Jefferson’s Additional Orders

Even though I didn’t completely reject Bri’s request, I spent time with her in the room until that afternoon, forgetting even meal times.

The more intense time we spent, the clearer the justification became for slowly pulling away from any further relationship with her. When I said I was getting tired and wanted to get up, Briar Churchill no longer whined or excessively demanded my body.

“Yaaawn… Then I’ll lie down and rest a bit too.”

“Don’t fall into too deep a sleep. If Zhou Lizhi happens to fall into an urgent situation and requests our help, you need to get up immediately and respond.”

“Hmm, is that so? Still, I want to catch a little shut-eye. Wake me up right away if anything happens, okay?”

It seemed there wouldn’t be any problems. Actually, even though it was quite late, nothing had happened so far, and no matter how I thought about it, it didn’t make sense for the Chinese military to do something against Zhou in Nanjing, prepared for a riot.

I left the hotel building under the pretext of a light walk and slowly headed towards the parking lot at the back. I felt a familiar aura from a vehicle parked in the priority section, where the note had specified. I quietly approached the contact and spoke.

“Is it okay to make contact without even minimal security measures like a password?”

“What’s the need between us.”

Jefferson was right. She had covered her blonde hair with a hat and concealed her body shape with slightly loose clothes, but she was 100% Marilyn Jefferson. We weren’t such strangers that we couldn’t even recognize each other.

“I didn’t recognize you on the street.”

“That’s because it wasn’t me. If I had gone myself, you would have reacted. I sent someone you don’t know among my subordinates. From the local agents here in Nanjing.”

“So it was a Chinese person after all. I thought something was strange.”

That was enough small talk. She’s not the kind of person who would come all the way to the heart of China just to exchange jokes after a long time. To get straight to the point, I asked what I was most curious about.

“Katerfeld volunteered to be a pigeon between headquarters and us.”

“It’s true. It’s a matter of hurt pride, but Rebecca Katerfeld seems to have been more of an industry bigwig than I imagined. The MI6 guys spoke as if they already knew her identity. They didn’t leak a single word to the United States. It means she’s thorough and scary.”

“A detective who makes contact with British intelligence but whose identity the CIA can’t even figure out…”

Certainly, it’s not something an ordinary human could do, but I had long since felt that Katerfeld was no ordinary human. Anyway, it means she didn’t lie.

“So, was it British intelligence that guaranteed Katerfeld’s identity?”

“Yeah, well, after cross-verification through both German intelligence and MI6, they decided it was okay to trust that Rebecca Katerfeld superhuman for now. Were our orders properly conveyed?”

“Investigate Chen Yayuan’s death. Uncover Tikhonov’s identity.”

“Seems like they were properly conveyed.”

“So you knew about Chen Yayuan’s death too. Things have gotten strangely complicated. To be honest, I’m still at a stage where it’s difficult to even guess who killed her.”

There are several possibilities. It could be the work of the suspicious Russian, Tikhonov. It could be that Lieutenant Duey, who desires a world war, concocted a crazy plan and killed her. Maybe it was Hoang Thi Linh’s doing, or Katerfeld’s.

It might be the work of some other Chinese person I don’t know at all. It’s embarrassing to say there’s any clue with just that much.

“Headquarters made one deduction.”

Jefferson said. I tilted my head and asked.

“What deduction, Agent Jefferson?”

“The speculation that Zhou Lizhi is likely to be the culprit.”

It was a slightly unexpected statement, so I frowned. Jefferson turned her head sharply towards me and asked.

“What? Have you perhaps developed personal feelings for her? I remember telling you not to do that before.”

“Um, no. That’s… that’s not it. Of course, my relationship with Zhou Lizhi is professional and work-related. But that speculation is a bit surprising.”

“It’s simple. This incident was covered up. And the one who has the power to cover it up is Zhou Lizhi, who was the school’s instructor. Isn’t that suspicious enough?”

