97
The Truth is Hidden Under the Truth
The prediction of our human supercomputer, David Nakaban, was correct. The Security Bureau discovered Canaris’s headquarters, but when they raided it, all that remained were a few stragglers who had been ordered to defend the place without knowing the situation. To make matters worse, these stragglers even committed suicide bombings, causing several agents to suffer moderate to minor injuries, which further increased the criticism within the Security Bureau.
It could be considered the greatest crisis for Director Andrea Dill.
The fortunate thing was that there were no fatalities, thanks to everyone being extremely cautious due to Canaris’s notorious reputation in such matters.
Naturally, the atmosphere in Department 2 was at its worst. If the Director falls, the Department 2 Chief, who is like her Siamese twin, will fall with her. If that happens, Department 2’s position will be on the edge of a cliff.
The mood is fucking fierce
How long are we going to do just paperwork?
Shut up. We’re in the best position right now
But did the information really leak to Canaris?
I heard this information was brought by an A-class agent from Department 2
It seems that officially, they said Lea Parke brought the information, as it’s impossible for the Security Bureau to have bought information from a freelance spy.
Work. Mind your business.
Today is not the day to fool around. There’s such a murderous atmosphere that Nina Volkari might actually shoot if someone coughs wrong, so why do these guys keep pretending to work while playing around?
I can’t believe I’m being told to mind my business by the Team Leader
It’s unfair, so unfair
You’re right. The team next to us keeps looking at us
At that moment, all the crazy people in our team turned their heads towards the neighboring team simultaneously. It’s so obvious you guys were exchanging messages!
It’s so obvious! Work. Anyone who writes a message below this will get more work, you know
Just let me catch one of them.
As I was glaring at the message window, thinking of dumping all the work I could on that person, no one said anything more. They all seemed to realize I was serious. Tch. As I clicked my tongue, another message window flashed on the monitor.
Come to my office
It was our Department Chief, Nina Volkari, the Department 2 Chief.
Ah, was she annoyed by our kids grumbling about work?
The Chief can probably check all the team members’ message windows. The messaging program we use in the Security Bureau is specially designed for use only within the Bureau, and superiors can unconditionally access their subordinates’ conversations. If the Chief happened to see our kids all turn to look at the neighboring team at the same time, she might have checked the messages and could be calling me to give a warning. Sharing rumors like this while in the Security Bureau is prohibited. If you ask how many people actually follow this rule, the answer might be a bit embarrassing.
As I walked to the Chief’s office, I observed the atmosphere of each team. The mood was bad for all of them, but Team 1’s atmosphere was the worst. The faces of Baral and Viviana, which I hadn’t seen inside the Security Bureau for a long time, were as pale as could be.
When I knocked and entered, surprisingly, Volkari had a face similar to her usual one. That is to say, she was beautiful, haughty, and expressionless.
“Team Leader Schnieke.”
She stood up to greet me.
“Yes, Chief.”
She is now my direct superior. This means she’s in a position to grill me as much as Otto Layer could.
“When was the last time you saw Lea Parke?”
At that moment, an ominous feeling flashed through my mind.
“Last week.”
“How was she then?”
“What do you mean?”
I deliberately tried not to look into the nature of my premonition. Ah, you know that famous saying someone once said. You shouldn’t look at unlucky things. Because they look back at you. I can’t remember the exact wording, but wasn’t it something like that? Anyway, I was desperately trying not to make eye contact with the unpleasant premonition flickering before my eyes and asked, pretending not to know.
“How was Parke’s condition?”
“(Her appearance was) normal.”
“Were there any unusual points?”
“(If you mean her appearance) No, there weren’t.”
“Why did Parke come to see you?”
At that moment, I hesitated. Eventually, I shook my head.
“It was for personal reasons.”
“As far as I know, there’s no personal relationship between you two.”
“She was a guest invited to my engagement party. I can’t say there’s no personal relationship.”
She might not have a relationship with me, but she’s quite close with my (future) husband’s family. Isn’t that enough to call it personal? Seeing my face, Volkari suddenly slammed her desk. It was instantaneous.
“Armin Schnieke.”
