Kai runs a hand through his hair as he catches his breath and takes stock of his situation. First, he needs to go to HR to get the original case file. Wait no… Kris is going to need a minute to send in the authorization. Okay, rather than waste time waiting around for it, he should check in with Baekhyun.

Kai charges down the stairwell back to the navigation floor. As he strides up to his desk, he notices Baekhyun has maps up and is clicking through various levels. Kai’s heart races. By some miracle, is Dyo back online?

Baekhyun notices him approach and gives him a wry grin. “No word from Dyo, but I got the maps up from the database, so you’re ready to navigate in case...” He trails off bleakly.

Kai looks at his desk, the safe familiarity of his chair where he’s lead more than a thousand missions. Here, he feels in control. At home. It’s as natural as breathing. But one look at the blank floorplan of the building on the screen, with no comforting green light in sight, and he knows exactly where he wants to be, needs to be right now.

“Here,” he points, tapping on the large corner room on the fifth floor. “This is where Dyo was when we got cut off. I have to get there, and I’ll need you to lead me.”

Baekhyun stares up at him from the chair, eyes wide and mouth agape. It’s an eerie moment, seeing Baek speechless. He looks back and forth between the screen and Kai before responding. “I’m sorry - I’m gonna have to ask you to repeat that, because I’m pretty sure you just asked me to help you get yourself killed?”

ing hell. “There’s no one else available - it has to be me.”

Why does this feel like a replay from just minutes before? Baekhyun is leaning back in the chair, chewing on his lip as he seems to evaluate Kai. He doesn’t say anything, though, steepling his fingers and waiting. Kai’s instincts tell him Baek is more likely to be won over by the truth than by directives from above.

“Look, the coffee machine? The Reeses? Those were from Dyo. From Dyo to me.” He slaps his own chest, emphasizing the words, as he feels himself starting to break apart. “So I’m going. I’m going and--”

“Okay,” Baek interrupts. “Damn, I didn’t realize it had reached that-- Okay, I’m in. But first tell me: Is this renegade or on the books?”

God bless him. He was going to help either way. Kai can’t help but crush Baekhyun’s head in an awkward hug. “On the books. Well, unofficially on the books?”

Baek thumps him on the back a few times until Kai releases his head. “Kris gave you a quiet go-ahead?”

Kai nods. “I need to go down to HR to get paperwork.”

“Ah, yes. Ask for Ken. He’s my favorite down there. He’ll hook you up quickly. I’ll get another batch of coffee going, since it seems we’ll need it.” Baekhyun goes to stand, and Kai narrows his eyes at him.

“You’ve known how to use the coffee machine all this time.”

“Hey, people respond in amazing ways in times of stress. I just suddenly feel flooded with knowledge and understanding - it’ll probably disappear by tomorrow!” he warns as he trots to the break room.

It’s a miracle that Kai is able to crack a smile under the circumstances, but he does as he tears down the stairs, headed for the second floor.

As it turns out, he doesn’t have to ask for him, because Ken is manning the human resources counter and has a navy blue envelope pulled out with Kai’s name on it. He accepts it gratefully and bows in thanks as he leaves the office to head straight back to his floor.

“Bring it in here,” Baekhyun says, waving him into the break room and offering him a freshly brewed latte. “Let’s see what exactly we’re dealing with, then get you on your way to the warehouse to get outfitted.”

Kai tosses the envelope on the table but remains standing. He doesn’t want to sit. Doesn’t want to waste any time here when the clock is ticking and he could be heading after his nightingale. Baek seems to read his mind.

“You need a plan, . This is crazy enough as it is, but your chances of survival diminish rapidly if you try to pull a Rambo without even looking at the file first. At least know what Dyo knew going into this mission,” Baekhyun reasons, pulling him down into a chair.

Kai nods, acknowledging the practical words, and pulls out the contents from the indigo folder, spreading them neatly on the table. He frowns. There’s less in here than he had anticipated, only two sheets. Agents apparently don’t get much more to go on than the navigators do.

Mission Objective: Complete the floorplan map of DD’s satellite headquarters.

The rest of this sheet is filled with technical specs on the equipment Dyo was to take into the field. They don’t mean much to Kai so he passes it Baekhyun and examines the next page. This one mentions that the mission is being assigned now due to low chances of enemy encounters. Deployment location: Gangdong-gu.

Half an hour away. This is good news. Kai checks his watch: 3am. He can be there soon. Seoul hasn’t woken up yet; the roads should be pretty clear at this hour.

While he’s processing this, Baekhyun is already writing down the geographic coordinates of the precise location for him on a yellow sticky note, along with another set of numbers. Before he can ask what they’re for, Baek slaps the sticky note onto Kai’s forehead.

“Our equipment warehouse is five blocks south, two blocks east. Gray building, no number, knock five times on the side door. I’ll make sure they know you’re coming. Call me at the number on the post-it if you get lost. Now go.”

Kai pulls the sticky note off his face and races out the door. As he thunders down the stairs, he visualizes the directions in his mind. Five blocks south, two blocks east. Thank heavens for the cardio he’s been doing every morning; he sprints the half mile with ease. He raps on the door five times with one hand, the other clutching the yellow paper like a lifeline.

