Chapter 64: Taking the Whole Spread

TL: LittlePeach

A black agent's survival rules, number one.

Blend in perfectly with the local society.

At the moment, I was wearing the guise of a tourist.

So since early morning I'd been roaming all over the streets of Phnom Penh, playing the tourist.

"One mango juice, please."

The place I'd come to today was Riverside.

It sat right along the Tonle Sap on the east side of Phnom Penh. Famous tourist spots like the royal palace and the temples aside, it was so packed with hotels, resorts, and casinos that the flow of tourists never let up.

Slurp.

"Mmm. Sweet."

I sucked down the sweet mango juice and lazily scanned the area around me.

To anyone else it would've looked like I was goofing off, but really it was part of gathering intelligence.

I was making my way down a narrow alley, wedged in among the throngs of tourists.

Bump.

"Huh?"

"Ahem. Sorry, sorry."

A man brushed past me.

And out of nowhere he started groping at my waist.

Even without looking down, I could tell it was the handiwork of someone after my wallet or phone.

Thwack!

"Gurgh!"

Without needing to overthink it, I shot out my fist and spun the man's jaw clean around.

The pickpocket rolled across the ground, eyes rolled back.

I could see my wallet gripped tight in his hand.

Scoop, scoop.

"The pickpockets in this neighborhood sure are diligent, even first thing in the morning."

When I plucked my wallet out of the roughly sprawled man's hand and pocketed it again, the other pickpockets who'd been waiting off at a distance started to scatter all at once.

The moment they saw me spin his jaw around in a single blow, they must've sensed there was no angle here.

'Is this another neighborhood that says hello with its fists first, like Dandong?'

Riverfronts were generally symbols of the wealth gap.

While there were those who seized fortunes with the river at the center, just as often the pushed-aside fringes formed slums.

Southeast Asian riverfronts always had plenty of pickpockets, but even more than that, plenty of junkies.

Phnom Penh's Riverside in particular was a crime-ridden zone where the local junkies peddled drugs day and night.

'Riverside? Ooh. Dangerous, very dangerous.'

Even the staff at the resort I was staying at had tried to talk me out of it when I told them I was going to Riverside for fun.

'This place seems crawling with nothing but pickpockets.... let me head down a bit further.'

The reason I'd gone out of my way to a place like this was to check the fallout from the Irobuchi-kai drug factory explosion a while back.

An entire massive production hub had been wiped out in one go, so it must've sent no small shockwave through the local drug market.

I meant to see that reaction for myself.

It wasn't all that difficult.

First I'd lazily prowl around the alleys, and when someone who looked like a drug dealer came into view, I'd casually sidle up and strike up a conversation about buying product.

Tap, tap.

"Hey. You need product, by any chance?"

Like this.

A man with a marijuana-leaf tattoo on his neck came up and spoke to me in English.

Watching me glance aimlessly around, he'd apparently pegged me as his customer at first sight.

I nodded and followed the man into a secluded back alley.

"So what kinds do you have?"

"Low and high, got both."

"Meth. The purity good?"

"I've got a real fresh one, sure. I guarantee the quality."

"Don't just guarantee it with your mouth, give me a sample first."

"Show me the money first, friend."

Cambodia's drug peddlers weren't so easy to push around.

When I pulled a few dollar bills out of my wallet, the sharply wary look in the man's eyes finally softened.

"Alright. Can't give you much."

The man glanced around and pulled out a small plastic packet.

He tapped out just a tiny bit of white powder and set it on the back of the hand I abruptly held out.

I brought what he'd handed me up toward my face, then turned my head slightly.

"Hff."

I blew a puff of breath through my nose and scattered every last bit of the powder away.

From the outside it would've looked like I'd taken a deep, deep hit.

Back when I worked at the PMC, a few of my teammates had been junkies.

I started mimicking the way I'd watched them do it all that time.

"Snrf."

First I hunched my shoulders, then gave a light shiver and flinched.

"Nnngh."

On top of that I furrowed my brow and sniffled, and the peddler seemed pretty satisfied with my reaction.

