“Wake up!” Bora kicked Sunny lightly. The older girl stirred under the table crawled out to stretch herself.

“What time is it?”

“Time for you to find a new place to live! Look at the clutter you have on my table!”

“Oh... well Bora, I’m very close to finishing this...”

“Well make it today and get out. I can’t really have you around. It’s bad for business.”

“And bad for you, I know. I got it. I’ll be here for a bit and I’ll leave. Go to work, don’t worry about me.”

“I can’t leave you here alone...”

“Go, I’ll be fine. I think I know how to lock the door behind me. I just need another hour or two... get to work. I’m sure you have a lot of stuff to do.”

“Yeah, no thanks to you. The shootout at the mall, I trust that was you...”

“Wasn’t my fault!” Sunny added in her defense. Bora left the apartment leaving Sunny alone to finish her investigation. After an additional hour and a half she found what she wanted, she reached for her phone. “Becky!? Good news, you won’t have to worry about ever working for that place or him again. I’ll talk to you real soon. Yeah, today is the last day.”

*********************

“What the hell happened?!” Hyoyeon was furious. The man from yesterday had escaped. He had not been fully questioned yet and now he was gone. He wasn’t left overnight in the hospital for this reason. She turned to Siwon and questioned him. “It was your people’s responsibility wasn’t it? How did you lose a suspect?”

“How are you blaming me? I was out and drinking with the other team members,” Siwon quickly defended.

“Where’s the station director? There is some seriously flaws in security. We should have moved him to central...” Hyoyeon steamed. Taeyeon told her to calm down and the two went to their office, after Taeyeon informed everyone to find the suspect and to find Tactical Officer Lee Soonkyu. The two agents retreated to the office on loan them. “Unthinkable... We’re the NIS and we can lose a suspect from our own building.”

“Hyoyeon, calm down. There no need to be worried. The man is yet but a pawn. Hardly something be upset over,” Taeyeon said.

“Oh he was a ghost, a suspect, a pawn yes. But who helped him out? How did he get out? We’re NIS, this shouldn’t happen. Granted this place isn’t exactly maximum security but still... but still... we should ask for more agents from Central. I am starting to lose faith with those at this station.”

“I get what you mean, but we got to stay focus. We can’t lose the objective. We’ve done this before. We gotta pony up and get on with it.”

“I bet you anything the Americans are laughing at us right now, I just know it.”

“Well, no one will get fired so we’ll be okay. We got videos and logs coming in. We’ll put together what happened.”

****************

“So he has a kid? How does that help?”

“Well he pays a bit of a child support for his daughter, who doesn’t know exactly what her dad does for a living...”

“We’re going to blackmail with his daughter?! That’s your plan... if I had known that I would have never bothered...”

“Let me finished! I’ve found out that he only visits her twice a month, the mother doesn’t want anything to do with him and even better she doesn’t know what he does either,” Sunny continued.

“So we’re going to blackmail with all that information? You have documents and stuff?”

“I do, but we need a little more... has he seen you , or your back?” Sunny asked. Becky answered no and Sunny grinned. “Perfect, we need to get you some ink.”

The two arrived to club looking for Mr. Mean Guy, he wasn’t too thrilled to see the two and asked what purpose they had being there. Sunny placed a single photo down on his desk. He looked at the photo and noticed a girl going to school. Earlier in the morning Sunny had went out to take pictures of the daughter and the mother. The man denied knowing the little girl in the photo. Sunny anticipated this move and had Becky present another photo, this time of the man and his daughter together.

“What’s this? Is this supposed to scare me? So I took a photo with a little girl.” He scoffed.

“Don’t you mean your daughter?” Sunny corrected him. Placing down further photos and began to reveal the birth information from the hospital, signing his name as the father. The man was silent; the two girls knew a bit too much about him.

“I was thinking about telling her and her mommy what it is you actually do and how you treat bigger girls... I’m sure they would love to know,” Becky said.

“What? That’s your big plan? Think I’ll leave you two alone and clear your debt because you’ll tell them? Hah, seriously?” The man laughed. Sunny and Becky looked at each other with slight disappointment. “You girls are over your heads; I think I’ll add some interest for this...”

“I’m sorry... but are you aware her mother’s cousin?” Sunny asked calmly.

“You think her cousin in the marines will come beat me up? Is that it?” The man questioned not showing any sign of fear. Sunny and Becky smiled at each other as their plans unfolded.

“I was referring to the cousin in prison...” Sunny said slyly. The man looked confused; he wasn’t aware of this fact and questioned its relevance. Sunny turned Becky around and pulled down Becky’s blouse to reveal her whole back. There was a tattoo across her back, it wasn’t large but it was unique. “Do you recognize this?”

**Fear of the unknown haunts people at nearly every aspect of life. What’s behind that door? What will the weather be like? What is that dog going to do? Is she going to shoot me? Will my plane crash? Regardless what the information, creating an unknown element is usually effective in getting people to bend your way.  It’s the same reason why psychological torture works so well.**

“I’ll take your silence as a yes. You see, her cousin in prison is a member of the mafia, well one of them. Who do you think sent us?” Sunny said, sliding up a bit of her shirt to show the same tattoo as Becky, except on her ribcage. Sunny continued her tale of threats.

