Chapter 121
Chapter 121
121.
Dying Embers (1)
【MH Electronics, did they really steal designs and infringe on technology patents? They haven't given an accurate answer yet...】
【The damage to MH Foods in the Americas has been confirmed to be 52 people so far... The cause is presumed to be facility problems within the MH Foods Los Angeles factory...】
Shinwoo woke up early in the morning and watched the news on TV. Then his gaze went to the TV frame and the surrounding interior.
"Ugh, seriously... I told them to pick something moderate... I keep looking at it, but I can't get used to it."
The current house was a luxury villa called DN Village in Hannam-dong, which he had recently moved into. It was about 50 pyeong in size, starting with a large entrance, a spacious living room and kitchen, four rooms, and two bathrooms.
Moreover, it was unclear how much they had spent on the interior, but the TV was about 100 inches, and all the furniture, including the sofa and bed, had a luxurious feel.
It was too grand a scale for one person to live in, so even after living there for a few days after moving in, he couldn't help but feel out of place.
Ding-dong— Ding-dong—
At that moment, the doorbell rang, and a voice was heard from the entrance.
"Boss~! Let's go to work!"
It was Jang Man-soo.
Shinwoo grabbed his jacket and the 8-Sided Dice that were on the sofa and went outside.
Jang Man-soo, who was standing outside, was dressed in his usual flashy attire.
"Are we going to school together or something?"
"It would be nice if we went together."
"Sigh."
With a sigh, he got on the elevator.
Lillian, Wei, and the bodyguards, who had come down earlier, were waiting for them on the first floor, which was the ground parking lot. Of course, Meian, who volunteered for full-time duty, was also with them.
The problem was that Wei and Meian fought every time they saw each other.
"Oh, you little brat! Your punches are exactly the same as yesterday, aren't they?"
"You! You're dead!"
Meian swung her fists diligently, but Wei dodged them, not taking a single hit.
"...Why are they fighting?"
Lillian, who was looking at the two of them with a pathetic expression like Shinwoo, approached him.
"Meian started it today."
"What did she say?"
"She called him an anchovy. But Wei knocked her out with the word 'brat,' and she's been like that ever since."
Wei looked skinny on the outside, but the inside was solid as a rock with finely divided muscles. Moreover, his body was flexible, so if it was pure close combat, it would be difficult for Shinwoo to beat Wei.
"She asked for it herself. And she can't even win."
"It's always like that."
"But I'm glad that her attention has faded away from me a little."
The bad blood(?) from their first meeting had led to their current relationship.
But Shinwoo couldn't just keep watching, so he shouted at them.
"Let's go to work―!"
At that moment, Wei dodged Meian's fist, wrapped it into his arms, and threw her into the air while supporting her with his shoulder.
It was a technique that would have made an ordinary person fall straight down. But Meian quickly twisted her body in the air and landed safely.
"Tch―!"
It was a sigh of frustration at not being able to land a single blow on Wei today.
Then, together with Shinwoo, everyone got into their own cars or designated cars and set off.
Jang Man-soo was in the passenger seat next to Shinwoo as always.
"Ah, how's that going?"
"TGE8947? If it's that, there were no problems up to the fourth test until dawn yesterday."
The model name he just mentioned was the electronic device that Jang Man-soo was newly creating.
"Already the fourth?"
"Except for the WAVE CHAT we used, I made most of it myself. The equipment parts are the technology I had before. We used that for the equipment we used to use, so it wasn't difficult. At this rate, it looks like it will be completed within this week at the earliest. And this."
Jang Man-soo showed him a screen on his tablet.
It contained data on the product he had just mentioned. Shinwoo nodded, although he didn't understand everything he saw.
"That's good timing. Thanks for letting me know."
"You're welcome―!"
Woo-oong― Woo-oong―
While they were talking, Shinwoo's cell phone rang in his pocket. It was a call from Gu Sang-ho, Chairman Myung Joong-hwan's secretary and bodyguard.
"He can't be a gentleman. Hello."
[This is Gu Sang-ho. Do you have any external schedules before coming to work today?]
"No."
[Then, please come to the chairman's office as soon as you arrive at the company.]
"...Okay."
After finishing the call, the car arrived at the MH Group headquarters not long after.
Everyone got out in the underground parking lot and headed to the elevator.
Shinwoo pressed the button and said to his colleagues.
"I'll go to the chairman's office first."
"A summons from the morning?"
At Lillian's question, Shinwoo shrugged his shoulders.
"What can I do when the situation is urgent? Man-soo, give me that tablet we saw earlier. Oh, and the detector too."
"Ok."
Jang Man-soo took out two items from his bag and handed them over.
"Have a good trip."
"I have a morning training inspection, so I'll stop by KITE."
Wei pressed the down button on the elevator next to him.
"You're working hard too."
"Thanks to you, boss."
"I want to go too!"
As Meian tried to follow Shinwoo, Wei grabbed the back of her neck.
"The special team is with us today. So you have to get a training inspection too."
"Why―!"
"If you don't want to, beat me first."
"Tch!"
Meian had no choice but to shut her mouth.
With that, Shinwoo went upstairs.
When he arrived at the floor where the chairman's office was located, Gu Sang-ho opened the door as if he had been waiting.
When he went inside, Myung Joong-hwan was watching the news related to MH Group with his brow furrowed.
"You've come."
The TV was turned off, and Shinwoo sat next to him.
"Judging by the fact that you called me from the morning, you must have been very urgent."
"Every day, I'm dying of thirst. So, how is the situation going?"
Shinwoo paused for a moment before speaking.
"Excuse me for a moment."
Shinwoo immediately got up from his seat and took out the detector he had received from Jang Man-soo earlier.
"My..."
