35. Why are you doing all this?
The reason I went a little overboard with the bodyguards in the US was simple.
Initially, it was to ease the anxiety of being the only foreigner with over a billion dollars in my pocket.
It was very unsettling to have such an astronomical amount of money in the United States, let alone Korea, without telling anyone.
I had nightmares for a while about how they found out I won the Powerball, put a gun to my head while I was sleeping, dragged me out to the Nevada desert, tortured me, and took my money.
Have I been watching too many movies?
Anyway, out of anxiety, I decided to hire a bodyguard, which I trusted and hired Aegis Company, where my friend George used to work.
I specifically asked for Green Berets because in my military experience, the best bodyguards were Green Berets.
Plus, $800,000 a year was a lot of money for me at the time.
However, now that I’ve been living in the U.S. for over a year without incident, my initial anxiety has largely dissipated.
My wealth has grown so much that I do need a bodyguard, but to be honest, my current level of protection is not bad and I have no complaints with Aegis.
I’d gotten to know them very well.
Now, at this point, I couldn’t understand why the head of Aegis wanted to see me.
“George.”
“Yeah.”
“Be honest with me. What’s going on?”
“Actually, Aegis is in a bit of trouble.”
“You knew she wasn’t doing well financially, didn’t you?”
“This time, it’s more serious. I don’t know all the details, but Harry said she took on a government job that went wrong and she didn’t get paid, and it took a toll.”
“No, does the government take money from you, the U.S. government?”
“Sometimes, if things go wrong.”
“Huh—.”
God, I can’t believe this guy.
“Then why does he want to see me?”
“I don’t know, but it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? He’s asking for financial help, I suppose? Maybe he wants to pull back on his security detail, or maybe he wants to raise it. Either way, I told him I’d ask you to meet with Mr. Strauss, but I don’t know what you’d do, and that’s about as far as I can go in terms of loyalty to him.”
“Hmmm—.”
“You don’t have to watch it if you don’t want to, Alex.”
“No, but they’ve been protecting me for over a year, so that’s something. Let’s get to know them.”
“Really? Thanks, Alex.”
“For what? It’s just for a few minutes.”
I told him to come at 8 p.m., but I was in a hurry, so I started eating at 7 p.m. and he said he was waiting for me.
“You’re already here? I’m about to eat?”
“Just eat slowly, you’re the one who came early.”
At times like this, Americans are so cold.
You’re waiting for someone, and they don’t serve you?
“Ask him to come to the dining room. We can talk while we eat.”
“Is that okay?”
“Hey, you know how we Koreans are. How can you just sit there and talk when you have company?”
“Hmph, yes, Koreans have that thing. They’re so obsessed with food.”
“Don’t talk nonsense, just serve her. Jenny, here’s another serving for one!”
A few moments later, George brought a very solid-looking blonde middle-aged man into the dining room.
Maybe mid-40s?
But he looks a little nervous, like he’s in a hurry.
“I’ve heard a lot about you, but it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Alex Kang.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you, too, George. I’m a customer and I’m late in saying hello. I’m Henry Strauss.”
“I’m just about to eat, why don’t you join me, is that before dinner?”
“No, I’m afraid I’ve come early and interrupted your dinner. I’ll wait outside.”
“hahahaha! I’m Korean. We don’t keep our guests waiting to eat, so let’s save the conversation for after the meal and fill your stomach first. A full stomach is a good stomach for work. Please have a seat.”
It would be impolite to refuse.
“Okay, then—.”
“Well, we have a lot of meat on the menu today, so I think you’ll like it. This is braised short ribs.”
“Galbi jjim?”
“It’s a Korean dish. It’s beef short ribs in a sauce and left to simmer.”
It’s a little weird to explain.
Why is galbi jjim “steamed”?
Isn’t steaming cooking with steam?
Isn’t this actually stewing?
In any case, it doesn’t matter whether you steam or stew.
Strauss hesitated slightly at the visual of the mystery food in front of him, then stabbed it with his fork and popped it into his mouth.
Woohoohoo!
