Chapter 125
I saw the three men I feared.
Seen this way, they merely looked like people who had come out to watch the police gathered in their neighborhood.
But inside was different.
Those men had killed countless people for their ideology and beliefs as members of the Moon of Allah.
And when a falling-out with the leadership put their lives in danger, they immediately fled with the organization's operating funds.
I laughed.
They had belonged to a radical terrorist organization that followed Allah.
Even people like them had fled the moment they thought their lives were in danger.
And yet where were their ideology and convictions?
I picked up my phone.
-Yes, Mister.
"We found some people who belonged to the Moon of Allah. They were in fairly high positions."
-...Is that so?
On the other end of the phone,
Doyle of the FBI answered in a voice full of joy and hatred.
-I'll send agents.
***
There were already quite a few FBI agents in Korea to protect Kang Noah.
No, was that all?
The U.S. military moved too.
In an instant, armed U.S. soldiers and black-suited men gathered in the old neighborhood.
"What's going on?"
"Why are the U.S. soldiers here...?"
"This neighborhood has a lot of foreigners living here... Could there be some troublemakers among them?"
The residents, who were simply poor, trembled with anxiety.
Some approached the U.S. soldiers and asked what was going on, but the soldiers offered no reply and merely stared at them coldly.
Yang Min-gwang, who was notorious at the nearby shops for making a huge scene, stepped forward aggressively.
I don't know why the hell you people came.
But this is where civilians live, isn't it?
"You fucking Yankee bastards!! Yankees go home!! Yankees go home!!"
Why were foreigners from another country making a racket in someone else's neighborhood?
I'm reporting all of this.
I'm filing complaints against every one of you.
Just as he usually went after the local community center officials, he charged ahead aggressively.
And then.
"Arrest him."
A Korean man in a black suit standing among the U.S. soldiers said coldly.
Yang Min-gwang was startled by his response.
Until then, no one had responded to his antics like this.
Because he was a civilian.
Though he had acted as if nothing in the world could scare him because he was poor and had nothing to lose, he instinctively sensed that this time was different.
"Uh, uhh... I-I, um, no, that's not it. I was just..."
"He could be connected to dangerous individuals. Take him in. Start the investigation."
"Yes."
"Eek...!?"
At that cold statement, he began to tremble.
Then, forcing himself to muster his courage, he shouted.
"You fucking bastards!! I saw your faces! I saw them! I'm reporting every one of you!! Ow ow ow!! P-please spare me! Please spare me!"
His trembling but blustering shout quickly died down when handcuffs were fastened around his wrists.
Though he shouted that he was sorry and begged them to forgive him, he was soon merely loaded into a van parked nearby.
And a little later.
"What? What?"
"Who's being taken away?"
Three people who had been captured by soldiers were dragged out of an old villa that had been built fifty years ago.
They were led away with black cloth covering their faces so no one could see them.
It was merely a mystery.
But people thought,
This must be something serious.
Something would make the news today.
Everyone was tense.
It felt as though unease had descended upon Korea, which had been peaceful until then.
And once they had been taken away,
ordinary-looking men arrived amid the confusion in the villa neighborhood.
They were Lee Baek-gon, the NIS's Second Deputy Director, and his subordinates.
They calmly made their way to the first floor of the villa, the home where the former Moon of Allah agents had lived.
"Search everything."
"Yes."
They took everything necessary for the investigation.
They started with the phones, then the laptops, notebooks, and notepads.
Everything else as well.
It was while they had been investigating for some time.
Lee Baek-gon's eyes fell on a carefully stored statue depicting an Arab.
'Islam forbids idolatry.'
Other religions require statues or icons for worship.
But for devout Muslims...
Why would people as fanatical as them—fanatical enough to commit terrorist attacks—have a statue depicting an Arab?
They had kept it so carefully, even though it went against their doctrine.
'This is it.'
He swallowed hard.
Then he reached for the statue.
The statue was slowly lifted.
And he was able to confirm
that there was a small device underneath it.
-Click.
When he pressed the device, the bottom opened.
Inside was a small USB drive.
A smile appeared at the corner of Lee Baek-gon's mouth.
"We've collected everything."
"Good. Let's go."
When they returned to the NIS, agents from the FBI and CIA were waiting.
They looked at Lee Baek-gon with serious expressions, and he spoke confidently.
"We brought everything for now. Let's go through it together."
"But when will Mister be arriving?"
"He'll be here any moment."
I had already requested Kang Noah's cooperation.
I asked him to examine the former Moon of Allah members they had captured.
