Chapter 349
Chapter 349
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Night of Chaos
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A pitch-black night on March 31, where not even an inch ahead could be predicted.
Intelligence Commander Lee Ki-cheol received a radio transmission while riding in his car.
“Commander! Commander! Emergency situation!”
“Commander. It’s a radio from headquarters.”
“Hand it over.”
Lee Ki-cheol took the radio.
“What’s going on?”
“It seems an emergency situation has occurred.”
“An emergency?”
“Yes. The minister instructed you to head to headquarters immediately.”
Lee Ki-cheol turned the car around right away.
“To headquarters.”
Starting with Lee Ki-cheol, the heads of major intelligence agencies caught wind of it.
Of course, the side with the most information was the Intelligence Command.
Intelligence Commander Lee Ki-cheol entered headquarters in plain clothes and immediately assessed the situation.
“What the hell is going on?”
“It seems there’s a problem with Code One’s personal safety.”
Code One referred to the president.
The Intelligence Command, capable of intercepting phones, telegrams, radios, and all information, approached the truth faster than anyone.
“Quickly confirm information on His Excellency’s whereabouts and dispatch field agents to the safe houses.”
“Understood.”
The Intelligence Command sniffed it out most accurately, but they weren’t the fastest to act.
The Capital Defense Command moved first.
Bang! Bang!
“Isn’t that gunfire?”
Hearing the sudden gunfire, the Capital Defense Command dispatched military police to the KCIA safe house where the shots had come from.
As the military police approached the safe house, Security Division Chief Han Nam-dong, in charge of guarding it, hid the armed guards and placed only plainclothes teams out front.
After the military police got out of their vehicle, they came to the front gate and asked,
“Gunshots seemed to come from here. What’s going on?”
Han Nam-dong lied with a calm face.
“Nothing like that happened.”
“Please cooperate.”
“Nothing happened.”
The military police captain grew angry at Han Nam-dong’s stiff attitude.
“Do you know who you’re being stiff with? I’m someone who can call the Presidential Security Service. Got it?”
This wasn’t bravado.
The commander of the 33rd Military Police Brigade really had a direct line to the Security Service.
But Han Nam-dong wasn’t intimidated either.
These were people who had shot and killed even Security Service staff.
“Then go ahead and call them.”
Han Nam-dong didn’t budge an inch.
The military police had no choice.
A suspicious facility with suspicious guards.
No matter how you looked at it, this was a place run by the KCIA or Yongseong.
Force their way into a place like that?
They couldn’t handle the fallout.
“Captain. What do we do?”
“No choice. We withdraw for now.”
The military police pulled back for the time being.
Han Nam-dong sighed in relief after confirming their withdrawal.
“No more radio from now on. Convey everything verbally.”
This was to avoid Intelligence Command interception.
“Got it.”
While the security chief handled the outer perimeter blockade, Protocol Chief Ki Myung-su cleaned up the crime scene inside.
Protocol Division staff fired silencers into the survivors’ chests right in front of the colonel.
The protocol staff flinched after shooting.
“Now we’re all accomplices. You know what that means?”
Ki Myung-su ensured silence by instilling a sense of complicity in the protocol staff.
Starting with confirming kills on survivors, the protocol staff thoroughly erased evidence that could cause problems later, like bloodstains.
“Wash that with water.”
The cook was no exception.
“Sorry about this, Manager Kim.”
“P-Please spare me, Chief.”
“If Manager Kim lives, our guys die.”
Pfft.
Every problematic spot at the scene where people were killed got a water cleanup.
Shell casings from those areas were all collected and loaded into cars.
It was to conceal the incident’s circumstances.
“Isn’t this too blatant?”
“If problems arise, the director will handle it, so don’t worry.”
The remaining issue was the girls.
Protocol staff called out the trembling girls from the inner room, made them sign statements, and warned them.
“You girls were never here. Got it? If issues come up, you’ll be dragged to police stations and it’ll be a huge hassle.”
“Y-Yes.”
After warning the girls several times at the protocol division, they loaded them into cars and sent them out of the safe house.
Crime scene cleanup, blocking outsiders’ access.
The safe house was neatly tidied up as planned by Bae Seong-jun.
However, the hospital didn’t go as Bae Seong-jun had hoped.
The eyes and ears of the Intelligence Command, which heard and monitored everything, were more powerful than Bae Seong-jun imagined.
“Call all suspicious hospitals.”
