CHAPTER ONE

C R O S S I N G S

The Hong Kong chief of police was large and solid in build. His voice boomed over the council hall where the investigation teams were debriefed quickly in the two hour introductory. Sohyun sat towards the front, her eyes fixed on the chief while the headset in her ear translated the leftover Mandarin she did not understand.

"Each unit will have a minimum of the following," Chief announced, "A Korean analyst, a translator, interrogator, and weapons specialist. As you already know, some of Korea's finest investigators from their police department and are very familiar with Hwanggu's crimes have already transferred. They are in fact gathered here today. We will work together to finally rid our countries of the parasite that goes by the name of "The Yellow Dog" and we will do it both effectively and..."

A chair crashed into another, scratching the floor, and someone apologized loudly. They edged their way across the room, gathering the eyes of the listeners. The Chief had completely stopped in the middle of his speech to watch Detective Wang Jackson make his late, and first entrance since his suspension, a dramatic one.

"Pardon me." He spoke as he stepped over Sohyun’s legs and more until he reached the end of the pew. He finally sat, an unconcerned grin embedded on his face and he completed his arrival with a wave at Chief.

"Everyone but Detective Wang are dismissed." There was no hesitation with everyone spilling out of the council. They didn't want to witness the enraged chief tearing a new one into the rookie detective. Sohyun sought out that Detective Wang was most likely the token troublemaker. She was astounded at how he was oblivious and how lightly he took to the debriefing.

"Trash." She muttered under her breath.

"Confirmative." A deep voice in Korean drawled from behind her and she spun, unfamiliar with any of the Korean investigators that traveled alongside her to Hong Kong. Sohyun had seen this character before, tall, sharp and quite handsome, but she only ever exchanged work related files with the man. "The name's Changwook. Detective Ji Changwook. Analyst."

"Detective Kwon Sohyun." She greeted with a strong handshake. Sohyun never bothered to understand the special abilities of the other Korean investigators that lead them to the special unit, all she knew was why she was there and why she had been chosen. "Weapons specialist." She remembered another instance of where she had seen Detective Changwook. On the range during their weapons qualification a few years back. He came in second while she came in first.

"I hope you'll remember my name this time Ms. Kwon." He said with a smile. He seemed like a nice fellow.

"We'll be working a lot more closely so I definitely will. Oh, and it's just Detective Kwon." Her words were straightforward and cold. They almost sent chills up her own spine but she remained austere. Changwook sheepishly grinned, probably remembering why they never spoke before even though they were in the same unit back at their homeland. "Should we return to our offices? We still have to disseminate the case files."

"Oh that's right." They walked down the vast hall together, "In actuality the only intel we're sharing are Hwanggu's past patterns. Which aren't consistent, considering now that he's moved all of his crimes to another country. We're basically going to have to start from scratch here. The language barrier will be our new and biggest challenge. This will get interesting. And I'm looking forward to it."

Sohyun didn't respond, but formed into a smirk that agreed with Detective Ji's statement. Things were going to get interesting, and with the amount of freedom the special unit assigned to the Hwanggu case gets, she will have leverage and the freedom necessary to the man she despised the most. The Yellow Dog.

"Let's be friends." The words stopped Changwook in his tracks, and Sohyun looked at him, her smirk still present. "What? Don't want to?"

"The words just took me by surprise." He said honestly, "Detective Kwon, are you really this friendly?"

"No. But this is my way of networking."

"Ah."