Jiyong watched Victoria stifle another yawn as they clustered together in his office with Jaehyo perched on the edge of his desk while she leaned back in the chair opposite his, one knee crossed demurely over the other.  He glanced at the wall clock and smiled apologetically when it showed just after seven in the evening; closing time.  “I won’t keep you long, Vic,” he assured her with a warm expression, hands gesturing to either side of him.

                “She’ll be fine, boss,” Jaehyo chuckled lightly, reaching out to pat her shoulder in a comforting gesture while she looked up at him with a skeptical glare, her lips pulling upwards in amusement despite her attempts otherwise.

                “I’m good, G,” she assured the platinum blonde male with a dismissive wave of her hand.  “I’m just not used to showing up at five in the morning when we don’t even open until eight,” she giggled, sitting upright to straighten her spine before leaning back once more.

                “I know, but with what we heard about earlier today,” he nodded in return, shrugging with a quick gesture as he met their gazes in turn.  “Gotta love favors,” Jiyong sighed as he rolled his eyes.  While he was positive that his agreeing to offer Changmin assistance hadn’t precipitated the attacks on Key and Micky’s shops, the fact that they were targeted couldn’t be dismissed so easily.  If it hadn’t been an inventory day with a new round of goods just having arrived, he would have sent both his managers home already.  “So!” he exclaimed, clapping his hands together while he leaned forward to draw their attention back to the meeting.  “Inventory is being a pain again,” he chuckled, looking at both his managers expectantly.

                “It’s always a pain,” Jaehyo sighed, shoulders rising and falling with the huge inhalation.

                “Yeah, but with these favors lately, it’s definitely been a little out of sorts,” Victoria clarified, twirling a straight strand of her chocolate brown hair between her fingers.

                “Neh.  And that should settle down soon,” Jiyong assured her with a serious expression before he paused, brows creased in confusion when he heard a beep sound from the small monitor on the desk behind him.  “Eh?” he murmured, spinning around in his sliding chair as he kicked himself closer.

                “What’s up, boss?” Jaehyo asked, shifting on the edge slightly so that both feet were touching the ground once more.  He was aware of Victoria sitting up beside him, legs uncrossing as both hands settled on the arm of her stationary chair tensely.  They both heard him growl quietly in the back of his throat, the hair on the back of their necks standing on end as a result.

                “My alarm system just croaked,” he muttered dangerously, dark eyes narrowing to slits as he reached under the desk to make sure it hadn’t randomly come unplugged or something equally unlikely.

                “Well that’s not good,” Jaehyo commented quickly, hopping off the desk while he ran a hand through his wavy brown locks with a nervous gesture.

                “No.  It’s not,” Jiyong confirmed a half-breath later when the power flickered off in turn, casting them into darkness save for the emergency lights and the rest of the gear set up on backup generators.

                “The failsafe,” Victoria murmured, pushing herself up to stride over to the desk, reaching under the cubby hole where Jiyong was sitting to access the locked safe.  “Three minutes and counting?” she asked without looking over her shoulder, punching in the correct sequence as she knelt primly before the mechanism.

                “Yep,” Jiyong’s disgruntled sigh alerted them both to his ire and their danger.  So stupid…  He accepted the Beretta Victoria handed him without complaint, watching as she handed off a slender but compact shotgun to Jaehyo and took the dual revolvers.  If they’d have just cut the power first, then the time concern wouldn’t even be a problem but because of the nature of the business, Jiyong made sure he had a failsafe in place to keep his non-commercial goods out of the wrong hands; hence the countdown.  Then again, he’d always figured he’d be the one to trigger it himself…

                “Back entrance?” Jaehyo commented quietly, moving over to the office door to peek out into the darkened interior.  They’d already closed up the curtains and blinds for the day so the ambient light from the rest of the city seeped in under the edges and through the cracks, providing only a modicum of illumination to see by.

                “It’d have to be.  Still too much traffic at the front,” Victoria murmured, shifting to back up her taller companion, her fingers wrapped comfortably around the hilts of her guns.  “Anything?”

                Jaehyo shook his head and eased through, keeping his back pressed against the wall.  “We’ll cover the ground floor, boss.  Head upstairs and see if you can’t disarm it,” he whispered in a soft tone, keeping his eyes trained on the swinging door into the back.

                “Got it,” Jiyong agreed, sliding past Victoria as she stepped into the open as well, nodding at him once before she shifted her attention to her companion, three inch heels clicking softly at each step.

