Ch.104Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

“…Yes. This is the Human Resources Development Institute, correct? …Yes, I understand. I’ll contact you once I receive the report and instructions.”

I placed the disconnected terminal on the desk.

Fifth floor of the Abas delegation building at the Magic Tower. The Defense Attaché’s Office located there.

An office where no unauthorized personnel could enter, one that didn’t even take orders from the ambassador-level representative.

One wall was covered with materials created by analysts, and documents were placed on each desk separated by partitions.

I stared at the photos hanging on the wall.

There were photos above photos, and photos beside photos. The images, interconnected with red lines, looked like a massive spider web.

“…Well.”

I muttered, placing one hand on my waist while holding a pistol in the other.

“Who should I take down first?”

Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

Fabio Verati had revealed three pieces of information.

The handler of the spy who infiltrated the Advanced Military Magic Research Institute.

The organization to which that handler belonged.

The current location of Giada Bianchi, who disappeared several years ago.

As expected, the first was Fabio Verati himself, and the second was the Human Resources Development Institute of the Magic Tower delegation.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect the last one.”

-‘Still, I think you had some idea?’

“I had my suspicions. Where else would all that money come from? I just couldn’t be certain with only circumstantial evidence.”

I contacted Clevins immediately after receiving the report from the 73rd Project Team’s counterintelligence unit.

Though I hadn’t expected it, the Military Intelligence Service popped champagne when the tracking ended surprisingly quickly.

-‘The overseas department is making a fuss about giving you a medal. There was talk about assigning such a difficult task to a major, but now no one doubts you.’

“What did I do to deserve that? I didn’t do anything. The attaché’s office and project staff did all the work.”

-‘So you’re saying you don’t want the medal?’

“Haha, give the medals to the staff. I’ll just take the reward money.”

After exchanging jokes with Clevins, I got straight to the point.

After all, the job wasn’t finished yet.

“The investigation team has pulled together an organizational chart of the Human Resources Development Institute. We cross-checked it with the materials prepared by the analysis team, and the accuracy rate is quite high.”

Thanks to the collaboration between the counterintelligence investigation team and the attaché’s office’s intelligence analysis team that participated in the operation, we successfully identified the organizational structure of the Magic Tower’s intelligence agency and key personnel information.

We also received help from Dmitriev’s journalist network at times. The accuracy of the information was generally very high thanks to the excellent capabilities of political and international reporters from the press.

Testimony obtained through interrogation, open-source information, human intelligence from journalists. Plus additional materials from the Royal Intelligence Service.

Having collected and verified intelligence from more than two sources, the information about the Human Resources Development Institute was indisputable all-source intelligence.

“I didn’t expect the Royal Intelligence Service to be involved. How did that happen?”

-‘Apparently they were conducting their own investigation. It’s difficult to discuss details over wireless communication, so just think of it as cooperation between agencies.’

I did meet Director Leoni on the day I was shot, but I only heard a general overview. Clevins seemed to know something but refrained from elaborating for security reasons.

Anyway, I decided to move on with the attitude that what’s good is good.

“So am I correct in understanding that we’re targeting the Human Resources Development Institute first, as ordered?”

-‘Yes. This morning, the Prime Minister personally briefed the Foreign Minister about the situation. We plan to resolve the issue of the missing citizen through talks, but for now, let’s deal with the Magic Tower problem first.’

Take down the bastards who sent spies first.

If I’d known it would come to this, I should have just raided the delegation building from the start, kidnapping or not.

“I feel like we’ve taken a long detour when there was a shorter path.”

-‘As you well know, the intelligence service can’t execute without certainty. We need some information to make decisions, don’t we?’

In other words,

Now that we have certainty, it’s time to execute.

Knock! Knock!

“Ah, the team is here. I need to hang up.”

-‘I’ll contact you again later.’

“Yes, please go ahead.”

As soon as Clevins ended the communication, I hurried to open the door. There stood a greenskin with protruding lower jaw and pointed fangs, holding a box.

An orc.

I tilted my head in confusion, wondering why an orc who belonged in a construction site or mine was in the delegation building, when several people in work uniforms quickly squeezed through the gap.

“We’re back from shopping.”

“Oh, you’re here?”

“Please put that box over here.”

