“Okay Yeri, do you hear any chatter on their frequencies?” Irene paced back and forth across the floor of their hideout, waiting for Yeri to respond. How they executed this next part of the plan all depended on how the security guards reacted to their initial intrusion.

“No, why?” Yeri replied, swiping through the different feeds on her monitor. The guards on duty were just standing around and watching the building’s panels and monitors. They had yet to catch on that Yeri had hijacked their feed and taken over control of their elevators.

“There’s eight listed on the duty roster, there’s only four at the guard post.” Irene looked at the illegally obtained copy of JYP’s security schedule she’d gotten courtesy of Kim Seokjin.

Back in the electrical room Yeri huffed in frustration. All the security guards looked similar, with the same navy-blue suits and bulletproof vests. “I can’t even tell how many guys are in the room, how can you tell who’s who?”

“Haircuts, Yeri. Count the haircuts,” Irene said.

There was a pause on the other end of the comm and then a small, “I would have missed that…”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

A few floors below Yeri, Wendy and Seulgi were busy trying to break into the secure server room. Wendy inserted a ghost key into the locked door and ran a program that would find the correct passcode to open it.

Seulgi put a finger to her ear. If something went awry it was her job to protect Wendy. “Is there a problem?”

Irene tilted her head. “Uh, maybe. Run the cameras again, Yeri.”

Wendy meanwhile was slowly but surely running through the possible passwords. “Ten-digit password? I salute you sir, but nothing can get past the great Son Seungwan.”

Yeri scrolled through the camera feeds again until she found the missing guards. “Got them, they’re doing their walkthrough an hour early what the f—”

“Language!” Irene scolded the maknae. “It’s because of the playoffs.”

Yeri zoomed in on the guard room feed and found a small television screen showing a baseball game. “Impressive. How’d you guess that one?”

“It’s game five of the playoffs, they’re doing their rounds an hour earlier than usual so they can watch it.” Irene left the explanation at that. The other girls didn’t need to hear her talking about how her wife used to religiously watch every single playoff game of the season. “Find them, Yeri.”

A second later Yeri replied, “They’re at the stairwell.”

Irene stifled a curse and turned back to look at the projected image of the building’s blueprint. They were heading straight for where Wendy and Seulgi had gotten off the elevator, there was no way they’d be able to ignore an open door. She had to adjust her plan, make sure they didn’t catch wind of the greater operation.

“Okay guys here’s what we have to do. We have to squelch them. Keep them from contacting the other guards otherwise this whole plan is blown.”

Yeri nodded and pressed a series of keys on her laptop, sending a high-pitched ringing sound into the guard’s comm frequency. Now anyone who tried to use their radios would get an unpleasant surprise. She giggled when one of the guards tried using his radio only to jerk his head back, startled by the sound.

Irene sighed. That was one problem solved. Problems like this were bound to come up, but it moved their timetable and she’d rather not leave the success of this plan to fate. “Seulgi, what I want you to do is clear the zone.”

“Affirmative.”

“Oh and use Wendy as bait.”

Seulgi smiled, shrugging off her jacket, handing it to Wendy and disappearing around the corner of the hallway.

“Use Wendy as what now? Hold up, this wasn’t part of the plan. I have not consented to being the bait.” Wendy tapped the password device impatiently. She really didn’t want to have to be the distraction. “Come on baby, work for me.”

There was still one hallway between Seulgi, Wendy and the rapidly approaching guards but they were still on track to collide. One of the guards tried contacting the tower again. “Base come in, does anyone copy?”

All they heard was an infernal high-pitched ringing.

Yeri was watching the whole thing on her cameras. “Wendy-unnie be careful they’re almost there.”

Wendy’s password cracker had managed to find six of the ten digits but she knew it wouldn’t finish solving the code before she was caught. She turned to leave, grabbing her bag with a muttered, “Forget this.”

She didn’t make it more than a few feet before the guards found her. They surrounded her, pointing their weapons at her face and yelling at her to stand down. Wendy raised her hands over her head, dropping the bag of gear she was carrying just as Seulgi appeared behind the guards.

By the time the bag hit the ground, Seulgi was the only one left standing, holding one of the security guard’s guns in her hand. She emptied it nonchalantly, smirking at Wendy, whose mouth had dropped open. She’d knocked out the entire security team in seconds.

“You asked me earlier what I do, Wendy?” Seulgi tossed the gun away. “Well now you know.”

