Spy Classroom - Volume 3 - Chapter 2.5

Interlude

Missing  

Klaus and Lily were riding in a private compartment on their train.

The good news was that they knew where their missing colleagues had gone to do their sightseeing—the entertainment district in the southernmost part of Din. The area had largely avoided the ravages of war, and even now, it felt like new hotels were going up every day. Underground casinos ran rampant there, as did the gangs that controlled them.

As seedy as its underbelly was, though, the legal entertainment options were all perfectly safe, and the city was a popular destination spot for foreign tourists.

When their train arrived at its first station, Klaus got off to stop by the station kiosk and purchase a newspaper and a cigar. Lily regarded him with surprise as he returned to their compartment.

“You smoke, Teach?”

“No, I put in a request to the brass. This station was the drop site.”

Klaus unrolled the cigar and withdrew the report from inside it. He skimmed it over, then handed it to Lily.

“You should read this, too. It’s the intel we have on the city.”

“You got it… Uh, Teach, this is a recipe for corn soup.”

“It’s a cipher. It’s fine; I’ll read it off to you.” Klaus already had the report memorized, and he recited it for her. “Five days ago, a spy battle took place there. The clash was between the Lylat Kingdom and the Galgad Empire, and Din had no direct involvement. Our understanding is that the heart of the matter revolved around a Lylat politician who was conducting a foreign inspection.”

“I take it that ‘inspection’ was just an excuse to visit the entertainment district?” Lily remarked.

“Probably, and it gave the Empire a chance to attack him,” Klaus replied. “When local police caught wind of the battle, they got in touch with our army. The army responded by going into high alert and blockading the area so they could catch the operatives who had infiltrated our borders. The Lylat spy’s corpse has already been found, but the Imperial spy is still at large and trying to flee as we speak.”

Lily’s eyes grew wider with every word. “Wait, so you mean Thea and the others are in a total powder keg right now?”

“That about sums it up, yes. I shouldn’t have been so careless.” Klaus sighed, then splashed some mineral water on the report.

The liquid caused the report to dissolve. In no time at all, it was gone without a trace.

“The army delayed their report to us on purpose. They wanted to make sure they were the ones who got all the credit.”

Because of that, Klaus hadn’t known anything about the spy battle going down at their destination. If he had, he would’ve told the girls to choose a different site for their vacation.

Lily tilted her head to the side, not fully satisfied.

“Okay, so backing up a few steps…”

“Yes?”

“Why don’t we and the rest of the Foreign Intelligence Office get along better with the army? We’re all on the same side, aren’t we? I remember that the virus leak happened because they developed it in secret, too.”

Apparently, her spy academy hadn’t filled her in on the complicated relationship between the two organizations.

Perhaps he had better explain. It wasn’t like there was anything else they could do until the train reached its destination, after all.

“It ties back to the way we were founded, I suppose. Back before the war, our intelligence agency was split into two branches—the Military Intelligence Department and the Naval Intelligence Department. The military handled enemy spies lurking within our borders, and the navy specialized in gathering information abroad, but they both liked to keep secrets to themselves, and it led to our nation underperforming on the intelligence front.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound familiar or anything…”

“Because of that, Din founded a new intelligence agency that could cover the duties of both branches. That was how we got the Foreign Intelligence Office that we have today.”

“Ooh,” Lily cooed in delight. “That’s kinda cool! Like, voom! Combine!”

“Indeed. From what I understand, they took the best and the brightest from both departments.”

“Nice, nice…”

“In short, they made an elite organization with nothing but the cream of the crop. And that’s why the army hates us.”

“Wh—?” Lily’s expression went stiff. “That’s it?!”

“That’s it.”

“Wh-what’re they, kids?”

“To be more specific, it’s because of how radically different we are in scope. Compared to the hundreds of thousands of people in the military, the Foreign Intelligence Office only has a few thousand members at most. Furthermore, we take all the vast amounts of information the army and navy gather and examine it behind closed doors. You could certainly look at it as us using them as our errand boys.”

When you got down to brass tacks, the Foreign Intelligence Office’s salaries were higher, too. That much was somewhat inevitable, given that any able-bodied adult could join the army, whereas you had to be selected by a scout to become a spy. That was another reason behind the bad blood.

“Well now, that’s hardly our fault! Ugh! Now I’m starting to get ticked off!”

Lily’s body began trembling more and more violently.

When she couldn’t take it anymore, she thrust her fist into the air.

“We need to spread the word about our grand accomplishments! The military let their bioweapon fall into the wrong hands, and we spies were the ones who brilliantly got it ba— OWWW!” Klaus kicked her shin to shut her up.

“Don’t go blabbing state secrets like that.”

If word got out that they’d been developing bioweapons, they would come under fire from the international community for it. Even among their own army, only a small handful of people knew exactly what had gone down.

“In all seriousness, you can hate the army all you want, but make sure you don’t underestimate them.”

“Ooh, I do like the sound of hating them…”

“There are two areas where their strength vastly exceeds ours: hierarchy and manpower.”

The army’s value was in its sheer numbers.

Some tasks that were beyond even the greatest spies could be achieved if you threw enough bodies at the problem.

“Only the army has the ability to blockade an entire city like this. The enemy spy is surrounded, and they’re probably at their wit’s end. They might even tear the city apart in desperation.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“Sometimes, a cornered spy will start massacring people as an all-or-nothing attempt to get free. It’s rare, but it does happen.”

Lily went pale.

Klaus nodded. That was simply a sign of how powerful the army’s ability to overwhelm their foe with sheer numbers was.

“If that happens, all we can do is pray that our teammates don’t get caught up in the middle of it.”

The train started up again and began picking up speed.

Klaus glanced at the scenery outside the window. It didn’t take long after leaving the station for the ocean to come into view. Just beyond the curving shoreline, he could make out a group of hotels.

“But if I’m being honest…we probably can’t afford to turn a blind eye to a domestic incident like this.”

If their allies were in danger, that would naturally take priority, but there was something still smoldering within Klaus.

His mind was consumed with thoughts of the mysterious Imperial group Serpent.

He needed to start investigating as soon as possible. Even setting his personal vendetta aside, it was a key national security issue for the Din Republic as a whole.

Klaus needed to find the mastermind responsible for this mess and give them hell.