Ch.113Episode 6 – The Omniscient Spy’s Perspective

The intelligence agencies of our ally Fatalia and Abas cooperate in various areas.

High-level and working-level meetings, overseas training for agents, commissioned education, joint operations, and so on.

One of these is the “Information Sharing Agreement.”

Like the “Passenger Name Record Agreement” (PNR Agreement) between the EU and the US for the transfer of passenger reservation information from airlines to the US Department of Homeland Security.

The “Agreement between the EU and the United States on the processing and transfer of Financial Messaging Data from the EU to the U.S. for purposes of Terrorist Finance Tracking Program” (TFTP).

The “General Security Of Military Information Agreement” (GSOMIA) that the Republic of Korea has signed with 34 countries including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and Japan.

Countries with reasonably good relationships establish such agreements to exchange all kinds of information.

Of course, there are cases where they omit crucial information or hide it completely.

Anyway.

The Abas intelligence agency has a cooperative relationship with the Fatalia intelligence agency in various aspects, and they often share information through official/unofficial channels.

Just like now.

“You’re here, Merlot?”

Sophia from the National Security Agency waved her hand while leaning against a vehicle.

“Where are we?”

“Seems like you have a lot of questions.”

Sophia smiled brightly as she opened the car door.

“Get in first.”

Episode 6 – The Spy’s Perspective

A Matap government official and an Abas private company executive made contact. And Francesca Ranieri was among the Matap personnel.

That was all the information Sophia had given me.

As soon as I finished the call, I rushed out of Veronica’s villa and used a forged passport I had prepared in advance to leave the country. And until I passed through immigration and the warp gate, I mobilized all my lines to assess the situation.

First, Matap.

Through Matap officials I had become acquainted with during my month-long stay, I tried to find out where Francesca Ranieri worked, what she did, and where she was now. They knew roughly, but not the detailed information. Especially, they couldn’t determine the current whereabouts of the alchemist.

Next, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

By fully activating both official and unofficial lines connecting to the Abas Kingdom’s diplomatic mission in the Kiyen Empire, I succeeded in identifying the Abas private company executive’s personal information and purpose.

The Abas person was an executive of a mid-sized company in Abas. The purpose of the visit was a business trip to conclude a deal. The meeting itself was official, known to the government. More precisely, the department in charge of commerce and trade under the Ministry of Finance knew about it.

However, the alchemist’s name was not on the list of Matap officials scheduled to contact the executive.

Finally, the intelligence department.

I used the Military Intelligence Agency’s network to investigate the private company executive’s personal information and company name. If it was a front company established by the Military Intelligence Agency or the Royal Intelligence Agency, the contact could be for “overseas operations.”

Fortunately, the mid-sized company and its executive were not affiliated with the intelligence department. That means they were just ordinary civilians.

It took me about 20 minutes to find all this out. And it took about 30 minutes to review all the materials and determine whether the contact was dangerous. But there was one piece of information I couldn’t figure out.

The reason.

Why did Francesca Ranieri contact a private company executive?

Why did Francesca Ranieri leave the hotel and not return?

Why was Francesca Ranieri in the Empire instead of Matap?

Nothing was certain. I needed to know something to make a judgment. Like feeling an elephant’s leg blindfolded, I had to rack my brains to find a plausible conclusion.

I needed to do what had to be done. Do what I could do. What I needed now was information.

So I met with Sophia.

“Here it is.”

A car glided through an alley and entered a parking lot. Somewhere near Nastasiya City in the southern part of the Kiyen Empire. We arrived at a building among a forest of tall buildings.

“Seems like you’re doing well here too? You suddenly disappeared without any contact.”

“The support department pulled some strings. You can get out now.”

I got out of the car and followed Sophia’s guidance.

It was quite an expensive-looking house. We crossed the parking lot, traversed the yard, and entered through the front door.

As I looked around the National Security Agency’s location, I calmly started the conversation.

There was no need for pleasantries between us.

“Is it okay to deliver this unofficially rather than through formal sharing? Ranieri is quite a big deal.”

“It’s because it’s Ranieri that we’re doing it unofficially.”

The National Security Agency investigator smiled calmly and said.

“This is technically surveillance of a civilian. Isn’t it better to leave fewer records for this kind of thing?”

Of course, that was just the appearance; the content was completely different.

“Weren’t you conducting an internal investigation? She’s from a family of public security offenders, right?”

“The sedition investigation was concluded long ago. What we’re doing now is surveillance.”

“My, my… how proud.”

“Anyway, we also find it difficult to officially hand over information related to Ranieri. If it’s not an urgent matter, we plan to avoid leaving electronic records. There are diplomatic issues… legal issues…”

I summarized her words briefly.

“Since intelligence documents must be disclosed after a certain period, you want to cooperate to avoid leaving records?”

“That’s right, Merlot.”

That’s what she said.

“And if documents leak, it would be troublesome for you too, right? You and Ranieri are colleagues, after all. Looking at the documents, it would appear that a colleague was surveilling another colleague.”

She meant that if records remained, whether electronic or paper, I could be harmed if they were leaked.

It’s unlikely that National Security Agency documents would leak anywhere, but human affairs are always unpredictable.

“When you put it that way, I can’t help but cooperate.”

“Thank you, Merlot.”

