Ch.159Episode 9 – Old Fashioned

The soft sound of a radio can be heard echoing.

[A cold front expanding from the north is expected to bring rain, snow, and strong winds. Severe cold waves are anticipated in the northern mountainous regions and central areas…]

The sky over Abas remains dark today, with December just around the corner.

As I cross under the gloomy sky and approach my destination, I notice the multiple barricades set up to prevent VBIEDs (Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices).

I lower all windows, including the driver’s side, and slowly reduce my speed.

“Please state your affiliation, name, and purpose of visit.”

“Frederick Nostrum.”

I hand over my ID, and the officer reports through his radio. After exchanging communications with the checkpoint, he recites a few numbers, nods, and returns my ID.

“Confirmed. You may proceed.”

Armed soldiers remove the barricade, and I drive through the checkpoint without further hindrance.

Passing by heavily armed soldiers, I continue up the path.

The Ministry of Defense building at the end of the long hill comes into view.

Episode 9 – Old Fashioned

The disciplinary committee was held at the Ministry of Defense building. According to regulations, disciplinary committees should be held at one’s assigned unit, but since I’m officially a defense attaché and Camilla’s colleague, the company decided to exceptionally hold the committee at the Ministry of Defense.

I first passed through the metal detector and security screening that detects magical waves. Due to heightened security measures following the terrorist attack, it took some time, but there were no major issues.

After leaving my belongings in the first-floor lobby, I followed my escort through a corridor away from public view. I naturally left my service pistol with my other belongings.

And shortly after.

I finally arrived at the meeting room where the disciplinary committee would be held.

“……”

The disciplinary committee was set up in a meeting room within the Ministry of Defense building. Around a curved, expansive table sat people who appeared to be committee members, and at the focal point of their gazes was a small, solitary desk. I instinctively knew that was where I would sit.

I walked steadily forward, unbuttoned my suit jacket, and sat down. As I approached the desk, none of the committee members spared me a glance.

The scene reminds me of a job interview, especially since most committee members are wearing suits instead of uniforms.

I’d been tipped off by Clavins that this would be an informal disciplinary hearing, but the committee members’ cold demeanor made me nervous.

“……”

Sitting in the chair, I rolled my eyes around and finally took in the room. The ceiling lights were off, with only yellow desk lamps illuminating the documents at each seat. Thanks to the strategic placement of lighting, the committee members’ faces were barely visible, while the light on my desk was as bright as a street lamp attracting insects.

Facing more than ten disciplinary committee members, I inwardly sighed. Judging by their numbers, this wouldn’t be easy.

Turning my head slightly, I spotted familiar faces. In the corner of the room, sitting on chairs without desks, were Clavins, Leoni, and the Thanos-lookalike Camilla had mentioned days ago. I had suspected he might be an Abas intelligence officer when I saw him following Camilla upon her arrival, and his presence at the disciplinary committee seemed to confirm my suspicion.

I wanted to greet Clavins, but the atmosphere was too tense, so I decided to remain quiet.

One of the suited committee members spoke.

“Frederick Nostrum. Is that your name?”

“Yes.”

“Your current rank is Major, and you recently served at the Defense Attaché’s Office of the Jumatap Embassy in Abas?”

“That’s correct.”

The committee member fell silent after that. I thought the disciplinary committee was about to begin in earnest, but apparently not.

A terribly quiet silence followed. In the silent meeting room, only occasional sounds of turning pages or pen scratching could be heard.

I wanted to check how much time had passed, but unfortunately, there wasn’t even a clock in the room.

While waiting blankly, the committee members whispered quietly among themselves and began busily organizing their documents.

Seeing this, I quietly closed my eyes, took a small deep breath, and slowly exhaled as I opened my eyelids.

The disciplinary committee was beginning.

*

Today’s disciplinary committee was being held informally. It wasn’t a committee convened to punish me, but rather a preliminary operation by the Military Intelligence Agency to create an identity that could be used in case of emergency.

Of course, “informal” was just a term. The disciplinary committee was still a disciplinary committee. If they truly held a sham committee without intending to punish me and it was discovered, my future self, who might be undercover in some intelligence agency, would be finished. So the disciplinary committee proceeded according to protocol.

Committee members sat at the long, curved table that seemed to surround me, while I sat at a hard metal desk placed in the corner of the meeting room.

The committee members asked a few simple questions to confirm my identity. Was I Frederick Nostrum, did I work where they said I did, was my residence in the government quarters, and so on. Only after answering these routine questions did the disciplinary committee get on track.

And then.

Countless questions followed, varying in nature.

