NIS Agents Tearing Up the Japanese Empire - Chapter 48



Only Krnovel

Payday – 7

Trucks stopped one by one in front of the Shanghai Bank and one by one they spewed out well-armed soldiers from inside.

The soldiers who had been thrown out of the truck ran somewhere and each took up a position in a good spot.

Soon, an officer appeared in a black car and frowned as he asked the adjutant who had arrived first.

“what’s the matter?”

“It appears that the bank vault was opened without prior arrangement and the security bell rang.”

“What? You called in the Royal Marines for something like that? Do these bankers think of the military as their own private army?”

“Haha… But there’s always a chance, so don’t complain too much….”

“What the heck! That damned state-of-the-art machine broke down and we got hurt more than once! Last time, we were called because we couldn’t do anything about that chinky guy who was causing a commotion inside the bank.”

The officer was quite dissatisfied with the Shanghai Bank, which looked to the military rather than the police whenever something went wrong in the peaceful city of Shanghai.

“No, I don’t understand what on earth is inside that small bank that makes the higher-ups put aside everything else and worry about the security of the bank.”

“It’s probably a secret you can’t tell us.”

“Secret? What kind of secret can you possibly tell that you can’t even tell the frontline troops deployed for the operation? At the very least, you should tell it to me, your commander!”

The adjutant, tired of the officer’s endless grumbling, smiled awkwardly.

“Let’s go inside first and check the situation.”

“Why are you doing that? It’s just another minor mistake, and the soldiers are going to come in and kick you out for interfering with business!”

“Haha… Well, that’s the rule….”

“Yeah, principles! Principles are good! Damn principles!”

The adjutant, fearing that the sparks of anger might fly to him, quickly led his men into the bank.

As he passed through the main gate and climbed the bank stairs, numerous gun barrels popped out in front of his eyes.

“?!”

“If you want to live, go back the way you came.”

As it turned out, they didn’t even have guns.

It was because the employees didn’t like it when you brought a gun into a bank while it was busy, but in a situation like this, it was just the right thing to do.

“What is this···?”

“Did you put a sundae in your ear? Stop fooling around here and get out of here!”

“Retreat… Retreat! Everyone, retreat!”

When the adjutant and Marines encountered obstacles that could not be overcome by courage alone, they counterattacked with even greater courage than when they advanced.

Their risky counterattack was successful without a single casualty, thanks to the wit and leadership of the non-commissioned officer who led the unit from the front.

“What? A bank robber?!”

“Yes, there are heavily armed robbers inside the bank… ugh!”

However, it was not possible to prevent injuries from being caused by the angry boots of the superior officer.

“What kind of crazy guy in the world is robbing a Shanghai bank? Did I see that right?!”

“Ugh… I saw it with my own two eyes. There were clearly heavily armed robbers with machine guns occupying the bank.”

“How many of them? Did you see how many there were?”

“That is… If you look at it roughly, there are more than twenty people.”

“S, there are more than twenty people···?”

The officer’s mind went blank at the unprecedented incident that occurred within his own territory.

“What do we do now?”

“······.”

He couldn’t answer.

This was his first time experiencing something like this.

“Sir?”

“I don’t know either.”

“Yes? But···.”

“First, set up a control line and wait for troops from other consulates.”

“Are you telling me to just wait?”

“Is there another plan? If there is, I will do as you say.”

“doesn’t exist.”

“Then, just wait for now.”

After saying that, the officer ran away into the car.

******

“Did you go?”

“I think it’s gone?”

“I bought some time.”

Na Seok-ju, who was watching the backs of the British Marines running away, turned his gun again and shouted at the people who looked similar to him.

“Everyone, back to your original positions.”

“Come on, if you don’t want to get shot, let’s go quickly.”

At Na Seok-ju’s order, Jae-hwang and others stepped forward and took the hostages.

Having overcome the first crisis with ease, Na Seok-ju covered the bank windows with thick curtains and went back to the vault.

“This teacher, teacher?”

But there was no one in the safe.

