Chapter 103, Twentieth Round (22)
Is there an undercover agent among us?
Kiel's heart skipped a beat.
How could this be? Could it be that she or her father has been exposed?
"Snap!"
She slightly widened her eyes and looked up at the direction from which the sound came.
The black wall directly in front of the dining table suddenly flickered, and half of the wall lit up like a screen, displaying a huge photograph in front of everyone.
That was the photo taken of the 12 men's immediate reactions right after Rum revealed there was an undercover agent.
I didn't realize it at first, but when you arrange the photos in such a way, enlarge them, and display them on the wall, some things become very obvious.
"The Last Supper?"
That was the sound of vodka's surprise.
But Kiel no longer had the energy to pay attention to him; his eyes quickly locked onto two positions in the far left corner of the photo.
But before she could see if she and her father had given anything away, a familiar "click" sound rang out again.
At that moment, she quickly realized something and felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave.
The second photo may be the most crucial evidence.
The first photo shows the reactions of everyone present after hearing "There is an undercover agent among you".
The second photo shows the expressions and actions of everyone after they realized they might be being photographed and heard about the undercover agent.
A truly experienced undercover agent might not give himself away in the first photo, but he might in the second.
An undercover agent will subconsciously check their expression in the photo to see if there's anything wrong, worrying about their identity being exposed. In that critical moment, they might subconsciously think that taking the first photo is enough, not expecting there to be a second one.
The actual members of the organization wouldn't react that quickly; they might even watch the spectacle, finding it amusing, and observe the reactions of others.
"puff……"
Take, for example, Bourbon suddenly bursting into laughter.
Kiel suppressed the turmoil in his heart for the time being, trying his best to keep his body from stiffening and turning cold, and turned to look at Bourbon along with the others.
"Haha, sorry, sorry, I just remembered something funny."
Bourbon was still laughing, his shoulders shaking wildly, and finally he couldn't hold back anymore, slamming his fist on the table and laughing hysterically.
"Hahahaha, I never thought Gin, who spends all his time catching mice, would be suspected of being a spy! Hahahaha, what goes around comes around! Hahahaha—"
Gin: "..."
Others: "..."
“Bourbon, be quiet,” Rum said.
"Sorry, sorry." Bourbon immediately sat up straight, raised his hand to his mouth as if zipping up a zipper, then clenched his fists on his lap and lowered his head to continue suppressing his laughter, his short blond hair trembling.
Vermouth realized what was happening and couldn't help but let out a little laugh. She immediately covered the lower half of her face with one hand and pretended to admire the fork in her other hand, but the fork was visibly trembling because of her attempt to suppress her laughter.
Chianti was rather slow-witted and didn't know about "The Last Supper," but the fact that Gin was suspected of being an undercover agent was enough for her to laugh out loud for the rest of her life. But when Bourbon and Vermouth, whom she disliked the most, started laughing like that, she suddenly didn't want to laugh anymore and didn't want to play with them at all. So she could only turn her head and look at Gin with that amazed expression.
Gin: "…………"
Sitting next to him, Vodka was so frightened by his older brother's murderous aura that he wished he could shrink his massive body into a ball and crawl under the table.
Kiel couldn't be as calm and playful as the group of lunatics in that organization, but she was grateful that they had broken the uncontrollable and dangerous atmosphere. Now that she was almost calm enough to restore her perfect body, she turned to look at the two photos on the wall.
The first image, taken from left to right after hearing Rum say there's a mole among them:
Takahiko Ito turned his head in surprise to look at Rum in the middle, his usually taciturn eyes slightly opening.
Kiel stared wide-eyed in disbelief, the red wine in his glass swirling in a distinct arc.
Ireland looked completely bewildered, with a piece of meat stuck in his mouth.
Ray remained expressionless, only turning his head to look in Rum's direction. Because the Scottish in front of him blocked his view a little, he deliberately leaned back a bit.
Scotland turned to look in Rum's direction, but a closer look revealed that he was actually looking at Bourbon, his upturned blue cat eyes practically screaming curiosity and amusement.
Bourbon was more interesting. His expression showed no surprise, as if he had expected it all along. He was still staring blankly at the wine glass in front of him, his chin resting on his hand.
Skip the part in the middle, which features a head that looks like an electronic display screen.
Vermouth leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, her red lips curving into a blatant display of schadenfreude.
Calvados was looking at Vermouth as always, with the same unchanging expression. All his attention was on Vermouth, and he wasn't very interested in what was happening outside.
Cohen was similar; he subconsciously turned to look at Rum, but his mouth was slightly open in surprise.
Chianti's expression was a mix of excitement and fanatical bloodlust. She gripped the knife even tighter, looking as if she might stand up at any moment and confront Rum, asking who the mole was before she went and killed him.
Vodka was looking at Gin, looking confused and needing his older brother to explain things to him so he could understand.
Gin turned to look at everyone at the table, his gaze seemingly fixed on the moment he swept over them all, as cold as a wolf on the hunt.
Kiel looked away from the photo and glanced at everyone present. Everyone was doing the same thing as her, looking at the photo and then at the others, trying to confirm who the undercover agent was.
Except for those few people.
Chianti: "What? The Last Supper? Was the food poisoned?"
Vodka: "No, no, no, I was talking about a world-famous painting, painted by Leonardo da Vinci."
Ireland: "That painting, it's not like the photo on the wall, is it? Rum has this kind of hobby?"
