Malaysia, Johor Bahru.
We returned to our temporary headquarters in Johor Bahru.
Getting back from Luxembourg to Malaysia was not easy.
Because we had set off mortars and Airis, there had been tremendous noise and explosions,
and all of Luxembourg had been turned upside down.
The police arrived first,
and the military followed after.
A two-kilometer radius around the old castle was sealed off.
But we were already gone.
We moved as if splitting our trail into fragments.
We abandoned cars, switched to others, then abandoned those too.
Some went by train, some by plane, some overland.
We scattered to Belgium, Germany, and France.
We scattered, then met up,
and even after meeting, scattered again.
We cut off pursuit, then cut it off again.
Only after laying down false trails several times were we able to reach Johor Bahru.
The reason we came to Johor Bahru instead of Zamboanga was
partly because we wanted to hide our main base in Zamboanga,
but the bigger reason was to meet Mateo.
The man who had been in charge of Parallax.
Mateo.
Mateo’s condition when we met again was neither good nor bad.
At least the face I had beaten up had healed considerably.
But his expression did not seem to have healed.
Still hostile.
But what was mixed into it was not simple enmity.
It was fear.
He was angry at me,
and yet the fact that I could kill him at any time made Mateo uneasy.
Hostility and terror were mixed together.
I looked at Mateo like that, then told him the truth.
“Adrian is dead.”
“What?”
“I said Adrian is dead.”
I repeated the same words.
I had kindly told him twice,
but Mateo seemed unable to believe it.
He could not speak.
He simply stared at me with vacant eyes.
He was refusing to understand.
Only after a long while did Mateo finally manage to speak.
“...There’s no way. Do you know what kind of old man that geezer is? He’d never die. Adrian is the kind of bastard who’d crawl back out of hell.”
Mateo could not believe Alex’s words.
No, he could not believe them.
Everyone dies.
That is only natural.
But not Adrian.
He does not die.
Mateo had never once imagined Adrian’s death.
He had never even entertained the thought of Adrian disappearing from the world.
That was how absolute Adrian had been.
His abilities went without saying,
and his way of handling people was different.
Some feared him,
and some followed him.
What kind of being Adrian had been was not important.
What mattered was that everyone needed him.
Thanks to him.
Parallax had grown,
and the people around Adrian had made money along with him.
They created wars, sold weapons, and raked in money.
They sent mercenaries, bought and sold information, and controlled battlefield logistics.
He was literally a being who moved the board itself.
.
.
.
Mateo, too, had worked under Adrian.
Adrian did not allow the slightest margin.
He urged him on endlessly, pressed him, constricted him.
He drove him without pause.
Mateo hated that so much; it was uncomfortable and exhausting.
He wanted to get away from him.
But he could not run.
The moment he escaped, he would die.
Fear of death was one reason he did not run,
but there was another reason as well.
Every once in a very rare while,
Adrian would praise him and acknowledge him.
At those times, it felt as though he had everything in the world.
He wanted to keep being with him.
He wanted to be of use to him.
So he could not leave.
Gaslighting?
Stockholm syndrome?
Intermittent reinforcement?
Traumatic bonding?
It did not matter what it was called.
That was the kind of emotion Mateo felt toward Adrian.
A being he hated, yet had no choice but to lean on.
A being he wanted to escape, yet wanted to be bound by.
And yet.
That Adrian was dead.
No matter how much he thought about it, he could not believe it.
.
.
.
Slap.
I struck Mateo across the cheek.
Mateo, who had been staring blankly into the air, had his head turned by the blow.
Life slowly began returning to his unfocused eyes.
Now was not the time to be dazed.
There was something to do.
I looked into Mateo’s eyes and spoke.
“That’s why I’m thinking of giving you what’s called an opportunity.”
“An opportunity?”
“I’m planning to take over Parallax. I’m thinking of putting you in the chairman’s seat. What do you think? Interested?”
For a very brief moment, Mateo’s eyes wavered when he heard me.
Then, as if his calculations were over, he answered flatly.
“Not interested.”
It was an unexpected answer.