“Major Nostrum, is it true that you claimed excessive expenses for meals with informants while working at the Magic Tower?”

“We understand you failed to adequately explain your inappropriate relationship with a foreigner when questioned by the Inspection Office. Do you have anything to say?”

“Why do you stay in government quarters when your immediate family and siblings live in a townhouse in the capital?”

From naive questions I had somewhat anticipated…

“Why did you access Royal Intelligence Service classified documents without permission from the responsible agency head or document security manager?”

“Why did you go to the department store where the terrorist attack occurred that day?”

“We understand you engaged in combat with terrorists after the commotion broke out. Do you believe you were in a situation that required using your service weapon without superior approval, before an accurate assessment of the situation was made?”

To questions that slightly missed my expectations. The questions varied widely, and committee members took turns bombarding me with them.

Why did I happen to go to the terrorist site that day, was it necessary to use my service weapon, why didn’t I report in advance, why did I move alone without a security escort, and so on.

Some questions were perfectly reasonable, while others were frustratingly absurd, but the atmosphere remained intensely severe.

Although this was a formal disciplinary committee, I couldn’t just brush it off like a seasoned colonel by saying “Let’s just have some tea,” so I had to answer properly.

“Accessing the Royal Intelligence Service’s classified documents was entirely my fault. I deeply regret it.”

“The foreigner, Saint Lucia, and I have no relationship whatsoever. I have not violated any internal regulations. I was too shocked by the baseless rumors to properly explain, but this is clearly a misunderstanding.”

But the committee members didn’t back down. Despite my defense, they seemed unsatisfied and pursued me even more tenaciously.

“My visit to the department store that day wasn’t my own decision. I simply went to the department store according to the requests of my companions.”

“Are you saying you couldn’t predict the terrorist attack would occur, Major?”

“Yes. I’ve never been responsible for security or counter-terrorism duties. Predicting terrorism is clearly the responsibility of other departments…”

“Should we interpret your statement to mean that the government is responsible for failing to predict the attack and putting key personnel at risk?”

“……”

When one committee member opened their mouth, the one beside them prepared a question, and when I answered, another member from a different side would find a weakness and dig in.

The committee members’ questions mainly focused on the terrorist attack, likely because my group and I were deeply involved in the recent incident. It was clearly a major issue.

“My engagement with the terrorists was a decision made to ensure the safety of key personnel when it was impossible to get approval from superiors.”

“According to records, you checked out one service pistol that day. Also, your fingerprints were found on a pistol at the scene. Was it your service weapon?”

“Yes, it was my service pistol.”

“What was your purpose for carrying the pistol?”

“For security purposes. To respond to threats on-site if necessary…”

“Didn’t you just say you’ve never been responsible for security duties? On what grounds did you check out a pistol and take on security duties alone, without police or specialized department support?”

“……”

The chain of questions was less an inquiry and more like an interrogation. The committee members pounced on even the slightest verbal misstep.

By this point, I couldn’t tell if this was a disciplinary committee or an internal audit by the Inspection Office. Even parliamentary inquiries aren’t this intense.

“I understand you don’t remember the circumstances of the terrorist attack. Is there anything that comes to mind now?”

I answered the committee members’ questions as sincerely as possible. In the midst of this, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

This doesn’t seem like a disciplinary committee.

“……”

It was a sudden hypothesis, but there were many strange points.

First, there were too many committee members.

Typically, a disciplinary committee consists of one chairperson and 4-5 members. Regulations state that a disciplinary committee should have between 5 and 10 members including the chairperson, but there were over 10 members sitting here. Moreover, people unrelated to the disciplinary committee like Clavins, Leoni, and the Thanos-lookalike were also present.

This might be acceptable for a regular disciplinary committee, but this was supposed to be a formal one.

In other words, aside from the number of members, there was no reason for unrelated third parties to attend.

Above all, the committee members’ questions were oddly misaligned.

Typically, questions and inquiries in a disciplinary committee mainly relate to the “grounds for discipline.” After all, the purpose of establishing the committee is to “deliberate” on someone’s discipline.

But the committee members kept asking me questions about the terrorist attack. Although formal, these questions had nothing to do with the purpose of the disciplinary committee, and inquiries related to the disciplinary reasons raised by the Inspection Office were briefly made at the beginning and then disappeared. Considering that humans tend to remember the beginning and end of conversations as memories fade, this was clearly strange. I was trained in conversational techniques this way, and I taught Camilla the same.

Ask important information in the middle of the conversation.

Always fill the beginning and end with unimportant content.

So that when memories become blurry over time, the other person may misremember the conversation.

