My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 655

“Is everyone alright?”

“Who… Huk!”

“It’s me, Park Do-joon.”

“Fi, finally!”

The man, on the verge of screaming, urgently covered his mouth.

Park Do-joon also covered his mouth and said quietly.

“Don’t wake the others. If you get excited and make noise, they might realize something is wrong.”

“Ah, I understand.”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, we’re fine.”

“I understand. Then…”

Park Do-joon turned his head and looked at the Special Forces Commander. The Special Forces Commander pointed to two people and gestured with his eyes. The two quietly grabbed their weapons and moved to secure the area, ready to protect them.

“Then, let’s move on to the remaining rooms.”

“Are you going to subdue them?”

“Rather than subdue… we need to lock them up.”

Park Do-joon smiled as he took a pre-prepared rope from his pocket.

‘Just as I expected.’

The pirates were occupying individual rooms, having taken over the cabins of high-ranking officers. It was only natural; it was far more comfortable than a communal sleeping area.

“Shall we open the door and go in?”

“No, don’t do that. Let’s stick to the plan and lock them in from the outside.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“It’s safer that way. As you know, those guys are all armed.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be difficult to subdue them while they were asleep, but if even one of them fired a shot, the others would wake up.

“We can’t divide our forces and subdue them all at once, can we?”

“That’s true.”

“So, it’s best to lock them up and wait for them to run out of energy. After all, there’s no way out of those rooms anyway.”

Due to the nature of a swaying ship, almost everything was fixed in place, and there was nothing they could use to break down the door.

“At best, they could shoot the door to break it down.”

“Ah…”

If they wanted to get out after we locked them in, they would have to shoot the door. I don’t know how many bullets they have, but realistically, breaking down a door with a handgun isn’t easy.

It would create holes, not break it down. They might be able to break the lock like in the movies, but realistically, what we’re securing now isn’t the lock itself, so breaking it wouldn’t change anything.

“Once they waste their bullets, the gun is just a club.”

“Hmm…”

“And they’ll naturally start to suspect each other.”

They wouldn’t know that the South Korean military had locked them up, so they would think they had been betrayed. As a result, they would reveal all of each other’s crimes.

“So, there’s no need for us to fight.”

“That’s right.”

“Then, I understand. Let’s secure it with this for now.”

It was made by connecting cable ties, but even this is impossible to cut with human strength. Even if they shot it with a gun, by the time they cut through it and came out, we would already be fully armed, so resistance would be impossible.

“There’s no need to take unnecessary risks and fight.”

‘And this will be resolved in three days.’

Humans can endure for a week without food, but without water, they go half-crazy with thirst after just three days. By then, they won’t be able to make proper judgments, so getting them to surrender won’t be difficult.

“Let’s handle this quickly, as we don’t have much time.”

Park Do-joon hurriedly divided the ropes, and the dispersed team members quickly locked each door one by one. The only thing left was the pirate guarding outside the bridge.

But now, subduing the lone pirate was not difficult.

“Flashbang, is that possible?”

“Do we really need to use it? He’s alone.”

“There’s such a thing as a stray bullet, isn’t there?”

“I suppose.”

Usually, if we have the numbers and are armed, they would give up resisting, but those who have nothing to lose resist more often than you think. And in such cases, if you get hit in the face by a real stray bullet, you die.

“It’s better to make sure they don’t have any bullets.”

“Understood.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, the Special Forces Commander pulled a flashbang [a non-lethal explosive device used to disorient an enemy] and threw it outside where the pirate was.

Some people say that flashbangs are ineffective unless used indoors, but that’s what people who have never used them say.

A flashbang is a device that momentarily deprives the opponent of their eyesight by stimulating their retina with intense light, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s indoors or outdoors.

Of course, deafening the hearing with a loud bang is relatively more effective indoors, but the difference is minimal.

“Hands up! Move and I’ll shoot!”

Park Do-joon shouted as soon as the flashbang was thrown. The pirate instinctively looked towards it, and with that, the flashbang exploded.

Bang!

With a bang, everything was filled with white light, and the pirate grabbed his eyes.

“Ugh!”

The pirate had never experienced or even heard of a flashbang, so he was terrified when the world suddenly turned white.

In movies, the world goes dark when hit by a flashbang, but in reality, it’s the opposite. The intense light directly paralyzes the vision, and the light itself is almost imprinted, leaving an intense afterimage, so rather than going dark, it feels like the surroundings are fixed on the retina.

“Now.”

Park Do-joon quickly grabbed and stopped the Special Forces member who was about to go out.

“Wait a moment. In such situations, they reflexively shoot when they hear a sound. You might actually get hit by a stray bullet.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’ll do this.”

Park Do-joon took the fire axe from the corner and threw it onto the outer platform where the pirate was standing. The fire axe rolled across the floor with a loud noise.

Clang, clang.

At the loud noise, the pirate seemed terrified and pointed his gun in that direction and fired wildly.

