“This is Park Jinyoung?”

Bora froze mid-bite into her kimchi meal. She lowered her chopsticks into the bowl as she took in the picture of her target.

She was sitting cross-legged on Bambam’s desk in the Operations Room. 

“Mmh…” Bambam nodded as he struggled to gulp down a piece of kimbap. 

Jackson cast a disgusted look at the pair of them as he leaned on Bambam’s other side. After their training session of the day — and a handful of pestering from Bora — he’d taken her to the Operations Room to help her dig up more info on Park Jinyoung.

When they had entered, Bambam had been in the middle of his lunch and she’d stolen his side dish of kimchi before he could protest. She was famished.

The scientist’s photograph was displayed on all the screens in the room along with his personal details.

“He’s young, and… hot.”

The word slipped out of but it was the most fitting to describe Park Jinyoung. He looked like he belonged on the covers of magazines, or on a TV commercial advertising skincare products.

“And that matters because…?” Jackson peered over at her, a dubious look on his face.

“It makes my plan easier,” she brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and grabbed her bowl again.

It had been a week since the dinner at the villa and between her training sessions with Jackson and her recruit duties, Bora had had plenty of time to mull over a plan.

“What was your plan?”

A malicious smile appeared on Bora’s lips and she winked at Jackson. 

“Using my God-given charms to lure him out of the reception hall.”

Jackson cocked an eyebrow at her like she was supposed to say something more. He looked around the room, like he was waiting for a prank show crew to jump out of some corner. 

“That’s your plan?” He finally set his eyes back on her. “Seducing him?”

The way he said it made it sound like she was about to commit an actual murder.

“I mean,” she swallowed another bite of kimchi, “yes. And it certainly helps that he’s not an old ert with a beer belly.”

She focused again on her food, leaving Jackson staring at her, starstruck.

“Golden girl,” Bambam snickered and linked his fingers behind his head. He smirked and side-eyed Jackson, “The gift that keeps on giving.”

“It’s never gonna work.” Jackson said.

His tone was a mix of mockery and incredulity.  

“I think you underestimate my capabilities as a woman, Wang.”

“He will be extra cautious of anyone who tries to approach him.” He ignored her words and continued with his usual, unnerving, calculated cool.

She leaned forward and cocked her head. “He’s a man. Men are idiots. They don’t second-guess. They think their looks and social status are enough to justify any woman’s interest in them.”

“That’s a backward way of thinking.”

“Wang. We live in a backward society. I don’t make the rules.” She shrugged and brought a piece of cabbage to her lips. “And anyway, when he’ll see me, he’ll be ready to risk it all.”

She knew exactly the best ways to highlight her assets.

“I’d like to see that.” Jackson snickered.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” she said in a clipped tone, a part of her annoyed at his blatant contempt.

“That’s barely a plan.”

“Hey, Captain,” Bambam cut in, “You ain’t allowed to help. You’re already treading a fine line by training her.”

Jackson and Bora exchanged a glance. They hadn’t exactly been hiding that they were training but they hadn’t cried it out on every roof either. Of course, Bambam must've caught them from day one with his many eyes around the Cliff.

If she were honest with herself, she had wondered how people would interpret Jackson training her. Would it be perceived as treason? As him betraying his brother — because that’s what Mark was to Jackson — and siding with her? She had tried to shrug it off (it was his problem anyway), but her thoughts couldn’t help drifting back in that direction. 

She hadn’t brought it up in front of him yet. She had managed to get him to train her, she didn’t want to be the one to plant the seeds of doubt in his brain.

“Mind your business, nerd!” Bora flicked Bambam on the forehead. “Wanna be helpful?” She changed subjects. “Get me clearance to the O.R.”

She had seen the technology that gave access to the most important areas of the Cliff. It was a panel that used fingerprint recognition. 

After Solar had kicked her out of Cloud Nine, she thought she was just getting a downgrade in accommodation. That she could handle. But then she realized the downgrade ran much deeper. The Operations Room, Ground Zero, the labs, the archives, and the founding fathers’ villa — had all become off-limits to her.

She had planned on getting familiar with every nook and cranny of that damned Cliff. No way would she ask Jackson every time she wanted to snoop around. 

“I’m not messing with Solar. She specifically asked that you don’t have access to all these areas.”

Bora tried to think of an alternative that preferably wouldn’t involve getting in contact with Solar.

“Then say Jackson told you.”

Jackson (or Mark, but he was out of the picture) would be her best shot. They were the only people outranking Solar. 

“I’m not allowing it,” Jackson shook his head with a sly smile. 

“Oh come on,” she threw her hands in the air, “I haven’t seen a clear sky in ages. I’m walled away between the Pit and the dorms. This place is suffocating. I’m going… crazy.  Come on, nerd! I’m not asking for the moon. If you can’t even do that then what good are you for? When I take Mark’s place, you’re both getting fired.”

“We don’t fire people here, golden girl,” Bambam piped in, “We erase them.”

Erasure was the threat that hung over every recruit’s head. It didn’t happen frequently, but when it did, a bleak energy draped over the Cliff for days onward.