My acting really never fails me.

Rubbing my nose, I busily moved my eyes around the area.

"Well? Killer, right?"

"Nice."

"Where's it from?"

"It's product from the mango farm out in Sihanoukville."

Get on friendly terms this casually, and everything after goes a lot smoother.

Without even knowing it, this peddler was becoming a local asset feeding me the state of the market.

"The mango farm? Is that why? Feels like there's a strange sweetness to it."

"Kehehehe. You know your stuff, huh."

I fed him occasional words in a thoroughly giddy voice.

Thinking I was completely wasted, the peddler played along cheerfully.

As the mood ripened, I casually lobbed out the main point.

"But honestly, it's a bit of a letdown. I got Irobuchi-kai product once before, and the punch on that stuff was way better."

"Irobuchi-kai?"

"Yeah. You don't have any of theirs?"

At that, the peddler glanced around and snorted.

"You're behind on the news. Won't be seeing their stuff for a while."

"Why?"

"Their factory blew up completely a few days ago. Cambodian cops are all over the place there now."

I let my eyes go to a drowsy squint and jerked my chin.

"Even if the factory's gone, the stock's still out in the market, right? That leftover product might be worth its weight in gold about now, so I'm curious who's hoarding it all."

The peddler gave a short, impressed grunt at my plausible logic.

But after tilting his head for a moment, he quickly shook it.

"I dunno? Don't think there's any need to pay a premium for it.... The Irobuchi-kai aren't the type to just roll over and lie low. They're probably running around busy building a new factory."

"A new factory?"

"Yeah. From what a friend of a friend told me, the second the factory blew, they went straight out scouting a site for a new one. Take about a week to finish building, maybe?"

"Ohh...."

"Heard that until the new factory's up, they'll push Philippine product into the market through a few guys."

"They've got a factory in the Philippines?"

"You didn't know? Angeles in the Philippines is their home base."

By this point a dry laugh slipped out of me on its own.

To think a peddler I'd run into by chance in an alley would be this well-versed in market intel.

'Good business, this shop.'

I pulled a few more dollars from my pocket and held them out to the peddler.

At that the man blinked and shot me a glance.

"What's this money for?"

"I'm in a hurry. If you happen to know who's bringing in the Philippine product, hook me up with an intro."

The peddler grinned and nodded.

Then he promptly pocketed the dollars.

"Head straight up that way and there's a currency exchange at the mouth of the night market. The one with the red sign."

"Okay. Thanks, friend."

"Thank you. Come find me anytime something else strikes your fancy."

Irobuchi-kai, coming back to life.

It had been mere days since the coconut warehouse turned into a sea of flames, and I hadn't expected them to be responding this fast.

Cambodia really did seem to be a gathering place for nothing but diligent guys.

'Guess I'll have to pick up another new car.'

By that measure, I was pretty diligent myself.

And besides, a week from now would be about when my hands would start itching for some action.

*****

Ordinary drug dealers mostly belonged to crime organizations of considerable size.

Above that organization was a middle dealer supplying the lowest-rung dealers, and above that existed yet another wholesaler moving product in bulk.

Climb up those tiered steps one by one, and eventually the production factory at the root of the whole market pops right out with a flourish.

It was a very classic method, the kind found in a textbook, but there was no other method that worked this well.

Around the time I was legging it around, slipping a few bucks to the back-alley peddlers of Phnom Penh.

Ding.

-Team leader. Someone from HQ says they'll be coming by soon. Could you come to the hideout, by any chance?

A text had come in from Owl No. 11.

Regarding this Irobuchi-kai drug factory explosion, it seemed someone had been dispatched to verify the facts of the matter.

-Of course. I'll head over now.

Escaping Cambodia's distinctive sweet, pungent spice smell, before long I arrived at the streets of the Korean town.

I cut across an alley with a familiar feel to it and reached the hideout.

"Excuse me."

"Ah, Team leader. You're here?"

Crane No. 22 and Sparrow No. 10, who'd been waiting inside, sprang to their feet to greet me.

Since word was that someone from HQ had come in person, neither of them could hide their excitement.