I had contacted him before going to the villa, so he would arrive soon.
"Deputy Director. Mr. Kang has arrived."
He certainly wasn't one to wait around.
Thinking that, Lee Baek-gon grinned and rose from his seat.
"Mr. Kang has arrived. Let's go greet him."
***
After arriving at the NIS, I headed for the building I had visited before.
At the entrance stood the familiar Lee Baek-gon, along with two foreigners I had never seen before.
"Nice to meet you, Mister. I'm Euler Sweetrom of the FBI."
"I'm Seetram Eisen of the CIA."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kang Noah."
Although they belonged to different organizations, they were both on our side.
Once I had determined that neither of them was connected to the Moon of Allah, I looked at Lee Baek-gon.
"Could I see them first?"
"Of course."
I followed Lee Baek-gon underground.
When we entered a room deep inside, I saw three people being held beyond a glass window.
The sack covering the first man's face was removed.
And there he was.
That man was just a small fry.
I turned over the card.
"Ibrahim Tose. An operative who belonged to the Moon of Allah. He assassinated three Saudi VIPs and was also active in Afghanistan."
"I see."
"He tortured three U.S. soldiers to death and organized bombings that left dozens dead."
"...He's a bastard who deserves to die."
"Yes. He's not worth keeping alive."
Then the next one.
"Abdulrahman Yasmin. He worked as a hacker for the Moon of Allah."
"A hacker?"
"Yes. He used hacking to uncover FBI and CIA operations, inflicting losses on their agents."
"...Is that really true?"
"Yes. You all know Operation Othello, don't you?"
It was a mission to infiltrate Iran and rescue the human-rights activist being held there.
But it failed.
The agents and the human-rights activist were killed in an ambush while trying to extract the activist.
"It failed because of that man's hacking."
"...I'm ashamed."
The CIA agent, Seetram, lowered his head.
But only for a moment.
His slowly lifting eyes were filled with hatred.
"Let's move on to the next one."
The next face belonged to an ordinary-looking, middle-aged Muslim.
But I could tell.
"This one is quite high-ranking. One of the Moon of Allah's leaders. Rahman Sharif Selim."
".....!!"
He was the most brutal man in the Moon of Allah and had led its combat unit.
He had led bombings and assassinations of key figures not only in the United States and Saudi Arabia, but across the world.
"Is that really Rahman? My God. The CIA hadn't even confirmed what he looked like..."
The CIA had learned the name Rahman through the Moon of Allah members they had captured, but it had not even been able to determine who he was or what he looked like.
And yet they had caught him.
In Korea, no less.
Unlike the bewildered agents, I calmly looked at him.
"There had been a power struggle."
There were factions within the Moon of Allah as well.
There was the militant faction that fought in the field, and the financial faction that handled the organization and the flow of funds.
The reason those two factions had come into conflict...
"It was because of me."
"You, Mister? Why?"
"They failed to carry out several terrorist attacks, didn't they?"
A large-scale terrorist attack they had prepared extensively had failed.
As a result, the financial faction grew dissatisfied with the militant faction responsible for operations.
What good was preparing everything
when they were bound to fail in the end?
The proud militant faction took their words as an insult.
And the two factions clashed.
"I see... And then?"
"In the end, the financial faction won. The Moon of Allah's leader disliked the militant faction's overbearing attitude and conduct."
"The Moon of Allah—their leader, who on earth is he?"
"Isein Naim Adel. He has a base in Iraq. But that's outdated information, so he won't be there by now."
The leader of the Moon of Allah changed his residence once a day.
So we couldn't arrest him right away.
"Anyway, those men stole the terrorist funds held by the Moon of Allah and fled with them."
"...I see. Is it Bitcoin?"
"Yes."
Because it was the cleanest way to use the money.
"They also came to Korea to evade their pursuers and find safety."
Korea has strict gun control.
They figured that, as long as all three stayed together, they could deal with most people who came after them.
The problem was that the person who came to kill them was anything but ordinary.
He had smuggled in guns, fully prepared to die along with them when they were arrested.
From their perspective, it must have been like a bolt from the blue.
"Deputy Director Lee Baek-gon. You retrieved the USB from their residence, right? The one inside the statue of Allah."
"Yes. We haven't checked it yet, however..."
"There should be Bitcoin on it. And the password is..."
After hearing the password I had given him, Lee Baek-gon connected the USB to a laptop.
And a little later.
"It's here."
"Could we use this to draw in the Moon of Allah's other members?"
I shrugged.
Unfortunately, that was impossible.
"There will be more opportunities."
But there was no need to be disappointed.