The Intelligence Command called every hospital within their information reach.
In the end, they even called the hospital where the president and chief of staff’s bodies had been brought.
Ring.
When the phone rang at the hospital, Eom Ji-won felt disconcerted.
‘What’s this sudden call?’
As he hesitated,
“Should we answer it?”
The duty doctor cautiously asked.
‘What to do.’
After agonizing, Eom Ji-won nodded.
“But don’t leak any information.”
“Yes.”
As soon as the doctor answered, the Intelligence Command agent asked,
“Has an important figure been brought to your hospital by any chance?”
The doctor hesitated, and the agent said,
“Yes or no is enough.”
“Yes.”
“Did that person pass away?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for cooperating.”
The Intelligence Command didn’t pry further.
They had the ability to piece everything together from fragments.
“Commander. Code One seems to have passed away.”
Intelligence Commander Lee Ki-cheol was shocked by this fact.
“To think things turned out this way.”
Lee Ki-cheol immediately picked up the phone.
“Minister of National Defense, please. Minister, it’s me.”
“Yes, Commander Lee. What’s the matter?”
“We just confirmed Code One’s death.”
The minister already knew what the Intelligence Command had confirmed.
The minister cautioned the intelligence commander.
“You must keep that fact confidential.”
“We will.”
Lee Ki-cheol promised to maintain security.
Lee Ki-cheol gleaned one piece of information from the minister not being surprised by what he’d uncovered.
‘The minister knows this, so someone must have told him.’
It was most likely Geumsusan.
Geumsusan.
They controlled the scene and held all the information.
Something fishy was strongly in the air here.
However, the Intelligence Command couldn’t act on its own.
It was an information-gathering agency, not one qualified to make arbitrary judgments.
Lee Ki-cheol decided to stick to collecting information for now.
“Continue monitoring Yongseong and Geumsusan.”
This gathered intel would be useful someday.
Lee Ki-cheol decided to observe how the situation unfolded for the time being.
Other agencies couldn’t maintain the calm of the Intelligence Command.
“Quickly grasp the situation and report. Find out what the hell is going on.”
Agencies a step behind in information were busy making calls.
Government ministries were no exception.
As the Korean government plunged into chaos overall, major foreign intelligence agencies like the KGB and CIA caught the scent too.
“President Jang hasn’t been located for over two hours?”
“We can’t find a trace anywhere.”
“How should we interpret this situation?”
CIA Korea Station Chief Brewster’s interpretation was simple.
“Ambassador, this is a coup.”
“A coup? Is there anyone capable of that?”
As far as the US knew, aside from house-arrested Lee Se-eun, no big shot in Korea could challenge Jang Dong-yoon.
The CIA provided an explanation on this point.
“On the surface, Korea’s Security Service Chief, Mr. Chae, is suspicious, but there are other suspects too.”
“Who?”
“Mr. Bae. The new KCIA director.”
“The KCIA director? Can the head of an intelligence agency without military power lead a coup?”
Even for an intelligence agency to stage a coup, military allies were essential.
Bae Seong-jun had many weaknesses here.
Being relatively young, he lacked ties to military heavyweights and the authority to command them.
Could such a person pull off a coup?
When the ambassador voiced this doubt, Brewster shook his head.
“Unlike the past, the military’s importance in Korea has greatly diminished. If you can move the regime, military support is secondary.”
“Hmm, continue.”
“The current Jang Dong-yoon regime itself didn’t have a rock-solid military base. The core was ultimately the intelligence agencies.”
“A regime centered on intelligence politics, so an intelligence-led coup is possible?”
“That’s our interpretation.”
The ambassador couldn’t entirely disagree with the CIA’s view.
“If by any chance Mr. Bae is the coup leader, what should we do?”
At the ambassador’s question, Brewster smiled faintly.
“We should extend a hand.”
Show goodwill to Korea’s future power holder and reap a high reward.
If they wanted to deal, now was the perfect time.
“Deal with Mr. Bae.”
The ambassador fell into thought.
“Of course, no need to decide now. Watching the situation and then choosing isn’t bad either.”
“That’s not bad either.”
The ambassador agreed with Brewster.
If the situation flowed in Bae Seong-jun’s favor, extend a hand to him.
If not?
Back the other side.
Whichever won, the US wouldn’t lose out.
“Let’s report to headquarters first.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
The US ambassador stood to draft the cable to headquarters.