That evening at the control room, Minhyuk called a meeting with the members to discuss the information he’d gathered from the interrogation. Peniel however was missing as he had volunteered to watch over Yura during the meeting, and Ilhoon, as usual, had to be put in through video call.

 

“So you’re telling me, these guys have not only been able to copy your ability but they’ve been causing problems around the city for months and only turned up on our radar now because the NIS has been cleaning up after them all this time?” Ilhoon demanded.

 

The others flinched slightly at the harshness of Ilhoon’s voice which was tangible even through the speakers.

 

“Well I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re ‘cleaning up after them.’” Said Minhyuk hastily. “Yura just said that the NIS has been keeping a close tail on the group and they’re trying to keep the police and the other agencies out of the investigation because all hell would break loose if the public found out there were terrorists with superhuman powers roaming the streets.”

 

“That sounds a lot like they’re scrubbing the narrative to me.” Ilhoon muttered.

 

“Oh they’re scrubbing it alright.” Changsub interjected as he looked up from his computer. “Here, look.”

 

Changsub began putting up a series of deleted articles and videos onto the main screen.

 

“These were all taken down by the NIS but some of the first ones were up for a bit longer so more people saw them. Now there are blog posts and conspiracy theories starting to show up on online forums and stuff too.”

 

Eunkwang seemed particularly disturbed by the videos and had to look away from the screen as the others kept watching.

 

“Oh dear I can’t watch these…” He mumbled softly, putting his head in his hands.

 

Hyunsik, noticing Eunkwang’s distress, patted his shoulder comfortingly and motioned for Changsub to take the videos off the screen.

 

Sungjae, meanwhile, crossed his arms and leaned back against one of the desks.

 

“So what do we do now?” He asked, looking towards Minhyuk.

 

Minhyuk’s brow furrowed in concentration as he attempted to think of a logical plan of action.

 

“Hyung?” Sungjae asked again.

 

Minhyuk lowered his gaze to the floor and shook his head.

 

“We don’t have enough information about them yet to strike back, not to mention there’s at least four of them using the Hutazite so we won’t even stand a chance in close combat.”

 

“But we can’t just sit here and wait for another attack. If we wait too long they could hit any one of our other manufacturing facilities or warehouses and the business simply cannot withstand another delay in production.” Said Ilhoon.

 

A tense silence came over the room.

 

Minhyuk, who was beginning to feel a heavy sense of hopelessness seeping into his thoughts, started drumming his fingers on the cold desk in front of him. There was no doubt that the situation was looking very grim. With his old deactivated key card in the possession of their enemies it would only be a matter of time before they might be faced with an attack right here at ZONE Inc. headquarters.

 

“Changsub.” Minhyuk said, still drumming his fingers on the desk. “What happened with tracking those guys after they made their getaway from the plant?”

 

“Ah that…” Changsub pulled up a satellite image onto the screen with a pulsing red dot positioned above a very nondescript looking office building.

 

“I lost the trail around here.” Changsub said, pointing to the red dot. “But I’m not sure if that’s really where they went or if it was just some kind of connection issue that made it stop there.”

 

“Who owns that building?” Hyunsik asked, nodding to the screen.

 

“It’s owned by ROVIX. They’re a small organization that’s been working with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute to buy up old decommissioned satellites and repurpose them for some kind of space debris tracking program or something.” Changsub replied.

 

“A space debris tracking program?” Eunkwang asked curiously.

 

He exchanged a look with Minhyuk who seemed to be thinking along a similar line. A space debris tracking program would be a perfect coverup to monitor falling meteorites.

 

“It has to be them.” Minhyuk said confidently.

 

“You think so?” Hyunsik asked.

 

“Positive.” Said Minhyuk.

 

“Then what are you waiting for? Go storm the place and take them by surprise or some !” Ilhoon blustered.

 

Changsub rolled his eyes.

 

“Cool it moneybags. This kind of thing takes very careful planning and we’re going to need lots of intel before we make any moves.”

