Jungsu sighed. He’d just gotten off the phone with his superiors, who had told him in no uncertain terms that they wanted this kept quiet. Even though the people had gotten used to the disappearances, the top brass didn’t think that they should be advertised. A knock on his door made him look up. Henry poked his head in.

                “I brought more coffee.”

                Jungsu reached out wearily, smiling gratefully. Henry handed him a cup from the tray and walked out. He watched as Henry handed out coffee to the rest of the team and, not for the first time, found himself exceptionally grateful for his team. He thought back to how each of them came to work under him.

                Henry probably had the most interesting introduction to his job. He’d come in with his cousin, Zhou Mi, because Zhou Mi had wanted to report his car being broken into. They’d walked in on Jungsu and the ‘receptionist’ screaming at each other. A detective had taken Zhou Mi off to make his report, while Henry stayed in the lobby, watching the fight with some amusement. The phone began ringing, but Jungsu and the receptionist had ignored it. Henry, knowing that it was probably important, had wandered behind the desk and answered it. He’d asked some leading questions, then had peered at the switchboard directory and transferred the call to where it needed to go. A couple seconds after he’d hung up, a patrolman had come up and dropped off some paperwork to be filed. Henry figured out the filing system and filed the papers, taking the time afterwards to look in drawers and filing cabinets to figure out where things were and what everything was. Another patrolman came up and asked for a refill of his ticket pad, which Henry had quickly answered. Then the phone rang again. He continued to field phone calls, file paperwork and hand out necessary items. When he saw the intra-office mailman walking around, he’d put the mail into large manila envelopes with the names of where it went on it and smiled at the confused mail boy as he handed the envelopes over. Zhou Mi had left a while ago, having forgotten his younger cousin in the wake of his trauma.

When Jungsu and the receptionist stopped yelling and looked around, Henry was just sitting down to lunch that had been thoughtfully provided to him by one of the patrolwomen. The receptionist puffed up his chest and glared at him.

                “And who are you?”

                The patrolwoman who’d given Henry his lunch glared right back at the receptionist. “Your replacement, hopefully.” She turned her attention to Jungsu. “Can we keep him boss? He’s already cleared out the backlog of paperwork, fixed the filing system, figured out the computer and the switchboard, made and delivered coffee, GOOD coffee, to everyone, AND called headquarters and got the repairs we’ve needed for so long approved.” She grabbed the tablet Henry had taken notes on. “The air conditioner will be fixed tomorrow, the soda machine too, and the broken windows in interrogation and the bullpen will be in the day after tomorrow.”

                Jungsu and the receptionist had looked down at the young Chinese man in astonishment. He looked up at them, his cheeks filled with rice and meat and gave them an eye smile. Jungsu didn’t even look at the receptionist.

                “You’re fired.”

                By the time Zhou Mi had come barreling in a couple hours later, having finally realized he’d left his little cousin behind, Henry had already managed to endear himself to the entire force. Being only 17 though, they needed a guardian’s approval to hire him, which is how Zhou Mi found himself staring into the faces of world-hardened cops attempting their best aegyo on him. Fortunately, Zhou Mi was laid-back and had no problems signing the papers to let Henry work for the precinct. Zhou Mi had come to work for them a couple months later when a dispatcher position had come available and Henry had mentioned Zhou Mi needed a job. The precinct had remembered that Zhou Mi had let them have Henry, and he was hired without question. He worked himself up to the head of dispatch quickly, and everyone working under him loved him to death.

                Jungsu’s eyes moved to his detectives. Each of them had been taken from different departments. Sungmin and Ryeowook were pulled from Records, where they had been placed after passing the entrance exams due to their smaller size. Jungsu had seen something else, though, and had fought to have them transferred to his precinct, where, the first mission out, he’d discovered that Sungmin was an incredible hand-to-hand fighter and Ryeowook was probably the best sniper the police force had ever seen. Han Geng was another cousin of Zhou Mi and Henry, and had volunteered to be transferred when the police chief at the time had decided the department needed to be more diverse, and had arranged for a trade. When the chief had been forcibly retired after it was discovered that his mind had degraded into dementia, neither Han Geng nor Minli had wanted to trade back. The department had attended Minli’s marriage to her partner, a strong Chinese man named Haopeng, not six months later. Han Geng proved that Jungsu had gotten a good deal though, by proving himself only the best shot Jungsu had ever seen. Give the man a Sig or a Glock and a target, and he’d hit it. Kangin and Shindong had been beat cops, patrolmen and partners. When Jungsu had offered the position to Kangin, Kangin had refused unless he could bring Shindong with him. They’d been partners since they’d been rookies, and had never been apart. Their kids even told people they had two moms and two dads. Jungsu had never regretted the decision though, as the two of them were the smoothest team he had. They didn’t even need to talk to each other to know what the other was thinking, and it showed in how easily they moved. Sungmin swore up and down they used telepathy, as the two of them had saved Sungmin and Han Geng in a coordinated, two pronged attack they couldn’t have planned. They had arrived at the scene at different times, and didn’t even have their radios on them. Yesung and Siwon had come with the precinct, but Jungsu hadn’t even thought of getting rid of them. They were interrogation gods, honestly. Yesung could get even the hardest criminal to talk, and often worked undercover, getting information. Once, a drug dealer that had seen more than he should have described Yesung as a ‘demon in human skin.’ If Yesung was a demon, though, that made Siwon an angel. The churchgoing, polite, respectful man could talk to any witness and get them to open up. An old lady who’d witnessed a murder had threatened to kill Sungmin and Han Geng if they didn’t stop trying to get her to talk. 30 minutes with Siwon, and the woman showed up in court in her Sunday best to testify. It didn’t matter if the witness was threatened, frightened, or distrustful of police. Siwon could get them to talk, gladly. Eunhyuk had been pulled from being a prison guard. He was a strategist, and had managed to quell multiple prison riots with no casualties. So long as everyone did exactly what he told them to, there wasn’t a problem in sight. Donghae had been pulled from Cold Cases, and could find evidence in even the strangest of crime scenes. He could work a scene messed up from paramedics, witnesses and bystanders and still find good evidence. Kyuhyun had actually applied at the precinct himself, having just moved from another city into Seoul. Jungsu quickly realized he was the best recreation person he’d ever seen. If Kyuhyun told you how something went down, you didn’t question it.

