Chapter 116
I reassured the anxious Han Yu-na as we headed to the hotel.
Check-in had already been completed, so we were about to simply go to our rooms when Han Yu-na spoke cautiously.
"Today was really fun."
"Yes. It was for me, too. And don't worry about me."
It was then.
-Bwoooong!!
The phone rang.
When I checked, it was the number the NIS agent from earlier had given me.
"Hello."
-Teacher. Everything has been taken care of. But there may be some stragglers, so we were thinking of monitoring the hotel...
"Yes. I'd appreciate it."
-Thank you.
I should have been thanking him.
After I hung up, Han Yu-na's expression brightened somewhat.
"They caught them all?"
"Yes. I told you there was nothing to worry about."
"That's... that's such a relief."
Han Yu-na let out a sigh of relief.
I gently patted her.
Perhaps because we'd had such a good time today, on top of what had happened at the end, she looked quite tired.
She looked exhausted both physically and mentally, so I ushered her into her room.
"You look really tired. Get some good rest."
"Yes... But, Mr. Noah, could you promise me one thing?"
"What is it?"
"If something like this happens again... I want you to think about yourself before thinking about me."
She was telling me not to take unnecessary risks.
It hadn't exactly been dangerous, but...
Still, if she put it that way, all I could do was nod.
"Thank you. Then sleep well."
"Yes. Good night."
Han Yu-na went into her room.
And I went into the room next door.
When I opened the door, the view of the hotel suite spread out before me.
This room was nice.
"Teacher."
Just then, two burly men approached me.
They were an NIS agent and a Russian agent.
"My name is Yang Gyu-myeong. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Jeremy Vladilov Ivanov."
"Yes. It's nice to meet you, too."
"We're here to guard you... We were planning to wait outside the room."
"Turn this over first."
The two men turned over the card I held out without hesitation.
Of course, I knew they had no intention of harming me even if they didn't turn it over.
But the performance mattered.
"Wait inside."
"A-are you sure that's all right?"
"Of course."
The two men entered and looked around the suite in amazement.
-Bwoooong!!
The phone rang again.
It was the agent's phone from earlier.
This time, however, it was a video call.
When I answered, the screen showed a young Russian man I had never seen before.
-Noah... hyung?
His Korean was clumsy.
But he called me hyung.
"Uh... wait a moment."
I quickly turned over a card.
Then I shouted.
"MotherRUSS."
He was someone whose fortune I had read on my show before.
I'd told him that his father had stage-one liver cancer.
-You recognized me! Hyung! Ah. Before that, read this guy's fortune for me.
Along with the clumsy Korean, the screen showed several blindfolded foreign men being held captive.
I quickly turned over a card.
"Thanks. Let's meet in Seoul later."
-Is this a fan meeting?! My colleagues who took part in this operation want to meet you, too!
"Bring them all."
Unintelligible Russian could be heard through the screen.
Judging by the general mood, they seemed happy.
In any case, once I ended the call, the agents in the room grinned.
"So you're finished now."
"Please get some good rest."
"No. I still have work to do."
I took out my laptop.
It wasn't for gaming.
Of course, that didn't mean I wouldn't play.
I had to take care of business before I played.
"You must be tired. You should rest..."
"I need to catch the people who tried to mess with me first."
I opened my laptop and contacted Doyle at the FBI through Messenger.
A moment later, his face appeared on the video call.
-Mr. Kang! Are you all right?!
"Yes. I'm safe. It's all thanks to you."
-What a relief!
"All right. Then let's begin."
-Have you found out who they are?
"Yes. The Russian agents successfully captured one of them alive and showed me his face."
And I saw it.
I saw exactly who had given orders to the man who had tried to abduct me by looking into his past.
"Alberto del Lucam, one of the heads of the Mexican drug cartels."
Even without seeing him directly, I had seen him through the mercenary's past.
"He's trash who has no need to remain alive."
***
Alberto del Lucam was one of the heads of a Mexican drug cartel.
He had risen to the position of cartel boss after his father's death.
Violent and cruel, he had earned the fear of his subordinates, and recently, something interesting had happened.
It was a fortune teller named Kang Noah.
'If I had this power, there'd be nothing I couldn't do...'
It was a power little short of a miracle.
The ability to read people's pasts and futures.
Being able to read the future meant being able to avoid danger.
As the head of a cartel that sold drugs, danger had always been present in his life.
And it wasn't just the members of rival cartels.
There were even men among his own subordinates who wanted him dead.
Was that all?
In the United States and Russia, where he currently sold drugs, there were countless people after his head.
That was why he was always hiring mercenaries at exorbitant prices.
Expensive weapons and armor.
And even armored vehicles.
He possessed a force comparable to an army, yet he was always anxious.
But what if he had this Asian man, Kang Noah?
"It would only be natural for an inferior, lowly monkey to work for the great Alberto."
He could lock him in a basement, keep him from meeting anyone, and make him read fortunes.
That was the life suited to this inferior, lowly monkey.
A jewel found lying in the street belonged to whoever picked it up.
So he sent mercenaries.
Very discreetly.
'If everything goes well, I might be able to target Mexico—or maybe even the United States.'
The mercenaries he had sent this time were reliable, at least when it came to their skills.
Although they had been unable to bring many weapons into that monkey's country and had only managed to bring in a few pistols.
