Ch.101Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

BANG!

The sound of the van door closing echoed loudly.

Special Operations agents dragged Fabio Verati out of the vehicle, and counterintelligence investigators took him and pulled him into the front office.

I threw my clothes, gloves, and the now-empty container that had held cellophane tape into the trash can and activated the rune stone.

-WHOOSH!

A small bonfire flared up beside the van.

I stared at the burning evidence with a stoic expression.

After watching the bonfire in silence for a while, the team leaders approached me.

Breaking the silence while still gazing at the flames, I addressed the team leaders gathered around me.

“Prepare for the interrogation.”

Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

Kidnapping a civil servant in broad daylight on the street… The operation was successful.

At a busy intersection full of pedestrians, I struck Fabio Verati’s head with a baseball bat, knocked him unconscious, and kidnapped him.

From a rational perspective, this operation had many flaws.

Kidnapping a local civil servant was clearly a crime to anyone watching, I was a defense attaché registered with the Magic Tower, and there were dozens of witnesses. Diplomatic issues aside, the Magic Tower’s counterintelligence agency and police could storm my hotel room and arrest me without any problem.

To an outsider, it would look like the act of a madman. How could someone brutally assault a person on the street and kidnap them in a van? A civil servant, no less.

It’s not something a person with normal thinking would easily do.

If they were normal, that is.

“What are you doing?”

I asked Pippin while flipping through TV channels.

She was pacing around the office with quite an expression, while the analysts in their work uniforms sat motionless at their desks with grim faces.

After pacing seriously for a while, the analyst said:

“F-f-f-fuck! Are we screwed?”

“Hey, no matter how close we are, you can’t just say ‘screwed.’ I’m still a major…”

“Is this really the time to worry about rank?!”

“Sigh. You’re becoming an old fart…”

I lay sprawled on the office sofa watching TV, while Pippin walked around the sofa expressing her feelings.

“Calling in staff without explanation, then suddenly knocking out Subject 51 with a bat and kidnapping him in broad daylight? What the hell!”

Coincidentally, the TV news was reporting the incident Pippin was talking about.

[…Breaking news. Today around 11 AM, a man walking on a road in the outskirts of Trinity was kidnapped. Numerous pedestrians witnessed the man collapse in pain. The suspect, presumed to be male with his face concealed by a mask and hat, indiscriminately assaulted the man…]

My image, captured by an illegal flight surveillance camera, was being broadcast in real-time.

It showed me, face hidden by a black hat and scarf, striking Fabio Verati’s head with a baseball bat to knock him unconscious, then mercilessly beating him as he lay on the ground.

I watched the news while drinking sparkling water.

“I didn’t notice while swinging, but looking at it now, my posture is unstable. Maybe because of my injured left shoulder…”

“Is that really what matters right now?!”

SCREECH!

Pippin scolded me with a soprano-rivaling high pitch.

Just as I was about to tell her to lower her voice because of complaints from the next room, someone burst through the door.

Tanned skin, bright yellow hair.

It was Jake.

“N-n-news! Did you see the news?!”

“Oh, you’re here? Have a seat.”

“That’s you, sir! That is you, right?!”

“Yeah. First time seeing a covert operation? Why so dramatic?”

He rushed into the office, pointing at the TV and stammering.

Meanwhile, the news had switched to a field reporter.

[The suspect beat the victim brutally with a blunt weapon here. The victim lost consciousness and fell, but the assault didn’t stop. The suspect loaded the unconscious victim into a vehicle and kidnapped him. Passing citizens witnessed this horrific crime scene.]

[Blood splattered all over the road. He got out of the van and beat him with a baseball bat, and when the person fainted, he threw away the bat and loaded him into the van before fleeing.]

[Police are currently identifying the victim and tracking the whereabouts of the suspect and accomplices. They are analyzing fingerprints and magical traces found on the weapon…]

“Is this really okay?!”

“Did you wear gloves? Huh?”

In the noisy office, I carefully lay down on the sofa, trying not to aggravate my shoulder wound.