“Ye-es.”

The orc placed the stack of boxes near the office entrance, gave a slight bow, and disappeared toward the stairs. Must have been a porter.

I held the office door open for Pipin and Jake, as well as the analysts who had finished their errands.

“Did something happen on the way? Why are you so late?”

“The hero and saint said they needed something, so we stopped by the hotel, but the hero drank one of the beverages…”

“So you had to go buy another one?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine, but you weren’t caught by the police, right?”

“Of course not. No one saw us except those two.”

I didn’t think much about it since Camilla and Lucia were doing well. If they needed something, they should get it.

Anyway.

“Pipin, did you buy everything I asked for?”

“Um… hydrogen peroxide, large syringes, acetic acid, bottled drinks, mana converter, and powdered juice? I bought everything as listed.”

“Good job.”

I was worried they might not be able to get everything, but they found the items faster than expected. Apparently, none of these items had legal purchase restrictions.

Humming a tune, I placed the items from the box onto the conference table.

Then I gestured for Pipin, Jake, and the analysts to gather around and distributed papers with recipes written on them.

“Now, these are what you’ll be making. I emphasize that you must follow the quantities marked in red and the exact order.”

“Us?”

“Yes, you.”

Me? At my level?

When I gave them a meaningful look conveying that sentiment, Pipin trembled. Meanwhile, Jake, who was examining the recipe, slightly raised his hand.

“Sir, what kind of recipe is this? I’ve never seen it before.”

I smiled brightly at Jake and pointed to the photos hanging on the wall.

“A gift for those people.”

*

It all started with an accident at a terrace house.

-BOOM!!

Whether it was a gas leak or an alchemist who miscalculated reagents, an explosion occurred, turning one house into complete chaos.

There were casualties.

The couple living in the exploded house died. The husband was a company employee, the wife a civil servant. The wife worked at the Magic Tower delegation.

A magician from the local fire department was the first to arrive and extinguish the fire, followed by the police who began investigating the cause of the explosion.

The problem was that this wasn’t the first incident.

“Huh?”

-‘What’s wrong, honey?’

“No, dear. Did you put a drink in my car?”

A vehicle.

-Knock! Knock!

“Who is it?”

‘Delivery!’

“Delivery? I didn’t order anything.”

An apartment.

“Team leader, a package arrived.”

“Oh, thank you. Who sent it?”

“Well… there’s no sender information.”

An office.

“Damn it, mister! Someone drank a beverage and threw it on my broom!”

A broom storage area.

Packages with unknown senders, items that appeared from nowhere, deliveries that were never ordered. Suddenly, suspicious objects of unknown origin were being delivered all over the Magic Tower.

They were bombs.

[Fires of various sizes have been occurring throughout the region.]

[Bright red flames shoot menacingly out of windows. The sound of breaking glass can be heard. People’s screams echo from various locations, and the rising smoke is visible even hundreds of meters away from the fire scene…]

[At 12:30 AM today, a 45-year-old man suffered third-degree burns over his entire body in a house fire and was transported to the hospital, but eventually died…]

[Police and fire authorities have formed a joint investigation team to determine the cause of the consecutive fires. Whether the cause will be revealed at the police’s interim investigation announcement in four days remains to be seen…]

Everyone’s attention was focused on the police announcement.

However,

[The investigation has confirmed that the recent series of fires were caused by explosions. Currently, the police are exploring various possibilities including gas leaks, electrical short circuits, experimental accidents, terrorism, and more…]

In their interim investigation results, the police explained that the fires were caused by explosions.

But they didn’t explain whether the explosions were natural or deliberate, and if natural, what caused them and why they occurred, or if deliberate, who was behind them.

Moreover, when a reporter asked about the connection between the incidents, they took an ambiguous stance, neither confirming nor denying.

The media began to burn with questions.

All media outlets had been eagerly awaiting the police announcement, but when the conclusion they presented was essentially “we don’t know either,” it was only natural.

When the police, under media pressure, hastily made an additional announcement that “the explosions initially occurred in beverage bottles,” they were only met with criticism about how bottles couldn’t possibly explode. They had figured out “where” the explosions happened but couldn’t explain “why” they happened.

Of course.

I knew “why” the explosions occurred.

