WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 268: Valley of Death (14)

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The negotiations grew steadily messier as time went on.

Hunt asked Gyeoul.

“Major. Is their interpreter actually relaying everything as-is? From the look on his face, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were exaggerating. And I can’t say his English is great, either.”

Several people nearby looked toward Gyeoul, apparently wondering the same thing. Gyeoul had his high-level 「Chinese」 ability, so he could understand the Shangjiang directly, but the others could not. From Green, the head of the negotiation team on the screen, to the people at the field response headquarters, the Department of Defense, and the White House, everyone was relying on an interpreter. Still, Gyeoul wondered whether they really needed to check with him.

“Can’t you see that it mostly matches?”

In the text box at the bottom of the screen, where he pointed, a translation typed in real time by U.S. Chinese experts in a separate location was being displayed. They were marking the Chinese military interpreter’s slips and mistranslations on Shangjiang Yang Yongbin’s side in red, but most of them were minor. There was no major difference in context. The interpreter’s tone, though, was rather emotional and forceful, creating a noticeable gap from the Shangjiang’s gentle voice.

Hunt scratched his head with a pen, looking irritated.

“It just feels suspicious. I need to be able to trust it without worrying.”

“...”

The American experts were human too. People who could easily believe what they wanted to believe, and easily grow angry because they wanted to be angry. Hunt was wary of their hatred and inflamed emotions.

‘Because they might accept a distortion as-is...’

In this situation, it was hard to call that excessive worry.

“So anyway, it doesn’t sound strange to you either, Major. That’s what you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

“That psycho bastard really gathered nothing but people like himself. Shaking the underlings will be hard too. What is this, are they Islamic extremists or something...?”

Gyeoul glanced at Hunt’s laptop. Emotional analysis was being run not only on the Shangjiang and the interpreter, but also on the Chinese officers and soldiers through cameras inserted through the walls of the power plant. Several dots appeared on each captured face, and the dots connected to one another to produce percentages for different emotions.

The experts’ opinions were added on top of that. Their conversations, changes in body temperature captured on infrared footage, patterns in their gait, and the psychology that could be inferred from other small behaviors.

Their options were limited.

On the monitor connected to Langley, the new CIA Director spoke.

[Unrest across the country is escalating rapidly. Six states have already declared states of emergency, but considering the movements of the radical subversive groups we are monitoring, the entire United States will follow the same path within the next day or two. Armed citizens and the military and police will clash, and there will be bloodshed. Then Your Excellency’s administration is finished. We are coordinating with the Bureau to arrest or detain the ringleaders under every excuse we can find, but it will not have much effect.]

The CIA’s operational area was overseas, but its surveillance of American citizens had long been notorious. Based on that, the director predicted a bloody tomorrow and urged swift action.

[We do not have time. If we do not resolve this situation as quickly as possible, martial law will no longer be a choice. How long can you withstand pressure from the citizens?]

The president asked a question.

[What is your proposal, Director?]

[We have to kill him. As quickly as possible. No later than tonight.]

[...]

[Of course, it would be best if we could capture him alive and put him on trial. The anger of the entire country would focus on the courtroom. Citizens who have lost their heads would have no room to care about anything else. At that point, the Morgellons sample becomes a secondary issue. If we lose it, so be it. That terrorist will simply become that much worse of a monster. That is how we can steer public opinion. At least for a while. In the meantime, we can look for a reversal through military achievements.]

In the end, it was a gamble. If the sample was real, or if it became impossible to determine whether it was real, it would inevitably become a political debt for the president in several ways. Even after the excitement died down, those with lingering resentment would not look kindly on the president. The vanished sample would make a good excuse.

For politicians hungry for power, too.

Retaking the mainland would certainly have a positive effect on the public. How much of an effect, though, was uncertain...

‘Most of all, it hasn’t happened yet.’

How were operations in other regions progressing? How much had Major General Rogers’ Joint Task Force achieved? Gyeoul did not have the information he needed to calculate the future.

The president asked calmly.

[Are you telling me to abandon humanity’s future to get through the immediate crisis?]

He did not discuss what the odds of capturing the Shangjiang alive might be.

[America is humanity’s future.]

The Intelligence Agency Director remained polite.

