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Chapter 285: FRB (13)

The problem was getting to the International Court of Justice. It was located in The Hague, which was about a thirty-five-minute drive from the hotel. That was the problem.

Young-Joon decided to take the same car as President Campbell and Isaiah, and they were going to travel in a motorcade with their entourage. A motorcade was when a local police officer led the way, followed by the president’s vehicle, the vehicles of the entourage, including the ministers or staff, and the vehicles of the security team in one line.

The idea was that the motorcade did not stop until it reached the final destination. As such, the roads needed to be controlled. The Dutch government completely shut down traffic on the route from the hotel to the International Court of Justice four hours in advance.

Isaiah had mapped out the best strategy for attacking the team from a terrorist’s perspective, and the Dutch and U.S. governments prepared for all of it. They opened manhole covers and searched the sewers, and they even removed mailboxes along the route. Helicopters were launched to monitor the route and suspicious movements of nearby citizens.

“Honestly, there’s nothing for me to do,” Kim Chul-Kwon said.

“They’re protecting the president of the United States, so it’s probably bigger than a private security firm,” Young-Joon said.

“The reason President Campbell is visiting the Netherlands and going to the International Court of Justice is to provide this protection for you, Doctor Ryu.”

“Yes. President Campbell has put his life on the line for this fight now. Either he wins, securing the financial power in the United States, and gets re-elected, or he gets assassinated here with me,” Young-Joon said.

“The Dutch government is in a pretty difficult situation because the President of the United States himself has come to provide state-level security due to the very real possibility of terrorism against me. If something goes wrong, it becomes a diplomatic issue with the United States.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“Just stay at the hotel. Please take care of Rosaline in the case of an emergency,” Young-Joon said.

At eleven in the morning, Young-Joon had a light meal with Campbell’s entourage and stepped into the presidential bulletproof vehicle.

*

The security was tighter than he thought, so Alphonse Lofair decided to adjust his strategy a little bit. It was Plan B now. The best option was to kill Young-Joon, but they didn’t have to get hung up on that if that was too difficult. Once they got through this trial, they were going to have other options. Now that Campbell was here, this had to be the last trial.

The judges here would make a decision by voting, and since the International Court of Justice was the only institution that handled disputes between nations and the highest judicial body, there was no concept of an appeal. In other words, its rulings were absolute and irreversible.

So, by discouraging witnesses from appearing by stalling for time and rushing the judges for a verdict, Alphonse could get what he wanted.

Then, how was he going to get the witnesses to fail to appear? After Campbell, Young-Joon, and Isaiah leave, Rosaline would be left alone at the hotel. This was because she needed to be identified in order to attend the hearing, but she hadn’t received Swedish citizenship yet. They wouldn’t let her out alone, so they were probably going to put her in the most secure hotel with the highest security.

It didn’t matter if that girl was really Elsie’s daughter or not; the important thing was that Young-Joon cared for the child.

Alphonse found one of the cleaners of the hotel, a poor African man who grew up in a refugee family. Through a broker, he gave that man, who had been cleaning for thirty years and was worried about sending his children to college, enough money to start a new life.

“No matter what you ask me to do, I won’t do it.”

The broker gave the scared and reluctant cleaner a very simple task.

“Set fire to an empty room. If there’s an accident later and the police investigate, you can get away with saying that a cigarette left behind by a guest set the bed sheets on fire, or something like that. I’m not asking you to kill anyone, set off a bomb, or steal anything. I’m just asking you to set fire to an empty room after the people are gone.”

*

The task was too easy in exchange for the compensation provided: enough money to buy a huge mansion and send his children to college.

At last, after the president’s entourage, Young-Joon, and Isaiah left, the cleaner checked the time and set fire to the predesignated room. What he didn’t know was that eight other hotel staff had been bribed in the same way.

Although it wasn’t a big fire, smoke and fire alarms coming out of various rooms simultaneously caused chaos. As the security team scrambled to determine the scale and location of the fire, four fire trucks arrived at the scene. Although they had the Amsterdam Fire Department’s mark, they were actually different people.

Lofair arrived in the Netherlands early, and during the first trial, he secretly smuggled in four unregistered vehicles from Turnhout, Belgium. He hid them in an abandoned factory in Amstelveen, converted them into fire trucks, and gave them to terrorists who had been trained for the attack.

The situation quickly escalated. With the president and his White House entourage gone, the security guards at the hotel became a little relaxed. That’s why the terrorists exploited that vulnerability.

“Aren’t the president and his entourage already out now? The fire alarms are ringing, and you want to search the firefighters? You want us to take off our fireproof suits, ventilators, and oxygen tanks so that you can search us? Are you crazy? We’re from the Amsterdam Fire Department! Look!”

