Chapter 39 How a Genius Engineer Survives an Attack
Top-Secret Conference Room, Underground National Crisis Management Center, Blue House.
It was the secret conference room the President used whenever a meeting could not be allowed to leak anywhere in the world.
Reports submitted by the Agency for Defense Development were piled like mountains across the large round table.
“Mr. President, I believe Project Gyeryong should be postponed.”
The director’s expression was serious.
“Because of Blue CL-20?”
“Mr. President, Gyeryong cannot be postponed.”
The Minister of National Defense looked genuinely dumbfounded.
“No matter how powerful our national defense becomes, it is meaningless without a strategic weapon.”
“That is not the urgent issue right now. We must first research how Blue can be applied to existing weapons.”
The director argued just as passionately.
“Every researcher at the Agency for Defense Development needs to focus on this.”
Resting his chin on one hand, the President asked casually,
“Why do you believe Blue is more important?”
“It can be applied to every conventional weapon that uses gunpowder. From rifle ammunition to artillery shells and missiles, explosive performance will improve by at least thirty percent and as much as two hundred and twenty percent, while the price will also decrease.”
The director dropped a thick stack of reports in front of the President with a thud.
“The entire world will line up to purchase weapons from the Republic of Korea.”
The President’s eyes gleamed as he spoke.
“Minister of National Defense.”
“Yes.”
“Project Gyeryong will be postponed for the time being. For now, we will focus on applying CL-20 to weapons throughout the armed forces.”
The President picked up the receiver of the telephone before him and pressed a button.
“Secretary Seo, contact CEO Ryu Hyesung, find out how far Blue production can be increased, and buy as much as we can.”
Top-Secret Weapons Analysis Laboratory, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Maryland, United States.
Within an extremely controlled environment, researchers wearing thick protective suits and blast-resistant equipment were carefully disassembling the warhead of a new Korean weapon.
Only their harsh breathing could be heard through the speakers and microphones.
“Why is it blue?”
“It appears to contain a large amount of impurities.”
They were using tweezers to place the blue explosive from the new Korean military weapon into an organic solvent when the head of the analysis laboratory, standing far away behind thick transparent bulletproof glass, urgently spoke after receiving a report.
“The XRD results are strange.”
(Translator’s Note:X-ray diffraction (XRD) — An analytical technique used to identify crystal structures by measuring the pattern produced when X-rays scatter from an ordered material.)
“Yes. The explosive’s structure is not the epsilon form. This is… a unique diffraction pattern we have never seen before.”
(Translator’s Note:Epsilon-form CL-20 — The epsilon polymorph is the densest and generally most energetic commonly studied crystalline form of CL-20. A polymorph is a distinct crystal arrangement of the same chemical substance.)
The chief researcher stared intently at the monitor as he answered.
“The molecular structure does appear to be CL-20, but….”
“The color is also bizarrely blue.”
“Could it be a new material?”
The laboratory head tilted his head.
“Sir, the purity test results are in.”
“What percentage?”
“99.72 percent.”
“What? It is that high?”
“Sir, it was probably an extremely small quantity purified for research purposes. At this level of purity, the price becomes astronomical.”
“Why would they put an ultra-expensive research-grade material into such a cheap mass-produced missile? No matter how obsessed Koreans are with firepower….”
The laboratory head’s suspicions were reasonable.
There was no reason anywhere in the world to stuff such a costly premium explosive into a cheap tactical missile intended to be fired in large quantities.
“Could they have succeeded in mass-producing it?”
“…Have you identified the developer?”
“South Korea has classified the information at the highest security level. Even the CIA cannot gain access.”
“That is only natural. The entire world would focus on it.”
The laboratory head looked down at the solution in his hand containing the dissolved CL-20.
“Whether they wanted it or not.”
Special Isolation Cell, No. 1 Secret Detention Camp, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.
Inside the room surrounded by cold concrete walls, only the whirring of computer cooling fans could be heard.
China’s Minister of State Security, the Director of Intelligence, and Li Wei, the prisoner known as China’s “worst genius,” were examining the destructive power of a new Korean missile.
