Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 354, Section 348: A Newcomer Arrives in the Intelligence Department
Lin Longma was taken aback upon hearing this. It really was Rum?
No, that's not right!

Lin Longma immediately realized that if it was Binga and Curaçao who were following him today, then he should not hesitate to start a fight with the intelligence support department.

Forget about organizations and bosses. When people are bullying us on our doorstep, who cares about the "big picture"?

Your boss wants to live forever, no problem. But first, I have to be alive.

Rum is practically shoving the gun barrel into the back of my head. If I were to still talk to you about the "big picture," I'd be a real jerk.

But today's visitors weren't Binga and Curaçao. They were just two ordinary intelligence officers from the intelligence support department.

An intelligence agent—that's considered a formal member of the intelligence support department. When an organization member is assigned to or joins the intelligence support department, the initial rank is peripheral member.

As the name suggests, the Intelligence Support Department is responsible for intelligence and support.

Initially, the intelligence department was just that—an intelligence department—without any support functions. It was only later, with Rum becoming the organization's second-in-command, that the intelligence department's functions were expanded.

There is still no definitive answer as to who exactly is being supported in intelligence support.

But Rum used those two extra words to allow his departments to seize some functions and resources from the executive and logistics departments.

This looks familiar, doesn't it? That's right, Lin Longma is doing the same thing now.

Even the target hasn't changed; it's still the unlucky Gin.

Lin Longma didn't want to target Gin, the model worker, but there were only a few organizations in the organization department.

The research department is the boss's lifeline; anyone who touches it is doomed. Whether it's Lin Longma or Rum, they only dare to secretly infiltrate and win them over.

How could I dare to act as boldly and unrestrainedly as before?

To be honest, the logistics department is not a big deal to Yixin Society. After years of development, Lin Longma no longer needs the logistics department to handle his logistics.

Similarly, he had no intention of doing logistics for others.

The Isshin-kai first usurped the functions and authority of the Intelligence Support Department, so it's only natural that they're now targeting the Execution Department.

Lin Longma also learned from Rum's mistake and realized that it was unwise to infiltrate the executive department. He also did not intend to expand the scale of his subordinates' mobilization efforts.

He only needs to ensure that Isshin-kai can command the executive department to a certain extent.

Just like what they're doing now—the security countermeasures department looks for "destabilizing" factors within the organization, and then the executive department sends someone to resolve them.

What a pleasant collaboration!

This pleasant collaboration will gradually make the young men in the execution department accustomed to the instructions from the Isshin Association.

It's not impossible for it to eventually evolve into a command. After all, the power of habit is strong.

The book returns to its true story.

The so-called intelligence agents are officially supported by the organization at the rank level. They range from junior officers to senior officers in their respective departments.

Senior officers are generally those at the level of Binga and Curaçao, or officers like Akita, Kaneda, and Shiraishi who hold important positions in large bases.

This means that there are other people above these two intelligence agents, and quite a few at that.

The order from above might not necessarily have come from Rum. Especially considering that a few days ago, a member of the Yixin Society took the research officer's file from the intelligence support department.

Could it be that some clique has sprung up in the intelligence support department without their knowledge?
Lin Longma waved to the deputy director of the president's office who was accompanying him: "Contact Akita and have him contact Curaçao."

Ask her if Rum has decided to send the Intelligence Support Department and the Isshin-kai to war.

Lin Longma had never admitted that the Isshin-kai existed within the organization.

Even though everyone knew about the existence of the Isshin-kai, Lin Longma was stubborn and wouldn't admit it.

Say whatever you want, but I, Lin Longma, have never heard of any "One Heart Society" or "Two Heart Society".

We have dedicated our hearts and souls to the organization and to our boss!

What happened then is now. Back then, Yixin Club was founded with great difficulty, and Lin Longma and a group of old friends gritted their teeth and supported the others.

Back then, everyone was cautious and careful, so naturally, they couldn't be too flamboyant.

I am not strong yet, when I grow strong there will be changes!

The Isshin Society is now fully grown – Rum was so wary of Rin Ryoma, but look at him now, do you think he would dare to do anything to the Isshin Society?