                Kibum had an interesting introduction as well, Jungsu thought, chuckling. He’d been a hacker that had been hauled in by Donghae and Eunhyuk, and Jungsu had seen something. After fighting the department for a few days, Kibum started working in the IT department doing what he did best, hacking for information. It didn’t take long for him to be unofficially running the department, and though it took a while, Jungsu fought and eventually got him to be the official head of IT.

                Jungsu’s eyes moved to Heechul and he caught him massaging his leg. Jungsu’s jaw tightened. Heechul was his best friend and his partner. They’d started in the department at the same time, and had been assigned to each other as partners after their probationary period. They’d kept in touch as they moved up the ladder, Heechul to Homicide and Jungsu to Lieutenant, and Heechul was very happy when Jungsu had made Captain. Heechul had been called away on an assignment during the party afterwards. A couple hours later, Jungsu had received a call. Heechul was in surgery. Since Heechul had no family, he’d listed Jungsu as his emergency contact. When Jungsu got to the hospital, he was told that Heechul had taken shotgun rounds at very close range. Jungsu hadn’t left the hospital all night, and had been joined by everyone from the precinct, even Henry, for moral support. When Heechul’s partner had finally been allowed to talk to them, he told them that Heechul had been shot in the leg four times, but that the doctors had told him that it looked like he was going to live.

                When the higher ups tried to retire Heechul, Jungsu had stepped in with a vengeance. The brass hadn’t seen Jungsu so worked up, and gave in out of confusion and mild fear. Jungsu knew about Heechul though, and knew that he couldn’t let him leave. Heechul’s mind worked strangely. He could look at 1+1= and come up with the answer ‘window’. His lateral thinking skills were off the charts, and that made him only the greatest profiler. He could see connections where others saw chaos, could find answers in questions, and understand words in babbling. He was a genius that didn’t like to show it much, and he fit into his new role as Jungsu’s second in command easily.

Heechul walked in, pictures in hand.

                “Okay, you’re not going to like this…” Jungsu groaned. When Heechul said that, it was generally true. “There’s only one connection I could find.”

                Jungsu nodded for him to go on.

                “They’re…pretty.” He started laying out the pictures from the last five missing sprees. “They’re all of above average looks.” He bit his lip and waited for Jungsu’s reaction. It wasn’t what he was expecting.

                “We can work with that.” A knock on the door headed off whatever else he was about to say.

Kibum stood there, eyes wide.

                “Boss, we got the tapes from Choi’s and the apartment building. They…it…you have to see this…”

                As soon as everyone was settled in the IT room, Kibum went to work on the computer, pulling up 10 video windows before touching each window with a fingertip and throwing his arms to the side, tossing the videos onto the huge touch screen on one wall. He pulled four of the videos forward and dragged them larger.

                “These are the cameras in the stair landings at Choi’s.” He pulled one of them even larger than the others. “Okay, here we go.” A man that Jungsu assumed was Key came in the door of the stairway in the largest window and walked upstairs. Kibum fast forwarded and then they saw Key coming down the stairs. He disappeared down the stairs on the largest screen and Kibum paused the video. Heechul spoke first.

                “What the hell…?”

                Everyone else looked at him, confused. Kibum rewound the video and pulled two screens, side by side. They were the first floor landing, and Kibum pointed to the stairs going down in the second screen. “These stairs don’t exist…Choi’s doesn’t have a basement.” He pointed at the first screen. There were no stairs.

                Heechul spoke up again. “Show them the…whatever that was.” Kibum nodded. He tossed the other Choi’s videos to the little monitor again, leaving only the first floor landing. They watched Key disappear upstairs, then, about five minutes later, the camera glitched. It was only for a second, but when it refocused, the stairs were there. Jungsu’s jaw dropped, as did everyone else’s.

                Kibum sent the video aside and brought the other six videos forward. “This is worse.” It showed a lobby, a staircase, and a basement tunnel. Jinki (Jungsu recognized him now, Zhou Mi had brought him up and introduced him, how could he have forgotten?) walked into the lobby, read the note on the door, and went to the stairs. Kibum threw the two from the lobby aside and the four remaining widened on their own. Jinki got to the bottom and exited the stairwell and Kibum threw that video aside. The three remaining ones took up the whole screen now. Jinki walked forward, the lights went out and Kibum froze the videos. “I’m gonna do this in slo-mo.” As soon as the lights had turned off, one of the cameras had gone to infrared, the other two to night vision.

                “Someone’s paranoid,” Yesung whispered.

                Jinki was still on the screen. He fell, then suddenly, he wasn’t there anymore. Kibum played it back extra slow. Something had flashed on the screen. It was blurry, and they couldn’t make it out at all. But, the infrared captured something frightening.

                The figure on the screen that had taken Jinki was cold. Not ice cold, but definitely not human temperature. The worst part, in Jungsu’s opinion?

                It wasn’t human temperature…

                But it was DEFINITELY human shaped.

[Double update for you being so damn patient with me and my summer of no interwebs! >_< I love all of you! And don't worry! There'll be a new Instincts up soon as well!

Oh, and for anyone wondering, I do chapters based on the roll of a D6, which is why you're treated to another -Outside- rather than anyone else.]