The mafia had sent Becky looking for him to see what kind of business he was into. He was a small time guy, breaking into a small part of the business. He understood where the girls were coming from. He didn’t want to believe these two innocent looking girls were actually gangsters working for a mafia. The blackmailing to his daughter was just a little icing; the cake was they girls report back to their boss, he’d be in trouble.

For one the mother didn’t like him, and now he knows she has ties to organized crime and they could pull the squeeze on him. That was option A, report to the family. Option B was truly scarier in his mind. He knew he operated very close if not quite in the territory of the mafia. He was the small time competition and never paid royalties or fees to the mafia for allowing him to conduct his business. If the mafia knew what he did, they would come down on him, hurt business if not destroy it. He asked them what they wanted.

“Well you seem decent enough... okay at most, but we won’t tell our bosses... for now... but there is a matter of a little costs that we won’t’ be reimbursed for...” Becky said in the same tone Sunny had used.

“The loan you took?! So if I cancel it you won’t tell your boss?”

“You misunderstood her, not just cancelling the loan, but recovery costs... we don’t get reimbursed for our work. It would be nice if there was someone to help us cover those costs...” Sunny added.

“Cancel the loan and pay you? How much?” He asked. Sunny told the man the same amount that Becky took out on the loan, plus the interest she had paid. He pondered over the decision, giving away money was not his intention but if he could keep the mafia at bay it was worth it. He opened a safe behind a painting to pull out some stacks of money. $17,000 US dollars. “If I ever see you too again...”

“Oh no, you don’t get to make the threats, because if you ever see us again... it won’t be good for you... Thank you for your business.” Sunny added with a smirk. The two walked out of the club and grabbed a taxi and headed back to Becky’s apartment.

“I can’t believe we just did that?! Does the mother really have a cousin in the mafia?”

“Who’s to say? She has a cousin in prison,”

“I can’t believe we were able to do that. I should thank you. You should take some of this money too, you earned it.”

“No keep that. If you really want to thank me, just forget this ever happened. Stay away from loan sharks in the future,” Sunny said. They exited the taxi at Becky’s place and shared one last hug. “Take care of yourself Becky.”

“Thank you.”

*******************

Bora was busy typing up incident reports and running inquires; the simple things that junior agents usually had to do. She noticed Taeyeon and Hyoyeon busy and angered by the progress of the case and investigation.

“Agent Yoon? Bora? Can I speak with you?” Siwon asked. “What is your relationship with Lee Soonkyu?

“I was already questioned by Agents Kim and Kim from Central. She and I just worked out together and occasionally had lunch. Why do you ask?”

“I’m just curious, I think maybe there things you’re not sharing with us. Not sharing with the Kims?”

“Everything I know was stated in the report. I don’t know anything else about Officer Lee than the next person.”

“That’s good. I had to be sure, how do you feel about getting out into the field?” He asked. Bora had a look on her first that he recognized. As a junior agent Bora had yet really had any field experience and field work was the next big step to earning the full agent designation. “I know you want to be out there, I think I may have a little assignment for you but you can’t tell others. I’m worried about the insider still.”

“Is this going to be an official operation?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll put it on the books for your field experience but no one can know...”

“What do you need me to do?”

********************

**A sense of accomplishment usually has a wondrous effect on a person, I was glad to help out Becky. The mission is complete, and soon boredom will return. During survival training, we were able to endure the hardships with the knowledge that we would be picked up by our government, treated and then returned to work. Being on the run is rather challenging, no one is at the end of the tunnel to receive you. It’s rather annoying and problematic. Until a definite plan or course of action is set, distractions are welcomed.**

She walked through the mall feeling chipper for helping a young girl. Sunny was adamant about girls standing up to bullies, so she didn’t mind the effort to take down Mr. Mean Guy. She walked to the mall remembering it was January 6. The new Girls’ Day album had been out, and she was really feeling that song. She walked with purpose to the nearest music store. She settled her way to buy several albums; Secret’s I Do I Do, Girls’ Day, and Sistar. She enjoyed girl groups and collected albums. She graciously asked there was a poster like with certain artist, but she was told there was not. Sunny completed her transaction and left walking about.

Ideally crowds were best for someone in her position but she wanted to walk along some place quiet and serene. She strolled into a small park, at an hour when people normally were either in school or working, it was relatively empty. Sunny had a habit of sometimes using bad manners, though not on purpose; she opened a mini album and began looking through the contents. She was rather displeased that the packaging didn’t come with pages of photos and put the contents back together and into her bag while walking and bumped into someone.

“Oh, Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. My apologies,” Sunny said and bowed and continued walking her direction. She had bumped into some business woman busy on her cellphone.

“Hey wait! Stop!” The woman said. Sunny stopped and turned around. “You!”