“This missile was transferred to Ukraine through the United States. Some showed nearly twice the explosive power of the existing models.”
At the intelligence director’s report, the Minister of State Security frowned.
“How does performance suddenly double?”
At his words, Li Wei pointed toward the monitor.
“C-Could you replay the video?”
At his request, the footage rewound rapidly.
“H-Here.”
He narrowed his eyes and carefully studied the frozen image of the explosion.
“The e-explosion flame is unusual. There is a s-slight blue color mixed into it.”
“It resembles the flame of a gas stove.”
At the intelligence director’s comment, Li Wei asked,
“W-Were there any unusual effects when the bomb exploded?”
The intelligence director flipped through several pages of the report in his hand.
“There were. A report says radar signals briefly fluctuated immediately after the strike.”
“The radio waves were scattered. L-Like being hit by chaff.”
(Translator’s Note:Chaff — Thin metallic strips, fibers, or particles dispersed into the air to reflect and scatter radar waves. Military aircraft and ships use it as a countermeasure to confuse radar-guided weapons.)
“What does that mean?”
“C-Copper is incorporated into the explosive’s molecular structure.”
“Copper?”
“This is not o-ordinary CL-20. It may be an entirely d-different substance.”
At Li Wei’s analysis, the intelligence director spoke urgently.
“Minister, it is dangerous to allow South Korea to grow any stronger. We must kill Ryu Hyesung immediately.”
“I simply did not mention it because it is classified, but the operation is already underway.”
At the Minister of State Security’s cold answer, Li Wei’s expression inexplicably hardened.
Laboratory, Science Facility’s Factory No. 2.
Wearing a protective suit, Taeju was struggling atop a ladder as he poured urea and sugar into the E. coli cultivation tank.
“Hyesung, why aren’t we using employees to make this?”
“Because it has to remain secret. I’m also considering how to automate it.”
“Can you? The process is this complicated.”
“Hey, this isn’t complicated. I reduced the process in a genuinely revolutionary way.”
He was making a fuss over something insignificant simply because he was tired.
“And full automation probably won’t be that difficult. I’ve already thought it all through.”
As I checked the items on a checklist one by one, Taeju suddenly spoke as though he had remembered something.
“The chairman of LK Hynix is willing to sell us an old DRAM foundry.”
(Translator’s Note:DRAM — Dynamic random-access memory, a semiconductor technology used as the working memory in computers, smartphones, servers, and other electronic devices.)
“Really? That’s great.”
“But he had one condition.”
“A condition?”
“He wants to buy the notebook containing your weapon sketches.”
“My doodles? Why?”
“He says he’ll reduce the factory price by ten percent if you sell it to him.”
“The factory will probably cost around ten trillion won. He’ll reduce it by one trillion for my doodles?”
I asked again, thinking the suggestion was absurd.
“I thought I had misheard too. He was serious. He said he would treat your notebook as the down payment.”
“That’s insane. I have hundreds of them at home. I should bundle ten together and ask him to give us the whole factory.”
We looked at each other and chuckled.
Bzzzt.
Bzzzt.
Bzzzt.
The smartwatch vibrated several times ominously.
[The probability of Master’s death three days from now has rapidly risen to 92.3 percent.]
The advance danger-detection system I had created with Hermes—the Zero Report System—had finally worked properly.
I stared silently down at the watch before speaking calmly to Taeju.
“Taeju, did you receive an alert?”
“What alert? No.”
“Really? All right….”
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Perhaps my expression looked strange, because Taeju asked with concern.
“No. It just alerted me that it’s going to rain, so I thought I should bring an umbrella.”
When I answered with a light smile, Taeju finally checked the weather on his watch and said,
“You’re right. It’s going to rain. Bring an umbrella. It’s the change of seasons.”
“…Taeju, I’ll give you the notebook three days from now. Can you take it to the chairman that day?”
“Already? I have a lot of work at the factory.”
“That’s probably the only day I’ll have time. Just don’t come to the factory that day.”
