The First Mission
DBU's Team F
"For the past six weeks there are about eleven sightings of strange creature around Uirim Temple, as well as around residential area that is not so far from the temple. There’s no dead victim but a couple of people are badly injured. Most of them said that it's slightly bigger than normal human being and according to the medical report, the wounds were caused by something almost as big as a pair of predator's fangs."
Staring blankly at the tea that I'm holding, I sigh. Three years doing this job and I still can't get used to Bob explaining a new case at 5 o'clock in the morning. Sometimes I wonder if he ever sleeps… or if he just wakes up early everyday.
"Where the hell is Uirim Temple?" I ask, sipping into my hot tea.
"Changwon," says an unfamiliar voice.
"Ha?"
"You know. Changwon, South Gyeongsang," the same voice answers me.
"I know where Changwon is. Why the hell are you interfering my conversation with Bob?"
"Because I'm your partner and I'm supposed to be briefed about this as well? Besides, I'm already online with Bob before you even answered his call. Though I don't understand why it's Bob that contacted me. Isn't it supposed to be Peach's job?"
Right. Roy, the new dude. How could I forget about him? We haven't really talked other than the one time Bob dragged him into our secured conversation. He didn’t say much during that conversation, said something only if Skull asked him a question. In general he was okay though, he wasn’t rude nor was he way too quiet.
"Well, Roy. Things don’t always work according to the rule book here, especially in this team. Bob will hack into Peach’s computer on daily basis and brief me on the case because he claims that he wakes up the earliest. Peach will only join us after breakfast," I explain.
"Is that even allowed?
"Sure, why not?"
"Wouldn’t Skull get mad at us?" Roy questions again.
"Why would he?" I frown.
"Isn’t he the team leader?"
I almost choke on my tea hearing what Roy just say. It's hard to blame him whe this is actually a common mistake. Even when Bob first joined in, he mistakenly thought that Skull was the team leader. There's always something about Skull that makes him sound more like a leader than I do.
And speaking of Bob, he laughs way too excitedly at the question, taking way too long to calm down much to my dislike. "Dude! Gibson is the team leader, not Skull! Not to worry, I made the same mistake too when I was new."
"Oh... Sorry," Roy mumbles.
"Not a big deal. And Bob, just send the documents to our tablets. Roy, you should be on your way there as soon as you’re done with your equipment. Skull have told you where he kept yours, haven’t him?" I quickly say, not wanting to delay the mission because of a stupid normal misunderstanding over who the real team leader is.
"Yeah. I already retrieved them last week," Roy replies. "And I'm already on my way actually."
He already is? Wow, I didn’t see that coming. Not bad, newbie. You learn pretty fast. Let’s just hope that you’re not the type that rushes things out.
"Good. Take the residential area while I’ll investigate the temple. I’ll call you when I get there."
Now I need to figure out how to work with a partner on the field without actually meeting him.
---
Climbing up the long stairway to the temple, I slip my hand into my jacket's pocket. Christmas is long gone but Winter is far from over. I'm more of a summer person, my skin gets significantly darker during summer from being under the sun for way too long. Jonghyun hates it when it happens, kind of jealous of it simply because he will only get red under the sun.
I stand there as I watch my surrounding. It isn't empty but the amount of tourists (or the lack of) surprises me.
"Peach, are you up?"
"Yeah," the other line answers.
"Are you awake?"
"Trying to. Breakfast will help."
"I need info on this temple. Its lack of people surprises me. And it’s 2pm. Please, get a hang of yourself. Also it’s called lunch," I sigh.
Peach starts to mumble incoherent words, which I assume that it’s just him whining on and on. I can hear things being moved around and sounds of spoon against a plate or a bowl.
"Well..." he pauses, seemingly munching on some cereal. "The city is an industrial city so tourists don’t really come until April where they will have a seafood festival. Sounds amazing. The seafood festival, I mean."
"That explains why most victims are local," I mumble.
"Yeah. I’m gonna run a pattern analysis to determine a better area for the searching," says Peach.
"Ok. I’ll call you back."
I walk further into the temple's area, feeling quite fascinated that it’s not even that big. There's a small pagoda in the middle of the yard and it seems significant. Something about it makes me feel the need to check its magnetic field stability.
"Is he always like this?" Roy spoke up suddenly.
"Who?"
"Peach. He just told me to call him back in five because he said his cereal is not enough and he had to call some delivery first before answering my questions."
"Pretty much," I chuckle. "What did you want to ask him anyway?"
"I’ve asked about fifteen houses by now and there’s nothing that can help us. How many more should I interview, really?"
