The ponytailed man was sent to the US military base for interrogation by the CIA. By the afternoon, hungry Jack and Ma Xidao had found a hot pot restaurant for dinner.
Halfway through, Anna joined them, skillfully picking up some tripe with her chopsticks and simmering it in the hot pot.
"Anything you found?" Jack asked the charming proprietress in fluent Chinese, requesting two more plates of tripe and lamb.
"Because your FBI report mentioned the exceptional purity of these unusual oxaline toxins, if the characteristic red dye were removed, the substance would appear blue. So I tracked down the precursors for these toxins.
About a month ago, a pharmaceutical company warehouse was burglarized, and a batch of aniline drugs used to treat asthma were stolen. A security guard had his neck twisted.
Around the same time, the locks on a chemical factory warehouse in Busan were broken, and a large amount of chemical raw materials, including hydrochloric acid, disappeared—over ten tons. Here's the detailed list."
Anna handed Jack a briefcase, her charming smile captivating even Ma Xidao, who sat across from her.
Although she had only undergone minor plastic surgery, with her current appearance, even if she returned to France, the fashion insiders who once knew her would no longer associate her with the slender supermodel she once was.
If official FSB agents possess meticulously crafted custom Gundams, then field agents like Anna likely possess mass-produced models like the Zaku.
Jack firmly believed that true men fly Zakus, and that Gundams were only for effeminate men.
But for the FSB, such field agents, while not exactly disposable, clearly aren't treated with excessive care.
Numerous hidden injuries from intense training, coupled with issues like gastritis brought on by years of dieting and irregular lifestyles during her modeling career, left Anna's seemingly radiant exterior riddled with scars.
After leaving the FSB, Anna was sent to Hainan. Perhaps due to months of eating coconut chicken, she also underwent a series of acupuncture treatments, a true health regimen, at Jack's suggestion.
Upon her return, Anna looked completely transformed, her bra cup size up at least two. Coupled with the buff Jack had given her during their previous meeting in Hawaii, her entire persona was practically a complete transformation.
Anna gulped down a large glass of coconut milk, her forehead sweating and cheeks flushed from the spiciness, while she continued her report.
"Justin also spotted a suspicious truck loaded with blue chemical barrels on a highway exit camera. The location seems to be Yongin."
Yongin, located over 40 kilometers south of Seoul, was originally a small rural village but has since been developed into a new industrial zone dotted with chemical and pharmaceutical plants, making it a perfect place to hide a clandestine drug manufacturing operation.
"Yongin's not easy to find. There are so many abandoned factories and warehouses there, at least hundreds," Ma Xidao said, frowning between his chopsticks.
Jack glanced at his silent phone. The CIA's efficiency was a bit poor this time; even after half a day, they still hadn't produced any results.
But his attention was immediately drawn to the list of stolen items from the chemical factory warehouse that Anna had provided. He muttered to himself, "Phosphorus trichloride! Why would they steal that? And in such large quantities?"
While phosphorus trichloride is a chemical raw material, it has nothing to do with the production of tartaric acid.
"Didn't you say they were terrorists? Maybe they were planning to poison someone."
Apparently, Anna, this young woman's chemistry grades weren't very good. While phosphorus trichloride is a highly toxic chemical, it primarily works by generating hydrochloric acid mist in the air, irritating the respiratory tract.
While the inventory lists several tons, it's not very volatile. Even dumping it in a busy city wouldn't have much of an effect. And if it were dumped into a water source, the Han River is still a river, so dumping a few tons of chemicals there might not even be as much as the Viagra content.
Reflecting briefly on his previous life's chemistry knowledge, combined with the material he'd memorized during FBI training, Jack became restless.
Many chemical formulas containing phosphorus are not very friendly to the human body. Take, for example, the vast array of organophosphorus pesticides, which have been strongly associated with the term chemical weapons since their inception.
The four most famous nerve agents—tabun, sarin, soman, and VX—all belong to the organophosphate or organophosphate family of compounds, originally developed for use as pesticides.
Phosphorus trichloride is the primary raw material for organophosphate production.