All the personal safes were opened and in a mess, there was nothing but cash that seemed like it would never be used in a lifetime and gold bars piled up like mountains.

“Where on earth did you go?”

“I’m here!”

“teacher?”

Na Seok-ju walked towards where he could hear the teacher’s voice.

Then, naturally, his steps stopped in a storage room inside the bank, and inside he heard a loud noise like that heard at a construction site.

“Teacher? Are you inside?”

“Hey! Come in!”

When I opened the door, I saw the teacher holding a pickaxe and pounding the floor of the supply room hard.

“What are you doing now···?”

“Can’t you see it? It’s under construction.”

“I know that, but wasn’t the escape route this time to just walk out the front gate instead of digging a tunnel?”

In response to Na Seok-ju’s question, the teacher stopped what he was doing for a moment and touched his swollen skin here and there.

“Yeah, why is that?”

“No···. Looking at the teacher right now···.”

“Oh, this?”

The teacher snickered, pointing to the messily dug up floor of the bank.

“Did you read the plan properly?”

“I did finish reading it.”

“Hmm… Then I guess I didn’t write it down there.”

“yes?”

The teacher raised the pickaxe over his head again and struck the ground with force.

-Bang!

“Hmph!”

-Bang!

“As originally planned!”

-Bang!

“You guys can just exit through the main gate!”

-Bang!

“That means… Are you not going with us, teacher?”

“Okay! I’ll stay here.”

“???”

Na Seok-ju didn’t understand what Mr. Lee meant when he said he would stay here, but he didn’t bother to ask him why because he wasn’t the type of person to talk nonsense.

Instead, I asked something else.

“So, what should we do now?”

“If everything went according to plan, what should we have done now?”

“We will change the location of the hostages and get the guards out to let them know our demands.”

“Then do that.”

“Yes, I understand.”

******

After a valiant counter-charge by the British Royal Marines, French and Japanese troops arrived one after another to fill the Shanghai Bank site.

In the square in front of the Shanghai Bank, where dozens of trucks had gathered, traffic was congested and people were running around in confusion. In the midst of this, the on-site commanders from the three countries of Britain, France, and Japan gathered in one place, including Inspector Sasaki, who had come as the Japanese representative.

“How did this happen?”

“Can’t you see it? There was a robbery at that Shanghai Bank.”

“Your tone is quite aggressive.”

“I heard that you failed to suppress the initial situation. Isn’t that why it happened?”

The French officer’s tirade left a deep furrow in the British officer’s forehead.

“Captain Henri, why are you acting so smart when you’re the last one to arrive?”

“We’re late. Isn’t it because the French Concession is far from here?”

The British officer sneered at the French officer’s indifferent answer.

“Really? That’s strange. As far as I know, the French Concession wasn’t just about five steps from here, right, to that cafe?”

“I wasn’t talking about the settlement area, I was talking about the location of the French consulate. Hehe, I didn’t expect you to understand even such a simple analogy···.”

“Ah, I thought the French army had run far away to avoid the Germans. What happened?”

“I can’t just let that go.”

“Why is that?”

“That is because it is not true. Our French Grande Armée has never once fled before the enemy.”

“Oh, I see. Come to think of it, it wasn’t that they fled, but that the great Grande Armée and the great French Emperor surrendered to the Prussian army at Sedan.”

“Watch your words! What’s so great about running away like that when you see robbers…!”

“You should watch what you say! What’s so great about being so late…!”

Inspector Sasaki, who could not stand to watch the two arguing, intervened between them.

“What are you going to do by fighting among your own forces when the enemy is right in front of you? In a situation like this, we should all work together to overcome this crisis!”

“I’d like to do that too, but I’m not sure if that person would be good at chewing on a baguette…”

“Heh heh, where does that damp herring jelly smell come from?”

“Both of you, please stop!”

While these petty arguments between these grown adults continued, the bank door opened slightly and two men wearing suits and clown masks walked out.

The person in front had a briefcase strapped to his body, and the person behind him was pointing a gun at him.

“It’s a robbery!”

“All hands on deck…!”

