Chapter 106
Chapter 106
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Something to Divert the Military's Gaze (3)
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The D-day of the Seoul ASEAN Summit had dawned.
At an hour when roosters would be crowing their heads off in the countryside, I was in the chairman's office at the top of the headquarter building with Uncle Kim Won-cheol.
"No matter how I think about it, this feels like a mistake. I should've just gone fishing in Yangpyeong. Coming into work at the crack of dawn at my age."
Uncle Kim Won-cheol, with dark shadows under his eyes.
Judging by how his lips were protruding, he must have been utterly exhausted.
After parting with Minnie at the Han-ASEAN camp, he'd handled all the practical work to turn my idea into reality.
The best way to console Uncle was with something sweet. I pulled a box of plump macarons piled high with whipped cream from the mini-fridge and said,
"Catching people is more rewarding than catching fish, right? That's how you should see it."
"What, like the Jesus and Peter parable? Next thing you know, we'll be stirring up trouble all the way to Israel. No fish in the Dead Sea, though, so we won't go there."
"Israel's too far anyway. If we're looking for somewhere not too tiring, Thailand's perfect, no?"
In the blink of an eye, the box of plump macarons had vanished like a crab hiding in its hole.
I grabbed a couple of tissues and handed them to Uncle Kim Won-cheol as I continued,
"So, once this wraps up nicely, how about a business trip to Thailand soon? We could charter a yacht on the company's dime and do some ocean fishing."
"Pacific ocean fishing... That'll just mean I can't slack off on work again. Alright!"
With the two carrots of macarons and ocean fishing, Uncle Kim Won-cheol's energy surged like a tiger's.
He immediately handed me a binder with the final results, seemingly pulled from thin air.
"Theoretically, it's perfect. Just like you said, Chairman. We just need to open the floodgates. Of course, opening those gates won't be easy."
"As long as it's perfect in theory, that's all that matters. Nothing to worry about."
Flip. I opened the binder, flipping through the pages with a confident smile.
Confirming that everything was in place as I'd planned, I handed the report back to Uncle Kim Won-cheol and said,
"They'll probably be the ones itching to open those floodgates first."
"Nah, a prime minister's got his pride. For now, let's lobby as hard as we can from the group's side during the summit."
Uncle launched into a speech about the lobbying power we'd built up in the Ammunition Group. He seemed fully prepared, spinning a globe as he raised his voice.
"The way to mobilize the entire talent pool from our Thailand branch for a lobbying war is..."
And at that moment, the door burst open with a bang.
I looked up like a meerkat toward the sound, and there stood Yoo Se-na, the aide from the next room, with a somewhat surprised expression.
"Does that mean we don't need to, after all?"
Uncle Kim Won-cheol looked baffled.
When the very thing he'd dismissed as unlikely became reality, his shock was evident—a droplet of drool pooling at the corner of his mouth.
"Five-thirty a.m. A call right after the plane landed? Guess Prime Minister Ing Tak isn't so proper himself."
I stood from the sofa, stretching as I gazed at the rising morning sun.
Dawn was breaking. Yoo Se-na, squinting slightly at the sunlight pouring through the glass, looked a bit flustered too.
She sought an explanation from me about what had just happened.
"Chairman? How did you know it was from Prime Minister Ing Tak's side...?"
"Anyway, that's how it is. They want to meet?"
"Yes. If it's alright, can you meet before 7 a.m.?"
I nodded, then slung my suit jacket over my shoulder.
Glancing at my left wristwatch's ticking hands, I smiled and stepped forward. Light footsteps celebrating the impending success.
"Right on schedule. Good thing I came in early. Let's move out."
* * * *
Yeouido K Hotel suite room. Dawn was breaking before the stained-glass window pieced together like a mosaic.
Prime Minister Ing Tak fiddled with the crumpled red business card.
"Prime Minister, it's time for the morning briefing on current issues."
"That's enough. Leave me. For now... I want to focus solely on this."
He waved off the aides' morning reports on Thailand's domestic affairs, closing his ears to them.
The military's suspicious movements, the state enterprises veering toward dysfunction, the wealth gap and economic crisis.
The military, that massive cancer cell. Unless it was excised, Thailand's situation would swim in the same vicious cycle, with or without him.
"To think the man I decided to meet on a whim turns out to be a coup veteran. Never saw that coming."
Instead of the morning briefing, Prime Minister Ing Tak gave his aides an unusual order.
A swift and precise background check on one individual.
On the head of the Ammunition Group, whose name was on the red business card—uncovered by the intelligence agents dispatched for the ASEAN summit.
