Soho

Chapter 237: < Protect – Episode 227 – Wild Africa [2] >

Everyone wanted to be respected.

No one liked their opinions being disregarded. When distribution was put before growth and preservation was put before development, the world called them liberals or lefties.

It was a human instinct to always want more. So when someone said no, bad feelings was to be expected. There were many cases where personal sacrifice was stressed for universal good. Ethics was always stressed in this world, but humans had the instinct to rationalize themselves.

‘Hirukawa is a good person.’

That was what people thought.

She had never been connected to a crime before. When she did pose a protest against the government and companies, she wasn’t brought down like James Bungee. But she still had her suspicions.

‘Am I right?’

Perhaps she had to act like the environmental terrorists in order to make any changes. Righteous acts made changes as well, but it took way too long. The results of their actions would only show in the next generation at the earliest.

While Kenya was in chaos, Hirukawa Mai was in a safe house nearby. She pretended to seek refuge and then escape the city. The armed black man saw her but didn’t hold her back in any way.

There were other men inside.

“Are you satsifed?”

“No, not yet.”

“I feel bad for that James character.”

Himudin of the SI smirked.

He didn’t like the idea of negotiating with a wench, but Hirukawa Mai was different from all the other Japanese women he had met.

‘Poisonous bitch.’

He didn’t care about gender or age.

“What’s your next move?”

“I’ll have to blow up Nairobi next.”

“And you’re going to put the blame on Al Shabab?”

“There’s a saying where I’m from. They won’t be able to deny it so easily.”

After all the foreigners they kidnapped, claiming that they didn’t do it would only elicit cold responses from society. They were better off admitting to their evil reputation. Terrorist groups made a living off of fear.

“What about James?”

“It’s time that he accepts his fate.”

James Bungee had been prepared for this very day. She didn’t plan on making only Al Shabab the focus of international society. Compared to nuclear bombs, dirty bombs were simpler, but obtaining nuclear materials was difficult to begin with.

Was it possible for Al Shabab to make dirty bombs? In order to prevent any kind of backlash, they needed the secret of a real terrorist like James Bungee.

“A disguise as a victim... I can’t believe a woman is screwing everyone over.”

“Huh?”

In contrast to Himudin who was dumbfounded by the appearance of an unfamiliar person, Mai quickly took out her gun but couldn’t pull the trigger. The hot gun ended up dropping to the ground.

“Ugh!”

His hand burned while the gun was melting on the ground.

“Security!”

Himudin finally came back to his senses and called his subordinate, but it was too late. Ahn Soo Ho held a silenced gun and laughed.

“No one’s coming, Blackie.”

“Who are you?”

“Me? What’s the point in making introductions?”

As soon as Himudin headed toward the gun on the table, Ahn Soo Ho simply nodded. He was challenging him to try.

“CIA?”

“No.”

Not many people could identify Ahn Soo Ho with his looks alone. If he had known Ahn Soo Ho, he would have already kneeled on the ground. Hirukawa stared at Ahn Soo Ho.

She didn’t stare at Ahn Soo Ho out of surprise. She stared at him out of rage.

She recognized him from the bar.

“Hey.”

“You approached me on purpose.”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Why? It’s a little complicated... First, you should stop all the crazy stuff you’ve been doing.”

She bit down her lower lip.

All the crazy people were like that, but it was weird if a crazy person responded to words. Even normal people didn’t listen to what other people said, so if a narcissist listened, that person wasn’t really a narcissist.

Ahn Soo Ho sighed deeply.

“You think those organizations are dumb, don’t you?”

To put it all on James Bungee and Al Shabab? It wouldn’t have been hard if evidence was manipulated properly. However, how far would those secrets last? Hirukawa might have been able to pretend to be a good person forever, but the intelligence agencies were going to find out sooner or later.

“Is that what you believed, Hirukawa? That in order to change this unfair world, a huge shock was needed?”

He underestimated the woman named Hirukawa Mai. Actually, he accepted Kim Na Hee’s request without much thought. He admitted it. The family he found again made him blunt. It was true that once one had a family one’s viewpoint changes. He became a softer person and learned to accept things better. But that also made him see the truth.

