“The two of you follow me, the rest go around.” SungYeol whispered to the men behind him, turning his gaze back in front of him in split second. His grip tightened around the handle of his gun, his heart started to race in his bullet-proof vest clad chest. Everything was riding on this mission – his dignity, carrier and safety and privacy of hundreds, if not thousands of people.

He had been tracking down the gang – Children of Hades- for quite a while and he could not let them go now.  Children of Hades were distributing faulty programming systems in tremendous amounts, gathering the personal data of the ones who purchased as it first seemed a new, harmless security update for their computer and then using the data for online business registering, per example - gambling sites, or emptying the bank accounts of the ones who had fallen in their trap. He had been working for months to come to this point – their hideout and finally capturing them.

“On my mark.” SungYeol uttered, leaning forward and being ready to launch up and forward from the place where he and his fellow officers were hiding at the moment, looking at the basement window, which was the place where the culprits were hiding. The tension rose with each second. The humid air of the summer night seemed to grow thicker and thicker and it was the last moment to act.

‘Now or never.’ SungYeol let out a breath and slowly, contradicting to the adrenalin that made his insides to boil in need to move, stood up, holding his hand up to the two men behind him for countdown. “Five…” he whispered in to the receiver letting the other group the time on when to enter the hideout.

‘Four…’ he gulped to his mind loudly and folded down one of his fingers. ‘Three…’ he spared a glance to his gun, sending a quiet prayer that he wouldn’t actually need to fire it and put down another finger. ‘Two…’ he lowered another finger and took a half step forward. ‘One…” he gave the last glance to the shabby entrance of the hideout and then motioned his now clenched fist forward, leading the way quietly across the empty parking lot, reaching the door in few seconds.

He looked at the men behind him – two kids even younger than him that were assigned as his deputies the moment they stepped in the police station – and nodded, stepping aside and letting one of them – JongIn – to kick open the door.

“Nobody move! Police!” JongIn’s low voice boomed around the walls of the cramped room that was set almost like an internet café, causing a true chaos. Yells and shouts in different languages, growing louder when the second team entered trough the other door, filled the room making the communication between the police groups impossible.

“Don’t let them touch the computers!” SungYeol yelled, putting his gun behind his belt and grabbing a shaky, skinny Thai kid by his arm and pulling the later away from a computer, knocking him down on the floor, proceeding with few more kids (really, none of them was older than SungYeol or his young colleagues) ], who tried their best to run information erasing programs.

“This one’s gone!” JongIn yelled from across the room. “This one’s too.” KyungSoo, the other deputy, shouted and that did not mean anything good.

“Get them all out of here!” SungYeol ordered, looking around the room, searching for the mother-computer of all these. His eyes stopped on a door at the very back and without a second though he rushed towards it. He pulled his gun back out, taking it securely in both of his hands, before kicking the door open. For his surprise, a young girl, possible the same age as he himself, sat at the desk, three monitors on front of her, frantically typing something.

“Stop it right there.” He said, aiming at the girl and moving closer. “Raise your hands so I could see them.” He continued when there was only the desk and one step between him and the girl. “Stand up. You’re under arrest for distribution of virus infected programs, personal data theft and usage of the said data for illegal purposes.”

The girl slowly raised her head, her big, doe like eyes ogling at SungYeol. She tilted her head to the side, a devilish smirk appearing on her face. “No Amazon shall ever be captured by a man.” She said and raised her right hand up to the lever of her chin, his other hand following.

“What are you doing?” SungYeol asked, raising his gun a bit higher. “Stand up.” He ordered but received a laugh in return as she took a hold of her right pinky. “Long lives the goddess!” she exclaimed before snapping her pinky with a single move, a crack being well heard even despite the ruckus in the next room. Her eyes rolled back in to her scull in matter of second, her body started to shake violently before she fell face first on to the desk.

“Yah!” SungYeol finally exclaimed as the scene before his eyes had made him speechless. He put his gun away and walked around the table. He carefully leaned closer to the girl, testing her pulse with his fingers. The pulse was gone. “Damn it!” he hissed and looked at the screens.

She had tried to start total hard drive self destruction, but was just few click short. “Last minute.” SungYeol sighed and glanced at the dead girl once more before walking back to the main room, where just JongIn was now in. “We took them all outside, sir.” He said and SungYeol nodded once. “And sir, I think this is bigger than we realize. The chief called. NSS will be here in 10 minutes.”

As promised, a dark SUV, followed by as dark van pulled over at the scene in 10 minutes. The chief of the local police department arrived just 3 minutes later. Men in suits rained out from the van, all moving in to the building and soon starting to carry out the computers, files, wires, everything that was movable in there.

“What’s going on?” SungYeol looked at scene in awe before walking to the chief, who was now talking to a tall, broad shoulders man in an obviously expensive grey suit.

“Lee SungYeol, I suppose.” The man spoke, turning his full attention to SungYeol. The ID card attached to the pocket of his jacket read ‘NSS CSD Director So JiSub.’ “The chief was currently in the middle of swearing that you did not mean any harm.” He said with a small smirk, which made the chief to go three tones paler.

