Chapter 66: The Shanyuan Society's New Business Briefing

TL: LittlePeach

The Cambodia dispatch squad's job was to hunt down and pinpoint the drug production plants hidden across Cambodia, whether discreetly tucked away or sitting right out in the open.

That said, if a plant they'd gone to all the trouble of finding turned out not to be one funneling drugs into Korea, they didn't bother digging any deeper. They just scribbled it onto a list and left it at that.

"We collect these lists, then quietly slip them to each country's drug enforcement agency later on. They pay handsome money for the intel. Sometimes they'll even put in a specific request, asking us to verify something like a trade invoice."

"Oooh."

Sure enough, it seemed that wherever black agents ground out their days, this kind of side hustle followed them.

Their main clientele were the zero-tolerance countries nearby, like China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, the sort of places that slapped the death penalty on drug offenders without mercy.

"But how did you manage to sniff all this intel out, team leader? It took us nearly two months just to get on the Irobuchi-kai's tail."

"Did it? We got to talking, hit it off in no time, and they just spilled everything, no problem."

"Uh... the drug peddlers did?"

"Yeah. I've always liked making friends. One of the peddlers even invited me to his little brother's wedding, so I'm heading over there to hang out week after next."

"...."

Anyway.

The Mango Farm, said to be out in Sihanoukville, became our next target.

The two veterans, Owl No. 11 and Crane No. 22, decided they'd handle the site recon.

"Since the team leader dug up the intel for us, the two of us will knock this out quick and be back."

"There's no highway either, so it's a six-hour drive to get there, apparently."

"There's no Koreatown in Sihanoukville, right?"

"No. The overseas Chinese with deep pockets have a stranglehold on most of the resort spots, so it won't be easy for Koreans to get a business off the ground there."

While they were off on the recon, Sparrow No. 10 was slated to hole up around the collapsed coconut warehouse and watch for movement from the Irobuchi-kai.

Of course, the odds were high they'd just set their plant up somewhere else.

Scout out lodgings to stay in ahead of time, check for a nearby Koreatown, get the lay of the land.

We'd each worked through our assignments step by step, and just as everyone had finished gathering at the hideout and prepping to move out...

Ping.

"Hm?"

A notification chime suddenly sounded from the laptop.

It came from the NIS website messenger we always kept open.

"Ah, shit... HQ, those bastards, are dumping more weird crap on us again."

"What came in?"

"Yeah. Another one of those cooperation requests or whatever."

"A cooperation request?"

Owl No. 11, who'd been blowing on his ramyeon and slurping it down as an early breakfast, ground his teeth.

So all of us leaned in together to peer at the laptop screen.

[Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, Metropolitan Investigation Unit]

[To: NIS Overseas Intelligence Bureau, Special Operations Group, Southeast Asia Team 4]

[Subject: Cooperation Request Regarding Surveillance of a Nationwide Gang Team-Building Retreat]

A team-building retreat?

I'd barely blinked at the out-of-nowhere subject line before Owl No. 11 was already skimming down through the contents.

"Says early this morning, four gangs out of Busan alone, three out of Seoul, plus a bunch of other outfits they couldn't get an exact headcount on, are all pouring into Cambodia?"

"Why would a pack of thugs suddenly... go on an overseas trip together?"

"They say they don't know the reason either."

The agents chatted about the sudden cooperation request like it was all just business as usual.

As I watched, bewildered, Crane No. 22 caught the question on my face and gave a sheepish smile.

"Our Southeast Asia Team ends up coordinating with related agencies like this fairly often."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Whenever Korean gangs board a plane claiming they're off to a 'team-building retreat', nine times out of ten it's Vietnam or the Philippines."

"Ah-ha."

"But of all places, this lot had to come to Cambodia."

I'd assumed it was some rare emergency, but apparently it was pretty routine.

A business cooperation request from the Busan MIU.

Honestly, it was kind of refreshing.

"I had no idea the NIS handled stuff like this too."