 

“Well get to work then!” Ilhoon retorted. “I’ve gotta run to the next board meeting I’m out.” He added irritably before cutting the video call.

 

There was an awkward moment of silence following the end of the call until Changsub spoke up again.

 

“Jesus I hope he doesn’t talk like that to his employees.” He muttered.

 

“Oh cut him some slack. He’s stressed, you’re stressed, I’m stressed, everyone’s stressed.” Minhyuk said, throwing up his hands.

 

Eunkwang looked around timidly, seeming worried that a fight might break out at any moment, but thankfully everyone left in the room managed to hold themselves together.

 

“I…I think we should take a break.” Eunkwang suggested.

 

The others looked at Minhyuk, who sighed and ran his hand through his hair in resignation.

 

“Alright let’s do that.” He agreed. “We’ll reconvene in 1 hour.”

 

As everyone in the control room began to disperse, Hyunsik approached Minhyuk.

 

“What did you tell that girl to get her to talk?” He whispered in a low voice.

 

“Only the things she needed to know.” Minhyuk replied.

 

“Like what?” Hyunsik prompted.

 

“Well…I did end up explaining the situation with our business front BUT-” Minhyuk raised his voice slightly upon seeing Hyunsik about to open his mouth. “She doesn’t know about me or the Hutazite. All she knows about our involvement is that Peniel and I went in there to assess the damage and that we as owners of the plant need to find out who the culprits are. That’s it.” He finished in a softer voice.

 

Minhyuk looked to Hyunsik, hoping his answer had been satisfactory, but Hyunsik still seemed to be holding some reservations.

 

“But what if she’s just pretending not to know that you have the same power as those bastards at the plant. Think about it, she had to have seen something while you were fighting in there.” Hyunsik pointed out.

 

Minhyuk stopped walking and turned to Hyunsik.

 

“You know this conversation is defeating the entire purpose of taking a break right?”

 

Hyunsik gave Minhyuk a hard look.

 

“I’m sorry I’m just voicing my concerns.” He said seriously.

 

Minhyuk exhaled slowly as he looked up at the ceiling. He knew Hyunsik meant well, but there was simply too much hot air going around between everyone for Minhyuk to tolerate at the moment.

 

“We can talk about it in an hour.” Minhyuk said in a carefully measured tone.

 

He clapped Hyunsik on the shoulder, then in an instant he was gone, speeding down the hallway towards his room before Hyunsik could say another word.

 

When Minhyuk reached his room he collapsed onto his bed and spent a moment just breathing to calm his thoughts. After a few minutes in silence he sat up again. His eyes wandered aimlessly around his room until they landed on the old PC laptop which sat on his desk from the day before.

 

 

Minhyuk’s legs seemed to move almost of their own accord as he started walking towards his desk. He sat down, opened the laptop, and began to type a series of new messages to Hakyeon.

 

As his fingers flew across the old keyboard, Minhyuk felt his heart lighten somewhat. It was times like this when it really felt therapeutic to let out everything he was thinking to the void. He paused and read over the messages again.

 

 

The cursor blipped slowly while Minhyuk pondered his own question. Although some of the tension had been lifted, he still didn’t know how best to deal with the current situation. Sighing, he set aside his laptop. Perhaps a quick shower would help him relax.

 

Minhyuk got up from his desk and disappeared into the bathroom. However when he finished his shower several minutes later and returned to his laptop, he stopped and stared at the screen with wide eyes.

 

There was a message from Hakyeon.

 

 

 

Minhyuk blinked a few times, unable to believe what he was seeing. Could it be? Hakyeon? Replying? After all these years?

 

“Impossible. My lenses must be playing tricks on me.” He thought quickly.

 

He reached up to his eyes but then he remembered he wasn’t wearing his lenses. He’d left them by the bathroom sink. Hope and panic rose in him as he checked the screen again.

 

There was no doubt about it, the text was as real as the water droplets that were dripping onto the floor from his damp hair.

