NOVEL WEB Chapter 6 - Famous Foreign Students
“By the way, there wasn’t much said about your ability, was there?”
Marilyn Jefferson brought up a topic that seemed to be what she was really curious about. In fact, it was something I had been a bit worried about too, but fortunately, there hadn’t been any particular problems so far.
“No, not really… It was as you expected. They didn’t seem suspicious.”
“That’s good. It means that CIA’s security has been thoroughly maintained so far.”
“Even agents in slightly different departments don’t know about my existence, right?”
“And there are quite a few who think you’re a non-superhuman white agent.”
The concern we had was ‘the possibility that my ability had already been detected by Chinese intelligence agencies.’ As a CIA superhuman agent, I had been deployed on several covert missions utilizing my ability. Of course, there were no missions against China, but intelligence departments don’t just gather information that directly threatens their own necks. Even the CIA itself has great interest in Chinese intelligence agencies, which can’t be openly called enemy countries.
If the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics had already identified my ability, they might suspect that I’m an American operative upon seeing the ability written on my application. While it’s not entirely impossible for different people to have the same ability, considering the number of awakened individuals worldwide, it’s not a common occurrence.
Fortunately, China didn’t suspect me. Probably because I had succeeded in thoroughly hiding my ability in the missions I’ve carried out so far.
My ability is called ‘Duct Tape Man’, or should I say ‘Duct Tape Woman’ now? I can convert parts of my body into duct tape. And not just any duct tape, but tape with much stronger adhesive power than the already versatile regular duct tape.
Parts of the body converted to tape don’t hurt or become irreparable even if cut off. When not in tape form, it hurts if the body is cut, but it can be reattached. You just need to change the cut surface to tape and then join the severed body part. Moreover, this body part, though not very long, can stretch about 1m in tape state, which is very useful when you need to grab something far away.
Since the cases where I use my power usually only leave traces of tape, even if traces are left at the scene, it’s difficult to distinguish whether it was the involvement of an ability user or simply the use of a tool. Moreover, the tremendous adhesiveness of the tape created by my ability changes to be exactly the same as that of regular duct tape after about 1 hour, so no one has noticed my ability so far.
So even if the Chinese intelligence wanted to suspect me, they couldn’t. The assumption that my ability hasn’t been revealed to any country’s intelligence was also one of the important reasons why I was specifically deployed for this mission.
“Alright. Then shall we start passing on the information we’ve prepared for the semester?”
“So I’ll finally be able to know all about my fellow students’ identities.”
“You’re a professional, so I don’t think I need to give you this caution, but I’ll say it out of old habit. Be careful. Except for globally famous ability users, don’t show that you know about others in front of other people.”
“I understand. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“First, there are four awakened individuals who are inevitably well-known through mass media. They’re foreign students from Britain, Germany, the United States, and India.”
“What about the others you’ve investigated?”
“That’s a bit ambiguous. According to the information we’ve extracted, there are a total of 10 first-year foreign students enrolling this semester. Excluding you, we should have found out five more names, but we only discovered four more. That includes Lieutenant Catherine Duey whom the agent has already met. We tried, but we haven’t been able to find out who the last foreign student is yet.”
“That’s unusual. There should be clues everywhere, yet the CIA couldn’t find the information.”
“Well, we’re not a perfect organization either. And actually, we didn’t have much time. It’s not easy to extract the number of interviewees from within China, so there might have been an error during the transmission of information.”
Or it could be someone coming to China that we couldn’t even imagine. Anyway, it will be revealed in September. Let’s not think hastily.
“The British student would be the second daughter of the Duke of Marlborough family, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. Though not high in the line of succession, there was quite a stir when news broke that a famous British political and business figure had awakened superpowers. Her name is Briar Spencer-Churchill. She’s usually called Briar Churchill, so you can call her that.”
I formally received the resume with Churchill’s photo on it. The name given to her ability is ‘Maestro’. I think I heard she can use sonic attacks, but since she’s not a lady who has actually been in combat, I haven’t heard about the exact power or ability yet.
“It seems she’s already rumored to be an arrogant heretic within the family. There’s a rumor that this is why they decided to send her to study in China instead of keeping her in London.”
“Such rumors were even in the Financial Times.”
“Yes, so that’s why I’m telling you to be appropriately careful. The second famous figure, as you probably know, is Rebecca Katerfeld, daughter of German National Assembly member Olaf Katerfeld.”
“I heard she’s a spiritual ability user, but exactly what she does…”
“Actually, we don’t know much either. They say she can do some kind of spiritual communion, but given that she’s been clearly recognized as a superhuman, it seems she can definitely affect the physical world too. You’ll have to observe her directly during practical classes at school and report back to us about the details.”