Then, thinking back to the devastating incident that country to the north had perpetrated in Malaysia—nerve agents, chemical experts capable of producing high-purity sarin, the missing phosphorus trichloride, and the hundreds of "Little Wing" man-portable air-to-air missiles someone had attempted to purchase—
"I need to make a call."
A terrifying thought welled up in Jack's mind, unstoppable. He grabbed his phone and hurried off, leaving the two men staring at each other in astonishment.
The time difference between Seoul and Los Angeles is 13 hours. Rossi, sound asleep, was suddenly awakened by the ringing of the phone. The old man stared at Jack's name on the screen for a moment before finally answering.
"You'd better have a good reason, or I'll tell Jiejie and Hannah about Joan Doe's true identity, something they've been tracking down lately."
Jack paused for a moment, realizing he'd overlooked the time difference. But at this point, he couldn't care less.
"Besides the raw materials for making tannin, Zhang Mingjun's men have also stolen a large amount of phosphorus trichloride. Their frantic dumping of high-purity tannin in South Korea over the past month isn't about making money, but likely funding an impending chemical attack."
Rossi, still a little sleepy, sat up abruptly, nearly straining his back. But then, remembering Jack was in South Korea, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you sure? What are the odds?" He asked in a deep voice, grabbing a glass of water from the bedside table to moisten his tight throat.
"It's just speculation, no hard evidence, but several tons of phosphorus trichloride were lost. There's news that a military chemist defected with Zhang Mingjun.
This is confirmed by the high-purity finished tartaric acid. Ordinary people might be able to synthesize it in bulk, but it's impossible to achieve such a high purity."
Those who've watched "Breaking Bad" have witnessed Walt White's craftsmanship, but that's just a TV drama.
While theoretically, high-purity tartaric acid is a beautiful blue, in reality, due to equipment and process limitations, such high-quality tartaric acid has never been available on the market.
The tartaric acid available to addicts is often garbage, with a concentration below 20%, mixed with impurities like talc and flour.
In the UK, 80% pure tarragon poison was once discovered, but that's the limit of what can be achieved under informal laboratory conditions.
In other words, Zhang Mingjun's chemist is at least one and a half times as skilled as Walter White. Considering his military background, it's hard to say whether he's more adept at producing tantalum or nerve agents.
"Considering their original intention in purchasing the 'Little Wings' missiles, I believe they initially intended to modify them for large-scale release of nerve agents."
After hearing his disciple's rapid-fire speech, Rossi could no longer sit still in bed. He quickly got up, threw on his pajamas, and headed for the study. His knowledge of chemical weapons was as good as Jack's, and perhaps even more aware of the dire situation.
"If it's a nerve agent, detonating it with explosives alone would be catastrophic. With the right winds, it could cause casualties in the hundreds of thousands in a densely populated city like Seoul."
He paused, then instructed, "Continue your investigation as planned. I'll contact experts to provide support. If confirmed, notify the South Koreans and evacuate immediately."
Chemical weapons are known as the poor nation's nuclear bombs not only because they are relatively cheap and easy to produce, but also because, depending on the type, some can rival nuclear weapons in terms of their lethality and difficulty in cleaning up.
During the Vietnam War, Agent Orange, released by the United States, caused 4.8 million casualties, including 400,000 direct deaths, numerous stillbirths, and hundreds of thousands of surviving infants with congenital malformations or physical defects.
Even the South Korean troops who served as vassal troops in Vietnam, burning, looting, and slaughtering, were not spared the effects of this chemical weapon. It is said that at least a third of the 300,000 South Korean vassal troops were contaminated, and at least 20,000 died from related illnesses.
The so-called "Agent Orange," which caused this, was described by the Americans as "merely" a "herbicide" containing large amounts of dioxins, hardly a chemical weapon.
So, for a nerve agent with a lethal dose measured in milligrams, the concern wasn't about aftereffects.
Rossi's first reaction was to evacuate his trusted disciples; the weapon was simply too dangerous.
Although Jack disliked the Koreans, he couldn't stand by and let the country's top brass handle an incident involving large-scale civilian casualties unless it was irreversible.
