Chapter 513: Juyoung Hong (40) |
Yongtae Han knew all along that the moment the media found out even an inkling about the real owner of the Golden Cross tower, he would lose everything.
Moreover, he had never even dreamed of owning the Golden Cross Tower because its real owner was Chaesan Lee.
But he came to really own the Golden Cross Tower all of a sudden.
"Great! Now I'm really rich too! Rich!"
There were constant shouts of joy on the top floor of the Golden Cross Tower for a while.
At the National Intelligence Service (NIS) headquarters in Naegok-dong, Seoul.
No matter how much they were treated like a paperless tiger for their poor capabilities, they knew well about Chaesan Lee because he had been monopolizing the private loan market with a huge amount of money for more than 10 years.
Even though they knew he was involved in illegal business for a long time, they didn't investigate him because they knew so many people received benefits from him, including the NIS Director.
Besides, leaving him alone was not something bad to the NIS because it would be hard to manage them if several tigers like Taesan Lee were running around in the mountain called South Korea. If many forces started competing underground, it would be inevitable for the NIS to lose its reputation for failing to control them.
Of course, there was controversy within the NIS that they could be tamed or even manipulated by Chaesan Lee, but none of those rumors fully surfaced for most of the top officials including the NIS Director were bribed by Cheasan Lee on a regular basis.
In any case, the sudden fall of Chaesan Lee was obviously a big topic among the NIS staff because they had never expected he would fall all of a sudden.
But the biggest headache for them was that Lee kept records about all the bribes he had given the top NIS officials.
Given his meticulous personality, Chaesan Lee must have written down the details of the benefits to the top NIS officials in his ledgers. So the NIS leadership ranging from its Director to the Deputy Director and other top officials were in crisis mode.
The NIS itself began a thorough investigation into the fall of Chaesan Lee.
Aside from needing to retrieve the ledgers, they needed to investigate his downfall.
Today they were supposed to announce the results of their first investigation.
Not only the NIS Director, but also the foreign operations director attended the press conference even though Lee's fall was a domestic matter.
Youngsu Cho, the chief of the NIS Special Analysis, said, "First, we collected all 517 CCTV images installed in Chaesan Lee's mansion. Of course, we could not identify some of them because they were damaged, but we had no big difficulties identifying the existence of mysterious figure X because there were so many CCTV images. Then let me show you the screens captured by 517 CCTVs arranged in chronological order."
Bang!
The screen showed somebody punching the outer wall of the mansion.
It was hard for the NIS people to believe that a huge hole was created in the sturdy outer wall with a single punch, but no one tried to interrupt the chief analytic director.
They knew they could ask him later.
Another screen showed the mysterious robber blocking bullets with his bare hands and smashing his opponents' feet by simply trampling on them.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Those present at the small conference room were silent.
At that moment, somebody on the screen said something.
Perhaps because the analytic team leader deliberately edited the video, the voice was amplified so all those in the room could hear it.
""Hum, that rumor was true. When I heard Debius was robbed by an Asian, I didn't believe it...Oh my God, who the hell are you? How come you are affiliated with the Myongjin Group?"
"Man, did you hear about that rumor?"
At this point, somebody among the NIS people asked, "Myongjin?"
"Did Chaesan Lee mention Myongjin a moment ago?"
The top-ranking NIS officials, who remained silent even when X caught bullets with his bare hands, began to ask one by one.
Chairman Lee in the video definitely mentioned Myongjin, and the mysterious guy they called X didn't deny it.
"Yes, that's right. Chairman Lee specifically mentioned Myongjin to X, and that mysterious figure did not deny it."
"That name Myongjin rings a bell…"
"Yeah, Myongjin has concluded an oil deal with ExxonMobil and Chevron recently."
"Well, oil doesn't matter. Think of those who came with the oil company executives!"
"Right, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, and even President William's right-hand man Thomas Tyler visited with them."
"You bet. And they went to see the Myongjin Group chairman as soon as they arrived here instead of going to the Blue House."
They began to whisper in an instant. So much so that the small conference room was so noisy like a local market.
Bang!
The Director of the National Intelligence Service, who was seated at the top of the conference table, slammed his hand down on the table and opened his mouth.
"Everyone, be quiet! It will not be too late for you to discuss after watching the video to the end!"
He silenced them quickly.
Then they turned their attention to the analytic team leader Cho again.
He played the video on the screen again.
All of them watched the video with more astonished expressions than before.
They couldn't understand that ice came out of human hands, and that the tiny ice chunks had more destructive power than missiles.
Moreover, they were stunned to see him putting a warehouse that could house hundreds of people into his pocket in an instant.
"…"
"…"
"…"
The video ended, but no one dared to speak readily.
Then somebody's low voice rang through the small conference room.
"Well, it reminds me of a huge glacier that suddenly appeared in the Arctic. It was a glacier that was twice as large as the Korean Peninsula, right?"
Everyone present at the conference room knew what Deputy Director Sojung Han, a powerful woman within the NIS who was in charge of one of their three overseas branches, was talking about.
After all, this mysterious guy X also used ice to break through Taesan Lee's safe and warehouses.
Deputy Director Han continued, "I've been curious about why the most powerful country called the United States gave such a generous gift to the Myongjin Group because the company is not that large globally even though it's one of the top five business conglomerates in Korea. Now I think I know the reason. Washington must have known this man X, or that the enormous glacier in the Arctic was X's show of power."
No one could refute her analysis.
Obviously, her connections with the top NIS officials helped her climb to her current position, but without true ability, she would have never been promoted to the deputy director position.
Then the Director of the National Intelligence Service said in a low voice, "Then, does this guy X belong to Myongjin?"
Deputy Director Han replied, "No. He must be a direct offspring of the Myongjin Group chairman. In my opinion, he must be Kiyoung Hong, Suyoung Hong or Juyoung Hong."
"Then how should we respond?"
"Can you think of any good option in this situation? Even the most powerful country, the United States, has succumbed to him. You don't think we can fight that guy, right?"
"..."
The NIS Deputy Director did not respond because he was right.
She continued, "Don't you think we should take it as a blessing that he is Korean? If I were president, I would hurrah."
"I wish I could do so…" the Director replied.
They wrapped up the meeting then.
The Director then headed to the Blue House.