The door swings open, and a lanky guy asks him gruffly. “What do you want?”

“I’m Kai. I’m here on… business.” , someone did call ahead for this right?

Lanky dude waves him inside. “Kai, I’m N. Baek mentioned you need full gear for this.”

“Uh… yes.” Yes? “Actually, can I get him on the line--” As if anticipating this, N hands him a headset. The operative version is sleeker than the one Kai has in the office. The ear monitor slips in smoothly, and he’s got Baekhyun yammering at him almost instantly.

“You mentioned no heat readings on the enemies that were attacking Dyo?”

Hearing it spoken aloud makes the terror of the entire situation flood back to him. “Yeah…” Meanwhile, N is handing him an all black outfit and pointing him to a bathroom to get changed.

“Those ing s. Still have our cloaking units, damn them,” Baek spews over the line.

Wait, who? “You know who DD is? The guys who took Dyo?”

“Rival spy group. I’ll catch you up on the drive over.” Baek dismisses. “First things first: when was the last time you shot a gun?”

“At mandatory in-service last quarter. I’m good.” Prudence makes every employee, even those with desk jobs, complete basic self-defense training and target practice “just-in-case.” The special situations listed in the employee handbook Kai has memorized are things like an attack at the office or, heaven forbid, someone accosting the desk jockeys on the way to or from work to squeeze them for info. Well, today, “just-in-case” covers when you have to go into the field on a moment’s notice to save your partner.

“No, you’re not ‘good,’” Baekhyun counters. “The last thing we need is you shooting wildly under duress. Do one round of target practice with both pistols N is going to give you.”

Kai exits the bathroom clad in a skintight black tee, black cargo pants, and combat boots. N is right there, swiftly fitting him with a shoulder holster and putting a lightweight vest on him with built in location sensors and 3D cam. Next, he hands Kai two 9mm Glocks. “Magazines hold fifteen rounds each. Hope you won’t have to test those limits,” he says solemnly.

A tool belt is wrapped around his waist, with a small black box attached on the back that N identifies as his cloaking device. In the side pouch, there’s a taser and reinforced zip ties as a less lethal option for subduing.

“Tell him you need the thermal booster, the one that’s still in beta testing. Based on the original case file, Dyo only had the standard issue on,” Baekhyun relays to him.

Kai requests this of N, gritting his teeth after the guy goes to look for one. “And why? Why didn’t they equip him with the best gear before sending him into the lion’s den?”

“Settle down there, loverboy. From every indication they had, this was supposed to be recon in an abandoned building. No one was supposed to be there.”

Kai squares up in the shooting range inside the warehouse and empties both firearms into the targets at 5, 10, and 20 meter distances. N brings the targets up for inspection. Not bad: All bullets hit the target, some spread around the center at the furthest distance, but a reasonably tight grouping on the closer distances.

N nods approvingly. “Keep in mind it’ll be different out there with the adrenaline, but good work.”

Kai nods as he puts on the wrist monitor that’ll allow him to see the scaled down version of the maps on Baekhyun’s screens back in the office. This watchface is so small - it’s going to irritate him to no end, but whatever. He isn’t supposed to focus on this anyway. Just on Baek’s directions. He takes a deep, steadying breath. “Transport?” he asks N.

“Not so fast, soldier. Grappling holds with N first,” Baekhyun instructs.

“We can’t waste any more time!” he argues.

“We can’t afford not to do this,” comes the retort. “Just the basics.”

He and N go through the motions, Kai breaking out of a few cross wrist grabs and an arm lock from behind. Kai checks his watch: 3:20am. “No more - get me on the road already.”

N agrees. “Send him,” he says, loud enough for Baek to hear.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Baekhyun says with conviction.

N slaps a black cap on Kai’s head, tosses him a set of car keys, and gives him a two finger salute goodbye. “God speed, rookie.”

Kai slips inside a nondescript black sedan parked by the metal garage doors that N is manually raising up for him. He fires up the engine, inputting the GPS coordinates off the sticky note in his pocket. Twenty-five minutes away. Breaking traffic laws, probably closer to fifteen. “Tell me more about these DD ers,” he demands of Baek as he peels out of the warehouse.

His navigator sighs in his ear before explaining. “Short version? Their agency is known as Dignified Discretion, but I prefer to call them Dickless Douchebags. They’ve been trying to encroach upon our client base here in Seoul. Their firm was founded in Busan, but apparently there’s not enough business to keep them occupied there.”

“...are you telling me Dyo’s life is in danger because of a ing turf war?” Kai’s grip in the steering wheel tightens and twists as he floors it through a red light.

“Not exactly. ‘Til now, they’ve been unscrupulous vultures who are better at petty theft than innovative espionage. Have been stealing tech out of our R&D department for the better part of a year. You’ve had retrieval missions with Tao to get back several of our cloaking units they nabbed.”

Kai purses his lips, realizing how it fits together. Wait. He frowns; he knew he was relatively out of the loop compared to th