Chapter 88: Shao Te's Choice (15, please subscribe!)
Half an hour later.
David Bass, who looks like a Martian from the next universe but is actually the director of operations for the Department of Homeland Security in New York State, is back.
Another person came back with David Bass.
Mike, a German biologist with a certain reputation in the biological community.
Mike was confused.
He was concentrating on writing another paper at home, but the door was kicked open and a group of federal agents shouting "DHS" pushed him down on the table.
What the hell is this DHS?
Data processing system?
"Let me go!"
"Let me go!"
Mike, who had just gotten out of the car, continued to struggle even though his hands were handcuffed: "I know my rights. You have no reason to arrest me. I want to see a lawyer. I want..."
Lake appeared and said with a smile to Mike who was shouting that he wanted to see a lawyer: "Relax, Mike, we are here to protect you."
Mike stopped struggling: "Who are you?"
Lake ignored him and shook hands with David, who was about the same height as him, also wearing a suit and with a dark but not too dark complexion. "Thank you."
David whispered, "I'm gambling my future with you."
Lake said, "Then you win for sure."
Now that the biologist is here, we can get to the point.
Interrogation room.
The seat where the Winter Soldier had been sitting was now occupied by Evelyn Short, the interrogation expert and intelligence analyst who had previously interrogated the Winter Soldier.
Short looked very unhappy.
Especially after seeing Lake come in.
Short looked directly at Lake who had come in, laughed, and looked at the handcuffs on his hands: "May I ask, have I committed any crime?"
Lake closed the door, turned around, raised his gaze, and thought seriously: "Does espionage count?"
Shao Te frowned: "What?"
Lex pulled open a chair and sat down, then calmly lit a cigarette for himself before slowly saying, "I want to tell you a story. Maybe it will save me some trouble after I finish it."
Short: "..."
In the conference room.
Having just received the news, Director Sunil Bakshi, who had rushed over from Langley, opened the door and said, "Minister Kelly..."
Sunil was now five parts angry, three parts surprised and two parts confused.
Because the development of the story was completely different from what he had imagined, or in other words, it was completely off track.
Short was arrested.
And he was arrested just as the plan was about to begin and before he had time to get to the point?
This is bullshit.
actually...
Lake's guess was partly right and partly wrong.
The correct part is that Hydra is just as Lake guessed. They want to use Short's organization to take the blame, and take advantage of the opportunity when Short's organization wants to assassinate the president to plant Hydra people in while cleaning up Langley.
The wrong part is that Langley would know, or rather, Sunil Bakshi would report that Short was a spy at the appropriate time, such as when Short entered the White House and met with the President.
After all, Hydra wanted to purge Langley and plant its own people, but it couldn't just purge its own people. If Sunil did nothing, as Short's direct supervisor after he was transferred to clerical work, Sunil would definitely be a target of purge.
but...
Their plan had just begun and nothing had happened when, surprisingly, Short was caught.
What is this for?
Sunil Bakshi was shocked and frightened at the moment. He said directly to Secretary Kelly who was sitting there, "Langley helped the Department of Homeland Security entirely because of the Department of Homeland Security's request. This time..."
Minister Kelly looked at the interrogation room on the big screen and interrupted directly: "Director Bakshi, please wait for a while. It's not too late to accuse him after this interrogation is over."
Sunil Bakshi: "..."
In the interrogation room.
Lake blew out a smoke ring, looked at Short sitting opposite him through the smoke, smiled, and began to tell the story he wanted to tell.
The preparation was based on rote memorization from the memory bank.
"In 1975, during the Cold War, in a gymnasium in Grozny, a former Soviet Olympic wrestler named Sasha Volodymyr Shonkov met Anya Nurenkova, the only female chess grandmaster at the time..."
"Within a month, they were married."
"And then within a year, they had a child."
"And then..."
"The child was pronounced dead because of his persistent high fever."
"But...the child is not dead."
Lake sat on the chair with his legs crossed, looked at the expression on Short's face across from him, and tilted his head: "Do you need me to continue?"
Shao Te had a blank expression on his face: "I don't know what you are talking about. What does what you say have to do with me?"
Lake smiled and shook his head: "Short, I want to give you a chance. Normally, if someone wanted to kill me, I would not repay evil with kindness but would kill his entire family. But you are different. I am willing to give you a chance."
Hydra is Lake's target this time.
Anything else?
Lake was too lazy to get involved. If Hydra hadn't wanted the Short organization to take the blame this time, Lake would have been too lazy to care about the matter even if he saw Short. And to a certain extent, Lake and Short's organization were both victims.
How does the saying go?
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
but...
Short's expression remained unchanged, and Lake smiled and continued.
"After being declared dead, Xuankov's daughter actually became another asset."
"KGB!"
"Or... the Red House would be more accurate."
"There, a Red House spymaster devised a grand plan, a true patriot's ultimate plan, a plan that could destroy the Union."
"His plan reminded me of a sentence from the East Country, a conversation between the Demon Ancestor and the Buddha."
"One day, I, the demon son, will enter your Buddhist sect, wear your robes, destroy your Buddhist teachings, misinterpret your Buddhist principles, and break your precepts..."
"That's the Spymaster's plan."
"He ensured that those children received the most authentic Federation education, culture, and ideology. Xuankov's daughter was meticulously planned to undergo plastic surgery and was sent back to the Federation as the sole survivor of a family that had died in a car accident."
"…"
Lake looked up at Short across from him and spread his hands: "Look, I know everything, but due to time constraints, I plan to skip to the end."
Said.
The door to the interrogation room was opened and a notebook was brought in, along with a legal exemption that had just been signed by the Attorney General.
On the computer screen, Mike was being held at gunpoint by a Homeland Security agent.
The waiver absolved Short of all federal charges.
Lake stood up and saw Mike in the notebook, then looked at Short with an angry look: "You have two choices. An organization that uses you as a tool and abandons you like Langley, or a lover who will stick with you no matter what situation you are in. You have ten seconds."
After saying that.
Lake looked at the agent at the door.
The agent understood and pressed the stopwatch directly.
Seconds spin in an instant.
Tick!
…