"He says he has a way to stop the coup, but he planned one in Saudi Arabia? What a character. Or maybe..."
Prime Minister Ing Tak flapped a Polaroid photo clipped to the report.
It showed him holding a golden pistol, striking a victory pose with Saudi's Prince Bin Salman.
A chuckle escaped the prime minister unwittingly. But there was no mockery or scorn in that laugh.
Just curiosity and vague anticipation swirled in his mind like a top, bringing a Buddha-like smile to his face, akin to those in Bangkok's Golden Temple.
"That's why my curiosity's even stronger. Just what... proposal will this young man make to me?"
"Prime Minister. That person in question has just arrived. Shall I let him in?"
At the aide's question, Prime Minister Ing Tak nodded silently. As soon as his order dropped, the tightly shut reception room door opened.
Creak—the metal hinges meshed, followed by the sound of shoes stepping onto the carpet.
The owner of the red business card approached closer. The prime minister extended one rough hand slowly, eyes full of curiosity, and said,
"Nice to meet you. I've heard the gist from my daughter. Chairman Han Seo-jun."
* * * *
He was skinny like a scarecrow in a field, almost puny. The middle-aged man with thick prescription glasses on his nose bridge looked unwell from the first impression.
Extreme stress etched into Prime Minister Ing Tak's face was plain as day to me.
No wonder—he lived not knowing when soldiers might kick down the door with their rough boots.
And... that unpleasant anxiety called a coup would become stark reality come this summer.
"Chairman Han Seo-jun?"
His hand met mine in a formal greeting. But no strength came from that rough grip.
As if a man filled with powerlessness and futility was squeezing his eyes shut, tossing his last card.
Then... right now, what I needed to do with the card dealt to me was clear.
"You must have been very afraid. Prime Minister Ing Tak. Isn't that right?"
The card tossed with a sigh from one mired in the swamp. All I had to do was infuse that hopeful hand with the certainty of salvation.
Our weakly clasped hands. I gripped hard, seizing his gaunt anxiety, and said,
"The military's coup. You've endured that looming black shadow all alone. You've had it rough."
"Listen here, Chairman Han. What are you saying...?"
Prime Minister Ing Tak looked flustered.
Knowing full well it was rude, I cut him off mid-sentence.
"A control system that lets you see the military hardliners' movements as clearly as your palm."
Straight to the point, no flowery words—a fastball right down the middle.
The pitch to shatter fragility hit the prime minister with a sharp crack.
"......!"
"Right here, right now, I can give you liberation from the fear of a coup—and total civilian control over the military, your long-cherished goal."
And that... clearly acted as a thunderbolt for Prime Minister Ing Tak.
His inner damp powder, sputtering feebly until now. It ignited an explosive spark amid the waves of approaching military boots, where he'd thought no flame could rise again.
Prime Minister Ing Tak swallowed his powerlessness past his Adam's apple. After a brief silence, he tossed me a short question.
"...Is that possible? In a country like Thailand?"
"It is. Technically. But in another sense, it's impossible."
Hawk-Eye System.
An IT technology to control everything in the military, from operations to logistics.
But the military as a group—especially the hardliners—would violently reject this massive, tough leash.
And once those savage bucks were done, their sharp fangs would surely head straight for the prime minister's residence.
"Impossible, yes. In the realm of politics. But."
That's why the heavy caveat I added at the end.
"Right now, I've brought a way to make the impossible possible."
I pulled a map from my briefcase.
My finger traced from the top of Thailand's outline down to the narrowing bottom.
"When putting a leash on a fierce dog, the first step is diverting its gaze with prey."
The narrow isthmus dividing the Pacific and Indian Oceans. I drew a straight line with a red pen.
A line smack in the middle of the prime strategic point that could upend global logistics flows, no matter who looked.
"Create a state enterprise with our Ammunition Group to handle canal construction. One the military hardliners can dive into and feast on interests freely."
"Here...?"
The so-called Kra Canal.
A mega-project attempted many times but scrapped for various reasons.
The military would surely eye that state enterprise if the project revived—just like always.
And hidden in that familiarity... the Hawk-Eye System trap.
"While the bloodthirsty hound gnaws greedily on the bone, eyes rolled back, blind to everything else."
The state enterprise tightly linked to the military. Civilian control would begin its overture there.
The system rising from what they saw as a mere peripheral organ would inevitably reach the core.
"Before they know it, a tough leash will be around their necks. One they can never shake off. One that keeps them from even dreaming of biting the master."