CHAPTER 1

With coffee in one hand and the other in her pocket, Surin skipped up the stairs to the Police Headquarters and waltz in the lobby as per her usual ways. She greeted people who went her ways and was polite to others as she approach the elevator. Wearing only her purple t-shirt, white jacket, black jeans and ankle high boots... she looked like any ordinary girl who didn't really belong in the Police Headquarters.

The elevator area was sprinkled with a few people who were waiting for the lifts to arrive. Surin sipped on her coffee as she watched people going in and out of the lift.

"The seventh to tenth floor... there isn't any buttons to it." One guy asked his companion. "There's also no stairs leading to it..."

"Well, those floors belong to the private sectors..." The other answered.

"Private sectors?" The guy laughed. "You mean, there's even a private sector in the police department? You got to be kidding me!"

Surin just smirked into her cup as she listened.

"You can laugh all you want..." The smaller guy leaned closer to the other guy. "It is said that if you were chosen to join the private sector, which nobody even knew what their group name was, it means you are considered the brightest, the bravest and the most intelligent one ever. It's an honour to be chosen, you know... it's no laughing matter." The guy went on though his companion kept on laughing.

One lift binged and everybody got on it except for Surin, who was still sipping on her coffee. As one more lift binged onto the first floor, the door open and a guy was seen standing in it.

"Going down?" He asked. Surin merely look at him before smirking.

"Sure..."

Surin then stood in the lift with the man, waiting for the lift to reach the basements. The man walked out of the lift but was stunned to see that Surin was still staying in the lift.

"Aren't you... going off? This is the last floor, you know..." He said.

"I know..." Surin smirked. She waved at him as the door slowly closes. "Bye~..."

Once the door closed, Surin took out her key card and slotted it into the key card area. It beeped for a few moments before the lift began moving. Surin stood to the back of the lift waiting for the door to open.

When the lift reach the ninth floor, it binged and the doors open to a large office space area half filled with busy people going to and fro. Surin walked pass all of them, heading towards her cubicle in the middle of the office while subtlety glancing around her.

Cops and investigators were walking about, doing their work either in their cubicle or in the office space around. The word P.S.E.U.D.O hung by the side of the lift with the words 'Private Sector Enforcement Unit of Defence Organization' embossed underneath it.

Before she reached her cubicle, her neighbour began to sing while being dramatic on his chair. His messy spiked up hair complimented well with his black denim jacket, yellow t-shirt and blue jeans.

"Jul su inneunge... I norae bakke eoptta!!" Jang Wooyoung sang his heart out on his chair. He had his right hand holding onto an invisible microphone while the left was in a fist above. His eyes were tightly shut as he continued on.

"Gajin georagon... I mokssori bakke eoptta!" Wooyoung open his eyes to see Surin standing in front of him, staring at him. "Oh hi, you!" He said cheerfully.

"You know, if you were to join a singing group, you could be successful... but probably not in a ballad group." Surin said.

Wooyoung gasped and put a hand on his heart.

"Park Seul Rin! That was very cruel of you!" He smiled at her. "Thanks!"

Both of them laughed softly at their banter.

"Well, what's new?" Surin asked, going over to her table and took off her jacket to hang it behind her chair before shifting through the files.

"Same old same old..." Wooyoung said, getting up to stand by Surin's table. "Though you have two new files though... I recognise one as an assassination file but I don't recognise the other."

Surin raised an eyebrow at him.

"Wooyoung oppa... have you been reading my mails?" Surin batted her eyelash at him. Wooyoung smirked at her.

"Not really..." He said.

Surin shook her head, a faint smile on her lips and began reading her files. One of them was an assassination file of Ambassador Dong Seung-Pyo that happened two nights ago.

"Assassination again... This is the fourth assassination that's had happened for the past few weeks..." Surin mumbled.

"Well..." Wooyoung said, walking towards his chair and plopping himself onto it, "... the world has become a dangerous place to live in. That's where we come in!" He said cheerfully.

Surin merely ignored him before going through the other file.

"Oh... it's a transfer case..." She said.

"Transfer case?" Wooyoung asked. Surin flipped through the pages and began reading as she sat down.

"Inspector Ok Taecyeon... Age twenty three, educated at Gel In High School in Seoul and studied Business Administration at Dankook University..." Surin was impressed with the rest of the info of said guy. "He's even older than you!" She told Wooyoung.

"Just for a year..." Wooyoung mumbled.

