There just appeared to be general chaos when Miran arrived back in the basement room, trying to figure out what Junmyeon might want with a confidential hard copy of a file.  Kyungsoo left after alerting Changmin to Miran’s presence, and her attention was quickly distracted by the issue in front of her.

Apparently, in the time it had taken for Kyungsoo to fetch Miran, considerable progress had been made.  Sooyoung was on the phone to a dentist and Miran overheard an incredibly tall, athletic looking agent instructing a woman almost half his height to get in contact with a couple of poison and radiation specialists and a surgeon.  Changmin himself was standing with a woman Miran recognised from her interviews called Boa, both of them anxiously overlooking somebody sitting on the floor and scribbling frantically away on a sheet of paper.

That somebody was Oh Sehun.

As he saw Miran approaching, Changmin held a finger to his mouth to warn her to keep silent.  She came to a halt beside him and peered down at what Sehun was writing.

“This is pretty terrifying,” Changmin mumbled when she looked up again, confused.

“Why?” Miran whispered back.  “And what do you need me for, sir?”

Changmin shrugged.  “Oh Sehun requested you or COO Shin, and Shin still isn’t back yet from wherever he is.  He said you two were the only people he could trust.  Or anybody else recruited after Yerim’s death, but there are only two others and both of them are home for the day.”

Boa looked distinctly less disturbed than Changmin.  “I think it’s safe at this point to assume he’s safe,” she said quietly.  “I don’t think he’s triple bluffing.”

There was silence again for a little while before Sehun finally sat back and put the pen down.  He gazed at the paper, tongue obviously poking into the side of his cheek as he considered what he’d written for a moment, and then he nodded to himself and looked up.

“Oh, hey, new recruit,” he said, spotting Miran.  Scooping up the paper, he extended it towards her.  “Working overtime already?”

Miran was about to ask him what the paper was for when she saw the words in block capitals at the top.

DO NOT MENTION ANYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN OUT LOUD.

Directly below that, the order was qualified with a warning.

There’s some kind of bugging device in my mouth.  I have no idea how it actually works, because I would have assumed that skin and the nature of being in the mouth would distort sound quality, but they can make out everything anybody is saying within a two metre radius of me.

Startled, Miran looked around.  Evidently, Changmin and Boa had taken the warning seriously: everybody was at least two metres away.  She hadn’t even noticed it before.  Idiot, Miran.  These are precisely the kinds of things you ought to notice.

I’m the source your man Tao – he told me his full name is Huang Zitao – turned four months ago, Sehun’s message went on.  The discrepancies in my cover story were because I needed somebody to untie me and give me a pen so that I can write this down.

In short, my agency realised highly confidential information was being leaked after too much of my information was used too effectively by your side, but without the landslide success that you wanted which would help to win the war.  They launched an internal investigation, much like the one you are about to start on.  I have no son, obviously, and my wife has been hospitalised in a coma for some time due to airstrikes, though this was never publicised.  My baby brother Luhan, however, is in danger.  He’s mildly autistic and hides it well, but they’re even going after people like him.

Those of us held under high suspicion were quarantined for a while to see if the information leaks would stop.  This was something I had prepared for with Tao, and so they were never able to confirm it was me.  The handful of us left who were held under suspicion were heavily supervised after we returned, though this was easy to work around, and eventually they decided to send us on missions that would out whoever it was.

My handler who was accompanying me obviously knows who your mole is, since he let me walk straight in here without trying to keep too close an eye.  There was a camera on the tie pin which I removed going through security and “forgot” to pick back up.  Admittedly, it would have triggered a search of the kind needed to discover the other bugs on me—

Miran looked up and cast a critical eye over Sehun, who gazed impassively back.  A quick glance towards Boa and pointing at the words had the senior agent explaining in muted tones that the microphone effectively replaced one of Sehun’s teeth and that they’d put a microchip in the muscle between his neck and shoulder to keep track of him at all times.

—I needed to ensure that people were actually going to listen and believe me.

My mission was to pose as a deserter who wished to work as a double agent, with the blackmail threat of them killing my little brother.  I can only assume that the work I have done for them was too valuable for them to kill me only on suspicion, and that it would be killing two birds with one stone moving me out of HQ and sending me over here.  On the assumption that I am innocent, to them, my high level and knowledge would hopefully be enough of an enticement to keep me around and involved in some of the most important cases, and the mole would presumably try to secure my position, and I would be an absolutely invaluable asset.  On the assumption that I am a traitor, to them, then I am in a position where I am on the back foot and the mole can keep an eye on me and kill me if needed.  There was also the possibility that you would kill me anyway, whatever the case.

Setting you on the internal investigation probably won’t give them cause for alarm, as it is the best way to throw a spoke in the works of any intelligence gathering organisation, whether it is true or not.  Indeed, I was advised to do this.

Regarding the mole, I cannot give you much information.  I do not know this person, though they undoubtedly know me.  I would guess that they at least saw me get arrested as they need to keep an eye on me.  Whether or not they feel the need to get even closer to me, for example, working on my case or arresting me, will depend on this person’s connections – how many people they know, which people they know, how high up the hierarchy ladder they are.  Of course, this is not necessarily the case.  So much is done electronically that it is perfectly possible they have just bugged everyth