Rule #5: No man is an island…or at least, they are often within sight of land or surrounded by other islands.  

And there’s almost always a turtle that visits.

            It was an ordinary Thursday morning.  Ryeowook got ready to head to work in downtown Beijing and then headed to the kitchen to make breakfast, but Zhou Mi was already there, cooking up a traditional Korean breakfast.

            “What’s all this?” Ryeowook asked, pleasantly surprised.

            Zhou Mi smiled at his friend and dished him up a plate.  “I thought I’d make breakfast for you this morning, since I have the day off and you have a crazy schedule until late tonight.”

            “You didn’t have to do that,” Ryeowook said, happily accepting the dish and bringing it over to the table.  “You should have slept in for a change.”

            “But you never sleep in on your days off.  You always get up to cook for me,” Zhou Mi retorted, joining him at the table.  “It’s the least I could do.”

            “Well, thank you,” he said, picking up his chop sticks and digging into the food.

            “You’re welcome.  Don’t forget to bring the recorder to the meeting you have today, just in case they mention something that ties to the massage parlors on the east coast that our friends have connected to the trafficking ring and Omega.”

            “Already in my briefcase,” Ryeowook told him.

            “Good,” Zhou Mi said, nodding.  “I think we’re getting close to you finding out some contact info.  Once we do, we can send our men in and take them out.”

            Ryeowook grinned at the idea of it.  He’d been in China for a little over a year and although he’d become good friends with his Chinese partner and roommate, he was homesick.  He missed Korea.  He missed seeing his family and friends.  He missed eating Korean cuisine at every meal.  He even missed his crabby boss and, most importantly, his best friend, Sungmin.

            “Maybe you could go home then,” Zhou Mi said, grinning at him from across the table.

            “I would love that, but I would miss you,” he confessed.

            “So would I, but I will probably move there eventually.  Someday they’ll put the pieces together about how NIS is gathering information from them in China and I need to get out of here before they do,” he pointed out.

            “Aren’t you afraid that you’ll judge wrong?”

            Zhou Mi nodded.  “But I’m more afraid of failing and gaining nothing from all the work I’ve done these past few years.  Omega must be stopped.  Forever.  No matter the cost.”

            Ryeowook continued to eat the delicious food.  He’d taught Zhou Mi how to cook a few Korean dishes himself, on the nights they were bored, and the Chinese man had picked it up easily.  He was a natural in the kitchen.  Ryeowook would miss having someone around that would make him meals when he returned home.  Perhaps he’d have to take Sungmin’s advice finally and get a boyfriend.  One that cooked decent.

            “What are you up to today?” Ryeowook asked.

            “A little investigating.”

            “Investigating who?”

            “A pharmaceutical company from South Korea that keeps popping up as a financial backer in the company records.  It may be nothing, of course, but I think it’s odd,” Zhou Mi said.

            “Which company?”

            “The Choi Corporation.”

            “Hmmm,” Ryeowook acknowledged, continuing to eat.

            “Anyway, I thought I’d check into it a little more, look at exactly what they’re investing in and why,” he explained.

            “Let me know what you find out.”

            It was the last conversation they ever had together. 

            That same day, as Ryeowook was leaving work at a little after five in the evening and heading towards a bar to have drinks with his coworkers, a car pulled up alongside him on the walk.  The window rolled down and Qian’s head appeared in the opening. 

            “Lìxù!  Get in!”

            Ryeowook gave her a puzzled look.  “I can’t.  I’m headed to a—”

            “It’s an emergency,” she said, sounding hysterical.  “Hurry!  Before someone sees you!”

            Before someone sees him?  Those words caught his attention.  Why was she worried about that?  Unless she knew something that she shouldn’t.  Ryeowook took a chance and got into the car.  Qian sped away from the building as fast as she could, merging into traffic. 

            “What’s going on?”

            “You’re in danger!  They know you’re a spy,” she informed him.

            Ryeowook took a deep breath.  “How did you find out?”

            “Zhou Mi sent me an email this afternoon.  He found a connection between the Choi Corporation in Korea and the Omega Operation.  Apparently they’re the same group that killed my parents when they happened upon a drug deal and shot them, when I was little.”

            “Where’s Zhou Mi now?” Ryeowook asked, noticing they were not headed in the direction of his apartment.

            Qian glanced over at him, tears welling up in her eyes.  Then she looked back at the road and drove a little faster.  “I’m sorry, Lìxù.”

            “Sorry about what?” he firmly asked.

            Qian sniffled.  “They got to him first.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Zhou Mi went back to the apartment once he discovered the connection and contacted NIS about the information.  He emailed them about the proofs he found.  Then he began to gather up what the two of you would need to leave the country, but they tracked him to the apartment first.  I called my friend who lives near your place.  There are police all over the premises.  They threw him out the window of your eight story apartment.  He died as soon as he hit the ground.”

            Ryeowook hit his hand hard against the counsel of the car, cursing loud.  “We can’t leave him there.  I have to be sure.”

            “If we go there, you’re going to die,” she told him.  “Zhou Mi sent me a text message shortly before his death.  He told me to get you the hell out of China immediately.  They’re looking for you.”

            “He’s put you in danger as well.  They’ll track the messages to you,” Ryeowook said.  “The bastard probably did it on purpose so that I’d be motivated to leave and not linger to get revenge.  He knew if he put you in danger, I’d focus on getting you out with me instead of risking my life.  Give me your cell phone.”

            Qian dug her phone out of her purse and handed it to him.  Ryeowook rolled down the window.  He grabbed his own cellphone out of his pocket and waited for a truck heading the opposite direction passed and tossed them into the bed. 

            “What are you doing?” Qian shrieked.

            “They’re just going to track us if we keep them on us,” Ryeowook informed her, rolling his window back up.

            “I don’t have anyone’s number memorized,” she sadly informed him.

            “It won’t matter anyway.  You won’t be calling anyone when you get to Seoul.  If you want to live, you have to cut off all your ties to China,” he informed her.  “You’ll have to change your whole identity.”

            Qian’s jaw dropped open.  Her heart sank, but she nodded.  She knew he was right.  “Everything I loved about my homeland is already dead anyway.”

            Ryeowook reached over and squeezed her shoulder.  He never asked her if she loved Zhou Mi and he never would.  It was bad enough that she’d lost her parents to the Omega Operation.  Losing her first love would only solidify her hatred of them, but he would not make her voice it.  He would not force her to experience further pain than she wished to. 

            “How are we going to get out of Beijing?” she asked, fear audible in her voice.

            “I have a connection here.  A man by the name of Hangeng that can get us out of the region and get us fake identities to slip out of the country unnoticed.  But fir