“No, no, no, no. What I meant was that he meant no harm and did all good, all good.” The man in his mid forties said frantically, forcing out the weirdest smile SungYeol had ever seen, but it seemed to have no effect on the NSS representative. The man looked at the chief for a second and turned back to SungYeol.

“You counted out them yourself?” he asked, obviously directing the question to SungYeol. “Yes, sir.” SungYeol replied with pride, as he was indeed proud of doing this all on his own. “And the operation – you planned it out?” he asked another question. “Yes.” SungYeol gave an affirmative answer to that as well. “The IP tracking job was done by…?” the changed the form of his question, even though he probably knew the answer. “By me, sir.” SungYeol replied quickly, even though he was not sure where was this conversation going.

“Sir, we are all set.” A voice from the side where the black van parked spoke and the grey-suited man waved his hand once. The man who spoke quickly bowed with his shoulders and got in the van along with the others and drove off.

“I hope to see a detailed report on this mission and the whole investigation as soon as possible.” The man spoke, to which SungYeol nodded once. “And, be ready to… come over on a short notice.” He added before turning to the chief. “Get the transfer papers ready.” He said before making a short bow and heading to the black SUV and soon driving away the same direction the van took.

“What that last part meant?” SungYeol turned to the chief, who had finally relaxed.

 “Kid, you’ve been scouted by NSS.”

~ Ω ~

“Ouh, relax! You’re scouted by the National Security Service! Na.ti.o.nal!” JongIn laughed with the emphasis on the last word, sparing a short glance to SungYeol, who was sitting next to him in the car, and then returned his eyes back on the road. “Should have gotten a cab.” SungYeol murmured and jumped slightly when KyungSoo’s hand landed on his shoulder from the backseat. “JongIn is right. Relax. You basically concluded a major investigation on your own, so no wonder they took notice of you.” He said with smile in his voice before leaning back in his seat.

“There was something… off about that director.” SungYeol frowned, looking through the window at the city passing by. He quite couldn’t understand what exactly was wrong, but he knew there was something.

“Please, you thought there is something off about me and KyungSoo-hyung too.” JongIn said, turning to the right, nearing the NSS building with each second.

“There is. And you can’t deny that.”  SungYeol frowned again. “It just turned out to be a good thing in your case.”

“Stop frowning and fix your tie, hyung. We’re here.” KyungSoo slapped his shoulder and SungYeol averted his eyes from the road and looked up. The building was huge and the amount of people and cars going in and out was huge as well. The though alone of the amount of data circulating in the building and between it and other distributors made SungYeol’s head to spin a little.

“Go. Make us proud and come over once in a while.” KyungSoo smiled and handed SungYeol his laptop bag from the back-seat. SungYeol nodded once, let out a breath and got out of the car, staring at the enormous construction in front of him.

“Hyung!” JongIn suddenly spoke behind him, making him to turn around. “Fighting.” He smiled brightly, throwing his fist in the air and KyungSoo mimicked him cutely. “Fighting.” SungYeol replied, doing the same hand movement. He turned around again and walked toward the building that held his future.

The hallways were like mazes. The amount of doors, section and glass ‘cages’ full of highest technologies and people who probably knew how to work with them even in their sleep – it was fascinating and frightening at the same time. The fascinating part took over, but the fear stayed and SungYeol couldn’t help it, wandering through the corridors with glass cubicles on both sides until he finally reached the slide-door that separated Cyber Security Department from the rest of the NSS sections.

The door opened before him and closed behind him, quite literarily showing what was going on with his life at this point. He was opening a new page or rather starting a new chapter and all he had to do was to open the directors’ doors and report his arrival. ‘You’re here because you deserve it. You are here to succeed.’ He let out a sigh before knocking on the door and pressing the handle down.

“You’re finally here.” The director spoke in calm, deep voice while sitting behind a glass table packed with papers and  devices, from which some SungYeol had never seen before. The director seemed over all more laid back than he seemed to be few days ago, but that did not make him look incompetent – on the other hand, it assured SungYeol that he knew enough, to be this calm. His jacket was hung on the back of his chair, the sleeves of his dress-shirt rolled up neatly; his tie loosened a little. “I’ll introduce you to the team.” He said and stood up, rolled down his sleeves, fixed his tie and took the grey-ish brown jacket from the backrest of his chair and putting it on. “Follow me.” He walked pass SungYeol and the later barely managed to snap out and follow his new supervisor.

“I think someone in the team will be kind enough to show you around later on, but as for now we need to get to work.” The director said, entering one of the glass cubicles – largest one in the CSD department for sure and also the best equipped with countless smaller and bigger monitors, gadgets and what not – and everyone in the room either turned to him or stood up from their seats. There were all together six people there and none of them was much older than SungYeol, which was quite unbelievable.

