Chapter 30
December 1st, 2016 15:05. Choongbook Chungju-si Outskirts Mountains.
Two n wearing thick jumpers were laying down on the cold surface of a large rock. Their breath was visible. The n were on the mountain that had Chungju-si on its left and the 17th Fighter Wing on the right; the entire 17th Fighter Wing could be seen from the distance. One of the n held a cara with a telephoto lens and pressed the shutter of the cara repeatedly.
The African Arican man, Louie, asked, “Steven, did you see any special movents today at all?”
Steven, who pressed the shutter a couple more tis, answered grumpily as he put down the cara. “Damn it! There’s nothing new. There’s nothing different from yesterday. I think it’s going to be another day with no results. Louie, how’s the wiretapping going for you?”
Louie answered Steve angrily also. “It’s not working because of all the signal disturbances, considering it’s a military base! I think my eardrums are going to explode from all the static I’ve been hearing!”
Louie and Steven were both upset and dissatisfied with their work; however, they had to follow the orders of their superiors, so all they could do was spend their ti working at a mountain in the middle of the freezing cold winter.
Steven, who started taking photos again, complained with a grumpier tone. “I don’t know what we’re doing in this cold. What does Director Arnold want us to find, anyways?”
“Yeah, you said it. If it wasn’t a military base, at least we’d be able to infiltrate the place. This is just stifling, truly.”
Louie put the wiretapping headphones on his ear, pointed the receiving antenna the size of a waterlon towards the direction of the 17th Fighter Wing, and typed away on his keyboard. Unfortunately, all that ca from the headphones were the buzzing sounds of static. None of the wiretapping contents from the Fighter Wing ca through.
“Steven, I’m thinking of just retiring after this mission and opening a small bar in my hotown.”
“Really?”
“I’m sick of dealing with this job. I can’t even date because we’re overseas every year.”
“Ha, ha, ha. I understand.”
Louie, who was complaining the whole hour, took off his wiretapping headphones and spoke. “Steven! It’s getting colder. Why don’t we head back?”
Steven nodded imdiately at Louie’s words, quickly began disassembling the cara and lenses, and put them in the cara bag. He said, “We’re almost freezing to death already, so what’re we going to do if it gets colder? You and I are both in for a rough ti, a rough one! Let’s go, Louie.”
“Yeah! Let’s go back.”
The sun was setting in the west into the crest of the mountain, and it was getting dark. Steve and Louie promptly put their equipnt into their bags and walked down the mountain path they ca from quickly and quietly. They boarded their black sedan parked on the shoulder of the road, found the interstate, and headed to Seoul.
* * *
December 2nd, 2016 11:50. Choongbook Chungju-si 17th Fighter Wing Underground Research Facility X-2 Lab (Namgoong-won’s Lab).
Namgoong-won began developing a more convenient interlocking protocol program since he was able to mutually interlock with and receive help from Hocula, the main system of the unidentified spacecraft. If developnt for this program could be finished, then it could an Korea will have a high-spec supercomputer that would be 20 tis, no hundreds of tis faster and better than the current supercomputers in Arica, China, and other western countries.
It would be a supercomputer that would be able to mutually interlock and sync data rather than just simply have fast calculation abilities. Right now, the Hocula system is only capable of operating at 32% capacity due to the system error. If the error could be fixed, then based on the technological advancents they could make, it would be able to display new technological developnts that humanity had never thought of before. It ant Korea would be the leader in new high technology developnt with their new research.
Knock, knock, knock!
“Yes! Co in.”
The laboratory’s door opened, and Assitant Manager Lee Hye-jin entered. “What’re you doing? It’s lunchti. Let’s get so food!”
“Is it lunchti already? Ti flies, doesn’t it?”
Namgoong-won glanced at his wristwatch, looked at Assistant Manager Lee Hye-jin with a surprised look on his face, and then he changed his expression to a smile. As Namgoong-won sat, Assistant Manager Lee Hye-jin felt worried and asked, “Do you know you’re too focused on work these days? You need to take care of yourself and your health when you work, okay?”
“Well you’re here, Assistant Manager Lee. I’m doing exciting work, so I’m having fun, you know? I’m not having a hard ti, so don’t worry.”
“Alright, fine. Let’s go eat lunch.”
“Ooh, ooh! Wait.”
Namgoong-won seed to have rembered sothing as he got up from his chair and grabbed a stack of papers from a pile of docunts on the left of his computer.
“What kind of docunts are those?”
“Rember the serum we found on the alien spacecraft? Dr. Lee suggested I ask Hocula about it, so this is the data.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! If I do a good job, I think it’ll be a great piece of data we can use.”
When the first Achilunia Expedition ship’s three alien crew mbers arrived on Earth 76 years ago, they were collecting data, but they unexpectedly got infected by Earth’s viruses and died. However, they sent data regarding the harmful elents, such as Earth viruses and Earth bacteria, back to Splith.
The scientists on Splith developed a vaccine for the various Earth viruses and pathogens. They intended to administer the vaccine to the four Splith crew mbers on the Rose Ferry three days before their arrival to earth, but the capsule’s malfunction caused them to die. The vaccine was left behind unused.
