Head of Intelligence Office, Core facility, Blackjack HQ

"The renegade has made his move…,” TOP reported, casually throwing the folder onto the table.

Maps, datasheets and photographs scattered across the table from inside. BoA nodded quietly as her second-in-command continued his report, as she was deep in thought.

Only 1 of them? You’re joking…

The renegades have been tracking the subjects’ every move since their mysterious disappearance five years ago. What exactly did they find during their last assignment? Why did they go AWOL? What happened afterwards? Those were questions even an elite intelligence officer such as TOP couldn’t answer.

"He has eliminated the recon group that we sent out. We’ve to reach the last subject before they do."

Details of the subjects that had been secured are flashed on the screen before her. Eight young women in their mid-twenties, all of them the best in their field –  Detectives, expert marksmen, master assassins, elite surgeons, world-class burglars, precision drivers, SWAT team snipers and messengers.

Training this rag-tag bunch to form Team Zero?

BoA slowly laid out their files on the desk, the satin finished aluminum appearing almost white in the harsh room lighting. The remaining subject is just as precious as the other eight; they are incomplete without each other. She had to make sure that they are kept out of harm’s way before they are ready to take on the renegades.

"It could only be him. Only he could have known the exact location of the remaining subject,” BoA mumbled under her breath. The renegade held key information regarding the project, from its history to the distribution of subjects throughout the world. He had not only been one of the greatest operatives to ever serve in the blackjack, but also a brilliant scientist in his own right.

"You said something?" TOP cocked his eyebrow, slightly concerned about the petite lady.

"Oh no... Its nothing." BoA tuned her mind out of TOP's long drawl about the suspects, as she already had an idea of who he could be.

"The most likely suspects are-"

"Stop...Let’s take a break, shall we?" TOP stopped just as he was about to get to the juicy parts of the briefing, bewildered by her sudden change in attitude. Sensing her lack of focus on his presentation, TOP reluctantly called off the meeting, informing her that he would place a detailed report of the slides on her desk in an hour.

"Thank you for the report, TOP. I really need a break right now."

TOP acknowledged with a nod, before BoA closed the door to the Intelligence Officer's office. Her mind was swimming with thoughts and memories from her days as a field operator, a violent past stained with blood, sweat and tears. Out of the many rust-red images of her past, a vividly colored picture came into view. It was one with six teenagers, four boys breaking into a laughing fit while a sleeping young woman was having toothpaste and wasabi smeared onto her face by a handsome fellow, grinning proudly at the victim of his prank.

BoA smiled as she thought of the boy. How she used to run around calling him 'Oppa', ignoring his rank. How she used to confide in him for all the difficulties she had met in training. How she completed her first mission with him as an observer. How she used to write letters to him, after he had been posted out of HQ. How hard she had cried when he had been labeled as a renegade.

But why... Hero... why...

BoA dabbed a tear out of the corner of her eyes as she reached her quarters, a simple room with a poster bed at the furthest corner and a tall gun safe at the foot of the bed. She sat down at the foot of the bed, picking up the photo on the side table. It was a picture of the same five boys from her memories, their names smudged by water.

U-know Yunho. Xiah Junsu. Mickey Yoochun. Max Changmin. Hero Jaejoong.

BoA choked as she forcefully held back her tears, putting the photo face down on her bed. She had yet to tell him how she had felt for him, since the day they were introduced to each other. And now they were on opposing ends. It seems destined that she wouldn't be able to communicate her affection for him after all.

 “The 5 top aces of Blackjack, the pioneers, the renegades – The original Team Zero: Dong Bang Shin Ki”

---

National Cyber Security Centre, Seoul, South Korea

“Seohyun ah! It’s time for break!”

Seohyun was ready to have her break when a familiar instant messaging window popped up. It was that person again, an anonymous one that had appeared on her instant messenger ever since she had started working in this agency.

***
D33p3r_blu3 : Hello.

***

Seohyun hadn't thought too much about this mysterious stranger, thinking that he was one of her colleagues that was too shy to talk to her. It wasn’t often that she had come into contact with boys, as she had studied in an all-female environment up till college, much attributed to her over-protective parents. It was rare for a lady to choose to be in the field of computer science, much less so for a musically talented one.

“Please go ahead without me! I’ll be joining the rest in a while.”

