Chapter 99: < Protect – Episode 98 – The World’s Top 4 Beauty Pageants [4] >

The director general of foreign security of France and the intelligence director of Italy came to see Ahn Soo Ho at the same time. He took turns looking at each one and whistled.

“I didn’t know France and Italy were this friendly with each other.”

“What terrorists misunderstand is that the more they apply pressure, the more people gather together.”

“That’s true. Violence can’t be a means of resolution.”

If someone heard them talking, they would have thought France and Italy were saints. However, in this world, France and Italy were both known to be very violent. When it comes to crazy lunatics, the Russians were more famous, but France and Italy weren’t too far behind.

“Since we’re all busy people here, let’s get straight to the point. Are there really no ulterior motives, Soo Ho?”

“Just trust me. If there was something I wanted, I would have told you already.”

“That’s true… Sorry, but I just had to check.”

“I understand. It’s hard to trust anyone these days. So are you accepting my proposal?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Ahn Soo Ho clapped his hands and headed to the fridge.

“You can’t forget wine on a nice day like this.”

All special suite rooms provided expensive wines. They looked at each other’s gla.s.ses being filled and chanted cheers in their heads.

“Stefano and Olivia are good people. Are you training them?”

“I’m not sure. You know that won’t be the end of it. They should climb up on their own.”

“They’ll probably both get a promotion.”

The three of them drank expensive wine while grumbling about life.

“That Scott character is still in the middle of divorce by agreement.”

“Is this one his fourth? It must be costly. How impressive. If I were him, I would have changed my name and ran away.”

“Scott probably goes after young women because he knows he’s financially capable. How are the kids?”

“They’re fine. The problem is they don’t recognize their father’s face.”

“That’s too bad. How about you retire, too?”

“Haha.”

The two directors laughed it off, but they couldn’t hide their sadness. Italy didn’t protect workers as well as France did, but they still valued the leisure of life more than work. But threats toward national security didn’t care about work hours. In the intelligence world, there was no difference between night and day.

“Did you meet with Felton yet, Soo Ho?”

“Not yet.”

“He’ll be sad.”

“If he really wants to talk, he can come to me. Not that I had any intention of listening.”

“Alleyas Frovesa has accepted the request.”

“How sure are you?”

“90 percent.”

“That’s a different percentage from Olivia.”

“Well, the head and the director can’t be on the same level.”

Ahn Soo Ho nodded.

“Who’s the client?”

“Georgio Fonseka.”

“It must be Gaius Pharmaceuticals.”

He was one of the punks that had a reward to his head. It wasn’t just the States that was harmed by the Sao Paolo scandal. The people with the most shares to Gaius Pharmaceuticals were American, but other leading countries were in on it as well.

“How much money is on my neck?”

“From what I’ve heard, 30 million euros.”

“That’s cheap. Is that what Alleyas put the fate of their organization on?”

“There’s something you must know. This was reported by Alleyas themselves.”

“Themselves? Were there internal conflicts?”

“Yeah. The ones who accepted the request were the ones who escaped the organization. I heard the Alleyas side is chasing them down.”

“And you want me to sit back and do nothing?”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m just telling you to give them a chance.”

“Hm.”

Ahn Soo Ho stroked his chin.

“Will they be able to handle it?”

“Alleyas are crazy punks, but they probably don’t want to run into you in the least bit.”

He showed a peculiar look on his face. Two tyc.o.o.ns of the intelligence world would protect him? That meant France, Italy, and Alleyas Frovesa came to some kind of agreement. Ahn Soo Ho took some time to think. If he dug further, it would have made everyone uncomfortable.

“Okay. I’ll just watch for the time being. But!”

He still had to clarify who was responsible.

“If a problem arises, I’ll go to you first.”

“That won’t happen, Soo Ho.”

Certainty was taboo but so was meddling too much. As soon as his guests left, Daniel came in.

“Do you still have great connections, Danny?”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

“You have to check, huh?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Even though Empire Konzern went down in flames, there were still many people who remembered Daniel Navarros. Some even scouted him to this day due to his outstanding ability. Those who didn’t know how he was tangled up with the CIA didn’t understand why Daniel was trapping himself in Korea.

“How much do you know about Gaius?”

“The pharmaceutical company?”

Daniel knitted his brows and thought about it.

“There were bad rumors about the medical sector.”

“You’re talking about the development of illegal medicine, aren’t you?”

“Yes. It had been revealed that the defense contract ordered by the Pentagon turned out to be inhumane and illegal medicine, which caused quite a stir. That’s why they changed their name to Gaius. But why do you ask?”

“Gaius is deeply related to the fall of Empire Konzern.”

“Is that…so?”

Daniel hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he would get angry or not. If Empire Konzern hadn’t gone down, he would still be a puppet for the CIA. So with that in mind, he preferred his current circ.u.mstances much more. Daniel was satisfied with his life.

“Do you want to get revenge?”

“No, Sir.”

He shook his head without hesitation. He didn’t have that much loyalty, to begin with anyway.

“I don’t want to get revenge, but I’m still curious, Soo Ho.”

“The CIA can’t touch you.”

“I know that. And I’m thankful. But I still don’t want to go to the States right away.”

The CIA’s hideous reputation was more well-known to the Americans. They were patriots. But not all acts of patriotism were forgiven. Just like how some things that had to be done could be disgusting, there were many national security cases that were better off not knowing.

“Anyway, what about the thing I asked you to look into?”

“Here it is.”

Daniel gave him some forms.

He couldn’t hold a beauty pageant right away just because he wanted to. In order to get contestants, they had to do some promotions, and in order to make the compet.i.tion valid, they had to work with fas.h.i.+on and beauty industries. He hadn’t named it yet, but he already knew he was going to ask Kim Na Hee to manage it.