Three days later.
An abandoned warehouse near Incheon Port.
“You memorized his face properly, right?”
“I confirmed it.”
“You cannot fail. The prosperity of our republic depends on this.”
Twenty North Korean special forces soldiers were reviewing the face and location of their assassination target.
“Where are the weapons and suicide-drone equipment? Weren’t they supposed to arrive with us?”
“They say they are coming in now.”
“What are they doing, still not bringing them?”
“But Comrade Team Leader, isn’t South Korea far more prosperous than what we were taught during ideological education?”
At that moment, a scrawny man looking out the window spoke.
“You’re right. It’s evening, but everything is still glittering.”
Another man also looked around, fascinated by South Korea’s nightscape.
At that moment, the communications soldier pressed a radio to his ear and urgently raised his hand.
“They say to kill him cleanly with a suicide-drone attack.”
“What? They’re going that far just to kill one student?”
“Didn’t you hear? That bastard isn’t an ordinary student.”
“Then what is he?”
“They said he isn’t human.”
“What does that mean? Is he some kind of beast?”
At that moment—
Clang!
The door was thrown open violently.
“Don’t move! National Intelligence Service!”
“Wh-What?”
“How did they find out?”
“Let go of me, you bastards!”
The warehouse instantly descended into chaos, but not a single person broke through the encirclement the NIS had prepared in advance.
Office of the Second Deputy Director, National Intelligence Service, Naegok-dong, Seoul.
“Deputy Director, they say all of them have been arrested.”
“Is that so? Good work.”
The employee had only just entered, but Second Deputy Director Jang said something strange.
“Then, could you leave?”
Jang Seokjin asked with a slight smile.
“Yes, sir.”
Only after the employee left did he examine the various predictive data and reports displayed on the computer and carefully address the empty air.
“Whew…. How do you discover crimes that have not yet occurred?”
[They are statistical results derived through data inference.]
The voice belonged to Hermes.
“Like weather forecasting?”
[Correct.]
“Your abilities are beginning to feel increasingly like the power of a god.”
[Humans who first witnessed weather prediction also considered it a divine power.]
“The problem is… the arrested men apparently prepared their false identities thoroughly. They all possess South Korean citizenship. They also have not committed any crimes yet.”
Second Deputy Director Jang’s head ached.
The probability that they would commit a crime in the future exceeded ninety-three percent, but nothing had happened yet.
Could they be brought before a court of law?
“Deputy Director!”
An intelligence agent rushed inside, breathing heavily.
“What is it? Why are you so flustered?”
“The arrested individuals… have all been released without charges.”
“…What?”
“The police said there was no need to detain them for investigation and released them immediately.”
“We gave them all the evidence.”
“The police said they could not punish something that had not happened yet. It appears they did not even examine it properly.”
“…You’re saying all twenty were released?”
“Yes.”
“Damn it. We had already caught them all…. Send security personnel to the VIP immediately. Hurry!”
Office at Science Facility’s Factory No. 2.
I was staring at a test tube filled with blue liquid as I gently shook it.
[All twenty have been released.]
“Already?”
I had considered that possibility.
But it was too soon.
My preparations were not yet complete.
“Are they armed?”
[They are currently unarmed, but two hours ago, indications were detected that weapons were transported by submersible through the Taean Peninsula area on the western coast. The shipment contained firearms and suicide drones.]
“Whew…. Stay calm. Calm, calm, calm.”
My hands trembled faintly.
Dopamine surged wildly through my veins.
My head spun.
[They are expected to arrive at the factory in thirty minutes. Master, should you evacuate to Point R?]
“It’s fine. Are there any civilians around the factory?”
[No one.]
“What about that?”
[Ten units are prepared.]
“Deploy twenty reconnaissance drones in every direction and report every irregularity.”
[Understood.]
“Whew….”
[Master.]
“Yeah?”
[Are you all right? Your heart rate is abnormal.]
My legs were trembling.
I would probably have to live this suffocating life forever.
At that thought, a faint smile spread across my lips.