Back at ZONE Inc. headquarters.

 

Minhyuk, Peniel, and Hyunsik stood together in the infirmary while Sungjae tended to the unidentified girl. The three carried varying degrees of concern on their faces but Peniel seemed the most anxious with his continuous glances towards the girl.

 

“How much longer?” Peniel asked Sungjae.

 

“Almost done. The nanobots should be working on the tissue repair already. ” Sungjae replied.

 

Peniel breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“Thank God.” He said, taking off his beanie and rubbing his head.

 

Minhyuk’s expression remained tightlipped as he crossed his arms and let out a shallow exhale through his nose. He wasn’t worried about Sungjae’s ability to treat gunshot wounds, but the problem still remained that they didn’t know who the girl was. His eyes went to the bloodied factory jumpsuit that lay in a pile on one of the tables.

 

“Sungjae. Did you find any kind of identification on her when you were ah…undressing her?” Minhyuk said, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the words in spite of the seriousness of the question.

 

Sungjae paused.

 

“No. I don’t believe she was carrying anything.” He stated in a professional tone.

 

As Sungjae carried on his work applying the finishing touches to the girl’s bandages, Minhyuk began pacing.

 

“If only…” He muttered to himself under his breath. “If only there was an easy way to look her up with her picture or something…”

 

Peniel suddenly perked up.

 

“Hyung! The lenses I gave you this morning! I forgot to mention they’re equipped with facial recognition!”

 

Minhyuk stopped in his tracks and looked at Peniel in amazement.

 

“You are a genius.” He said as he dug into his pockets to find the lenses.

 

Minhyuk pulled out the lens case and popped it open. He gave one more glance towards Peniel then picked up one of the lenses and proceeded to place it carefully on his eyeball. It took a few blinks to adjust but once he’d managed to put in both lenses, Minhyuk felt as if he were seeing a whole new world.

 

“Woah…” He gasped softly as he looked around the infirmary.

 

Small windows began popping up before his eyes with all kinds of options for night vision, infrared, target tracking, internet access, and text enhancement among other things. He took a moment to clear away some of the unnecessary menus then turned to face Peniel and Hyunsik.

 

“Try scanning our faces.” Said Peniel.

 

Minhyuk zeroed in on the faces of his two friends and watched as the facial recognition dialogue began to initiate.

 

 

Barely a few seconds later two windows appeared above Peniel and Hyunsik’s heads displaying their profiles.

 

“This has to be breaking about every privacy law in this country…” Thought Minhyuk to himself as he browsed through the surprisingly detailed albeit slightly out of date information.

 

“It only can bring up whatever’s in the government databases at first but you can update the profiles with more things as you wish.” Peniel explained.

 

“I see…” Minhyuk said slowly.

 

He closed their profiles and turned his gaze towards the girl who still lay unconscious in the bed on the other side of the room. The others watched as Minhyuk stepped closer to get a better view of her face.

 

 

The scanning process seemed to take just a few seconds longer this time but eventually her profile appeared.

 

 

Minhyuk stiffened noticeably as he read through the last bit of her profile. He hadn’t expected this outcome.

 

“Well? Who is she?” Hyunsik asked.

 

Minhyuk swallowed.

 

“NIS.” He said with a hint of trepidation.

 

“NIS???” Peniel burst out incredulously.

 

Hyunsik’s face hardened as Minhyuk met his eye.

 

“You guys shouldn’t have brought her.” Said Hyunsik in a grave voice.

 

He was right, thought Minhyuk. This predicament was perhaps even more risky than if the girl had turned out to be just a criminal. But what choice did they have now?

 

Minhyuk sighed.

 

“We’ll just have to keep a close eye on her when she wakes up and make sure she doesn’t try to escape or contact anyone outside.”

 

He made eye contact with Sungjae who seemed to recognize he was being handed the responsibility of this task.

 

“I’ll monitor her.” Confirmed Sungjae.

 

Minhyuk then turned back to Peniel and Hyunsik.

 

“I’ll be in my quarters. Make sure Eunkwang gets filled in when he’s up from his nap.” He instructed.

 

The two nodded as Minhyuk made his exit from the infirmary.

 

--------------------

 

The next day, Yura awoke in the infirmary to the face of Sungjae leaning over her with a strange looking device she didn’t recognize. Her initial instinct was to scream but with her training she managed to keep her composure and take a second to survey her surroundings. The room looked nothing like any hospital ward she’d ever seen but it was quite obviously some kind of medical facility.

 

“Where…where am I?” She asked weakly.

 

Sungjae’s face remained stoic as he continued using the device to administer what appeared to be some kind of laser treatment to the scar on Yura’s side.

 

“Good to see you awake Kim Ah-young.” He replied, not answering her question.

 

“Kim Ah-young?” That was a name she hadn’t heard in a long time.

 

Without acknowledging Sungjae’s greeting, Yura looked down at the part of her torso where the gunshot wound should’ve been. The only sign of her injury that remained was a faint light-colored mark which was rapidly disappearing under the strange light coming from the device Sungjae was using.