There wasn’t much to mind reading.

It was all about being suspicious.

‘This guy is bad. Since he can hurt me at any moment, I should keep an eye on him.’

Once one started to constantly monitor and suspect the other person, that was when the mind reading magic could be complete.

“Even if you protest nuclear weapons, people don’t really know how dangerous nuclear weapons are. So one has to go off before they can really understand.”

Japan and the Japanese people’s fear of war and nuclear weapons was something that other countries couldn’ understand. Japan was the only country that was attacked by a nuclear weapon. But nuclear accidents now occurred everywhere in the world. However, a dirty bomb going off in a place that was surrounded by safety equipment was an event of a whole different scale. 100% of people exposed to nuclear materials died.

During the Cold War, America and the Soviet Union exposed the dangers of nuclear weapons to the public. That was because that was how they could make their people loathe the opposite country. But as soon as the Cold War ended, their opinions changed 180.

‘Nuclear fuel is clean energy!’

And that wasn’t false. Compared to other energy sources, nuclear fuel could be seen immediately, and it didn’t cause environmental pollution that could be felt. As long as its safety equipment didn’t blow up, no particular pollution would be created.

The problem was that the more nuclear technology developed, the safer the nuclear plants got, but their destructive power grew as well. And that was unrelated to technology. As a result, denuclearization was the main topic of environmental activists. After all, nuclear weapons were capable of getting rid of both nature and mankind all at once. The nature of environmental activists wasn’t to put nature first. It was to protect nature for the good of mankind.

Hirukawa Mai had a kind of utopia about humanity. She had an evil intention to destroy the world while hiding behind the mask of someone who cared about mankind. People like this always had the delusion that no one else could do this job except for them.

In order to go against nuclear weapons, she put nuclear weapons on the black market, and the nuclear weapons that would land in the hands of terrorists would blow up cities. And she didn’t realize that assuming anti-nuclear protests would expand was very contradictory.

It was like a majority vote.

She secured a small sacrifice for the good of the majority.

“How unfortunate.”

Activism gone bad was just like religion.

It was impossible to convince anyone to committedly believe. The powerful groups behind huge environmental activism were even stricter than criminal organizations when it came to maintaining their men. Betrayal? The ones who betrayed probably disappeared before a rumor could even begin.

Was it possible to convince Hirukawa Mai? He would have felt positive yesterday, but not so much today. He believed that religious people and terrorists were of the same category. Strong believers were ready to sacrifice themselves if needed.

“Let me ask one last time. Will you stop this madness?”

“We’re going to step up until mankind gets closer to extinction.”

As soon as she leaned her head back, her head dangled like that of a broken doll. That was because a silenced gun shot right through her brain.

He didn’t hesitate to shoot. He didn’t care that she could be Kim Na Hee’s niece. If he kept her alive any longer, no good was going to come to Kim Na Hee either.

“Ugh!”

Himudin was on his way to grabbing the gun on the table when he plopped down forward. He also got a bullet to the brain. Ahn Soo Ho looked around with a blank look on his face and left the safe house.

Was it around 200 meters away?

Bang, bang, bang-

The area around the safe house blew up and let out black smoke. The explosive left his secret pocket and dropped upon the target from 500 meters above. A gust of hot wind passed him.

Ahn Soo Ho took out his phone.

“Aquilan.”

“Soo Ho? How did it go?”

“There’s a dirty bomb in Nairobi.”

“Gasp! Really?”

When Ahn Soo Ho gave the warning, Aquilan only half believed it. He didn’t know about the Middle East but a random nuclear weapon in Africa?

“You need to find it quick. I don’t know the exact location either.”

“Okay! Oh yeah! Someone from IAEA is here.”

“It’s not who I’m thinking, is it?”

“It probably is.”

He laughed bitterly to Aquilan’s response.

‘Those Japanese bastards.’