                Backpedaling carefully, Jiyong kept his eyes trained on the back door, feeling his way towards the staircase.  There were two shut-off ports in his store, just in case one was… inconvenient to get to, but he could only hope they’d give him time enough to deactivate it or they’d all go up in flames.  “!” he cursed quietly, noticing the door open slowly before both Victoria and Jaehyo opened fire to keep whoever was trying to come in pinned down.

                “Go, G!” Victoria yelled, sprinting away from the wall as she fired wantonly at the door, empty shells pinging on the floor beside her at each step while she bolted for cover near the entrance.

                Jaehyo ducked down low behind one of the additional merchandise counters at the back and peeked over the glass surface, counting on the lack of light and the obscuring quality of his barrier to hide his presence.  He flinched and ducked reactively when the doors burst open and several figures jumped through, spreading out to rush them semi-blindly.  In the poor lighting, they were difficult to make out but the burst of light from their guns nearly blinded him so he fired without proper sight, the loud boom of the shotgun echoing in the interior before return fire was aimed at him, splintering the glass of his barrier effortlessly.

                Setting up an indirect crossfire pattern, Victoria popped up over her own counter, steadying her arms on the surface as she fired off several rounds, squinting to see past the light her own guns threw.  Her heart raced in her chest as she heard the sound of bullets tearing into the barrier in front of her, ripping pieces of debris free and flinging it into her face, forcing her to seek cover for a brief respite.

                Ducking low to keep out of sight, Jiyong grimaced while he listened to the battle beneath him, dashing to the back through the racks of clothes that helped to hide his presence.  Yanking the loose floorboards away, he tore at the protective covering hiding the access panel, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth as he listened to the repeated gunfire and shouts behind him.  Was that Victoria screaming or was his mind just making things up?

                Unable to stop himself, he flinched and ducked for cover when a low explosion went off and the entire store was filled with light, back to back.  Spots filled his eyes and his head ached with a sharp, pounding pain that speared his temple from what had to be the effects of two flash bombs.  The feel of vibrations on the same floor as him alerted Jiyong to the presence of someone else nearby.  “!” he cursed, banging the access panel with the of his gun to force it open.

                The dented metal curled up enough for him to remove it hastily, revealing a counting down timer that was already approaching a minute remaining on the clock.  Hand shaking from an abundance of nerves, he tried to type in the deactivation code, growling angrily at himself when he pushed the wrong button the first try.

                “Hey!” someone else called from behind him, forcing him to reel back and fire blindly, the burst round giving him the advantage in which at least one bullet found its target.

                His attacker cried out in pain, spasming from the wound before he tried to swing his weapon around in turn, holding the trigger to release a spray of bullets towards the cowering male.  Bullets from the automatic weapon tore into the ground and wall, spattering around Jiyong until he felt fire explode in his right arm and side, forcing him to drop his weapon from unresponsive fingers.

                Gasping for the pain, Jiyong swallowed harshly and fell forward, aiming for the panel once more.  He had to input the code…  .  One of the bullets from his attacker had torn through the deactivation panel, making it impossible to stop the countdown from this section.  ersely, the timer was still active and they were down to just over thirty seconds.  Go figure…

                Smiling bitterly, Jiyong didn’t even try to pick up his weapon again, reaching instead for his phone as he hit the first number on speed dial.  A long look at his attacker showed him to be unfamiliar which wasn’t surprising.  Grimacing in pain, he quickly searched the pockets with his good arm, holding the phone to his shoulder with his ear, and found a wallet, giving him the identity of his attacker.  He held the license grimly in his bloody fingers while he hobbled over to see how Victoria and Jaehyo were doing, feeling his heart sink lower and lower when no one answered his call.

                His throat grew tight when it finally went to voicemail and he listened to that beautiful, deep voice speak to him as he watched his managers… his friends continue to fight, wounded and unarmed but refusing to be captured so easily.  The bastards wanted them alive after all.  One of Victoria’s heels was broken, showing her to be on uneven ground as she grappled with the figure trying to subdue her.  He smiled proudly as she clawed and fought like a wild thing, aiming for every weak spot she could think of before shrieking in defiant anger and pain as her attacker tackled her to the ground, pinning her beneath his body.

                Jaehyo was still unhindered, one arm hanging limply at his side though he continued to dodge and kick savagely.  A nasty roundhouse slammed into one of the intruders who seemed reluctant to shoot him, leaving him open to the other male who stepped in and hammered him soundly in the back of the spine with the of his gun, rendering the tall male defenseless as his knees buckled without his permission.