What about the heavy trucks? What about the things that are both on your brow and in your heart? Your intelligence support department has people and guns, do you think my Yixin Society has nothing?

When a situation escalates to the point where anyone doing something would cause chaos, doing nothing is the best option if you don't want complete disorder.

Therefore, Lin Longma spoke frankly about the Isshin-kai, and he asked Rum with a straight face if he wanted to fight him.

Soon, Akita brought back Curaçao's reply: Rum had not issued any orders against Ryoma Hayashi or even the Isshin-kai.

The Executive Department has been giving the Intelligence Support Department a real headache lately, so Rum must be crazy to provoke Ryoma at a time like this.

Are they afraid the situation in the intelligence support department isn't bad enough?

However, Curaçao also took the information provided by Lin Longma very seriously, such as the fact that someone within the department had secretly issued an order to track and monitor Lin Longma.

If someone in the department can monitor Lin Longma without prior notice, will they also be able to monitor other cadres in the future?
That's not the worst part. The worst part is if these people suddenly start spying on Gin and are discovered again, just like today.

If they can't explain themselves clearly then, will Gin believe them? And if you really get such a good opportunity, will you even listen to my explanation?
If Rum doesn't step in, huge numbers of intelligence support personnel will die.

If Rum really shows up, hey! The intelligence support team won't die, but Rum will.

This situation means things are out of control for both Curaçao and Rum.

They desperately needed to find out who this person was who had given the order to monitor Lin Longma in the Intelligence Support Department.
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"Well, Curaçao, have you found out?" Rum, hidden in the shadows in his secret hideout, asked Curaçao.

"The investigation is complete, Rum." Curaçao lived up to his reputation as Rum's confidant; he was indeed much more efficient than Binga.

In less than two hours, the source of the order was traced back to within the Intelligence Support Department.

"What do you mean? You mean he's not the one who issued the surveillance order?" Rum looked at Curaçao suspiciously.

The source that Curaçao has currently investigated is already the second echelon of cadres within the Intelligence Support Department.

Apart from a few high-ranking officials with code names, the rest are the backbone of this department.

Curaçao then claimed that the order was not initially issued by them.

Could it really have been Rum who gave the order?
Such a ridiculous thing is obviously impossible.

Before the boss dies of old age, Rum won't develop dementia so quickly. "I've confirmed that the order to monitor Lin Longma was indeed issued by someone else. The order came from a high-ranking official via email, but he doesn't know that person's identity."

"Are you kidding me, Curaçao?" Rum was almost laughing in anger. What kind of place was his Intelligence Support Department? Did some high-ranking officer think he could order his subordinates around?

“I have confirmed that the internal email did indeed come from a senior executive in the organization. The reason our people were able to execute this order was because that anonymous senior executive gave him a key for verification.”

Given the identities of organization members, there are indeed methods for issuing orders "without contact" within an organization.

As an organization capable of developing a highly destructive cyber virus like the Night Baron, it is naturally also capable of developing its own verification procedures.

The access key is used in this situation.

The cadre who issued the order sent a one-time verification key to the corresponding member, who then verified it using the organization's self-developed program.

After key verification, the program will tell the member what permissions the cadre has.

This can be considered an alternative way to gain membership.

This kind of remote control method is generally used on members who have a huge influence in society.

For example, Pisco, who is already dead.

If Pisco needs the organization's help with certain tasks or sometimes needs to handle some troubles, he shouldn't appear in front of the organization members because of his identity.

The above methods allow one to command members of the organization to work for him.

Given sufficient authority, some people can even anonymously do the same thing as Rum within the intelligence support department.

Hey, why are there two suns in the sky above the intelligence support department?
“The access key, I remember now.” After Curaçao’s reminder, Rum suddenly realized that the organization did indeed have such a mechanism.

While it's possible to have something, in practice it's not that smooth at all.

Let's take Pisco as an example again.

Pisco's car company is itself a large stronghold of the organization, which means that Pisco cannot be the only member of the organization in the company.

If he really wanted to do something shady, he could easily have given orders down the chain of command. Giving orders anonymously was ultimately a bit too risky.

