Chapter 188: What a Shame

Boom, boom...!

When one o’clock in the morning arrived, a thunderous roar came from far away, shaking the ground.

Sensing that something was wrong, I flung open the conference room door and rushed into the living room.

Running to the window, I looked toward the direction the deafening explosion had come from. A bright scarlet pillar of flame soared high into the sky.

While I shook my head in confusion, unable to understand what had happened, Vice President Fries broke the silence.

“Chief Cha, that’s where the Golden Trading warehouse is located.”

“If the roar from such a powerful explosion reached us from that distance, just how powerful a bomb did they plant there?”

Vice President Fries himself was completely bewildered.

They had only installed a timed explosive powerful enough to completely burn down the Golden Trading warehouse.

However, contrary to expectations, the scale of the explosion was unbelievably, unimaginably enormous.

He openly explained the specifications of the timed explosive to Cha Jiham and shared his opinion.

“...I believe that when the bomb detonated, something else stored inside the warehouse also exploded. It caused a chain reaction.”

“What could have been stored there that was capable of causing such a colossal explosion?”

“Nothing except explosives, including missiles and shells.”

At that moment, something flashed through my mind like lightning.

“Vice President Fries, how large is the Golden Trading warehouse?”

“Approximately twenty meters wide, fifty meters long, and ten meters high.”

“Then an ICBM could easily have fit inside the warehouse?”

Vice President Fries immediately understood what Cha Jiham was getting at.

North Korea was currently boasting that it had successfully developed an ICBM, but in reality, it was a bluff.

The best way for them to make up for their technological shortcomings would be to obtain a finished ICBM and take it apart piece by piece.

He assumed Cha Jiham suspected that they had stolen an ICBM from the Chinese military and hidden it inside the Golden Trading warehouse.

However, he himself thought very differently.

“Chief Cha, an ICBM is a strategic weapon. It can’t simply be stolen. Besides, an ICBM is enormous, so it would be impossible not to notice it. And when our agents infiltrated the Golden Trading warehouse, they didn’t see any large objects there.”

“Didn’t you say yourself that components for TELs were piled up like mountains inside the warehouse?”

“Ahem, ahem!”

Vice President Fries had nothing to say in response and merely coughed into his fist.

“There are even Chinese army generals among the Triad’s members. One of them stole four torpedoes straight from the naval base arsenal. So if they wanted to, they could certainly steal an ICBM as well. Besides, Golden Trading belongs to Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui.”

“Hmm, now that I think about it, the possibility really isn’t zero.”

“We’ll interrogate First Deputy Director Pak Jongchon and President Lee Hyeoksan and learn the truth.”

“Ah, right. We have them!”

“Exactly. We should return to the conference room.”

Bzzzz—

The moment we entered the conference room and took our seats, the cell phone in my hand began vibrating.

Knowing who was calling, I answered with lightning speed.

“Team Leader Lee, how did it go?”

[We just captured all ten hackers and twenty GRU operatives alive.]

“And our people?”

[Fortunately, no one has so much as a scratch.]

“Haha. Excellent work. You did a great job.”

[It was nothing. The CIA agents took the ten hackers and Major General Lee Cheolseung away on inflatable boats. Naturally, Team Leader Seo Donghun and Saho went with them.]

I had assumed the captured hackers would be loaded directly onto the stealth submarine.

But instead, the CIA agents put them aboard inflatable boats and sailed away.

I asked Team Leader Lee Hyeonsol why they had made that decision.

[It’s low tide right now, so the water level in the Yalu River has dropped significantly. We thought the stealth submarine might run aground while coming after us, so we asked it to wait out at sea.]

“Ah, now I understand.”

[Major General Lee Cheolseung and the GRU operatives fled the villa with six enormous suitcases. We loaded those onto the boats and sent them away as well.]

“The suitcases contained money, of course?”

[That’s what we assume too, but there was no time to open them and check.]

“Understood. When are you planning to return to the hotel?”

[We’ll stay at the villa for now and return to the hotel tomorrow morning.]

The timed explosive Saho had planted at the villa had been detonated at one in the morning.

By all rights, the villa should have been reduced to ashes by now, and the police should already have arrived at the scene.

Team Leader Lee Hyeonsol understood that perfectly well, yet he still intended to remain there.

I asked him why.

[The bomb Saho planted at the villa has a special characteristic—it releases so much gas that it becomes impossible to breathe. At the same time, the inside of the villa was only slightly scorched.]

“I understand, but couldn’t the locals have heard the noise and called the police?”

[The villa is far away from residential homes, so no one heard the noise. If the police do show up, we’ll leave immediately.]

“Do that. Be careful, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

Click.

The moment I hung up, Vice President Cayman immediately sprang toward me with questions.

“Chief Cha, what’s the situation?”

“The operation to eliminate the hacker group went perfectly.”

“Phew... What a relief.”

“Exactly.”

Everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.

They had all been sitting on pins and needles as well.

“Tell us more about how the operation went.”

“The timed explosive Saho planted...”

Without hiding anything, I recounted my entire conversation with Team Leader Lee Hyeonsol to Vice President Cayman and the others.

“...As a precaution, they’ll remain at the villa and won’t return until morning.”

“Understood.”

“Vice President Cayman, please check whether the stealth submarines departed safely.”

“One moment.”

Cayman called someone, exchanged a few brief words, and ended the call.

“Chief Cha, both stealth submarines departed five minutes ago.”

“Phew... It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel so much lighter now.”

“I feel the same. How about we raise a glass to the success of the operation?”

“It’s already past one-thirty in the morning.”

“The adrenaline is still pumping. I don’t feel tired at all.”

“I’m in favor too...”

