Chapter 376 Brandon
Chapter 376 Brandon
Following Jenny down the stairs, An Rushong saw from afar two people sitting on the sofa in the middle of the living room, one of them was wearing casual clothes and the other was wearing a U.S. military uniform.
The one in casual clothes was naturally Leonard, while the guy in American military uniform was a burly middle-aged man with blond hair.
When An Rushong went downstairs, both of them were sitting on the sofa. Leonard had his back to the stairs, while the middle-aged man was facing the stairs. Therefore, when An Rushong and the other man appeared on the stairs, the middle-aged man saw them first and stood up from the sofa with a smile on his face.
Seeing the middle-aged man stand up, Leonard looked back, then stood up as well, and said seriously, "Ann, how are you doing?"
"Not bad," An Rusong waved at the other party and said with a smile, "It is obvious that the goddess of luck is still on my side tonight."
As he spoke, he stretched out three fingers and gestured, "Three shots. Those guys shot me three times, and I miraculously dodged them all. The only problem is that there is a scratch here."
He walked down the last step and pointed at the scar on his face again.
"Those guys have gone crazy," Leonard said with a serious expression. "Tonight, the goddess of luck favors not only you, but also each of us. If you hadn't dodged those three shots, the international public opinion tomorrow would have burned many people to death, including me."
After he finished speaking, he turned his head to look at the middle-aged man in military uniform and said, "Come, let me introduce you. This is Major Brandon Ryan, who is in charge of military police work at Yongsan Base. Because tonight's attack involved US troops stationed in South Korea and the misuse of standard weapons, he will be in charge of the relevant investigation work."
He pointed at An Rusong and said to Major Brandon, "This is President An Rusong of NGN Company."
"Hello, Mr. An," Major Brandon always had a faint smile on his face. He took the initiative to extend his hand towards An Rushong and said.
"Hello, Major," An Rusong shook hands with the other party and said, "I am so sorry to trouble you so late at night."
"It's us who are causing you trouble," Major Brand still had a smile on his face. He didn't say anything polite and sat down again in his previous seat.
"What would you two like to drink?" An Rushong asked after both of them were seated.
"Coffee, please, thank you," Major Brandon said first.
"Me too," Leonard said casually, then changed the subject and said, "Ann, tell me about what happened tonight."
An Rushong nodded at Jenny, and then briefly recounted the process of his attack.
Major Brandon listened very carefully. He waited until An Rusong finished speaking before suddenly interrupting and asking, "Mr. An, I have been paying attention to you all this time. Oh, to be precise, not only me, but the entire Longshan has been paying attention to you. As for the reason, I believe you are very clear about it."
Yongsan is obviously Yongsan in Seoul, South Korea, but it currently refers specifically to the headquarters of the US forces in South Korea. Not only American soldiers use this term, but Koreans themselves also use it, as if the United States has designated such an area in Seoul and transformed it into an overseas enclave of the United States of America. Oh, of course, this is indeed the case.
"That NGN report caused us a lot of trouble," Major Brandon continued, "public opinion."
"Brandon, are you complaining?" Leonard interrupted him, saying unhappily, "Or are you trying to put the blame for the scandal on Mr. An? You should know where the problem lies and who should be held accountable."
"The ones who caused the trouble were the drug dealers who had infiltrated the army. They were the ones who had noticed the problem a long time ago but had been playing dumb and doing nothing about it," he glanced at An Rushong and said, "Mr. An was just exercising his right to freedom of speech. Yes, he had the right to report the news instead of covering up for those damn drug dealers."
"Come on, Colonel." Although his military rank was much lower than Leonard's, Brandon was obviously not afraid of Leonard. He sneered and said in a tone of obvious sarcasm, "Don't talk about freedom of speech here. You are probably the last person to believe in it. You know the reason for this scandal, and I know it too, so don't say those nice words."
The expression on Leonard's face became even gloomier. He stared at Brandon for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed mockingly and said, "Since you know it clearly in your heart, why do you want to get involved now? Haha, have you heard that CID is involved in the relevant investigation, so you panicked and chose to get involved at this time just to distance yourself from the garrison headquarters?" When he said this, Jenny happened to bring over a tray with three cups of coffee on it.