Just like this time, the person who gave the order certainly didn't expect that the Intelligence Support Department would actually send two of the most ordinary intelligence officers to track Lin Longma's convoy.

This is similar to the logic of outsourcing.

The people above don't want to do this thankless task, but the problem is they have the authority to order you to do it.

There was no other way but to pass the order down the chain of command.

By the time it reached the intelligence agents, there was nothing left to pass on—a formal member transferring their mission to an outsider was an act that would cost them their head in any organization.

In this organization, there's no such thing as "if you can do it, do it," or "if you can't, there are plenty of others who can." The logic here is: if you can do it, do it; if you can't do anything, then don't live.

For Pisco, this access key was useless.

Moreover, even if you issue orders anonymously to members of the Isshin Society like Lin Kaka, they might not listen.

The fundamental logic of Yixinhui is to obey orders but not pronouncements, and to recognize people but not authority.

Those who can use this kind of key are generally cadres who have been parachuted in.

By mixing sand into the Executive Department, they almost turned it into a battlefield. Rum finally got hit by this boomerang.

They also tasted the bitter fruit of their own making.

Curaçao brought back the permissions granted after the anonymous cadre key verification to Rum. He was astonished to find that the permissions were ridiculously high.

Although Rum remains the person with the highest authority within the Intelligence Support Department, this anonymous cadre has effectively become the person with the second highest authority within the department.

Such permissions are not something that ordinary people can issue. The only people in the entire organization who can issue such high-level permissions to their intelligence support department are Rum himself and the boss who is hiding behind the scenes.

This proves that the boss no longer trusts him as much as he did at the beginning.

In fact, it would be most absurd if the boss could still trust Rum without reservation after experiencing the "Execution Department turned into a sand quarry" incident.

If Rum can infiltrate the Executive Department today, why can't he infiltrate the Research Department tomorrow?
If Sherry was once recklessly testing the organization's red lines, then Rum now is undoubtedly preparing to break through them directly.

The difference between the two is that Shirley is almost touching the red line, while Rum, though far from the red line, is much stronger.

Having done something so displeasing to the boss, the boss naturally didn't want to continue watching Rum turn the intelligence support department into a one-man show.

The deal with Lin Longma convinced the boss that as long as he could give Lin Longma what he wanted, the Yixin Society would not become a "thorn in the side" of the organization for the time being.

At best, it can only be considered a "minor scabies".

Now that the organization is "stable," the boss naturally needs to deal with Rum's side.

When an organization makes a mistake, it naturally has to pay the price. Gin's retaliation from the Executive Department is not considered the price for making a mistake.

This is just Gin's one-sided revenge on Rum—Rum should have thought of this when he was plotting against Gin.

This anonymous official was the boss's real punishment for Rum.

This anonymous cadre was clearly there to keep Rum in check. But the boss probably never imagined that his subordinate, before even clashing with Rum, would be focusing on Lin Longma first!

“Rum, what should we do?” Curaçao asked Rum.

“We can’t do it, at least not now.” Rum certainly wanted to retaliate against the cowardly fellow immediately.

But we can't retaliate.
His current status is that of an "imperial envoy" sent by the big boss. Is it appropriate for you to give such a person a hard time right away?

Rum now needs to make his stance clear and show the boss that he admits he made a mistake!
I have no objection to the boss's punishment decision; both the thunder and the rain are acts of divine grace.

Once the "imperial envoy" has established himself in the local area, that will be the time for them to fight it out.

Within the organization, the logic of the boss's "supreme authority" is based on a pragmatic approach of promoting the capable and demoting the mediocre.

The same applies to the boss.

He wouldn't be dissatisfied if the men he sent couldn't defeat Rum after they gained a foothold.

This only proves that this person's abilities are limited, and he is not worth the organization continuing to invest in.

"Wait, this person will eventually show up. We just need to wait for him to appear. Besides, it seems that this person may not even be a problem for us."

Rum suddenly remembered the first command this person issued using the access key.

Hey, Lin Longma, you're in trouble!
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(End of this chapter)