In the back seat of the car, Seulgi was bent over the receiver, her ear almost pressed to the speaker. Chanyeol’s eyes kept darting from the dark streets to the rear-view mirror where he could see the pale oval of her face reflected, desperate to see the change in her expression that would mean a sound had come from the receiver, that would mean Baekhyun was in range.

Several other patrol cars were doing a methodical search of the streets near the place they’d found Baekhyun’s GPS tracker, but so far they’d found no sign of their target. The car had vanished into the endless maze of industrial roads. Their best chance of finding Baekhyun was probably his transmitter. The tiny, low-powered device had a range of about a square kilometre, so if they picked up a signal, they’d know they were close.

The sound of the crash was still ringing in Chanyeol's ears, the explosion of shattering glass and screeching metal playing over and over. He wanted to stick his fingers in his ears to get rid of the sound, but he knew that wouldn’t help. Uncontrollable thoughts crashed around inside him. What if Baekhyun had been badly hurt? What if his captors discovered that he wasn’t Luhan? What if they’d not stopped anywhere nearby, but kept driving and driving until there was no hope of Chanyeol ever coming within range of the transmitter? What if -

The receiver gave a burst of static. Chanyeol jerked round as Seulgi’s fingers leapt into action, tuning the filter until the static faded and the channel became clear, but nothing came through but dead air. Baekhyun was in range, but they could hear nothing through his microphone.

Chanyeol radioed their location to the other patrol cars. Baekhyun was within a kilometre of them, but that was still a big area to search. They were in an old industrial area at the south-east edge of the city, near one of the tributary branches of the Han River, and the badly-maintained roads, closed-down factories and disused warehouses were deserted. About half a kilometre east of their position, the last, desolate buildings clinging to Seoul’s boundary were swallowed by the Geomdansan mountain range, just visible in the darkness as a darker line of black against the night sky.

“I can hear something,” Seulgi murmured after a while. “It sounds like breathing. I think it’s Baekhyun.”

“That’s positive,” Sehun said, glancing away from the road to briefly meet Chanyeol’s eyes. “That means he survived the crash.”

Chanyeol looked away. He knew Sehun was trying to help, but torn between relief that Baekhyun was alive and terror that he might not be for much longer, he couldn’t find any words to respond. He fixed his attention on the receiver, praying to hear something, anything, that might give them a clue about where Baekhyun was.

Seulgi kept tuning the receiver, isolating the sound until they could all hear it clearly. Yes, it was breathing, but it didn’t sound right. Each breath came with a strained, dragging catch, and the inhalations were too shallow, too fast. Chanyeol felt sick. Baekhyun was injured, perhaps badly.

“Stop driving,” he told Sehun. He was afraid they would go out of range, and right now the transmitter was the best lead they had. Sehun stopped the car and they sat in complete silence, listening to the sound of Baekhyun struggling to breathe. It was torment to Chanyeol. His fists were clenched so tight his arms were trembling. He couldn’t do anything, Baekhyun was hurt, alone and in danger, and he couldn’t ing do anything –

There was a noise like a door banging. Footsteps.

“Suho...” An unknown male voice spoke, thick with dread. Then came the cracking thump of something hard hitting flesh, and a scream of pain. As the beating went on, the man being hit screamed and sobbed pleas and apologies in turn, begging for his life. At first there was no reply, but eventually the blows slowed, and another voice spoke.

“Thought you’d betray me, did you?”

“I – I was wrong – please – spare me –“

“Have you learned your lesson?”

“Y-yes…”

“You get one last chance. Next time I tell you what to do, you better obey me, or it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

“I understand.”

A pause.

“That’s a cop. You brought a cop with you, you ing moron.”

Helpless rage surged through Chanyeol as they discussed killing Baekhyun. Then, finally, Baekhyun spoke. He could barely get enough air to speak, but he spoke anyway, tried to keep Suho talking. Even hurt as he was, Baekhyun was still doing his best to gather useful information.

“A school,” Chanyeol said, leaping on Baekhyun’s words. Both he and Sehun were immediately dancing their fingers over their phone screens, searching the satellite database for schools nearby.

“There,” Sehun said, zooming in on a building next to the river. Then, over the radio, they heard Suho realise that Chen was arriving.

“Go,” Chanyeol ordered.

They arrived at the top of the hill that led steeply down to the river and regrouped with the three other patrol cars that had been searching the area. The backup he’d called for, SWAT teams with their riot armour and semi-automatic rifles, were still nearly ten minutes out. Chanyeol knew he should wait for them to arrive, but he couldn’t. Ten minutes could mean the difference between life and death for Baekhyun.

Leaving Seulgi to monitor the transceiver and the most senior patrol officer to direct the SWAT teams when they arrived, he and Sehun moved carefully over the crest of the hill on foot, keeping to the shadows at the side of the road. The school came into view on the riverbank below them, floodlit with pale, harsh industrial lights. The access road was choked with cars. In the yard in front of the building, a gang fight was raging full force. As they ran swiftly closer, the noise reached them - the clanging and thumping of weapons meeting metal or wood or flesh, the animalistic roars that were anger, pain and brutal triumph all rolled into one.

“I’m hearing Baekhyun.” Seulgi’s voice in their earpieces. They took cover behind one of the parked cars as she patched the transmission through.

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun gasped. “I’m at – at a warehouse next to – an empty school – three stories – between a river and a hill. Gang fight at the school – Suho and Chen – bring backup. I’m – I’m hurt -” he broke off into a coughing fit that made Chanyeol go cold with fear, because it sounded like Baekhyun was drowning. That lung’s filling up with blood, Suho’s mocking words came back to him. It'll do the job for me before too long.

"Chanyeol, please hurry." Baekhyun's last whisper was so faint he barely heard it, but it was enough to make Chanyeol's heart feel like it would break. I'm coming, Baekhyun. Just hold on a little longer.

“Over there,” Sehun said, pointing. The hillside was covered with trees, and through them they could just see the buildings Baekhyun was talking about. They slipped across the road and crept along the side of the hill, keeping parallel to the school building to avoid the gang fight that was still ongoing. It was nearly pitch black under the tree cover. Through the branches on their left-hand side they could see glimpses of the lit-up school, and the hill rose steeply on their right. O