She brushed past the hacker and Wendy leaned down to pick up her bag, now thoroughly scared for her life. Behind her the password device beeped and the door to the server room unlocked. “Note to self: do not antagonize the murder bear.”

XXX

Across the street, Irene was growing frustrated. “Guys, guys you need to be talking with me okay? Because I don’t know what’s going on and I can’t help you if I’m blind.”

“It’s all good,” Wendy piped up. She was working on one of the R&D terminals to strip the drives of data while Seulgi tied up the unconscious security guards, but not before relieving them of their weapons and radios. “Plugging in the flash drive now, it should only take a couple more minutes.”

“Good.” Irene was glad at least someone was trying to keep her in the loop. Just because they’d managed to break in didn’t mean it was a guarantee they’d be able to get back out. “The backups too, right?”

“Yup. Let’s go, Seul. I’ve taken everything we need.” Wendy grabbed the flash drive full of confidential files.

Irene smiled, marking off the second part of their plan. Infiltration complete. Theft complete. All that remained was the getaway. “Drop the spike, Wendy.”

The younger woman nodded, injecting a series of malicious code into the server’s mainframe. This would ensure that their tracks would be covered, at least digitally. The unconscious bodies were another matter. A second later the terminal flashed a tell-tale blue. Sometimes all you needed was a good old blue screen of death.

Seulgi peered over her shoulder at the malfunctioning monitor. She didn’t know much about computers but she knew Wendy was one of the best. “Did you give them a virus or something?”

Wendy chuckled. “Dude I gave them all the viruses.”

They exited into the hallway again but their victory was short lived when Yeri’s worried voice floated into their comms. “Guys? Problem. Those guards you ganked? They reset all the alarms on the roof and all the floors above us. We can’t go up.”

Seulgi shrugged and began to move away, “Welp, every woman for herself then.”

“Go ahead, I’m the one with the merchandise,” Wendy waved around the little flash drive to taunt the hitter.

“Yeah, well I’m the one with the exit,” Yeri chimed in.

“And I’m the one with a plan,” Irene cut in. My god, they were all so childish and quick to fall apart at the first sign of trouble. “Now I know you children don’t play well with others but I need you to hold it together for exactly seven more minutes.”

The comms were silent, which Irene took as a cue to continue. “Now get to the elevator and head down, We’re going to the burn scam.”

A series of acknowledgements came through the comms and Irene turned around to begin packing up her things. This unexpected snag played havoc with her plans but luckily for them Irene never went into battle with less than two dozen potential backup plans.

Seulgi and Wendy entered one of the elevators and hurriedly began changing their clothes as they began their descent. The burn scam required many things, the first of which was for them not to look like thieves.

In any other situation Wendy would probably have been very put off by the fact that she was getting undressed mere feet from a world-renowned assassin but she managed to stay professional. Irene asked them to hold it together for seven minutes, she could do that. Of course once that time ran out… “Going to plan B, huh Irene?”

Irene paused, halfway through gathering up her things. “Technically that would be Plan G.”

The elevator doors dinged and Yeri ran in as the two older women finished putting on their blouses and tying up their hair. The maknae nonchalantly took off her top and reached down to grab her own set of business wear. Seulgi and Wendy politely looked away.

“How many plans do we have?” Wendy asked as she used the elevator’s reflective paneling to put on some lipstick. “Is there like a plan M?”

Irene dismantled the projector and stuffed it in her duffel bag, making sure to gather up all the papers Seokjin had given her before responding. “Yeah, you die in Plan M.”

Seulgi tilted her head, “I like Plan M.”

As they approached the lobby the three women put the finishing touches on their outfits. Seulgi kneeled down to put a brace on Yeri’s leg while Wendy took out a makeup kit to put fake burns on the blonde’s face. Yeri fidgeted, the unfamiliar weight of the makeup prosthetics making her nose itch.

“Stay still, I’ve almost got it.”

The guards at the front lobby had caught on to the unauthorized descent and were now walking to the elevator, hands placed cautiously on their guns.

The elevator dinged and Yeri was the first one out, fake burns fully on display, using a cane to limp slowly into the lobby, helped from behind by Wendy. Seulgi followed behind them, carrying both of their purses. Their acting skills would determine if the plan succeeded or failed.

The guard covered his gun and stared at Yeri as the three of them moved towards the exit and towards freedom.

“Oh nice,” Seulgi snapped, berating the guard. “Why don’t you stare a little more, huh?”

“Sorry,” he apologized quickly.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Seulgi huffed, placing a comforting hand on Yeri’s shoulder.

