Chapter 142.1: Just Who Is This Man? (1)
Seok Kang-Ho and Kang Chan had already left for Seoul.
Kim Tae-Jin, Suh Sang-Hyun, and Choi Seong-Geon sat in front of the barracks, drinking tea together.
“I can’t believe their participation in the French operation was decided with a single phone call. Just who is this man?” Choi Seong-Geon asked incredulously.
“You don’t have to dwell on the answer to that question. Just take what you see and feel at face value,” Kim Tae-Jin said.
Choi Seong-Geon nodded. “All this time, I thought Section Chief Jeon and you were the only scary people in this world. I didn’t know I was just a small fish in a pond.”
“I was scary? I realized that I had definitely aged when I saw you, though,” Kim Tae-Jin remarked.
“You definitely were, sir. I still clearly remember the look in your eyes when we went to and returned from the DMZ. Back then, everyone became nervous whenever you entered the barracks. From what I saw earlier, that’s how the soldiers react to Mr. Kang Chan now,” Choi Seong-Geon said.
Kim Tae-Jin nodded.
“Let’s consider ourselves lucky to have someone skilled enough to send soldiers on a real field operation so quickly. Some of the soldiers will have to make sacrifices. However, to improve and move forward, the special forces are fated to suffer such pain,” Kim Tae-Jin firmly stated.
“You’re right. We had no choice but to swallow our frustration and anger because we couldn’t obtain opportunities like this until now. The look in the soldiers’ eyes has changed. I’m both grateful and proud to have men desperately competing against each other to go somewhere they could die,” Choi Seong-Geon said with a melancholic smile.
After some time, someone knocked on the door three times.
“What is it?” Choi Seong-Geon asked.
“It’s the list of the men who are requesting their off days, General Choi,” Cha Dong-Gyun replied as he entered.
Choi Seong-Geon accepted the paper from Cha Dong-Gyun, taken aback by how quickly it had been prepared.
“Cha Dong-Gyun, you punk! Even if I can understand Kwak Cheol-Ho being on this list, Yoo Kwang-Yeol is a newbie who has just passed his hundredth day here!” Choi Seong-Geon protested.
“Please talk to them directly, General. I can’t convince them otherwise.”
“You bastards!” Choi Seong-Geon exclaimed as he shook his head and glared at Cha Dong-Gyun.
“On a separate note, sir, I’d respectfully like to ask for you to have face-to-face talks with all the soldiers.”
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“The men who were disqualified are greatly disappointed in themselves, sir.”
Choi Seong-Geon let out a loud sigh, not knowing what to do with his men.
***
“I don’t understand why the UK is suddenly attacking France. It doesn’t make sense,” Seok Kang-Ho wondered.
“Did the things?we did ever make any sense?” Kang Chan countered.
“Ha, that’s true,” Seok Kang-Ho agreed with a wide grin. He seemed extremely excited at the prospect of leaving on another operation. “I should probably take my wife out tomorrow, then. It’s been a while.”
“Oh, right! What day is it today?”
“It’s Thursday. Why?”
Kang Chan, who had been leaning against the window, abruptly sat up.
“That means we’ll be leaving on Saturday, doesn’t it?” Kang Chan asked, half-hoping Seok Kang-Ho would say no.
“Since we’re supposed to depart at dawn the day after tomorrow… that would be the dawn of Saturday, Cap.”
“Damn it!”
Seok Kang-Ho glanced at Kang Chan, then looked ahead again.
“I told them to make time on Saturday so we can go on a surprise trip. What should I do?” Kang Chan asked despairingly.
“You told who?” Seok Kang-Ho asked, not understanding.
“My mother and father. Damn it! They’ll be disappointed. I don’t know about my dad, but my mother seemed to be looking forward to it a lot. Tsk! What should I do?” Kang Chan wondered out loud.
Seok Kang-Ho didn’t have an answer to questions like these. Kang Chan scowled, unable to come up with a solution.
“You should discuss it with your father. That might be the best option,” Seok Kang-Ho suggested.
“I guess. I’ll talk to him after meeting Ambassador Lanok.” Kang Chan sighed again. Unfortunately, he couldn’t come up with anything right off the bat. In the car on the way to Seoul, he called Lanok and made arrangements to meet.
As Kang Chan expected, they were meeting at the embassy. Given the current circumstances, it would be unwise to meet anywhere that could leave them exposed to external forces.
Seok Kang-Ho dropped Kang Chan off at the embassy around five-thirty in the afternoon.
“You can head home without me since this can take a while if the ambassador invites me to dinner. You should stop by a hospital on your way back,” Kang Chan urged.
“You’re still saying that after seeing me in the shower stalls earlier today?” Seok Kang-Ho jokingly asked.
“Don’t take your condition lightly. Make sure you stop by a hospital before you go home,” Kang Chan rebuked.
