A Dark Fantasy Spy

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Bang!

The loud sound of the van’s door slamming shut echoed through the air.

Special Activities Department Operations Agents pulled Fabio Verati out of the vehicle, and Counterintelligence Investigators took him inside the disguised office.

I tossed my clothes, gloves, and the now-empty roll of cellophane tape into the trash can and activated the rune stone.

—Whoosh!

A small flame erupted beside the van.

I stared impassively at the burning evidence.

As I silently watched the fire for a while, team leader-level employees gradually gathered around me.

Breaking the silence while gazing at the flames, I spoke to the huddled team leaders.

“Get ready for the interrogation.”

Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

Kidnapping a civil servant in broad daylight… was a successful operation.

In a busy intersection filled with pedestrians, I knocked Fabio Verati unconscious with a baseball bat and kidnapped him.

From a rational standpoint, this operation had many flaws.

Kidnapping a local civil servant was clearly a crime, and I was a Defense Attaché registered at the Magic Tower, not to mention that there were dozens of witnesses. Leaving aside the diplomatic issue, it would be no surprise if the Magic Tower’s counterintelligence agency and police stormed into my hotel room and arrested me on the spot.

To an outsider, it would seem like a madman committing a crazy act. How could someone ruthlessly assault a person on the street and stuff them into a van? Especially a civil servant.

It’s not something an ordinary, rational person would easily do.

Unless, of course, they weren’t a rational person.

“What are you doing?”

I asked Pippin, who was wandering around the office, while I flipped through TV channels.

She wore a rather amusing expression, and analysts in work uniforms sat quietly at their desks with glum faces.

After a while, one serious-looking analyst spoke up.

“W-What the hell…! Are we screwed?!”

“Hey, no matter how close we are, saying we’re screwed… That’s a bit much. I’m still a Major, you know….”

“Is this really the time to be discussing ranks?!”

“Geez, you’ve turned into an old man already….”

I lay down on the office sofa, watching TV, while Pippin circled around the sofa, expressing her feelings.

“Suddenly calling in employees without any explanation and abducting a civil servant with a bat in broad daylight? What’s that all about?!”

Just then, the TV news was reporting on the incident that Pippin mentioned.

[Breaking news: At around 11 a.m. today, a man walking on a road in the outskirts of Trinity was kidnapped. Many pedestrians witnessed a man collapsing in pain. The suspect, presumed to be male, was masked and hat-wearing, and he assaulted the victim indiscriminately….]

My image, captured by illegal flight surveillance cameras, was being broadcast live.

There I was, my face covered with a black hat and scarf, hitting Fabio Verati’s head with a baseball bat and mercilessly attacking him while he lay unconscious on the ground.

I sipped on soda while watching the news.

“I didn’t notice it at the time, but now that I see it, my stance was off, right? Maybe it’s because I injured my left shoulder….”

“Is that really the important thing right now?!”

Squeak!

Pippin scolded me with a soprano pitch.

Just as I was about to tell her to lower her voice since complaints were coming from the next room, someone burst in through the door.

With bronzed skin and bright yellow hair, it was Jake.

“Did you see the news?!”

“Oh, is that you? Have a seat.”

“That was the Manager, right?! No way, that has to be the Manager!”

“Yeah. Is it your first time seeing a secret operation? Why all the fuss?”

He rushed into the office, pointing at the TV while stumbling over his words. Just then, the broadcast switched to a reporter on the scene.

[The suspect assaulted the victim repeatedly with a blunt object. Although the victim lost consciousness and collapsed, the assault did not stop. The suspect loaded the unconscious victim into a vehicle and fled. Bystanders witnessed the horrific crime scene.]

[There was blood splattering everywhere. The suspect got out of the van and started hammering him with a baseball bat. As the victim passed out, the suspect tossed the bat aside and fled in the vehicle.]

[The police are currently identifying the victim and tracking the suspect and accomplices. They are analyzing the fingerprints and magic residues found on the weapon recovered from the scene….]

“Is that really okay?!”

“Were you wearing gloves? Huh?”

In the noisy office, I carefully lay back on the sofa to keep my shoulder injury from moving around.

“…It’s fine, so keep your voice down.”

“What the hell is fine?!”