Is he whining? He sounds like he’a having some ’Prince-syndrome’ going on right now.
"As many as you can. Bob has already booked a place to stay for each one of us tonight. He’ll send you the details and stuff. Meaning if you can’t get anything today, you have to try again tomorrow," I explain.
"...this is really not my kind of thing," he complains before hanging up.
That went well. This is why I have almost zero confidence on this new guy.
Deciding to ignore Prince Roy, I take my magnetic reader and walk around the pagoda. Being in this job for awhile just makes my instinct stronger for this kind of thing. I guess most detective dramas get it right when they say that one shouldn’t doubt a detective’s gut. It kind of means something.
The reader doesn’t show anything weird, making me wonder if my instinct is failing me today. I step back, ready to leave, then my device starts beeping. I frown, noticing how weird it is to beep only when I step away. So I turn around to have a final look at the pagoda.
My eyes widen up at the sight before me. The air around the pagoda is wavering, flashing out views of the same spot but in a totally different setting. It almost looks like pieces of the past is leaking to the current time. Then the wave disappears.
"Peach..."
"I’m eating. Call me in five," a mumbled answer came from Peach line.
"No time for eating. It’s a time-leak. Magnetic field instability is level 6."
"Level 6?!" Bob exclaims.
"Have you been eavesdropping? That’s very rude!" Peach complains.
"I need to keep logs record!" says Bob. "Without you guys knowing it of course. But this is level 6, so I was just shocked."
"Guys! Stop. We need to seal this time leak before it gets way to big to handle. It might move to level 8 by tomorrow’s afternoon. Peach, I’m sending you the data on the leak."
"Ok. Running a time identification as we speak. I’ll let you know which time it is from," Peach quickly gets back to his senses.
"I’ll arrange transportation for the equipment. Skull is already in stand by for any delivery needed the moment Peach is done with his analysis," Bob adds.
"Ok. Bob, send Roy this conversation log. I’ll contact him later."
"Roger that, boss."
---
Sipping to my drink, I lean back on my seat. Peach is still running his analysis and I practically can’t make any move until I get a definite solution for the time leak. Roy hasn’t come back to me on the creature and he’s not answering my call either. Whatever that creature is, I can only assume that it came from the time-leak.
The tip of my finger played with the top of my drink, dragging the skin on the dull edge of the glass as I cast my eyes around the bar. It's not too crowded but it’s not empty either. A lot of people in suits, seemingly just came back from work and wanting to drink the night away.
An interesting guy kind of catches my eyes. His black hair was short and the bangs were asymmetrical. Probably not a style that I will try, ever, but it kind of suits him. He sits not far from me, just about three seats away, looking all serious at the tablet device on his hands. With the gray hoodie underneath his leather jacket, this guy looks far from being someone that just came out from a long day at the office.
"Tough day?" I speak up, shifting in my seat to face the guy.
He turns his head to me, breaking the eye contact with the screen. "Me?" he asks.
"Yeah, you."
Instinctively he turns off his screen, clears his throat and takes a quick sip from his pint. "Kind of. Just a long day. Not particularly very tough."
"I assume it’s nothing involving an office job," I say again, suddenly feeling the urge to talk more.
"How so?" he frowns.
"Well, you obviously do some kind of field job, judging from your attire. But it must be something quite a big deal from the way you deal with your tablet and the fact that you have a gun stuck to the back of your jeans. A detective, maybe? A very casual one, obviously," I smirk.
It certainly gains his attention. He puts his tablet aside and takes a good look at me, from head to toe. "And what does that say about you?" he raises an eyebrow.
"Me? Just a guy you met at the bar," I answer.
"With hiking booths that obviously to make it easy for you in case you have to go anywhere near the forest, gun belt underneath your jacket - one gun on each side (and yes, I noticed them even when you hide them very well), a sling bag that is too big for a casual outing - meaning you constantly have to bring something with you. You’re obviously doing some big as well, Mr..."
"Jonghun," I introduce my self. In an event where I meet a stranger, it’s always better to give out my real name. No surname, just my name. It makes people think that I’m just an ordinary person that no one needs to care about. "I work for a non-profit animals protection organisation. Thus the hiking booths. And these are just for work stuff. One of them is a tranquilliser." And this, ladies and gentlemen, is my favourite cover of all time.
"Interesting job you have there Jonghun-ssi. They definitely need a big guy like you to handle the animals," the guy laughs, shaking his head, somehow doesn’t seem to buy my story but looks like he's not interested in finding out the truth either.
