“We need to figure out everything we know.”

To anyone, it might look like Jaebum’s scrawling meaninglessly on the glossy white table top- if not for the light screen in front of them displaying everything he’s writing. Bambam had joined some time ago, though Jinyoung still had yet to show up, even halfway through the briefing.

They're in one of the meeting rooms- ridiculously backward in terms of tech equipment, Youngjae complains, compared to the ones in Busan, even, but Jaebum doesn't want to admit he can't grasp half of the tech that's already available here. He'd walked in on Yugyeom and Bambam playing virtual holographic table tennis with one of the board room tables once- honestly, why can't even the tables just be normal, for once?

“Jackson was already in the midst of the mission proper when Youngjae lost contact with him in the complex,” Jaebum says, scribbling down timestamps. “He was actively trying to avoid detection after leaving the complex, too, though he knows he’s supposed to make contact with us in the case that his radio fails- that or whatever got him incapacitated him to the point he couldn’t. We need to figure out what happened in between.”

“I checked, his mic isn’t dead- the transmission just got cut off,” Youngjae takes the button mic out of his pocket, setting on the table, little white light circles rippling out around it as the device is detected and analysed. “Which means everything he’s said after that wasn’t lost, it’s just been recorded down. It’s a feature HQ got installed about a year ago when it got too troublesome trying to determine CODs just by doing autopsies on ex-agents’ bodies.”

“That’s encouraging,” Bambam mutters, and Jaebum eyes the second youngest sternly.

The specialist’s fingers are dextrous, nimbly opening the display screen on the table, pulling up several sliders and what looks like a volume bar, before turning it up slowly, eyes on the flashing white numbers on the table.

Jaebum sees the rest of them react to Jackson’s voice by varying degrees, Mark barely moving, eyes drilling into the file on the table, and Bambam tensing, in a breath. He’s pretty sure he knows what they all might be thinking of right now- this might be the last we ever hear of Jackson’s voice.

“…and you said you’d buy me that beef set for Christmas. Like, the really big one. What happened to that?”

Youngjae’s voice comes in after that.

“Hyung, you still owe me that video game from like, two years back.”

Youngjae fast forwards impatiently using the slider, stopping in between snatches of conversations, comments by Jackson on the how that topiary kinda looks like Jinyoung’s and Jaebum has more wrinkles than that professor on the board of directors, before he stops suddenly in the middle of Jackson’s rant about how Bambam always takes too long in the dorm bathrooms in the morning.

“Here’s where I lost him,” he says quickly, straightening up. It’s barely noticeable, with the way Jackson just keeps talking and talking, but eventually the other man seems to notice it too.

“Jae? Jae, you there?” Jackson sounds a little in disbelief. “Did you just-…did you hang up on me? Oh you did not, that is-…most unprofessional, Jae, I was having a decent conversation with you. That was totally uncalled for.”

There’s a longer pause, before Jackson speaks up again, sounding a little puzzled. “Okay, I got it Jae, I’m noisy, you can come back now.”

There’s a few more mumbles of maybe coffee break and or tiny bladder and lots of snickers, before Jackson starts humming his way towards the office. It sinks in, then, properly, for Jaebum, that he might never have to tell Jackson to just shut up already again. The thought chills him to the bone, and he forces himself to focus on the recording instead.

“Whoa, ,” everyone seems to tense at once as Jackson swears, before going completely silent except for the sound of his breaths, quiet and even, like a hunter’s. It stays like that for a while, before Jackson lets out a nervous sort of laugh. “Wow, uh, what’s he doing here?” There’s a moment’s pause, in which the entire room strains to hear what happens next. “It’d uh, it’d be pretty dumb if they contracted out two companies to do the same crummy job, right?”

“What’s that?” Jaebum asks sharply. “What’d he say? Two companies?”

The next sentence confirms his fears, then.

“The uh, the peace treaty’s still on, right?”

Mark’s face seems to turn to stone then. “So it was an agent from another company.”

Youngjae pauses the recording, slightly uncomfortable. “That…that complicates things, doesn’t it?”