Strauss’s eyes widened as he chewed on the beef short rib.
“Ohhhhh!”
Woof, woof, woof, woof!
Strauss abandoned his earlier reluctance and began to inhale up a storm.
This is good stuff.
After living in America for a year and a half, I’ve noticed something.
I never met an American who didn’t love ribs and bulgogi.
In particular, everyone loved short ribs, and it was the sweet and savory flavor of short ribs that captivated them.
Plus, our ribs are cooked in a pressure cooker by Jenny and usually cooked for at least two hours before serving, so the ribs fall apart and the meat just melts in your mouth.
How dare anyone not like these ribs?
Woof! Woof!
“Have a glass of this, too.”
“What is this, is it like wine?”
“It’s a Korean drink called bokbunjaju, and it’s really good for men.”
It’s good for men.
I had a dozen bottles of Bokbunjaju on the table, but I only took a few sips because I didn’t want to give this man an unnecessary boost of energy.
“Oh, so it’s easy to drink and makes a great aperitif or accompaniment?”
“Drink a lot. Lots of liquor.”
There were delicious braised short ribs with all the grease and delicious sake.
We finished the meal with a bang, and Mr. Strauss’s expression was much improved by his full stomach and the alcohol.
We moved to the parlor and got down to business.
“Now, let’s get down to business, shall we? What business did you ask to see me about, Mr. Strauss?”
“I don’t know if you’ve heard from George, but the fact is that we, the Aegis Company, are in dire financial straits.”
“Yes, I heard the gist of it from George, but what does that have to do with me, I’m not a bank?”
“Well, to be honest, we’re not just in trouble, we’re on the verge of bankruptcy. The banks don’t want to lend to us anymore. We’ve been borrowing against our employee training center in San Joaquin, but they say the debt has already exceeded the collateral.”
“Hmmm—.”
I didn’t understand.
Whether Aegis Company is a PMC or just a security company, it’s basically a company that operates people and gets paid for it.
In other words, it’s basically no different from the staffing agencies that are everywhere in Korea, and the staffing business is not a business that is structurally prone to failure.
It’s not, right?
For example, let’s use Nogada as an analogy.
If you need a few janitors, a few carpenters, and a few plasterers at a construction site, you send them over, and when you get the bill from the site after the work is done, you take the referral fee out of it and pay the workers a daily wage.
Of course, if you lose money, you’re out of business, but PMCs and security companies don’t have to worry about that.
They know that most of their clients are government organizations or high net worth individuals and that most, if not all, of them are paid up front.
So, how did a small PMC with its own training center end up in this situation?
“How did you get to this point, I thought I heard you said you took money from George?”
“Ha, we had a big order from a parent government agency.”
“Where is it?”
“Let’s just say it’s the place that does a lot of the most covert operations in the United States.”
CIA, I thought.
But didn’t George say Aegis doesn’t do covert ops?
And that this guy had a bad history with the CIA?
I heard he got kicked out of the military for beating up a CIA agent?
“From what I’ve heard from George, Aegis doesn’t do black ops. They’re not transparent?”
“Normally, no, but I had no choice but to take this job, the company’s in bad financial shape, the terms were good, and they said if I turned this one down, they wouldn’t give me any more government work.”
“So?”
“We had a 20-man operation for six months, and things were not what they said they were. It was really bad, and we were being asked to do things that were unethical, and we didn’t get the support we needed, and for the first time in our history, we lost three men.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Eventually, it was determined that the operation was no longer viable and we withdrew, despite their objections. We couldn’t afford to sacrifice any more of our people, but then they took that and said we were in default of our contract and refused to pay us.”
“sh*t!”
You can’t trust people working in the shadows anywhere.
“That pushed our company, which was already in a fragile financial position, into limbo, because the nature of the operation was such that we couldn’t even get paid up front, which cost us a lot of money over the course of the six-month operation, and we had to give some money to the families of the fallen.”
“Normally, PMCs don’t compensate for casualties during operations, do they?”
“We’re different. In my employment contract, it says we’ll pay you $1 million if you’re killed in action.”
