They were known as Miss A.

Kwon sighed to himself as the Staunton’s personal staff and bodyguards walked into the room awaiting his instructions. Jo Kwon was the conduit of information from the Main Office, Umbra, to the smaller side offices as with the one directing Hell. Miss A were here for the briefing of the new assignment. While Kwon got along with Min, it was not the same for the other members.

The office was not in the usual sense of comfortable. Wooden panels lined the room, both the walls and floors, and there were only two pieces of furniture to be found: the large wall-to-wall cherry shelves and the large desk where he now stood.

“Fortuna.” Kwon said one word and all females turned to him with their complete attention. He eyed each of them carefully, gauging their reactions. He was well aware that every member of this team had been affected by the grand scale of the Fortuna Project.

Min’s lips were pressed tightly. Despite her short stature and petite frame, she was as deadly as an assassin as Chansung or Junsu. “Tell me you found something.”

Kwon nodded, pushing forward the file he had been reading before Miss A arrived. “The series of disappearances have increased in number. Yoon Doojoon, Lee Kikwang, Yang Yoseob, Son Dongwoon, Jang Hyungseung, and Yong Junhyung.” He flipped the file over, and tapped the topmost page with his forefinger. “All disappeared on the same day, several weeks ago. Nothing has been heard from them since. Not even the authorities have any leads on them.”

“What do the police know,” Jia scoffed, tossing her neon pink hair to the side, “useless pigs.”

“Calm down, no point restating what we already know.” Fei’s soothing voice and her gentle hand on Jia’s arm was a stark contrast to what she was truly capable of of.

Meng Jia and Wang Feifei, then known as Yin and Yang, were special units from NeoBeijing, both handpicked by the Main Office to handle Project Fortuna’s international associations. Jia visibly calmed with Fei’s slight movements, and Kwon went ahead in explaining the new case. “All the primary researchers are being backed up by the military and several private agencies. We suspect the research facility at the Academy is involved as well.”

“What do you want us to do?” Fei asked, picking up the file and reading through it. “It’s not like we can just go out and kill them, that’s Hell’s job.”

“Wait,” Min stepped forward and grabbed the list of kidnapped university students, “what does Fortuna have to do with the missing students?”

Kwon nodded gravely. “We have reason to believe that the series of disappearances are linked to the series of attacks reported several days ago.”

“The Beast killings?” Jia moved over towards Min and plucked the file from the shorter girl’s hands. “I thought the Tony Ahn and Andy Lee cases already covered that?”

“Tony Ahn had been in charge of the kidnapping, selling the boys to Andy Lee to further his mind control research. I think these boys are the products of half of that research.”

“Half?”

“Mind control is one thing, do you honestly think that these boys are capable of tearing a human apart limb by limb?” Kwon asked, and the four girls shook their heads slowly. “Muscle xenografts, steroids, there are several other options to choose from. Fei, Jia, I need you two to investigate, Min and Suzy will stay here with Staunton.”

“What exactly do you want us to look for?” Fei asked, placing the files back down on the table.

“I need you two to find out where the Fortuna laboratories are.”

With a nod from Kwon, Fei and Jia exchanged glances before making their leave. Min and Suzy were left inside the room with him, and Kwon waited for their own status report.

“He’s in his office, just...sitting there really,” Min said, feeling Kwon’s gaze on her. “There really isn’t much to do looking over our financial backer, it’s not like people know his real identity.” She tossed the files back on the table and left the room.

“Tch. Sometimes I wish they did. I’m bored.”

Kwon watched with curious eyes and Suzy followed Min out of the room. He shook his head. The whole time the expression on Suzy’s face never once faltered, never once changed. He sighed. It was always the quiet ones to look out for.

…

Yellow tape marked the perimeter, ten meters to each side. It was designed to keep onlookers and gossip-mongers out so that the police can investigate the area in peace. Within it, several police officers and crime scene investigators gathered pieces of evidence and labeled them with evidence tags in self-sealing bags and stacked them neatly into a box. There wasn’t much wreckage to collect as compared to the severed body parts on the ground.

Yang Nara studied her surroundings intently. There were around fifty spectators in the scene, each of them squeezing forwards trying to get a better look at the bloodbath up ahead. Several witnesses were wildly gesturing their versions of what they had seen to the officers who took their statements.

She looked behind her where her news van was parked and tapped her feet impatiently. Her four-man crew was taking forever to set-up, and this hour’s news flash was slowly turning into old news.

The investigations were under the purview of someone Nara recognized, Detectives Lee Minwoo and Park Junjin, two ambitious detectives with high aspirations. Nara smiled, this was going to be easier than she had previously thought.

She slipped under the yellow tape, notebook in hand, but she was abruptly pulled back by the collar, and she glared at her cameraman, Ian Choe.

“The yellow tapes are there to keep people like you out,” he said, pulling Nara away from the yellow tapes and back towards the van.

Ian Choe was a reasonable man, and it was in reason that he found the need to keep his newscaster out of trouble at all times. Nara was a curious little thing. She had a nose for trouble, and while that always led to the best scoops, it also many a time lead to their near deaths, and even worse, their near termination from the station.

“But it’s Detective Lee Minwoo and Park Junjin! Those two are the interview-happy lot. This can be our next big thing!”

“Nara, do you see anyone else here?” Ian asked, stretching out his arm to indicate the lack of other news vans in the perimeter.

The newscaster frowned.“No, but that’s not the point. We need this story.”

Ian sighed. ‘We’ for Nara meant ‘I’, and when she was set on a target, she was not letting it go until she caught hold of it. Giving up, Ian let her collar go, and like a wind-up toy, Nara zipped under the tape and to the two detectives in deep discussion.