And closing my eyes quietly, I answered my subordinates’ questions.

“The fingerprints on the bat….”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t those my fingerprints….”

*

Society changes constantly due to cultural, religious, historical, economic, and political environments, but every neighborhood has one commonality.

The way of thinking.

It’s the logic of actions and the foundation of life.

Sometimes it becomes a way of life, but it can also transform into shackles that bind a person. In short, it’s a double-edged sword.

People adjust themselves to conform to societal norms, ultimately becoming trapped in those frameworks that suppress their free thought and action.

And breaking that framework is exactly the standard by which intelligence agencies evaluate their agents.

And police officers are people too.

What governs the human brain is customs and culture, while what governs the police officers’ brains is knowledge and experience.

So,

“I’m sorry for bothering you during your busy time.”

“No, not at all. I was just about to contact you after seeing the news.”

If you understand people,

Manipulating people is very easy.

“First, everyone please take a seat. Standing to discuss this will take a while.”

“Yes, then I’ll excuse myself for a moment.”

I met with police investigators in the hotel lobby, which was surrounded by tight security.

Two were detectives from the police station, and another was an information police officer stationed at the hotel.

“We received contact from the Foreign Affairs Division. The victim is the father of the civil servant who was kidnapped that time, right?”

“That’s correct, Colonel. If you cooperate this time, we will….”

“No need, it’s all fine. Why make a fuss over this… Of course, I should help.”

As soon as Fabio Verati was kidnapped, the police came directly looking for me.

While the Magic Tower police might suspect me as a suspect, I judged that I wasn’t even the leading suspect.

Because there was already a larger suspect.

“Before we get to the main point, I apologize for the unfortunate incident that occurred at the hotel last time. I heard you were involved in a shootout… I truly regret it.”

“I was wavering on whether I should report that issue, so thank you for expressing your regrets. I have also heard explanations about the situation from the personnel at our representative office. They said it’s an incident involving the intelligence department?”

“Don’t rush to conclusions, but… it seems that way. An investigation is currently underway, so we can’t provide detailed explanations at this point.”

“Haha, that’s fine.”

I masked the ill-mannered attitude of the Magic Tower police (given that there was a shootout in the hotel, and they didn’t even show up) with a laugh.

Knowing they had arrived late, they had brought me to the hotel lobby instead of the police station. Even a police officer with a high rank had come bearing a gift.

Anyway.

“So… the current investigation authority sees this kidnapping as a crime perpetrated by some mysterious thugs, is that correct?”

“Well, that’s the consensus.”

All blame was pinned on the thugs who raided the hotel. More precisely, I placed it there.

As there had already been a precedent of a firearm-armed raid on the hotel for kidnapping, the most likely suspects from the police’s perspective were indeed the thugs who assaulted the hotel.

I vaguely knew the identities of those thugs. Though I couldn’t secure any physical evidence since the body had been moved to the Magic Tower, I had gathered various pieces of evidence through tips from Dmitri and the Military Intelligence Agency’s internal network that linked the Kien Empire’s Reconnaissance Command to the incident.

What their motive for securing Fabio Verati was, I had no idea. How would I know that, given that I’m not a shaman?

What’s important is that the Reconnaissance Command assaulted the hotel, and both the Magic Tower’s intelligence authorities and the police were aware of that fact.

So I could pin the blame on them.

“Personally, I suspect there’s a connection between the thugs who raided the hotel.”

“Can you testify about what happened at the hotel?”

“Oh, yes, for now….”

I confidently provided disinformation to the Magic Tower police.

Officially, it’s classified as deception operations. Spreading false information to create confusion in the investigation. A tactic that prestigious intelligence agencies employ.

KGB had once forged U.S. State Department documents to spoil diplomatic relations between the U.S. and South America, and the National Intelligence Service fumbled North Korea’s African diplomatic initiatives by spreading North Korean weapons throughout African war zones.

While it’s a nasty business for the victim, who cares about that?

Intelligence agencies work not for the public good but for national interests. They are the organizations that would steal secrets and sink people for the sake of the state. That’s exactly what they were made for.

Therefore, in this field, the truth is irrelevant. What truly matters is not the details of the incident but the perspective it brings.

