slept soundly and woke up
I didn’t have dreams that I often had, and I didn’t lose sleep or wake up in the middle.
I literally fell asleep like I was blacked out.
I shook my head in an instant.
‘This one was the toughest, damn it… … .’
It was something I didn’t want to do again.
It was because even though I had physical strength, it was extremely difficult.
If it had been training rather than actual combat, I might have raised my hand to give up in the end.
As soon as I raised my upper body with such thoughts, people came rushing in.
Those who pretend to be government officials, and those who seem to be engaged in medicine or research.
Among them, I heard urgent but businesslike words from a doctor in a white coat.
“Are you conscious? Please state your full name.”
“This is Lee Kang-tae.”
“Then can you briefly describe the events you remember until recently?”
“It is too long. Um, can I shorten the last thing I remember?”
“Yes, please speak as you like.”
While the doctor answered, the eyes of the people around me were focused on me.
After boarding the helicopter and explaining the scene where Harry cursed, the alphabet was listed, and various vocabulary and simple addition and subtraction were tested.
It wasn’t until about 10 minutes after I woke up that I was able to hear the business.
Not from a doctor, but from a man in a suit.
“Mr. Lee, I’m really sorry you just woke up, but could you give me a minute?”
Even if I pretended to be a person from a government agency or something, fortunately, I didn’t have the arrogant or authoritative look peculiar to the intelligence agency that I felt before.
Even the politeness was felt in the expression and tone.
“what… Are you going to do a test or something? Are you going to lie on the test bench?”
“no. After confirming simple motor functions and reconstructing the situation based on your memories, we plan to write data through Q&A with the people involved.”
“If you are involved… Are those people behind you?”
I moved my gaze to the man’s back.
It was because, besides doctors and government agents, there were several middle-aged and elderly men in checkered woolen suits or plain shirts.
People with bald hair or wearing high-precision glasses, and those with long bag straps.
Everyone was nervous, but they had curious eyes.
As expected, the man nodded.
“you’re right. I will introduce them formally later, but they are professors who are conducting research at leading universities.”
“You must have come to see me, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what… How long will it take? It’s a bit marketable.”
“You can proceed while eating.”
“I want to eat rice comfortably, but can’t we have it later?”
“I heard that it is most certain to proceed immediately after waking up, when the consciousness is clear… Please, Mr. Lee.”
At his desperate words, I looked for a watch that was not hanging in the hospital room and asked.
“What time is it?”
“yes? Oh, it’s 10:08.”
I made a conclusion to the man who told me the time.
“Then let’s finish the first thing before lunch, and if it’s not enough, let’s do it again after eating.”
Although cumbersome, I had no intention of rejecting these tests or conversations.
Because it was already expected to some extent.
I had been prepared for this since I started running outside of Moscow after I said I would escape on foot.
Through the West Wing’s basement situation room, my health level will be spread.
It seemed that there would be many people who would come to me to study and to know.
If it went badly, there was a possibility that I would end up on an operating table, have my stomach split open without my knowledge, or have my skull forcibly opened.
Compared to that, this kind of conversation wasn’t a big deal.
“What about our team? Can we eat together?”
As he continued to add, he soon heard the man’s answer.
“Of course, Mr. Lee. Then we will move right away.”
The man hurriedly brought a wheelchair.
“I know my legs are functioning normally, but they told me to use them for quick recovery and stability.”
He noticed my gaze and explained it like an excuse, so he got off the bed and sat in the wheelchair.
Then, sitting on the wheelchair he pulled, he left the hospital room.
With dozens of people behind.
“Heh… … .”
I laughed out loud.
It was because I felt like I had seen a scene like this in a drama I watched once.
Feels like a chaebol president and his entourage following him.
‘Looks like I’m fine, I’m thinking useless things… … .’
After thinking about it for a while, I was ushered into a spacious meeting room.
It was like a job interview.
It was because the camera and recorder were installed separately, and several chairs were placed around one chair.
It wasn’t too awkward.
It’s not to this extent, but this was because I had a similar experience.
As soon as we sat down, the conversation started.
Mainly about the exit process.
The answer included the details of the operation, but it was clear what they wanted.
Pulse, breathing, joints, muscles, momentum, range of motion, felt fatigue, wounds, and blood loss, which are mainly related to physical strength.
It was time for the professors to ask, listen, and record, and even imitate the movements of the time when I wore a heat-reflective cloth.
“I will pause for a moment. It is meal time.”
A man in a suit appeared and cut the situation like a knife, then put me back in a wheelchair and moved me.
I left the meeting room, passed through the hallway, and climbed up to the elevator.
Only then did I realize again.
“Security personnel… Were you placed because of me?”
There were many more than I imagined.
In front of the door, in the hallway, and in the elevator, men in black suits or combat outfits with patches were all lined up.
Even fully armed.
I asked if it was because of my value, but as I guessed, the person pulling the wheelchair nodded.
“That’s right.”
I felt that the treatment was very different.
It made sense why someone who looked like an intelligence agency was so polite.
So I nodded my head, and then the words added from behind.
“and… … .”
“… … ?”
“There is a bounty.”
“ah… Looks like it took a lot? How much?”
When I asked because I remembered what I had been caught before, I heard an amount more than I could have imagined.
“One billion dollars if captured alive, $100 million if killed.”
“… There are so many.”
