Ch.46Episode 3 – Fantastic Vacation

In the end, I accepted the team leader’s request.

The team leader explained the operation to apprehend Giada Bianchi, a suspected spy.

In truth, it was closer to a covert operation than a simple mission.

To be precise,

“Do you know that counterintelligence is divided into two categories?”

“Yes.”

“Then this will go quickly.”

It was a counterintelligence operation.

Episode 3 – A Fantastic Vacation

Counterintelligence.

Counter – Intelligence.

A term that means the act of countering and neutralizing the intelligence activities of spies and foreign intelligence agencies.

If you ask someone what counterintelligence is, nine times out of ten, they’ll answer “spy investigation.”

That’s not exactly wrong.

But it’s only half the answer.

Specific views on counterintelligence vary among scholars like Kent, Ransom, Godson, Shulsky, Richelson, Holt, and others.

Countries like the United States, Britain, France, and China also interpret counterintelligence differently, while some, like the Soviet Union, integrated counterintelligence into a single concept.

The reason definitions differ between countries and scholars is that counterintelligence, along with foreign operations, is considered a realm of mystery.

Counterintelligence and covert operations were fields handled secretively even within intelligence agencies, and agents themselves didn’t possess knowledge beyond a certain level about these two areas unless they worked in those departments.

For this reason, the general public tended to understand counterintelligence simply as “catching spies.”

But what era is the 21st century?

An era of information and globalization.

An era where Chinese people who broke through the Golden Shield could learn about Tiananmen Square, and where young people from the East could troll young people from the West on the other side of the globe.

Highly advanced science and technology turned the impossible into possible and opened the way to the world.

Revitalized transportation, expanded international trade markets, job creation through outsourcing, the launch of non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations, opening of foreign exchange markets, mutual cooperation between nations, multilateral diplomacy, reduced threat of all-out war, explosive growth of cultural industries, and more.

Countless global citizens enjoyed the fruits of scientific development, and the rats hiding in the global village enjoyed them thoroughly as well.

And so,

The development of new terrorism,

Cell-structured terrorist organizations,

Homegrown terrorism,

Transnational criminal organizations,

Leakage of cutting-edge scientific technology,

Large-scale hacking and information leaks, etc.

New forms of threats emerged, and in addition, various issues surrounding politics, diplomacy, military, economy, culture, high-tech industry, energy, resources, and geography erupted all over the global village.

Intelligence agencies that used to steal secrets from other countries now had to deal not only with foreign intelligence agencies but also criminal organizations, terrorist groups, radical civilian organizations, and multinational corporations targeting markets and technologies.

The CIA, which used to play cat-and-mouse with the KGB, now had to take down terrorists who crashed planes into the Twin Towers and hid in the desert, while Russian intelligence agencies, successors to the KGB, had to deal with terrorists from former Soviet satellite states.

Even countries that had been hostile to the opposing camp under the same ideology began to stab each other in the back. French intelligence sent economic spies to the United States, and Germany, Japan, Israel, and even South Korea deployed industrial spies against the United States.

It wasn’t that the free world countries suddenly went crazy and turned anti-American.

That’s just how the world had become.

But what kind of organizations are intelligence agencies?

They’re the ones who staged coups in South America and the Middle East to overthrow regimes, intervened in countries with civil wars to extract benefits, and stole nuclear technology from foreign countries to develop nuclear weapons.

Intelligence agencies had already experienced decades of Cold War and had accumulated considerable know-how.

Each country’s intelligence agencies reorganized their concepts of national security and intelligence operations to keep pace with the changing times.

Globalization and informatization changed the security environment, and intelligence agencies broke existing paradigms and established new concepts.

Thus, counterintelligence strategies evolved into more sophisticated, meticulous, and lethal forms.

Passive counterintelligence represented by security, and active counterintelligence encompassing overall counter-spy activities.

The new counterintelligence strategy added dignity to the existing dogfight. Now counterintelligence is not simply about catching spies.

Counterintelligence investigation, intelligence collection, counterintelligence analysis, counterintelligence operations.

Detecting enemy activities through informants, thoroughly analyzing and understanding them, predicting behavior by matching the frequency of thoughts and ideologies to capture spies, turning spies into double agents through threats and persuasion, and using them to disrupt the enemy’s intelligence network.

This aggressive and active form of counterintelligence was the new concept defined by today’s counterintelligence agencies.

And the same applies to intelligence agencies in this neighborhood.

So then,

An industrial spy who infiltrated the Advanced Military Magic Research Institute under the direction of the Matap Intelligence Department.