Surin smile and put aside the transfer file case, reading back the assassination file. Wooyoung stood up and began riffling through the transfer file case.

"Bullet through the temple... phone nearby... got to check his phone to see if he made any calls..." Surin mumbled to herself.

"Oh ho! A stickler to rules... Quite hot tempered too..." He read.

"A total opposite to you... by the way, have you heard from Tsar?" Surin asked Wooyoung.

"Yup! She is on holiday and wishes not to be disturbed."

"Well, that's a bugger..." Surin said.

"I know..." Wooyoung smiled. "Yah, this guy is tall! He's probably a real live walking stick..."

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Surin worked overtime that night. She kept scanning through the files over and again, trying to find details she might have overlooked. She kept thinking of why whoever did it could have done it.

The ambassador, the assassination.... So many things going on and she has no support to solve this crime. She was nowhere near solving the previous case when this new assassination case propped up.

“Shhi-...” Surin cussed as she slammed the files close.

Wooyoung, who was sleeping on his chair, jerked upright and began wiping his mouth and blinking up to Surin.

“What’s wrong?” Wooyoung asked groggily, his eyes were still drifting between half-closed and half-open.

“Nothing,” she said, taking a deep breath. “And why are you still here when you can go home and sleep instead?”

“How can I leave a pretty girl like you work overtime in an office, lonely and quiet,” he yawned.

“Scared I’d get assassinated?” she asked bluntly as she looked at him.

“I wouldn’t assassinate you even if you were an Ambassador from the North,” he jokingly replied.

Suddenly a light bulb lit up in her head.

"I think I got it..." Surin said that night, slamming the assassinations file onto her table.

"Got what?" He asked, getting up and walking up to Surin's table. Surin sat down on her chair and began flipping through the files she got from the police department. She laid them down on her table and began pointing it out to Wooyoung.

"All of these assassinations, these killings... they are all of someone big, someone important. I think all these killings were done by the same guy." Surin said, looking at Wooyoung, who was looking through the files too.

"It might be so... might be not. I mean, the guy couldn't have killed all those big guys in like so many places at one time, right?" He said.

"Unless..." Surin began thinking hard.

"Unless....?" Wooyoung asked.

"... Unless..." Surin began shuffling through the files in excitement. She began reading the files and putting two and two together. "... Unless this guy... is a hired assassin. He is paid to do this. This guy is no ordinary killer. Look at this!" Surin pointed to the first death. "... Two businessmen... Hwang Su-Yong and Kim Chul-Yang... Both of them were assassinated in Japan and China. Judge Lee Jung-Woon was shot too, last month...”

He waited for her to finish but she glazed over, trying to make more analysis. She then looked back at him.

“Call for a meeting,” she said.

“At midnight?” he shrieked.

“Yes. Now,” she got up to go somewhere and tapped his shoulder as she passed him. “Thank you.”



The meeting room was now filled with people. Some were falling asleep, some were looking dazed and others were looking as if they just had been cruelly awaken with cold water shower in bed.

Surin walked into the office and everyone straightened up, nodding in replacement of a greeting bow. One of the guys was still asleep in his chair, unaware of what happened.

“Apologies before anything,” she said bluntly as everyone shifted uncomfortably. “I called this meeting, there’s no need to hate Jung Soo for this. He doesn't know anything about this meeting being made. Wake him up, please.”

Surin pointed to the one who was asleep. The girl next to him looked to her right and nudged the guy roughly. His eyes were in between half-closed and half-opened. He saw his officer-in-charge and straightened up immediately, combing his hair with his fingers to the side subconsciously.

“These cases of the assassinations’ of the judge, the ambassador and the two businessmen... I have a strong feeling that we are dealing with the same person,” Surin started quickly, not wanting to waste any time. “Sunny, I need you to check on the victims’ travel logs. See where they have been, where they were these past few months. Try to get as much information from the Authorities.”

The girl looked at the rest of the people at the table nervously. Surin caught this and shut her eyes.

"Er, Computer work? I'm not... really..." Sunny said.

“Just do your best, please,” Surin said with a lesser demanding tone.

“Yes, ma’am,” Sunny replied with a more confident tone.

Surin turned to the whiteboard behind her. She stared at the scribbles and pictures pasted there. She knew it was all related somehow.

"So, these murders," Jonghyun started, "how did you know that we are dealing with the same person." He asked.

"The murders... we know that the victims were murdered by a bullet to the head. Which means," Surin began scribbling onto the whiteboard, "The killer stood probably a few feet away from the victim before shooting. Now... as you all know, the brain is the most vital part ever. If you get shot in the brain, you're dead." Surin turn to the rest.

