ANTITOXIN Chapter 43

“Nice shot!”

With a powerful swing, the white ball stretched all the way out. After soaring high and dropping to the ground, the ball rolled on and on before stopping right in the middle of the fairway. The man who checked the position of the ball, Cho Taeseok, smiled smugly. The caddies who were watching also clapped their hands to lift the mood.

Leaning on his club against the ground, he looked back. His younger brother, Cho Junseok, was on the phone quite a distance away. He had wanted to brag a bit about his skills by asking if he saw that, but his enthusiasm completely cooled down. Cho Taeseok grumbled with a displeased expression.

“That bastard, if he came out to the field, he should focus on hitting the ball…”

Using the golf club as a support and resting both hands on the grip, he stood askew and waited for his brother. After about three minutes passed, Junseok finally finished the call and walked over with trudging steps. However, his expression was somehow crappy. Cho Taeseok, who had intended to give him a piece of his mind out loud, flinched upon sensing the unusual atmosphere.

Before long, Junseok came and stood right in front of him. Even before Cho Taeseok could strike up a conversation saying whatever, he spat out a curse, saying, “Ugh, fuck.” It was as good as a sign asking to please inquire what was going on.

“Why. What is it.”

“They say the kids attached to that bastard are all entirely dead.”

“What?”

Cho Taeseok’s face crumpled fiercely. It was because he knew very well who ‘that bastard’ Junseok mentioned was.

“Who says so?”

“The Captain bastard did.”

‘Captain’ was a nickname that meant the leader of the Yanbian knifemen they hired.

“They attached five, but they say only one guy barely managed to be delivered alive with his breath still attached. They’re notifying us that they’re washing their hands of this?”

“What? They sucked down as much as 50 million in cash, and now they’re doing this?”

“They can’t even find the corpses of the dead kids, and in the first place, it’s not something that can be done with that money, apparently. They say they did as much as the money they received. On the contrary, they caught one photo, and if we want it, they’re asking for 50 million more?”

“Just one measly photo? They’re asking for as much as 50 million for that?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, those fucking bastards, seriously. They sure do business properly.”

“I know, right. Since they couldn’t do the job properly, I said shouldn’t they just give the photo for free, but their attitude is ‘sue me’.”

Cho Taeseok, whose temper suddenly flared up wildly, grabbed the back of his neck and squeezed his eyes shut. It made sense, as it meant that consequently, they had blown raw cash without any profit whatsoever.

Haa, Cho Junseok also scratched the back of his head hard and let out a deep sigh. His expression looked thoroughly perturbed.

“What should we do, Hyung-nim. The kids who crossed over to Sabid were also looking like death… They say they haven’t even been able to bring up the topic yet. If things fly away like this, aren’t we truly fucked?”

Cho Taeseok and Cho Junseok.

The two brothers were executives of Chogang Tech, a defense enterprise that makes a living through weapon development and export, holding the positions of CEO and Managing Director respectively. The reason they rose to high positions was truly simple. It could be said to be purely thanks to their biological father, the founder. In other words, it meant it wasn’t because of capability.

“Ha, damn it, the atmosphere is already not good as it is…”

Cho Junseok, immersed in pessimistic imaginations, muttered in a complaining tone. It made sense. Because the company—no, to be precise, their standing within the company—was in a crisis.

Chogang Tech, which their biological father built together with a partner, boasted a reasonably firm power as the number two in the industry until ten years ago. However, from five years ago, they failed to bring out any noteworthy hit products, so their sales dropped noticeably, and currently, they were experiencing a slump to the extent that not to mention the number two spot, even the number three spot was precarious.

Performance soon leads to trust in the leader. It was Cho Taeseok, who had no noteworthy achievement whatsoever during his six years as Executive Director and four years as CEO. Last year, he even tasted bitter water in a national project of a 3-trillion-won scale that he put so much effort into, and to make matters worse, his younger brother Cho Junseok even tarnished the company’s image by causing an affair scandal with a new employee. No matter how much it was the founder’s family, it was a natural result that public opinion inside and outside the company toward the brothers turned chilly.

They needed a powerful card to break through the crisis. Even more so in the current situation where their cousins, who lost in the shares war and were pushed out of the succession, were measuring angles to reveal their claws at every opportunity. And, that powerful card was precisely the contract with the Middle Eastern country, Sabid.

