Silver Ghost (3) +36
Kuala Lumpur city center, an outdoor restaurant in Bukit Bintang.
The celebratory dinner honoring the fact that they had landed a solid blow on China right in front of Major General Zulkifli was thick with the smoke of grilled skewers, the humid night air, and boisterous noise.
“Let’s toast! Today, Hanseo Defense saved Malaysia’s communications network!”
Chief Choi laughed heartily and raised his beer glass high.
Executive Director Kim and the local employee who had been driving looked just as excited.
“Cheers!”
Clink.
The cold beer went straight down my throat.
Once alcohol hit my system, some of the tension eased.
But Cho Yerin, seated beside me, wore a strangely subdued expression.
After talking at length with Chief Choi, Executive Director Kim, and the others, she lowered her voice and whispered to me.
“Senior.”
“Yeah?”
“Malaysia’s intelligence service is moving oddly.”
“...The intelligence service? Why all of a sudden?”
“They’ve been running a hard background check on you since earlier. From the Saudi royal family line to your record in Korea and every contact log with the Agency for Defense Development.”
As I listened, the crease between my brows deepened.
This clearly wasn’t some trivial matter.
“So this isn’t corporate due diligence.”
“No. It feels less like they’re checking on a mere engineer and more like they’re classifying you as a national strategic asset.”
Strategic asset.
That was a bit grand, wasn’t it?
“No, why would they go that far? I’m not a terrorist.”
“How should I know?”
“You really don’t know?”
She looked at me as if I were unbelievable, then snorted with a laugh.
“They probably want to recruit you. Senior, you know how things are here.”
Cho Yerin tilted her chin toward the street outside the restaurant, where people of every race moved through the night together.
“Malaysia’s always claimed neutrality, so its weapons systems are a complete mess. American, Russian, British, Polish, Korean, Turkish... they bought from everyone.”
“They did.”
“Which means every standard is different, every parts supply line is different, even the language in the maintenance manuals is different. The maintenance burden is hell. It’s gotten so bad they can’t even keep their fighters flying properly because upkeep has become unmanageable.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Even the tank I’d seen yesterday had been a hybrid monstrosity: a Russian hull with a French turret bolted on top.
The officer in charge of logistics support was probably tearing his hair out every day.
“Then you show up, Senior. The only engineer who understands Russian and Western standards at the same time, and who can fix the chronic problems.”
“And? You think they want to pin me down here and have me do their dirty work?”
“If you were sane, you wouldn’t settle in Malaysia anyway... so maybe they’ll try kidnapping you?”
Cho Yerin giggled as she tossed out the joke.
I laughed it off too.
“Ha. That’s enough to make a man afraid to walk at night.”
But it wasn’t really a joke.
That meant the Malaysian military was desperate.
Executive Director Kim, seated opposite us, picked up a side dish and added his two cents.
“It may not be a joke. The mood inside the military has shifted completely. Before, it was Chinese price versus Korean performance. Now the current is flowing toward Korea, toward Baek Gunwoo.”
He gave a meaningful smile.
“The senior brass is full of rumors. They’re saying they only now understand why the Saudi side treated Vice President Baek so carefully.”
I swirled my empty glass.
“Heh. Don’t flatter me too much. It makes me uncomfortable.”
I answered casually, but in my head I was already doing the math.
This wasn’t a simple bid war.
The stakes were getting much higher than I’d expected.
*
The next morning.
Sungai Besi Base, swamp test range.
The moment we arrived, the air felt wrong against my skin.
Unlike usual, armed military police were stationed at every entry road.
The main stand at the test range was even more crowded.
Beyond Major General Zulkifli, there were generals with stars on their shoulders lined up all over the place.
And it wasn’t only the Army uniforms that stood out.
“...Blue uniforms?”
Chief Choi narrowed his eyes.
“Aren’t those Air Force officers? Why are Air Force generals here for an armored vehicle test?”
He wasn’t wrong.
From Army lieutenant general to Air Force major general.
The real power brokers of the Malaysian military were filling the stands.
“Oh! High-ranking officials have come in force to observe!”
Wang Hao barreled in, failing to read the room.
“Good morning! I’m Wang Hao, a director from Huabei Industries. Today, our overwhelming performance...”
