“I think his hair was a bit more wavy than that,” Baekhyun said, frowning at the composite sketch up on the projector screen.

“No, it wasn’t wavy," Chanyeol said. “It was messy, matted. Like something got in it and dried.”

“Wavy like this,” the artist asked, making a few quick motions with her stylus and adjusting the image on the screen, “or messy like this?” She undid the previous motion, then added some cross-hatching that gave the impression of matted hair.

“Yes,” “No,” Chanyeol and Baekhyun said at the same time, and exchanged a frustrated glance. They were trying to create a composite sketch of the man called Chen, but they’d only gotten a brief glimpse of his profile from way across the carpark, and the details were proving tricky.

“Maybe a bit of both?” the artist suggested. She added some squiggly lines across the forehead of the face, giving the impression of a curly fringe.

“No, I'm sure his hair was straight,” Chanyeol said. The artist went to undo the motion, but Baekhyun leaned forward suddenly.

“Hang on. Leave it like that for a moment.”

The artist did as he asked. Chanyeol looked at his partner. Baekhyun was staring intently at the composite sketch.

“What is it?”

“He looks familiar,” Baekhyun said slowly. “I agree that his hair is straighter than that, but with the curls…he reminds me of someone now.”

“Who?”

“I can’t remember.” Baekhyun looked frustrated.

“It could just be the composite,” Chanyeol pointed out. “We didn’t get a clear view of his face. All the features are going to be a bit generic.”

“True,” said Baekhyun, but he didn’t look convinced. “I’ll think about it. It’ll come to me.”

“Chanyeol?" Sehun's voice made them look up as the younger officer appeared at the doorway. “A guy’s just been brought in, caught in possession of powdered meth.”

Chanyeol jumped to his feet and followed Sehun out, while Baekhyun instructed the artist to save both versions of the composite.

“How are we doing with Bakwi’s data?” Chanyeol asked Sehun. “Anything useful come out yet?”

Sehun sighed. “It’s just lists of paper companies. Maybe enough to investigate him for money laundering, but nothing specific about the gang or the drug deals. He keeps saying he doesn’t know any names, that Chen’s holding all the strings.”

“Bull." Baekhyun had caught up. “Even if Chen is at the top, Bakwi’s not far below him. He knows at least some names.”

“You’re welcome to try and get something useful out of him,” Sehun said wearily. “He knows exactly how much he can get away with. Three days we’ve had him, and he’s not budging an inch. The prosecution is getting sniffy.”

“Sniffy how?” Chanyeol asked.

“Prosecutor Yang called earlier. He told Seulgi that if we couldn’t prove Bakwi’s connection to the syndicate by tomorrow morning, they’ll take the case over and investigate for money laundering.”

“So basically he’ll be home free,” Baekhyun said, scowling.

Chanyeol knew Baekhyun was right. He’d come across the prosecutor several times in the past few years and knew how he operated. Yang wouldn’t care what Bakwi was up to. He’d look at the data, see there was barely enough even for a money laundering case, and let him go. His thoughts went to his father then. As chief prosecutor, his father could order Yang to investigate properly, but Chanyeol could not – no, would not – ask his father to intervene. He would not break his silence to beg for help on a case.

Not even for this? a small voice inside him asked. If you lose Bakwi, you lose your only lead.

They arrived at the interrogation room, and Chanyeol realised that he’d unconsciously balled his fists. With some effort he forced himself to relax. He’d clenched them so tight that he’d left dark, crescent-shaped grooves in his palms.

He took a seat at the interrogation table next to Baekhyun and eyed the young man on the other side. He was cringing away from them, eyes wide as he looked from Chanyeol to Baekhyun. He hadn’t been handcuffed, as he’d not been violent and had come willingly with the officers who’d caught him. With a slender build and delicate features, Chanyeol thought he looked about 16 at the most, but his ID correlated with his claim that he was 24 years old.

“Lu Han,” Baekhyun said, reading the name off the report Sehun had handed him. “You're known as Luhan, correct?" A nod. "You were born in China. How long have you been in Korea?”

“Ten years,” Luhan answered. His voice was audibly shaking.

“Where did you get this?” Baekhyun gestured towards the clear plastic packet of white powder sitting on the table between them.

“I was walking home from work when three guys grabbed me and pulled me off the street,” Luhan said. “They took my phone and gave that stuff,” he nodded at the packet, “to me, and told me where to take it. They said they’d be following me to make sure I delivered it properly, and if I tried to run away, they’d kill me.” Tears welled up in his eyes and spilled over to drip down his face. “They had knives. I believed them.”

“What did they look like?”

“I don’t know. They were wearing masks. They were big, though. Much bigger than me.”

“What happened next?”

“I did what they said, of course.” Luhan dragged his sleeve across his face. “I went to the club they told me to, but as soon as I got inside, I got caught by you guys.”