“You can’t just shoot right away when you don’t know if they’re robbers or hostages!”

When the men dressed as robbers appeared, the riot police officers immediately tried to shoot them dead, but Sasaki stopped them.

While the command center was in disarray, the person who had been aiming the gun at the other person went inside the bank, leaving only the person with the bag tied to his body behind.

“Please save me!”

“The Royal Marines.”

“Don’t move.”

“Please save me! I’m just a good citizen!”

“Stay still!”

The captured man struggled for no reason and was hit several times, but was still captured without incident.

So the commanding officer who arrested the first suspect in this case brought him in for questioning, and something completely strange came out of his mouth.

“I’m a security guard at Shanghai Bank?”

“······Not a robber?”

“Am I a robber? What kind of nonsense are you talking about….”

“Hey James, if you’re going to waste time telling lies that won’t work, it’s not going to be fun.”

“This is driving me crazy, I’m really a bank security guard here! If you don’t believe me, just call someone and check!”

“Use it···.”

While the British officer argued with the recently released hostage, the French officer focused on the briefcase that was attached to the hostage’s body.

“Then… shall we open it?”

“Okay, be careful.”

Captain Henri ordered his men to check the bag to see if there was a bomb inside, while he hid behind cover and watched the scene.

The French soldier took a deep breath and carefully opened his briefcase. Inside was a single note written in neat handwriting.

“Sir! There’s only one memo here?”

“A notepad? Give it to me.”

Once safety was secured, Captain Henri jumped out of cover and took a memo from his subordinate.

“What does this mean?”

“It seems like a foreign language.”

“I know that too! So what country are you talking about now?”

The handwriting on the memo read like an earthworm crawling, crossing the center line once, changing lanes several times, and finally making an illegal U-turn.

It was clear that these were letters, but to Captain Henri’s eyes they looked like a landscape painting with many pictures in it.

Fortunately, Captain Henri knew which country these letters were from.

“Inspector Sasaki! Come over here for a moment!”

“What’s going on?”

“Here’s this on a memo… isn’t it Japanese?”

“It seems like there are a few difficult Chinese characters mixed in… But it still seems to be Japanese.”

“Then, please interpret this for me.”

“yes?”

Sasaki immediately felt slightly uncomfortable with Captain Henri’s commanding tone.

‘That’s why sheep are···.’

He was always annoyed by Westerners who looked down on Asians and treated them as inferior, but he never showed it.

He just smiled brightly and nodded.

“Of course.”

Sasaki held up a notepad and slowly translated it into French.

“Our Shanghai Countermeasures Committee will condemn the gentry who live in luxury with the money they made by pouring opium down the throats of the Chinese people, and will collect the money they made by sucking the blood of the people and use it for China…”

“What a bunch of crazy guys.”

“Ahem… It’s not over yet.”

“I’m sorry, please continue.”

“······The lives of the hostages we have captured are at stake. Prepare a ship that can take us out of Shanghai within the hour and guide us there. Otherwise, the lives of the hostages can be saved···.”

“You crazy guys!”

Captain Henri became very angry and stormed off.

“Why are you doing that?”

“These damn Orientals are trying to kill Europeans again! They don’t even know the kindness we gave them by introducing civilization!”

“Oh, I see.”

Sasaki was cautious with his words.

Because he was a wise man who would not try to converse with an idiot who couldn’t communicate.

I just focused on creating the atmosphere right away, as the teacher inside instructed.

“Hmm. If all the hostages inside are like this, it might be a bit difficult to let the soldiers in.”

“Why do you think the crowd is following us? Just shoot the robbers and rescue the hostages.”

“No, that’s why it’s difficult right now···.”

“What’s difficult about it? The short guy is an Asian, so shoot him dead, and the tall guy is a Westerner, so capture him alive and that’s it.”

“······.”

“Even without that, it’s not that difficult to distinguish between yellow and white people just by looking at their skin color.”

“Ah, yes···.”

Sasaki gave up on the conversation.

Instead, he fiddled with the pistol on his waist.

I’m saying this in case there ever comes a time when I might need to use it.