Namgoong-won obtained this information last night with the Hocula system’s help and began organizing the analysis data about the alien virus vaccine’s effects and data.
“I see.”
“I think I’ll stop by Dr. Lee Su-jin’s lab on my way to the cafeteria.”
“Yes, I’ll go to the cafeteria first and get lunch ready for you.”
“Will you? Thanks a lot.”
“Don’t ntion it. Let’s go!”
* * *
December 6th, 2016 16:00. South Korea.
After the national security conference, the Ministry of Economy and Finance requested for an additional ergency budget to Congress under the guise of a need for a technological developnt hub for overseas work that could recover Korea from its economic crisis. So of the opposing party mbers opposed the request, but most mbers of Congress agreed, and an additional budget was obtained quite easily.
The next-generation technology developnt hub was to be built near Chungju, a strategic point for traffic, so inquiry for participating corporations began imdiately. However, the true purpose of building a research facility for the alien spacecraft and application of the new technology was labeled as an SS-ranked national secret dubbed ‘Olympus.’ It was to be built by engineering corps from the army, navy, and airforce, along with a few construction companies. The preparations for purchasing land and starting construction were making progress in secret.
A new governntal departnt, The Ministry of Next-Generation Technology, was announced to prevent leaks, guard secrets about the results, and promote cooperation between corporations and governnt. The founding of The Ministry of Korean dicine that would one day fund the governntal budget beca a top priority.
The process of selecting small- to middle-sized enterprises to be bought out by the governnt to satisfy the need for manpower was being held jointly by the Ministry of Science, ICT, Future Planning, the Ministry of Industrial Aid, and the Food and Drug Administration. They were to set the criteria for integrity and potential for improvent. They were also ant to fully aid the 17th Fighter Wing’s underground research facility by selecting professional biologists and chemists from within the country to develop new dicines based on the data from the alien vaccine. It was not long before many new dicines, which would surprise the global dical community, would be coming from Korea.
* * *
December 7th, 2016 09:00. Seoul Mapo-gu Hapjeong-dong CIA Korean Branch Building.
There were ten burly n seated in the conference room. After awhile, the man seated in the middle of the room threw photos on to the table as if to scatter them.
Director Arnold questioned, “Louie, Steven, are these all the photos that you could bring?”
“I’m sorry, sir. We’re spying on a military base, so it’s not like we could just infiltrate the area.”
“Do you think I assigned you two to this mission just to hear excuses like that?”
All that Louie, as a Strategic officer, could do to Director Arnold’s scolding was look at the ceiling and sigh. Steven, who was also in the sa position, carefully chose his words and spoke. “Well how about we request for aid from higher up and survey the area with a spy drone?”
A spy drone nad SPY-X was currently being tested. A developnt from the CIA, it was the size of a human fingernail and was designed to survey buildings or terrain people could not infiltrate into.
“Spy drone? You want to use equipnt still under developnt in the field?”
“If there’s no other way, I believe it’d be a good opportunity to test the drone by sending it out into the field.”
A Caucasian man, who was sitting on the left side of Director Arnold, took out a stack of docunts from a briefcase and handed it to Director Arnold when he asked the question. “If that’s the only way, then we have to give it a shot. Alright, I’ll send in a request to headquarters. How are things looking on Strategy Team 2?”
“There’s a list of the high-ranking Korean bureaucrats who are deeply involved in the suspicious policies the Korean governnt has been making. I believe this man would be the best candidate to confer with from this list.”
The docunt the Caucasian man pointed to had a photograph and profile of Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Ahn Sang-tae.
“Minister Ahn Sang-tae from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport? I know this guy. He’s one of the pro-Arican figures.”
“Yes. He’s also a current mber of the National Security Council, so there’s a high chance we can obtain the information we want.”
“Good, let’s go with him. Use any ans necessary to make contact and get anything you can out of him. However, you must approach him with caution. If the Korean governnt finds out about our operation, then the US-Korean relationship will be impacted heavily. You must keep this in mind.”
“Don’t worry, Director Arnold, sir.”
“Good. I want Team 3 to aid Team 2, and I want Team 4 to aid Steve and Louie from Team 1 when the spy drone equipnt arrives from the mainland. The pressure from the brass is getting out of hand. We must find at least a shred of proof before the year is up and report it back, understand?”
“Yes, understood, Director.”
Director Arnold received the mission directly from the Chief of the CIA himself, but could not get any results, so he resorted to a tactic of bribing and conferring with pro-Arican Korean governnt bureaucrats. In response, Team 2 selected the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Ahn Sang-tae.
When the eting was over, Director Arnold was alone in the conference room. He took out his smartphone and dialed 1.
“Chief, this is Arnold, sir.”
“How’s work going?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t have any definitive results.”
“Director Arnold! This is a pri chance for you to return to your ho country.”
“Yes, I’m aware, sir.”
“Use any ans necessary to take this chance.”
“Yes, we’re currently using multiple thods for the mission. Please give us more ti.”
“Alright. I’l wait for you to bring so good news.”
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