Luxembourg.
Bock Fortress.
“Is this the last place?”
“Yes. This is where the last CCTV footage was taken.”
Even after hearing the answer, Pablo did not move right away.
He stood there, staring at the underground fortress spread out before him.
A labyrinthine structure.
Stone walls hundreds of years old.
It seemed difficult to find any further trace of Adrian here.
“…Any other traces?”
“None besides the CCTV.”
“The trail went cold.”
“…Yes.”
Pablo slowly nodded, as if he understood.
Pablo was searching for Adrian on Rodrigo’s orders.
He had followed the trail all the way here to Luxembourg.
But after that, there was nothing.
He had vanished completely.
They had to find Adrian.
Whether alive or dead didn’t matter.
They only had to find him.
If he was alive, Mateo’s signet ring would become a lie.
Mateo would lose his power, and they could overturn Parallax.
On the other hand, if Adrian was dead.
That, too, would serve as a good reason.
A corpse would become evidence.
Who killed him, and how he died.
Depending on how they packaged that death, they could make Mateo into a traitor.
There was only one conclusion.
They needed Adrian.
Alive or dead.
Pablo took out a cigarette and put it between his lips.
He did not light it.
He simply held it in his mouth and thought of Adrian.
Twenty years.
That was how long he had worked with Adrian.
It was fair to say he knew Adrian that well.
What he had felt while tracking Adrian was this:
this time, Adrian had been incredibly careful.
He had gone to great lengths not to leave even the smallest trace behind.
He had disguised himself, changed his build, and hidden his limping leg.
He had hidden himself completely.
If Adrian made up his mind to hide, he was hard to find.
Pablo was certain of that.
Long experience told him so.
“We won’t find Adrian. Track his attendants instead.”
Pablo spoke curtly.
“Yes.”
“Focus on the traces of the attendants’ movements, their vehicles, their equipment. If we keep tracking them, something will turn up.”
“We’re checking now.”
One of his subordinates answered.
His men moved busily.
They tapped away at laptops, made calls here and there, and scraped together data.
A short while later.
The subordinate checking the laptop raised his head.
“There are traces of movement toward an old castle on the outskirts.”
Pablo looked at him.
“An old castle?”
“Yes. There are traces of a rented vehicle moving there. But…”
“But what?”
“That castle has been sealed off now.”
Pablo’s eyes moved faintly.
“It’s not just a police line. They’ve put up fences and blocked it off completely. Security is stationed there twenty-four hours a day, and civilian access has been completely cut off.”
Pablo thought for a moment.
“…That’s the place.”
“It isn’t certain.”
“It’s certain.”
Pablo cut off his subordinate’s words firmly.
“You think they’d block it off like that when nothing happened? Does that make any sense to you? Something definitely went down, and they fenced it off to hide it. Get ready to move.”
“Understood.”
His subordinates answered.
But the subordinate looking at the laptop hesitated, then opened his mouth.
“If we are detected entering the old castle area, our relationship with the Luxembourg government could become extremely strained.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Pablo glared at his subordinate irritably.
“I don’t know what happened at the castle, but the Luxembourg authorities are reacting with extreme sensitivity and emotion. Far from sharing data about the incident, they’ve classified everything as confidential and are blocking access itself.”
“So you’re saying it’d be inconvenient if we went in now?”
“Yes.”
Pablo approached without saying a word.
And then.
Thud.
Without any warning, he kicked him.
The subordinate’s body tumbled backward.
“Argh!”
A short scream rang out.
The fallen subordinate could not get up easily.
Pablo glared down at him and said,
“Then when are we supposed to go in? After they take down all the fences and we go in with the tourists? So we can take a commemorative photo?”
Pablo walked toward the fallen subordinate as he spoke.
“N-no, sir.”
The subordinate hurriedly tried to raise himself up.
No, he tried to.
But when he saw Pablo’s enormous shadow, he froze for a moment.
He was afraid.
Pablo, on the other hand, crouched down to meet his subordinate’s eyes.
As Pablo came closer, the subordinate grew even more frightened.
“We have to find Adrian before Mateo takes control of Parallax, right?”
“…Yes.”
The subordinate answered in a small voice.
“And yet you want us not to do it because you’re scared things might get a little ‘uncomfortable’?”
Pablo grabbed the back of the fallen subordinate’s neck and shook him lightly as he asked.
It was only a light shake,
but the subordinate could not even breathe properly.
“No, sir. I’m sorry.”
“Which do you think is scarier? The Luxembourg government? Or me?”
“….”
The subordinate could not answer.
“Then what do you think you should do now?”
“We need to secure the case files and logs.”
