Chapter 292.1: Wouldn’t It Be cool? (2)
Before Kang Chan’s watching gaze, Kang Chul-Gyu calmly ate his food.
Dinner was just about over now.
Soldiers and agents alike chose their favorites from the selection of refreshments on one side of the room and then sat back down at their respective tables. The majority of the men seemed to have chosen coffee.
With the day slowly progressing to its end, outside the window, the lights of the shops, cars, and street lamps began to light up the road.
After a while, Kang Chan asked a French agent if there was still a room available.
“You can use the room you were using and the three other rooms around it, sir,” the French agent replied.
“Should I be worried about eavesdroppers?”
“For as long as you’re on the seventh floor, you can rest easy, sir.”
That was enough for Kang Chan.
“I’m going to have a quick word with a few people,” he said.
“Sure,” replied Oh Gwang-Taek.
Kang Chan stood up and headed over to Kang Chul-Gyu.
“Come with me for a minute,” he requested.
Without a word, Kang Chul-Gyu stood up and followed suit.
“Choi Jong-Il. Yoon Sang-Ki.”
Kang Chan brought the three over to the room across the hall, which was where he met Romain earlier. They moved the tables next to the bed and grabbed some chairs from the other rooms so they could all sit down.
“Have you met the old man?” Kang Chan asked.
“We did in the plane. I’m sure everyone from our brigade knows the name ‘DMZ King,’” Choi Jong-Il responded. Yoon Sang-Ki nodded in agreement.
“Good. Then take a look at this,” Kang Chan said, pulling out from his breast pocket the map and documents that Romain had given him. For Kang Chul-Gyu’s sake, he told him a summary of what happened.
“This is Tripoli Airport.” From there, he moved his index finger along the roads and drew a circle around another area. “This is Al-Aziziyah, our target. My initial plan was to destroy the oil rig here in Tarabulus, but...”
Kang Chul-Gyu looked up from the map in surprise.
“What?” Kang Chan asked.
“Wouldn’t the Libyan government be forced to react against us if we do that? We don’t have enough people to take on the entire Libyan army, do we?”
“Libya will condone this operation in exchange for the US’ support of the anti-Gaddafi regime.”
Kang Chul-Gyu looked as if Kang Chan had just slapped him right in the face. A short moment of silence fell upon them.
Kang Chul-Gyu prodded on, breaking the lull. “I don’t know too much about foreign languages, but wasn’t that French you were using to speak to the agents outside?”
“The DGSE is the one handling our security in this hotel and the support from Greece.”
Kang Chul-Gyu chuckled in disbelief. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just shocked that the United States and France are cooperating with us even though South Korea still has to act so timidly around China and Russia.”
Kang Chul-Gyu dropped his gaze to the map again. He then let out a sigh, expressing a lot of his emotions.
Kang Chan didn’t have time to worry about him right now. He simply returned his attention to the map as well.
“The DGSE gave me these documents. You can take a closer look at it later. For now, just take a look at this guy,” Kang Chan unfolded the documents and put them on the table, making sure Mohammad Zrif’s face was at the front and center. “This is Mohammad Zrif, the head of UIS Libya. This asshole and six others ordered and led the massacre of our agents.”
“Each of the locations that were marked on the map on the other page corresponds to these numbers. These are the estimated number of hostiles per area, and these are their equipment.”
“How many tangos are there in total?” Kang Chul-Gyu asked.
“About one hundred fifty.”
Kang Chul-Gyu glared at Mohammad Zrif’s picture.
Kang Chan continued, “We’ll split our forces into three teams. Old man, you will lead the DMZ team. Choi Jong-Il, I’m putting you in charge of the National Intelligence Service agents, and you, Cha Dong-Gyun, will be commanding the Jeungpyeong special forces team.”
“Are you sure you’ve recovered enough to join this operation, Lieutenant Cha?” Yoon Sang-Ki asked worriedly.
“If we don’t let him, he will probably break out of the hospital and follow us,” Kang Chan answered before looking back at the map. “I’m thinking of sending over the Jeungpyeong special forces team to destroy the facilities in Tarabulus and having the DMZ and the National Intelligence Service teams focus on eliminating the enemies.”
Kang Chul-Gyu, Choi Jong-Il, and Yoon Sang-Ki all nodded at the same time.
Kang Chan added, “Mohammad Zrif has about fifty men whose only order is to protect him at all costs. Choi Jong-Il and I will move in on the target. Old man, I want you and your team to neutralize these six remaining areas.”
“How much time do we have?” Kang Chul-Gyu asked.
“No more than five hours at most. We have to include the time it takes for us to get there, so we’ll have about three hours to actually eliminate the target. Any more than that and the Sunnis and other UIS forces in Libya could reach the scene.”
“Hmm.”
