“Fly it a little lower, Lu. Don’t worry about the visibility, this drone is really small.”

“I know, I know.” Sticking his tongue out in concentration, Luhan squinted at the screen, maneuvering the drone down. “I should have invested in one of those fancy new trajectory generation UAVs. Navigating this manually .”

“I told you so. Should have listened to the tech expert, huh?” Without looking up, Luhan could see the smug grin on Kris’ face.

“And remind me why the amazing, all-knowing tech expert is currently hiding in a storage closet just to video chat me?”

Kris’ answering grunt was enough to make him chuckle. “Shut up, Lu. You know I can’t risk Henry sneaking up on me again.”

“So you’re the drone whisperer, but you can’t catch your supervisor coming up from behind you?” Luhan asked, hiding a grin. “I think you need to go back to basic field training.”

“The drone’s low enough. Don’t go any farther,” Kris said, changing the subject with a grimace. “That’s Kim Jongdae’s house there on the right.”

Bringing his face closer to the screen, Luhan whistled, impressed. “That’s not a house, that’s a mansion! Especially with housing prices as they are in Seoul, he’s got to be loaded!”

“Jongdae isn’t rich himself, actually,” Kris corrected. “I checked his bank account. It’s pretty sad, to be honest. He’s poor, but he lives with his parents in the house his brother bought them.”

“That makes me wonder why he’d even bother getting involved with Jade Dragon if his family’s already rich, though,” Luhan mused. “Something personal, perhaps? And when’s the mailman coming around again?”

“Four or five more minutes, I’d say.” Kris tapped away at his laptop. “From what I can see in the traffic cameras, it looks like the mailman is getting close.”

“Good. You’re sure this drone can handle the weight of three letters?”

“Yep. I know it’s small, but it’s deceptively strong. The main issue will be getting the drone in and out of the mailbox with the letters without anyone seeing.”

“And which three letters am I looking for, exactly?”

“They’re all coming in from Japan. One was addressed to the Castle in the Sky, another to Totoro’s tree, and the last to Ponyo’s submarine. Looks like Jongdae’s a Miyazaki fan.”

“Same as Yixing when he was little, then,” Luhan said, unable to hold back a fond smile. “I still remember that one time he refused to carry out a mission because the target looked like Chihiro from ‘Spirited Away.’”

Chuckling, Kris nodded in agreement. “He got us all into so much trouble for that. Hey, have you heard from Xing recently? He’s always sleeping whenever I call; he never picks up.”

“Yeah.” Luhan yawned, checking the drone’s camera feed again. “Apparently Im Yoojung thinks he’s a creepy stalker, and he narrowly avoided getting fired at HomePlus yesterday because he fell asleep during his shift. Oh, and he lost his credit card again and spent three hours on hold with the bank last night.”

Kris pondered for a moment. “So it’s not going too badly for him, then. No one’s injured, at least.”

“True. He did manage to place a bug in the Im apartment, though. I’m quite impressed with him for that,” Luhan admitted. “Xing’s been listening in for the past few days, and it seems Yoojung really doesn’t know anything about her sister’s work. She’s also got no friends or outside connections aside from her mukbang viewers, so kidnapping her should be pretty easy if it comes to that.”

“Good to know.” Kris paused. “And… Xiumin? Have you heard anything from him?”

Luhan’s face dropped. “No. Senrima’s been calling less and less frequently lately. The time they’ve been giving us to talk with Xiumin has been decreasing, too.”

“Damn. I wish they would call me instead of you so I could run some audio tests on the call. Maybe I could make out some background noises that might tell us where they are.”

“You tried that the first time they ever called,” Luhan reminded him, “back when we were still in China, remember?”

Sighing, Kris ran a hand through his hair. “I know. But - oh, here comes the mailman.”

Turning back to the drone’s camera feed, Luhan spotted a truck with the distinctive red and gold Korea Post symbol pulling up by Jongdae’s house.

“Are you sure the drone can handle opening and closing the mailbox?” he asked, leg shaking up and down under the table. “If the drone breaks or gets discovered by anyone while it’s messing with the mailbox, the cops will be looking into this for sure, especially now that Jongdae’s been reported missing.”

Kris scoffed. “Relax, Lu. I’ll make sure there aren’t any civilians around before giving you the green light to send the drone in. Trust me, okay?”

Luhan lapsed into silence. He wasn’t normally nervous during missions, but this time, everything felt different. He didn’t have his whole team with him, nor did he have a full file of background information checked and double-checked by other agents. This operation was exceptionally high-risk, and this time, the Chinese government wasn’t there to make any mistakes on his part magically disappear. Not to mention, Kris was working from a closet under the sea and could need to leave at any moment in the case that Henry or one of the others found him.

"According to the tracking information I have, it looks like it’s just the three letters being delivered today. No other packages for the Kims,” Kris informed him. “That makes it a lot easier for you. No searching; just send the drone in to grab all the mail, and we’ll be set.”

“Mhmm.” If it were really that easy, then why was his stomach twisting like this? Luhan hadn’t felt this anxious about a mission since… well, since they lost Xiumin in that mission gone wrong earlier this year.

No, Luhan, don’t think about that. You’re getting caught up in imagining the worst-case situation, and you know that’s the primary reason agents mess up in the field. Snap out of it!