Things have been tense between the top three agencies since what feels like the beginning of time: JYP Academy, YG Institution and the SM Foundation- but then again, Unit 7 had only been recruited into the force after the treaty marking their collusion had been signed some time back.

They formed a strict oligopoly, the three of them, controlling the market with an iron fist as far as their services were concerned, and it’d become apparent that some form of compromise and cooperation, at least, was needed, to both make sure everyone made money and managed to protect their agents, and hence the collusive treaty had been signed a decade or so back.

It was a (technically illegitimate, but then again, everything about what they did wasn’t exactly legal to start with, so there) agreement between the three of them never to intentionally harm an agent from another company, a platform for them to sort out assignments to make sure their clients never pulled a fast one on them by turning them against each other. Like every other contract, it had its loopholes and weaknesses, but it was better than nothing, as Jaebum wearily reinforced to the rest of Unit 7 every time they had another brush with the other agents.

Politics, the leader thinks dubiously. He’d never been fond of diplomacy and double entendre, preferring to leave those to Jinyoung and Jackson.

“Finish the recording,” the leader says hastily, sensing the lightning about to strike the ground and shatter the earth from Mark’s side of the table. “Just because Jackson saw someone from another company doesn’t mean they were the ones who shot him.”

“It makes sense, though?” Bambam says uncertainly. “I mean, Jackson hyung wouldn’t just get shot by anyone- it’d have to be someone specially trained.”

“We’ll see,” Youngjae says, biting his lip, probably as wired as Jaebum is about this whole thing. It’s been ages since there was a direct clash like this between the different companies, and Jaebum has no intention for Unit 7 to be the one to break that record.

“…guess he’s really not there,” Jackson sighs into the recording. “Jae, this lock isn’t going to open itself, you know. No one takes toilet breaks that long.”

“His other equipment must be functioning fine, then,” Youngjae frowns. “It wasn’t something that knocked out his tracker and electronic map, if he still doesn’t think something’s wrong.”

“Good thing I’m a great student who cares about enriching my learning experience and got all those lessons from Jinyoung and Markie-mark,” Jackson sounds utterly proud of himself. “This lock shouldn’t be too bad, right? Then I just need to get in that skeleton card Youngjae can’t stop talking about-…”

There’s a pause, then a distant beep as the door opens, a quiet whoop, and a long pause. After about a minute or so of silence, Jaebum frowns slightly, glancing at Youngjae, conveying the question probably on all their minds- what’s Jackson doing?

“He’s setting the bugs,” Youngjae sounds confused, for some reason.

“Hacking thingies are all in! Now for my great heroic escape-…”

Youngjae pauses the recording again, opening another window, this time apparently from the company supercomputer he’d been using while on the mission with Jackson.

“I never got it,” Youngjae muses quietly, like he’s thinking.

“Never got what?” Jaebum is sick to death of the pronoun game, if he’s to be honest.

“The transmission,” Youngjae frowns, bringing another window up. “I was supposed to get an opening for me to hack into their system the moment he set the bugs- which means they aren’t working.”

“He placed those bugs for nothing,” Bambam concludes, and Jaebum sighs.

“No, no, this is useful,” Youngjae says, glancing nervously over at Mark, who’s still watching the situation unfold, face clean of expression. “It means something knocked out or blocked the transmission capabilities of his equipment. That’s why his radio and the bugs he set weren’t working but the rest of his equipment was doing fine- there was something there obstructing the signal. At least we know why we lost contact.”

“That’s some pretty advanced espionage equipment for regular security,” Yugyeom adds thoughtfully. “Which points again to the fact that whoever attacked Jackson could’ve been from another company.”

“Keep the recording going, we still don’t know how he got attacked,” Jaebum reminds them, and Youngjae obliges.

“…this place is one hell of a labyrinth,” Jackson still sounds vaguely calm, though the rest of them know he’s worried by now. Jaebum realises Jackson must’ve felt well and truly alone then, alone in a gigantic complex at dark with a mystery stranger from another company wandering around. “Okay I’m pretty sure I went that way, or something…hey Jae, jog my memory- I know we’re not allowed to engage in conflict, yada yada, but which clause is it that says whatever about another agent attacking first? Can we fight back?”