“Alright, we’ll go ahead first!”

Seohyun returned to her terminal, reopening the encrypted connection to the internet. It didn’t take too long for the stranger to send another message. The stranger seemed to know what she did at any point in time, which gave her an even stronger impression that he was one of the people in the office.

***

D33p3r_blu3: Are you there?

Sw33t_g0gum@: Hi! Yes, I am.

***

But what she didn't know was that her every move was being watched, since her arrival at the agency six months ago. Detailed reports of her daily life were kept in organised files, ready to be refered to by the very person that she was talking to ... at another corner of Seoul.

***

D33p3r_blu3: Didn't you go for lunch with Mr Lee and the rest of the office?

Sw33t_g0gum@: I was about to… until you showed up (T-T)

D33p3r_blu3: Sorry about that! I was about to have my lunch too. Why don’t you join me ;-)

Sw33t_g0gum@: Sure!

D33p3r_blu3: Let's meet at lift lobby D. I’ll be wearing a blue shirt with gray cardigan. I’ll call when I see you.

Sw33t_g0gum@: Alright, See you in 10 minutes!

***

“BoA, delayed infiltration program has been set. 10 minutes to contact with target.”

The operator had nuked all data on the laptop, preparing for disposal. Nothing would be left behind for others to trace the perpetrators; everything that they owned and issued had been completely stripped of any possible identification numbers. Their personal files have been erased from the governmental archives, their existences completely removed from the world except for the ones that were authorized. This was of no issue to him; not for one who had no memories of himself or anything that had occurred before he was 12 years old.

“Take note, we expect the renegades to be tracking the subject. Do exercise caution.”

“I understand. I will see you back with the subject in a while.”

---

“Finally, I get to meet him..."

Seohyun started to wonder what kind of person he was. A suave gentleman? A workaholic? A geek? Her mind cycled through numerous imageries, unconsciously smiling to herself. It was fun trying to imagine what the mysterious colleague would look like.

Seohyun removed her necklace, which doubled as a USB flash drive, from her terminal. This was a security measure that the agency had implemented, using a series of hardware encryption chips and codes that she had designed herself. The result was a robust security system that had since resisted multiple attempts of account hijacking from North Korean intelligence networks.

The young security analyst had her necklace tucked inside her blouse, checking that her terminal was secure before leaving for her break. The biometric lock beeping and the metallic snap of electromagnetic closures activating were all indications of physical security in the premises. Seohyun left for the meeting place with a slight spring in her step, ready to meet a new, supposed, friend.

---

The mechanical whirl of cooling fans and hard disks, along with the cold, dry air of the air-conditioner combined to give the underground server rooms an ominous presence that made people turn away from the place. It didn’t help that the server used to be a bunker that was rumored to be haunted by spirits of soldiers that had been tortured and killed during the Korean War.

The maintenance terminal of rack 11C flickered to life, booting into the screen of the NCSC. The barely audible whirl of fans and hard disks grew louder as a barrage of commands started scrolling on the screen...

# DECRYPTING DATA STREAM

# INITIALISING STAGE 1 SECURITY COUNTERMEASURE

# INITIALISING VOLCORE TUNNELLER

# INITIALISING STAGE 2 SECURITY COUNTERMEASURE

# STAGE 1 COUNTERMEASURE ACTIVE

# STAGE 2 COUNTERMEASURE ACTIVE

# TUNNELLING COMPLETE. SESSION READY.

# SECURE CONNECTION OPEN. PENDING ID & PASSWORD

@ ID : D33p3r_blu3

@ PASSWORD: *************

# LOGIN CONFIRMED. PLEASE ENTER OTP

@ OTP: *************

# LOGIN SUCCESSFUL. BLACKJACK VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT LOADED.

# CAUTION! INFILTRATION SEQUENCE STARTED! 13%

After exactly 61 seconds, the screen had changed from the usual blue and gold interface of the NCSC to the graphite and red of the Blackjack Network. Every piece of data and information created by the subject was collected from the attacked servers, eliminating all traces of his or her existence from the internet. The ‘Vegas’ – A highly advanced network of specialized computers, high security servers and encrypted connections, scoured through the internet for data removal with little human intervention and at exceptional speeds.