The terrorists, who were dressed like firefighters, showed the hotel security team their IDs and screamed at them.

“What if your stalling causes more fires or casualties? You don’t even know the exact size or location of the fire, right?”

“Then, we’ll be checking your movements later.”

As the security team reluctantly agreed, the terrorists quickly moved inside the hotel. They had one mission: capture Rosaline. They were going to hold her hostage to lure Young-Joon here. Then, when they got the signal, they would drop all weapons and surrender to the police. Presumably, at that point, the judges of the International Court of Justice would be voting.

*

Alphonse received a text.

[The Hoofddorp Hotel is on fire, and the fire alarm has gone off.]

‘It’s done.’

The defense counsel would probably ask for an adjournment if a witness was late. However, the International Court of Justice rarely adjourned for frivolous reasons, such as the failure of a witness to appear. It was a huge institution that dealt with disputes between nations.

If the chief judge hesitated, Alphonse was going to use the judges who were close to him to pressure the chief judge to continue with the trial.

The trial was ten minutes from starting. Campbell and Young-Joon still hadn’t arrived.

After some time, the news about the hotel spread. The defense counsel for the United States and Nicaragua looked nervous about the unexpected turn of events.

This news also reached Elsie and Song Ji-Hyun, who had arrived first and were sitting in the audience.

“A fire?”

Song Ji-Hyun was shocked.

“The President’s car, security team, and witnesses have all left the hotel. Don’t worry. Fire trucks have arrived at the scene as well,” said the White House staff who delivered the news to Song Ji-Hyun and Elsie.

“But...”

Song Ji-Hyun gulped. She turned to Elsie with a worried look.

“I heard Doctor Ryu was bringing a girl that Doctor Elsie was taking care of... Rosaline, right?” said the staff.

“Yes... She should be at the hotel right now.”

“... They say it’s not a big fire, so she should be okay, right?”

“... But a fire happening all of a sudden...”

Alphonse smiled, watching their panic from afar.

‘It’s over.’

Alphonse, who was also here as a witness, was confident he could obscure and overturn all the circumstances.

Thud.

The doors to the court opened. Campbell and his entourage emerged. They made their way to the audience and sat down. Then, Young-Joon and Isaiah appeared.

“Huh...”

Alphonse stared at them in disbelief. He checked his phone again.

[All members of the armed gang who entered the Hoofddorp Hotel disguised as firefighters were arrested.]

[Firefighters putting out the fire at Hoofddorp Hotel.]

The local live news feed was reporting the story.

*

“That’s why you guys aren’t good at it, you morons.”

That was what Isaiah told Director Harris a day before the second hearing.

“If you think terrorism is just about killing people, you’re wrong. You think it’s game over once you’ve got the president under tight security? You have to put the focus on preventing the terrorists from getting what they want, not taking lives. There are other ways to attack, such as kidnapping Ryu Young-Joon’s adopted daughter while pretending to attack us and threatening him with her. I also had an ulterior motive when I attacked the GSC.”

Harris was getting a little tired of taking raw, unfiltered advice from this true terrorist.

“But outsiders can’t come into the hotel,” Harris said.

“If you come in as a citizen, sure. Poor Palestinian rebels would have to do a suicide bombing and shoot their way in, but Lofair’s got a lot more money, so he’ll probably do something more elegant, like disguising as a government official or public servant. The cops are already here, so posing as a cop would be difficult, so... Maybe a hotel janitor or firefighter?”

Taking her advice, Harris ordered the Secret Service to be on higher alert than usual for government employees approaching the hotel and hotel staff. However, there was nothing for them to act on.

Just as the terrorists pulled out their guns at the halfway point and were about to fight the security team that followed them...

“Agh...”

One by one, all twenty of the terrorists suddenly clutched their heads in pain and fell to the ground. They lay on the floor, vomiting and trying to catch their breath, before passing out one after another.

Both the Secret Service officers and the K-Cops team were speechless at the ridiculous situation. Only Kim Chul-Kwon noticed something unusual: Rosaline had become very quiet. She was constantly talking to him and teasing him, but when she heard a noise outside, she climbed into bed and laid down straight. She closed her eyes tightly as if she were asleep.

—I lightly shook their brains to knock them out.

Rosaline sent Young-Joon a message.

‘Good job. Have some fun with Mr. Kim, but don’t bother him too much.’

Young-Joon smiled and replied to Rosaline in his head.

“We will begin the second trial. We will hear the evidence presented by the Nicaraguan government and the statements of witness Ryu Young-Joon. Mr. Ryu, please come up to the stand,” said the judge.

Young-Joon walked up briskly. Alphonse caught a glimpse of him as he passed by. There was a hint of ridicule and cold anger in his expression.

“I will explain TALENs, a form of gene scissors.”