There’s a silence, before Jackson seems to remember. “Oh right. Damn. This really wasn’t a good time for you to bail on me, Jae. That guy’s walking around the complex like his dad ing built it.”

A sigh rustles through the mike- Jackson had probably been considering his options. “Okay, so if I’m avoiding dumbo here, I went that way, so I’m going to have to go this way if I don’t wanna-…oh ing hell-…”

The radio plunges into silence again, one that stretches far too long for Jaebum’s liking, punctuated only by periodic rustling and quiet breaths. His heart’s sinking, hoping against hope that this isn’t going to play out the way it looks like it will, because heaven knows they don’t need conflict with anyone, much less another company, right now. But then-…

“, !” Jaebum literally feels the tension in the room spike, feels the fear in his stomach pool at the thundering of footsteps, almost like he’s the one being pursued in the darkness. “Why’s he even after me-…” Jaebum sees Bambam physically flinch as gunshots sound, then. “, he’s shooting! What the hell-…!”

The last word’s almost shouted out, followed by an annoyed sound of pain.

“That stung, geez, what’s his problem?” The footsteps have stopped, and Jaebum wonders why the pursuit’s finished already. Jackson must’ve found somewhere to hide, or something.

“Now where am I? Where’s the door- ow, what’s with all the discs? Why’d this stupid building have to be so big-…stupid shelves everywhere-…it’s cold in here. Where is this place even, ugh, why is everything so dark?”

Another pause, then, quieter this time, almost like a whine-…

“Damnnit, I wish Mark was here.”

Jaebum steals a glance at Mark, watching expression flicker onto his face for a second, barely visible, before it’s gone, replaced by a frozen, impassive sort of determination.

“…oh, wow, I’m glad the radio’s dead. If he’d heard that,” Jackson seems to just have understood what he’d said, and bursts into hollow laughter. “I’d never live that one down, damn.”

Youngjae taps fast forward in periodical bursts, and Jaebum listens in for any further clues of conflict. As expected, there are none, just grumbles about how painful it is and how he’s so going to kill Youngjae when he gets back to base for abandoning him.

It’s an audio recording spread over almost twenty four hours, after that, voicing Jackson’s concerns about whether that company might be onto me? , I guess that rules out radioing for help.

Jaebum can literally feel the hairs at the back of his neck begin to stand as Jackson’s dialogue starts to devolve a few hours in, probably as a result of the poison, from increasingly breathless complaints about how tired he is, the pains mysteriously cropping up in his back and neck, the breathlessness, as the pauses in between his sentences grow longer and longer, coherency reducing to mumbles and breathy laughter, before the audio clip sinks into a thick, oppressive silence, Jackson’s laboured, pained breaths the only audible noise.

An equally haunting quiet seems to cling to the room as Youngjae finally shuts the recording off, looking slightly sick.

“So it’s confirmed then,” Jaebum says flatly, more to clear the silence than anything else. “It was poison. Most probably from a bullet, most probably shot by an agent from another company. Of course, we’ll get more concrete results after the poison blood tests, but for now, that’s what we’re going to have to work with.”

“Any way to find out who?” Mark asks quietly from his seat, eyes on the table.

“I…I had Jackson temporarily disable the cameras around his area,” Youngjae admits, like it’s something to be ashamed of. “Just the usual stuff, to make sure they wouldn’t be able to trace the espionage back to us. I didn’t think we’d need to footage, or I would’ve tried to hack into the mainframe myself and take over the system.”

“It’s hard to believe there wouldn’t be any other footage of whoever it was, though?” Yugyeom voices out, looking slightly troubled. “What about earlier? Or after it happened?”

“I started a facial recognition test spanning the evening and the three hours before the mission started,” Youngjae gestures helplessly behind him, probably to the company supercomputer. “It’ll warn me when we get a hit, but that could take ages. It’s a lot of people to cover in that six hours, and we’ve got the profiles of every agent from the other two companies to check against.”

