[NO TRESPASSING! – Whitewater -]
I passed the wire fence with the sign, and the training facilities were spread out over a deep forest and wide plains. The chatty truck driver that drove me here recognized me as the money, and he began to speak of the high-ranking officials that had sat in my seat. This private security company had earned money ostensibly through training law enforcement and military officers.
“We Turn Men into Winners!!!”
“Regardless of ethnicity, age, gender and sexual orientation.”
As the second line seemed to have been hastily painted on the company motto, it seems that to change with the times, Whitewater was becoming more politically correct.
He stopped the car, and a few men wearing military clothes with side arms came out.
“Ask us to do anything.”
The man spoke with confidence. They were veterans, and they looked more capable than men from the national armies. This place was like the military, and I could see instructors wearing the patches from various Special Force units on their uniform, running operatives through shoot-houses, and on a gun range with motorized moving targets. They were being trained for anti-terrorist operations…
“They will be going to Saudi Arabia next month.”
He spoke of a prince there and the steps they were taking to train his new bodyguards to ensure his safety. He was building up to ask for money, as the private security sector was like Wall Street regarding money. Violence was money for them. If they wore the full uniform of a client, they did legitimate work, however if needed, they could take over a country wearing anonymous, unmarked fatigues. Their mission will only be killing the First Evil from now on. I stopped him because he was talking too long.
“Just quote me a number.”
**
I set up a trust fund just for my new private army, and set up funding for a new private investigative firm, and I had nothing left to do in New York after that. The last thing I did was to hand over the information I got from GOL to my new investigators, and I was now on the plane to Seoul.
I had been about to sleep but saw the financial magazines and newspapers prepared for first-class passengers. I could not help but read them.
I took a magazine out as I spoke on my cell phone.
<What time do you arrive?>
<Seven.>
Jonathan was on the cover of Forbes magazine again, as he was now the financial world’s superstar after the Russian financial war.
**
I now could read about what I was doing in any financial magazine, and I saw Jonathan and Jillian’s names in Forbes magazine. Jonathan Investment Group ranked first in the property management division, and while the megabanks had much more property than us, it was a notable record.
Now, millionaires and billionaires would think about the New York firm when making investments, and ranking first even before adding up future private accounts meant we were now one of the ‘shadow banks’ that controlled global finance in secret.
I now only had to wait for the dotcom boom and the dotcom bubble to make the real killing. I was about to sleep when someone started yelling.
“Why are you talking back to me?! Just bring me more!”
A loud, obnoxiously self-entitled voice woke the first-class international passengers, and he seemed well-known to the stewardesses. He had been ordering drinks as I read the magazines, and I thought something like this could happen. He was a Korean man who seemed to be in his late twenties, and the peace of the first-class cabin was ruined because of him. While a few foreigners made complaints, the stewardesses could not control him.
Some passengers knew who he was, and they advised others not to mess with him.
I knew who he was now, and he was from Hansil, a group that ranked first in aeronautics, heavy machinery, food services, and retail distribution.
Anyway, I did not want to get into a p!ssing match with such an immature kid, as he looked ready for a fight. Docile stewardesses would not be enough for him, and his eyes glistened with drink. He looked around and then started to pick a fight with me.
“Don’t be so insolent when looking at me!”
I couldn’t even care enough to be angry with him and just blocked his gaze by opening a magazine. I then found a familiar name, as Korea would notice Brian Kim’s work in New York. The magazine announced that Brian Kim had been made CIO(Chief Information Officer) of Jonathan Investments and mentioned that Jonathan had called him a genius.
**
Yeonhee Woo did not recognize me at first because I had been wearing a suit, and when she did, she frantically waved her arm at me.
“You need to get your luggage, right?”
She asked me that, but having money meant I could travel light. My most valuable items were wearable, as they were necklaces, rings, and badges.
However, the man who had fallen asleep after getting stone drunk now came into my sight. He was treated like a prince by his escort and a woman who looked like his girlfriend fawned over him. However, he now approached us, and his eyes were on Yeonhee Woo. She seemed to know him, and the man spoke first.
“Fancy meeting you here. Did you hear about me coming?”
He first called Yeonhee Woo Director and now he pretended he was a gentleman.
“Hello.”
Yeonhee Woo’s answer was indifferent, and his eyes turned to me then. However, he did not seem to recognize me after all that. His eyes lit up like he was looking at a competitor, and it seemed like he was interested in Yeonhee Woo.
“Is he your boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
There was only one reason Yeonhee Woo told that lie, and the man smiled like he knew she was lying.
“Let’s talk more next time. When is it good for your schedule?”
“I’ll check and let you know.”
“Then, I will take your leave.”
He left with the escort and the woman, and Yeonhee Woo spoke like she had been waiting for the chance.
“He’s that sponsor I told you about.”
“Hansil?”
“You know Department Head Changho Cho?”
Her hospital was considered an emotionally moving story as it was being managed with almost no profit. Since it was the IMF era, such stories were picked out by the government to be lauded over, and written up in articles. This was South Korea after all. Hansil had approached Yeonhee Woo first to improve their image, but it seemed there had been another reason after today.
“He was an obnoxious turd on the plane. Don’t let him near you.”
“I smelled liquor on him.”
Yeonhee Woo spoke like she was not surprised, and I looked at her while wondering what the man saw in her. She was small and cute and would not have sex appeal to a guy like him. He may have become curious about her for another reason, like the relieved way she looked at and spoke to me.
“You’ll go straight to Gimje?”
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