A young woman sat calmly on one of the cold steel benches of Seokarno-Hatta Airport’s departures area. Her clothes flowed off and clung to her body in all the right places. The woman was known to do wonders in just a simple white blouse and grey pencil skirt and so, this was exactly the kind of simplicity she went for today. Her dark green trench coat was casually draped over her leather luggage bag that she placed on a seat beside her.

When her large, striking eyes were not on the local magazine on her lap, they were discreetly observing her surroundings. She was not just waiting for a flight. She was waiting for her boss.

She ran a hand through her chocolate locks and checked her wristwatch. She had to be boarding in twenty minutes. Where was he?

The air around her shifted, a presence—faint woodsy cologne and the unmistakable clickity-clack of a favorite pair of Oxfords (Italian, handmade)—approached and asked if the seat to her right was available.

Speak of the devil…

“You’re late,” Jihyo said, picking up her magazine and pretended to be really absorbed in “The Hottest Restaurants in Jakarta”.

The man simply took the spot beside her and parked his hand-carry suitcase in front of him before he got comfortable in his seat. “Pshhh,” he let out, ing his suit jacket so it would not wrinkle. “What’s ten minutes? It’s not like I made you wait ten years…”

A pause.

Jihyo did not bother to even look up from her magazine.

“Oh, don’t be sore,” the man said, totally unaffected by Jihyo’s nonchalance. “I got us coffee.” He held up a tray containing two coffees-to-go.

Jihyo snapped the magazine shut and grabbed one of the paper cups. “I’ll take this, thanks.”

They both blew and sipped at their coffees in silence, allowing themselves some seconds before diving into more serious matters.

“How is my favorite Chief of Operations?”

“Fantastic,” Jihyo replied before taking another sip. “I lost weight. It’s from all the insane and impossible assignments you’ve been putting me on.”

“Don’t complain. You look more terrific than ever.”

They both laughed quietly at this. The business they were involved in cough-international espionage-cough was one of little humor. This was especially true if you were a higher-ranking agent (which they both were, by the way). One does not simply post memes on a top secret group chat with the people one managed. So when these two do happen to taste the luxury of amusement, they indulge.

Fifteen minutes before Jihyo was to board her flight. She cleared . “Alright, I’m listening. Fill me in.”

“The Japan team that I told you about will be arriving in Seoul in three days. You’ve worked with them before, correct?”

Jihyo nodded. “Yeah, twice.” She groaned, remembering how unnecessarily intense those collaborations were. “Craziest missions of my life, thank you very much.”

The man understood her completely. His Japanese team was known for their highly skilled but also highly unpredictable agents. They could be crazy efficient one minute and then absolute imbeciles a second after. But, exceeding everyone’s expectations and wildest dreams, they have proven, mission after mission, that they can get the job done. So the man constantly found himself overlooking these ridiculous screw-ups from agents of their caliber.

‘Girls just wanna have fun, I guess,’ he told himself.

“Anyway,” he continued. “They have come across a tiny problem…”

“Don’t lie. It’s huge isn’t it?”

His mouth stretched into a thin line. “It’s a disaster,” he admitted. “They lost their best hacker.”

Jihyo’s eyes widened. Even more than normal. (Thomas coming through! CHOO! CHOO!) “What happened to Sunmi?”

“She left. She wanted to make music,” he said. He was obviously upset about it.

“Ehhh?”

“Real music,” he said. His face then scrunched up weirdly. “I didn’t even know that she plays the bass!”

“Are you crying? Are those actual tears?” Jihyo jumped in her seat and pointed at his eyes.

“What? No!”

A short period of silence followed. Jihyo looked away with polite disinterest while her boss furiously blinked the wetness in his eyes away. Sunmi had been with the agency for over a decade. One of his best people. Jihyo deeply understood his distress.

After some time, the man squared his shoulders and sat up straighter. “They have been looking for a replacement for weeks. Sunmi left ten identical flash drives that contain this hardcore code stuff for Agent Myoui and the others to test on potential fits.”

“I see,” Jihyo said, thinking that it was so Sunmi to have thought of an ingenious way to get them a worthy replacement.

Her boss finished his coffee and set it aside. “She calls the program ‘Excalibur’. Insert the USB, her program runs and loads up a whole system with multiple levels that need to be unlocked. The objective is to ‘safely remove’ the USB a.k.a Excalibur.”

“Clever. Pulling the sword out of the stone.”

“I don’t know how Sunmi comes up with this stuff.”

“It’s Arthurian legend.”

“Oh…”

Silence.

“Each one of them gets only one shot. If they don’t finish it before th