‘With this, she’ll be able to make up for losing her brand even if it’s just a little bit.’

Actually, it was possible that she could come out with an even better reputation.

“We’re going to have to use a lot of commercials.”

“Are you really going to have the winners be decided through online voting?”

“Yeah. Is that weird?”

“They might call it a cheap beauty pageant.”

“Director Oh said the same thing. Is the reason the same, too?”

“What did she say?”

“That crazy people hidden behind online masks will leave mean comments.”

“She’s not wrong. But a bigger problem is that the server might not be able to handle so many people voting at once.”

“What do you mean?”

“Not all portal sites can handle that much traffic. You have to be like Google, at least.”

If they were really going to use online voting as the means to decide the winners, then anyone from 10-year-old kids to 80-year-old grandmothers might vote. That would lead to a lot of internet traffic.

“It’ll probably be difficult to set up a company like Google right away, won’t it?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Then what else can we do? Call Google.”

They had no choice but to cooperate with Google for their first pageant, but he didn’t want to use them again. He planned on asking Alexa and Kosino to work on an IT company.

“What about a broadcasting company?”

“We’re negotiating with JTV.”

“Isn’t lump liquidation and employment buyout a good deal?”

“I guess so…but if you also want the local commercial broadcasters, 3 trillion dollars won’t be enough.”

“I didn’t know our broadcasting market was that big.”

“I was surprised, too. There are more channels than that of the States.”

That was all because of the low cost of hiring personnel.

“Have China and j.a.pan yet to respond?”

“Not yet.”

3 trillion dollars converted to won was 80 trillion won, which was a lot of money.

But the Chinese and j.a.panese politicians who had their secret fund in Korea didn’t respond. Did they give up? It wasn’t that. They either thought trying to negotiate with Ahn Soo Ho would be a waste of time or they were waiting for Hosoo Entertainment to formally enter the Chinese and j.a.panese markets.

‘It’s probably the latter.’

They say even mutts were confident in the front yard of their own house. While Ahn Soo Ho discussed future strategy with Daniel, Oh Joo Kyung, Jang Seol Hyun, and Lila’s friend were exclaiming at the television. Watching Korean shows in France was entertaining in a different way. Lila, who was a beginner at Korean, got the help of Jang Seol Hyun and Oh Joo Kyung’s translations.

“This is why Korean dramas are fun.”

“Is it okay to hit people like that? Won’t they get sued?”

“It’s just a drama.”

“That’s scary.”

“In American dramas, they shoot people. That’s even scarier.”

Lila trembled at the sight of a fight between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law. When she asked if that was how it was done in Korea, Jang Seol Hyun responded by talking about the gun problem in the States. It was better to get hit by kimchi than get shot by a gun. But when they changed the channel, they saw an even scarier fight.

“Telenovelas are legendary.”

In Mexican dramas, it was common for love and betrayal to be followed up by b.l.o.o.d.y weddings.

“Martin must have been a fan of telenovelas.”

“Huh? When did you get here?”

“Just now.”

Ahn Soo Ho clicked his tongue at the dramatic show that the three women were watching. But these dramas were powerful enough to draw everyone in despite the cursing that it received. Ahn Soo Ho didn’t normally watch dramas or movies, so the only one he remembered was Game of Thrones. That didn’t mean that Game of Thrones was a crazy drama, but in some ways, it transcended the typical crazy drama.

‘You have to applaud those b.l.o.o.d.y weddings.’

He wanted to look into the mind of R. R. Martin who liked to kill every single character in the story.

“Let’s go out. I’m hungry.”

Jang Seol Hyun, who was slowly collecting her things, looked back at Ahn Soo Ho.

“Where’s Kyung Il?”

“He had to go to Nice.”

“Oh. Joo Kyung can go too, right?”

“Sure. Let’s go, Director Oh.”

“Sure.”

Oh Joo Kyung didn’t decline.

They went to the most expensive restaurant in Monaco. They were here for a few days, so they felt at home now. Ahn Soo Ho actually didn’t know the difference between expensive and inexpensive foods. He didn’t have much of a sense of taste. But it wasn’t so bad that he thought bad tasting foods tasted good.

He talked about his plans while slicing his steak.

“I’m going back tomorrow.”

“To Korea?”

“Yeah. Get ready. As for Lila, get lost on your own.”

“Can I go to Korea, too?”

“I thought you’re touring the States. Hannah came and begged me to save them. Please help.”

Hanna Erickson was the vice-president of Holly Corporation.

“All they care about is money.”

“Think about everyone who works under you. Be understanding.”

Ahn Soo Ho only recently realized that a celebrity fed countless people below them. And for a world star like Lila, there must have been hundreds of people working under her.

“I’ll see you in the States next time.”

“Are you going to come?”

She brightened up in response to his proposal.

“When?”

“When’s best for you?”

Ahn Soo Ho asked Jang Seol Hyun in response to Lila’s question.

“I’ll start filming next month…so maybe next spring?”

“Sure, okay.”

That was a few months from now. But Lila was not happy.

“That’s during my tour!”

“That’s perfect. It’ll be quiet.”

“Hey!”

“Hey, watch your manners.”

Once they finished their meal, they left the restaurant. Ahn Soo Ho, who paid and came out later, saw a strange sight. Lila was being pushed into a van by the waist. There was a guard trying to stop it, as well as Jang Seol Hyun and Oh Joo Kyung who was pushed off to the side.

“Mister!”

As soon as he heard Jang Seol Hyun’s voice, Ahn Soo Ho’s body cut through s.p.a.ce.

< Protect – Episode 98 – The World’s Top 4 Beauty Pageants [4] > The end.