NIA was in uproar today. NIA? National Intelligence agency; taskforce created by government to do investigations and handling cases police couldn’t. Yeah, they were created by government. So, no matter how illegal their methods were, they themselves were totally legal. They received their cases directly from government and worked in absolute confidentiality. Every agent there had at least 2 identities- normal and work. Of course there were people who had even more. How they kept track of all this mess in their life and still remained calm and composed...only God knows.

But today something was different. Usually calm and composed working environment was in uproar. There were gossips and whispers all around. Topic? Their recent major case. That was the case their most efficient team was working on.  Actually it was just a quick, temporary team formed by taking top agents from all the departments and putting them together in a room and throwing work at them. But it didn’t matter because they were all best at what they did. So they must bring successful reports all the time…

…right?

 Then why was it today that team had failed miserably, lost their big leads and ended up with just one encrypted CD, which sure could be decrypted by them given some time, but wasn’t dependable to provide any reliable information. Just what happened that CEO himself called them in his office and told them “to get their useless asses out of the agency for a week of break and come back with their heads cleared enough to work again.” Yeah, those were his exact words. And so, the usually calm and composed NIA was in uproar today.   

Now that the team was suspended for a while, everyone sat down to take a break and think. What went wrong? How was their location and security compromised? Was it someone outside? Or just maybe, inside? Yes, the break wasn’t to party at Jeju, it was to lay low for a while and think everything through, before taking next step. So here we are, thinking.

Everything began 6 months ago, when NIA received a high priority mission to break down a criminal organisation named Viper. Creepy name, I know, but it suited them. Viper was a group of lawless people and by group, I mean a group of hundreds of criminal masterminds working together. They were chiefly active in China and Taiwan and had small branches in many other countries. How it became Korea’s business?  Lots of investigation had been done in many countries and finally their HQ was tracked down to Korea. That’s how it became Korean government’s issue and soon NIA’s. NIA wasn’t shocked to listen about the next task. They had known about this group before. Smuggling drugs and weapons, human trafficking, political assassinations, this group had done it all. Only reason NIA never bothered them was because they weren’t on the mission to cleanse the world, they did what they were told. And they were never told to bother Viper before. But now they were. And the knowledge that the HQ was in Seoul, right under their noses, riled them up. That’s it. The very next day CEO decided to set up a team and monitor the mission himself. The mission was simple. Break down the HQ, weaken their base, then the organisation can be taken care of easily. Easier said than done, CEO knew that but he also knew just the right people to put up on this mission. And this was how the team assembled, the same team which was now taking a break or thinking or mourning their failure or whatever one wanted to guess, at Jeju.

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“It blew up right under our nose. I was there, barely 20 ing meters from the compound and it blew at my face. Man, we have been slapped right at our faces. Damn, this stings so bad…….. 20 ING METERS!!!!!….” Youngwoon continued.

“Someone take his drink away. He has drunk way too much. We have already screwed up enough. Last thing we need right now is him announcing our failure to this entire club and giving out our oh-so-amazing JOB” Jungwoon said irritated. He was drunk. Hell, all 4 of them were drunk. And no, it was not to celebrate something. It was to vent out their frustration. 2 months of investigation had finally given them some lead. They located a company named Lee Corp which was directly connected to some big names in Viper. 4 months of undercover, and they finally intercepted a big exchange. 3 Viper guys, with some extra security, were supposed to deliver some important files and a CD to MD of the Lee Corp. They captured them. Of course it blew their undercover, but they didn’t care, it was a big fish to catch after all. Contents could prove to be a direct proof of company’s affiliation to Viper and then they could use force to get deeper. So they attacked the guys. Viper may be strong, but they couldn’t beat NIA’s sudden atta