# SEQUENCE COMPLETE. LOGOUT CONFIRMED.

# NO TRACES DETECTED. DISCONNECTING VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT.

# RESTORING CLIENT CONNECTION.

# CLOSING BACKDOOR.

The maintenance terminal rebooted itself after the forced entry, whizzing by as though nothing had happened. The only sign that anyone would ever notice was a new “Scheduled System Backup” entry in the terminal’s record. No one would realize that this employee had ever existed in the system; it would only live on in peoples’ memories, and that was much simpler to take care of.

---

"Hi! You're Seohyun?"

A man's voice came from Seohyun's left as she exited from the elevator. He was wearing a tailored pastel blue shirt under a gray cardigan of fine wool, his hand carrying a leather riding jacket. He seemed to fit the description of the person she was meeting. Her face glowed a peachy hue and her heart throbbed faster than usual just by hearing his voice.

Is this what it feels like when going on a date?

"He- Hello. You must be deeper-blue, right?" Seohyun stuttered, her apparent nervousness getting a hold of her.

"Yes, I am. But please call me Yonghwa. Jung Yonghwa." Yonghwa bowed slightly, extending his hand for a friendly handshake, which Seohyun returned without hesitation.

He was lean and well-toned, with bright, playful eyes that seemed ever ready for fun and excitement. His fingers were long and calloused, and an array of thin, barely visible scars lined the back of his neck. Seohyun was always intrigued by him, how he seemed to know what she’s doing and how she felt when she didn’t recall having seen him in the agency before.

Looks like we’re spiritually connected to each other, was his usual reply, shaking it off with a laugh.

“So, Yonghwa, where are we going?"

Yonghwa took a keyfob out of his pocket, waving it as the pair got closer to a white BMW M3 parked in the executive lot. The engine awaken from its slumber as they came near, the instruments lit up and the car automatically set itself up in the manner that Yonghwa liked the most.

“It’s a surprise…”

Somehow, Seohyun felt something eerily strange about Yonghwa’s last few words as they began to drive towards the unnamed destination.

---

"Looks like they're getting serious...,” the observer commented, his eyes focused on the digital feed from his binoculars. The digital AR overlay transmitted real time information bidirectionally from their command network to the operator on the ground, giving them detailed information that was suited to their respective needs.

"They seem to have absorbed some new operators. I will need data of this fella ASAP."

"Got it. Give it a minute for the file to be transmitted," his counterpart replied over the radio.

The observer continued to watch the feed, waiting for data to be streamed through the bino, his right hand gripped the body of his sniper rifle - a Finnish made SAKO TRG-22, chambered for the 7.62mm NATO - perfect for mid-long range confrontations.

"Max Changmin locked and loaded. Ready to engage hostiles before they go under."

The observer waited for the reply patiently, carefully timing each of his breaths and heartbeat. Enduring patience and the ability to keep his cool in the most extreme heat of battle had enabled him to survive till this day. He was supposed to retreive Seohyun just before she left the building, but it seemed as though Blackjack had anticipated their move and had sent a formidable guardian to her.

"Alright, Changmin. That fella out there is a familiar face. Jung Yonghwa, remember?"

Changmin recalled the inhumane and torturous tactical training that he had put the new recruits through, gradually sieving out the weak. Those who left the course midway were either moderately injured at one end of the spectrum or had gone completely insane on the other. Eventually, only those whom even the grim reaper had forsaken stayed, the very essence of human tenacity keeping them alive and sane, but just barely.

Jung Yonghwa, Ultra-marine, Project : Deeper BLUE.

Yonghwa was an extremely memorable recruit, being one of the finest in both intellectual and physical prowess in any batch that they had trained. He had helped develop the systems that eventually lead to the discovery of the nine, and exposing the true motive of Blackjack.

 "What the **** had they done to him after our assignment...,” Changmin cussed as he dialed up the magnification even further, using his electronic binoculars as an auxilliary scope, finally noticing the numerous faint scars on the back of his neck.

"What have we done..."

---

Seohyun sat quietly beside Yonghwa, the air in the car seeming thick with awkwardness. Their usual chatter in the IM chatbox was almost non-existent; it was almost as if the person sitting beside her was another entity altogether.

"So...Yonghwa...Where are we going now?" Seohyun asked yet again, looking out into the streets that faded into a blur from speed. They seemed to be heading out of the administrative district and towards the outskirts of Seoul. She watched as they sped past Namsan Tower, towards a location yet unknown. She noticed the chill on the back of her neck, skin prickling with uneasiness, hands damp with perspiration of fear.

