The Phoenix

Chapter 1/6 

 

 

Kris Liu tapped his fingers upon the frosted glass top of his desk in a bored but rhythmic manner. After doing this for a while, he spun around in his high back executive chair which was crafted of the finest Italian leather with a chrome finish. He uncrossed his legs and then proceeded slowly, arms folded behind his back, towards the glass panelled walls. He gently caressed them as he looked out onto the bustling city of Beijing, which had already come alive despite it being early in the morning. His gaze enshrouded the entire expanse of land, as far as his perfect vision would allow, as he parted his beautifully pink lips and said “One day I will own you all… and this day might arrive sooner than you think.”

He smirked sinisterly as his glistening eyes danced in their own malice. Suddenly, Tao, his right-hand man, burst through the doors which only allowed your entrance after verifying your identity.

 

Tao: They’re here.

 

Kris didn’t move an inch. He continued staring at the view which he imagined having complete control over, hands still on the glass walls, but his smirk grew menacingly. “Excellent,” he said.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~IN KOREA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Luhan: Yah, Sehun-ah. Do you really think you can hack into the mainframe?

Sehun looked at his partner in FIGHTING crime, completely offended.

Luhan: Okay, fine. I know you can access it with ease but the thing is, a lot of people can use it, how are we going to find exactly who caused the prob—

Sehun: Got it! I cracked the code to the database, which was so easy, just a strategically combined set of binary numbers, but not good enough to keep me away. I can figure out who used to computer to send out that ill-fated, blackmail video of Representative Kwon and also who initiated the virus attack, just give me a second here and… *He stuck out his tongue a bit, the way he always did when he concentrated hard*  And our culprit is…

Prosecutor Woo: JANG WOOSHIK!! I KNEW IT!

Sehun: Congratulations, Prosecutor Woo. Your suspicions were right and now you can use this as part of your evidence in order to obtain a warrant for his arrest.

 

“And this,” said Luhan as he held up a manila folder which contained a DVD with footage of Jang Wooshik entering the special I.T. centre in the Blue House as well as still shots of him using the computer in question.

 

Luhan: I think you’ll find it quite useful to you in your upcoming work. Serves the scumbag right. Posing as a janitor with such ulterior motives. I hope he has a nice time rotting in jail—

Sehun: Calm down, Luhan. You’re the cute one, remember?

Prosecutor Woo: Oh thank you! Your help has been well appreciated. I can now see why everyone says you two are the best team in the business!

Luhan & Sehun: Oh it was noth—

 

But the excited Prosecutor had already made his way out of the dark, and a bit cramped, room which was only illuminated by the bluish glow emanating from Sehun’s computer screen. The sunlight which streamed in through the open door made both Luhan and Sehun hiss like vampires.

 

Sehun: Uhhhh, I think we’ve been in here just a LITTLE too long. Wanna take a break? Go get some coffee or something?

“Good idea,” said Luhan, with a sigh of relief and small shake of the head.

 

HunHan walked through the corridor amidst all the stares from their colleagues who were all whispering to each other.

 

Officer Kwon: Hey, umm, Luhan! I was thinking we could work together for this assignment I go—

Luhan: Sorry, I only work with Sehun-ah.

 

He bowed and smiled a little awkwardly, hoping he didn’t hurt the other person’s feelings while Sehun just smiled, a little gloatingly at that.

 

Officer Lee: Sehun, I want you to work with me on—

Sehun: Sorry. You know Luhan and I are a fixed team. We work like a well-oiled machine. I bet Officer Kim Boong Do can help you though. He’s really good at… whatever it is you need help with, yeah.

 

“Yah!” a deep voice boomed from the end of the corridor.

 

Both Sehun and Luhan began turning and as Sehun was about to give his usual statement of Luhan and him being a set team, a sight different than what they had expected had befallen their eyes.

Walking towards them was the tall and lean frame of the well-respected Park Chanyeol, Senior Inspector. Despite his charm and somewhat cute exterior, he still managed to instil fear in the others at his place of work.

 

“Come with me.”

 

Three simple words. Yet from someone of his power and ability, they were capable of making even the mightiest giant tremble on his knees. He then turned and began walking away.

Sehun and Luhan silently shadowed the Inspector, whose gait resembled that of a King’s, like two wet cats combined with the feelings of a dog with his tail between his legs as every other officer in the corridor waited with bated breath until they could once again resume mobility. 