                Beep.  Jiyong was startled out of his pained stare as he realized he was running out of time.  “Seunghyunnie,” he breathed in a shaky whisper, feeling his throat grow tight and his chest heavy.  Before he ran out of time, he spat out the name on the license and added, “He was here.”  A nervous look over his shoulder at the hidden timer made him swallow and close his eyes, shoving out all other sounds.  “You were the best mistake I ever made.”  A tear slipped past his closed lids, staining the flawless plane of his cheek.  “I love you, Seunghyunnie.  I always-”

                Glass and brick exploded onto the streets of New York in a cacophonous roar of sound, flames and billowing smoke, sending pedestrians screaming from the wreckage and vehicles on the streets veering into traffic in the other lane to avoid the debris.  Shortly following the initial explosion, several smaller ones rocked the foundations of the store near the back, sending the standing remains of the structure tumbling in on itself, crumbling in a series of eroding supports and walls.  A few seconds of stunned chaos passed, filled with the sounds of settling debris, screaming people and a growing sea of honking horns, never mind that Dragon’s Used Goods was no more.

                Refreshed after his shower, Seunghyun padded into his bedroom swathed in a comfortable dark gray robe and slippers, feeling relaxed and calm after another long day at work.  Not that it was particularly difficult mind you, but it was tedious more often than not.  Things had been slow lately and with the mess those three idiots were making of things, he wanted little to do with them.  Never mind that they’d all tried to send envoys to speak to him about their slip-up.  Stupid.

                He forced himself to take a calming breath when the thought was set to get him riled up and tense again and he’d only just managed to relax.  Now, all he wanted was a tumbler of bourbon, his recliner and perhaps a movie to help keep his mind off the madness of current affairs.  He paused mid-step when he noticed there was a light blinking on his personal phone.  It was unusual enough for someone to try to contact him outside the office that he detoured to see what it was about and his eyes widened when he saw he’d missed a call from Ji.

                Feeling his heart palpitate faster against his chest, he called back to see what the other male had said.  They hadn’t spoken in quite some time, seeing that their schedules always seemed to conflict, though they sent regular enough text messages.  The fact that Jiyong had called him merited looking into immediately.  The first word he heard made his lips pull up into a smile, though his brows knit together at what sounded suspiciously like gunfire in the background.

                All joy melted away quickly and he jerked in surprise, eyes growing wider in his face when the message died before Jiyong could finish speaking, disappearing into a burst of angry sound and static and cutting off abruptly.  Frozen in place, Seunghyun blinked once, every muscle tense once more.  His lips thinned into a dangerous line and the phone fell away from his ear, clenched so tightly in his hand the frame crumpled under his fingers, biting into his flesh in the process.

                He barely felt it, consumed instead by rage that failed to reach his face, but ignited dangerously in his eyes, furious orbs of roiling ire.  Jaw clenched so tight it hurt, he tossed aside the despicable device that had delivered such news and stalked to his secure landline.  The call connected after one ring, “Sir?”

                “My office.  Now.”  He ended the call before the other could ask any sort of question in regards to what had happened or why.  It didn’t matter he wasn’t ready to go or that his office was in the business sector of downtown.  He had a name to investigate and vengeance to dispense.  Immediately.

                While Jaejoong had long since stated there was simply never enough time in a day, nightfall could not come soon enough for him as he skulked about near the docks where The Ferrier was stationed for the time being.  His initial once over of the place hadn’t revealed anything out of the ordinary and it didn’t look as if there was any sort of extra security.  He knew that Kyuhyun had run a stake on the place at one point but he wasn’t sure if there’d been any follow up to it or not.

                And unfortunately, or maybe it was fortunate in his case, he hadn’t exactly seen anyone he recognized in the vicinity either.  There was definitely a light crew on the boat itself and some shipyard workers but little else.  Once he had the protective cover of nightfall, he should be able to get closer without too much trouble.  He’d seen a few actual homeless persons nearby and none of them had raised any sort of attention.  Granted, they weren’t anywhere near the ship but no one gave them a second look.  Hopefully, that would bode well for him.  Hopefully…

                Taking several calming breaths as he tried not to think about Changmin and his involvement in the matter, both in his parents’ case and this one, Jaejoong watched the slowly sinking orb of light settle below the horizon, finally extinguishing itself entirely when the simmering glow of pink, orange, and purple light faded from his sight.  The dock lights were still fairly bright, illuminating the area very well, but at least most of the workers had gone home, leaving a handful of security guards who patrolled around lazily.