"HQ sending someone.... it's definitely about the reward money, right? Practically the first time in the whole Southeast Asia Team, isn't it?"

"Right. We've had zero results to speak of up till now."

"I'm curious how much'll drop. Fifty million? Sixty?"

"Heheh."

The fact that the higher-ups had gone to the trouble of putting someone on a plane meant, ten times out of ten, they were planning to hand down a reward for this achievement.

Otherwise, reward or not, they'd have cut it off at the report level and been done with it.

Not long after I arrived, Owl No. 11 came in escorting the guest.

"Whoa there. Everyone gathered here on account of me?"

A breezy greeting slipped in first, ahead of him.

In a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses, the man stepped inside wearing a refreshing smile.

"I heard all about it. You're the Team 5 leader, right?"

The moment he saw me, he thrust out his hand for a handshake first, as if delighted.

"Yes. That's right."

"I'm Choi Woo-seok, Team 4 leader of the Southeast Asia Team."

I hadn't expected him to just come out with his real name, and knowing his identity made it all the more bewildering.

Team 4 leader.

Why had a man who should be at HQ come all the way out here in person?

Reading the puzzled look on my face, he flashed a sly grin.

"Aigoo. When else would I get to come out to Southeast Asia if not for something like this? So instead of sending a cuckoo agent, I came all the way out here myself."

"...I see?"

"Anyway, wow! Team 5 leader, you really are something."

He clutched my clasped hand and shook it vigorously.

I opened my eyes wide at his suddenly over-the-top manner.

"About what?"

"For putting a fiery period on the Irobuchi-kai factory that our Southeast Asia Team spent two whole months chasing day and night just to barely pin down the location of!"

"Ahh...."

"Isn't it the perfect collab between our Team 4's intelligence and the Team 5 leader's decisiveness?"

At Choi Woo-seok's manner, which seemed to be laying some strange groundwork, I tilted my head for just a moment.

"Anyway, there's a bakery just up ahead, so I bought some bread on the way over. For everyone to share."

"Ah, yes. Thank you."

Seemed I wasn't the only one who found his appearance a downer.

The agents who'd been counting their chickens inside the hideout had gone strangely cold in their reactions, for some reason.

'Why are you here?'

That was the nuance, and their faces were plenty sour.

Whether the team members hesitantly took the bread bags or not.

"Now, first, I want to tell everyone you've all worked so hard here in Cambodia this whole time."

Choi Woo-seok sat around the table, looked around at the agents, and smiled brightly.

Following the simple acknowledgment of their efforts, the real talk got underway.

"Thanks to all of you doing such great work in the field, we were able to land this splendid result with the drug factory. The reward money will come down officially from HQ soon, and it'll be roughly fifty million won. If all of us on Team 4, including the Team 5 leader, split it evenly, that works out to about four million won each going forward."

In the middle of pleasantly praising their efforts, he brought up a strange little story.

Was I the only one taking this the wrong way?

"With that, you could all treat yourselves to something tasty for once, pick up gifts for your families, that sort of thing."

"...Hold on, Team leader. What did you just say?"

Turned out I wasn't the only one who found it strange.

Because the hideout's mood plunged straight into the abyss in an instant.

The one to take the lead up front was, of course, Owl No. 11.

"What kind of bullshit is this right now? Why would the reward get split across the whole team? The three of us are the ones who ran ourselves ragged banging our heads against the wall in Cambodia with no foundation at all, so why are the other Southeast Asia Team agents laying their spoons on a spread that's already set?"

"Come on, Owl. 'Spoons', that stings a little. We're all family sharing a bit of the results, aren't you being too greedy going solo? What's good is good for everyone."

At the gently chiding tone, Owl No. 11 let out a dumbfounded, dry laugh.

Then Crane No. 22 snorted and picked up the baton.

"Family? Well, fine. Where was all this when you dumped us in Cambodia unilaterally, without a word of discussion, and now that results have come rolling in, suddenly you're overflowing with family love?"