The profanity came out of nowhere.
I had heard of $100 million before, but $1 billion was different.
The amount that goes into a trillion unit in Korean Won.
Hundreds of billions of dollars were added to it, which was an enormous amount of money.
‘This will turn your eyes?’
It’s difficult to be captured alive, but even if you die, $100 million won’t be a loss.
Then, the guard, which seemed excessive, seemed reasonable.
“But you can rest assured. The highest level of security is provided by direct orders from the president.”
It was time for further explanations.
ding-
As the elevator stopped, the hallway was revealed again.
And I laughed at the same time.
“Oh, chief.”
Jake was standing in front of the elevator like a gatekeeper.
The rest of his comrades stood around him chattering like soldiers following a gatekeeper.
Rachel, Harry, Jose, Andrei and even Ron.
Jake’s mouth, facing me head-on, opened first as if he had waited.
“Did anything happen?”
“Heh, yes. Who is the team leader?”
“I’m okay. What about your legs?”
“This is fine too. I was told to use a wheelchair for recovery, so I rode it.”
“I’m glad.”
After that, Harry naturally came up behind me and grabbed the handle of the wheelchair.
“I will push this now. I’m your senior’s aide.”
“… Another aide, Taryeong, madman.”
When Andrei heard that, José, who was next to him, burst into laughter, while Rachel also helped with a few light words.
“This way.”
The man who brought me guided me, so I followed it, but it wasn’t a ration restaurant.
It was a place where the office was cleaned up and only tables were set up, but lunch was delivered there and started to spread.
Some sort of special treatment was certain, but not the food.
It is none other than U.S. military supplies.
“To eat this even after the operation is over.”
After Andrei’s swearing, José chimed in and pretended to touch food waste, but everyone naturally prepared the meal.
“Come on, let’s eat.”
After my words, we exchanged stories over a somewhat modest lunch.
What I did upstairs, what the professors asked me, and the story of my bounty and my escape from Russia.
At the end, the name of the target I hit, Jurgen, came up on the table.
My gaze went straight to Ron.
“Yes, Myers. What happened to Jurgen? You wouldn’t have survived, would you?”
He was knocked down by hitting the area around the pit of the stomach, but he could have survived thanks to a miracle from God.
Because I didn’t blow my head.
I was concerned about this, but fortunately, a welcome answer came back.
“There are no vital signs at all, and since a funeral was held, we are trying to find out whether it is true.”
“Fortunately, the mission was successful.”
“I can’t see myself being happy yet. The bounty on you is a problem, and the Russians are dragging us into public opinion wars.”
“A public opinion contest?”
“Yeah, Russia has released some satellite images, just like China.”
“ah… So, is it similar to China?”
“It could get a little worse than that. There is a chain reaction following China, and the Middle East is also responding.”
“ah… So, is an anti-American coalition forming?”
I asked hopefully.
It was because a similar atmosphere had been created before the outbreak of nuclear war.
In the meantime, due to the nuclear missile launched by Pikal, more than World War 3 was destroyed.
When I asked this, Ron tilted his head.
“well… It could be, but it wouldn’t be so badly altered.”
“Can’t you?”
“Yeah, your name got spread right.”
His nuance was strange.
It wasn’t just that there were rumors, but it sounded different, so I asked what it meant.
“… Are you afraid of me?”
At the same time, the expected answer came back.
“Yes, they cover hundreds of kilometers a day and snipe them as if they were shooting from several kilometers away… Do you think there are people who wouldn’t be afraid of this?”
Ron shook his head as if in an advisory tone.
“It can’t be. Now you are worth more than 10,000 tons of nuclear warheads.”
I couldn’t reply to that, but Jose, who was sitting across from me, nodded with a serious face.
“I hadn’t even thought about that… The hostile rebel leaders won’t be able to sleep well. With Kang-tae’s ability, neither a mouse nor a bird can die without knowing, and you won’t even know who the culprit is, let alone find the culprit… ah! Especially North Korea’s Kim, he must have been the most frightened. Because Lee is also from Korea… … .”
“I still got calls from the NIS several times while Lee was asleep.”
“Oh, then maybe I can really go to North Korea… … .”
As Jose muttered, I thought of the person I had contacted named Jo Beom-yong from the National Intelligence Service.
Swoop.
Then Ron put away the food he had eaten and put something like a briefcase on it.
I did something, but several personal items such as cell phones and cards came out.
“Everyone use this. The exposed number has been discarded. And don’t even bother telling me. From now on, I’m going to make myself president… No, think it’s more than that. Not just Lee, all of you.”
“Not Lee, all of us?”
Ron nodded at Rachel’s words as if he hadn’t noticed.
“Yeah, Lee talked a lot in his sleep. How much I want to be with the team.”
“… me?”
I asked again because it seemed like he hadn’t dreamed, but Ron shook his head.
“Yes, your hospital room has video and audio recorded 24 hours a day, so if you are curious, come and see it.”
I was about to laugh, but I heard crying next to me.
“also… Seniors… … .”
I gave Harry a rough slap on the shoulder, and Ron looked at me and said.
“Oh, after the interview, take a shower and change into a suit.”
“Ah, will you receive a medal or something like this again?”
It was around the time when I asked myself back, remembering that I had been awarded informally before.
An unexpected answer came.
“No, I heard that the president is coming to the airport for protocol.”