He bowed and handed out his business card, but the response was cold.
“Ah, yes. Thank you for your efforts.”
The generals treated Wang Hao like he was invisible and gave him perfunctory nods.
Their attention was already fixed elsewhere.
Me.
Maybe because of what Cho Yerin had told me yesterday, I immediately sensed why they had gathered like this.
Their purpose was practically written in the way they looked at me.
As a matter of fact, since Malaysia didn’t even have a Marine Corps, today’s test had to be considered an Army event above all else.
But even so, the fact that the Air Force had shown up made their intent obvious.
They hadn’t come to see an armored vehicle.
They had come to see me.
I turned my gaze away as if I knew nothing.
I heard a few coughs from among the Air Force generals, but I ignored those too.
A moment later, the operations officer acting as MC took the microphone and began the briefing.
“Sector 3, which will be tested today, has been modeled to replicate the jungle environment of Sarawak in eastern Malaysia.”
The officer pointed his baton toward the center of the swamp.
“In particular, the mud section in the middle of the course reaches a depth of 1.5 meters and is extremely viscous. It assumes the worst road conditions of monsoon season.”
The generals listening to the explanation nodded.
Today’s test was a trial by whether they could break through the notorious natural trap that even tanks could be rendered immobile in.
That was when it happened.
A blue uniform seated in the center of the stands, an Air Force major general, suddenly spoke up.
“I’d like to ask Hanseo Defense a question.”
At his voice, Chief Choi stepped forward.
“Yes. Please go ahead.”
“Looking at the proposal your company submitted, it says you developed the drivetrain control logic independently. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Based on the technology we’ve accumulated over the years, we completed a drivetrain control logic capable of securing independent survivability and stealth on the battlefield.”
The major general nodded.
His gaze passed over Chief Choi and settled on me, standing behind him.
“Is the young researcher behind you the one responsible for that core design?”
Chief Choi shrugged and answered proudly.
“Yes. That’s Baek Gunwoo, our technical audit team manager. He was also the driving force behind the neural network redesign of Hunt-Dog, our in-house unmanned combat robot.”
“Oh...? An unmanned combat robot too?”
The Air Force major general’s eyes flashed.
Confidence filled that look.
“So the rumors were true after all. A man who handles both electronic control and mechanical engineering.”
The major general leaned over to whisper something to the Army lieutenant general seated beside him.
Their eyes openly raked over me.
They looked as if the armored vehicle’s performance meant nothing to them.
As the atmosphere turned strange, Wang Hao rushed in to intervene.
“N-now, General. As far as control logic goes, Huabei Industries doesn’t lag behind either!”
Wang Hao shouted, veins popping in his neck.
“Our HB-08 localizes Russia’s high-output diesel engine, and it already boasts proven reliability! It’s on a completely different level from experimental technology developed by some ordinary parts supplier!”
But the major general’s reaction was utterly dry.
“Who doesn’t know that Russian engines have good power? The problem is they only work in the Siberian tundra. I heard even yesterday there was a problem because of that very trait. Wasn’t there?”
“T-that was only a minor issue in the field...”
“Enough with the spec sheet talk. Prove it with results. If it can barely be proven in person, who’s going to believe you if you only talk about it?”
The major general waved a hand and cut Wang Hao off.
“...Tch.”
Wang Hao bit his lip.
He’d realized that no amount of bluster would help.
He turned back, glaring at me with poison in his eyes.
That look said, Just you wait.
I merely shrugged.
When I’d seen him briefly yesterday, he’d already been a mess, so nothing was going to happen that deserved a wait.
Then the control room speakers crackled to life.
[Main stand, tactical data link check complete. Test preparations are finished.]
Major General Zulkifli took the microphone.
“Begin the test.”
Pop-pop-pop!
The large screens installed in front of the main stand lit up all at once.
The starting line, the swamp course, the driver’s helmet cam, and even the drone view orbiting overhead.
This wasn’t a simple driving test. It looked more like a high-end military operation.
Inside the screen, the Chinese driver gave a grave expression and stuck up a thumbs-up.
“Move out!”
Rumble-!
The 700-horsepower diesel engine roared to life.