Bourbon: "Pretty much. 'The Last Supper' depicts the various reactions of the others at the moment Jesus tells his twelve disciples, 'One of you has betrayed me.' Mr. Rum's method is simply brilliant, isn't it? Not only does it perfectly fit the current situation, but it also better reveals the undercover agent's reaction. As expected of Mr. Rum!"
Chianti: "Tch, you're such a suck-up. I hate riddle makers like you!"
Vermouth: "Chianti, you're still as irritable as ever. You have absolutely no artistic talent. How about we go to an art exhibition together sometime? Otherwise, you wouldn't be so unaware of such famous paintings."
Scotland: "I see. Bourbon is really something. He must have figured it out a long time ago."
Chianti: "Hey! Don't praise him too much! Look at him, his tail's practically wagging in the air!!!"
Kiel couldn't help but glance at them again and realized that they were actually talking, but they were also carefully observing the photos on the wall and the reactions of the other people.
So she looked away and took another look at the second photo, the one showing how everyone reacted after they realized that their reaction to hearing about the undercover agent had been captured on camera.
Still from left to right, in this picture almost everyone is looking at the camera, their expressions completely transparent.
Takahiko Ito's expression turned serious, Kiel looked a little nervous, Ireland raised an eyebrow in amusement, Ray frowned as if troubled, Scotland observed indifferently, Bourbon stroked his chin and scrutinized with his all-seeing eyes, Rum's electronic display and movements remained unchanged, Vermouth wore an expression as if appreciating a true masterpiece, Calvados was expressionless, Cohen was expressionless, Chianti's eyes were like a bloodthirsty beast frantically searching for its prey, Vodka looked amazed, Gin... only Gin didn't look at the camera, he was staring intently at everyone with his cold green eyes, just like in the first photo.
Everyone noticed Gin's unusual reaction, and now that they turned to observe, it was easy to see that Gin's gaze lingered more on Scotland.
“If I remember correctly, in The Last Supper, Judas, who betrayed Jesus, was…” Vermouth also looked at Scotland, raising an eyebrow with an expression of anticipation.
"We just picked this location randomly, didn't we?" Bourbon sighed, saying helplessly, "Scotland just had bad luck."
"Huh? What? You suspect me because of this?" Scotland blinked, looking shocked.
"Of course not, it's just that Gin's paranoia is acting up again, don't worry about him," Bourbon comforted him. "Hilarious, this time he's a suspect himself, it seems like this is going to be really fun, right?"
"I'll personally catch that damned rat." Gin sneered, his gaze lingering on Bourbon's face for a few more seconds before moving on to observe the others.
"Scotland, get your act together!" Chianti was furious. "Isn't it because of Bourbon that you ended up sitting in that traitor's seat next to him?!"
Scotland gave an embarrassed smile, but clearly didn't seem to have taken it to heart.
Cohen had never quite understood why Chianti was so sincere. Although he also liked Scotland, his easy-going sniper partner, Scotland's serious demeanor and ability to take down a target with a single shot were so terrifying. Was it really necessary to portray him as a naive and easily bullied person? Oh... matters of the heart are truly unpredictable, but it's not their place to interfere in matters of mutual consent, is it?
The others didn't take it seriously either, since if it were really confirmed that Scotland was an undercover agent, he wouldn't still be sitting here peacefully.
The reason they were all brought here for testing is simple: the identities of the undercover agents have not yet been confirmed; the scope has been narrowed down to these 12 individuals.
The only thing that connected these 12 people was that Yamaguchi-gumi mission.
After giving them ample time to react and observe their reactions, Rum continued, "There are no fools here. I'm sure you've all guessed it already. That's right, the Yamaguchi-gumi's mission has run into trouble."
The two photos on the wall disappeared, and in their place appeared a huge news panel.
This comes just days after the international sensation caused by the US's transnational sanctions against the Yamaguchi-gumi.
"The organization's mole in the CIA discovered that among the intelligence gathered by the CIA, there was a piece of information that should have been known only to the 12 of you at the time, regarding the US's actions to sanction the Yamaguchi-gumi."
“It was an accidental misinformation,” Rum said. “Although it was a minor mistake, the person who made the error has been dealt with, but we haven’t told you.”
"So one of your CIA undercover agents sent that false intelligence back to the United States as if it were true, and they even carried out the plan to sanction the Yamaguchi-gumi based on that intelligence. They probably won't find out it was wrong until the very end."
Takahiko Ito remembered the two mid-level members who had participated in the Yamaguchi-gumi mission with him but had not attended the dinner party today.
"And this false intelligence will cost one of their undercover agents his life."
"It's me," Kiel thought to himself. "So it was me who was exposed."
"Oh, not just one, we also caught a little mouse last night."
The electronic screen flashed again, this time displaying a surveillance video.
In a pitch-black room, a blood-soaked man was hanging precariously in mid-air by chains, most of his body submerged in sewage that seemed to teem with worms. His exposed body was covered in horrific wounds, and he trembled and screamed in agony from time to time.
Kiel used all his strength to control the tremor and anger that moment.
It's Bonnie.
She was the new liaison officer she was originally going to introduce to her father, a colleague who had a very good relationship with her father, and a senior colleague who had taken care of her in the CIA.
"Guess how many kinds of torture it would take before he reveals his companion's name?"
The cold, inorganic electronic synthesized sound of rum reverberated throughout the empty hall.
"Before that, you can identify each other as the undercover agents and prove your innocence before you can leave here."
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