"Even if you do live, you're a walking vegetable." Wooyoung said, slouching in his chair.

"Exactly... the situation now is that... I need to know where they have been for the past few months. That way I can connect the dots. Since Hangeng had died, we have yet to find another computer expert."

"You'll get a new one..." Jonghyun said, reading through the files.

"Excuse me?"

"The transferred guy..." Jonghyun began waving his hand as if to recall something.

"Ok Taecyeon." Surin helped out.

"Ok-Chan" Wooyoung unnecessarily added.

"Yes yes... that guy. He is our new computer expert. When he comes by, you'll have no trouble after that."

"Except for trying to figure out this assassination cases." Surin mumbled.

"Look, what we know for now is that these murders are of important people. Big men with big reputation. What we have to do now is to send out protections to other men we feel might be the next victim. And any of you know who it could be so we can wrap this up and go home?" Jonghyun asked the others rudely.

Surin merely shook her head. When Jonghyun lacked of sleep, he was grumpy. That much Surin know. This time, Wooyoung stuck his hand up and began sitting up properly in his chair. He began riffling through his own file.

"I have two guys. Big guys... and I really mean... big..." Wooyoung began shaping a round shape with his hand.

"Get on with it!" Jonghyun snapped.

"Okay okay... Uh... Governor Im Sung-Yang. He is going to Russia. Actually he's there already for a press conference tomorrow afternoon. And the other guy is..." Wooyoung flipped a few pages again, "... Jang Ye-Eun. Ah! My name! Anyways… He's a businessman in Korea. He's not going anywhere though. He's staying here... he just have to go to Suwon tomorrow for his family gathering."

"Okay then... If that is the case... we will have to protect the Governor, the other officers can protect the businessman. Tomorrow morning... or let's just say in a few hours time, we'll head on over to where the Governor’s going and stay there. We'll secure the perimeter and wait for anything else. Sunny, get online and book tickets for us." Jonghyun ordered.

"Huh, Me again?" Sunny pout.

"Do it or else I'll permanently make you stay in front of that computer the rest of your life." Jonghyun stared at her.

Sunny did nothing but continued frowning.

“If Key was here, He won’t be this pushy…” Wooyoung mumbled to the guy beside him, who was nodding in agreement.

"Jonghyun... all of us are tired too. You don't have to be so mean to her." Eunhyuk, who was sitting beside her, spoke up.

"If we do not solve this case soon, all of us will be awake for the rest of the nights too." Jonghyun said.

"Jonghyun... I wish to stay behind." Surin said.

"What?" As soon as Jonghyun said that, his phone rang. He picks it up and spoke to the other person.

"Hello?" His frowned turned to surprise soon after. "Jungsoo-shhi! Ne... No... I'm at the meeting... Surin called for the meeting.... She said she has inkling on how all the cases are linked together.... I don't know, Sir... you have to speak to her about that." Jonghyun then glared at Surin, who was watching innocently.

After a few moments, Jonghyun hung up and began smirking at Surin.

"Surin, you may stay behind. Jungsoo has ordered you to stay in the office while the rest of us are away. As punishment for not asking for his permission to hold this meeting." He said smugly.

Surin merely shrug her shoulders at him. She knew he will do that if he found out anyways.

"Alright, this meeting is done. Sunny, go book our tickets for the seven o'clock flight later on. The rest of you, go home, pack your bags and meet me at the airport at 5. Which is...?" Jonghyun took a glance at his watch, "... in two hours time. So, go on... move it!" Jonghyun shooed everyone out, leaving Surin behind.

As the others left, Wooyoung stayed behind with Surin. He walked over to her and began shuffling his feet about, as if he was nervous about something.

"You'll be okay back here?" He asked.

Surin turn to Wooyoung and grinned.

"I’m good..."


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Something was amiss. It was nine o’clock in the morning and Surin kept reading through the files and kept marking on the board. She kept trying to relate them.

She went to the computers and checked the information that Sunny had managed to compile. As she looked through the background information of these people, it made no more sense than she had before.



Key walks into the meeting room, unhappy with Jonghyun and the others. Why did they leave him here? And that too to clean up the meeting room.

“Aaaah~~ Seriously. Couldn’t they do it before leaving this morning? Who do they think I am; a cleaner? This is just too much!” Key nagged as he went through the chairs and shifting them into place. He hooked his hands onto his hips and shook his head at the mess. “OH JINJA!”