Sabid, which had been in a civil war for three years, was a big-spender nation that poured trillions of money annually into weapon purchases alone. Therefore, upon succeeding in the contract, reversing public opinion was of course possible, and their unstable standing could also be recovered. From the two brothers’ perspective, they had no choice but to stake their life and death on the contract with Sabid.

In fact, until early this year, the story was progressing well too. However, from two months ago, an ominous current arose in the contract. The international brokers alliance, Felix. It was from when a broker who was counted within the top five in terms of fame even inside there revealed his presence in the country. His name was Happy or something.

Unlike the weight given by the ridiculous name, he was a broker with rampant rumors that he held a tight grip on Russia, the Middle East, and even some Western European water routes. The Sabid side was saving their words, but the talk that the contract with Chogang Tech slipped precisely because of broker Happy’s influence was already widespread within the market. This time, in order to break through even the Asian side, he was allegedly searching for a factory in Korea to supply goods, and he dropped Chogang from that candidate pool and appealed this to the Sabid side, that is.

The Cho brothers never let the rumors slide past their ears. There are times when smoke rises from a chimney without fire, but that is a story that does not apply to the defense industry. In a rumor this specific, there existed a basis with a high probability. First of all, the fact that communication with the Sabid side became difficult after Happy’s presence surfaced was proof of the rumor. The TF team that crossed over blindly to try and resume the conversation with the Sabid side, which was suddenly severed, also failed to obtain any achievement whatsoever for two weeks. To describe what extent it was, it was a level where let alone striking up a conversation with the director, they couldn’t even knock on the door of the Defense Procurement Agency.

“What about that bastard Harbor or Barber? Why is there no word on what he’s going to do?”

Harbor, who belonged to the same Felix as Happy, was a broker who made quite a name for himself in Asia. The crucial culprit who made another house snatch away the 3-trillion missile project they put so much effort into last year was precisely that Harbor.

“What the fuck, the bastard who used to swagger saying it’s difficult to do business here in Northeast Asia without his name. He threw a fit like it was great when his ass was being sucked, but when another guy actually comes into his territory and acts up to set up a stage, he’s staying quiet?”

The money spent on the broker named Harbor just for the success of the contract with Sabid amounted to hundreds of millions. Did they only spend money? They treated him with utmost hospitality to the point of being in a momentum to truly suck his ass if he was invited to Korea. Harbor, satisfied with playing the role of a distinguished guest, guaranteed. That before long, he would make an article pop up saying Chogang Tech contributed to the nation through the weapons business. That they should prepare to attach a five-star.

“I subtly sounded him out anyway, and he says to wait a bit. Since he’s in a position where he’s about to have his rice bowl snatched away too, he will surely use some kind of move. His pride must have been heavily damaged as well. In my opinion, because they belong to the same alliance, it’s awkward to strike blindly, so I think he’s testing the waters a bit.”

They didn’t know what the hierarchy within Felix was like, but just by hearing the rough rumors, Happy didn’t seem like a guy who would easily be pushed back by Harbor. If he was to the extent of throwing ashes on cooked rice called Sabid, conversely, he would be a higher grade than Harbor. If so, it was an angle where it would be difficult to resolve even through Harbor.

“Until when is he going to test the waters? Until both of us become outcasts?”

“I know… Haa, Hyung. Honestly, I’m a bit anxious. What if we truly become outcasts like this? I heard Aunt’s side is already throwing a banquet every day saying we’re fucked…”

“Are you going to keep spouting such unlucky words?”

Cho Taeseok flared up in annoyance while lifting his golf club. But in truth, he was anxious just the same. No matter how much he tried to think well of it, it was because there was an absolute absence of signals that could be accepted positively.

“The situation is like that, isn’t it. They say that bastard Happy has already picked K and Nova and is weighing them…”

“What? K? Nova? He’s going to do business taking such fucking low-tier bastards?”

K-Defense, Nova Systems. They were places that brought out hit products recently and made their names known a bit. However, they were relatively newborn enterprises that hadn’t even been formed for ten years. If Chogang Tech was a time-honored noble family, those places were at the level of being corner shops. From Chogang Tech’s perspective, the scale difference was so severe that being compared itself was a humiliation.

“They haven’t stamped the seal, but apparently they caught a glimpse of the contract. Then that says it all, well. We only received utter disregard.”