“Why did you do that, it doesn’t sound like you would have had a hard time finding a job otherwise?”
“I’ve seen too many PMCs treated as expendable in my time here, and I hated it, so I did it because I wanted to make sure we still valued our people, and I have no regrets about it.”
“Huh—.”
This guy, what a guy.
He seemed like a really nice guy, and I liked him.
I could see why George had spoken so favorably of him.
But he’s disqualified from running the company.
I have three noses, and I’m thinking about giving them away.
He reminds me of my dad.
They’re in a similar boat.
“Anyway, I hear you, but why did you want to see me? From what you’ve told me, I don’t think there’s anything I can do for you.”
“Well—.”
“Go ahead and say it, and I’ll consider whatever you have to say.”
“No offense, but I’m here to make a suggestion.”
“What kind of offer?”
“I was wondering if you might be interested in buying our company, Aegis.”
“What, you want me to buy the company?”
I thought they were going to ask me to lend them some money or something, but what are you talking about?
You want me to buy your PMC and spend it on something?
“No, what do you want me to do with PMC? I’m an investor.”
“Well, I was wondering if we could get some of that investment.”
“What? What do you mean I’m going to invest in a failing PMC?”
“Look, our Aegis operatives are the best in the business. Each and every one of them was handpicked by me for their skills and character, and I’ve trained them to be the best they can be. They’ll make a great PMC once we get out of this crisis.”
Are there any good PMCs in the world?
“No. I thought you said you had one.”
“No, but we have a pretty good reputation with USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command), and we have a lot of orders coming in from them. And my connections are alive and well.”
I mean, he’s been out of the military for less than four years.
You’re on bad terms with the CIA.
It’s a botched operation, but the fact that they gave me the order to take Aegis out on a limb makes me feel uncomfortable, but it’s also an acknowledgment of my skills.
“Even if I were to take over, who would run it? I’m a permanent resident, not a citizen. I don’t know the details, but I can’t even be the CEO, can I?”
“I’ll be in charge.”
“No. Where do you put the head of a company back in charge after it’s been ruined?”
“I’ve made some mistakes, but I’m confident when it comes to military operations, and I’ll work for free for at least five years and then leave when the company is in good shape.”
“Yes? No, what’s with this? Free service? Mr. Strauss doesn’t have a family? What are you talking about?”
“Luckily, I got out of the Army with just under 20 years of service, so 50% of my active duty pay goes to my pension, and my wife makes a decent living, so we’re at least covered.”
Wow, what is this guy doing?
“Why are you doing this?”
“Like I said, my company is a lot different than a typical PMC. It’s small, but since I handpicked the employees, most of them are either former comrades-in-arms or comrades across the bridge, and since all they’ve learned is to shoot guns, they don’t know how to do anything else, and most of them will go to other PMCs once the company is gone, but I can’t let them be used up for nothing.”
“Huh—.”
In a word, I can’t leave my comrades-in-arms behind, but I don’t know what to say.
He doesn’t belong here.
A man who should be on active duty and live with loyalty and honor has taken a wrong turn in life.
“Then why did you come to me?”
“I heard you were in a Navy SEAL squadron in Korea. I was in a tight spot, with all the banks refusing to give us further loans and extensions, and I couldn’t help but think of you, Mr. Alex, and I, well, I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but I thought you’d understand us—.”
“…”
I’m sorry, it’s not a little forced, it’s a lot forced.
I originally agreed to the meeting because the man, Henry Strauss, whom I had heard about through George, was quite likable.
So, if he was asking me to pay for a bodyguard like he did last time, or if he was asking for a small advance, I was going to return the favor to some extent as someone who was once in the same industry (?).
But not this.
This is not an industry I can touch, or have any reason to touch.
Unfortunately, I have to decline.
I’m taking over, as well as my bodyguards.
“Mr. Strauss, I’m sorry, but——.”
As I begin with the word “regret,” Strauss’s face begins to color with despair.
And then,
Twinkle! Twinkle!
What is this?
Why is the bead sparkling in this situation?