The trio, or rather the duo and their leader, arrived at Chanyeol’s office where he held the door open for them and gestured for them to sit. Luhan observed his office and concluded that it had a 1960’s Italian detective’s feel to it yet it was still modern, clean and exceptionally well-organized. Chanyeol sat in his dark brown leather chair, elevated his hands to face-level, and let his fingertips kiss.

The room was ear-piercingly quiet and so Sehun’s gulp of fear, as Chanyeol continued to stare at them intensely, was made quite audible which completely shattered his tough façade.

Chanyeol smiled at this.

 

Chanyeol: It will never be to my understanding why you people fear me so much. However, I believe this works to my advantage.

 

He retrieved a folder from the top drawer on the right of his mahogany desk and gently pushed it towards HunHan.

 

Chanyeol: I have a proposition for you. If you do not wish to aid me the—

Luhan: We’ll do it!

 

Sehun looked at his companion a bit confused as to why he would so readily agree to a plan without any knowledge of anything about it. This was just the sort of daring thing Luhan would do though, he realized, so he resumed his one-sided staring competition with Chanyeol, which he was evidently losing since he’d avoid eye contact every time Chanyeol even glanced in his direction.

 

Chanyeol: Your enthusiasm is well appreciated, Lu Han-ssi but I presume you’d desire even the slightest bit of information on the case before wholeheartedly accepting the offer.

Luhan looked down and twiddled his fingers, possibly in an attempt to refrain from any more overzealous outbursts.

 

Chanyeol: Now if you will both just delve into what is contained inside of that folder, I will be most delighted to narrate what will be seen.

 

Hunhan opened the folder and began looking at its contents.

 

Chanyeol: First picture. That would be a very audacious looking Kris L—

Luhan: Kris Liu!!

 

Sehun almost ran to his office to grab his special duct tape in order to get Luhan to stop talking. He looked nervously at the fear-inducing Inspector but was glad to see that he did not look angered in any way.

 

Luhan: He’s a business tycoon! A mogul whom people aspire to be like!

Chanyeol: Indeed he is. I’m glad to see that you already know of him. That knowledge should be a helpful resource to you in this case… if you still wish to be a part of it. Continuing on now… Huang Zitao, more commonly known as Tao, is—

Luhan: Kris’ personal assistant. Where Kris goes, he goes.

 

On seeing the looks he gained from both persons in the room, he said, “What?! If you know about the mogul, you should also know about the vital people who helped that mogul get to where he is. Tao plays a very important role in the life of Phoenix Corporation. He’s responsible for the organizing of so many of its essential elements.”

 

Chanyeol gave off the slightest look of awe.

 

Chanyeol: Quite the cohort you have there, Mr Oh.

 

Sehun looked quite pleased with himself as Luhan continued to look intently at the folder.

 

Chanyeol: Now I presume you’ve also heard of the Triad?

Luhan: Of course! It’s only the—

Chanyeol: Okay. *He held up his hand* And are you aware of its biggest branch?

 Luhan: Sure, it’s the—no.

 

 Luhan’s exuberant face fell in horror as Chanyeol’s lips curved at the edges.

 

Chanyeol: Yes.

 

Sehun’s facial features just remained contorted in confusion.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TIANJIN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Kris and some fifty members of his group as well as Tao stood facing the mere fifteen members of the other group in a grimy, deserted alleyway.

Ten members of the smaller group proceeded and opened ten, black, rugged briefcases each containing five million USD. Kris gave the briefcases a split-second look of disdain as if they were all a meagre piece of gum on the sidewalk.

 

Kris: Where’s the rest of it?

 

The leader of the group, Yuan Yixing, spoke up.

 

Yixing: There isn’t anymore. This is all we got. Why would we even try to deceive you like that? What fools would we be to even make such an attempt that is just destined for failure?

 

Kris smirked. A devilish smirk that would panic the devil himself. He began to slowly pace the length of his gang, arms folded intelligently behind his back.

 

Kris: It seems, my good man, that you have some level of wisdom in you. In the way that you know and acknowledge that such an attempt would only conceive failure. However, it seems that that wisdom has aborted you in the way which you still attempt this pitiful act. For you see, I am not one to exclude details nor am I someone to leave things undone or anything other than scrupulously checked.

 

Kris placed his hands inside his smoky grey, designer jacket and pulled out a pair of black leather gloves. He slowly put them on as he continued pacing and speaking.