“If she wanted to cover it up more thoroughly, wouldn’t she have just made me the culprit?”

“She had the confidence to cover up the incident without doing that. Headquarters’ speculation is this: Chen Yayuan might have been an agent of the Chinese government, specifically a direct agent of Chiang Kai-shek. Yeah, I’m talking about the Blueshirts now.”

“Didn’t you say Zhou Lizhi belongs to the Blueshirts?”

“You think Chinese people don’t check each other within secret societies?”

“What’s the basis for such speculation?”

“No matter how much we dig into Chen Yayuan, no proper information comes up.”

“The CIA couldn’t properly investigate Tikhonov and Katerfeld to inform me. To be honest, I’m now doubting the investigative capabilities of the organization dealing with this problem. Naturally, its reliability too.”

Despite my bold protest, Jefferson just clicked her tongue and couldn’t fight back or get angry. In fact, compared to the importance of this mission, the CIA’s level of preparedness was inadequate. And it wasn’t just this time. Even for a national intelligence agency, it’s an organization where ‘non-superhumans’ make up the majority of members.

In the age of superhumans, it’s not rare for intelligence agencies to make blunders in espionage. In an operation against a den of vipers like Huangpu Women’s School, such minor mistakes can naturally occur.

“Anyway, the fact that the organization couldn’t grasp anything about Chen Yayuan suggests the possibility that she might have been a special agent within the Chinese government. At the very least, there’s a high possibility she belonged to a secret society of comparable level.”

“And so?”

“From what I can see of the situation, Zhou Lizhi seems to be a subject of checks and balances in central Nanjing. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s not Chiang Kai-shek’s confidant, but it might mean that Chiang usually planted another confidant in Huangpu to monitor Zhou…”

“And Zhou Lizhi, angered by this fact, eliminated Chen Yayuan? Is that the perspective from which the CIA is viewing this situation?”

“Several possibilities are open. For example, there’s a possibility that Chen Yayuan was a dangerous terrorist aiming to overthrow China, and Zhou, loyal to the Chinese government, killed her on her own initiative. But considering various circumstances, it’s true that we can’t rule out the possibility that Zhou Lizhi is the culprit who killed Chen Yayuan.”

Can’t rule it out.

I think that’s exactly what fits the facts. To say that Zhou Lizhi is the most important suspect in this case, going that far seems to be an overreach. It’s also strange that Jefferson contacted me just to lay out this level of speculation.

“…If you have something more important to say, please say it quickly. My roommate might be waiting for me.”

“Right. There’s an additional instruction related to the speculation I just mentioned.”

“…Yes.”

“The Chinese regime has become unstable due to the atomic bomb incident in Beiping. If the aftermath of this incident grows larger, Chiang Kai-shek’s regime might collapse in China, and China might disintegrate and split.”

“Everyone knows it’s that big of a crisis.”

“If Zhou Lizhi killed Chen Yayuan to rebel against Chiang Kai-shek, there’s a possibility she might try to do something during this Beiping mission. Shin Eun-young. Are you in a position trusted by Zhou Lizhi?”

“Zhou is a person whose inner thoughts are hard to know.”

But I could nod, albeit timidly.

“However, she might trust me to some extent… I suppose.”

“CIA headquarters is issuing an order to you. If Zhou Lizhi makes any moves to overthrow the Chinese government during this memorial event, or even after the memorial event, immediately eliminate Zhou Lizhi and escape from China. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I felt the blood drain from my face as I heard her words. Jefferson didn’t wait for my answer and got into the passenger car that was parked right next to her, then drove out of the hotel parking lot.

Even if I didn’t answer, I had no choice anyway.

CIA orders are CIA orders. Obviously, the U.S. government doesn’t want China to collapse right now. This isn’t the early 20th century. China collapsing in 1910 and China collapsing in 1987 have become completely different stories. Yes. If Zhou tries to overthrow the regime, there was no possibility from the start that the CIA would try to help with that.