Ch.621Episode 22 – The Kazinsky Test (End)

Human psychology resembles encryption.

One can attempt to decipher it, but there are no correct answers and the rules are ambiguous.

The repetition of imperfect algorithms trying to decode encryption without a key leads to collisions between people who fail to fully understand each other’s inner worlds.

Attempts to decode another’s psychology always leave behind the embers of conflict.

Episode 22 – Kasiski Test

“…Why did you do it?”

On the rooftop, where the night air blew cold.

Camilla threw a question at me with a somewhat confused expression.

“I believe Veronica has already explained.”

“Don’t dodge the question.”

I rested my arms on the rooftop railing, taking in the night view of Bahar city. Camilla glared at me with reddened eyes, as if reproaching me.

What was she curious about?

I didn’t need to think about exactly what story she wanted to know. If I couldn’t anticipate that much, I wouldn’t deserve to earn a salary in this field.

Leaning my upper body against the railing, I began to speak while looking around at the night view.

“Camilla, your initial plan was to prevent the terrorist attack with ‘minimal casualties.’ Additionally, your concept included a process where the ‘terrorist organization would naturally disintegrate,’ preemptively blocking the possibility of additional attacks.”

“……”

“Sniping Milo was the ‘minimal casualty’ that would emerge from that process.”

Camilla said:

“Is that really what you have to say…?”

She meant, is that all you have to say?

“Minimal casualties…? Who gets to decide such things? By what authority, for what reason?”

“……”

“It was a life that could have been saved. But because you didn’t trust me… you put a bullet in Milo’s head? How could you, Frederick, doubt me?”

“……”

“Say something, anything!”

Her voice rose. It was almost a scream.

Blue eyes filled with anger and disappointment, and Camilla, her eyes gradually reddening, stepped forward one step at a time.

But I still maintained my silence. I gave no answer in return. I merely looked at the city where night had fallen with an indifferent expression.

“……”

What should I say?

In truth, I know. I’m aware that there’s room for ethical and moral controversy in the judgment I made.

I’m human too.

Of course I have that much conscience.

I stroked my clasped hands resting on the railing and remained silent for a long time.

I needed to organize my thoughts to give an answer, and I needed courage to open my mouth.

Deep contemplation continued.

After much deliberation, I finally raised my head slightly and was barely able to break my silence.

“The trolley dilemma. You know it, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Can you sacrifice one person to save five? Whether you push them directly or pull a lever, the result doesn’t change.”

Camilla’s gaze turned to me. As if to say, stop beating around the bush and get to the point.

I put my hands in my pockets and continued my questioning.

“To find a dirty bomb made with military-grade plutonium in the heart of London, could you cut off a terrorist’s finger?”

“Perhaps.”

“Then, to reduce even one military option available to a dictator who might someday fire a nuclear missile at a capital city with ten million residents. What about staging a car accident for a North Korean scientist traveling with his seven-year-old daughter and wife in the passenger seat, while carrying crucial propulsion system blueprints for medium-range ballistic missiles that will eventually be fitted with tactical nuclear warheads?”

“……”

“I was joking.”

Don’t look so serious.

I moved away from the railing for a moment and muttered in a flat tone.

The wind is chilly. The cold seeping into my chest feels particularly bitter.

Looking around at the city’s night view, I began speaking with a calmer face.

“My uncle once told me: an intelligence officer is someone who must bear both the glory of success and the responsibility of failure alone.”

“……”

“He’s not really my uncle. As I may have mentioned before, he wasn’t my father’s relative but his friend. They were military academy classmates. He helped me a lot since I was young, and I received various forms of assistance from him during my military service.”

I gaze at the unfamiliar city where golden spires and twinkling lights blend over dark waters.

Looking at Bahar’s scenery, somewhat reminiscent of Istanbul from a forgotten time, I suddenly smiled faintly and continued my vague murmuring.

“I may have mentioned this, but I grew up without a father from a young age. Since middle school, perhaps?”

“…Pardon?”

“He died in the line of duty. As I said, my father was also a military intelligence officer. I don’t know specifically where or what he was doing because it’s classified… Anyway, they said he died in an accident. So my uncle sort of played the role of father since I was in middle school.”

He used his vacation days to attend my school sports days, and came to both my middle school and high school graduations.

Although he couldn’t make it to my ROTC commissioning ceremony because of urgent work.

Fortunately, thanks to my father’s colleagues from intelligence who attended, I don’t remember feeling particularly lonely during my commissioning.

“Perhaps because he had no children of his own, my uncle regarded me as a son. Our families were very close even when my father was alive. I got along well with my aunt too. Later, as soon as I was selected for long-term service, my uncle came to recruit me from the east coast. That’s how I ended up in the intelligence unit.”

“……”

“My first post was China. I was there for about a year and a half, and somehow ended up with a Japanese informant with the surname Park under me. Ah, yes. Park Chung-kwon, was it? He was from Chongryon. He was probably someone who helped collect North Korean intelligence through relatives in North Korea.”