                He kept letting his eyes trail to the cameras he’d managed to locate in the area and while he hadn’t figured out exactly how to get around them, at least he knew they were there.  He’d gone over various options but the only one that had seemed even remotely possible had been an approach by water if he wanted to get on the boat without a huge risk of being seen.  Any strange figure recorded climbing aboard by normal means was likely to be remarked upon.  So would a strange figure sneaking in by abnormal means as well but at least he had less chance of being spotted immediately.

                Steeling himself, and his courage to actually find a path into the water, Jaejoong slunk to the edge and peered down dubiously at the dark reflective surface.  Who knew what was hidden in the murky depths…?  Shaking himself, he clung to the statistical fact that you were more likely to be killed by pigs than you were to be attacked by sharks, even if that gave him little comfort when faced with getting into the chilly water with no ability to see much of anything past the surface he would be treading.  And of course, he had to actually get into position to go into the water…

                “Brilliant,” he grumbled, staring up and down the edge of the docks, wishing a magical bridge would just appear that he could walk over and not have to worry about any of this sneaking crap.  When no such bridge materialized, he sighed heavily and nodded to himself, carefully making his way to a building that was adjacent to the docks, using it to hide his presence as he stiffly hung himself over the ledge and dangled above the water, staring at the surface a few feet below his feet.

                The sound of the lapping edges played tricks on his mind and everything sounded like something swimming nearby.  “You’re an idiot,” he told himself closing his eyes as he finally forced his hands to let go and drop him into the cold waters, briefly shocking his system from the change, every sense stretched to the extreme as he desperately tried to orient himself, keeping one hand firmly planted on the surface of the wall.  “So stupid,” he whispered, teeth chattering as much from the chill as from his own nerves as he slowly paddled his way towards The Ferrier.

                Barring certain experiences, it was one of the most nerve wracking experiences he’d ever been through where everything that touched him under the water was trying to eat him, even if it was just a random tendril of flotsam or seaweed.  He wasn’t sure how he didn’t scream when he felt what had to be a fish brush against his arm, or it might have been his imagination again, but he was nigh on exhausted by the time he reached the side of the massive cargo ship, the edge of the boat looming above him dauntingly.

                Then Jaejoong actually started looking around the boat for a path up.  He’d rather just assumed that because he didn’t see an anchor on the side he was able to inspect, there would be one he could climb or something like that but having another look… no anchor.  Well .  Caught between wanting to face palm himself and screaming in utter frustration, Jaejoong slowly made his way around the ship, hoping he’d missed something.  The far side maybe?

                Again, no such luck.  At least not in regards to a large, chain sunk in the water to keep the boat in place.  No.  It was close enough to the docks to just tie off.  “Oh my god you’re so stupid, Jae,” he told himself blinking up at the edge in the dim light of the moon.  “Oh?” he murmured, brows dipping in hesitant speculation as he noticed something else dangling from the edge.  It wasn’t a chain, but it looked like a line of rope that hadn’t been secured properly, falling instead over the side of the boat to dangle just above the surface of the water.  “No way…” he breathed, immediately doubting his luck.

                With no other recourse, besides heading back out of the water, wherever he’d be able to find a way up, the rope was his best bet.  Dubiously, he kicked up enough to grab the end, wincing in pain as he clung to the surprisingly secure line, partially hanging in the water.  It would be so much easier if every muscle in his torso didn’t violently ache just then…  Gathering his reserves and steeling himself, Jaejoong hissed painfully with the upper body strength necessary to haul his lower half out of the water and make his way up enough to grasp the line with his legs, buying him just a hint of a respite.

                Trembling where he hung against the side of the ship, he prayed that he’d have just a little bit more luck than having the random good chance of finding such a rope to actually allow him entrance to The Ferrier.  Now all he needed to do was get in, find some sort of incriminating evidence without being spotted, and get out.  Easy enough.  Right…

(a/n:  Yay!  Got one up within a week.  XD  Took me longer than usual to pull the words together too.  -_-  Bleh.  But I hope you enjoyed the update, even if the events weren't entirely happy.  I hope to have some time this weekend to work on this so with any luck, you might be seeing another update before too long.  My fingers are crossed!  Thanks for reading and please look forward to the next chapter.  ^_^)