Chapter 234: Let’s Finish This as Quickly as Possible

“Director Cha, do you think something happened?”

The thugs’ hideout was a twenty-minute drive from our hotel. Team Leader Seo Donghun had gone there with Saho to scout the place an hour and a half ago. Considering the abilities the cat had demonstrated so far, they should have finished surveying the grounds by now. Yet for some reason, my phone remained silent. That was why Chief Secretary Kang Inhan asked the question, his voice clearly tinged with concern.

“There’s one mansion and two adjacent buildings on their property. Thoroughly inspecting an area that large would take at least an hour.”

“According to what you’re saying, Director Cha, they should be contacting us right about now?”

“Let’s wait a little longer. The call should come soon.”

Bzzzt—

I had barely finished speaking when the phone in Kang Inhan’s hand vibrated. After checking the caller’s name, he reported that it was Team Leader Seo Donghun and immediately answered.

Judging by the way his expression brightened during the conversation, Saho had successfully completed the reconnaissance.

After the brief call ended, Kang Inhan reported,

“Director Cha, Saho just made it safely out of the thugs’ compound.”

“See? What did I tell you?”

“Haha, you were absolutely right, Director Cha. They said they’ll get back here as quickly as they can.”

Ding-dong.

About fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang.

Personal Security Team Leader Jeong Gwangseok sprang toward the door with lightning speed, living up to his reputation, and opened it.

At that very moment, Seo Donghun and Saho rushed into the room.

As always, the cat immediately leaped into my arms. Stroking his head in thanks for a job well done, I addressed Seo Donghun.

“Team Leader Seo, excellent work.”

“I didn’t do anything. I just waited outside their base.”

“Haha. Is that so? I assume Saho recorded quite a bit of footage.”

“I’ll prepare it so we only have to watch the important parts.”

As usual, Seo Donghun’s intuition had long since surpassed the level of an ordinary person.

“Haha, excellent.”

“Give me a couple of minutes.”

Seo Donghun immediately connected the camera to the television with a cable. Then he switched it on with the remote and started playback.

As I had requested, he quickly skipped through the unnecessary footage.

The recording returned to normal speed at the moment Saho leaped over the compound’s high fence.

Something struck me as strange.

The main gate was heavily guarded by men carrying firearms. Logically, there should also have been armed guards patrolling the garden, which covered an area larger than three or four soccer fields.

Yet there wasn’t a single guard in the garden, not even a guard post.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who found this strange, because Kang Inhan voiced the same question.

“Director Cha, why aren’t there any guards?”

“I’m not sure yet either.”

At that moment, Team Leader Lee Hyeonsol asked to speak, as though he had an explanation.

“Director Cha, I think these thugs are simply too confident.”

“Confident?”

“They have absolute faith in the high fence, the double layer of barbed wire, and the dense network of surveillance cameras.”

“Hmm, that’s certainly possible.”

As I nodded, the video continued.

Saho raced at high speed toward the mansion standing between the adjacent buildings. After circling around to the dark rear side, he raised his head and leaped straight up to the third floor.

At that moment, Branch Head Harrison’s eyes widened as he stared at me in astonishment.

“Director Cha, the third floor is more than five meters up!”

I had previously told Harrison that Saho could jump roughly five meters. But when the cat cleared a height obviously greater than five meters in a single bound, the CIA agent couldn’t suppress his astonishment.

“If I remember correctly, I told you that we’ve never precisely measured his maximum jumping height.”

“Ah, right. Team Leader Seo, let’s continue.”

Seo Donghun pressed the play button on the remote.

Saho descended the stairs to the second floor and stopped, staring intently into the living room.

A stern, authoritative-looking man in his fifties occupied the central seat on the sofa. His subordinates sat rigidly on either side of him.

Realizing what the cat had been trying to capture, I gave an order.

“Seo Donghun, rewind a little.”

Seo Donghun pressed the rewind button.

The screen once again showed Saho staring intently into the living room.

“Stop.”

Seo Donghun immediately paused the footage.

I turned toward Harrison and asked,

“Can you quickly identify the man sitting in the central seat?”

“Give me a couple of minutes.”

Rising from the sofa, Harrison approached the large television mounted on the wall and photographed the frozen image with his phone.

Without wasting a second, he sent the picture to someone and immediately made a call. After briefly explaining our request, he hung up.

“Director Cha, they’ll try to identify the man in the photo as quickly as possible and contact us immediately.”

“We’ll wait. Team Leader Seo, continue the recording.”

Saho passed through the first floor and went straight down the stairs into the basement.

Obviously, he was checking whether Kwak Cheolhun was being held there.

However, an unexpected problem arose.

Although several rooms lined the basement corridor, their doors were firmly shut.

“Damn, what a shame...” Kang Inhan sighed sympathetically.

Noticing his disappointment, Harrison asked,

“Chief Secretary Kang, is something wrong?”

“Saho can’t use his front paws as freely as a human can use their hands. Because of that, he can’t turn a doorknob and open a closed door.”

“Ah, I see...” Harrison lamented regretfully.

At that moment, Saho ran to the last room at the far end of the corridor and stared at it without looking away.

Realizing there was something inside, I addressed the cat.

