Silence hung over the conference room. Nobody was ready to be first to speak on an event they could never have imagined.

Into that silent room, Do-beom opened the door and came in.

"Chief Hwang. What are they saying?"

Mun-jong asked hurriedly.

Do-beom shook his head slightly at Mun-jong, stepped over to Tak-hyeon, and reported.

"Every line is cut. What the U.S. President and government will do, what they're thinking — even inside the United States it's nothing but guesswork."

Tak-hyeon, arms crossed, nodded.

Jeong-eun, who had been listening quietly, looked around and asked Tak-hyeon —

"Surely… there won't be a war?"

"A war? With whom? In a situation where no one even knows who did the attacking, what kind of war?"

Sang-jong sneered at Jeong-eun as if she were beyond belief.

But Jeong-eun wasn't about to sit and listen to Sang-jong.

"What? Am I wrong? Do you think the U.S. will just sit there after being attacked? Then everywhere else in the world will look at them like a doormat, won't they?"

"I'm asking who they retaliate against. You have to know who attacked before you can retaliate or not."

Sang-jong shouted back, and neither of them was willing to yield.

Then Jeong-eun turned her head to look at Do-beom and asked —

"Are they saying who?"

Even at Jeong-eun's question, Do-beom answered while looking at Tak-hyeon.

"In the U.S. right now, they're talking about Al-Qaeda."

"Al-Qaeda? Is that a country?"

Jeong-eun looked around as though she'd never heard the word.

But everyone else wore the same expression as Jeong-eun — no one seemed to know.

"Al-Qaeda isn't a country."

Only Seong-ho, at the end of the table, responded.

"Not a country?"

The president class's eyes swung to Seong-ho.

Seong-ho gave a simple explanation of Al-Qaeda.

"An Islamic Sunni extremist group. The head of the organization is a figure by the name of Osama bin Laden. It's a terror organization that's been in existence for about thirteen years."

Jeong-eun's gaze swung back to Do-beom. She wanted to check through Do-beom whether what Seong-ho had said was correct.

But Do-beom,…