Everything happened so fast. Surin jerked up in her chair from her deep sleep, her gun in her hand aiming at the intruder. Key, who was shocked when he saw the gun, began to raise both his arms up and began babbling.

“Oh! Omo! Er… I didn’t know. Sorry!! I didn’t know you were here! Jonghyun told me to come here and clean up the place but he didn’t say there was someone else in here! I didn’t think there’ll be someone else here! I’m sorry, Ma’am!” Key began bowing at Surin.

Once Surin realizes that she had fallen asleep in the meeting room and startled the poor guy, she relaxed her stance and began waving him away.

“It’s okay… You were following orders. I understand. Carry on…” Surin said, plopping herself back into the chair and began reading through her files again.

She held onto her temples and massaged it lightly, hoping that the headache caused by lack of rest would just go away. It was not the best time to fall ill, especially not in the middle of an unsolved case. She took a glance at the watch on her left hand, it was seven pm. The rest of the team must be already at the conference, protecting the Governor.

She leant back for a moment to rest her eyes and then looked back to the computer to lock it. Right before she locked it, her eyes caught sight of the folder where the travel information was stored. She opened it to take a glance at the records.

After looking through the travel records from the four previous victims, she found something intriguing.

It was then when the whole thing clicked for her. When the entire info fell into place, she knew she had to react quickly.

In a flash, she took out her phone and dialled. Once she heard the voice on the other end, she began her tirade.

“Jungsoo,” she spoke. “It’s not him!”

“REALLY? What are you talking about anyways?” Jungsoo asked at the other line.

“The Governor! It’s not him! He’s not the next guy!”

“Look, Surin, Wooyoung and the rest of the team are already in Russia, standing by the Governor. There are about twenty bodyguards and a few more of my men there, protecting him. And now, you’re calling me to tell me it’s not him?”

“Jungsoo, listen to me,” Surin said in a more urgent tone in her voice. “I found the relationship to the assassinations. They were all in the same region... I will explain when I come back. Right now I really need your permission to go after Ye-Eun, please!”

“No Surin you listen to me!” the authorised leader yelled over the phone. “At least for once would you please listen and obey the orders given to you? You are not to go after him!”

Surin rolled her eyes and slammed her fist to the table.

“Jungsoo, please! Trust me!” Surin begged. Jungsoo sighed at her persistency.

“You’d better not do anything stupid. I’m going over. Are you still at the meeting room?” Jungsoo said as he shuffled to go to the office.

Surin hung up the call and grabbed her jacket. There was no time to lose. She then thought to herself, she couldn’t just go alone, could she?

She then spotted Key, who was pretending he didn’t hear a thing, and signalled for him to come close.

“Are you the only one left here?” She asked.

“Erm… No… Minho and Seohyun are still here,” Key answered.

“Okay, get them to follow me. We have a case to handle. Quick!” Surin ordered and walked out the door.


It was getting dark. A car drives past in the middle of the quiet roads. The man inside it was not any ordinary man; he is the owner of a corporate business. After spending time with his family in Suwon, he felt it was time he was to go home and take care of his business back in Seoul.
He looked out of the window, there was not a single car driving outside.

“Is it a holiday?” he asked his driver. “It’s so quiet out there.”

The driver was quiet. He did not even utter a single sound. The businessman felt something was amiss and looked at his driver.

“What happened?” the man spoke to his driver. “You seem quiet today. Is something wrong?”

The car then took a sharp right turn, out towards the wrong way. The businessman began jerking about in the car and started to panic. He sat upright to talk to the driver.

“That is not the way back to Seoul!” he yelled. “Where are we going? Driver! I demand an answer!”

The car went off to a detour a few miles away from the main road and pulled over in the quiet roads. The evening sky was purple and haunting, one lone streetlight stood over their car. Ye-Eun felt terrified. He had heard of the assassinations of other businessmen that he knew of and he was afraid he might be next. He began struggling around, trying to find his cell phone.

The driver left the engine on, put the brakes on and began to press down on the accelerator, making the car vroom in place. He did it for a couple of times before stepping out of the car.

He wore his gloves on, looking around casually and walked over to the door where Ye-Eun was at. He wrenched the door open, facing the scared man.

His face was hidden under his white chauffeur cap. His fringe once again covered half of his eyes, showing only part of his glare and facial expression.

Ye-Eun then suddenly realized that this man was not his usual driver. He began to stammer as he asked for his identity.