"Heh-heh. Our Team 5 leader, I never saw it before, but now you finally look like a Sparrow."

"Ahem."

At any rate.

Even though it was billed as a cooperation request, the actual job was simple.

First an NIS agent already active on the ground would move in quickly, and then the MIU would deploy its own dispatched personnel to take the baton.

"Says they're expected to reach the Riverside Casino Resort in Phnom Penh in about an hour, and they just want us to check what kind of scheme they're cooking up in there."

"Hssssss...."

Even so, though, it was still a situation dumped on us out of nowhere.

We'd just finished getting ready to head out for Sihanoukville, and then a cooperation request dropped on us like a rock.

Sure, it wasn't like we couldn't do it, but wasn't it just draining us dry right before a long haul?

With everyone plainly wearing awkward looks, I quietly stepped forward.

"This cooperation request, mind if I take it?"

"Uh... you would, team leader?"

"Yeah. It's my first time with something like this, so I'm really curious how it all works."

"Hmm. Still, it's a request that came down to our team. I'd hate to lean on you too much..."

"Come on. By the looks of it, it's basically just going for a stroll."

I didn't have anything to do anyway, so the timing worked out perfectly.

Owl No. 11 nodded with a sheepish grin.

"So I just go check on the gangs and come back, right?"

"Yes, that's right. All you need to confirm is what purpose they've gathered there for."

"Simple. I'll pop out for a little outing, duck in to show my face, and be back in no time."

To be fair, the original reason I'd been dispatched to Cambodia was something else entirely.

Namely, tracking the movements of the Shanyuan Society.

But honestly, it seemed fine to put that on the back burner for a while.

'For now, let's just keep helping out with Team 4's work like this.'

HQ figured the Shanyuan Society still had the capacity to set up another hideout, but I saw it differently.

Surveillance cameras plastered across every floor, a server room, the guards armed to a savage degree. After we'd smashed a hideout like that to pieces, there was no way they had anything left in the tank.

"You rented a car to head to Sihanoukville this time, right? Just lend me that. I haven't picked up a new one yet."

"...You'd better not go and crash this one somewhere too?"

"It's insured, right?"

"...."

Owl No. 11 hid the car keys.

So in the end it was decided I'd take a taxi.

*****

In any case.

That was exactly how I came to be suddenly heading for the Riverside Casino Hotel in Phnom Penh.

"Damn. Team leader, you came out of the Defense Intelligence Command's Special Task Force?"

Sparrow No. 10 had been assigned to tag along too, under the pretext of field training.

He was two years younger than me, having only just shed his rookie label, at a stage where he still had plenty to learn.

"I heard that place is where nothing but monsters gather..."

"Frankly, it's not that different from a regular military unit. The missions are just a little more specialized."

"What kind of missions?"

"Well, those are classified, obviously."

"Whoa."

The two of us walked side by side, a mango juice each in our mouths, playing tourist.

While we were leisurely chatting, Sparrow No. 10 quietly ventured a question.

"But how did you make team leader already? No matter how hard I think about it, I just can't picture it. Even my sunbaes said it's unprecedented."

"Hmm."

"Is that classified too, by any chance?"

"No. It's not exactly classified..."

He clearly couldn't wrap his head around my situation, holding a team leader post while wearing the very same Sparrow code as him.

I'd have loved to satisfy his curiosity, but doing so would mean laying out, one by one, every last operation I'd been through.

Starting with the Dandong-Sinuiju operation, then the time I brought down the director of the Russian Regional Security Bureau, and so on.

Listed off one after another, they were all stories tailor-made to sound like tall tales to anyone else.

Reeling all of it off my own tongue like some war hero would be far too pretentious.

"Parachute appointment, what else."

"...."

So I lightly chalked it up to that and left it there.

At my answer, Sparrow No. 10's face twisted up strangely.

"No, but if you were going to land a parachute appointment, obviously you should've gone to a domestic desk..."