Not who did it, but who it appears did it is what matters.

That is the essence of any operation conducted under a disguise.

Of course, all of this was merely my personal opinion, and I had no direct evidence, only suspicions.

However,

“…I heard that a weapon used in the crime was found on site. Anything come up?”

“Analysis revealed a significant amount of fingerprints. We are currently identifying the suspect based on that.”

If there’s no evidence, just create some.

From the travel agency office presumed to be the Reconnaissance Command’s front, a safe was found, and fingerprints were collected from there.

The fingerprints found on the baseball bat came from there.

Thus, I would distance myself from suspicion in the eyes of the Magic Tower police,

“Based on human and debt relationships, we have various people under suspicion, but currently, the thugs who engaged in the shootout remain the most likely suspects.”

It was a perfectly logical conclusion.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“For now, we would appreciate it if you could trust us with this issue. In addition, we plan to increase security around the hotel where you are currently staying for the time being. Detailed arrangements will be coordinated with the representatives from Abas’s office.”

So.

Everything about this is a,

“Understood.”

Ruse.

*

-“Hey, did you just get interrogated? Good job.”

“Not at all. The real workload has been on the headquarters staff.”

After finishing the police investigation, I returned to my hotel room and spoke with Colonel Clevenz.

-“I heard from the Overseas Information Office. You deceived the police?”

“Deceived might be too strong a term… More like, it was a disinformation operation.”

-“Isn’t that essentially the same thing? Well, the terminology isn’t important. Still, judging by the official document sent by the police, it seems the disinformation flowed well.”

“That’s a relief.”

As I retrieved a small dragon from the refrigerator, a cool breeze followed. They called it a spirit. I should save up enough to get one of these myself someday.

I could hear the sound of Clevenz sitting on a chair beyond the secured communication line. The chair creaked in protest.

“Did you not oil your chair?”

-“It’s so old that even lubricating it is useless.”

“Oh dear. Didn’t you request a replacement…?”

-“The advisor did, but it was rejected because we need to economize the budget. The Ministry of Finance is making a fuss about how much has been spent….”

“Oh….”

It seems that even intelligence agencies fold under the Ministry of Finance. Indeed, the one who pays calls the shots.

How much does it take to replace an office supply for them to raise a fuss? I have no idea how the Military Intelligence Agency’s budget runs.

-“Anyway, the Reconnaissance Command’s movements are being jointly monitored by the Empire and the Magic Tower’s diplomatic corps, so don’t worry about that for the time being. I’ll check information via the line daily, so don’t fret.”

“Oh, yes. Understood.”

-“Yeah… Now, as for the Empire, that’s all for now. Have you figured out the upper echelons of 51?”

“I’ve sketched out a profile through the Magic Tower representative’s official publications, academic journals, and media.”

I gazed at the report spread out before me as I slumped into the sofa.

The information document about the Magic Tower’s intelligence agency, processed by the intelligence analysis team led by Pippin.

“Due to a lack of information, I haven’t been able to ascertain specifics, but I’ve extracted a list of the development director and the people working beneath him.”

-“Still no details?”

“We’re scheduled to interrogate 51 soon, so more will come out then.”

-“It seems we’re nearing completion. Wrap things up and take a break.”

“Understood. You may go ahead.”

I placed the now disconnected terminal onto the table.

Next to the terminal, which encrypts communication records in real-time, there were reports submitted by Task Force 73 and documents sent by the overseas information team.

Magic Tower government agency communication wiretap report, personal information on representative office staff who interacted with Fabio Verati, reports on Fabio Verati’s relatives’ movements, National Security Agency reports, updates about Fabio Verati’s youngest daughter, and so on.

“…….”

Crack. Crunch.

I organized all the reports and stuffed them into a secret compartment of my bag. Chewing on a walnut, I examined the inside of the hidden compartment.

I took out the device plugged in and made a call to the safe house.

“…Hello?”

-“This is the security team exchange.”

“Hey, Gordon. Long time no see. How have you been?”

-“I’m doing well. Manager.”

“Good to hear. Is everything ready?”

-“Yes, we’ve completed the preparations for the interrogation of 51.”

I tossed a few papers into the secret compartment and closed my bag.

“I’m on my way.”