“Who... Who are you? Wh- What… do you want from me? ” the scared man trembled.

The man did not speak a word. He simply smirked evilly at the trembling man in front of him, took out his gun and shot the man straight in the head.


In the car, Minho was getting feeds from the satellite cameras about where Jang Ye-Euns’ car was heading.

“Ah, he just went off the main road… to the right.” Minho informed.

“Damn it… Jungsoo, how far away are we from the main road?” Surin asked.

“About a few minutes,” Jungsoo answered.

“Well, step on it! We haven’t much time left!” Surin ordered.

“Omo… Jungsoo’s driving cannot be trusted…” Key said, in between Minho and Seohyun. The three of them glance at each other for a few moment and began to swiftly reach for their seatbelts to tuck themselves in safely.

“Yah, I still don’t feel safe.” Key piped up.

“Oh shut up,” Jungsoo added before speeding to the scene. Even Surin was holding tight in her seat. Once they reach the clearing where Ye-Euns’ car had disappeared, Minho pointed the way.

They were about to drive into the clearing when suddenly, a bike flew out from the clearing and began speeding away. Jungsoo was quick enough to swerve the car aside to avoid hitting the bike. Once the car settled, Surin saw the bike speeding off.

“Jungsoo! Follow the bike! You three, get off!” Surin ordered.

“What?” Seohyun asked.

“Just get out of the car and go in there, go find Ye-Euns’ car! We’ll chase after the guy. Quick! Go, go, go!”

The three of them quickly hopped out of the car and watch it speed after the bike.

“She is even worse than you, Key…” Seohyun said.


“Quick, Jungsoo!”

“I’m already at a hundred!”

“Well, go over it then!”

The car sped after the bike, which was a good few metre away from them.

The biker notices that he was being chased after, began swerving side to side to distract the car. He then swerved his bike into the main road where a few cars were visible.

Jungsoo, once knowing that they are pursuing the assassin, began focussing on trying not to hit the other cars as he swerve through them.

Surin checked her gun and began to lean out the window. Jungsoo saw this and was surprised.

“Yah! What are you doing? Get back in here!”

“I’m just going to scare him a little. Don’t worry.” Surin smirked as she took aim at the bike.

The bullet misses the bike by a few inches, making the biker duck and began speeding again. Surin took aim and shot. This time it hit the bikes side body.

The biker realizes that he had better move fast. He then tried to speed off further, sliding in between two cars.

Jungsoo saw this and began swerving to the side. Surin was thrown back into the car. Jungsoo didn’t notice this and drove pass both cars before serving back into the main lane, making Surin jerk back into her seat.

“Seriously, who gave you your driving licence?” Surin commented before leaning out the window to take another good aim.

This time, Surin took perfect aim before deciding that it’s time to stop the chase. She aimed near the shoulder and fired her shot.

The bullet hits the biker’s shoulder. His bike swerved and went off-roads. Jungsoo saw this and quickly pulled his car over to the shoulders of the road. Surin was the first person to jump off the car to run after the biker but he vanished from sight, leaving a trail from the tyres of his bike.

Surin quickly chased after him, her gun still in her hands.

“Stop!” she shouted.

The biker kept on running, holding onto his right arm. For an injured guy, he could run fast. Surin kept aiming at the biker, not wanting to shoot anymore.

“Stop! Stop or I’ll shoot!” Surin yelled at him.

The biker still kept on running. Surin stopped running and sighed. She took aim and shook her head.

“You asked for it.”

Surin gave one more shot and it hit straight into his right shoulder again, a few inches just below the other one.

The biker faltered in his steps, tripped over his other leg and fell. He began rolling on the floor.

Surin relaxes her stance, securing her gun into her holster and began running towards the guy.

Just as she was about to reach him, she heard a loud screech behind her. Surin began to take aim at what is what and was surprised to see Jungsoo, coming out of his car, a few metres away with a goofy grin on his face.

“Did you get him?” He asked.

Surin turn around only to find the biker gone. He had managed to run away while Surin was distracted.

Surin turn to glare at her senior.

“Leeteuk!! You made me lose him!!” She yelled at him.

Jungsoo, realizing the mistake he had cause, went back to sit in his car. Whenever Surin calls him ‘Leeteuk’… it means that he is either in trouble or he had just done something stupid. In this case, it’s probably both.

Surin turn to the spot where she had last seen the biker and kicked the ground.

“Shhhhiiii--!!” Surin cursed in anger.

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