Kris: Therefore it is to my mammoth understanding that the money which you were supposed to and did in fact retrieve, amounted to two hundred million USD for I am deserving of nothing less. Did you really think you could keep such a great amount for yourself without me ever finding out?

 

He chortled sardonically causing everyone, including those on his side, to quake in fear.

 

Kris: Also, I think I should make you know that I am aware that you have placed paper in between those stacks of money which would then reduce the amount to what? A measly thirty-five million dollars? Yes? No? Yes. You do know that you would have died a most excruciating, almost instantaneous death as soon as I had gained knowledge of this right? That of course would have only occurred if I had not been the exceptional leader which I am. And being this exceptional leader, I can assure you that your senseless death is not what I hope to obtain, for it is of no use to me. Neither is your life. However, I do think the careful deterioration of your mind to the point of insanity would prove a worthy prize… THIS is what I now hope to acquire and you can blame it all on your own selfish idiocy. I intend to make an example of you for anyone else who dares to defy my power and think ever so lightly of a bird, with flames… capable of flying high… AND… firing low.

 

With this, Kris snapped his gloved fingers which cued his cronies to attack, Tao in the lead. The opposing side attempted to run but their endeavour was laughably futile as Kris’ gang had been intensely trained as assassins. However this wasn’t a secret mission, just gruesome battle.

Not a single cry, scream, plead, snap or crack could dissuade Kris’ remarkably pleased countenance. He looked on as one of the opposing members tried to punch Tao as hard as possible directly in the gut which he fluidly dodged as he administered a deathly aerial kick to the side of the man’s head which sent him flying a good few metres. He looked on as another promptly slammed an opposing man hard onto the gravelly surface of the alley. Sounds of the gravel scraping in its intense friction as well as the possible cracking of ribs emanated from that spot. He saw yet another of his men crashing a man into one of red brick walls as he suspended him in the air by holding his neck. Kris could see the man’s face turning purple and the veins, in what could actually be seen of his neck, popping vividly. Kris’ perfect eyesight allowed him to see all of this despite the only light source being the pale glow of the moon which had been partially obscured by a wispy sheath of pale midnight blue clouds.

And he had seen enough. He raised one hand into the air and all of his men, as if sensing his command, automatically stopped what they were doing.

 

Kris: Enough, you idiots. Did I not say that I did not desire their deaths? Have you no control? Neither do I want them so hurt that they can’t even feel the future torture. Just take them away in the vans and put them in the cages at headquarters.

 

Kris counted as he saw fourteen men hauled away into black SUVs. He settled on the fact that one of the men had probably been so battered that he was dead and had been disposed of already since he had seen Tao setting fire to a garbage can. However, it would be wise to say that he merely convinced himself of that possibility because his mind was preoccupied as it was the norm for Tao to leave a dark red flame ablaze wherever their activities had taken place.

 

Kris: Tao, come here.

 

Tao quickly walked over to Kris, never wishing to let him wait for anything… or to ever disobey him.

 

Kris: I think we need to step our game up a little. It seems that the weak are now becoming even braver than the strong. There are many weak sides, Tao, and I do not wish for them to come together, for they may then be a force to be reckoned with. Therefore I must destroy my enemy… before they even become one. We need a major increase in everything. Regarding the company, we need more industries to branch out into and more influence. Regarding the Phoenix, we need more inventory, increased member levels, and an increased scare factor. Since they don’t seem to respect us when we play… regularly, fair doesn’t work for me, let’s see how they like it when we play dirty.

 

Kris heard a very slight movement from behind the dumpster hidden in the shadows. He stared at the source of the sound which Tao had not even heard. Out from under the dumpster ran four disgusting rats in all their disease-ridden loveliness. Kris disregarded the ugly creatures and returned his gaze to a pale-from-fright yet still determined Tao.

 

Luhan: I can’t believe this!

Chanyeol: Well believe it! And due to your shock, I guess you can understand just how well he is able to hide this. This is why I requested the help of the two of you. I need the most discreet, most thorough, most wise, in general THE best individuals working on this with me.

 

Luhan raised his hand to his chest, signifying his touched heart. Sehun, even though he understood the situation more now, continued to stare blankly at the Inspector he respected so much whom he couldn’t believe was now requesting his help.

 

Chanyeol: So… are you willing?

Luhan: OF COURSE!

Tao: Your wish, is my command.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

I usually write stuff at the end of my stories but I really don't know what to put here so just... HI. :3 xD

And thanks for reading~! ^^