[Negotiation is a long shot anyway. Let us assume, by some one-in-a-million chance, that the sample that man has is real, and that negotiations succeed by some miracle. How much time would that take? We cannot simply accept the terms those madmen are presenting, can we? By the time we finish adjusting the conditions, the season may have changed. The result will be some form of humiliating compromise, and Your Excellency’s political life will be in danger. Though this is not only a matter for Your Excellency.]

There would also obviously be pressure to disclose the contents throughout the negotiation period. Whether they did or did not, it would be a burden.

[I believe Your Excellency has already been considering this, but hearing it as someone else’s opinion must feel different. I say this in the hope that it may help you make your decision, even slightly.]

So the director’s words were aimed at the president on the surface, but in reality, they were targeting the other members of the response headquarters. President MacMillan’s calm attitude followed the same logic. If no one raised an objection, it would become a reality everyone had agreed to. That was how Gyeoul read it.

‘You all know it too, don’t you?’

Even now, some people were protecting themselves. It was political survival.

The president, having decided to bear the entire burden, called attention to the silence of the senior officials.

[If we send in a strike team, can we rescue the hostages safely? If we get them out safely, it would greatly help calm the unrest.]

[...There is a new plan.]

The speaker was the Deputy Commander of Special Operations Command, assigned to another monitor in the White House situation room, in the same space as the president.

[A new plan?]

The president asked, and the prominent figures in the same situation room, including the National Security Advisor, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Vice President, all turned their attention to him.

[Yes. It is somewhat extreme, but we judge it entirely feasible.]

And the plan really was extreme.

‘They’re going to collapse the power plant itself...?’

Gyeoul was stunned. They did not intend to bring the whole thing down. The goal was to physically cut off the place where the hostages were, then scatter and isolate the enemy.

[Through internal observation, we have confirmed the enemy’s deployment and patrol routes, the hostages’ estimated location, and the explosive installation points. They were likely planning to bring down the entire building in an emergency as well... but if we detonate the highlighted points on the screen first, then even if additional explosions occur later, the shock will not be transmitted.]

To collapse a building, explosive force had to be placed precisely, and the timing of the explosions also mattered. There was a reason demolition engineering existed as its own field. It was probably the engineering corps’ calculation.

That was not the end.

[Also, the explosives installed by the enemy will not all go off. Please look at the photo. As a countermeasure against an EMP, the enemy’s explosives are connected to a Clacker by wire. Since radio use is limited indoors anyway, they likely had no other method. Here, can you see the faintly shining line on the floor? It is wire wrapped in foil. This part, and this part, will definitely be severed when we detonate our charges.]

[Enemy survivors could detonate them, could they not? They may have attached separate timers in preparation for the worst... perhaps a method where they manually reset them at regular intervals. Am I worrying too much? Is that the sort of thing you only see in movies?]

[No, Your Excellency. That is a fully reasonable concern. But at the moment the attack begins, there will be no enemy survivors within range to harm the hostages. The moment the outer wall is breached, we will snipe that zone with a tank’s main gun.]

To Gyeoul, the word “snipe” felt awkward. But it was an attack from a long distance the enemy would not expect, so the deputy commander was not wrong.

‘They obviously can’t use ordinary shells... will they use beehive rounds?’

Beehive round was slang for canister shot fired from a tank’s main gun. It meant the shell was packed full of countless tungsten pellets or small arrows, flechettes, like a beehive. He had heard that some even had the official name Beehive.

He had seen one recently during the seizure of the San Ardo Oil Field. A single round packed with 2,200 shots had enough power to shatter a mutant horde of nearly one hundred. It was equivalent to a volley from an entire Company.

[And as for the timer...]

The Special Operations Deputy Commander trailed off.

[We will have to leave that to luck, along with whether the enemy leader can be captured alive.]

The president rubbed his face with a dry hand.

[Luck, here...]

[I am sorry to say this, but this is the best option. We will deploy heavy equipment at the same time as the detonation. If luck is with us, we should be able to open a passage and disarm the explosives before it is too late.]

Shangjiang Yang Yongbin was probably prepared to kill himself if it came down to it, or had ordered a subordinate to shoot him. He had already achieved everything. He likely felt it did not matter when he died.

It was not only Gyeoul’s certainty.

The Special Operations Deputy Commander had prepared insurance.