“No, Seojin, it’s okay,” Yeri sniffed audibly, acting as if she was used to the staring. She turned her face slightly away from the guard so he wouldn’t look too closely at the burns on her face and notice that they were fake.

“It’s not okay,” Wendy insisted, glaring daggers at the guard who apologized over and over for his rudeness.” Tears ran down Yeri’s face and the guard rushed to open the door for the three women.

Irene pulled up to the curb of the building and looked through the glass windows into the lobby. The guard had completely fallen for the burn scam. Embarrassment could go a long way in covering up a minor indiscretion.

The team left the JYP building, gradually dropping their act as they headed for the car Irene was driving. Yeri tossed her cane to Wendy, who caught it with one hand and folded it up. They all climb in the car and Irene drove off, letting out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

They did it. They successfully stole Seokjin’s airplane designs. Now all they had to do was send the plans to Seokjin.

Twenty minutes later the four of them were standing in a public park, watching Wendy as she worked on a small laptop.

“Come on Wendy, this is taking all night,” Seulgi complained.

“Hold on, will you? I’m working with a couple of Wi-Fi networks that have crappy bandwidth.” The hacker tapped a few more keys and held the laptop up triumphantly. She showed the screen to the others. “There you go. The designs are sent!”   

Irene nodded, pleased with the work they’d managed to do, especially for a team infamous for not working well with others. Sure, there’d been a few snags along the way but it had all worked out. And now they were about to get a whole lot richer. “Good work, ladies. The money will be in all your accounts later tonight.”

Wendy shut down her laptop and stuffed it in her bag. “Anybody else notice how hard we rocked it tonight?”

Seulgi huffed. “Yeah, well this was one show only. No encores.”

“I’ve already forgotten your names,” Yeri said.

“It was kind of cool, being on the same side,” Wendy admitted. None of them would have been able to pull off tonight’s theft alone, it took them all working together to steal the plans.

Irene laughed, “We are not on the same side. Unlike you three, I do not have a criminal record.”

Yeri waggled her eyebrows at Irene, “You are now, unnie. Come on, tell the truth. You totally had fun playing the Black Knight instead of the White Knight, didn’t you?”

Irene didn’t dignify that with an answer and without any further talking the four of them split off in separate directions.

She had enjoyed working with them, for the most part. But this was a one-time job and no matter how much she liked being back in the field again it was over. Her heart felt full for once as she walked back to her hotel, knowing that she’d done her part to avenge her wife.

XXX

Of course, one victory didn’t necessarily mean the entire job was done.

The next day Irene was back in her hotel room, still in bed despite the mid-morning hour. Little empty liquor bottles littered the nightstand. After the four of them had sent the plans to Seokjin they had parted ways, promising to never look each other up again. With the money they were about to receive they could hide away comfortably. And Irene had maybe gone a little overboard with the celebratory drinks.  

Which was why Irene was confused when her phone began to buzz, the caller ID showing up as Kim Seokjin. She fumbled for her phone, knocking over a few bottles in the process. “Yeah?”

On the other end of the line, Kim Seokjin walked into the BigHit office, looking absolutely furious. “You screwed me! The designs never got to me.”

Irene furrowed her brows in confusion. “No, I watched them go out.”

Seokjin entered his office and put the phone closer to his ear. He couldn’t have the wrong person coming in to hear him talking about stolen plans.

He hissed, “I don’t know what you saw but I received nothing.  

Irene sighed. She empathized with Seokjin, she really did. But the fact was he’d hired a group of criminals to steal his plans, did he really expect them to cooperate completely? “Look, I told you, you couldn’t trust them.”

But Seokjin wasn’t taking this well. “It is not my job to trust anybody, that’s what you were there for, Joohyun. You know what, I’m freezing the payments, I’m freezing all of the payments.”

That made Irene sit up, hangover forgotten. The loss of money was devastating but at the moment she was more worried about the others. If Seokjin froze their payments he’d have three of the world’s foremost criminals coming after him. What was he playing at, this was more dangerous than a simple work transaction. She needed to fix this. “All right, look. I will come over there right now and we’ll straighten this out.”

“No, no, no. Do not come here. My company has an old aircraft facility outside the city and I will text you the address. Be there. One hour.”

Seokjin hung up the phone abruptly, sitting in his chair and sipping his coffee. For someone who had been spitting threats at Irene only a minute earlier, he looked suspiciously calm.

Back at the hotel, Irene slowly put down her phone, her brain going into overdrive. Something about this didn’t seem quite right.