"Huh? Ugh, Crane. Let's speak a little more nicely. It's not like I shipped you off to Cambodia because I wanted to exile you, is it? I had no choice, we were tracking the Irobuchi-kai, so cut me a little slack."

Choi Woo-seok waved his hand with an easy smile.

When he just kept smirking as though playing up how put-upon he was, the heat rose even further in Crane No. 22's expression.

"Sure. That much I'll grant you completely. I'll concede it a hundred times over. But this nonsense about splitting the results we busted our asses for across the whole team, where the hell did you dig that up?"

"Come on, is it really so galling to you to share a result that finally broke under our Team 4's name across the whole team? Everyone's toughing it out in rough posts as it is, so what's wrong with making a little sacrifice for the sake of rallying together?"

The faces of the three Cambodia dispatch squad agents crumpled in unison.

Unable to hold back any longer, Owl No. 11 thrust his face forward again.

His expression looked like he had a whole lot piled up inside.

"Sacrifice? Sure. Sacrifice, great. A man who knows so much about sacrifice, why'd you just sit and watch, every time we broke our backs digging up drug distribution intel and handing it over, while HQ wouldn't even count it as a result?"

"Hey, what's this about? I told you clearly back then too. Recognizing distribution intel alone as results would cause side effects."

"You sure yapped about that. The cobra effect, or whatever."

While watching that battle of wills from the side, something suddenly dawned on me.

I felt like I could finally put a face to the 'that fucking prick at HQ' Owl No. 11 had been chewing out, foaming at the mouth, the other time.

"Now hold on, this hurts to hear. Do I, what, look like I'm just sitting around loafing?"

"Then was there something else you were doing for our sake?"

"If you leave out how I'm back there groveling and struggling to pull in the budget, that really wounds me."

"Budget? What budget. Tossing us this one lousy hideout? This thing that isn't even worth two million won?"

"Aigoo. Our Owl's got a lot piled up, huh."

Anyway, it was plain to see where the situation was heading.

Choi Woo-seok wanted to package this operation not as the Cambodia dispatch squad's achievement alone, but as all of Team 4's achievement. That was the game.

The words themselves were slick and nice.

But the problem was, if it went this way, the reward money that came down afterward would have to be split among the entire Southeast Asia Team.

"I know full well how hard all of you worked. But that doesn't mean the other Southeast Asia members were just lounging in the shade, does it?"

So why was Choi Woo-seok trying this hard, straining every nerve, to turn this achievement into the whole team's achievement?

The reason was obvious.

Only if it was bundled as a team-level achievement would it be reflected in full on his own personnel evaluation as team leader.

No matter how much righteous talk he spouted, the ultimate aim came down to that one thing.

That was exactly why he was constructing this cunning frame of the Cambodia dispatch squad versus the rest of the Southeast Asia Team and attempting his petty politicking.

"We're all in this hardship together, are you going to keep being this selfish?"

Which was why the Cambodia dispatch squad, who saw right through it, were livid too.

With the board laid out like this, no matter how hard they pushed to claim the results for themselves, it would only lock in the frame that the Cambodia dispatch squad was nothing but a pack of greedy guys, and set the whole office talking.

Munch, munch.

'This guy's good at politics.'

As a bystander, honestly, my position was leaning a bit more toward the Cambodia dispatch squad.

The biggest reason was that Choi Woo-seok's behavior, showing up out of nowhere with a fresh, dewy face and openly rigging the board, pissed me off.

But it was a bit awkward to charge in and take sides prematurely.

It was another team's business, after all.

"But, everyone."

Of course, that didn't mean there was no method at all.

So, munching on the red-bean bun Choi Woo-seok had bought, I raised my hand high from the side.

The gazes of the four, who'd been throwing frost at each other, all rushed toward me at once.

"There's something I'm really curious about and want to ask."

"Yes. What is it?"

"Why is it your achievement in the first place?"

"...?"

"It's my achievement, isn't it?"

To flip a board this meticulously arranged, there was only one method.

Just take the whole spread away, and that was that.

"...."

"...."

Thanks to that, not a single breath could be heard inside the hideout.

*****

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