[The strike team members are carrying truth serum and recorders. If the primary target is wounded, they have been ordered to prioritize recording his statement over evacuation at the field commander’s discretion.]

Unlike communications equipment or combat equipment, recorders were easy to protect from an electromagnetic pulse. There was no need to expose them. The necessary questions would also be in there. There might also be a member of the strike team who could hold a conversation in Chinese.

[That too is only if we are lucky.]

The president made a smile that was not a smile. His gaze was distant. Gyeoul felt he knew what screen the president was looking at. Even at that moment, the negotiation team was still remaining at an impasse with Shangjiang Yang Yongbin. The negotiation team could make no further concessions, and the Shangjiang had no intention of yielding even a little.

In the end, the negotiation team raised their voices. Gyeoul could hear it too.

Hearing that, President MacMillan made the difficult decision.

[Dragging this out will do us no good. I authorize it.]

[Understood. After the negotiation team withdraws, we will assess the situation and begin the operation.]

The general immediately contacted someone. Meanwhile, the president covered his face and let out a long sigh.

========== Author’s Note ==========

#Q&A

Q. Crysis2: @If another work comes out, I will definitely come find it. Thank you for writing something that is always fun.

A. Another work... Wa... why does that feel so far away? It feels impossibly distant.

Q. Hoch: @I think someone with a strange belief is scarier than someone who is just crazy...

A. That is right. So we should stay away from strange beliefs and extremist convictions. You see a lot of them in society these days, don’t you?

Q. Erin’s Bard: @By the way, in both your previous work and this one, the main character looks to ordinary people like they have altruism close to mental illness. There may be a difference in that the other one was just a pushover and this one is a character who has practically been disappointed by people. Is there a reason you specifically set up characters like this? I wondered if it would have been possible to express the light that remains even in a mad world without making them saint-level figures. Did you deliberately make the world more horrifying by setting the protagonist up almost like an incarnation of goodness?

A. Mental illness... As I said in an intermission in the work, if you think about it, unchanging love is also a kind of mental illness. I just like the positive possibilities in people.

Q. TradeWagon: @More than anything, I am curious why the Shangjiang’s subordinates follow him. The Shangjiang himself might be able to say, “Let’s die together!” But his subordinates wouldn’t be like that.

A. It’sTimeToBurrow: TradeWagon@ To us, seeing things from Gyeoul’s perspective, Shangjiang Yang Yongbin is the villain. But to his subordinates, in a situation where their country has fallen, the Shangjiang is probably the leader responsible for their lives and safety. From their perspective, America, pointing guns at them, would be the villain. In a way, the same logic might apply to residents of a certain neighborhood up north.

Tunguska: Similar. In the work, I compared them to Islamic fundamentalists. Above all, communication within a closed community easily strengthens extremism. In everyday life, social media and exclusionary online communities are good examples.

Q. LewdDemonF: @As a reaction to writing romance, the author has brought out a nuclear villain. Everyone, repent and convert to being single...

A. It is not a reaction! Though converting to being single is beneficial.

Q. Eeiko: @If one kiss scene equals one nuclear terrorist, then Gyeoul’s happy ending would probably mean 99% of humanity dies.

A. No it would not (2)! I feel very wronged right now!

Q. qgegegqe: @Wow, there are people who remember the name Lady Solitaire even though it only appeared once. Don’t you feel the addictive quality of Rice Brave?

A. I have been rereading bits of it now and then because I was afraid I might forget the contents and become unable to write it later, and I saw problems I did not notice when I was writing it. And... it was more readable than I expected.

Q. LucidDream: @With this, the odds of the Shangjiang canoeing are soaring.

A. You know canoeing... Your childlike innocence runs very deep.

Q. TwelveKingdoms: @It is late, really very late, to ask this, but was it intentional from the start that Morgellons, which is a real-life skin disease, and the zombie disease in this novel have the same name?

A. The names are the same, so there is no way it is a coincidence. Hehe. There is no deep meaning, but it was intentional.

Q. Deathandeath: @I read through it, and I think the author’s personality resembles Gaeul more than Gyeoul. Like Gyeoul lightly added to Gaeul...!! I have discovered the recipe for a Great Old One.

A. ?!... Do you dislike Gaeul? That my personality resembles Gaeul’s... There is no way... My recipe contains polonium.

Footnotes:

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