Chapter 92 : That Time I Reorganized the Bureaucracy in South America (2)

TL: Skye

The next morning.

Yu-jin summoned his key senior secretaries to his office.

Once Isabella, Lucio, Field Marshal Pedro, and Resa, the Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, had all filed into the conference room, Yu-jin began explaining why he'd called them together.

"I went into the city yesterday for the first time in a while. And I noticed a problem."

"If you'll tell us what it is, we'll fix it at once."

Yu-jin pointed out the window.

At the front gate stood a security officer with an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder.

"The police."

"The police are... a problem?"

Pedro asked back, his face puzzled.

"Public order is flawless, is it not? Not a single violent crime in the past three years."

"That's true. Public order is excellent."

Yu-jin nodded and continued.

"The problem, however, is the image. The locals may be used to those armed police, but foreign tourists are frightened by them. Especially tourists from peaceful countries like Korea or Japan."

Resa reacted immediately.

"That's certainly true. Even in our tourist surveys, we've had occasional comments that public order is excellent but the police are terrifying."

"That said, we cannot disarm them."

Lucio countered firmly.

"His Excellency swept away the domestic gangs, but across the sea there are countless gangs still out there. With our borders not yet properly secured, if we disarm now, they could cross over and public order could collapse overnight."

It was a reasonable objection. Yu-jin nodded and asked,

"Field Marshal Pedro, what are your thoughts?"

"I agree with Director Lucio as well."

He scratched his head with an awkward expression.

"As His Excellency is well aware, San Marcos's police organization is... extremely incompetent."

"That much is certainly true."

Yu-jin nodded too.

The truth was, like any developing nation, San Marcos's police force was both incompetent and corrupt.

Just how bad was it? Back in President Juan's day, unless it was a serious crime like murder, a hundred dollars slipped into the right hand would get a suspect released from a San Marcos police station on the spot.

That was precisely why Pedro had created the Security Force out of his own units and dispatched them as police.

Thanks to that, order had been restored, but...

'They've turned into an army, not a police force.'

So this couldn't be left as it was.

Once the new city was completed, tourist numbers would explode.

And if police carrying automatic rifles were strolling the streets at that point?

It was obvious it would feel less like a peaceful resort and more like a war zone.

"Very well. Then let me propose a compromise."

Yu-jin rose from his seat and began sketching on the whiteboard.

"Let's split the police organization into ordinary police and special police."

"Split it... do you mean dividing the personnel?"

"That's right."

Yu-jin nodded at Isabella's question.

"The ordinary police handle routine order-maintenance duties like traffic enforcement, public complaints, patrols, and the like. They carry only sidearms."

The senior secretaries nodded.

"The second is the Special Mobile Unit. A heavily armed force that responds to serious crime, terrorism, and organized crime. They arm themselves with M4 carbines and body armor, just as they do now. Except in normal times they remain on standby, deploying only when needed."

"Oh..."

Resa's eyes sparkled.

"So in that setup, friendly police patrol the streets day to day, and the heavily armed police only appear in an emergency."

"Precisely."

Pedro stroked his chin and asked,

"So we redeploy the existing Security Force personnel into the Special Mobile Unit?"

"Yes. They're all ex-military, so that would be the right fit. And we'll train the ordinary police fresh, so they're neither corrupt nor incompetent. And then..."

Yu-jin let out a breath and continued his explanation.

"I plan to establish an intelligence agency for crime prevention."

"An, an intelligence agency, you say?"

"Yes. I intend to create a new Homeland Security Agency to prevent terrorism and crime."

For a moment, silence fell over the conference room.

Isabella's eyes went wide, Lucio held his breath, and Pedro swallowed dryly.

Yu-jin looked at them, baffled.

His thinking was simple.

He'd only thought that, like America's Department of Homeland Security, they needed an organization to handle domestic security.

But everyone else was thinking something entirely different.

'His Excellency... means to monitor the citizens' every move...!'

Pedro was aghast.

'The police reform was the bait. The real objective was building a perfect surveillance system...!'

Resa trembled all over.

'Just as expected of His Excellency. He won't permit the slightest gap...! Yes, this is my Excellency.'

Isabella's face flushed.

Lucio in particular was visibly flustered.

The creation of a new intelligence agency was directly tied to his own standing.

"Y-Your Excellency!"

He shot to his feet and cried out.

"T-the SIA will simply work harder and take care of it! There's no need to go and create a whole new organization...!"

"No. The SIA is already busy enough as it is."

Yu-jin shook his head.

"Taking on homeland security too would be too much."

In fact, it was true that the SIA was busy.

But Yu-jin had a separate reason for doing this.

In modern society, information is all but synonymous with power.

Excessive concentration of information is no different from a concentration of power.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Lucio, but he couldn't trust Lucio's successor.

'Still water always goes bad.'

The dispersal of power.

That was Yu-jin's real objective.

"If there are no other opinions, I'll go ahead and establish the Homeland Security Agency."

"...Yes, Your Excellency."

Lucio bowed his head weakly.

"Then who will you appoint as the first Security Agency Director?"

"That's the trouble. It can't be just anyone..."

Yu-jin rested his chin in his hand.

Both the police reform and the founding of the Security Agency came down, in the end, to people.