“…It’s fine, so lower your voice.”

“What’s fine about this?”

With my eyes closed, I quietly answered my subordinates’ questions.

“The fingerprints on the bat…”

“What?”

“They’re not mine…”

*

Society changes constantly according to cultural, religious, historical, economic, and political environments, but neighborhoods where people live have commonalities.

Mindset.

The logic behind actions and the foundation of daily life.

Sometimes it becomes a way of life, but it can also transform into shackles that hold people back. In short, a double-edged sword.

People change themselves to fit social norms, and eventually become trapped in that framework, suppressing free thought and activity.

And breaking that framework is precisely the standard by which intelligence agencies judge the caliber of their agents.

And police are people too.

What governs the human mind are customs and culture, and what governs the police mind are knowledge and experience.

So,

“I apologize for the intrusion during your busy schedule.”

“Not at all, I was about to contact you after seeing the news.”

If you understand people,

Manipulating them is very easy.

“Let’s all sit down. This conversation might be too long to have standing.”

“Yes, excuse me for a moment.”

I met with police investigators in the heavily guarded hotel lobby.

Two were detectives from the police station, and the third was an intelligence officer stationed at the hotel.

“I received word from the Foreign Affairs Division. The victim is the father of the kidnapping victim I met before, correct?”

“That’s right, Attaché. If you cooperate with us this time, we can arrange compensation…”

“No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about such things… I should help, of course.”

As soon as Fabio Verati was kidnapped, the police immediately sought me out.

The Magic Tower police might suspect me, but my assessment was that I wouldn’t be their primary suspect.

Because there was already a bigger suspect.

“First, I’d like to apologize for the unfortunate incident that occurred at the hotel previously. I heard you were caught in the crossfire… I’m truly sorry.”

“I was actually debating whether to file a report about that matter, so I appreciate your expression of regret. I’ve been briefed by our agency personnel at the delegation. It involves the intelligence department, correct?”

“While we shouldn’t jump to conclusions… it seems that way. As the investigation is ongoing, we can’t provide detailed explanations.”

“Haha, that’s fine.”

I laughed off the Magic Tower police’s unfriendly attitude (they hadn’t shown their faces despite a shootout at the hotel).

They seemed aware they were late to respond, as they politely invited me to the hotel lobby rather than the police station. They even brought a high-ranking officer bearing gifts.

Anyway.

“So… the investigative authorities currently view this kidnapping as a crime committed by those thugs?”

“Well, it’s a given.”

All suspicion fell on the thugs who had attacked the hotel. More precisely, I made it fall on them.

Given the precedent of an armed group storming the hotel for a kidnapping, the most likely suspects from the police perspective were those same thugs.

I have a vague idea of who those thugs are. Although I couldn’t secure physical evidence as the bodies were transferred to the Magic Tower, I gathered various evidence through Dmitriev’s intelligence and the military intelligence network that the Kiyen Empire’s Reconnaissance Command was involved.

I don’t know why the Reconnaissance Command tried to secure Fabio Verati. I’m not a fortune teller.

What matters is that the Reconnaissance Command attacked the hotel, and the Magic Tower intelligence authorities and police have identified that fact.

So I can pin the blame on them.

“Personally, I think it might be related to the thugs who attacked the hotel.”

“Can you testify about what happened at the hotel?”

“Ah, yes, first…”

I confidently fed disinformation to the Magic Tower police.

Officially called deception operations. Spreading false information to confuse investigations. A technique used by all respectable intelligence agencies. Using this well, the KGB once forged US State Department documents to ruin diplomatic relations between South America and the US, and the National Intelligence Service scattered North Korean weapons in African civil war zones to disrupt North Korea’s diplomatic efforts in Africa.

It’s a really shitty thing to experience, but what does that matter?

Intelligence agencies work for national interests, not public interests. They’re organizations that steal secrets and eliminate people for the sake of the country. That’s what they’re created for.

So in this field, truth isn’t important. What’s truly important isn’t the details of the incident, but the perspective from which it’s viewed.

It’s not about who did it, but who appears to have done it.