Just like how Yankees, Limeys and the French didn’t like each other, China, Japan, and Korea kept their guards up as well. It was a relation that was needed but not desired. Although there was more hatred than love, it was hard to cut off completely.

China and Japan minded America while also pouring astronomical funds toward international organizations such as the UN to raise their influence. They even funded organizations such as NGOs which made China and Japan more recognized than Korea.

“Akino wants to put the blame of the nuclear situation on North Korea.”

“What about Anbori?”

“They just want to keep an eye on it for now...”

“They’re giving Japan the power.”

“In any case, the secretary-general of the IAEA is Japanese.”

The public didn’t know that the head of IAEA was Japanese. Japan’s share of UN expenses decreased after the 21st century, while that of China skyrocketed. China might beat out Japan one day, but not yet.

“Do you think China is involved, Soo Ho?”

“I’m not sure.”

“It’s true that James Bungee’s account is in China. They might feel wronged, but it’s hard for them to avoid criticism.”

“What are the chances that this is Japan’s scheme?”

“They’re sacrificing their nuclear technology to screw China over? If the dirty bomb really goes off, there will be even more lack of confidence in the Japanese secretary-general. Even France is on uncomfortable terms with Japan in terms of nuclear weapons.”

“It’s not just Japan, but China and Korea that’s also uncomfortable with France.”

In terms of numbers, Japan’s nuclear facilities way surpassed that of China. And the ones that surpassed Japan were America and France. However, the concept of nuclear organizations started with America. Were all international organizations fair and just? Not at all.

Not even UNICEF was.

Out of 5 American children, 1 starved out and 1 had no home, but no UNICEF commercial talked about “American children”. They were 99.9% African or Middle Eastern children. They made it seem like all the kids there were either starving or getting beaten.

But there were just as many crimes against children in developed countries as well. At times, they were even worse. Everyone was the same in the face of desperation.

“Do you really have no idea where the dirty bomb is, Soo Ho.”

“No. But I can find out.”

He remembered Hirukawa Mai saying that James Bungee had to accept his fate.

“Hotel.”

“Hotel?”

“It’s probably a hotel with a sit-in.”

That was all the advice he offered. Before Ahn Soo Ho put his phone away, he saw another call coming in.

“Kosi?”

“There’s no person with the name Hirukawa Mai, Boss.”

Ahn Soo Ho knitted his brows in response.

“What does this mean?”

“It’s a fabricated identity.”

“Then who’s the Hirukawa Mai that was in front of me?”

“She’s a pitiful woman who lived her whole life thinking she was Hirukawa Mai. There are many people like that in Japan.”

As soon as Ahn Soo Ho heard this, he thought of an old man.

“Kagemusha?”

“To be more exact, Goninja Plan. It’s a pretty crazy plan.”

Japan was a wicked country.

Actually, Korea, China, and Japan all had a wicked side to them. Korea insulted Japan for reviving through the Korean War while China took the strengths of both Korea and Japan, and this relationship was funny, sad, and ridiculous all at the same time.

“This plan was simple yet effective. It’s a plan to make Korea’s economy submissive to Japan. They want to get a hold of their weakness and shake them dry.”

Great Asia’s public management switched to Great Asia’s private management. They planned to step on Korea and go after China. Even after their defeat, Japan had never given up on its plan to invade other countries.

“At the time, the Korean economy meant the same thing as a large conglomerate group.”

How did they target the rich? The mission that they decided on after much consideration was a fairly new plan. It was the kind of illegal plan full of secrets just like soap operas with crazy storylines.

Many Koreans in the 70s and 80s called the Japanese culture that of the upper class. In particular, there were businessmen who went to Japan often and had two households, and it was true that Korea’s adult culture was 99.9% copied off of that of Japan. Back then, Koreans knew Japanese colleges better than Ivey Leagues.

“It’s not just Hirukawa Mai. Pretty much all rich people in Korea have caused an accident in Japan before.”

Did that mean all rich people had one or two lovechilds? That was ridiculous. The problem was that the children weren’t born out of love, but they were caused by the lead of a bigger group.

“How did Hirukawa’s DNA test go through?”