“Everyone, meet the new part of Cyber Security Department and the leader of field team – Lee SungYeol.” The director spoke and everyone turned their eyes to SungYeol, apart from one guy who was standing further away, his arms crossed of his white shirt covered chest. “Your field team consists of Lee Howon” the director spoke and pointed towards a rather short, dark haired male who playfully saluted “and Nam WooHyun.” He pointed to anther male, who smiled brightly, his messy dark brown bangs almost completely covering the half-moons of his eye-smile and saluted as well. “The team leader Kim SungGyu might join the field operations, depending on the scale.” The director added and a male with red-ish brown hair nodded once, glancing at SungYeol with his narrow eyes.

“The situation room team is Jang DongWoo, Lee SungJong and the strategic/situation room leader Kim MyungSoo.” Two of the mentioned smile and somehow showed their presence while the guy at the back stayed stoic and didn’t move a muscle. “We’re meeting in conference room in 30 minutes. Be ready.” The director said and left the room, leaving now seven men in it.

“Director So usually picks his recruits well and even the special unit that backs us up in missions is personally picked by him, so we trust his judgment. It’s up to you to not mess this up.” The team leader, which as SungYeol remembered went by the name Kim SungGyu spoke. “So do your best and don’t even think about slacking off.” He added before sitting back down at one of the monitors in the room.

“Don’t mind him. He’s glad he got the field tea leading of his neck.” The one named Nam WooHyun said with a laugh.  “You still have to do your best, but if you wouldn’t be capable of it you wouldn’t be here.”

“We will know what he’s capable off only when a mission comes.” The male who had stayed perfectly still and quiet finally spoke. “If he has the same authority problem as some, he might as well leave now.” He continued.

“That is not an authority problem, I just thought another maneuver would work and that was only once. Stop being Mister Grumpy-Pants, MyungSoo.” WooHyun snapped back before turning back to a screen as well.

“All maneuvers should be planned, or else they could lead to a disaster, you know that, Nam.” The one who obviously was the strategic leader Kim MyungSoo replied calmly yet with a threatening tone. “And as for you,” he turned his cold, piercing gaze to SungYeol, “the pure luck that you succeeded in this ‘mission’ of yours, does not you make better than any of the officers back at your home station and does not make you special or no near equal with anyone in this room.”

“Luck?” SungYeol mouthed quietly, his eyes growing wider as he looked at the raven-haired man before him. “That was no luck… I… I planed…” SungYeol started but was cut off immediately.

“One does not enter a criminal hideout only with two men on his team. One does not let the other team to count on their own as one second too early or too late can make everything go straight to hell. One instructs every single person who participates in the operation what to do with the data devices. One does not enter a room on his own. I read your report. It was luck and luck works, in best case, once.” MyungSoo spoke, the tone of his voice near freezing – like when a teacher scolds his pupil for a wrong doing. “As long as you’re in this team, which to my mind won’t be too long, listen to every single order and don’t think of any ‘missions’ of your own.” He finished and turned around, taking a seat at a desk further in the room.

“But… I’m here. That means that…” SungYeol started again, but the male cut him off again without even looking at him. “If not the fact that you miraculously found Children of Hades with a simple desk computer at a police station, you would not be here. That might be the only extraordinary thing about you.”

“MyungSoo, stop. He’s new here and you are not giving the best first impression about yourself.” A guy with purplish hair said and looked at the still dumb-struck SungYeol from his seat. “He is not as mean as he sounds. He has his reasons.” He said with a kind smile. “I’m DongWoo, by the way.”  He said and was the only one who reached out a hand for a greeting, which SungYeol accepted. “Ask me, if you need anything.” He said with a bright smile.

“My suggestion is to stop this and prepare for the meeting.” MyungSoo spoke again, making SungYeol to look at him again. What kind of reasons could he have to act like this?

“You better listen to what either of Kim leaders says as much as you listen to what director So says. That will make things smoother for everyone.” DongWoo whispered before turning to monitor, just to turn back seconds later. “Your spot is next to mister extra grumpy strategic leader.  Sorry.” He said and turned around again; leaving SungYeol to think for a moment about actually walking out of here and asking for a transfer back as it was pretty clear that for a weird reason the man who was responsible for his safety during any kind of mission did not favor him and that was a huge problem.

‘No. You are here because you deserve it. Even he said there is one thing extraordinary about you. Prove that there is more than just one.’ SungYeol let out a breath and went to his seat. It didn’t look like this Kim MyungSoo paid any attention to him what so ever now, so he sat down quietly, taking out his report from his bag along with his laptop. Kim MyungSoo had read his report, that means it was presented to him by director So, which means, perhaps, the mission leader did have a reason to be like this.

SungYeol listed trough his report once more and he could have sworn the male next to him looked at him for a short second, but that might as well have been just his imagination. His mind was in overdrive already and it was just the beginning of his first work day. The director was definitely off in a way SungYeol could not guess; the whole team seemed too young to have any actual experience, but in a way they all looked more than just competent yet he couldn’t judge until a mission appeared; hone of his co-workers disliked him already for a weird reason and the last turned out to be even more fascinating that all this experience up till now and probably all together. What could make a guy probably not even a year older than SungYeol like this?

∞