 

 

All logic was temporarily lost to Minhyuk now as he frantically began to type back.

 

 

No response.

 

“Son of a …” Minhyuk seethed under his breath.

 

None of this was making any sense. Why would Hakyeon, his long-lost best friend, suddenly contact him through this old obsolete messaging app only to disappear all over again without any explanation?

 

This was all too strange, Minhyuk thought as he re-read the message again.

 

“2 meteorites found today. Nothing further to report...” He said to himself.

 

It sounded like something Hakyeon would’ve sent as an update during his travels.

 

But why send it now? Unless…

 

A discouraging possibility suddenly dawned on Minhyuk.

 

 

Minhyuk felt his hope begin to crumble as he evaluated the pieces of this new theory.

 

1. The context of the message matched with what Hakyeon had been doing before he disappeared in the desert.

 

2. In addition to ruining the GPS, the satellite failure would’ve also prevented any messages from going through.

 

3. The same satellite might’ve been refurbished as part of the project by ROVIX, which would explain the delayed arrival of the message.

 

Minhyuk, despite his lingering irrational hopes, couldn’t deny the plausibility of the scenario he’d just formed in his head. All the pieces seemed to fit together in such a perfectly logical way that he almost felt like fool for allowing himself to think Hakyeon had actually replied.

 

 

He propped his elbows up on the desk and rested his forehead on his clasped hands. What was he thinking? Now wasn’t the time to be digging himself back into the endless black hole that was the mystery of Hakyeon’s disappearance. Especially with so many other problems of immediate concern on his plate.

 

With a sigh, Minhyuk closed the laptop. It would soon be time to resume the meeting, but he could not shut out his curiosity to verify his theory.

 

“Penelope.” He said, not looking up.

 

“How may I help you Minhyuk?”

 

Minhyuk thought for a moment before continuing with his command.

 

“Tell Changsub I want to see him after the meeting.”

 

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

 

The meeting concluded with a general consensus to continue operations quietly while preparing for a potential attack. This meant bolstering the defense systems, increasing surveillance across the city, and gathering as much intel as possible on the Hutazite thieves.

 

It was probably the best plan they could’ve come up with, considering their disadvantaged position. Yet there remained a shared feeling of apprehension among the members of ZONE Inc. as they began working on their assigned tasks.

 

Minhyuk, who had been pretending not to notice Changsub’s questioning glances at the end of the meeting, waited until everyone else was gone before approaching his comrade.

 

“Hyung? What did you want to see me for?” Changsub asked.

 

“I need your help with something personal.” Minhyuk replied, taking out his laptop.

 

Changsub made a strange sort of gagging noise at the sight of the old device.

 

“Dude why are you still have that dinosaur age fossil??” Changsub blurted.

 

Minhyuk brushed off the question and proceeded to pull up the messaging app.

 

“Look at this.” He said, pointing to the screen.

 

Changsub leaned closer to read the messages. His face at first seemed to convey an urge to cringe from reading the contents of Minhyuk’s emotional dump site.

 

“God Minhyuk. You sound like such a sentimental loser talking to yourself like this. I don’t get why you still bother messaging him when he’s never going to…Oh……”

 

Changsub’s rambling trailed off into shocked silence as he finally understood what Minhyuk was trying to show him.

 

“The …?” He turned to Minhyuk, looking thoroughly confused.

 

“Isn’t he supposed to be de-“

 

Minhyuk shot Changsub a blazing look.

 

“I mean…missing.” Changsub corrected.

 

He swallowed as he watched the flames in Minhyuk’s eyes flicker slowly back to their normal shade.

 

“Sorry.” Changsub apologized.

 

It was an unspoken rule among the ZONE Inc. members not to talk about Hakyeon as being dead in certain terms, though as Changsub had just demonstrated, it was sometimes easy to forget. Hakyeon was, after all, a rare topic to be brought up as nobody else besides Minhyuk had ever actually met him.

 

After giving Minhyuk a moment to cool down, Changsub cleared his throat and turned his gaze back to the computer screen.