“Well…you don’t have to go through all that, don’t you?” Yugyeom shrugs, and Jaebum turns to him, puzzled. “You just need to get the time and location when and where you lost contact with Jackson, then run a cross check with all the cameras within the radius of the scrambler’s reach at that point in time.”

“I could do that, good idea,” Youngjae nods, pulling up a window from the screen on the table. “Whatever transmission blackout device it is probably has a range of about six to eight metres, especially if this is a minor mission, assuming they were just here on watch duty. Considering the fact that Jackson’s equipment was working just fine before, I assume he’d just gotten into range when comms were cut, so that’d mean-…” he narrows the bar on his display screen, before shrugging. “I still don’t know how long it’ll take, and if it’ll work at all- we only have partials of their faces in bad lighting.”

“Doesn’t matter, it’s a start,” Jaebum stands, leaning slightly onto the table, watching the video that Youngjae pulls up, a fast forward of the various relevant security camera feeds, matching each passing face with the profiles of every agent they’ve managed to log into their database. “Start the search from their newest units, and start it from YG. If the guy who was after Jackson had been deliberately after him, it would’ve been an YG agent, and it would’ve been one of their newer agents if Jackson didn’t manage to immediately identify him. SM doesn’t usually mess around with the other companies like this.”

“Got it,” Youngjae types a few more commands in, but Jaebum doesn’t miss the flicker of hesitation in his eyes when he does so.

“The rest of us, stick around the building and rest up, we’ll need you guys to be around once the search results are confirmed,” Jaebum orders, adjourning the meeting, eyeing the rest of them as they stand, still watching him. “One of you, call Jinyoung up and inform him of our progress. Stay on the alert for when the search is done.”

But then, barely a second after he’s given the order and a few quiet, sharp footsteps later, the door’s pulled open and left to ease shut slowly, and Jaebum takes a deep breath, holding it in for a few seconds, before sighing explosively, as the three youngest glance at him nervously.

“I’ll talk to him, just do what I told you guys to,” the leader mutters darkly, trudging wearily out of the room after Mark, letting the door swing shut behind him, possibly with even more force than before.

The three boys wince simultaneously as the door clicks into place particularly vindictively, reminiscent of a particularly poisonous wrath they haven’t felt in a while, and Yugyeom settles carefully in the chair opposite Youngjae and Bambam, putting his radio on the table. Two seconds, then-…

“Not gonna do it,” the two youngest say at once, and Youngjae squints at the two of them, their hands currently raised in surrender.

“I’m actually doing stuff here,” he gestures to the screen, and the maknaes shrug.

“We all know he likes you best,” Bambam adds, shrugging exaggeratedly, and Youngjae scowls at him, frown intensifying when Yugyeom nods vigorously in agreement.

“Both of you are the worst,” Youngjae mutters, reluctantly taking out his radio, and the maknaes share a discreet high five under the table as the tech specialist sighs, making the call.

“Jinyoung-hyung,” he says, about three seconds later, staring morosely at the screen, and there’s a moment’s silence while Bambam and Yugyeom watch him anxiously. Youngjae glances absently at the door, and winces a little.

“Yeah, about that,” Youngjae says miserably, tapping the slider on the touchscreen table tentatively. “Things aren’t really doing too great over here.”

*

It takes Jaebum twenty minutes and a couple of uncomfortable questions posed to curious Academy staff to find Mark, alone in the Arms and Equipment check-out, and his stomach twists in unease at the quiet, steady sounds of clinking metal.

“Mark,” Jaebum calls again, and the eldest barely spares a glance back to show he’s heard him. “Hey, look, take it easy for a bit, okay? Everyone’s doing their best to help figure out what happened and how to fix things.”

There’s an unnerving five seconds of silence before Mark replies, not taking his eyes off the gun in his hands. “I know.”

Jaebum has to call on every form of training he’s been subjected to in this career to keep calm.