“What an unhelpful organization. To think you couldn’t even properly grasp the ability of such a famous person.”
Jefferson pretended not to hear my grumbling complaint.
“The third is an American. Julia Curoo. She made a name for herself as a child actress. Her career got a bit tangled when she became an adult, but suddenly awakening her ability allowed her to choose a different path than acting, which worked out well.”
“Were you a fan?”
“I just liked her a bit.”
Ironically, the face more suitable for a beautiful actress is Marilyn Jefferson herself rather than this has-been actress Julia Curoo.
“I know this person’s ability. She could transform into furniture she touched, right? I saw it on a TV show.”
“We can’t be sure if it’s limited to just furniture.”
“They said she couldn’t change into cakes or animals.”
“She hasn’t tried other things, right? For now, this woman’s ability is also somewhat undetermined.”
“Well… I understand. And the last one would be the daughter of an Indian entrepreneur, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. Shradha Bhatt. Daughter of an Indian conglomerate family. There are many interesting stories. Especially, the fact that Briar Churchill and Shradha Bhatt are going to the same school in the same year is quite concerning.”
“Didn’t they both get permission from the British government? They must have done so because there’s nothing to worry about.”
“The situation isn’t like that. Briar Churchill’s side got direct permission from the British government, but Shradha Bhatt’s study abroad recommendation came from the Indian Legislative Council. You know what the atmosphere is like there these days. Do you think the Indian Legislative Council would have asked the Governor-General before making the decision?”
“It’s surprising that the Chinese government just approved it…”
“China has nothing to be wary of. No, they might have even tried to use this situation. The Bhatt family is known as an entrepreneurial family that actively supports Indian independence. If these high-profile foreign students were to cause a conflict over this on Chinese territory…”
“It could damage the status of the British colonial empire. The Chinese would be able to laugh.”
Due to the formidable presence of the Soviet Union, China and Britain are maintaining outward friendliness for now, but their relationship is as complexly tangled as the U.S.-China relationship.
The most visible issue is, of course, the Hong Kong problem. The Republic of China practically intimidated the British Empire and arbitrarily shortened the 99-year lease of Hong Kong to 70 years, and even firmly rejected Britain’s proposal of “one country, two systems” that came to the negotiating table.
Chiang Kai-shek is not a man who can tolerate China losing out on territorial or sovereignty issues. The Generalissimo is a monster who would do anything to increase China’s territory, to the extent that he accomplished a huge deal 60 years ago to hand over Japan to the Soviet Union in exchange for Outer Mongolia and the Maritime Province.
Of course, he was able to accomplish all that because he himself is a powerful superhuman…
Anyway, if an incident occurs at Huangpu where British and Chinese bigwigs fight and tarnish each other’s honor, and if that weakens Britain’s control over India even slightly, there’s nothing for the Generalissimo to be displeased about.
“For now, I generally understand the information about the famous prospective students.”
“Of course, the real problem is the not-so-famous prospective students. We don’t know what kind of individuals are mixed in.”
Jefferson handed me a thick stack of documents that looked to be about 200 pages. The paper on top was the basic resume of someone I had already met, French Army Second Lieutenant Catherine Duey.
“Here, we’ve summarized the information about the four people that the CIA could collect. Read it carefully and make sure you understand it properly before September. You’ve already memorized all the basic identity information for Shin Eun-young, so it shouldn’t be too burdensome, right?”
“Until September is plenty of time.”
“In the meantime, live inconspicuously in Seoul, literally like an ordinary college girl.”
“I don’t know how an ordinary college girl lives.”
Marilyn Jefferson sighed deeply at my words.
“The basics of covert operations is ordinariness. How can a 5-year agent not know how to live ordinarily?”
“I know well how an unemployed man in his 20s lives. But a college girl, and one who awakened superpowers and dropped out at that, honestly, I don’t know how to live without arousing suspicion.”
“Operatives from the National Intelligence Service will contact you occasionally. Under the setup of ‘college friends’ written in your basic information. They’ll call you out for no particular reason and ask to hang out or go shopping together, so do as these friends tell you. Do you understand me?”
“I understand, but I’m doubtful.”
“About what, agent?”
“Isn’t the Korean government under the influence of the Chinese government? Using the power of the National Intelligence Service to deceive the eyes of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics seems like the most dangerous method. The information collected by the NIS will be fully passed on to the Blue Shirts Society.”
“Well.”
Marilyn Jefferson grinned.
“Then how do you think you got the Generalissimo’s recommendation letter?”
“Hmm…”
“You should know well about the country you were born in. Korea is a sleeping fox. It has always been historically, and it is now too. The Presidential Office in Seoul might also be slowly wanting to break away from the Generalissimo’s shadow now. Who else would they reach out to besides the White House?”