observing raised his hand.
“Vasili(ВАСИЛИЙ)!” Lanok walked to the table, then happily shook hands with the man named ‘Vasili.’
“Just because the rail is finalized doesn’t mean you should keep your distance from me too much,” Vasili said in fluent French.
“How could I ever disregard you when I have to be in the good graces of the next chairman of operations so I can survive and resign from that position?”
“Hmph, your sharp tongue never changes. Is that man with you the one called your secret weapon?”
“If I attracted your attention, then it’s an honor. Let me introduce you two to each other. This is Mr. Kang Chan, whom I have accepted as my friend. Mr. Kang Chan, this is Vasili, a friend of mine who came from Russia’s vicious KGB.”
Vasili held out his hand, his expression seemingly saying he thought Lanok was absurd.
“I’m Vasili.”
“I’m Kang Chan.”
They tightly grabbed onto each other’s hands and shook them.
Vasili was very competent, but that was it.
When they returned to their seats, Louis looked less nervous.
Kang Chan somewhat got used to the atmosphere.
Now there were only two things left to do—continue this tedious schedule, which had only been going on for two hours, and keep an eye out for the terrorist attack that could happen within that time.
1. Beretta 93R is an Italian selective-fire machine pistol, designed and manufactured by Beretta (an Italian firearm manufacturing company) in the late 1970s for police and military use. It is derived from their semi-automatic Beretta 92 ☜