"Don't worry. You can relax now,” Yonghwa broke the silence, startling the woman.

"I know there are a lot of questions in your mind now, but please be assured that they will be answered shortly. There is a package for you under your seat. Take it, read it through and destroy it afterward."

Seohyun stole a glance at him before following his instructions, reaching down underneath her seat and felt the coarseness of rough paper. It was there as described by Yonghwa, a yellow manilla envelope the size of a large paperback.

"Who are you...really...," Seohyun asked, her usual cool lost, replaced by a hint of fear and uncertainty.

"Like I said... My name is Jung Yonghwa, Ace of Clubs. Callsign Ultramarine."

"Wait...Wait...Hold on there...What 'Ace of Clubs'? What 'Callsign'? I don't get you."

"Do you still not understand? You've been drafted into Blackjack..."

---

Medical Wing, Core facility, Blackjack HQ

"Why did you leave me..."

Jessica said coldly, her fury smouldering under the cold facade she puts on. She buttons up her blouse, promptly checking her body for any bruises or injuries, of which there is none. The room was dominated by items with various tints and shades of pink - pink wallpaper, pink bookcovers, pink stationery, and even custom pink instruments. There is only one person she knows that has such a ersion for the soft, pastel color...

"Tiffany..."

The woman gulped, swallowing the knot in before she turned around, her heart half expecting the rage-filled princess that she would be. Instead, she felt Jessica hugging her from behind, her cheek pressed on to her shoulder. A warmth she had yet felt for a long time enveloped her heart, slowly bringing back her past days with Jessica. Their secret rendezvous in the school library, sweet escapades at the ice cream parlour and sinful gossiping in her bedroom.

"Look at me in the eyes like you used to... please..."

Tiffany's heart melted at her former lover's plea. She knew she should not have fallen for Jessica back then, or worst, make love to the subject she was assigned to find and protect. Everything just seems so right, so beautiful that it just happened - A lonely night in the library with the foxy brunette is just too much for the younger Tiffany to bear.

"Jessi, I-"

SLAP

The words had yet to reach Tiffany's lips when she felt the burning sting of Jessica's hand across her face. Her apologies are insignificant and meaningless when compared to the pain and loss that she had left Jessica in, exactly 6 years and 22 days ago.

She stood perfectly still, waiting for another explosion of pain to her cheek that trickles down to her heart, waiting for Jessica to vent all the pent-up anger on her. She felt the gust caused by Jessica's hand moving through the air, anticipating another blow to her face.

---

"Tiffany..."

Jessica couldn't find enough strength or enough reason to strike at Tiffany’s face again; her hands trembling at the thought of hurting the one she love so deeply. Seeing Tiffany hold back her tears forcibly, taking her blows in silence, pained her aching heart. Her hand came to a stop just an inch away from the cheeks that still bear the glowing red imprints of her palm; she realized that she couldn't do it, not on those precious cheeks or any part of her girlfriend's body. Tiffany is meant to be loved and treasured, much like how she loved her family. Jessica cupped her girlfriend’s face, her cool fingers soothing the reddened cheek, tears of guilt and joy smudging her makeup.

"I'm sorry, Tiffany... I shouldn't ha-”

“Shhh… It’s ok… It’s ok…”

She kissed her tears away as though nursing a crying child, depressing to see her lover breakdown into a sobbing pile in her arms. Their lips locked for what seem like hours in the warm embrace, for fear of losing each other again.

"Fany... Don't you ever leave me again... I’ll never forgive you so easily again... ever..."

Tiffany looked into her lover's eyes, she had never been surer than what she was about to say.

"I will never leave you again... I swear..."

---

Jessica had never felt more comforting with Tiffany's face nuzzled in her shoulder, her fingers combing through those silky strands of her girlfriend's. Her plump cheeks still slightly flushed and tender from earlier, but the soreness had since been replaced by a deep sense of contentment.

"Jessi..."

"Hmm?"

She matched her gaze with Tiffany's, who seems to have too much to get off her chest. She waited patiently for her to phrase her words, nodding slowly with encouragement.

"Do you know why you are here?"