“Saho, is Kwak Cheolhun locked in that room?”

The cat immediately nodded.

Harrison looked at me in confusion.

“Director Cha, why did Saho nod?”

Saho didn’t understand any language except Korean. Because of that, Harrison hadn’t understood our brief exchange.

“Kwak Cheolhun is locked in that room.”

“But how did Saho know?”

“Saho has an incredible sense of smell. He can pick up scents from two or three kilometers away. At Commander Kwak Taesu’s mountain house, he memorized the scent of Kwak Cheolhun’s personal belongings. He simply matched that scent with the one coming from beneath the door.”

“Ah, now I understand. Keep talking to him.”

His curiosity satisfied, Harrison took a step back.

“Saho, is Kwak Cheolhun alive?”

The cat nodded again in confirmation.

From then on, Saho answered my questions with simple nods or shakes of his head.

As I questioned him, a few more possibilities occurred to me.

“Saho, is Kwak Cheolhun alone in there?”

The cat shook his head.

After a series of follow-up questions, we managed to establish that another person was locked up with Kwak Cheolhun—a foreign man.

After leaving the mansion, Saho entered the adjacent buildings and recorded their interiors. Since there was nothing noteworthy inside, we essentially fast-forwarded through that footage.

As soon as the recording ended, I gave Seo Donghun an order.

“Wash Saho and feed him as much beef as he wants.”

“Understood, Director Cha.”

After a brief reply, Seo Donghun picked up the cat and headed toward the bathroom.

As though he had been waiting for this moment, Harrison asked curiously,

“How did Saho know that Kwak Cheolhun was alive?”

“His hearing is just as phenomenal as his sense of smell. Saho heard Kwak Cheolhun talking to someone inside the room.”

“So there’s another person locked in there with him?”

“Exactly. All we know for now is that he’s a foreign man.”

Bzzzt—

At that moment, the phone on the table trembled with an incoming call.

Picking it up and looking at the screen, I frowned in confusion.

The caller was none other than Director Glenn Nevers.

Surprised, I answered.

“Director Nevers? Did something happen?”

[I’m calling about the photograph Harrison forwarded to CIA headquarters.]

“Weren’t they supposed to identify the man in the photo?”

[The man in that picture is closely connected to the FBI, so I decided to call you personally.]

“I see. So who is he?”

[Three years ago, working jointly with the regular Colombian army, we captured Gabriel, the head of the world’s largest drug cartel. Unfortunately, we failed to capture his second-in-command, Antonio, at the time.]

Now I understood why Nevers had called.

The man in the video was Antonio, the cartel’s second-in-command.

To confirm my suspicion, I asked him directly.

“Then the man in the photograph is Antonio?”

[You’re correct, Director Cha.]

“Looks like we’ve stumbled onto a very big fish.”

[Haha, exactly. Interpol issued a Red Notice for Antonio long ago and has been searching for him ever since.]

“You mean he’s been hiding out in Switzerland all this time?”

[Unlikely. At the end of last month, he and his men were spotted in a small town in northern Colombia.]

“Then why would he risk everything to come to Switzerland?”

[His boss, Gabriel, hid money laundered from drug sales in Swiss banks.]

“He came to retrieve Gabriel’s hidden funds?”

[I can’t say for certain, but we can’t rule it out.]

“Understood.”

[Now I’ll tell you why I decided to call you personally.]

At that moment, an unpleasant suspicion flashed through my mind.

“Don’t tell me...”

[Hahaha! Exactly.]

“But why me?”

[Come now, Director Cha. You’re an honorary agent of both the FBI and CIA.]

“Ugh, I really brought this trouble on myself.”

[I have complete faith in your abilities, Director Cha. I know you’re busy, so I won’t keep you any longer.]

Click.

The moment the call ended, Kang Inhan asked with a worried expression,

“Director Cha, are we going to have to arrest this Antonio?”

“Looks like we don’t have a choice.”

“But can’t we simply refuse?”

“I’d like to say that too. But Antonio’s people are holding Kwak Cheolhun at their base, so there’s no way around it. If we want to get him out, we’ll have to take Antonio anyway.”

I turned toward Harrison.

“You understand the current situation, right?”

“Of course. But how are we going to capture Antonio?”

“First, we need to neutralize his men, but our weapons and equipment leave a lot to be desired.”

“We’ll take responsibility for providing everything necessary to take down his gang.”

“I’d greatly appreciate that. And immediately before the operation begins, jam every radio frequency around their base.”

Harrison looked troubled. They didn’t have equipment capable of jamming communications over an area that large.

“Director Cha, is it really necessary to jam their communications?”

“Antonio knows countless drug distribution channels. What do you think will happen when we begin the assault?”

“He’ll have enough time to send warning signals to his associates...”

Harrison trailed off as he instantly understood what I was getting at.

“Branch Head Harrison, you know what it means to ‘finish everything as quickly as possible,’ don’t you?”

“You mean you intend to capture Antonio tonight? Aren’t we rushing things?”

“North Korean Reconnaissance General Bureau operatives are already racing here to capture Kwak Cheolhun.”

“Damn it!”

Cutting the conversation short and mentally cursing himself for his carelessness, Harrison frantically grabbed his phone.