She gritted her teeth in a low voice.
“Yes, Chief.”
She deliberately omitted my rank when calling me, but I intentionally emphasized her rank. We stared at each other intently. It might have been 2 or 3 seconds. She looked up at me with intense eyes.
“It would be better not to play silly games with me, Team Leader Schnieke.”
She didn’t bother to add, ‘If you want to know what kind of person I am, keep acting like this.’ It was sufficiently understandable even without her saying it out loud.
I recalled parting with Parke at the cemetery last week.
“Thank you. Thanks to you… I’m starting to see a bit of a way forward.”
With a wistful expression, she said that, but what on earth did she do? I had no choice but to open my mouth.
“As you said, Chief, I wasn’t interacting with Parke personally. She just came to share the pain of fellow sufferers, given the commonality between her and me.”
“Fellow sufferers?”
Just as Volkari was about to shout, thinking it was nonsense, I said:
“Yes, it was a conversation between people who were used as bait by the company.”
At that moment, Volkari, who had opened her mouth wide to shout, froze in that position.
She seemed at a loss for words for a moment. I could see her eyes wavering. She barely closed her opened mouth, and when she tried to open it again, she just closed it. Seeing her eyes blink several times, I thought she seemed to be a purer person than the Director. The Director would probably have just scoffed if I had said something like this.
Volkari’s gaze shifted to the monitor. From my position outside the desk, I couldn’t see what was written on her monitor. But after glaring at the monitor for a while, she opened her mouth.
“Then you lied when you said there was nothing unusual about Parke, Team Leader.”
“There was nothing unusual. Is it unusual that she came to me and said ‘I want to hear how you’re overcoming the experience of being used as bait’?”
“Why isn’t that unusual? Isn’t it evidence that she’s wavering?”
“I have no idea what you mean by wavering.”
This isn’t acting. As everyone acknowledges, I’m not good at acting. I asked because I genuinely couldn’t understand.
“I didn’t know you expected someone who was sent into danger to be used as bait to return without any psychological impact and offer the same loyalty as before. If you had such expectations and it’s unusual that those expectations weren’t met, then yes, there was something unusual. However, from my perspective, it seemed like a very natural conclusion, so I omitted it from my report. I ask for your leniency.”
Isn’t that obvious? I don’t think this level of loyalty was expected even in the era of absolute monarchs.
Probably a light of contempt appeared in my eyes. I didn’t bother to hide it. As I told Parke, I will keep my loyalty on days when I want to keep it, and I will betray on days when I want to betray. And at this moment, I want to show contempt. Seeing my appearance that showed no intention of hiding, Volkari took a deep breath.
Eventually, she gritted her teeth.
“I explained, didn’t I? That we didn’t want to do it either.”
“I understand. That’s why I didn’t protest and I’m here working diligently like this.”
“Then why are you attacking the higher-ups like this?”
“I’m not attacking. I haven’t spread anything to the mass media saying I was betrayed by the company, nor have I requested an audit, have I? I’m just explaining that I didn’t think it was unusual because it was so obvious.”
“No, but…”
“I’m working as if I’ve never been betrayed. But that doesn’t mean I can erase the memory of being betrayed. So from my perspective, there was nothing unusual.”
At my words, Volkari bit her lip. She trembled with clenched fists, then suddenly let out a long sigh.
“I thought Layer was a terrible superior to you. You’re a good employee, and if you were my subordinate, I thought I could treat you more fairly. But you endured all the unfair things Layer did to you, yet you won’t forget the one thing I did.”
Volkari said, feeling upset. I don’t know. I appreciate her high evaluation of me, but there was one thing I needed to make clear.
“Chief, I’m sorry, but was there anything else between you and me besides the project that ended with a bad taste?”
You deceived me until the end. You said you wanted to save the White Sparrow, but it turned out that White Sparrow was a subordinate you threw into danger as bait.
Seeing Volkari’s eyes widen, I said, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave,” and left. As soon as I closed the door of the Chief’s office, I barely managed to suppress a sigh of relief that was about to escape.
The truth was hidden under the truth. The fact that Canaris spies remained in this Security Bureau was not discovered.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
