Chapter 202
After years of torment, Vodka no longer believed any undercover agent that Usuha Izuki identified.
Plus, he had just performed poorly and seemed to have offended Usuha Izuki, so now whenever Vodka heard this familiar keyword, a certain switch in his brain seemed to automatically flip, reflexively judging that this was Usuha Izuki acting crazy again, with the purpose of disgusting him.
Hah, this nonsense didn't even bother changing the content—did he think changing countries would make him believe it?!
Was he, Vodka, such an easily fooled person!
So Vodka was silent for a moment, then said vaguely: "Oh, I got it."
Usuha Izuki looked at him unsatisfied: "Got it, and then what?"
"What then?"
Vodka thought about it—could it be that Usuha Izuki wanted to report upward again? So he advised: "This is someone else's undercover agent. There's no need to report it to the boss, right?"
You can act crazy in your own organization, but acting crazy in other organizations—isn't that a bit inappropriate?
Our organization has face to maintain too!
For a moment, Vodka was quite worried, especially concerned that when Usuha Izuki found this route to his own boss blocked, he would go perform in front of other bosses.
He had been in the organization for so many years, never imagining that one day he would need to worry about the organization's image problems...
Before, he thought, it's already an illegal organization—how much worse could its reputation get? Being vicious, terrifying, and mysterious were actually bonus points for their line of work.
But if outsiders started whispering things like "This organization's people are mentally ill", "Their methods of sowing discord are too crude, laughable", "Even letting madmen handle diplomacy—this organization really has no capable people left, huh"... Vodka felt suffocated just thinking about it.
That way, the organization would become a complete joke!
But Usuha Izuki obviously wasn't so easily convinced, saying with dissatisfaction: "But are you going to ignore it again this time?"
Vodka immediately said: "I'll report to big brother—and you don't need to work so hard. It's someone else's organization, they're not paying you!"
Only then did Usuha Izuki reluctantly nod: "Alright, after all it's your mission. I shouldn't interfere too much."
Thank goodness, you actually know this is my and big brother's mission.
Vodka was very grateful that Usuha Izuki had actually offered such a way out—wait, what was he grateful for?! Wasn't the trouble caused by Usuha Izuki in the first place?!
But a promise was a promise. Vodka felt that if he didn't call big brother, Usuha Izuki could keep nagging him for the next few days. The most terrifying part was that he temporarily couldn't leave Eddie Cassano's place, meaning Usuha Izuki could find him with perfect accuracy. Before it was terror phone calls, now it was direct offline tracking—even more terrifying.
Don't even mention naive ideas like "just pretend to call and make something up to fool him." This was Usuha Izuki we're talking about—Usuha Izuki, who aside from being a bit blind when identifying undercover agents, was spot-on at reading people other times! He didn't know which sentence he might say wrong that could expose the truth! If things escalated then, it would truly become a horror story.
Besides, Usuha Izuki appearing in Los Angeles was indeed something that needed reporting to big brother.
So after his routine communication with Eddie Cassano to confirm transaction details and returning to his room, Vodka called Gin.
"What is it?" Gin got straight to the point.
Vodka's tone was heavy: "Big brother, Botanist is here."
Gin was silent for a moment: "...Here where? America? Didn't we already discuss this before?"
Who would have thought big brother could have such wishful thinking moments too. Vodka was quite moved, but had to shatter Gin's wishful hopes: "I saw him at Eddie Cassano's villa today."
"...Vermouth!"
Vodka seemed to hear the sound of Gin gritting his teeth.
But he understood big brother's anger. Ninety percent of the blame for Usuha Izuki being able to meddle in their mission this time belonged to Vermouth. If not for Vermouth, how could Usuha Izuki have gotten into Eddie Cassano's villa?
With Usuha Izuki's ability to cause trouble for people, this originally foolproof mission might even face complications. Vermouth really couldn't stand seeing them do well!
Although having that troublesome pest follow from Japan to Los Angeles was somewhat stimulating, fortunately Gin quickly calmed down and asked: "What did he do?"
Gin asked this directly instead of asking "did he do anything," essentially assuming Usuha Izuki had definitely caused trouble.
Vodka lived up to expectations in his response: "He said Eddie Cassano's new partner is an undercover agent."
Gin: "..........."
How to put it—Gin actually felt quite calm hearing this keyword.
He couldn't help thinking that Usuha Izuki was nothing special. Besides this one trick, he had nothing else.
"Did he say it in front of Eddie Cassano?"