“It would be my pleasure to erase you off the face of this planet.”

“Pfft,” Bambam flicked her off, “Division would not last a day without me.”

Jackson thought of Kim Yerim again. She was still locked up in Ground Zero. She hadn’t given in yet. She hadn’t landed a killing blow. Needless to mention, she was practically on death row. Solar wouldn’t drag it out for much longer.

Jackson was pulled out of this thoughts by Bora and Bambam’s bickering. He passed a hand over his face. They were two headaches on their own to handle but together, they were like splashing oil on a fire.

“Stop calling me nerd.”

“Ok, nerd.”

“I can’t wait till these Trials are over and you go back to whatever hell hole you crawled out of.”

“Actually, what hellhole did you crawl out of?”

“Sorry, you have to be at least level twelve of friendship to unlock the tragic backstory.” Bambam retorted snarkily.

Bora slapped her chopsticks on his skull. 

Bambam’s eyes widened and before he could respond to the physical attack he’d been under, the sliding doors of the Operations Room opened softly and confident footsteps marched in.

When Bora took in who it was, the smirk that cornered her lips vanished. Solar, the tip of a rifle protruding from her back, looked sweaty, and like she’d just taken down an army. 

She strutted down the couple of stairs that led to Bambam’s desk and stopped before them, silently taking in the sight before her.

“Bam. What is she doing in here?” She spoke like Bora wasn’t right there. 

Bora dug the tip of her tongue in her cheek to reign in her murderous instincts.

Bambam shrugged non-committedly and pointed at Jackson. “Ask him.”

She turned to him. “You haven’t been around much these days.”

“He’s too busy training Lee’s golden girl to grace us with his presence,” Bambam chimed in. 

Jackson closed his eyes and rubbed an eyebrow with two fingers. 

Bora preferred not to comment and pretended being absorbed in the contemplation of her bowl. Why did it sound like Jackson and her had been having a secret, scandalous love affair?

Jackson had not exactly been avoiding Solar. But if he could push back the time she found out he had been training with Bora, he gladly would. He’d be blind not to see how she came onto him. 

Solar looked at Jackson like she waited for him to confirm Bambam’s words but he didn’t entertain her.

“Got yourself a new toy? The Obsidian’s running out of options already?” She referred to Jackson’s preferred night club in Busan.

Bora opened , a biting reply ready to leap out the tip of her tongue but one look from Jackson and she tightened her lips. 

Rule number 1. You don’t start fights. Especially with Solar.

Jackson leaned back on the desk lazily and peered over at Solar. “You know you’ll always be my favorite girl.”

She rolled her eyes, unamused. “While you’ve been busy playing private instructor, I terminated Operation Sparrow. The head of Park Corporation is dead. So make sure the outstanding money Moon Industries owes us comes in and quick. And let them double the amount. That’ll teach them a lesson.”

“What happened?” Jackson straightened up, alert.

“His kid was there. Only realized that later.”

“You didn’t…”

“Of course not.”

Bora didn’t know what he meant. She didn’t what? Kill the kid? Do it in front of the kid? 

Either way her appetite was gone. 

“He knew our terms, no kids involved in any way. I’ll pay him a little visit. Maybe that will freshen up his memory.”

Something twisted in Bora’s gut. She knew that was Division’s business. There was nothing she could do about it. Yet.

“You execute people but draw the line at kids seeing you do it? Aren’t you a peach.” Bora snapped. She couldn’t control her tongue, the words burning to come out.

Solar’s face hardened over.

“Killing is easy,” she said with an icy smile. “One day, you’ll be the one pulling that trigger. When that day comes, then I’ll be more than happy to listen to your holier-than-thou comments. Until then,” she glanced at her wristwatch before setting her eyes on Jackson. “A bombing drill’s about to start in the Training Hall. You little recruit could join us.”

***

The drill was simple. She had to be the fastest to defuse the bomb. The instructor clad in the dark grey uniform of Division had spent half an hour explaining to the recruits huddled around him how to do it.

Easy, right?

Wrong.

The act in itself was easy. Having the recruits examine her every move and expect her to do better than them was nerve-wracking.

Jackson stood on the sidelines with Solar and guards as she waited for her turn. It had taken the best recruit so far a minute and twenty-seven seconds to successfully disable the fake explosives that were stuck beneath a car.

When her turn came, she couldn’t help throwing a glance Jackson’s way. The nod he sent her way in response felt like liquid courage.

She slid under the car and stuck the flashlight between her teeth. Light bathed the detonator. The timer had started the countdown.

That’s when her mind blanked. 

The big red numbers began spinning on themselves.

Her vision blurred. 

The familiar shortness of breath seized her. 

No. Not now. 

She shook her head, forcing herself to focus on the task at hand. But her brain couldn’t think of anything other than the car that was above her. It seemed to be crushing down on her. She looked left and right and suddenly the openings seemed too narrow for her to ever be able to extract her body from there. 

She took the flashlight out of as a sheen of sweat coated her face and loud heaves escaped her. 

She was trapped.

“Get me out of here.”

Nothing happened.

She had put all her energy into uttering these words but