 

“How is he doing that?” Yura thought in confusion as she watched the last trace of the scar fade completely, leaving her skin flawless as if it had never been broken at all.

 

She looked up at Sungjae suspiciously but said nothing as he calmly turned off the device and began to speak to the ceiling.

 

“Penelope. Please call Minhyuk to the infirmary and let him know the patient has woken up.” Said Sungjae.

 

“Relaying message to Minhyuk.” Penelope promptly responded.

 

At this point Yura’s mind was racing with way too many questions to process at once but she held her tongue. In situations like this it was smarter to stay quiet and gather as much information as possible.

 

She began listing off facts in her head.

 

1. She was alive

2. Her wound was gone

3. These people seemed to have some crazy advanced technology

4. They knew her birth name

 

She glanced around at all the visible exits. The sliding doors looked unassuming but judging by the level of the rest of the technology in the room they were highly likely to require some kind of card or chip to activate.

 

Sungjae, noticing Yura’s observantly wandering eyes, smirked slightly.

 

“If I may, I would advise you not to try anything.” He said smoothly.

 

Yura eyed him intensely then sank back into the bed. Of course. It would be foolish to try to make a run for it without any idea how large the building might be. She was much smarter than that. A few minutes passed as Yura watched Sungjae moving about the room until one of the doors slid open.

 

Minhyuk appeared in the doorway of the infirmary looking slightly windswept. His eyes went straight to the bed where Yura was and he paused, meeting her gaze with a mix of apprehension and severity. Sungjae turned around to greet him.

 

“Ah there you are hyung. I’m surprised you took so long to show up considering your…” Sungjae glanced towards Yura. “Ability…” He finished.

 

Minhyuk flashed a look of warning to Sungjae as if to scold him for saying too much in front of their captive.

 

“Sungjae could you give me a few minutes with her.”

 

“Of course hyung.”

 

With a nod, Sungjae left the room, leaving Minhyuk and Yura alone in the infirmary with an unmistakable air of tension hanging in the room. Minhyuk felt Yura’s eyes following him as he pulled up a chair next to the bed. It felt odd to be scrutinized so closely despite the fact that he was the one who’d used his smart lenses to scan her personal information just the day before.

 

Minhyuk leaned in close to get a better look at the color of her eyes. Brown. Just brown. He withdrew slightly and sat back on his chair with an unreadable expression.

 

“Kim Ah-young. Age 27. Rookie agent at the NIS.” Minhyuk said calmly, gauging her reaction as he spoke. “Is this all correct?”

 

Yura shifted uncomfortably in the bed, seeming hesitant to confirm or deny the information.

 

“I don’t use that name anymore.” She finally answered.

 

“What should I call you then?” Minhyuk asked.

 

Another pause.

 

“Yura. My name is Kim Yura.”

 

Minhyuk gave her a quizzical look but didn’t press her further on the issue of her name.

 

“Alright then, Miss Yura.” He said, quickly adding a note to her profile as he proceeded with the interrogation.

 

“What were you doing yesterday at the semiconductor plant?”

 

“I am not at liberty to reveal the nature of my mission to a stranger like you.” Yura said coldly.

 

Minhyuk studied Yura’s face carefully as she stared back at him in defiance. This might prove to be more challenging than he’d anticipated. He would have to be careful here.

 

“Very loyal to your agency I see.” Minhyuk commented.

 

He stood up and walked to one of the screens on the wall that was displaying Yura’s vitals.

 

“What if I were to tell you that we’ve already fabricated your death certificate at the local hospital.” Minhyuk said casually.

 

He pulled up a copy of the document on the screen with a literal blink of an eye. Yura still said nothing but her face faltered somewhat at the sight of her forged death certificate. Minhyuk returned to his seat next to her bed and sat down.

 

“Yura, I understand that this is a difficult situation for you but we had to take these precautions to prevent our exposure to the authorities. We don’t trust you enough yet to explain everything about who we are but what I can tell you is that we are very interested to know what kind of information you might have about the men who broke into the plant yesterday.”

 

Yura continued to stare at the screen with heavy uncertainty. The truth was she didn’t know much about her own mission to begin with. She’d just been following the instructions of her superior, Chief Kim, who’d told her that the agency had received intelligence about the terrorists’ plan to strike the plant.

 

“There isn’t much to tell. I was just following orders.” She admitted after a long pause.

 

“Then tell me what you do know.” Minhyuk pressed.

 

Yura tore her eyes away from the screen on the wall and sighed. She couldn’t believe she was allowing herself to be manipulated into answering these questions. But on the flip side, this Minhyuk guy wasn’t giving off the worst vibes, and neither had the doctor who had miraculously treated her.

 

“Will you tell me your side of the story if I tell you mine?” Yura offered.

 

Minhyuk considered her for a brief moment before answering. He wasn’t ready to go into that much detail about his own personal stake in the situation but he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to give just a vague version if it meant he could gain some new information from her.

 

“Alright.” He nodded.