“Good morning, detectives,” Nara said, whipping out her notebook and pen. Lee Minwoo was well-built man, intimidating to some. The same could be said about Park Junjin, though of the two, it was Minwoo who was the more sociable.

Minwoo eyed her Press badge, and smiled. “Well if it isn’t Yang Nara. First ant at the picnic as always, I see.”

Nara’s smile widened, an odd addition to the picture of carnage behind her. “Can you tell me more about these Beast killings? We know all the victims were severed limb from limb, tell me detective, what kind of monster is capable of such an act?”

Minwoo puffed out his chest at the sight of Nara’s cameramen. “Well the the crime scene investigators are still putting the evidence together, but I’ll let you know as soon as we are able.”

“But detective, this is the fifth in the string of these kind of attacks. Body dumps have been discovered everywhere, and there have been rumors of vigilante killings regarding the deaths of high-profile victims. Could these be related?”

“That, I can say with certainty, are several separate cases right there.”

“Sir,” A younger man stepped in, cutting off the conversation. He too held a notebook in his hands, but the badge on his vest identified him as Alexander Eusebio, medical examiner. “We found an ID on the victim.”

Surprise flashed briefly in Minwoo’s eyes. “Who was he?”

“Seo Minjae,” Alexander answered, reading off his notebook. “Head of security at this consulting office called The Main Office. Det. Park is looking into it.”

“Consulting office? What do they consult?”

Alexander turned to Nara, hesitant to reply. “Shouldn’t you know though? I’ve never actually heard of them before.”

“They have this huge shiny office in the middle of Δ-VII,” Minwoo muttered under his breath. He pulled out his phone, punched in a few numbers, and pressed it to his ear. He waited for a few rings. As soon as he heard the click, he didn’t wait for the person on the other line to speak first. “Kibum, we’re off for a field trip.”

…

Kwon eyed the two detectives warily. Lee Minwoo and Park Junjin, together with a much younger, fresh-faced rookie Kim Kibum had walked into their office flashing their badges around demanding to talk to whoever was in charge. Kwon had stepped up immediately as soon as he saw the small incident at the front desk.

Joo, their front desk officer, hurriedly walked towards him. “They’re really persistent,” she whispered.

Kwon nodded and waved a hand nonchalantly in the air. “Some refreshments, please. You can have Gain bring them over.”

Joo all but curtsied and rushed out of the room.

“How may I help you gentlemen?” Kwon started with a flourish, taking his seat across them on the bamboo furniture set.

Lee Minwoo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “You treat your all your guests this warmly, or is just us?”

Kwon smiled. “Mr. Henney has a partiality towards a more Zen minimalist interior. He believes that clutter clouds the mind and judgment.”

“And where is this Mr. Daniel Henney?” Park Junjin asked.

“He’s in NeoBerlin for personal matters. He wasn’t expecting to be called upon today.”

The shoji doors slid open and Gain entered the room, a tray of traditional tea cups in her hand. She was dressed in a traditional hanbok, with her hair carefully pinned to the side with an ornamental hair stick. Carefully, she placed the tray on the low table, kneeling down on the floor and serving each cup using both her hands. She smiled softly as she set each ware in front of the detectives, but there was an almost imperceptible flicker in her eyes when she turned towards Kwon.

“Mr. Jo Kwon, you run this place?” Kibum asked, picking up a ceramic tea cup and taking a sip. His eyes widened. “It’s cold.”

“It’s iced peaches. One of our trademarks.” Gain smiled, lifting herself off the tatami matted floor. She bowed forty-five degrees to the men in the room before making her leave, and closing the sliding shoji door behind her.

“I am Mr. Henney’s executive assistant. Detectives, I don’t believe this is a social call, so let’s get to the point shall we?”

Minwoo pulled out a folder of pictures from his briefcase and handed it to Kwon. “Seo Minjae, your head of security, he was brutally murdered last night.”

Kwon scanned the photos presented to him. His jaw tightened at the graphic pictures of the crime scene. Even without the need of an ID, Kwon knew that this was indeed their head of security, if only for the near inconspicuous tattoo of a peony on one of the limbs. “How may we be of assistance?”

“We’ll need to know Seo Minjae’s latest movements, schedules, places he went to, people he dealt with.”

Kwon smoothed down a pantleg before answering, “Detectives, have you informed his niece of this tragedy?”

Minwoo and Junjin exchanged glances before turning to Kibum, whose eyes grew in size as he shrugged. Minwoo cleared his throat. “We have another team searching the niece out right now.”

“I see. Detectives, this...” Kwon slid the picture towards the three men across him, “are you suggesting that this was done by a regular human?”

Junjin held Kwon’s gaze steadily “Someone, a person, would most definitely be involved in this. Our goal right now is to find the motive to kill.”

“He was our head of security, and Mr. Henney is a well-connected man. I’m sure you can imagine several reasons.”

“Have you noticed anything suspicious these last few days? Any incidents?”

“Detective Park, Seo Minjae was head of security, if anything, it would have been him watching me.”

Minwoo shifted again on the bamboo seats. “You seem very calm about this.”

“Would you rather I go into hysterics?”

Again the three detectives eyed each other uncomfortably. “Well,” Minwoo cleared his throat, “thank you for your cooperation and for the tea. We’ll be back.” Minwoo stood to leave, followed by his companions.

“Gain will you out.” Kwon watched their backs disappear into the corner. He turned towards the other direction, to a trap door behind one of the wooden panels. Suzy stepped out, her face looking bored as usual.

“What was that all about?” she asked, her voice deadpanned.

“Minjae. I’ll need you to look into it.”

“What about those three?”

“They’re not very bright. I have a feeling we won’t be seeing much of them after today.”

[A/N] Guess who's back. Did you miss me? =)