“…then?” he struggles to keep the irritation out of his voice. “Don’t you know how much you’re affecting the rest of them?”

“I didn’t ask them to be,” Mark pushes the slide on top of the gun in one fluid movement with a solid click, seemingly only half-paying attention to what he’s doing. He’s barely even looking at the weapon, staring at some indiscriminate spot on the table as he sets the gun down on the table, fingers drifting over a spare ammo kit.

“Yeah, well, the thing about being in a team is that it’s normal for the rest of us to be affected, because these people are concerned about you,” Jaebum says, honestly this close to exploding right then and there. “You’re never like this, hyung-…are you even listening to me?”

Mark raises the gun like lightning, then, and Jaebum barely has the time to respond to the warning click inches from his face before the eldest fires.

Something explodes from behind him, and Jaebum spins, wobbling dangerously in his haste, watching the target at the back of the room go up in flames.

“What the was that, man?” Jaebum demands, but Mark barely acknowledges, only letting the arm with the gun fall limply to his side. “And we’re not supposed to check ammunition out unless we get clearance from higher up!” The leader takes a step towards him, voice getting sharper and louder with every word. “Are you even thinking about what could happen if you killed another agent?”

“Whoever it was that shot Jackson wasn’t supposed to shoot him,” Mark retorts, holstering the gun and grabbing the spare ammo kit, walking around the counter, steps bold as he approaches Jaebum. “Don’t ing lecture me, Jaebum- if it were Jinyoung, you’d be worse than this. You guys focus on finding the antidote. Once we find out who did this, I’m going to track the er down and blow his head off.”

“Listen to me!” Jaebum cuts him off, patience fraying down to a thread. “You can’t handle this on your own- we have to work together to get an antidote for Jackson. And do you know the kind of trouble you’d get us all into if you offed another agent, even if they made the first move? You’d do that to the Academy?”

“You don’t give a about what happens to Jackson,” Mark snarls, jabbing him in the chest. “All you care about is staying safe. If we know another agent did that to Jackson then why aren’t we storming the base right now?

“Storming the base? First, we don’t even know where to start, second, are you crazy?” Jaebum shoves his hand away, drawing himself up to full height. “You’ll get us all killed, or imprisoned and nowhere closer to finding an antidote. Now put the gun back and relax, okay?”

For a moment, there, Jaebum sees something flicker in Mark’s eyes, sees the way his fists tighten, and involuntarily braces for a blow to his jaw, or something.

But Mark just lets out a breath, shouldering Jaebum out of the way and walking towards the door, stowing the gun in his belt.

“Mark,” Jaebum calls sharply. “The gun. Mark-….”

The door swings shut behind him, and the leader feels the edges of his patience really begin to slip for the first time since they’d dragged him away from the rest of them for half a year to drill everything it took to be a leader into him, and he’s storming towards the door, about to wrench it open and properly speak his mind, when his radio beeps.

“That idiot,” Jaebum doesn’t know how he manages to hold back the sea of expletives threatening to spill over the dams in his head, wrenching the radio from his belt and hitting the receive button with a lot more force than probably necessary. “What? What is it?”

“Whoa,” Jinyoung’s voice chimes over the radio, and Jaebum takes a deep breath, massaging his right temple with two fingers. “Guess I called at a bad time.”

“No, no, it’s great, I’m pretty sure I would’ve committed murder if you hadn’t,” Jaebum grumbles, kicking out one of the low chairs in the room vindictively and settling heavily onto it. “Why? Is something up with Jackson?”

“Jae told me what happened just now,” Jaebum’s grateful for the sympathy he hears in Jinyoung’s voice, slumping back against the wall to take the sound of it in properly. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Jaebum grimaces. “I don’t even get it- Mark’s never like this. Hell, the closest trouble we ever got to this came from me back then.”

“Yeah, well, Jackson’s never gotten himself into this much trouble before, either,” Jinyoung doesn’t sound all too worried, though, and Jaebum hopes for a moment that he can skim off some of the other man’s self-assuredness. “Listen, don’t worry about Mark, I’ll talk to him, maybe get Yugyeom or Jae to help. And if that doesn’t work, we can always call the seniors in Seoul to talk him through this. Just focus on getting the antidote, okay hyung?”