That’s the core of plausible deniability in all operations.

Of course, all of this was just my personal opinion, and there was no direct evidence, only suspicion.

But,

“…I heard a weapon was found at the scene. Has anything come up?”

“Forensic analysis detected numerous fingerprints. We’re using them to identify the suspect.”

If there’s no evidence, you just create it.

Fingerprints collected from a safe found in a travel agency office suspected to be a front for the Reconnaissance Command.

Those were the prints on the baseball bat.

So my being cleared from the Magic Tower police’s suspicion was,

“We’ve placed various people on the suspect list based on relationships and debts, but currently the thugs involved in the shootout are the most likely suspects.”

A very natural outcome.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“For now, we’d appreciate if you trusted us with this matter. We plan to increase security around your hotel for the time being. Details will be coordinated through consultation with the Abas delegation.”

So.

All of this is,

From me, who was shot by the Reconnaissance Command and sharpened my knife,

To those bastards,

“I understand.”

A big “fuck you.”

*

-‘Ah, I heard you were questioned? Good work.’

“Not at all. The headquarters staff worked much harder.”

I returned to my hotel room after police questioning and conversed with Clavins.

-‘I heard through the Foreign Intelligence Office. You deceived the police?’

“Rather than deception, it’s more like… plausible deniability.”

-‘Isn’t that the same thing? Well, terminology isn’t important. Judging by the police document, it seems the disinformation flowed in well.’

“That’s fortunate.”

I took a small dragon out of the refrigerator, and a cool breeze blew. They call it an elemental spirit. I should save up and get one of those myself.

Through the secure line terminal, I could hear Clavins sitting down in his chair. The chair squeaked in protest.

“Haven’t you oiled your chair?”

-‘It’s so worn out that oiling it would be useless.’

“Oh my. Why not request a replacement…”

-‘My aide did, but it was rejected because we need to save on the budget. The Treasury Department complains we spend too much…’

“Ah…”

It seems even intelligence departments bow to the Treasury Department here too. The one who pays is always the boss.

How much could replacing office supplies cost that they’d reject it? I really don’t understand how the Military Intelligence Agency’s budget works.

-‘Anyway, the Empire and Magic Tower diplomatic missions are jointly monitoring the Reconnaissance Command’s movements, so don’t worry about that issue for now. Information will come through the line daily, so don’t worry.’

“Ah, yes. Understood.”

-‘Good… That’s enough about the Empire. Have you identified Subject 51’s superiors?’

“I’ve sketched an outline through Magic Tower delegation bulletins, academic journals, media outlets, etc.”

I sat on the sofa looking down at the open report.

It was an intelligence document about Magic Tower intelligence agencies, processed from open-source intelligence by Pippin’s information analysis team.

“Due to limited information, I couldn’t grasp specific details, but I’ve compiled a list of the Development Institute Director and the working-level staff below him.”

-‘Still no details?’

“We’ll be interrogating Subject 51 soon, so they’ll come out soon.”

-‘I can finally see the end. Wrap it up and get some rest.’

“Yes, you go ahead first.”

I placed the disconnected terminal on the table.

Next to the terminal that encrypted communication records in real-time were reports submitted by Unit 73 and documents sent by Foreign Intelligence Office agents.

Magic Tower government agency wiretap reports, personal information of delegation staff who contacted Fabio Verati, reports on Fabio Verati’s associates, National Security Agency trend reports, reports on Fabio Verati’s youngest daughter, and so on.

“……”

Crunch. Crunch crunch.

I organized all the reports and placed them in the secret compartment of my bag, chewing on a walnut while examining the inside of the secret compartment.

I took out a terminal inserted in the middle and called the safe house.

“…Hello?”

-‘Security team switchboard operator speaking.’

“Oh, Gordon. Long time no see. How have you been?”

-‘I’ve been well, sir.’

“Good. Everything ready?”

-‘Yes, preparations for Subject 51’s interrogation are complete.’

I threw a few more documents into the secret compartment and closed the bag.

“I’m coming now.”