His reaction said he'd never in his life seen such a bizarre parachute appointment.

It was a throwaway line, but now that he mentioned it, it really was ridiculous.

Then again, anyone with connections would obviously make for a domestic desk with the AC blasting. Why on earth come all the way out to muggy Southeast Asia?

"I like fieldwork. Sitting behind a desk gets me all antsy."

"Man... you really are strange."

"Besides, I don't even have any team members right now, do I? I'm a team leader in title only."

The moment he heard that, some thought must have flashed through his mind, because Sparrow No. 10's eyes went bright and round.

"Or wait, maybe HQ sent you here planning to spin up a separate Cambodia team? The Cambodia dispatch squad gets promoted to Cambodia Team 5."

So that was what he'd been making that face over.

I smiled and shook my head.

"Probably not. Up until a few weeks ago I was active in Dandong, and a few days ago I swung through Russia."

"Seriously? Whoa..."

"Seems like HQ plans to keep shuffling me around from place to place like this for a while."

At my words, the dreamy, dazed look on Sparrow No. 10's face got yanked hard back to reality.

He clicked his tongue with a horrified expression.

"Wow, there's no way I could ever do that... You live one hell of a busy life."

"You get used to it once you're in it. Anyway, is that the Riverside Casino Hotel over there?"

"That's the one."

Even in broad daylight, the hotel came into view, its gaudy LED lights throwing off dazzling colors.

The place where Korean gangs were supposedly swarming in droves, as if for some grand team-building retreat.

Just as the two of us were ambling along side by side, taking our sweet time toward the hotel...

"Hmm?"

Sparrow No. 10, who'd been noisily sucking down his mango juice, came to an abrupt stop.

I halted right alongside him.

"Something wrong?"

"Team leader, over there..."

When I aimed my gaze in the direction Sparrow No. 10 was pointing, tour buses began lining up one after another into the hotel parking lot.

Once the buses parked, out walked men with menacing faces.

Sparrow No. 10 stared intently at the swarm of hulking figures pouring out, then furrowed his brow with a puzzled look.

"I'm pretty sure these are those Korean gangs the MIU was talking about?"

"Looks like it. I see a face or two that were on the list."

I nodded along with his guess.

Among the crowd of men flooding out, there were a few who matched the photos in the list the MIU had sent over.

Slurp.

I polished off my mango juice in one go.

"Good timing. All right, let's head straight in."

"Huh?"

I immediately started moving, walking toward them.

At that, Sparrow No. 10 grabbed my shoulder with a flustered look.

"Wh-wh-what are you, uh, planning to do? All we have to do is find out what they gathered here for..."

"Come on. If we wrap it up with just that, there's no point having come all this way. I'm going to get a little closer and sneak a listen at what they're saying."

"Ah, uh, uhh..."

"Don't worry too much, just stick close behind me."

"Ah, well..."

"And just in case, once we're inside I'll call you my little brother. So you call me hyeong-nim. Gangster-style."

"Ah, yes sir!"

Towing the flustered, dithering Sparrow No. 10 along, we casually fell in behind them.

A procession that looked for all the world like several outfits gathered together for a team-building retreat.

"Hey, boy. When do they say we eat?"

"I'll find out, hyeong-nim!"

"Aren't those folks over there the Yeonggwang Gang crew?"

"Looks like it, sir. Should we go pay our respects first?"

"Forget it. There'll be time for that later."

The gangs headed into the hotel in a murmuring throng.

We slipped in right among the bruisers who happened to be decked out in touristy-patterned shirts.

There was no set dress code, and everyone was gotten up in their own wildly different styles.

Swept along with the crowd, we arrived at the entrance to the hotel banquet hall.

[Welcome]

[Shanyuan Society New Business Briefing]

Looking at the huge banner strung up plain as day just inside the entrance, my eyes went round without my meaning to.

"Huh?"

The Shanyuan Society?

At a moment I never expected, a name I never saw coming had made its entrance.

*****

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