Pablo released the nape he had been holding.
“That’s right. Good job.”
The corners of Pablo’s mouth lifted slightly.
He lightly patted the subordinate’s head.
It was meant as praise.
But the subordinate’s body was trembling uncontrollably.
Pablo looked back toward the old castle.
As if Adrian were there.
.
.
.
Zamboanga Unity Town.
“Boss. Someone accessed the Luxembourg police database.”
Chen Zhihao said while looking at the monitor.
But his words did not reach me properly.
My head was filled only with thoughts of Sin Junggi.
My mind was tangled like a skein of thread.
That day, Sin Junggi had left Unity Town just like that.
I had no way of knowing where he had gone.
His last departing figure kept coming to mind.
I hadn’t known he would get that angry.
I had been surprised, and shocked as well,
but more than anything, I was worried about Sin Junggi.
“Boss? Boss!”
“…Huh?”
Only belatedly did I raise my head.
“I said someone accessed the Luxembourg police database.”
“They did?”
Chen Zhihao’s expression hardened.
“This isn’t the time for ‘They did?’ Please get a grip.”
“…Yeah.”
After taking a moment to catch my breath,
I finally came back to my senses a little.
“It’s because of Sin Junggi, isn’t it?”
“…A little?”
“I’m checking on Sin Junggi. I’m trying to confirm where he went, so I’ll report to you as soon as I get his route.”
“Okay.”
“So don’t worry too much.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
Only after answering briefly
was I finally able to return to reality.
Chen Zhihao briefly explained the situation again.
“What files did they access?”
“The old castle incident report. To be precise, they checked the victim list and the corpse identification data.”
“Have you identified who it was?”
“No. They were using a Luxembourg network, so we know they’re in Luxembourg, but we haven’t confirmed who it is yet.”
I thought for a moment.
The victim list for the old castle incident and the corpse identification data…
“It must be the Parallax bastards.”
“That’s probably the case.”
Chen Zhihao nodded.
I rubbed my hands over my face and leaned back in my chair.
If they checked the corpse identification data, it meant they were looking for someone.
And that person was almost certainly Adrian.
Rodrigo was looking for Adrian?
Why Adrian?
Did he need Adrian to push Mateo out?
If Adrian was there, everything Mateo had would indeed become a lie.
The signet ring, the transfer of power—none of it would mean anything anymore.
These bastards still didn’t know Adrian was dead.
They knew even less that he was buried in the castle’s secret passage.
That was why they were looking for him.
When we came out of the passage, we blew up the entrance with explosives and collapsed it.
So that no one could go in or out.
As if it had collapsed long ago.
No one would dig through that pile of stones to get inside.
The old castle itself was already perfectly isolated behind its fences.
Even if Rodrigo’s men went in now, they would not be able to obtain anything there.
Then there was only one thing to do now.
“You planted bait last time, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let it out carefully.”
“Ah. So those bastards will wander around a bit?”
“Yeah. Make them run in circles. We need to make them waste their strength on useless things.”
“Yes.”
Chen Zhihao answered and immediately began typing on the keyboard.
For now, we needed to disperse Rodrigo’s strength a little.
‘We need to thin out their numbers.’
Then I picked up the phone and called Mateo.
“I think we need to prepare Adrian’s funeral.”
“We can’t put it off forever.”
“Let’s watch for the right moment and make an official announcement.”
“That way, these bastards won’t be able to play games with this.”
I hung up the phone
and stared blankly at the monitor.
Countless streams of data appeared and disappeared again and again.
But in my head, only Sin Junggi’s departing figure still lingered.
*******
Outskirts of Zurich.
Beneath a winery.
Rodrigo was sunk deep into a sofa,
enjoying a cigar.
Unlike the cigar burning down slowly,
Rodrigo’s mind was moving rapidly.
There were four things he was pursuing at the same time right now.
Gathering the forces scattered across South America.
Winning over personnel inside Parallax.
Finding the hidden Adrian.
And drawing in the proxy of Alex Group.
Every single one was important.
But he did not have enough hands to hold on to them all at once.
On top of that, he had to keep track of Mateo’s movements as well.
Rodrigo took another drag on his cigar.
Then he slowly exhaled.
“Let’s sort this out.”
Muttering lowly, he divided his priorities for himself.
First, Adrian.
If he found him, that would be best.
It would give him justification.
But it was inefficient.
It required more effort than expected.
It consumed a great deal of manpower and resources as well.
There was no reason to cling to something that was not working.
It didn’t matter even if he failed to find him.
Finding him would be good,
but even without him, he could fabricate something else and use that.
Adrian was like a lottery ticket.