Even that would be more than enough to capture one monkey.
'Well, even if he uses his power to protect himself, so what?'
He grinned.
Then he set down the tequila in his hand.
"Hey!! Is everyone having a good time?!"
"Yeeah~! Alberto!"
"It's always fun~!"
He approached the beautiful women in the pool at his private villa.
The gorgeous South American women in bikinis approached him with smiles.
One of them, a beauty who had reportedly competed in the Miss Mexico finals recently, puckered her alluring lips and repeatedly kissed his cheek.
"You're really the best."
Her ample breasts pressed against Alberto's arm.
Enjoying the softness, he freely fondled her large buttocks with his other hand, then grinned at the beauties in the pool.
Once he captured that monkey, Kang Noah, he could fill the pool with not only Mexican beauties but also women from the United States, France, and Britain.
'There had been quite a few fuckable women among the chinks, too...'
He recalled the Asian beauties kept by another Mexican cartel boss.
Then he grinned.
Once he captured Kang Noah, he would have him find a future in which he could deal with those bastards first.
It was while he was thinking that and laughing that it happened.
-Bang!!
An explosive boom rang out.
And then.
-Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!!
A fierce burst of gunfire.
The startled beauties in the pool ran away or hid.
What was that?
What was happening?
"Damn it!! What's going on!!"
He hurriedly drew his gun, grabbed his radio, and shouted.
It was then, as the men nearby began to panic and assess the situation.
-Rat-a-tat-tat!!
Another burst of gunfire rang out.
His men collapsed.
The door shattered, and heavily armed soldiers in black poured inside.
"Y-you... Who the hell are you?! Where are you?! Where did you bastards come fromaaaaah!!"
It was an incomprehensible scream.
It was the only thing he could do.
-Baaang!!
The bullet fired at him completely destroyed his hand.
The large-caliber round blew his hand apart, and as he screamed in agony, a masked man struck him with a rifle butt and knocked him unconscious.
Then they injected a drug into his neck.
That was all it took.
He picked up his radio.
"Target secured."
-Return immediately.
"Yes."
All that remained was to move to the extraction point.
Even that was nothing to worry about.
Through the video call with Kang Noah earlier, they had confirmed that there was no danger.
What an incredible man.
"To think that trash like this targeted someone like him."
The man carrying the unconscious Alberto threw him into the van, climbed inside, and removed his mask.
The face revealed beneath it belonged to a muscular Black man with a cold expression.
He was the FBI agent known as JJ, who had gone to Disney Land with Kang Noah in the past.
.
.
.
"Huh. This is something. He really is incredible."
Lowen exclaimed in admiration.
The head of a Mexican cartel.
And not even a small one.
Even so, the effort required to take them down had been absurdly minimal.
It was all thanks to Kang Noah.
By connecting them to him through a video call, he had secured the cooperation of Mexican government officials who detested the drug cartels.
Was that all?
He had also solved several problems that had been troubling the Drug Enforcement Administration.
And most importantly, there was the operation itself.
When conducting an actual operation, accomplishing the mission while minimizing friendly casualties was the organization's most important task.
Kang Noah had solved even that.
"With only a few possible operation plans, we could tell who would be injured and how badly..."
It had been an immensely satisfying operation.
They had completely destroyed Alberto's arsenal, drug warehouses, and factories, while capturing the boss alive.
Was that all?
They had also secured the American distribution routes and customer list for the Mexican drug cartels that Alberto's father, Rodren, had possessed.
Despite achieving such incredible results, their losses amounted to only four agents suffering minor injuries and a few damaged vehicles.
It might even be remembered as one of the best operations in history.
-Bwoooong!!
"Yes. This is Lowen."
-How did it go?
After receiving Doyle's call, Lowen grinned.
A perfect success.
There was no other way to describe it.
When he heard the report, laughter erupted from the other end of the phone.
-Hahaha!! Entrusting this operation to you was worth it.
"It was all thanks to Mr. Kang, wasn't it? Even if I hadn't been involved, Mr. Kang would have managed something like this."
-No, no. There must have been a reason Mr. Kang personally chose you.
Kang Noah had chosen the leader who would carry out this mission.
The reason was simple.
It was because having Lowen lead would resolve it most quickly and securely.
With just one video call, Noah had read the future and made them bring back the result.
-Mr. Kang must be pleased, too.
"Haha. I hope so. Still, I received far too much from Mr. Kang, and I don't know how to repay him."
-Send him a nice gift later.
"Understood. In any case, thank you for your hard work on this operation."
-What did I do? Tell the agents that I won't forget the results of this operation.
Highly satisfied, he ended the call.
Lowen smiled.
His promotion was assured as a result of this operation.
He might even rise higher than he had expected.
Becoming a branch chief would be difficult, but surely he could at least reach the same rank as his wife, couldn't he?
He was happily sipping his coffee when—
"Honey."
"U-uh, yeah?"
"Honey. You looked really sexy today..."
The sight of him calmly issuing orders during the operation had been more than enough to arouse Lowen's wife, who had directed the operation alongside him.
"I'll wash up properly tonight."
"H-honey? Wash up? What are you talking about...?"
His wife winked coquettishly, and somehow she seemed more frightening to him than some insignificant Mexican cartel criminal.