How I Started a Civil War in South America (3)
Buying weapons is a remarkably complicated process.
First you draw up a procurement plan and allocate a budget, then you put the contract out to tender. After that you take in proposals, select a preferred bidder, inspect the product, and finally sign the contract.
And that is only the buyer's side. The seller has to confirm they are not on the Defense Acquisition Program Administration's export-restricted list, obtain an export license, and—if any technology transfer is involved—pass a five-stage review that includes a defense-industry technology assessment, the Technology Export Expert Committee, and the Technology Export Review Board.
In other words, buying weapons takes anywhere from several months to several years.
We did not have several months. Garcia was preparing to declare independence as we spoke. Follow every procedure to the letter and the country could be finished.
This is exactly what connections are for.
I scrolled through my phone until I found the name Kim Minsik.
He was currently serving as Head of the Overseas Business Division at Hyonhwa Systems. How does a guy in his thirties land a position like that? This particular guy can pull it off.
Top of his class on admission to Hankook University's Business School. Top of his class on graduation. First place in more competitions during his undergraduate years than I could count. And above all else—his great-uncle was the Chairman of Hyonhwa Group. His father was a four-term National Assemblyman. His mother was a university president.
That said, he was not some spoiled chaebol young master. He had even done his military service and lived a pretty ordinary life. I only found out what kind of family he came from at graduation, for the record. If I had known earlier, we never would have been friends.
I thought of the deep, ridiculous friendship we had built in college, and pressed the call button.
Rrrring... rrrring... A click.
"Ah... who's calling at this hour... Hello?!"
Hearing my friend's voice after so long, I found myself smiling without meaning to.
I swallowed, and got to the point.
A brief silence settled over the line. Then Minsik's voice turned suddenly, completely serious.
Click.
The call went dead.
"......"
I stared at the disconnected phone with a look of pure disbelief.
"Ah, for crying out loud. That was an international call."
Calling at the ungodly hours of the morning on an international line and asking, out of nowhere, for three thousand drones—yeah, I could see how that would look. Of course, every minute counted right now, so I hit the call button again.
Rrrring... A tap.
The person you are calling is unavailable...
He was not picking up.
I thought it over for a moment, then opened CocoaTalk, tapped his profile, and hit the call button.
Dee-dee-ree-dee, dee-dee-ree-dee~ A click.
The second he answered, I hit him with it, as if I had been waiting all along.
"I am actually Eugene Choi. Hankook University, Business School, class of '06. I'm the Eugene Choi who comforted you in the bathroom while you cried and threw up after you got drunk at freshman orientation, confessed to a girl from our class, and got shot down."
Silence poured through the receiver. The black-history strike had landed clean.
Minsik let out a hollow laugh.
He had apparently run a search in the time it took to ask.
The moment I named the delivery date, a sputtering noise came through the receiver.
Theik's voice jumped in surprise at the outrageous terms.
A sigh came through the phone.
Even between friends, you cannot lie when a deal this large is on the table.
"It's a little ambiguous, but..."
I hesitated for a moment, then told him the truth.
"What?! You little shit, you've got nothing better to do than go phishing at the crack of dawn...?!"
After that, I had to spend a considerable amount of additional time explaining to Minsik that this was not, in fact, a voice-phishing scam.
Seven days later, Libertad International Airport, San Marcos.
A massive gray aircraft punched down through the clouds.
Kuuuung—!
The dedicated transport plane leased from Hyonhwa Systems kissed the runway, and a heavy vibration traveled all the way to the feet of everyone waiting on the tarmac.
"...So it actually worked."
Martial Law Commander Pedro muttered it as if he could not quite believe what he was seeing. Eugene glanced at him and let out a short laugh.
"Did I not tell you that Korean speed is in a league of its own?"
"Even so, there are procedures... I never imagined you could bring them in this fast."
"We are a people who do next-day delivery even when you order something from one end of the country to the other. Never look down on Korea again."
"When did I ever look down on—"
Eugene left a flustered Pedro behind and watched the enormous airframe come to a complete stop. A moment later the cargo bay opened, and forklifts bustled into motion, hauling the drones out.
Never thought I'd live to see the day a sky-high exchange rate actually worked in my favor.
The won-dollar rate had recently spiked all the way to 1,500, and thanks to that, even with the twenty percent premium tacked on, the whole purchase had come in at under two hundred million dollars. If it had been the rate from when Eugene left Korea, it would easily have cost three hundred million.
Eugene was letting out a breath of relief when a familiar face came down the ramp.
"Hey! Eugene Choi! Eugene!"
It was his friend, Kim Minsik. He spotted Eugene and came running at once. Eugene raised a hand in greeting, glad to see him—and then,
Whoosh!
The soldiers on perimeter duty closed in and cut Minsik off in an instant.
"Eek!"
Surrounded by men with rifles, Minsik's face went paper-white.
"It's all right. He's a friend of mine."
At Eugene's word, the ring of soldiers opened. Minsik came closer, still smoothing a hand over his chest, and spoke in Korean.
"So you really are the president, huh."
"Not the president. Acting President."
"Same difference."
In practice he was already becoming something well beyond a president, but Eugene kept that to himself. He did not want this guy spreading strange stories at the next alumni reunion.
"You did good. You saved us."
"Saved you, nothing. The Poland contract happened to fall through, so we were drowning in inventory, and I found a plane fast. It wasn't hard."
Minsik smiled, a little embarrassed, and pointed at the people coming down the ramp behind him.
"Say hello. This is our company's engineering team. They'll handle everything from drone setup to operational training. These are the aces who pulled three all-nighters getting ready."
"It is genuinely good to see fellow Koreans in another country. Thank you for coming such a long way. I am Eugene Choi, Acting President of San Marcos."
Eugene bowed his head with formal courtesy, and the engineers, flustered, bent at the waist in a matching bow.
"N-not at all! We're the ones who are honored to have been called."
The fact that the head of another country's administration was Korean seemed to leave them equal parts bewildered and fascinated.
"Please be thorough with the training. Our soldiers are not used to the latest weapons, so there will be plenty of mistakes."
"Don't worry. We came fully prepared. We've already finished translating the manuals into Portuguese as well."
"That's what I like to hear. If you need anything at all, just say the word. I'll put you up at the finest hotel... ah. We don't have those. I'll put you in the best official residence we have instead."
"We appreciate the consideration."
That was when a middle-aged man in a neatly tailored suit stepped forward from behind the engineers. Even standing in the middle of a crowd of soldiers, he did not look tense in the slightest. He wore a practiced smile and held out a business card.
"A pleasure to meet you. Moon Sung-moon, of Daeho Trading."
Daeho Trading. It was a name Eugene had never heard. He tilted his head, and Kim Minsik supplied the introduction.
"This is the man who helped us enormously with this export. Without him, we couldn't have delivered today."
"Is that so?"
At Minsik's introduction, Eugene took the man's hand.
"Then I really do owe you my thanks."
"Not at all. I only coordinated a few things in the middle."
Mr. Moon's eyes lit as he asked the next question.
"If you happen to have time later, might we speak? I believe it would be a conversation of some benefit to San Marcos."
"Of course, of course. After the help you've given us, I'll make time even if I don't have any. It's just that I'm a little busy at the moment..."
"Whenever you are free, please call for me. I will be waiting."
"Understood. I'll reach you at this number."
With the greetings finished, everyone moved out.
Kim Minsik and the other Koreans headed for armored division headquarters to train the troops in drone operation and maintenance.
And as for Eugene...
"Shall we get started, then?"
The meeting to start a civil war began.