Kang Chul-Gyu nodded in understanding, lips pressed together.
“Old man, you’ll start taking them out from number eight here. I’ll start with this asshole and make my way down the other numbers,” Kang Chan stated.
“Who will show us the way?”
“The DGSE will provide us with guides and camouflaged trucks.”
“Copy. When will you give everyone the full briefing?”
“The operation is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, so we’ll do it after lunch. The special forces will have arrived from the hospital by then,” Kang Chan answered.
Kang Chul-Gyu nodded. He looked like he didn’t have any other questions.
“Determine how many and what weapons your team needs and plan the logistics beforehand. Considering we’ll have different travel times to each of our target areas from the airport, the resistance will probably be strongest in the area you’re assigned.”
“I don’t see the need for an all-out attack.”
“I agree. The quieter we can do it, the better.”
Kang Chul-Gyu carefully peered at the numbered map, seemingly working something out.
***
After exiting the conference room with Moon Jae-Hyun, Go Gun-Woo gestured over to a secretary staff member.
“What’s next on the president’s agenda?” he asked.
“The President of Peru is waiting in the second reception room,” the staff member replied.
The two spoke to each other while walking to their next destination.
“What about the announcement about the talks?”
“We will make an official announcement as soon as we hear of the outcome.”
In the meantime, Moon Jae-Hyun had entered his office and sat down at his desk. He quickly scanned the stack of documents in front of him.
Go Gun-Woo and the secretary staff member waited for him at the side. After barely reading the large headings on the front pages and three or four lines of outlines at the top, Moon Jae-Hyun looked up.
“Is this really how we should move forward?” Moon Jae-Hyun questioned.
“It will all be over as soon as you give your signature,” Go Gun-Woo replied.
“But we don’t know the results yet,” Moon Jae-Hyun countered with concern.
“The assistant director will take care of it and return with victory in his hands. The director reported that France, Russia, and China have more faith in him than we do,” Go Gun-Woo stated firmly.
Soon after, he spoke up again to urge Moon Jae-Hyun to make haste. “The president of Peru is waiting for you, sir.”
***
Back at the hospital, Kang Chan gave the interpreter cup noodles and instant coffee, which Choi Jong-Il had given to him a while ago. The interpreter held the instant noodles with tears in his eyes.
Since there was no hot water inside the hospital rooms, Kang Chan made two cups of instant coffee outside before heading into Seok Kang-Ho’s room.
Creak.
Seok Kang-Ho’s eyes widened as he looked at him. With the swelling finally halfway gone, he looked human again.
“What’s that?” Seok Kang-Ho eagerly asked.
Kang Chan set the cup down on the table and raised Seok Kang-Ho’s bed up a bit.
“Where did you get this?” Seok Kang-Ho asked again.
“You’re not feeling well, so I went to great lengths to get it for you,” Kang Chan replied with a grin.
He then pulled up the bedside table and put the cup on it. While watching Seok Kang-Ho take it with his left hand, Kang Chan sat down beside the table.
“When is it?” Seok Kang-Ho abruptly asked.
“What?”
“With that temper of yours, there’s absolutely no way in hell are you heading back to South Korea without doing anything about this,” Seok Kang-Ho said.
He had unshakable conviction in his words.
Kang Chan had planned on keeping this entire operation a secret, but now that it had come to this, he decided that it would be better to just be honest with him.
“You’ve been gone all evening and suddenly brought me instant coffee. I can smell the ramyeon outside too. The men are already here, aren’t they?” Seok Kang-Ho asked.
“Yeah,” Kang Chan admitted.
“When will the operation start?”
“Around tomorrow evening.”
Seok Kang-Ho drank his coffee with his head bowed deeper than his cup was raised.
“Holy fuck! This is delicious!” he exclaimed.
Kang Chan couldn’t help but grin.
Turning to Kang Chan, he said, “Once all of this is over, let’s have cup noodles together.”
***
After having breakfast, Kang Chan left the hospital with Cha Dong-Gyun, Kwak Cheol-Ho, Um Ji-Hwan, and six other soldiers.
They took a van that the DGSE had provided for them.
Kang Chan grinned as he looked at Cha Dong-Gyun. The man looked like he was trying his best not to show that he was injured, but he was already breaking out in cold sweat.
The hotel was half an hour away. When the van finally pulled up behind the building, Cha Dong-Gyun gritted his teeth and got out of the car. Kwak Cheol-Ho and Um Ji-Hwan peeked glances at Kang Chan, but Kang Chan just kept an impassive expression as if to show that there was nothing to worry about.
As soon as they reached the seventh floor, they were greeted by the National Intelligence Service and DGSE agents waiting for them by the emergency exits and in the hallways.
“Take these men to Choi Jong-Il and Yoon Sang-Ki,” Kang Chan instructed.
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