“I thought that was strange, too. I don’t know about back in the day, but DNA tests come out on the same day now... If it wasn’t Rosette Group’s mistake, there must be a traitor...”

The line got cut off. There was only one reason the personal line of Ahn Soo Ho could be cut off. Electronic jamming signals.

Ahn Soo Ho looked up at the sky.

He saw some clouds above.

‘It’s not a dirty bomb?’

Dirty bombs were no different from a more destructive explosive. But it didn’t cause nuclear fission. However, the cloud that could be seen above Nairobi was definitely from a nuclear bomb.

As soon as he released the rules of engagement, they started a terrorist attack. As far as Ahn Soo Ho remembered, there weren’t many people who could act so boldly.

Sylvestre? No.

‘He’s focusing on India right now.’

Besides D. Punch, there was only one more person.

“Pilgrim Heyward.”

******

“I’ve confirmed K’s location.”

“Where?”

“Near Nairobi. Luckily, it’s outside the bombing area. And I’ve just confirmed the deaths of N6 and N9.”

“Is it really K?”

“I’m 99.9% certain.”

Pilgrim Heyward squeezed both sides of his temples. He always did this when he had a headache.

“Should I bring you some Asprin?”

“No.”

He leaned back into a comfortable position. But he couldn’t fall asleep.

“What’s the plan?”

“SI is off to Yemen, and Al Shabab is dispersing the kidnapees and are on the move.”

“What about their weapons?”

“They’re cutting them off.”

“Cut off their tail in the Kenyan government as well.”

“Pardon? But... Yes, Sir.”

The secretary stopped himself from talking back.

“The US Military will probably start moving now, right?”

“From what I found out through a lobbyist, yes. They’ll probably start moving soon.”

With how America was changing into an export nation of oil, their energy policies were bound to change as well. The reason why America still couldn’t give up on the Middle East was because of their strategy to keep up their supply and demand.

American politicians were too much of realists to simply assume that the White House and the Washington State tried to cover up the Davis Scandal with the Nigerian War.

If there was going to be no profits, American politicians didn’t give a shit. The only thing that mattered was votes. There were tons of politicians that survived even after being hated by the party. Under the two-party system were countless negotiation parties.

“Is Nancy Brown leading the Republicans?”

“It’s about time America gets a female president. Since Americans are sick and tired of the politicians they’re used to, they’ll probably vote for her.”

The results of the next election was pretty much decided.

“It wasn’t just the president but the vice-president that screwed up, too. Of course, the citizens are cursing non-stop.”

Vice-President Evelyn Parmer got arrested as the one behind the second New York terrorist attack. Both the president and vice-president getting arrested had never happened before in the Democratic party’s history.

“Was K involved?”

“That’s what the rumors are saying.”

“Rumors are pretty much all true in this field. By the way, if N6 died... Milosevic might start moving.”

“Should we tip off K?’

Heyward shook his head.

“He doesn’t like to approach with an objective. And I don’t want to get scolded for giving him information that he’ll have later anyway.”

“Then let’s call it off...”

“No.”

He cut off his subordinate.

“We’ll have to work with someone other than K. What about... Nai? Nai Kim?”

“Yes, Chairwoman Kim Na Hee. That’s right.”

“Yeah. Let’s make sure Chairwoman Kim Na Hee hears about it.”

Just like how Rothschild was a famous company in the financial world, Neuro Bank, also known as K-Bank, was a tycoon in its own right.

The plans to connect Africa and Asia by rail wasn’t ungrounded. It wasn’t an issue of money, but an issue of will. And in order to succeed, they had to get rid of all obstacles.

‘Vitali won’t always have his power.’

The political world in Moscow was where greed and barbarism peaked. But the politics of Africa wasn’t that much better either.

“Tell her Japan and Russia ruined her niece.”

“Shall we begin?”

“100%.”

Pilgrim Heyward smiled wickedly.

“Those on the brink of death have no fear.”

Those who had nothing more to lose were foolishly brave.

< Protect – Episode 227 – Wild Africa [2] > The end.

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