No matter how well the system is built, without the talent to run it, it's useless.

"We'll leave that part to be looked into. Let's call it here for today."

"......"

Watching Yu-jin get up from his seat, his inner circle each had a thought.

'His Excellency means to plant his own man as Security Agency Director.'

'His Excellency's power is about to grow even stronger.'

'His Excellency doesn't trust anyone at all.'

***

Day ten since the order to reform the police and establish the Homeland Security Agency.

In that time, Yu-jin had been busy poring over the résumés of civil servants for the appointment.

It would be easier to recruit outside talent, like he had with Antonio.

'But for a post like this, loyalty to the state comes first.'

Given the nature of an intelligence agency, security was paramount, so promoting from within was the right call in every respect.

And so, sifting through personnel files again today, Yu-jin.

'Huh? This person?'

Turning the pages one by one, his hand stopped at a name.

It was that same Bruno Alves, the former commander of the Army's 2nd Infantry Division who had gone on to serve as Vice Minister of Defense, only to flunk the civil-servant competency evaluation and get hauled off to Tortilla Farm.

The reason Yu-jin's eyes had landed on this man's record was simple.

[Counterintelligence Battalion, Platoon Leader (1989-1992) / Counterintelligence Battalion, Company Commander (1993-1998) / Counterintelligence Battalion, Personnel Officer (1999-2006) / Counterintelligence Battalion, Battalion Commander (2007-2017)]

The résumé was excellent.

Counterintelligence background.

And having served this long, the man clearly knew the fundamentals of intelligence work.

On top of that, he'd risen all the way to Division Commander, so his organizational management skills were tested to some degree as well.

'This is pretty solid, isn't it?'

In short, he was a very fitting candidate.

"Hmm..."

Yu-jin mulled it over for a moment, then called for Isabella.

"You called for me?"

"Chief of Staff, do you remember Bruno Alves?"

"The former Vice Minister of Defense? I believe he's currently on assignment out at Tortilla Farm."

"Yes. Do you happen to know how he's getting on these days?"

"I'll look into it."

A moment later, having stepped out of the office to finish a call, Isabella reported back to Yu-jin.

"Apparently, of late he's been serving as the de facto leader among the workers at Tortilla Farm."

"A leader?"

"Yes. He proposes ways to improve work efficiency, trains the new workers, and mediates whenever disputes break out. The managers rate him very highly as well."

"Oho? Is that so?"

A smile spread across Yu-jin's lips.

'People really do change with their environment.'

Yu-jin felt a swell of pride.

It was as if his own policy had reformed a man.

"Could you have him brought in for me? As soon as possible."

"Yes, understood."

*

Two days later.

Outside the office in the Presidential Palace.

Bruno Alves straightened his tie with trembling hands.

'Why has His Excellency summoned me?'

Having stood before the door for a moment, Bruno opened it at the call to come in.

"Your Excellency, Bruno Alves reporting."

"Come in."

Yu-jin greeted him with a bright smile.

Bruno, still tense, perched only the edge of his backside on the very end of the sofa.

Watching him, Yu-jin gave a small nod.

'He really has changed.'

The skin roasted black out in the cornfields, a body twenty kilos lighter, and above all, the look in his eyes was different.

The arrogance that had once filled his gaze was nowhere to be found, replaced entirely by earnestness.

"So. How was life at Tortilla Farm?"

"...It was hard, but I learned a great deal."

"And what did you learn?"

Bruno answered carefully.

"I learned that the man I used to be was wrong."

"Oho? Did you now?"

"Yes. Sweating and laboring at Tortilla Farm, I came to realize it. That it's because there are citizens doing honest work that I, and beyond me, the state, exist."

"......"

Yu-jin regarded Bruno with inward admiration.

'Not bad at all.'

He made up his mind.

He would hang the medal of acceptance around Bruno's neck.

"Bruno, I've looked at your record. You served a long stretch in the Army's counterintelligence corps. And unlike your time as Division Commander, you had some real accomplishments there too."

"Ah, yes... well... it was mostly because a promotion was riding on it, so I worked hard."

"You're an honest man."

"A-hem... hrm."

At Bruno's flustered reaction, Yu-jin let out a soft chuckle and slid a folder across to him.

[On the Establishment of the Homeland Security Agency]

Bruno's eyes widened when he saw the folder's title.

"I'm planning to create a new intelligence agency to prevent terrorism and crime. Think of it as a kind of intelligence organization, strictly domestic in scope."

"...!"

Bruno's heart pounded.

He knew it instinctively.

'This is my chance.'

That this very moment was the last chance he'd be given.

'If I let this one slip, there won't be a next.'

Bruno resolved to perform the Eastern-style oath of loyalty he'd studied up on in advance.

He shot to his feet, dropped to his knees on the floor, and then...

Thud, thud, thud!

He struck his forehead against the floor three times.

"Wait, why all of a sudden..."

His forehead gone red from how hard he'd struck it, he cried out,

"Give me any task at all! This life of mine, I devote it to Your Excellency and to San Marcos!"

Years later, in his autobiography, Bruno would say this.

that the oath of loyalty he swore that day changed the course of his fate.

so much so that he came to regret not having struck hard enough to draw blood.

*****

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