Without saying anything, I quietly stared at Mateo.
Perhaps burdened by that gaze, Mateo asked again.
“Are you serious?”
“Does it look like I’m sitting here chatting with you for fun?”
Mateo sighed and said,
“If that’s really what you’re thinking, give it up quickly. That’ll be better for both of us. For you, and for Parallax.”
“Why?”
“Do you know anything about Parallax?”
“The world’s biggest arms trafficker? Sons of bitches? A social evil that starts wars?”
Mateo nodded.
“That’s true. But that’s only the surface. You don’t know Parallax’s real face, its structure. If you don’t know that, it’ll be hard to take over Parallax.”
“Structure?”
“Parallax is completely different from your organization. Parallax is a syndicate. Adrian may be the chairman, but in truth, he’s only someone who represents several organizations.”
“A syndicate? You mean an alliance?”
“Yeah. Adrian is the chairman, but he isn’t the true boss. Adrian was the front man representing them, and the coordinator.”
“Explain in detail.”
Mateo let out a sigh and began speaking.
“After Adrian started arms trafficking, I guess he thought it wasn’t enough to do it alone. He approached other people. Arms dealers in the Middle East, cartels in South America, Russian arms dealers, mercenary agencies, intelligence brokers, and so on. He guaranteed their profits and distributed their goods. The result? A huge success. Adrian made money with empty hands just by ‘redistributing’ the resources they already had, and they, too, ended up developing a new ‘business model.’”
Mateo paused for a moment, then continued.
“Even now, they belong to Parallax, but they also have their own independent forces. The reason Parallax has been able to exist until now was Adrian. If they listened to Adrian and worked together, they could make money easily. With that money, they could run their own organizations while still belonging to Parallax.”
After hearing Mateo’s words, I understood the current situation.
Only now could I see the structure.
Parallax was a union like the United States.
Organizations that had each existed separately joined forces and created one huge organization called Parallax.
Adrian had stood at its center.
He was like the conductor of an orchestra.
He took instruments that had all been playing separately and brought them together to create music.
Violins, violas, cellos, clarinets, bassoons, oboes, timpani—various instruments were scattered about,
and Adrian gathered them and created a single orchestra.
He gathered mercenaries, smugglers, brokers, and cartels and made them into one organization.
He created a platform.
A single name binding together different criminal organizations—
a vast distribution structure and network.
That was Parallax.
Looking back, I had known far too little about Parallax.
“Really? Why didn’t we know that kind of information?”
“Because who would say it, you fool?”
Mateo said, as if mocking me.
“What?”
“A South American drug cartel is actually Parallax. People are afraid of that drug cartel, and they’re afraid of Parallax too. They’re the same organization under different names, and people are scared of both. Why would they bother saying, ‘We are one and the same’? The benefits they get from that alone are enormous.”
Aha.
So they do business under the name of a South American cartel,
and they do business under the name of Parallax too?
They collect protection money separately under two names as well?
As expected of Adrian.
Does that mean he was getting paid twice?
It was certainly creative.
Had he benchmarked late-night snack shops?
Mateo was not finished speaking.
“But now Adrian, who coordinated all of that, is gone. What do you think will happen?”
“Chaos?”
Mateo snapped his fingers with a click.
“Correct. It’ll be a mess now. Someone will try to devour the organization, someone will take their share and exit, and someone else will watch from the sidelines. Whatever happens, Parallax will fall apart.”
“Hmm...”
“There’s no chain of command, no loyalty, no coercive power, and no way to restrain them. Parallax will probably become a monster with its head cut off.”
Mateo spoke with a troubled expression.
“So you’re saying it’s hard to seize control of Parallax?”
“That’s right.”
As if there was no need to think any further,
Mateo answered firmly.
“Then you’ll have to die. You’re no longer needed.”
“What?”
Mateo’s eyes went round.
“You said that even with you, I can’t seize control of Parallax, right? Then there’s no need to keep you around. Even if I let you live, what would you do besides seek revenge? It’d be better to end things cleanly here. Don’t you think?”
“Wait... wait... Don’t... don’t do that. Let’s think of another way.”
