Chapter 118: Loyalty to the Republic

TL: LittlePeach

“See you later, Branch Chief Mario.”

“Thank you, Secretary. Have a pleasant rest.”

With Branch Chief Mario courteously seeing me off, I stepped out of the VIP counter area.

As I breathed in the crisp Alpine air once again, I could almost detect a faint, suspicious stench mixed in with it.

Brrring, click.

“This is Pak Mun-ju.”

-Yes, Secretary. I’m nearby, so I’ll come right over.

I called him immediately, and before long, Halla No. 1 drove up to the bank to pick me up.

“Have you finished your business?”

“Not yet. Take me to this address first.”

“Uh, yes, sir.”

Vroooom.

The car pulled away as soon as I handed him the hotel’s business card.

It was a five-story luxury hotel not far from the bank.

“Secretary, may I ask how the operation is progressing...?”

“The details are classified for operational security, so I cannot explain them.”

“Ah, yes, sir.”

“And while I’m inside the hotel, remain in the car. If it looks like anything is about to happen, you may need to flee immediately.”

Before getting out when we reached the hotel, I gave him those brief instructions.

Halla No. 1’s eyes widened.

“What? I’ll accompany you and remain at your side, Secretary.”

“To tell the truth, the long journey has left me rather fatigued, and I was planning to get some sleep. Unfortunately, I’m the sort who cannot sleep a wink with someone nearby.”

“Ah, hmm. Understood.”

That was what I said, but judging by his expression, he seemed to suspect I might have a change of heart and run away.

It was an unavoidable communication problem caused by the fact that he had no idea I was a black agent wearing special-effects makeup.

He would probably try to keep watch on me from close by, but that was none of my concern.

'Even a disguise working too well comes with problems of its own.'

If you want to deceive the enemy, deceive your allies too.

When I entered the hotel lobby alone, the employee at the front desk greeted me with a bright smile.

“Welcome, Secretary Pak. We received a call from Mr. Mario. Here is the key to the room he reserved for you.”

“Thank you.”

Once I reached the room, I found that, befitting a Swiss hotel, the windows offered a sweeping view of the snow-white Alpine mountains.

'Three hours from now.'

Three hours. Long if you called it long, short if you called it short.

It was also more than enough time for something to happen.

***

It did not even take three hours.

About an hour after I entered the hotel room.

Ding-dong.

I had been half-reclining on the recliner when the doorbell made my eyes snap open.

“Who is it?”

“Excuse me, sir. Room service.”

“I never ordered any room service.”

“Mr. Mario ordered it for you.”

Room service I had never requested had suddenly shown up under Branch Chief Mario’s name.

Things were unfolding exactly as I had expected.

“What room service... Never mind. Just go back.”

“Ah... My apologies for troubling you, sir. Unfortunately, I need confirmation that the room service was delivered properly. Could I trouble you for a signature on the receipt?”

“What a hassle....”

I grumbled as I got up and approached the door.

Click.

I opened it with the security chain still latched.

Thrust.

“Huh?”

A hefty steel tool suddenly wedged itself through the gap, and I stumbled backward, pretending to be startled.

CLANG!

The bolt cutters thrust through the opening easily snapped the chain.

“You are Secretary Pak Mun-ju, correct?”

The ones who forced their way inside were three hulking men.

While I hurried backward, pretending to be terrified, they strode into the room as though it were their own home and immediately demanded to confirm my identity.

“W-who the hell are you people?!”

“There is no need to be so nervous, Secretary. We are not particularly dangerous men.”

His tone was polite, but his face was covered in a sleazy grin.

There were three of them in total.

There was hardly any need to ask who had sent them.

“My name is Giovanni. I’ve been friends with Mario, chief of Union Swiss Bank’s Bern branch, for a long time. We occasionally consult each other about various matters.”

Absolute anonymity, guaranteed confidentiality, formidable security personnel, thick-walled vaults, and so on.

For reasons like these, Swiss banks were famous as the very symbol of impregnable security.

But the brighter the light, the darker the shadow it cast.

The deep-pocketed clients who sought out such specialized systems were generally criminal organizations from around the world that needed somewhere to store money without leaving a trail.

'Put bluntly, I myself came to a Swiss bank to siphon off North Korea’s slush fund.'

Mafias, drug cartels, arms traffickers, and more.

Countless criminal organizations had deposited their slush funds in Swiss banks.

At the same time, by providing them with suitable investment opportunities, the banks inevitably provided money-laundering services as well.

Given that reality, someone in Branch Chief Mario’s position would inevitably develop connections with some of the most notorious criminal organizations around the world.

Just like the three men who had come looking for me.

“Branch Chief Mario contacted us a short while ago sounding deeply distressed. He believed that, after safely safeguarding Secretary Pak Mun-ju’s money for the past several years, the two of you had built a meaningful relationship.... Yet now, you no longer trust him and intend to withdraw that enormous sum all at once. He was deeply hurt by it.”

“W-what is the meaning of this...? D-did Branch Chief Mario send you? Are you trying to kill me?!”

“Come now. Of course not. We have absolutely no intention of harming you, Secretary. We merely came to mediate the situation.”

He was making an effort to couch it in polite language, but the message was simple: it was a threat telling me not to withdraw the money I had deposited in the Swiss bank.

Giovanni pulled one corner of his mouth into a crooked grin.

