~ ☗ ~

Changmin leaned back on his comfortable office chair, happy to finally have a break after all the stress he had had to put up with these last few days. He picked up his notepad from his table and hiked up his feet on his desk. His brows furrowed for a moment as he deciphered his own handwriting, his ‘To Worry About’ list was longer than he had expected. The night’s field operation gave him a new insight to his team, and while it was not a completely successful operation, Changmin was happy to have his team alive and well and the target locked up in a holding cell awaiting interrogation.

The chair squeaked loudly as Changmin adjusted and readjusted his position on the cushioned seat. His back needed extra support and his hand shot out blindly behind him to grab the small pillow he knew he kept there. His fingers grazed the soft pink cushion and he pulled it closer before taking it and settling it at the small of his back.

His first order of business was to get a complete profile on his unit members. And by complete, he meant an exhaustive reference file on their every activity, every class they took, and whatever other detail he could get his hands on. He wanted to know everything about his unit- he didn’t want a repeat of the earlier night’s mission.

Speaking of the mission, he still had a report to write, but Changmin looked wearily at the pile of papers on his desk and at the blank document on his computer- perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to take the night off completely. Settling for that choice instead, he pulled off his glasses and tossed them on top of his desk. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger and hung his head back on the headrest. Mai almost died on his watch tonight, Changmin didn’t think he could deal with something like that right now. Good thing Junho was there, and the captain had never felt so relieved to have a sniper unit so close before.

Admittedly, the unit captain was impressed with the two rookies; Mai and Junho performed better than he had expected. Perhaps there was a greater reason for putting those two in Schatten after all and Changmin wanted to know just how far and how much those two could accomplish. Of course, they had to finish their patrol requirements first and get all their clearances from the main office.

He skipped Taecyeon and Seulong on his list; those two needed a separate day free from any other form of stress for Changmin to even allow himself to think about them. Life at the academy had been fun with them, but as their commanding officer, he now understood how many of their professors felt back then.

He ran down his finger down his notepad, and he flicked the last name with his finger, tapping it several times, not really knowing what to think about it. Jang Wooyoung was an international incident waiting to happen, and he had to quell that fire before it got out of control. How was the winning question here, Changmin had no idea how to control Wooyoung, or at least make the younger man respect him as his senior officer.

Feeling another headache rise, he tossed the notepad on the desk and leaned further back so he was lying down. This is a really nice chair, he thought, no wonder they have these here, the stress is just too much. So relaxed Changmin was, he didn’t even notice the knock on his door or the sound of it being pushed open, until his visitor spoke.

“Captain?”

Changmin sat up with a start, the objects on his table going airborne for a split-second as the captain dropped his feet to the floor and grabbed his glasses. “Yes Mai? What is it?” he asked, not quite with the grace he wanted as he regained composure.

“Sir, a report just came in. Dr. Lee’s house was infiltrated a second time, two hours after we left. They were there.”

Changmin straightened up in this seat, his attention fully focused on this new piece of information. They were there. If Schatten had come in later, or had they taken longer, they might have had a chance for an actual run-in with these monsters. Changmin stood from his seat. “Where is everybody?”

“In the office, sir. Waiting for you.”

Changmin didn’t waste any more time and headed straight for the small office reserved for Schatten. There he found his team, waiting as Mai had said. Even Wooyoung was sitting, albeit not very patiently, on his desk.

“Someone tell me what happened,” he said, walking through the room and leaning against his desk, crossing his arms on his chest.

It was Taecyeon and Mai who came up front. “We’ve received a report that someone came into the house through the back wall, sir,” said Taecyeon.

“Didn’t the back-up unit disarm those?” Changmin asked.

“The back-up unit only secured the main gate and the western wing. The other areas they left as is- sir, they just cleaned up and left so it was highly possible that there were still more bodyguards inside the house after we left.”

“Body count confirms that,” Junho spoke up, bringing up a file from the main computer inside the room. “Medical Examiner’s office just sent it in. Lee’s bodyguards, and a few of our own. They stationed plain-clothed officers at the back of the wall and the front gate,” he grimaced, “Cause of death was strangulation.” He glanced up at Mai. “Your friend was there. Killed a few men. Guards, police, I don’t think he really distinguishes between victims.”

“Did they leave anything else?” Changmin asked, almost too hopefully.

“Nothing,” Mai answered bitterly, “it’s just the same as before. The only evidence of them even being there was the pile-up of dead bodies.”

Changmin considered this for a moment, this was already the second time that they were this close to an altercation with these people. Could it have been coincidence they were both targeting the same man on the same night?

~ ☖ ~

Chansung was not happy. That much Jinwoon could tell even before Hell arrived back to their headquarters. Actually, none of them were too happy with how this mission turned out at all, and Jinwoon felt just a tad bit helpless at the dejected-bordering-on-maniacally-angry look on Rai’s face as she stood next to him as she always did every briefing. Even Junsu looked like he wanted to kill somebody, and Kass was actually silenced in her seat.