“You said there wasn’t one.”
“I didn’t say there was no way. I meant I can’t think of one right this second. If we think about it, we’ll come up with something. Why have you gotten so hasty?”
Mateo abruptly changed his attitude.
“I’m not hasty. I’m decisive.”
“But why are you trying to take over Parallax? Your organization is already big and stable anyway.”
Mateo asked as if he was genuinely curious.
“Adrian said before he died that if I had something like the Fandom Grid, someone would come to take it from me again. So I figured, before someone comes to take it, why don’t we take their organization first?”
Mateo shook his head.
“It won’t be easy.”
“If I can’t have it, I’ll just smash it.”
I spoke lightly.
With the same lightness as if I were going to a convenience store to buy cup noodles.
“You’re insane.”
Mateo looked at me.
The corners of his mouth rose slightly.
He seemed to be feeling a little intrigued.
“So, are you going to do it?”
I asked bluntly.
“There’s something I want to ask first.”
“What is it?”
“What do I get?”
“Your life? And the chairman’s seat?”
“Are you really going to give me the chairman’s seat? Or am I just a figurehead?”
“You want a lot. Of course you’ll be a figurehead.”
A slight disappointment flashed across Mateo’s face.
I immediately continued.
“But. If you do well, that will change. If you work in a way that pleases me, I’m willing to hand over something like Parallax to you. Keeping it would only be a nuisance anyway.”
“Really? What is it that you truly want? I think I need to know that so I can keep it in mind while I work.”
“Peace of mind? I want to live today in peace. I don’t want to get into unnecessary fights.”
Mateo gave me a sideways glare, as if dumbfounded.
“You know that isn’t convincing at all, right?”
“You seem to misunderstand, but I’m a pacifist.”
At those words, Mateo eventually burst into laughter.
The face Alex had beaten seemed to throb.
“For now, fine. I’ll assess the situation first.”
Mateo answered.
But his expression was different from before.
It was not the obedience of a man trying to survive, nor fear,
but the face of someone who had begun calculating.
A face shadowed with interest.
.
.
.
Once Alex left,
the room grew quiet.
Only after the sound of the door closing,
and the footsteps had completely vanished, did Mateo slowly exhale.
Left alone, Mateo recalled his conversation with Alex.
‘Chairman of Parallax? A prize that looks good and tastes bitter.’
Alex did not know how dangerous that position was.
If he failed to coordinate things properly,
if he failed to design the board,
if he failed to make them money, those were exactly the kind of bastards who would storm in with guns at any moment.
Even so, it was not as though he did not covet the chairman’s seat.
He had been unable to desire it because he had been hidden behind the enormous wall that was Adrian,
but now he could desire it.
He could take the vast organization called Parallax into his own hands.
With many thoughts in his head, Mateo opened his laptop.
With practiced movements, he launched several programs.
It was not a normal login procedure.
But after going from site to site to site, a login screen appeared.
A security tunnel opened, an encryption key was generated, and a one-time authentication window popped up.
Mateo froze for an instant.
Worried there might be hidden cameras, he looked around once more.
Then, very carefully, he entered the password.
A moment later.
PARALLAX NODE ACCESS
A notification that the login was complete appeared, then vanished.
Parallax’s system window opened.
.
.
.
The situation room in Johor Bahru.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
A light alarm sounded.
Chen Zhihao, who had been drinking coffee, checked the alarm.
He turned his gaze to the monitor.
He smiled faintly.
“Boss. That bastard Mateo has finally accessed Parallax.”
“Really?”
At Chen Zhihao’s words, I also set down the coffee I had been drinking.
Chen Zhihao began tapping at the keyboard with practiced fingers.
I asked from behind his back.
“You can check what Mateo is doing, right?”
“Of course. He’s inside our base. We can see everything. I’ll put the screen up for you.”
Chen Zhihao tapped the keyboard some more,
and the screen Mateo was looking at appeared.
“Let’s have a look. Whether Mateo will become our loyal dog, or a card we need to discard.”
And so, we watched the screen Mateo was watching.