The HB-08 on the monitor tore through the course, splashing muddy water everywhere.
Wang Hao clenched his fist and leaned toward the monitor.
“Good! Keep the speed up! The data looks good!”
The opening momentum was excellent.
The massive tires churned through the mud and drove forward.
But that was as far as it went.
When it reached the deepest mud section in the middle of the course,
Flap-flap- cough!
The armored vehicle on the drone feed suddenly jerked to a stop as if it were coughing.
Black smoke burst explosively from the exhaust.
“What the hell! Why did it stop!”
Wang Hao screamed.
[Engine overheat warning has appeared! Mud seems to have splashed into the intake and blocked it!]
“Just step on it! Punch through!”
But the vehicle didn’t move an inch.
The harder he forced the accelerator, the more the wheels spun uselessly, digging their own grave.
“Tsk.”
The Army lieutenant general clicked his tongue.
“There’s that heat problem again. So much for a Siberian engine.”
Major General Zulkifli gave a flat order.
“Send in the recovery vehicle. Stop wasting time.”
Wang Hao’s face drained to the color of ash.
A short while later,
the towed Chinese vehicle was shoved to the side of the road, and the screen changed.
Our KAAV-II lined up at the starting point.
The driver on the screen was calmly setting the dashboard instruments.
I checked the RPM and torque figures displayed at the bottom of the monitor.
The prep work was solid.
“Move out.”
Instead of a diesel engine roar, only a low hum of drive motors flowed through the speakers.
The heavy armored vehicle slid forward into the swamp.
“Huh? Didn’t it start?”
The Air Force major general watching the screen asked in confusion.
It was so quiet he hadn’t even realized it had already begun.
But the moment he looked at the drone feed, the generals’ eyes widened.
The vehicle was already tearing across the swamp.
The wheels weren’t digging into the mud; they were reading the terrain and gliding over it with smooth precision.
But then.
Thud.
The death section where the Chinese vehicle had bogged down.
KAAV-II’s body lurched violently.
The mud was so deep and sticky that it bit into the wheels for an instant.
The speedometer dropped from 30 km/h to 5 km/h.
“W-wait... is it stopping?”
The generals leaned forward.
Wang Hao’s eyes widened.
“That’s right! See? Even that one can’t do it! That course is physically impossible!”
As he cried out in triumph, Chief Choi grabbed the microphone.
“Report status.”
[Left wheels 3 and 4 are slipping. Mud resistance is greater than expected.]
“Don’t panic. Open battery output. Boost mode.”
[Copy. Boost on.]
There was no delay, no grand roaring build-up of the sort a diesel engine needed while it revved upward.
The electric motor’s instant maximum torque slammed into the wheels.
Whiiiiiin-!
The drive noise sharpened.
With no time for the wheels to spin uselessly, they grabbed the mud and forced the hull upward.
Whoosh.
The body that had been sinking started to rise, as if gravity itself had been lying.
“Wha...?”
The smirk on Wang Hao’s face twisted into shock in an instant.
KAAV-II did not stop.
On the contrary, it used the momentum to pick up speed.
And then.
Slitheringly.
HB-08, still stranded on the roadside and belching black smoke, had not yet been recovered.
KAAV-II passed it by without a sound, without even splashing a single drop of mud.
A cruel crossing.
The contrast between the two vehicles captured by the drone was stark.
It was like dead history and a future in motion.
Wang Hao’s face turned bright red.
He had just been arguing that his vehicle’s failure was physically inevitable, yet our vehicle had cut through the same obstacle as if to mock him.
He was trembling with humiliation and rage.
“Test concluded. Completion confirmed.”
With Major General Zulkifli’s declaration, KAAV-II crossed the finish line.
The underside of the hull was caked in mud, but every drivetrain datum on the monitor was normal.
“Heh... rough but delicate. I like it very much.”
The Air Force major general smiled in satisfaction.
The Army lieutenant general nodded as well.
“The power control is artistry. You could field this in combat tomorrow.”
By then, Huabei Industries had already been wiped clean from their minds as an option.
The generals rose from their seats and surged toward me in a crowd.
Wang Hao tried to say something in protest, but no one paid him any attention.