"Nothing as interesting as your job, Detective-ssi. Catching the bad guys like those action movies."
He laughes, signaling to the bartender that he wants a second pint. "It’s Jaejin. My name, I mean," says the guy.
---
My eyes heavily open up as I squirm on my bed. As my vision getting clearer I take a deep breath to think just why on earth I’m awake this early. I turn my head to check the digital clock next to the bed, 4.55am. Right. Bob will call me any minute now. So I sit up, letting the blanket slip off from my chest and allowing the morning cold to crawl on my skin.
There was an annoyed grunt, followed by my blanket being pulled to the side. A smile makes its way to my face, trying my best not to laugh at the sight before me. There, just by my side, that stranger from the night before is trying to cover himself back from the cold, hating the fact that my movement has made the blanket leave part of his bare skin. Jaejin had almost a totally different look when I got to drag him back with me. The serious and sarcastic look he was giving me at the bar changed as more alcohol ran into his system, allowing our conversation to run more freely. Just as freely as how our hands started to become rather touchy. Palms being placed on thighs, arms, and just anywhere else you can think of.
When the clock turns to five, I grab my ear piece from my jacket’s pocket - kind of took it off and slipped it there when Jaejin and I were tripping our way to the bed, and yes I had a great time in case you’re wondering. "You there, Bob?" I whisper, grabbing my shirt from the floor and walking towards a corner so that Jaejin won’t hear us.
"Yes! Right on time, Gibs!"
"Gibs?" I frown.
"Yup. Gibs from Gibson. Sounds cool right? It makes me feel like I’m in NCIS or something. I can be McGee, just a lot cooler and have better sense of humour," says Bob proudly.
"Dude, the time leak analysis result, please," I sigh, putting my shirt on before then trying to locate where I throw my pants last night.
"Oh right. Hm, well the time is dated to 1962. The leakage is currently increasing to level 7 steadily. So according to Peach’s file, around this time of the year in 1962, an animal that was for a circus show went missing and no one found it ever since. It’s a white tiger, almost instinct in our time. It’s well trained but the file says that it has the tendency to attack anyone that it’s not familiar with - which pretty much the entire population around the temple. We need to send back the tiger when the time leak opens up again, which is in about six hours, and seal the leakage completely. Skull is already on his way to deliver the equipment," explains Bob.
I winced at the length of the morning brief, but I’m kind of glad that it’s Bob and not Peach. Peach will use scientific terms that I have no idea the meaning of. But then again, the slight hang-over from last night doesn’t help much either. "Roy, news on the animal?"
"He’s not online," Bob answers me instead. "I tried to connect to him but he didn’t answer. I also tried to call the hotel that I made him stay at to call his room, but he didn’t answer either."
"That freaking newbie," I click my tongue. "Have you tried to locate his location from the tracking chip on his ear piece?"
"Damn, Gibs! I didn’t think of that before! Wow, I’m such an embarrassment for the entire hackers community."
While Bob tries to locate Roy’s position, I find my pants just next to where Jaejin’s jeans are. Putting it on, I notice how Jaejin moves on the bed, sitting on the edge of the bed with the blanket still covering his lower body part.
"Did I wake you up?" I ask.
Turning the table lamp on, Jaejin shakes his head. "No. I usually wake up around this hour," he answers.
"An early riser? I’m impressed," I comment.
"I would love to think of it that way, but more like my job demands me to wake up early everyday," he sighed. "You seem like you have to get ready for work too."
I just answer him with a smile, giving him a quick wink that he soon answers with a disgusted look on his face. I laugh as I walk to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. Whoever you are, Jaejin, I’m kind of glad you gave me a nice break for the night. I had’t slept with anyone for awhile until last night.
"Gibs," Bob calls again.
"Yeah. Found him?"
"I think I did, but..." answers Bob unsurely.
"But what?"
"It says that he literally just a couple of meters away from you."
"He what?" I blink.
"Basically not far away from you. I don’t even want to know what he’s doing in your room," says Bob.
I turn off my earpiece as I rush out from the bathroom. Jaejin is already somehow dressed, he has put his shirt on and is currently zipping up his jeans. It can’t be right? What are the chances of me actually meeting my partner and sleeping with him?! Very slim!
"Roy?" I unconsciously call out to him.
"Yeah?" he answers, looking up to me as he puts his hoodies on, not realising that I just called him with a totally different name
. This did not just happen.
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Yes, and this is where everything starts LOL. It has been ages since I wrote Sci-fi and since I wrote anything from first person pov, so if it turned out weird, let's hope I'd get better.
Hope you enjoy this chapter!
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