“All right, I will. Call me if you need me. I’ll be home for the rest of the day,” Seok Kang-Ho said.
“I will,” Kang Chan responded.
Kang Chan said goodbye to Seok Kang-Ho and thumped the hood of the car before entering the embassy.
The agent standing at the entrance immediately led Kang Chan to the office once he saw him. The hallways were packed with agents today, which was unusual.
The office door opened with a click.
“Mr. Kang Chan!” Lanok greeted as he walked over and hugged Kang Chan.
The last time they met, Lanok had greeted him with a handshake instead. Kang Chan now understood how urgent and anxious Lanok was feeling, which were things he wouldn’t even have any idea about in the past.
“Let’s sit down, shall we?” Lanok gestured at the table.
The chairs in Lanok’s office were fancy, classic, pleasing to the eyes, and comfortable. It was as if he had brought them from France’s medieval times. They were a lot better than the couch.
Kang Chan suddenly wanted to gift Yoo Hye-Sook these kinds of chairs too.
Lanok poured him some tea and offered him a cigarette before lighting his own cigar.
“Let me begin by telling you about the Hadron Collider.”
With the cigar in his mouth, Lanok handed Kang Chan a few documents that he had prepared in advance. They contained the location and scale of the object and other complicated information that he couldn’t understand.
“Under my country’s leadership, nearly the entirety of Europe participated in creating it. Some parts of Russia even joined in. It was installed in the border area between France and Switzerland, but most of it is in France.”
Kang Chan briefly scanned the documents and put them down, focusing on Lanok’s words.
“As Britain was developing their subterranean shock device, they seemed to have judged that France’s Hadron Collider serves the same purpose, which is likely why they are attempting to destroy it. They have already dispatched agents to the mountainous region of Martigny Combe in Switzerland.”
“Are we up against the SAS?” Kang Chan asked.
“SBS,” Lanok replied curtly.
Kang Chan let out a low sigh. The elite among the SAS, which was remarkable in its own right already, were handpicked and trained to form the SBS, a unit that had successfully carried out undisclosed special operations not only in Europe but also in Africa and even during the Gulf War.
“We should never leave any loose ends in any operation, but it’s especially important that we don’t leave anything behind that can cause conflict with this specific operation. If the UK manages to find any of our traces, they will try to exploit the situation in any way they possibly can.”
Kang Chan nodded before speaking up again.
“Mr. Ambassador, the uh… Hadron Collider, was it? Can that thing actually cause earthquakes?”
“There are many misconceptions about it. Simply put, yes, it can. However, it is impossible for France to independently modify it for such a purpose, considering more than twenty thousand people collaborated to create it.”
It was difficult to discern this snake’s true intention from his words alone. Unless Britain was a fool, they would obviously know about what Lanok said as well. Perhaps they were aware but decided to attack anyway to find a reason to pick a fight with France.
For now, Kang Chan decided to trust Lanok.
“If the SBS is already there, aren’t we late already?” Kang Chan asked.
“The mobilization of the special forces of the Foreign Legion was delayed by a day. There’s only one spot for the title of ‘best team,’ after all. However, GIGN and the Unified Special Operations Command both judged that we would be at a disadvantage in this operation because it’s located in the mountains,” Lanok replied.
Since the teams were both responsible for different roles and used different equipment, what Lanok was saying was completely reasonable. Still, in operations like this, time was everything.
Only then did Kang Chan sympathize with the urgency in Lanok’s eyes.
“It will take approximately twelve hours to get to Switzerland,” Kang Chan stated, sounding concerned.
“Thirteen hours, to be specific. You will also have to travel from the Sion Base by helicopter and on foot through the mountainous area. Taking those into calculation, it will take twenty hours without breaks.”
“What if the SBS makes their move before we arrive?” Kang Chan mused.
Lanok couldn’t answer. His expression grew stiff.
“Would it be difficult to reinforce the collider’s security or strike them directly from Switzerland?” Kang Chan asked, recalling Ludwig and Vant being good friends with Lanok.
“If we inform Switzerland about this and request their assistance, we will essentially be revealing the secrets related to the subterranean shock device and the Blackhead diamond to the European intelligence agencies. Although the truth will be revealed at some point anyway, it is wiser to give up the Hadron Collider for now.”
Kang Chan nodded and lifted his cigarette.
If Cha Dong-Gyun’s team had practical combat experience—if there were just five members with skills like Dayeru, Kang Chan would have said he would depart immediately.
It wasn’t just out of his personal gratitude to Lanok. The more he gained insight into the field of intelligence, the better these kinds of operations seemed to be for establishing the reputation of South Korea’s special forces. Moreover, the subterranean shock device was created to prevent the Eurasian Rail from being built, which was all the more reason why this was significant.
Seemingly understanding Kang Chan’s silence, Lanok kept quiet and just enjoyed his cigar and tea.
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