“Wow… deadly performance.”

Because I made them.

*

Seventeen bombs were delivered to houses, apartments, vehicles, broom storage areas, offices, and public institutions.

Unlike the bombs commonly seen in movies or news used by terrorists, these were liquid bombs in transparent beverage bottles, so the targets didn’t suspect anything. Not even the police or counterintelligence agencies.

In fact, that’s exactly what I was counting on when I prepared these gifts.

“…Have you seen the news?”

-‘I’m watching it now. I don’t recall sending you any explosives, so where did you get them?’

“I just made them myself. Using military explosives would have gotten us caught.”

The gifts I sent were improvised bombs. I learned how to make them during a commissioned training.

Specifically, they were bombs that a Middle Eastern terrorist organization with a base in England had prepared to blow up dozens of US-bound aircraft over the Atlantic, but they were never used because MI5 and London police detected the plot in advance and arrested the suspects.

Even British intelligence only realized those bottles were bombs after installing cameras inside the suspects’ hideout, so the disguise effectiveness of these devices has long been proven.

I’m probably the only person in this area who knows how to make these.

Anyway.

The reason I sent the bombs was simple.

Revenge.

-‘It feels odd saying this while watching the news, but is everything going well?’

“Of course, smooth sailing.”

Sending spies to an allied country? That can happen. There are no true allies in espionage.

But there’s a fundamental difference between sending spies to gather information and kidnapping civilians.

No matter how much the international community operates on the logic of power, kidnapping civilians amounts to terrorism regardless of the justification.

If Giada Bianchi had been a terrorist, criminal organization member, or political criminal, the Abas government would have been understanding of the Magic Tower’s circumstances.

But Giada Bianchi was just a civilian. Moreover, she was a government-sponsored student whom Abas had sent to the Magic Tower for study abroad to promote diplomatic relations and technical cooperation.

During the investigation, there wasn’t enough information to make a decision, but now there was plenty.

The Prime Minister finally made his decision.

-‘Everyone is satisfied with the results. The Prime Minister included.’

“I haven’t even confirmed the casualties or submitted a report yet.”

-‘Isn’t it showing up well over there?’

The Prime Minister had said, “War is not an option, but measures are needed to prevent recurrence.”

The Military Intelligence Service interpreted this as “crush them completely so they can never pull this stunt again.” It was an emotional and hardline conclusion, but with the Prime Minister’s direct approval, no one opposed it.

From the beginning, the Ministry of Defense was furious about military secrets being stolen, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was grinding their teeth about being backstabbed, so this was relatively mild. At least there would be no economic sanctions or declarations of war that could damage diplomatic relations. At least not on the surface.

I’m not sure what the Royal Intelligence Service was thinking.

Anyway, the Prime Minister summoned the directors of both intelligence agencies to the residence.

And this is the result.

-‘How many have you eliminated?’

“Fifteen in total.”

The number of intelligence agency staff is classified, but according to Fabio Verati’s testimony, the Magic Tower delegation’s Human Resources Development Institute isn’t very large.

To maximize damage with minimal numbers, I targeted people working in specific departments.

Administration, Planning, General Affairs, Operations, Communications, Analysis, Audit.

This should be enough to inflict significant damage on the Magic Tower’s intelligence agency. With so many staff casualties, they’ll be in mourning for a while. It will take considerable time to normalize operations.

“I sent 17 packages, but two people survived and were transported to the hospital, so I couldn’t confirm. I heard they’re seriously injured, but the hospital won’t provide details.”

-‘From our perspective, it’s starting to look risky. What are you planning to do? Just leave it?’

“There’s still plenty of time. Let’s send someone to the hospital first.”

-‘Prepare to extract Subject 51 and associates, and prepare for the next operation.’

“Yes, understood.”

The photos that once filled one wall have gradually disappeared, with only a few remaining.

“…Hmm.”

This seems like sufficient revenge. I put down the disconnected terminal and called Jake.

“Jake! Distribute the remaining gifts. Tell them to treat Subject 51 and associates and have them stand by. Send a text.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m going out for a bit, so don’t record my departure. We might get caught later.”

“I understand. But where are you going?”

I changed into a suit and covered the holstered pistol with my jacket.

“I need to find someone.”