“Mm,” Jaebum grumbles, hoping the relief isn’t showing too audibly in his tone. Maybe Mark having a soft spot for Jinyoung and Youngjae can finally come in handy. “How’s uh, how’s Jackson doing? You didn’t show up through the entire briefing.”

“Oh, about that,” Jinyoung’s voice drops a little, sounding slightly hesitant for the first time in the entire conversation. “Something, uhm, something happened just now. Jackson had some sort of, uhm, reaction, like a mini seizure of sorts,” Jaebum sits up properly here, listening hard. “He’s fine now, and Tzuyu’s doing all the basic checks, but she panicked the first time it happened, so I thought it’d be better if I stay here for the time being. Of course, I’ll join you guys if you give the word, but Tzuyu doesn’t seem too confident about being here with Jackson alone.”

“No, no it’s okay, I’d feel safer with you there,” Jaebum sighs, standing and heading for the door. “Be on standby, I’ll call you if things get messy. I’m counting on you for that magical motivational conversation with Mark.”

“Got it. One magical motivational conversation coming right up. Anything else?”

“Oh. Uh,” Jaebum hesitates before stepping out of the room, reaching up absently to rub the back of his neck, before sighing abrasively, knowing that there’s no way out of it now. “By the way. Thanks. Uh. For everything.”

There’s a pause, before snide laughter bubbles up through the radio, and Jaebum makes a face at nothing in particular.

“You’re welcome. Uh. For everything,” Jinyoung mimics, and Jaebum growls at him, not even bothering to try to put venom into that sound, knowing he won’t mean it anyway, and even if he did, Jinyoung would at the very most laugh at him for it. “Are we going to do this every time this happens, hyung?”

“Yah,” Jaebum jabs at the air, like Jinyoung’s right in front of him to feel it. “Don’t push it, I don’t give these things out easily.”

“Trust me, we’re all aware,” Jinyoung says drily, but there’s a level of satisfaction in his voice that lets Jaebum know he hasn’t taken the gratitude lightly, letting the leader escape the situation with at least some of his pride intact. “Don’t worry about Mark, okay? If there’s anyone you should be helping, it’s Jae- I’m just hoping the maknaes haven’t driven him completely up the wall yet by bothering him while he’s trying to work.”

“Yeah,” Jaebum says the word through a rustling sigh, shoulders inexplicably lighter, managing to actually close the Arms and Equipment door behind him without trying to slam it. “Thanks, I owe you one. See you later.”

“You got it, leader. Over and out.”

Jaebum shuts the radio off, slumping lightly against the nearest wall and taking a deep breath, eyes closed. It’s at times like these he wonders why it’d been him- sure, he’s one of the oldest, debatably one of the strongest, possibly the most intimidating (but with Mark like this now he isn’t so sure about that anymore), but it’s apparent to anyone that that’s where his leadership qualities end. The rest of it: the rational mind, the strategizing, the management of team dynamics, had been drilled forcefully into him, never once coming naturally.

It’s the reason why he both curses and thanks the heavens for this team, because while it’s true that most of them have brought him through hell and back, all for their own different reasons (just look at Bambam and Yugyeom for living examples), in the same way they’re the reasons life here is bearable, the reason he forces himself out of bed every morning to deal with the management or plan out another mission, and he can’t imagine living a day without any of them.

(Some more than others, Bambam would mumble on any other day if he’d been here, and Jaebum would smack him on the back of the head.)

Getting upset or angry over something never helps, and Jaebum had learned that personally ages ago. It’s the reason he zips up his emotions, tucking them away forcefully for the time being, despite everything that’s happening right now, everything that could happen in the future.

Maybe some people just couldn’t see it that way.

(Or maybe they’ve just been doing it for too long.)

a/n: hi yes as usual comments will honestly and truly be appreciated <3 please enjoy friends \o/