“Branch Chief Mario fully understands the predicament you currently face. The fear that international sanctions and pressure may soon freeze your funds in the Swiss bank, and even the purge that would await you in North Korea should that money be lost. But why deliberately walk down such a dangerous path?”

“....”

He clicked his tongue with apparent sympathy.

When I remained silent, he finally brought up the main point in a gentle voice.

“Therefore, we would like to offer you a reasonable alternative. Rather than going through all the trouble of moving the funds, why not take this opportunity to become a Swiss citizen?”

“...Naturalization? What do you mean...?”

“Please, hear us out. Our Branch Chief Mario intends to make your naturalization process smooth and swift. He will handle every necessary legal procedure and arrangement on your behalf, including complete identity laundering, and ensure that you can spend the rest of your life in luxury without working a day, in a top-class villa overlooking the Alps.”

I let my eyes dart around nervously, keeping a frightened expression on my face.

But agreeing too easily might have made them suspicious, so I kept moving my lips as though I were struggling with the decision until the very end.

“If... if I refuse the offer?”

At that moment, Giovanni’s endlessly gentle expression turned cold as ice.

They did not bother answering with words.

Another hulking man standing behind Giovanni casually opened the inside of his trench coat.

'Oh.'

Hidden beneath it was a compact submachine gun, a Micro Uzi capable of spitting out 1,200 rounds per minute.

At that show of force, more convincing than a hundred words, I clicked my tongue to myself.

'If the real Secretary Pak Mun-ju were here, he would’ve started trembling the instant he saw that thing and accepted naturalization on the spot.'

Was this why Secretary Pak Mun-ju had practically foamed at the mouth while refusing to go to Switzerland?

Truly, an excellent decision worthy of a diplomat.

“A-all right! D-defection! I-I’ll defect!”

I refocused and threw myself back into the act.

An acting performance needed a proper concept.

Fortunately, I even had a useful model to draw from.

'D-defection! I want to defect!'

'Please let me defect!'

The image of Minister Ri Jong-il, whom I had met in Italy, surfaced in my mind.

“Please let me defect!”

“Mamma mia! Excellent. I can practically feel how desperate you are.”

When I pleaded so desperately that I looked ready to grab onto his pant leg, Giovanni grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

He seemed quite pleased by my intense reaction.

“You have made a truly wise decision. I’m sure Branch Chief Mario has plenty of excellent business ventures to propose to you.”

Either way, Mario stood to profit.

Put bluntly, if I refused the offer here, they could simply shoot me dead on the spot.

Then the account holder would disappear, leaving five hundred million dollars in North Korean slush funds that no one would ever be able to withdraw, a permanent windfall sitting on the Swiss bank’s books.

And if I accepted the offer?

They called it naturalization and identity laundering, but from that point onward I would have become nothing more than a puppet kept on a leash.

They would have assigned contract killers to watch me just as they were doing now, then controlled me while finding one way or another to siphon away the five hundred million dollars.

“We should inform Branch Chief Mario of this wonderful news immediately.”

Giovanni gestured, and one of the men pulled out a cell phone and called somewhere.

Brrring, click.

“Yeah, Mario. Secretary Pak gladly accepted our proposal.”

-....

“Yeah. We’ve confirmed it’s safe. You can come up right now.”

After ending the call, the man expressionlessly put his phone away again.

Apparently, Branch Chief Mario had been waiting nervously somewhere inside the hotel.

“Branch Chief Mario is coming here personally?”

“That’s right. He’ll be here shortly.”

A greedy gleam filled Giovanni’s eyes as he answered.

He already seemed to think my five hundred million dollars belonged to them, practically salivating at the thought of forcing me to invest it in one venture after another.

As we continued chatting, it happened before long.

Click.

“Secretary! I heard the wonderful news, so I came to see you personally!”

Branch Chief Mario flung open the hotel room door and strode inside.

And at that exact moment, when every one of the contract killers turned toward Branch Chief Mario.

Pfft!

“Ghk!”

“...Huh?”

With the metallic rasp of a suppressed shot, Giovanni was the first to collapse to the floor.

The other two realized what was happening a beat too late and frantically reached inside their jackets.

Pfft, pfft!

“Gagh!”

“Ngh....”

My shots punched through their hearts in quick succession without a single miss.

Thud.

Crash!

At the sight of three burly men tumbling to the floor, Branch Chief Mario froze mid-step.

I let the frightened expression vanish from my face and jerked my chin toward him.

“H-huh?”

“Welcome, Branch Chief Mario.”

I casually rubbed the still-warm muzzle of the suppressor against my clothes.

Meanwhile, Branch Chief Mario’s dumbfounded eyes darted across the three motionless contract killers lying on the floor.

“W-what is this....”

“I was fully prepared to give you the three hours you asked for. I simply never expected you to pull this shit in less than one.”

“S-Secretary? Th-that’s....”

“You dare test my loyalty to the great Republic like this?”

Only then did Branch Chief Mario grasp the reality of the situation, and his body began to tremble.

The greed that had lingered in his eyes moments earlier vanished without a trace, and abject terror began filling the empty space it left behind.

“Th-that, th-that, th-that’s n-not....”

“I will give you exactly three minutes.”

“T-th-th-th-three minutes?”

“Call the bank branch right now and order them to transfer my money according to the original plan.”

I flicked the gun barrel toward his head.

“Otherwise, you die.”

The man’s cheeks quivered like pudding, making them particularly hard to ignore.

*****

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