Something like this had never happened to them before, and even Jinwoon was displeased with the outcome. Could the victim have known he was being targeted? Could it have been coincidence that he just left the night he was to be killed? That was impossible- they had been very thorough with their planning- nothing should have gone wrong that night, yet something did.

Kwon and Min both appeared from the other side of the screen this time, though both were somewhat calmer than the people inside the room. “Chansung was right, the police were there. They disabled an electronic lock with an explosive on the western door where they extracted the doctor before you even arrived,” Min said, reading off a sheet of paper.

The police? Jinwoon didn’t know how he wanted to feel about that, and he looked around him seeing similar confused expressions.

“How were they there before us?” Junsu asked.

Kwon shook his head. “This happened the last time too, although they came after you, in the Tony Ahn assignment. I looked into it and it looks like NeoSeoul HQ drafted a new unit, Schatten. It’s fairly new, not even a few months old. Details are obscure, this is definitely a special unit. I’ll look into it, but we’ll have to be careful.”

“Careful?” Rai breathed through gritted teeth. “Do I look like I need to be careful?”

Jinwoon pushed his wheelchair towards her, blocking her from moving forward. “Eh...calm down. Just...you know...”

To be honest it was Rai who needed to be careful most of all, but he wasn’t about to voice that out. He looked up at the screen, about to ask what the special unit was trained for, but someone spoke before him.

“Did they kill him?” Everyone turned to Chansung who had been brooding in a corner all this time.

“No,” Min answered. “They’re keeping him in a holding cell for interrogation and further investigation.”

Jinwoon kept his position, arms partially extended to at least try to keep Rai from doing anything detrimental to both her and the group. “I have a question, security wasn’t breached in the back wall. That area was pristine, if the police were there, why didn’t they secure the whole perimeter?”

Min nodded. “The police took on a more frontal attack. They secured the front, but not the back. They were after the doctor, and after securing him they left. However, Dr. Lee’s men managed to get back inside the house. We monitored the security cameras and it looked like they went back in for something.”

They secured the front but not the back? Jinwoon found that detail to be very careless of them. He was about to ask another question, but again he got cut off.

“Min,” Junsu started, leaning forwards and resting his forearms on his knees, “how were we not aware that the cops were there before us?”

Min’s eyes shifted momentarily towards Kwon. “There were no logs for Schatten activity-”

“What were they searching for inside the house?” Nichkhun suddenly asked.

The question occurred to Jinwoon as well, but this Schatten group bothered him more. Lee’s men must have known that the doctor had been captured, that was why they went back in to retrieve whatever it was. Obviously it was of value to whoever had it, whatever it was. Why Nichkhun was interested, Jinwoon could only guess. Schatten was another matter altogether. They’ve never had to directly face any of the authorities before, unless they had to kill them of course. This was different, and Jinwoon turned to Min as she spoke, his question in mind.

“Fei and Jia are working on that right now.”

“What are we going to do about Dr. Lee?” Chansung asked.

“Kill him, of course,” Kwon replied as-a-matter-of-factly. “An assignment is an assignment, and we’ve given it to you. We’ll send Jinwoon an update after we’ve exhausted what data we find on Schatten tonight.”

The screen grew dark, and Jinwoon’s question remained unasked. Rai had disappeared through the door as well, and Nichkhun left shortly, followed by Junsu and Kass. It had been a long night and everyone deserved their rest. He wheeled over to Chansung, still deep in thought.

“He needs to die Jinwoon.”

“I know,” Jinwoon forced a smile. “You’ll get him, you always do. It’s just a matter of time. Don’t worry too much about it. I’ll pull up the records as soon as Kwon sends them.”

“Did you notice anything tonight?” The suspicious tone in Chansung’s voice was unmistakable.

Jinwoon’s eyes roved the room before answering. “A few things, but Chansung, how is it that there’s a police group targeting the same people we are?”

Chansung shrugged. “It’s strange. We’ve never heard of this Schatten before. You think we’ll have to take them out?”

“Rai would like that.”

“Rai likes anything that has to do with killing people.”

“Only because she can’t kill Nichkhun. Were you surprised she actually listened to you for a little bit?”

Chansung let out a little laugh. “She could have died tonight.”

Jinwoon shook his head. “Rai’s not going to die until she kills Nichkhun. Worry more about the target. I’ll talk to Junsu tomorrow to work something out. But Chansung, something’s bothering me.”

Chansung replied with a neutral hum.

“I know the others are more concerned with Schatten, except Nichkhun who’s more interested in the link he’ll uncover from Dr. Lee, but why would the police even target Dr. Lee in his house like that? They’re police Chansung, they can cover a warrant of arrest to detain him. They were really sloppy tonight too, after taking the doctor, they just left just like that. It’s weird. Don’t you think they could have taken more measures?”

Chansung met Jinwoon’s eyes. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m not actually sure. Nothing is making any sense.”

[A/N]: Don't tell my beta I updated. <3

PS. Let me hear your thoughts. muahahahahahahchokeshuahahahahaha