Chapter 18: 19:59 – A Countdown to First Death [04:01am]
                                 REWIND <<<

“What are you doing?!” the male enforcer snarled. “We’re never supposed to take off our visors, especially not in front of criminals!”

“Shut up,” the woman snapped. “This is my little brother and he is most definitely not a criminal.”

“Ahhh,” the male enforcer grinned. “I see…”

“I’m certain that you do not.”

“Oh but I do,” the grin became cocky. “But you know, as enforcers we can’t let emotions cloud our judgments. And he may be family, but you know rules are rules.”

“Shut up,” the woman said in a voice that was to be reckoned with.

“Ji-su noona!” Changsun pressed himself against the bars almost as if they didn’t exist. He reached out, trying to touch her. “Please listen to me!”

“Shhh my silly little brother,” Ji-su knelt down and put a finger to his lips. His eyes grew wide, starved of love. It had been nearly four years since his sister had joined the enforcers and ever since she had left, they had only received one letters with curt words of  “I’m fine, please do not contact” engraved onto white in black print It had broken his heart.

“I believe you.” And that was all Changsun needed to hear. “I’ll get you out of here.”

“Did you not hear me!” the male enforcer growled, annoyed at being ignored. “Enforcer!”

“How many times do I have to tell you to shut your trap, Kim-ssi.” Her politeness was almost frightening. Enforcer Kim swallowed hard. “I am of a higher rank than you. So shut up and let me deal with this.”

But Enforcer Kim wasn’t one to stand down. “You’re thinking with your heart and not your head.”

“Both can think simultaneous,” she snapped back.

Enforcer Kim shook his head and backed away. “You’re wrong.” And then he was gone.

Ji-su turned back to her little brother, her eyes urgent and her hands gripping his thin jail clothes. “Tell me what happened little brother, tell me everything.”

Changsun nodded and proceeded to tell her the tale of the past few weeks.

***

In a hospital room far away, a monitor beeped.

“Byunghee?” came a fearful whisper from a woman clutching the sleeping patient’s hand. Byunghee’s face was twisted with pain. “Are you awake?”

Byunghee coughed, but the monitor indicated no change – he was dead to the world in sleep. 

***

“I see,” Ji-su bit her bottom lip. A habit Changsun knew she did when she was thinking hard. “I’ll go talk to the higher up officers immediately,” she said and stood up.

“Noona!” Changsun cried. He didn’t want to be left alone again.

“Shhh,” she smiled at her little brother affectionately. “I’ll only be gone for an hour or so. Once I tell them your story, they’ll be better equipped to find evidence for your defense. Everything’s going to be okay Changsun.”

Changsun blinked and nodded, squashing the fear of loneliness down. “Arasso noona…”

“Aww don’t give me that look,” Ji-su tugged his cheeks. “I love you little brother.”

"Hey noona..." Changsun said the words before he could regret it. Ji-su turned and tilted her head. 

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you one thing?"

"Anything little brother."

Changsun opened his mouth, half-hesitant. It was the question that always bugged him, nudged him as he drifted to sleep and haunted him at the dinner table that seated four but was set for three.

"Noona...why did you join the enforcers?"

Her reaction was immediate. Black eyes flew wide open and was working like she was trying to formulate an answer but knew whatever it was, it would not be satisfactory. 

"Later Changsun," she finally said. "First comes first is your clearance. Then..."

"Promise you'll tell me," Changsun's eyes bore into her. He would not accept excuses or running away. "I deserve the truth." 

Ji-su looked deep into them and let out a sigh of defeat. "Yes little brother. I promise."

Then she spun on her heel, briefly bending to snatch her discarded visor and she was gone. Changsun never felt more alone. 

***

In a skyscraper far away, a phone rings. A man taps a button and a visual flickers into the air immediately. The speaker is dressed in military black, the black visor in his hand. His hair is streaked with white. 

"Sir," sculpted words flow through the line. In the skyscraper, a man taps the table with one hand and nods. 

"What is it Enforcer?" he asks in a cold tone. 

"We have an issue on our hands. Something that we could deal with by ourselves but..."

"Speak," snaps the well-dressed man. He wears a blue pinstripe suit today. 

"But it involves the Christmas virus and I believe you requested you be informed of anything to do with the subject."

"I did..." the man replies slowly, mulling something over in his mind. The white-haired enforcer watches nervously. Military is one thing, the government a whole other realm. 

The enforcer continues, "We have detained a man suspected of trafficking the virus. He pleads innocence." The enforcer then waits. 

Finally the governmental man speaks, "Very well. I'll come down personally. Be prepared to recieve me in a hour's time." He flicks off the screen before the enforcer can say any more and spins around in his chair. He clasps his hands tightly together and closes his eyes. 

"I'll save you," he whispers to a photo. It is black and white and faded with time, the edges creased with touch. 

Then he puts away the photo in a drawer, stands up and goes to his wardrobe. There, he pulls out a standard white suit. It gleams against the night skyline of the destitute world he lives in. There are no stars in the sky. The man puts on the suit and quickly leaves, the door shutting quietly behind him. 

***

It had been nearly two hours since Ji-su had gone. Changsun was beginning to worry.