Given the precedent set by the Sewol ferry incident, he felt it was best to focus on his own efforts.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, Rossi, while trusting Jack's judgment, remained skeptical, as the whole situation didn't seem entirely logical.
"Hasn't it been confirmed that Jang Myeong-jun defected from that country? Why would he carry out a terrorist attack in the South? If he were truly a soldier, he should know that provoking a war between the two countries in this way is simply impossible."
A rather counterintuitive point is that for more than half a century after the Korean War, wartime command of the South's military remained in the hands of the Joint Command.
The commander of the Joint Command was concurrently the commander of the US Forces Korea, and the entire South's combat command system was also controlled by the US military.
In other words, if the South's president ever suddenly realized he wanted to declare war directly on the North, out of the over 600,000 active South Korean troops, he would likely only be able to mobilize the few thousand men directly under the Capital Defense Command.
Right now, the North's leader is completely powerless except for his mouth, while the South is even more desperate, "offering his wife and children" and slapping his tongue like a lapdog.
So even if a terrorist attack caused devastating casualties by defectors from the North truly occurred, the Americans would be the ones to worry. As for public pressure, aside from the usual street protests and finger-cutting, perhaps a few more films could be made to commemorate the situation.
In summary, anyone with a working brain would know that it's impossible to start a war on the Korean Peninsula in this way.
But the latest intelligence Jack received from Jiang Zhentai today gave him a hint. "I heard someone from the North will be coming for talks next week. I suspect there's someone Zhang Mingjun wants to target."
"An assassination using indiscriminate attacks?" Rossi paused, then understood what Jack was trying to do. "I'll immediately have someone ask the South Korean side for a list of the delegation and investigate the identities of the relevant personnel. Jack, be careful."
"Don't worry. After I hang up, I'll go get the antiphosphide and atropine."
While Jack theoretically wouldn't die unless he was trapped in a secret room and repeatedly injected with poison gas, emergency medicine was still on hand.
Organophosphorus nerve agents are different from the more common perception of poison gas. While inhaling them is equally lethal, gas masks are completely useless against them.
Because nerve agents can poison a person with minimal skin contact, and ordinary clothing, far from providing a barrier, is highly susceptible to absorption.
The poisoning mechanism is to block nerve signals, so victims don't bleed or ulcerate, but rather die from a nerve "power outage.
"
"Why do I always encounter this kind of danger?" Ma Xidao said, but his expression remained nonchalant.
Jack's Audi S6 was destroyed after less than a day of driving, and the embassy delivered a new Suburban that afternoon. Anna, sitting in the passenger seat, also looked remarkably calm.
"You should be thankful that I, your wise and courageous partner, am always there for you whenever you encounter danger,"
Jack corrected him, pulling over to the side of the road. The door of a waiting Humvee opened, and a US Army second lieutenant wearing a Red Cross armband stepped out.
The lieutenant approached the car and saluted Jack, unloading a first aid kit from his backpack and handing it to him. "Sir, everything you need is in here. Do you need my guidance on how to use it?"
Jack, lacking military rank, couldn't return the salute, so he extended his hand and shook it, thanking him. "No, I've received the necessary training. Thank you very much."
Bidding farewell to the lieutenant, who was presumably a military doctor, Jack opened the first aid kit, revealing boxes filled with standard-dose emergency medications, primarily antidotes and atropine syringes.
Because nerve agents act so quickly, these antidotes are packaged directly in disposable syringes. Remove the needle cap, insert the needle into the muscle, and break the thin neck of the ampoule at the mark, for automatic injection.
"I hope I won't need these." After listening to Jack's explanation, even someone as stoic as Ma Xidao couldn't help but sigh.
The Suburban started up again, heading towards Yongin City.
Since the ponytailed man had been taken away by the CIA and the military, there had been no news. Rossi shared Jack's speculation and urged him to expedite the interrogation.
Interestingly, it was Jiang Zhentai and Lin Zheling, who had taken the slightly overweight man away, who reported good news: they had discovered the suspected hiding place of Zhang Mingjun, and it was indeed in Yongin City.
(End of this chapter)