As Myung Joong-hwan tried to say something after recognizing the detector, Shinwoo put his finger to his lips. It was a sign to be quiet.
The red light on the lamp of the detector blinked at a constant speed.
With that, the detector scanned the desk, chair, computer, table, sofa, and bookshelf. Then Shinwoo stepped on the desk and moved his hand toward the fluorescent light.
The light on the detector repeatedly blinked at a fast speed.
Myung Joong-hwan and Gu Sang-ho's expressions hardened as they understood the meaning.
In response, Shinwoo examined the vicinity of the fluorescent light and removed an object that looked like a button the size of a fingernail. Then he brought it down and took a deep breath.
"Aaaagh―!"
The two couldn't help but be startled once more by Shinwoo's outburst.
At that moment, someone screamed from outside the chairman's office.
"Eek―!"
Gu Sang-ho, who noticed the situation, quickly opened the door to the chairman's office and ran out.
A female employee was holding her ears in the annex room outside the chairman's office. Gu Sang-ho saw the earphones that the female employee had hastily removed.
"I'll have to escort you to the audit department for a moment. Please follow me quietly."
"Why, why are you doing this?"
At the female employee's denial, Gu Sang-ho called a female member of his bodyguards.
"Check it."
At that order, the female bodyguard pulled on the female employee's earphones and found the receiver connected to the end.
"You can't say this is an MP3 or a radio, can you?"
"......"
In the end, the female employee was surrounded by bodyguards and left the annex room.
Meanwhile, Gu Sang-ho picked up the earphones and receiver that the female employee had and returned to the chairman's office.
"It was an employee named Im Na-yeon from the annex room. I've already taken steps to have her taken to the audit department."
Myung Joong-hwan let out a groan as he looked at the items that Gu Sang-ho had placed on the table.
"What... what is this..."
"Judging from the receiver, it's for short-range eavesdropping frequencies."
Shinwoo, who was next to him, also said as he looked at the eavesdropping device and receiver he had found.
"The model name is EL3423. It's a German product called ELFE EAR. It was often used by the German intelligence agency BND during espionage activities in the past, but it's no longer produced because of its weakness to humidity and the fact that the noise increases in proportion to the reception distance."
At that explanation, Myung Joong-hwan tilted his head.
"...You know a lot about it."
"You can easily get these kinds of things from dealers if you just go to Yongsan or Cheonggyecheon. Instead, this has too much inter-wall noise, so it was used for tailing and eavesdropping on targets, not specific locations. It's also small."
Shinwoo held up the thumb-sized eavesdropping device. It was also thin, so it wouldn't be easily detected even if it was put in a bag or pocket.
"Secretary Gu, do they teach this kind of thing in the military these days?"
Gu Sang-ho was also impressed like Myung Joong-hwan.
"The NIS where I was would teach it. But even there, it's not to that extent."
"But Shinwoo knows it very well."
Shinwoo's expression was still indifferent.
"I've heard a lot from people around me. More than that, you should pay more attention to internal security."
"We have been regularly inspecting the chairman's office."
"Then is there a spy in the special security team under the chairman?"
At that moment, Gu Sang-ho wanted to refute, but the situation made the suspicion even stronger.
"I'll check it out."
"First, check who has touched the fluorescent light since the regular inspection. If it's an employee from the annex room, they would have known the inspection schedule of the special security team, and since the chairman doesn't come to work often, there would have been many opportunities."
"I'll check it."
"And there's no need to share the inspection, just proceed when the chairman is here. And thoroughly check the people you bring inside."
Shinwoo knew that TSF was behind the MH Electronics and Foods incident.
The designs and technology that MH Electronics had put their heart and soul into were leaked. Kwak Chi-young, the mastermind behind the plan, was moving, so it was necessary to be careful in any situation.
"I'll keep that in mind."
As the instructions, which seemed to have reversed the roles of host and guest, were finished, Myung Joong-hwan recovered from the shock of discovering the eavesdropping device.
"If you hadn't found this, the information would have been leaked."
"It's even more fortunate that it wouldn't have ended with just that. Make sure to check the date the employee installed it."
In fact, Shinwoo knew in advance that the employee in the annex room had installed the eavesdropping device. As TSF began to move, he asked Jang Man-soo to activate the Polygonal Tracking Algorithm (PTA) on the CCTV in the hallway on the floor where the chairman's office was located.
As a result, he was able to discover that a female employee named Im Na-yeon had secretly entered the chairman's office while working late.
The video that Jang Man-soo showed him in the car earlier was exactly that. It had happened last night, so no other information would have leaked in the meantime.
"Can I get to the main point now? Is the preparation I mentioned before going well?"
At Myung Joong-hwan's urging tone, Shinwoo took out the tablet and handed it over. It contained the data that Jang Man-soo had put in.
"The fourth test has been completed."
"There were no problems?"
"Not at all."
Even in the meantime, Myung Joong-hwan was staring intently at the data in the tablet.
But a suspicious part arose.
"I know a lot about TGE8947. To be honest, I thought it was nonsense to say it was a new high-capacity, high-efficiency battery... but it was really possible."
It was something Shinwoo had suggested when the MH Electronics incident broke out last time.
Of course, Myung Joong-hwan found it difficult to believe right away.
MH Electronics had spent years researching and developing it, but he said he could make it in less than a week.
"I've never brought up anything impossible."
Despite his overly confident attitude, Myung Joong-hwan was not displeased. However, his doubts had not completely disappeared either.
"But even if you apply for a patent now, it will take a considerable amount of time until you can release it as a product."
The new product that would be responsible for MH Electronics' sales next year was important right now. Because of the problem, all the factories that produced the related parts had been completely stopped, so he was in a difficult situation and needed other solutions.
In response, Shinwoo looked at Myung Joong-hwan and gave him a meaningful smile.