Instead, the aides they had brought stepped forward.
Shoulder boards: major, lieutenant colonel.
The technical aces of each branch, men who had spent enough years eating grease to know better.
In their hands were prepped tablet PCs and thick bundles of drawings.
One Air Force major held out a tablet carefully.
On the screen was a complicated hydraulic circuit diagram.
“Vice President Baek. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble... could you take a look at this?”
The tone was polite, but his eyes were sharp.
This was a test.
They wanted to see whether the famed expert was the real thing or just hot air.
I took the tablet.
“This is the cooling radar system for a Su-30MKM fighter. The Russian engineers say it’s a pump pressure issue, but even after replacing the pump, the coolant keeps flowing backward. Do you know the cause?”
I stared at the drawing on the screen.
The coolant flow was drawn as blue lines.
But in a certain valve section, the flow was spiraling red.
“The check valve direction.”
I tapped a point on the screen with my finger.
“On the drawing it’s the correct direction, but the actual pipe bend angle seems too sharp. Once flow speed rises, vortices form and the valve opens on its own.”
“Ah...!”
The major’s mouth fell open.
It must have been a part they’d taken apart and reassembled dozens of times, relying only on the Russian manual.
“Just swap in a valve spring with stronger tension. That should fix it.”
The major took the tablet back with a trembling hand and looked behind him.
He nodded fiercely at his superior, the Air Force major general.
But perhaps that still wasn’t enough, because the Army lieutenant colonel beside him hurriedly thrust another tablet forward.
“I-I have one too, sir! This is the launcher for the Brazilian ASTROS II multiple rocket system, and every time it fires, the hydraulic cylinders bounce like crazy.”
In the video on screen, the launcher was trembling violently and shaking unstably.
I shook my head and swiped to the side.
After the video came a maintenance unit’s pressure log chart, a list of replacement parts, and the hydraulic circuit diagram.
“Hmm.”
As I studied it carefully, I could see the blue flow of hydraulic pressure on the circuit diagram bottleneck and bleed into red at a certain section.
A pilot line thinner than a pencil lead.
Inside that narrow passage, a tiny black speck had lodged itself.
That foreign object was obstructing and releasing the hydraulic flow over and over, creating the red vibration that was shaking the entire system.
Looking at the replacement history, they had swapped out every single valve for a new one.
And if the symptoms were still the same, then the problem wasn’t a defective part. It was a mistake in assembly.
“It’s not the servo valve. You’ve been replacing the wrong parts over and over.”
“What? But the pressure is clearly spiking...”
“It’s not the pressure spiking. It’s the signal getting blocked.”
I tapped a point on the circuit diagram.
“Here, the 0.8 mm orifice in the pilot line. Something’s jammed in there.”
“You mean foreign matter? That can’t be. We filter the hydraulic fluid thoroughly every time.”
“It’s not outside dust. It was created inside. Did you wrap Teflon tape around the threads when assembling the pipe?”
“Of course we had to tape it to prevent leakage...”
“That was the cause.”
I gave the diagnosis with complete certainty.
“A strip of tape probably tore off and got pulled inside. That piece fluttered around and kept covering and uncovering the orifice, which created the hunting. Tear the valve apart right now and clean the hole with a needle first. And from now on, use liquid sealant instead of tape. That’ll fix it.”
“...!”
The Army lieutenant colonel’s jaw dropped.
He had nearly torn the launcher apart thinking it was a mechanical failure, when it had been nothing more than a scrap of tape.
Two correct answers in a row.
And I’d solved, on the spot, the chronic defects of the hybrid equipment imported from all over the world.
The atmosphere changed at once.
Doubt turned to certainty, and certainty to fervor.
“Vice President Baek! Take a look at our self-propelled howitzer’s fire-control system too!”
“It’s the main rotor vibration issue on the EC725 helicopter, just once if you could...!”
In an instant, the test range had turned into the waiting room of a general hospital.
I smiled as if I were in trouble, but the mouths of Executive Director Kim and Chief Choi beside me were already hooked to their ears.
At that moment, I had monopolized the trust of the entire Malaysian military.
I loosened my tie slightly and said with easy calm,
“Settle down. I only have one body... so I’ll go through them one by one.”