How should we catch and punish this spy?

As if to answer this, the team leader held up two fingers.

“The Military Intelligence Agency divides counterintelligence into two main concepts.”

Security in a passive and defensive form, and counter-spy activities in an active and aggressive form.

“Passive counterintelligence and active counterintelligence. You’ve probably heard of them.”

“I understand the former as preventive measures and the latter as countermeasures. Intelligence collection, counterintelligence investigation, counterintelligence analysis, counterintelligence operations. Aren’t they the most direct response measures?”

“That’s correct.”

The team leader nodded.

“While investigation is the most widely known counterintelligence activity to the public, in reality, counterintelligence operations are more frequently conducted during the preliminary investigation process or after legal proceedings.”

Generally, active counterintelligence takes on a very aggressive nature.

If counterintelligence investigations target official undercover agents (white) and unofficial undercover agents (black), counterintelligence operations target the foreign intelligence agencies behind the field agents.

The types are diverse.

Sometimes they hire informants to collect intelligence, sometimes they leak fabricated false information to deceive the enemy. They even turn spies into double agents to siphon information, or have agents fake defection to infiltrate intelligence agencies.

It’s called “counter” intelligence, but it’s essentially not much different from foreign operations.

“Counterintelligence operations and covert operations have similarities in many aspects. They both have the basic operational elements: handler, operative, budget, and objective, and the goals of operations start abstract and become more concrete over time.”

Since the basic framework is the same, it shouldn’t be difficult to understand.

I decided to ask a more productive question.

“Then, what is the objective of this operation?”

“To identify the entity that has infiltrated the research institute and bring the core operatives to justice.”

He means gathering all the spies and putting them on trial.

The type of operation is probably intelligence collection. Most foreign operations are about collecting intelligence anyway.

“To bring them to justice, we absolutely need evidence. Therefore, this operation will proceed by collecting evidence and intelligence.”

“Then what exactly is my role?”

“To follow and monitor the suspect. The team members will handle the actual work, including collecting evidence. Major, you just need to guide the team members so they can approach the target.”

He was saying the operatives would handle everything, and I just needed to cooperate.

“How will the cover be established?”

“I’ll assign two team members from a similar region. You can pose as military seniors and juniors.”

He meant to loosely cover our identities as regional seniors and juniors.

School ties, regional ties, and blood ties were valid truths in this world too.

“Your role is simple. Just keep the suspect tied down and under surveillance, and the team members will handle the rest of the complicated work.”

I asked the team leader a question to confirm.

“Are they reliable friends?”

“Yes.”

That meant they were the best.

The team leader rummaged through a metal cabinet.

He placed several thick file folders on the desk and said to me.

“These are the operation plan, personnel records, and the suspect’s file. Please read them thoroughly and return them.”

He was telling me to start the operation.

*

The most important thing in an operation is security.

Security is not simply about the success or failure of the operation; it’s directly linked to the lives of the operatives and handlers.

In the 1990s, handlers conducting operations against North Korea from bases in China and Japan were constantly monitored by North Korean security agents.

The handlers concealed their identities through thorough disguises, but some had their security compromised and were either abducted to North Korea or killed on site.

There was no need to explain what happened to the agents from the Agency for National Security Planning and the Defense Security Command who were dragged to North Korea.

Those who needed to know already knew the story.

To prevent such unfortunate incidents, all intelligence agencies thoroughly disguise their agents’ identities from the preparation stage of operations.

From that perspective, the role I was assigned was quite important.

I was a colleague of Camilla Rowell, and Giada Bianchi was a senior researcher in the biological analysis lab who was involved in all examinations of Camilla Rowell.

In other words, among the assets currently available to the Military Intelligence Agency, I was the only one who could approach the suspect.

Therefore, I had to help the counterintelligence agents disguise their identities while guiding them to the prime suspect, Giada Bianchi.

One slip-up, and there would be a string of funerals.

Whether it cost careers or lives.

“Of all things, a magician had to be doing espionage. Why couldn’t they just live normally…”

Crumple, crumple. I quietly vented my frustration on the innocent file folder.

It was definitely not because I couldn’t go on vacation.

Probably.

-Knock! Knock!

I heard a knock at the door. I hid the file folder among the stack of documents and stood up.

“Come in.”

And so,

“Loyalty. Captain Aaron Gordon reporting. And this is Sergeant Samuel.”

“Sergeant Samuel, sir. I’ve been briefed by the team leader.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Major Frederick Nostrum.”

The operation had begun.