I smiled faintly at the name of the informant that came to mind after a long time.

Park Chung-kwon. An executive member of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan living in Osaka. One of the North Korean informants I employed during my rookie days.

He was an informant who collected military intelligence from inside North Korea through connections with relatives who had been repatriated to North Korea decades ago.

He had a daughter about high school age and also owned a fairly decent house in Ikuno-ku.

The place where I first met him was Beijing. I went to a hotel after receiving intelligence that those accompanying a high-ranking Chongryon official from Japanese intelligence agencies were trying to enter North Korea via China.

I always called him Uncle Park.

“I established a relationship with him and built an intelligence network that reached inside North Korea. The operation period was about a year? It was incredibly successful. My intelligence reports went up to the command, the ROK-US Combined Forces Command, and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Even apart from that, the man wasn’t a particularly bad person. He had a good sense of humor, a generous personality, and maintained fairly amicable relationships with others, so I thought he was a decent person.”

“……”

“But one day, one of the informants I was handling suddenly stabbed me in the back. He was someone I had just finished developing and was about to employ as an informant. He sold me out to the North Koreans.”

“……”

“No overwhelming evidence came out, so it didn’t reach me, but… as luck would have it, the person who introduced me to that backstabbing rat was none other than Uncle Park? How would the North Koreans respond? Would they just return empty-handed because there was no evidence? No. They had to make an example.”

North Korean agents who received the report from the informant who stabbed me in the back thoroughly dealt with all the exposed informants, including Uncle Park.

Uncle Park, who had personal connections with the traitor, was eliminated in Osaka.

The son of Mr. Wang, who monitored smuggled goods crossing the North Korea-China border through customs and market connections, broke his neck falling down stairs while leaving a currency exchange office.

All communication lines with informants employed inside North Korea were completely severed.

At that moment, I became the one who completely ruined an intelligence network that had taken 2 years and 6 months to build.

I let out a hollow laugh and thrust my hands into my pockets.

“If my uncle hadn’t helped me then, I might have been unceremoniously stripped of my uniform. Although my identity wasn’t exposed, I had lost 2 and a half years’ worth of intelligence networks in Osaka and Yanji.

Because of that, I was called in by investigators from the inspection office, the counterintelligence unit, and the National Intelligence Service to answer various questions.

I later found out that all the informants under me had died.

I was the only one lucky enough to survive.”

“……”

“So, as soon as I was released after the investigation, I flew to Shenyang. And I dealt with that traitor who was hiding in an apartment in exactly the same way.”

“……”

“It was absurd.

Uncle Park, who was buying mackerel to feed his daughter, died after being stabbed on the street.

Mr. Wang’s son in Yanji, who had just become a newlywed, broke his spine and became disabled, unable to even use chopsticks on his own.

Yet the bastard who played with innocent people’s lives shamelessly clung to my legs, crying and making a fuss, begging me to save him.

Said he was threatened or something.

I couldn’t bear to see that anymore, so I just slit his vocal cords.

Only then did he shut his mouth.”

“……”

“The funny thing is, even though I went and did all that on my own, the command didn’t say much to me about it.”

The day I returned from Shenyang.

That’s exactly what my uncle told me.

An intelligence officer is someone who must bear both the glory of success and the responsibility of failure alone.

With my body leaning against the railing, I continued bitterly.

“Uncle Park died because I failed, and Mr. Wang’s son ended up in a wheelchair. With a little worse luck, it would have been me who died or got hurt. Or perhaps the colleagues who trusted and followed me.”

“……”

“That’s why the command didn’t say much. Because I took responsibility and handled the aftermath of the failed operation.”

Before the traitor could flap his mouth anymore.

Before another innocent person died or got hurt.

I made my own decision and acted on it.

And so, I could finally.

Truly answer Camilla’s question.

“We’re not playing a game, Camilla. This isn’t a story from one of the novels you like. Nor is it an adventure from a movie or drama.”

“……”

“I didn’t take separate measures because I didn’t trust you. I wasn’t testing you either. This is no longer a test or training.”

“…It’s the real thing.”

“Yes, it’s the real thing.”

The city lights flickered in the distance.

The low breath of wind wandered through the gaps between buildings, and we finally faced each other across the railing.

“That’s what I’ve been emphasizing from the beginning.”

I picked up once more, in this place today, the words I had conveyed to her long ago.

“I asked if you had thought carefully before making your decision. I said people can’t just do what they want in life. I said I would ask one last time, so change your mind.”

“……”

“Movies and reality are just too different.”

*

The vague outlines gradually became clear.

Misaligned sentences quietly connected, and the imperfect algorithm finally came to a halt.

Empathy broke down walls, but beyond them lay long-accumulated sorrow.

People carrying similar pain passed through the day as if nothing had happened. Sadness drifted through stagnant time, seeping in like lingering impressions.

As always,

In each person’s own form, without answers or rules.

Episode 22 – Kasiski Test – END –