“Donghae and Hyukjae have been doing random drug checks at nightclubs,” Baekhyun murmured to Chanyeol. “They spotted him immediately because he was shaking like a leaf.”

Chanyeol sighed. This had all the signs of a classic case of forced drug transportation. Targeting vulnerable people, usually young teens, to handle drugs for them took away the risk of the actual syndicate members getting caught with drugs themselves. Luhan was older than the usual target, but he both looked and behaved so much younger than his age that it was easy to see how the dealers had mistaken him for a teenager.

The buzzing noise of a phone vibrating made Luhan start violently. His eyes darted to the plastic tray on the table that contained the items he'd been carrying – a wallet, a cheap burner cellphone, and the sachet of meth. He’d also been wearing a square, reinforced backpack, which he claimed had been given to him by the men who had caught him, but this had been taken straight to evidence. It contained three kilograms of white powder packaged neatly into thirty 100-gram bags of powder. If they were all indeed methamphetamine, just one of those 100-gram bags would be worth well over a million won.

“T-that’s the phone they gave me,” Luhan gasped. “They said the guy I’m supposed to give the drugs to would call.”

“Answer it,” Chanyeol told him, but Luhan flinched back as if the phone was about to leap up and bite him, shaking his head wildly.

“I’ll do it,” Baekhyun said. Chanyeol nodded and put his finger to his lips, looking warningly at Luhan. The young man covered his mouth with both his hands and nodded, eyes huge. Baekhyun answered the call and pressed the speaker button.

“Hello?”

“Have you got the delivery?” The voice was being routed through a voice modifier, eerily distorting the sound and making it impossible to identify by voice analysis.

“Yes,” Baekhyun said. He spoke hesitantly, as if afraid. “W-what should I do with it?”

“Where are you?”

“Still on my way to the club,” Baekhyun said.

“Don’t come yet. We think the cops are there. We’re arranging another meeting point. Go somewhere safe and wait for me to call you back.”

“O-okay,” Baekhyun quavered, his eyes meeting Chanyeol’s. Chanyeol made a “keep going” gesture. They needed to get as much information about these people as they could.

“How will I know who to give it to?" Baekhyun continued. "Can I tell them your name?”

“Just go to the place I tell you and someone will approach you. You’ll know.”

Baekhyun opened his mouth to try something else, but the caller hung up, and the line went dead.

“Look,” Baekhyun said, holding out the phone to show Chanyeol the screen. The number had been saved under the name Chen.

“Any more contacts on that?” Chanyeol asked. Baekhyun pressed some buttons and shook his head.

“That’s the only one. Nothing in the call logs either.”

They left Luhan in the interrogation room and joined Sehun and Seulgi on the other side of the mirrored window.

“This is a of luck,” Seulgi remarked.

“I’m not so sure,” Chanyeol said slowly. Something about the whole thing seemed off, and he tried to put his finger on why. “Don’t you guys think this is all a bit convenient? First Bakwi decides to tell us Chen’s behind everything, and three days later we get a line straight to the man himself?”

“You’re thinking it’s a setup?”

“Something has to be off. It doesn’t make sense to give three kilos of meth to a completely untested kid. Why put so many eggs in one basket? It’s worth an insane amount of money.”

“Which makes it a bloody expensive setup, if it is one,” Sehun pointed out. “I can’t imagine the gang parting with that much income voluntarily.”

There was a pause while they all considered this.

“We’re going to follow up though, right?” Baekhyun said eventually. He jerked his head towards the window. “We send him in to complete the drop, we get a chance to catch the buyer. With it worth that much, we might get lucky. Chen himself might show up.”

“But if it’s a setup, that kid is probably in on it.” Sehun cast his eyes towards the mirrored window. The others followed his look. Inside the interrogation room, Luhan had pulled his feet up onto the chair, wrapped his arms around his face and buried his face in his knees.

“If there’s a chance he’s involved, can we risk sending him in?” Seulgi asked. “We have no idea what their game is.”

There was a short silence while they watched the pitiful figure in the room. Then Baekhyun spoke.

“I’ll do it.”

Chanyeol stared at him. “What?”

“I’ll go undercover. I’ll pretend to be Luhan. Chanyeol, it’s the perfect opportunity for a sting! If Chen himself isn’t there, I’ll say he instructed me over the phone to give the delivery directly to him. We can draw him out of the shadows and trap him.”

“No way,” Chanyeol snapped. His heart was suddenly pounding, the rhythm loud in his ears. “If your cover gets blown, they’ll kill you. Don’t you remember what they did to Officer Ji?”

“I won’t get caught,” Baekhyun said, looking indignant at the mere suggestion. “And even if something does go wrong, you know how good I am at fighting and self-defence. I can handle it. Chanyeol, this is our chance! We have to take it!”

“Then I’ll go,” Chanyeol said desperately. “I’m the squad leader, so –"

“Won’t work,” Seulgi said matter-of-fa