Sophia smiled brightly as she led the way, and I quietly followed her, removing the wig I had been wearing to match my forged passport photo.

“So… what did you call me to show?”

At that question, Sophia, who was walking ahead, turned to me and grinned.

“Ranieri’s secret?”

*

“This is a document prepared by our side.”

I read through the document Sophia handed me.

After turning past the cover page filled with Fatalia’s distinctive confidentiality markings and notification formats I had seen several times before, a document typed on a typewriter appeared.

It was a diplomatic document.

“You used a typewriter? Don’t people use terminals these days?”

“It’s a document written a few years ago, so it was typed on a typewriter.”

“What’s the big deal? The diplomatic mission in the Order still uses telegrams.”

“That’s because the Order doesn’t allow new communication equipment to be brought in.”

The document Sophia handed me was full of diplomatic cables. The sender was I/O stationed at Matap. The recipient was the Fatalia National Security Agency headquarters.

Looking at it now, it wasn’t a diplomatic document but an intelligence document. It contained numerous pieces of information and directives exchanged between the official cover intelligence officer and headquarters.

After filtering out the key information that had been removed during the security review process, the content of this document could be summarized in one line:

Report on Francesca Ranieri’s movements.

“……”

The alchemist’s daily routine, the number of people she contacted, their identities, the alchemist’s workplace, the list of colleagues and seniors she was close to at work, the alchemist’s financial records, immigration records, communication records, the internal structure of her home, possible escape routes in case of emergency, the location and house structure of acquaintances she could rely on in an emergency….

From the time she came to study at Matap (which was essentially a semi-forced departure), to being a junior alchemist at a renowned workshop, to becoming an administrative officer in the Secretariat.

All information about Francesca Ranieri was contained in this document. It seemed the intelligence officer had been active for a long time. In other words, it also meant she had been under surveillance for that long.

The intelligence collected was substantial, as extensive as the period of the intelligence officer’s activity. The content was also rich.

After examining the documents for a while, I bluntly spoke.

“Why did you investigate so thoroughly? Are you planning to arrest her?”

I was asking if the National Security Agency was surveilling Francesca Ranieri with the intention of taking her down.

In response, the National Security Agency investigator laughed casually and denied it.

“Why would we arrest a civilian with no power? We’re just keeping an eye on her.”

In other words, if Francesca Ranieri gained something resembling power, the National Security Agency would intervene. Whether she entered politics or rose to a higher position.

Though I don’t know if that intervention would be an arrest or assassination. Sophia didn’t say, either.

The important thing is:

It’s not my business.

“Nothing special here?”

I closed the intelligence document and leaned back in my chair.

What really matters is why Francesca Ranieri is here instead of at Matap.

“I checked on the way here, and to my eyes, it looked like a normal meeting. The Abas private company requested the meeting first. They wanted to secure a contract for products to export to Matap.”

Matap is not the kind of country people generally think of. Its national administrative organizational structure is completely different from the United States or the Republic of Korea.

If I had to compare, Matap’s political system and administrative organization has aspects similar to China or North Korea, where a single “party” rules the entire country through a collective leadership system. In other words, a one-party dictatorship.

From that perspective, the “Matap Secretariat” was similar to the “Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea” in North Korea. Not just in name, but in actual function as well.

With a few exceptions, Matap’s administrative organizations must always reach an agreement with the relevant department of the Secretariat before reporting to the Oracle. It’s a kind of policy coordination. So to explain it more clearly…

When a working department submits an agenda,

(Hey, our department wants to do something next year, is it okay?)

The relevant Secretariat department reviews it,

(This seems possible, but that doesn’t. Revise this part and submit it again.)

The working department modifies the agenda and resubmits it,

(We’ve made the changes. Is it possible now?)

Then the relevant Secretariat department reviews it again.

(It seems okay now. We’ll report it to the Oracle.)

All administrative work in Matap operates this way.

Administrative agencies coordinate policies and projects through consultation with the relevant departments under the Secretariat, and the Secretariat reports to the Oracle, receives instructions, and disseminates them to the administrative agencies.

However, there are exceptions to this as well.

The Matap Representative Office in charge of diplomatic affairs and the Public Order Protection Bureau in charge of domestic intelligence and counterintelligence investigations, etc. Agencies directly managed by the Oracle or the Matap State do not go through this reporting system. And if a matter is very serious and urgent, the head of an administrative agency may report directly.

That’s why I always thought of the Matap Secretariat as similar to the Office for Government Policy Coordination under the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, or the Secretariat under the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in North Korea. Looking at the actual work, reporting system, and organizational status, the latter was more appropriate.

The problem is why Francesca Ranieri is in the Empire instead of Matap.

And without notifying the Abas Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sophia, the investigator from the National Security Agency, pointed out that part.

“Don’t you find it strange too? The reason why Ranieri, who should be in the Secretariat, is in the Empire. And without prior consultation.”

“You’re really persistent. Between people who know everything, stop beating around the bush and get to the point.”

“Alright, alright.”

Sophia took out a brown envelope from her bag and placed it in front of me.

She repeatedly tapped the corner of the desk with her finger. Rhythmically. And then she said to me.

“Ranieri is earning foreign currency through overseas private companies.”

“So?”

“And that’s the Oracle’s slush fund.”