Sudden footsteps alerted him to the return of people. More than one, that much he could tell.

“Sir!” came a frustrated voice. Ji-su’s. “It’s clear he’s innocent!”

“Enough Enforcer Lee,” snapped the voice of an older man. “Be quiet or you will compromise your position. I’ve been thinking of promoting you, but if you continue to speak in that manner, I will rethink my offer."

It was three people however who entered the room where Changsun was jailed. He looked at them. One was his sister, eyes narrowed and cheeks flushed. The man who had spoken back to her was old enough, around fifty with peppered white hair and cold black eyes. From his garments, he seeemed to be of a high position. What he was doing down here Changsun wasn’t sure.

The third man was not an enforcer. He wore the white suit of a government official. Some high class job. Now Changsun was definitely confused as to why a white collar was down here on the mid-levels. He stood slightly back from the other two and surveyed the jail - and Changsun in it - with disdainful eyes from behind his blue shaded sunglasses.

“Sir,” the older enforcer bowed. “This is the criminal caught attempting to transport vials of the Christmas virus.”

The white collar stepped forwards and tugged down his sunglasses. His eyes were cold as ice.

“Did any traces of the virus escape?” he asked, his voice was like warm honey, contrasting his eyes greatly. 

“None, sir,” the enforcer said. “The fire should have burnt it all up.”

“Should?” the white collar’s voice turned deadly. He slowly turned his head to look at the enforcer who gulped.

“Well…tests are still ongoing and”

“Never mind,” the man snapped. “When you get a report, let me know. The government will be thoroughly interested in why this man was in possession of the Christmas virus to begin with and where it was going. Have you interrogated him yet?”…

Changsun did not like the way they were treating him as if he was not there.

“No sir,” the officer bowed again. “He keeps claiming he’s innocent.”

“Oh?”

“He is!” Ji-su stepped forwards. The white haired officers’ eyes bulged.

“Who are you?” the white collar barked.

“Enforcer Lee Ji-su,” she gave a curt bow and saluted. “I’m his older sister.”

“Oh,” the white collar nodded, falsely amicably. “And you say he’s innocent. On what basis? Your words? His words?”

“Yes.”

No hesitation.

“Excuse me for being doubtful then.”

Changsun bristled. No one offended his sister and got away with it. He opened his mouth, ready to speak, but then Ji-su signaled at him to keep quiet. He nodded and pouted instead.

“It started with his words, but further investigation into the site of crime has proved that Changsun only ever came in contact with the virus that day. He didn’t plant them there and he wasn’t planning on transporting them.”

“Then what was he going to do? Sniff them?” Disdainful words. Oh how Changsun would love to punch that white collar in the face and show him blood for the first time in his life.

“Sir,” Ji-su gave a bow but Changsun knew better. Her seething anger was barely held in check. “I believe Changsun was trying to stop someone else from transporting the virus.”

“Who?”

Ji-su hesitated. She knew it was Byunghee, but like Changsun she did not want to rat him out. 

“Enough.” The white collar was tired. “Interrogate him thoroughly. Then convict him.”

“What?!” Ji-su bolted forwards and grabbed the tradesman’s shirt. “No!”

The government official yanked himself out of her grip and dusted himself off. The white haired officer looked like he was about to have a heart attack. “Don’t touch me,” the white collar hissed. “Your brother was found in contact with the virus. I despise anyone who has anything to do with virus. So many people have died from the Christmas virus and yet you continue to protect him? You disgust me.”

“Sir!” Ji-su protested, but the white haired officer suddenly grabbed her arms and held her locked. “No!” she struggled in vain. He may have been fifty, but he was an enforcer for a reason. “Please! He’s my little brother! The only family I have left!”

“Begging gets you nowhere,” the government man said coldly. He snapped his sunglasses back on and turned away. “You should have never done it in the first place.”

“But I didn’t!” Changsun screamed. “I was trying to stop my friend who did!”

The white collar stopped and turned slightly. “Tell me who he is and I will reconsider.”

Changsun was frozen. Should he sell Byunghee out? Byunghee was the one who had caused all this mess and Changsun was a tiny raft in the maelstrom. But he couldn’t. Not to his brother.

Changsun shook his head.

“Then it’s too bad.” The white collar turned around.

“Listen to me!” Changsun yelled. “It wasn’t me and it wasn’t my friend.”

“You’re contradicting yourself,” the white collar pointed out.

“My friend was tricked! They were going to turn him into a scrapegoat!”

“Who were?”

“The pirates! The BlackBeards!”

“Why? Why go that far when the virus was just going to burn away in the fire? A waste."

“I don’t know!” Changsun yelled, frustration coloring the world red. None of it made sense. Nothing of this cruel, cruel world.

“Tell me one more thing,” The white collar said, his back to Changsun. Never had Changsun hated the government more. “Do you regret any of this?”

Changsun stared, wide-mouth. Did he regret nearly dying, getting jailed and being accused incorrectly? Did he regret saving his brother from certain death?

“No.”

The white collar chuckled, “I see.” And then he strode away in that measured pace of a king and the door slammed shut behind him.