Refocusing on the drone feed, Luhan watched the mailman approach the mailbox with increasing trepidation. The man, whistling along to a tune blasting through his earbuds, looked carefree, relaxed, as he opened the mailbox.

When was the last time I felt like that? Luhan wondered. Five months ago? Six? Seven?

How enviable that mailman’s life appeared all of a sudden, in its uncomplicated, mundane glory. He probably had a wife and children, a cozy apartment, a group of friends he went out drinking with on Friday nights, and a nice little nest egg sitting in his bank account for his children’s college tuitions. He wasn’t an orphan, left behind in the world by parents he would never know. He wasn’t a traitor, bitter and jaded after his own country’s betrayal. And he certainly wasn’t a rogue agent, risking the hides of himself and his brothers to save his best friend from sure death.

I’m getting overdramatic, Luhan thought with an upward quirk of his lips. If Xiumin were here, he’d tell me to stop being such a diva.

“You ready, Lu?” Kris’ voice distracted him. “The mailman’s back in his vehicle. You’ll need to be quick.”

“Ready.” Cracking his knuckles, Luhan squeezed the drone’s controls, prepared to swoop in the second the mailman pulled away.

“Give it another five seconds or so before going in,” Kris ordered. “We don’t want him spotting the drone out of his rearview mirror. I need time to check streetview cameras for any nearby civilians, too.”

The mail truck trundled down the street, getting smaller and smaller. Having counted to five, Luhan swooped the drone down.

“Wait!” Voice frantic, Kris pounded away at his keyboard. “Pull up! Pull up right now, Lu! There’s a civilian who just showed up!”

Cursing, Luhan yanked the drone up, narrowly avoiding a tree and making himself dizzy as the machine hurtled through the air. “What? Where?”

“There, the guy with the face mask coming up the street!”

Sure enough, the moment he stabilized the drone and its camera feed, Luhan spotted a man striding down the street, a black mask and cap covering most of his face.

“Dammit. We’ll have to wait until he leaves before going in.” The tense ball in his stomach was curling even tighter. The man drew even closer to the Kim house, making a beeline for the mailbox.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Kris muttered, watching the man uneasily. “This reeks of Jade Dragon. We’re in bigger trouble than we thought if they’ve got men in the city.”

“Can you run facial recognition?” Luhan zoomed in on the man through the drone’s camera, squinting. “Is there enough of his face exposed for that?”

Kris groaned. “Already tried that; not enough of his face is showing for that to work. I can get his approximate height using analytical bundle methods, and maybe I can estimate a weight after that. I’m running the program right now.”

“!” Luhan slammed his hands down on the table. The masked man was opening the mailbox now, reaching in. “Isn’t there a way to stop him? Is this drone equipped with weapons of any sort?”

“What, like a bomb?” Kris laughed hysterically, fingers tapping away. “We don’t have a government to clean up after us anymore, Lu.”

“Well, we can’t just let him get away with the letters!” All three of the letters were in the man’s hand, and Luhan thought his brain might explode with anxiety. “If any of those camera locations get back to Jade Dragon before Senrima, Xiumin’s as good as dead!”

The sound of fingers on a keyboard on the other end stopped immediately, and Luhan immediately cringed. “I didn’t mean it like that. Nobody’s going to die,” he rushed to say, but the damage was already done. Kris resumed his typing after a moment, but the shaky breath he let out was enough to let Luhan know he’d messed up.

“You know I don’t think that, Yifan,” Luhan said quietly. “We’re going to get him back. We are. Xiumin’s going to be just fine.”

“Okay.” Kris, expression pinched, pretended to be too busy typing to look up at the camera. “Our mystery agent is a tall guy. Most likely over 180 cm, and a rough weight estimate would be around 70 kg.”

Gaze lingering on Kris’ face, Luhan sighed and decided to drop the issue until a less critical moment. “Eye color?”

“Dark brown. Not exactly helpful.”

“Any tattoos, piercings, or other identifiers?”

“No. But if he’s really Jade Dragon, then that makes sense.”

Luhan nodded in agreement. Jade Dragon, unlike other crime syndicates or gangs, was known for having no physical identifying marks. Unique tattoos, while convenient when searching for friendly faces, also immediately blew any and all covers, a fact Jade Dragon was fully aware of. To the underground world, it was yet unknown how Jade Dragon agents identified others of their own kind.

“We can’t interfere with his possession of the letters without exposing ourselves and the drone, so I’ll follow him back to wherever he drops off the letters,” he told Kris, forcing himself back into an objective headspace. “Does this drone have any bugging or tracking capabilities?”

“Yes, but you’ll need to hover it directly above the item you want to drop the bug on. He’ll definitely notice if we get that close.”

Nudging the drone along in the direction the man was walking, Luhan grimaced. “Looks like I’ll just have to follow him, then.”

The man, letters in hand, strolled down to the end of the street, then turned and started walking back again.

“What’s he doing?” Luhan frowned. “It looks like he’s waiting for something. Some type of signal perhaps, for a hand-off?”

“He’s not carrying a bag of any kind, and his pockets are all empty.” Kris zoomed in on the screen. “No cell phone. He’s got something small in his left