Chief Secretary Kang Inhan and Vice President Fries supported the idea of making a toast.

With no other choice, I ordered champagne and some light snacks through room service.

Pop!

Chief Secretary Kang Inhan shook the champagne bottle up and down and popped the cork.

White foam immediately gushed from the mouth of the bottle like a waterfall.

Naturally, Kang Inhan himself, who was holding the bottle, ended up drenched from head to toe in the fizzy drink.

He poured the remaining half of the champagne into clear glass flutes.

“To success!”

“To success!”

As soon as I loudly proposed the toast and raised my glass, the others enthusiastically joined in.

After taking a sip of champagne, we relaxed for a short while and celebrated our victory.

“We still have one operation left. Aren’t we raising our glasses a little too early?”

Cha Jiham was referring to the operation to sink the Silver Crystal, the ship carrying North Korean weapons.

Vice President Cayman decided it was time to put his fears to rest.

“Chief Cha, trust in the capabilities of the Delta Force soldiers.”

“What other choice do I have? By the way, when are you two planning to return to Beijing?”

“We have to be at work on Monday, so we’ll fly out tomorrow morning. When are you planning to return home?”

“I have a meeting with Vice Chairman Wei Chen in Dalian tomorrow afternoon. Unless something unexpected happens, I plan to fly home the morning after tomorrow.”

Ding-dong.

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

As though he already knew who had arrived, Chief Secretary Kang Inhan immediately went to open the door.

A moment later, Director Lee Menghong, who had successfully completed his part of the operation, entered the suite.

“Director Lee, excellent work completing such a difficult mission!”

“Haha. Thank you. I see you’re celebrating. May I join you?”

“Of course!”

The moment I finished speaking, Chief Secretary Kang Inhan took a clean glass from the cabinet and poured him some champagne.

Once again, we loudly shouted, “To success!” celebrated, and then moved on to reviewing the details to make sure we had not overlooked anything.

“Director Lee, are there any details about the operation to destroy the kamikaze drone manufacturing plant that we should know?”

“To assess the capabilities of the kamikaze drones, we conducted a detonation test. And I have to say, their destructive power was absolutely tremendous.”

“Ah, so that’s why there wasn’t even a blade of grass left at the kamikaze drone factory? Everything was completely blown to pieces?”

“Chief Cha, how did you know?”

Genuine astonishment rang in Director Lee Menghong’s voice.

“About two hours ago, the Director of Ukrainian Military Intelligence held an emergency press conference. He leaked footage to the press showing the moment the factory was destroyed.”

“I see... To continue, we also captured two more kamikaze drones for a more detailed analysis of their design and loaded them onto the stealth submarine.”

“Two whole drones?”

“We decided that our country would conduct a detailed study of one drone, while the United States would study the other.”

“That makes sense. Understood. What else?”

“Last night, we filmed some Russians entering the factory grounds. We asked headquarters to identify them, and it turned out one of them was Deputy Defense Minister Andrei Dmitriev.”

“Were you able to find out why he came there?”

“There were rumors that he had come to take delivery of a batch of kamikaze drones, but we don’t have any definite information.”

The kamikaze drone manufacturing plant had now been wiped off the face of the earth.

So even if Deputy Minister Dmitriev desperately wanted to, there was no longer any way for him to collect his order.

“I can practically picture Deputy Minister Dmitriev slinking away with his tail between his legs, utterly disappointed.”

“Haha, exactly.”

“By the way, did the Delta Force soldiers try to rebel against your orders?”

Director Lee Menghong broke into a satisfied smile at the mere thought of it and replied,

“Thanks to President Douglas’s order, they didn’t even open their mouths to complain.”

“That’s good.”

“Chief Cha, how are the other operations progressing?”

“As for the operation to devastate the naval base in Dalian...”

Director Lee Menghong could not believe his ears.

A stealth submarine could fire a maximum of four torpedoes.

Yet he was being told that eight warships and four submarines moored at the base had been hit.

It made no sense to him, so he interrupted Cha Jiham and asked again.

“Are you joking? You really hit twelve vessels simultaneously?”

“The eight warships weren’t sunk by torpedoes. They were sunk with Composition H6 charges.”

I explained in detail to Director Lee Menghong exactly how the eight warships had been sunk.

“...The Composition H6 charges were planted directly beneath the keels of the vessels to sink them.”

“The Triad has racked up an unimaginable combat achievement.”

“Exactly. They wreaked such havoc at the naval base that the Chinese military declared a state of emergency bordering on wartime conditions.”

“If I were part of the Chinese military leadership, I would have done exactly the same thing. What about the other missions?”

I deliberately shifted my gaze toward Vice President Fries.

As though reading my thoughts, he immediately spoke.

“Our FBI conducted the operation to arrest President Lee Hyeoksan. As soon as he returned from his overseas business trip, he went straight to the company office, where he met with Pak Jongchon, First Deputy Director of the Central Committee Department of North Korea’s Military Revolutionary Party.”

“What, Pak Jongchon himself?!”

The shocked expression on Director Lee Menghong’s face spoke for itself. This was no ordinary piece of news.

I could not ignore such a reaction, so I immediately asked,

“Director Lee, do you know First Deputy Director Pak?”

“Of course I do!”

“Could you tell me how you know about him?”

“He’s a key figure overseeing North Korea’s ICBM development.”

“Director Nevers already told me about that.”

“If you already know that, it’ll be easier to explain. We received intelligence that he stole an ICBM from the Chinese military. We were actually on his tail to verify that information.”

At that moment, a wave of bitter regret washed over me.

If only we had not destroyed the Golden Trading warehouse, we could have personally verified whether it was true or false.

“What a shame.”

“What do you mean?”

“Actually, at the Golden Trading warehouse...”