 

“So…the message...” He began awkwardly. “Were you thinking…?”

 

Minhyuk shook his head.

 

“I did have that thought at first.” He admitted. “But it just didn’t make sense for that to be the case so I started thinking maybe…”

 

He went on to explain his speculations to Changsub who listened intently with an analytical ear.

 

“…so anyways…that’s my hypothesis. What do you think?” Minhyuk finished.

 

There was a short silence between them as Changsub his chin thoughtfully.

 

“Hmm…It’s definitely possible for something like that to happen I suppose.” Changsub said slowly. “Though I must say, I’ve never heard of a message being delayed more than a couple of hours.”

 

“Can you run some digital forensics to check?” Minhyuk asked.

 

Changsub took a hard look at Minhyuk’s ancient laptop.

 

“Yeah I can try.”

 

As the sound of tapping keys filled the control room, Minhyuk found himself unconsciously holding his breath. He wasn’t sure what kind of result he actually wanted to see from the forensic scan. Confirmation? Rejection? Regardless, it was making him nervous to watch the lines of code crawling across Changsub’s computer screen.

 

 

Finally, the scan was completed and the results appeared.

 

Minhyuk and Changsub both stared at the results.

 

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Changsub said in a quiet voice.

 

Minhyuk nodded.

 

It was a timestamp. From 2012.

 

Changsub quickly began analyzing the rest of the results while Minhyuk continued to gaze at the screen in an almost trance-like state.

 

New windows popped up one after another showing all kinds of information including the exact type of device used to send the message, satellite ownership transfer records, and a map of the Gobi Desert showing the coordinates from which the message had been sent.

 

It was exactly as Minhyuk had suspected.

 

“Oh-kay this is actually starting to give me chills.” Said Changsub in a weird squeaky voice.

 

Minhyuk however didn’t offer an immediate response. He was much too busy using his lenses to take photographic memory pictures of the information on Changsub’s screen.

 

“Hyung? You good over there?” Changsub asked.

 

Minhyuk’s pupils stopped flitting around and focused back on Changsub.

 

“Yeah I’m fine…it’s just…a lot to take in.” He said in what he hoped was a level voice.

 

Changsub puffed his cheeks, blowing out a long stream of air as he sat back from the computer.

 

“It sure is.” He muttered softly.

 

There was a pause, then Minhyuk leaned forward, reaching for Changsub’s mouse. With one click, the map window on the screen suddenly enlarged to fullscreen mode.

 

Changsub raised an eyebrow.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Minhyuk zoomed in as close as he could to the coordinate point on the blurry satellite picture.

 

“Trying to see if there’s anything there.” Minhyuk replied, tapping a few commands into the keyboard to enhance the image.

 

“Hyung it’s the middle of the desert there’s nothing to see.” Sighed Changsub.

 

“Shut up. I know.”

 

Minhyuk studied the aerial view of the Mongolian landscape with his lips drawn in a taught line of concentration.

 

Then suddenly something caught his eye.

 

“Wait…Look!” Minhyuk exclaimed.

 

He pointed to a small round structure on the screen. It was hard to tell what it was exactly, but the structure stood out plainly from its barren surroundings.

 

Changsub squinted at the image.

 

“What is that thing?” He asked.

 

Minhyuk tightened his grip on the mouse.

 

“I’m going to go there to find out.” He declared.

 

Changsub’s face paled.

 

“Wait wait wait hold up you can’t be serious…” He began, but Minhyuk’s eyes were already ignited with a burning determination.

 

“If I leave tonight I can make it back in two days.” Said Minhyuk confidently.

 

He stood up and turned to Changsub.

 

“Stick to the plan. Hold down the fort. Tell Eunkwang I’m leaving him in charge of calling the shots if anything comes up and DO NOT let Ilhoon find out I’m gone.” Minhyuk commanded.

 

“But-“

 

The rest of Changsub’s protest was left unfinished as Minhyuk dashed out of the control room.