Tat-tat-tat!

The bullets from the crudely made AK rifle [Avtomat Kalashnikova, a Soviet-era assault rifle] flew out in an instant, and then the gun stopped with a click.

“Movies and reality are a bit different.”

“Hmm…”

Everyone felt a chill down their spines watching that. They would have been riddled with bullets if they had rushed in all at once.

“What are you doing? Capture him.”

Now there were no bullets left. It’s not that he didn’t have a magazine, but there was no time to change it, and he couldn’t even stand properly, so he couldn’t change the magazine.

The flashbang’s bang is more for causing an imbalance by shocking the cochlea [the auditory portion of the inner ear] with a strong noise impact than for momentarily deafening the ears, so even if it exploded outside, it would be difficult to stand properly.

“Hands up. Don’t move.”

The team members rushed out and began to subdue him.

“Ugh!”

At first, the pirate sat down and swung the gun like a club, putting up a futile resistance, but eventually, he was beaten black and blue, handcuffed, and dragged out.

“Clear!”

With that, all the pirates were arrested, and Park Do-joon could breathe a sigh of relief.

“Hoo!”

Because this incident ended without anyone dying or getting hurt.

“Now we can go back to Korea.”

Park Do-joon smiled.

The cargo ship entered a nearby port, and they began to transfer the cargo to another cargo ship that had been arranged in advance. Even though they had caught the pirates, it was impossible to continue transporting the cargo on this ship.

It might be damaged if it was docked for a long time, and the crew’s mental state would be shattered. Watching that, Park Do-joon sighed deeply.

“Finally going back to Korea.”

Yoon Tae-min approached him, smiling.

“How were the other issues resolved?”

“Yes, the company will take over the ship and send a team to return to Korea. That’s a problem for those people to handle, so we can go back to Korea.”

“I thought we would be returning on this ship.”

“Hahaha, no way.”

Yoon Tae-min chuckled. He knew it was a joke.

“By the way, what should we do with those guys?”

The guys locked in the rooms desperately tried to get out on the first day, but the door wouldn’t open. On the second day, as Park Do-joon had predicted, they used all their bullets to try to break down the door. But since it wasn’t locked with a lock in the first place, it was meaningless, and the lock had already been replaced with a steel chain instead of cable ties, so it wouldn’t break even if they shot it.

Unfortunately, most of the locks that can be broken by shooting them like in the movies are small and weak, and the large, crude ones used on ships don’t budge even if you fire a machine gun at them.

From the third day, screams were heard, and from the fourth day, only voices begging for help were heard.

“You can open it tomorrow. They’ve probably completely lost their will to resist by now.”

“They wouldn’t be armed, would they?”

“The door’s already broken, isn’t it? Ask for the guns through the door first.”

Of course, they don’t have any bullets now, but just in case.

“Thanks to you, we were able to subdue the pirates without any problems.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I thought a negotiator would negotiate to release the hostages.”

At those words, Park Do-joon shook his head.

“Oh, that’s a bit different. In fact, negotiations almost always break down.”

“Yes?”

“Dramatic resolutions through negotiations only happen in movies and comics. Negotiations with hostage-takers like this can never be established.”

“Is, is that so?”

“It’s only natural. The demands are extreme.”

What the other party demands is money, the purpose of the crime, and their own safety. On the other hand, it is customary internationally not to negotiate with criminals, and from the government’s point of view, they try to punish those who commit hostage-taking, not release them or negotiate to allow them to escape abroad.

“So, a negotiator doesn’t release hostages through negotiations as people think.”

“Then?”

“Strictly speaking, a negotiator controls the other party’s risk variables through dialogue, extracts information, tries to ensure the safety of the hostages, and tries to create the optimal situation for suppression. Or they make the other party give up and surrender. Either way, a negotiator can’t take the other party’s side.”

“The optimal situation for suppression…”

“Yes. You know, don’t you? Almost all hostage situations end in death.”

The method doesn’t matter. In the case of a lone perpetrator, if they are brought to the front of the window, a sniper blows their head off, and in the case of multiple perpetrators, the number of hostages is reduced as much as possible, and then the situation is assessed and resolved through a raid.

“I misunderstood a lot.”

“It’s only natural. That’s what they want, too.”

“Yes?”

“Would criminals negotiate with someone who’s trying to kill them?”

Of course, the negotiator must maintain a close relationship with the hostage-taker. But if there is an external image of ‘that guy is trying to stab me in the back,’ would the hostage-taker trust them?

“Ah…”

“So, negotiators spread the image that they rescue hostages through negotiations.”

“That side is also endlessly complicated.”

“Isn’t that obvious? That’s how it is everywhere in the world.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Yoon Tae-min could only laugh.

Because that’s reality.

“I just want to go to Korea and get some rest.”

Park Do-joon leaned against the ship’s railing and quietly muttered, watching the setting sun.