Good if it hit, but not a problem if it didn’t.
He moved Adrian down to the very bottom of the list.
Second, the South American forces.
They were bound to gather no matter what.
If money and power were present, they would naturally attach themselves.
The problem was time.
The key was how quickly they could prepare for war.
He had already sent Eduardo to South America.
This could be left to him.
There was no need for Rodrigo to handle it personally.
He set this aside for now as well.
Third was winning over personnel inside Parallax.
This was proceeding smoothly.
Parallax was broadly divided into South American, European, and Middle Eastern forces,
and recently, a few from the Middle East and Europe had shown interest in Rodrigo.
In particular, he had recruited many working-level personnel.
The secret?
There was nothing special.
They were just salarymen.
Give them more money,
give them authority, and they were bound to come over.
The preparations for this were nearly complete as well.
One thing remained.
‘Alex Group.’
Rodrigo’s eyes narrowed.
“This is the key.”
Killing Mateo was not difficult.
Taking the signet ring was easy too.
Cutting off a mere finger?
That was something he did every day as easily as eating.
He could do it at any time.
The problem was what came after.
If Mateo died, Alex Group would pull out.
If Alex Group pulled out, Parallax was highly likely to splinter.
The South American, Middle Eastern, and European forces had been under the powerful leader known as Adrian.
Now that Adrian was gone,
those forces would scatter in every direction.
Rodrigo did not want to work under Mateo either.
If Mateo took control of Parallax,
and if Rodrigo could not become chairman, he would break away from Parallax.
He would establish himself in South America and build his own independent force.
The European forces and the Middle Eastern forces would be no different.
What was holding together a Parallax without Adrian
was not trust in one another, nor loyalty,
but the enormous prey known as Alex Group.
It was simply the opportunity to enter the Asian market.
That was why Mateo had to stay alive.
He could not kill him now.
‘What I need now is Alex Group’s proxy.’
Rodrigo organized his thoughts.
“I’ll secure the proxy first.”
As long as he could collaborate with Alex Group,
Mateo would no longer be needed.
He could kill him then.
His mind became neatly arranged.
Win over the proxy first.
Eliminate Mateo.
Parallax secured.
The rest were still in progress, but he would put them off until later.
“Call Carlos.”
“And let’s get ready to head out.”
Rodrigo ordered.
.
.
.
Zurich.
In front of the penthouse at the Grand Hotel.
Rodrigo stood before the door.
This time was different.
Rodrigo had moved personally.
He had no intention of sending an errand boy.
He intended to meet in person and settle it once and for all.
There was no need to drag things out.
Present the terms, and reach a conclusion.
All he had to do was offer better terms than Mateo.
That was all.
He had no intention of using force.
They just had to sit down and talk.
He intended to speak frankly and persuade him to join him.
“This is it.”
Carlos guided Rodrigo.
They stood before the carpeted corridor.
Behind them, Rodrigo’s elite agents were lined up.
“Should I pick it?”
Carlos glanced at Rodrigo and asked.
“How flustered would he be if we just barged in? Ring the bell politely.”
“Yes, sir.”
Rodrigo, who seemed unaware that showing up without even making an appointment was itself rude,
gave the arrogant order as if he were bestowing some great favor.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
Carlos pressed the bell.
But there was no sign of anyone inside.
“Hm?”
Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
The ringing grew harsher and more urgent.
But there was still no response.
“Hah. I was going to do this with words, but he’s making it difficult. Open it.”
“Yes, sir.”
At Rodrigo’s words, an agent behind him rushed forward and opened the door in an instant.
The agents opened the door and entered, scattering left and right.
They took control of the interior and secured the area.
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
Only then did Rodrigo slowly step inside.
But the penthouse was silence itself.
Under the brilliant lights, the spacious living room was neatly arranged.
There was no one there.
Rodrigo’s brow twisted.
Carlos hurriedly searched the bedrooms and the study inside.
But there was no one there either.
Rodrigo’s gaze turned to Carlos.
Carlos’s face was filled with bewilderment.
“There’s no one here.”
The agent in charge of the search came over and reported.
“The men keeping watch below?”
“Well, when we checked just now, it seems they already left the country on a private jet.”
“What? When?”
“Two hours ago. Since they hadn’t checked out of the hotel, we thought they were still staying here.”
Rodrigo stood in the middle of the living room with a hollow expression.
He had planned to settle everything today,
so he had surrounded the hotel, written out the scenario, and brought his subordinates along.
All of it had become useless.
He had taken a massive swing and missed.
Their armed force, deprived of its target, was scattering through the empty hotel.
It was handing Rodrigo humiliation.