Tiffany said, her voice suddenly heavy with burden. She now feels the full weight of the situation on her shoulders, just exactly as her mentor and Jessica's father had said.

Will I be able to see that smile again... after everything you know collapses around you...

His voice played like a broken CD player, repeating those brooding words of his in Tiffany's mind, haunting her again and again, preying on her fears.

"No, I don't. Why?"

"Jessi... What I'm going to tell you next will change your life forever... are you ready?"

Jessica gulped unconsciously, feeling the gravity of Tiffany's solemness sinking into the deepest depths of her gut, pulling her along with it.

---

The sharp odour of anticeptics greeted Yoona as she woke up from her long slumber, her body stiff and sore from the lack of activity. She tried to gather her thoughts in the cloudy mess of a mind, heavily laced with sedatives. She remembered running away from the intercepters sent by the mafia, before they are killed by a strange girl. She mentioned something about a 'package' before they started fighting each other and...

I can't remember anything... Damn it...

A clatter of metal on the floor triggered Yoona's flight instincts, forcing her eyes to slam open, only to see a deep blackness staring right back at her face. A cold realisation quickly came to her as she struggled against her restrains, rolled steel chain links locking her down into the bedframe.

I'm screwed... I'm really screwed...

She tried to scream for help, but it turned out to be a muffled gargle. She heard stories from others about the ordeals of messengers who got intercepted. The amount of torture and humiliation that they were put through, just to extract the locations of their cache. After they had served their purpose, some were killed on the spot, while others were sold to slavery in the black market. Yoona had several close friends who had barely escaped the ordeal alive to tell of the unimaginable, many of them a completely changed person after. Her deepest terrors dug into her again and again, combined with her restrains, gags and blindfold, wore her sanity down to breaking point. She was crying for the first time since she reached adulthood, whimpering like the pathetic girl she used to be.

"Hey! HEY! Are you okay?"

A voice rang from another corner of the room. It was a female, slightly lower in pitch than her voice, heading towards her. Yoona instinctively squirmed and struggled as she felt hands frantically running up and down her body, searching for something.

"Don't worry! You're gonna be fine... Just... Don't flinch so much! You're making it tougher to remove!"

"Hum! Mhng! Fummng!"

"Oh right... I forgot about this... There, feeling better?"

Yoona coughed, choking on a foul mixture of stale saliva and fresh air for the first time since her awakening. Her jaws are aching and throat parched from the gag stuffed into , it took her a while before she could start speaking again.

"I'll never tell you where the cache is... Don't even dream of it..." Yoona whispered her voice raspy and dry.

"I don't know what you're talking about..."

"...then who are you? Who sent you?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about... I don’t know why am I here either... This place just creeps me out..."

The woman seems to be captured like she is, but why would she want to help a complete stranger like her... unless she had some other motives in mind. It was in her nature for her to be suspicious of anyone, that she was not intimately familiar with; She had seen one case too many of betrayals and backstabbing, common in the everchanging world of a messenger.

"Ok! It's done!"

Yoona rubbed her sore skin of her wrists and ankles, more than happy to have the biting restrains removed. A pair of hands slipped off the blindfold covering her eyes, blinding her in the dazzling white and grey of the room, wincing as a thin layer of her retina was burned away by the light. It was a while before Yoona can actually see again, being helped by her savior all along.

"Thanks."

"Why are you here, Yoona?" the honey-skinned woman asked, tying her raven hair back into a loose ponytail.

Yoona felt a certain air of self-confidence and vitality about this woman before her, whose toned body and good looks seemed to be the source, but there seemed to be something more about her that intrigued Yoona, something she could not point a finger to… something distantly familiar…

---

BoA watched the monitors on the desk as the two new subjects stirred from their drug-induced stupor. It had been two days since her prized subjects were rolled into the confinement ward, after treatment from injuries sustained from their retrieval. The robustness of the subject’s enhanced physiology had proven to be far more effective at taking physical abuse and repairing damages than others.

“This is unexpected. Their physiology had developed and adapted to external stimuli far better than the control groups in the labs,” BoA mumbled to herself, looking through the various charts and reports that detail their physical condition and biological processes. The subjects had all received identical augmentations as an embryo, but environmental and other extrinsic factors had brought about distinct adaptations to both physical and mental domains of the subjects.

"That means... they are evolving and are continually doing so... even right now."

---