This suggests that the disciplinary reasons provided by the Inspection Office were of lesser importance. From the committee members’ perspective, hearing my answers about the terrorist attack was more important than the discipline itself. They focused primarily on that aspect.

Add to that the committee members who sat in the central seats just staring at me without asking questions, members who didn’t press for answers, and members who had been flipping through documents instead of focusing on the conversation from the beginning. There were too many strange points.

After pondering for a while, I asked the committee members:

“Are you really from the disciplinary committee?”

“……”

“The Behavioral Ethics Innovation whatever.”

The committee members didn’t answer. They merely stopped what they were doing and turned their gazes toward me.

A member who had been sketching something on paper while holding glasses and resting his chin stopped writing, and another who had been smoking glanced at me before lowering his gaze and stubbing out his cigarette in an ashtray.

As the committee members who had stopped their activities looked at each other…

“We are not from the disciplinary committee.”

One member sitting in the center spoke up.

“We are from the Royal Intelligence Service.”

*

“We are from the Royal Intelligence Service.”

One committee member satisfied my curiosity. It was someone who had been sitting near what appeared to be the chairperson in the center, silently reviewing documents the entire time.

The member who introduced himself as being from the Royal Intelligence Service pointed to each committee member one by one and said:

“From the left, Royal Intelligence Service, Ministry of Defense, Cabinet Security Office, Special Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister’s Residence…”

Ministry of Defense, Military Intelligence Agency, Prime Minister’s Residence, Cabinet Security Office, Ministry of Interior, Police, Ministry of Justice, Special Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Royal Intelligence Service member introduced the other members. He revealed their affiliations but not their names. Perhaps names weren’t important, or he thought I didn’t need to know that much.

Probably both.

“We are dealing with a macroscopic and international situation. The first agenda item is the recent terrorist attack.”

A committee member spoke. It was someone from the Ministry of Interior, also sitting in the center.

“How much do you know about this terrorist attack?”

“Not much.”

A member from the Ministry of Justice spoke up.

“We don’t know much either. Lack of information has hindered our understanding of who carried out the attack, for what purpose, and how.”

“……”

“Fortunately, military and police forces that secured the scene successfully obtained crucial evidence related to this incident. It was the recorder and notes that you, the intelligence officer, handed to key personnel before losing consciousness. Thanks to that, we’ve successfully secured various evidence including the terrorist group’s purpose and identity.”

“……”

“Though it seems you don’t remember any of it.”

The committee member explained the terrorist attack to me.

Several months ago, a magician performing reconnaissance missions between Imperial airspace and the no-man’s-land was shot down by an anti-aircraft battery and crashed into the no-man’s-land.

The Abas Ministry of Defense dispatched an air rescue team to rescue the magician and recover the equipment, and they encountered an Imperial search team near the crash site who were also trying to secure the magician and equipment. A firefight broke out.

Overwhelmed by the Abas rescue team’s firepower, the Imperial search team requested fire support, and an artillery battery from a nearby division fired shells into the no-man’s-land after receiving the search team’s radio call.

At this point, I had a realization.

A magician flying dangerously enough to be shot down, several months ago, an Imperial search team entering the no-man’s-land… All of this happened when I reported the Magic Tower independence issue to my superiors.

“The rescue team survived, but the magician died on site due to shell fragments. They successfully recovered the equipment and the body and retreated, but in the process, shells hit a nearby village, which was captured by our intelligence agency’s reconnaissance assets. We predict the terrorists came from that village.”

“……”

The Royal Intelligence Service member interjected.

“I’ve read your personnel record. Six years in the Military Intelligence Agency. After completing intelligence school, you underwent training and worked overseas for three years. Excellent scores in officer training and intelligence officer training courses, and remarkably high scores in foreign language proficiency tests.”

“……”

“No incidents in six years. No records of drinking problems, gambling, or criminal activity. Clean personal and social relationships, and decent evaluations within your department. Plus, you’ve participated in major intelligence operations over the past six months with good results.”

“……”

“Don’t you think you have skills too valuable to be wasted as a headquarters aide or embassy attaché?”

I asked the committee members:

“What do you want?”

One stern-looking committee member looked at me. Gazing at me through thin glasses, he put down the paper in his hand and said:

“We are not here to discipline you. We’re here for a more constructive and forward-looking conversation.”

“……”

“For instance, about the duties an intelligence officer will take on in the future.”

The stern committee member captivated the audience with his low voice. In the quiet meeting room where even breathing was inaudible, he drew everyone’s attention with just a few words.

“Intelligence officer.”

“……”

“How much do you know about paramilitary operations?”