Brandon originally wanted to say something, but when he saw Jenny coming over, he swallowed the words that were on his lips. It was not until Jenny put the tray on the coffee table and turned to leave that he reached out for a cup of coffee and blew on it to his lips.
An Rushong, who was sitting on the side, watched the two people arguing with each other as if he was watching a play, but in his heart he was thinking about the information revealed in their conversation.
According to the information An Rusong has, the military police in the US military is a relatively special existence. Its scale is not large. In the entire US military system, including hundreds of military bases stationed around the world, there are only six military police brigades. In the US military system stationed in South Korea, there is only one military police battalion.
Generally speaking, the commander of a military police battalion should be at the level of lieutenant colonel, while the commander of a military police company should be at the level of captain. According to Leonard's introduction just now, Brandon is the commander of the military police company of Yongsan Base, so his level should be captain, but his actual rank is major. It is estimated that this is because the military police company of Yongsan Base has a special status, so his rank is relatively high.
Of course, none of this is important. What is important is that, according to Leonard, Major Brand has always maintained a neutral attitude in the power struggle of the US Forces Korea Command, and the reason why he appeared here tonight is because his neutral position has changed. As for the reason for his change, it is because "CID" intervened.
When An Rushong was a child, he often heard the word "CID" in Hong Kong police and gangster movies. Generally, a group of policemen rushed into the gangster's lair and shouted "CID, everyone don't move" or something like that.
In those police and gangster movies, "CID" refers to the Criminal Investigation Department. As for the "CID" mentioned by Leonard, it certainly does not mean this. It refers to the "United States Army Criminal Investigation Command". One of the many functions of this department is to be responsible for the criminal investigation of serious crimes in the Army.
Since the drug trafficking scandal of the US military in South Korea was exposed, neither the US Forces Korea Command nor the United States has made a clear statement or even a public response. Therefore, in the analysis of public opinion, most people believe that the US military's attitude towards this scandal is still the same as before, and it intends to deal with it hastily.
But if, as Leonard said, the Army Criminal Investigation Command has already started investigating the case, then the problem is serious. Regardless of the final results of the investigation, whether they can find out anything, at least it shows the attitude of the Pentagon, that is, Washington has already regarded the involvement of US troops in South Korea in drug trafficking as a "serious crime", otherwise, the relevant investigation should be handled by the military police, without the need to dispatch the "CID".
The reason why Major Brandon broke his neutral position and chose to directly intervene in this case was because he felt the political winds.
Facing Leonard's ridicule, Major Brandon did not refute. He took a sip of coffee slowly, then turned to An Rusong and asked, "Mr. An, do you have any relevant evidence? I mean evidence that can prove that everything you said is true."
His question brought An Rusong back to his senses. Instead of answering the other party's question directly, he turned his head and glanced at Leonard.
"So there are?" Brandon didn't wait for his answer and continued, "That's great. Give them to me. I'll be responsible for the follow-up matters."
An Rushong didn't say anything. He reached out and took a cup of coffee from the tray, brought it to his lips and took a sip.
"I can't give you the relevant evidence right now. If you want, you can wait and see the subsequent news reports," Leonard said in a flat tone, with his arms folded across his chest and his back leaning back into the sofa.
Brandon ignored him and continued to look at An Rusong and said, "Mr. An, you are a smart man. You should know how risky the mess you are involved in is."
He pointed at Leonard who was sitting opposite him and said, "No matter how big a turmoil this mess eventually causes, our Colonel Leonard at least has a way out. But, Mr. An, you don't."
Seeing that An Rusong was unmoved, he continued, "Besides, what you don't understand is that Colonel Leonard is not a person who cares about his subordinates. He got his colonel rank by stepping on the corpses of his subordinates."
"Snapped!"
Before he could finish his words, there was a loud bang in the living room. It turned out that Leonard on the opposite side slammed the coffee cup in his hand hard on the coffee table in front of him. Because he used too much force, the coffee cup broke into three pieces and the scalding coffee splashed everywhere.
An Rusong was startled, but Brandon, who had provoked Leonard's anger, remained calm. He retracted his legs to avoid getting stuck to the coffee on the coffee table, and then continued, "Also, Mr. An, you have to understand that if the gunman tonight really wanted to kill you, with an SR25 and the cooperation of the spotter, within a distance of less than meters, even if the goddess of luck had slept with you, you would not be alive now."
(End of this chapter)