"No, he didn't." Vodka quickly added, "He told me. I told him not to act crazy in front of other organization bosses... helping other organizations find undercover agents when they won't even pay him."
Gin felt somewhat moved.
Vodka had also been trained—he could now handle Usuha Izuki this skillfully.
"But Botanist also said Eddie Cassano might have a bloody disaster recently..."
When it didn't involve undercover agents, Gin still took Usuha Izuki's words quite seriously. Think about that guy who was walking down the street just fine, but shortly after Usuha Izuki said something, got stabbed by someone!
So Gin pondered for a moment and gave his orders: "The order's been placed and the deposit's been paid. You don't need to stay by his side anymore. Building relationships doesn't require this particular moment."
Meaning the limited-time treatment of living it up in wine pools and meat forests was over.
Vodka said painfully: "...Yes, big brother."
It wasn't that he was particularly addicted to this, but having his fun suddenly stopped while he was enjoying himself... no matter how you looked at it, it was Usuha Izuki's fault.
He was holding this grudge!
...Though he had recorded a whole notebook of grudges and still had no opportunity for revenge, so recording grudges seemed pointless...
On the other side, Vermouth was also questioning Usuha Izuki.
"How was it? Did you have fun?"
"Not bad." Usuha Izuki sighed. "It's just Vodka..."
He trailed off meaningfully.
Vermouth frowned: "What's wrong with him now?"
"I suggested they better not cooperate with Eddie Cassano. Vodka didn't take it seriously." Usuha Izuki's tone was melancholy.
Vermouth raised an eyebrow: "Why can't they cooperate with Eddie Cassano?"
Usuha Izuki said: "He has petty people around him and will be unlucky recently. Cooperating with him at this time doesn't seem like good timing."
"Hmm... I see..." Hearing this, Vermouth remembered what Vodka had mentioned about "Botanist thinks everyone looks like an undercover agent, only he himself is a good person".
The child did seem a bit neurotic, but you couldn't blame him. Growing up in the Middle East, having some psychological trauma and PTSD, being wary of everyone—wasn't that quite normal?
Rather, such a Botanist actually seemed to trust her quite a bit, which made Vermouth's heart feel even softer.
Usuha Izuki said aggrievedly: "But there's nothing I can do. Vodka never believes anything I say."
Although Vermouth thought it might be Usuha Izuki being overly nervous, she wouldn't deny him, only comforting: "It's fine. This isn't our mission anyway. Even if it fails, it's Gin and Vodka's fault. You've already done your best."
Usuha Izuki sighed: "I suppose that's all I can do."
Seeing this, Vermouth observed that Usuha Izuki cared so much about a mission that had nothing to do with him, while Vodka constantly badmouthed Usuha Izuki... who was right and who was wrong—wasn't it quite obvious?!
"Let's go to Disneyland tomorrow." Vermouth decided to take Usuha Izuki to the happiest place in the world for a day, hoping he could forget about the organization's bullshit.
Just like that, Usuha Izuki was taken around Los Angeles by Vermouth for several days, being wined and dined, much happier than Vodka.
This proved that happiness doesn't disappear—it just transfers.
Then one day, while Usuha Izuki was playing at Universal Studios, Vermouth suddenly received a phone call.
The caller wasn't related to the organization, but someone she knew as the big star Sharon—also a major star in Hollywood with whom she had a decent relationship.
Vermouth sat in the shade, waiting for Usuha Izuki to finish the attraction ahead, and with no one around, she casually answered: "Hello?"
"Sharon! Did you hear?!" her Hollywood friend asked in an exaggerated tone.
But Americans always talked like this—even saying "the sunshine is really bright today" could sound like aliens had landed, so Vermouth asked very calmly: "Hear about what?"
"Eddie Cassano was arrested by the FBI!"
Vermouth: "...What???"
Friend: "You're shocked too, right?! My God, I hope he doesn't say anything he shouldn't..."
"Wait." Vermouth rubbed her forehead. "I knew the police were always watching him, but didn't he buy off everyone he was supposed to? And he never let anyone catch evidence..."
"The news I got is that somehow a video of him dealing drugs with someone was sent to the FBI. The evidence was ironclad..."
Vermouth: "...???"
Could it be Vodka?!
"What's wrong?" Usuha Izuki came out after finishing the attraction and saw Vermouth holding her phone with a shocked expression.
Vermouth looked at Usuha Izuki and suddenly remembered what he had said a few days ago.
She was stunned speechless.
—What was this? Those who don't believe Usuha meet disaster???