Sunny couldn’t figure the fuss; the woman was about her height and in a pant suit. She figured she made the woman accidentally delete something and apologized again. However her judgment of the business woman was incorrect when she threw the opening of her jacket back to reveal a pistol holster. Sunny immediately slapped away the hands of the woman to prevent her drawing of the pistol. The woman responded by taking her left elbow to Sunny’s face. The woman’s stance was that similar of traditional Korean law enforcement martial arts, focusing on taekwondo and hapkido. The woman made a few more strikes towards Sunny’s head which were all blocked, Sunny used a sidekick to push the woman way.

The woman attempted to draw her weapon again, in a traditional strong hand over the weapon with the weak hand (in this case the left) as a guide, again Sunny took the right hand and attempt to use a bit of hapkido joint locks of her the woman. The woman countered her way out and attacked in with a series of kicks. Sunny effectively blocked each kick and countered with her own set.

**Hand to hand combat does not happen as often in battle as one may believe, but the training of the skills to soldiers often  are done for an additional purpose; that is to build a warrior mindset. All soldiers are put in a series of unarmed combat and fighting with those giant q-tips and combatives. Why? Warrior mindset also needs aggression. Being aggressive and doing the utmost necessary to win in an engagement. Actually forget warrior mindset, a killer mindset seems more fitting. Soldiers trained for combat are conditioned to be ready and willing to kill. Myself, like thousands of Special Forces trained soldiers worldwide have been taught a step even further, the ability to channel and direct that aggression at will and on instinct. It’s almost automatic. Simply put, my training was directed with the purpose of killing and inflicting bodily harm, whereas law enforcement’s training is directed for defense and suspect manipulation. In such regard, I have some understanding and expectations of their limits.***

The woman was able to land some blows onto Sunny, but having spent most her career playing with the bad-asses of the military, she was able to bounce back quickly. Sunny could have killed the woman from the start, she could have ran but the woman would have chased and called for help. Sunny figured her best chance was to just incapacitate the woman and then leave. Sunny landed more strikes to the woman. The woman backed up enough to finally draw her Glock 19 not realizing Sunny had let her pull out the weapon. Sunny quickly closed the gap between them, disarmed the woman and pistol whipped with her own gun. The woman fell to the ground knocked out.

Sunny moved the woman to a bench and sat her to make her appear as if she was sleeping. Sunny checked for any identification and found a NIS ID badge. Sunny took apart the pistol and placed the various parts in the woman’s pocket. Sunny shook her head in disappointment when she had found the gun did not have a round in the chamber.

“That’s such a stupid policy; you were going to just scare me to submission? Silly.” Sunny said in disbelief finishing putting the gun parts in various pockets. Sunny was referring to the NIS policy of having no rounds in the camber of the weapon while in carry, often known as the Israeli method. Israel in its start-up as a military power had older weapons, they were afraid that the weapons would accidentally go off, so they would not chamber a round until the moment of engagement. Sunny had often gotten in trouble at work because she would carry a round in the chamber of her weapon, a habit she picked up from her time in the 707th and hanging with American Special Forces.

She went to pick up the bag from the music shop to find her some her album cases were damaged. She vented out an angered sigh and walked back in the direction of the music store to obtain another copy.

**************

“Hello.” She said, walking calming towards him.

“What do you want?”

“Is that anyway to greet a lady?” Jessica asked.

“I’m busy, so what do you want?”

“Oh well, I’m a bit lost and wondering if you can help me find my way,” Jessica pulled out a small map and then held up her smartphone’s GPS application, or at least that’s what anyone watching would suspect. Her phone displayed a set of questions short and simple. The man looked at Jessica once more, showing that he did not want to help but she just smiled back showing her teeth.

“I’m sure I could help you with that. You’ve been going in the wrong direction,” He said. He answered the questions by pointing out to certain pre-marked answer choices on the map and either slightly nodded or shook his head. He pointed out to a particular spot on the map which wasn’t marked with an answer. “I think if you work your way there, you’ll find much better help.”

Jessica walked back to her car to scoop out the area. The tires of her mustang spun a bit on the icy road before shooting off into the busy traffic. Her phone rang and she let the hands-free answering system in the car to handle the call.

“Hey baby, what’s going on?” Jessica said sweetly.

“I want to see you again!” The voice said.

“Now, you know my rules. I don’t do repeats in the same week. I can see you next week maybe...”

“You can’t make an exception even for me?”

“If I do it for you, then I would have to do it for everyone. I have other people who want to see me too. Other girls want to see me too. What should I do?”

“Am I not special? Am I not important to you? Don’t you care about me?”

“How can you say that? Of course I care, I answer your calls. I send you messages. I watch every time you’re on TV. You’re always special. I turn down people all the time, so don’t go there...” Jessica elaborated.

“Japan is lonely without you...”

“You’ll be fine. You’re a big girl, a star, you have great friends and members who would hang out with you. Remember the rules, limited emotions. Listen, I have to go. Keep up the great work in Japan,” She hung up and pushed the sync button again. “Call Tiffany.... Hey Tiffany? Are you busy? I need a favor.”

************************

She was busy in the practice room dancing away. Having survived a scandal was tough enough, member changes and crazy travel schedules. She knew T-ara was struggling a bit. Random performances and schedules here and there, but nothing solid just yet. All she could do was practice, and get better. Thing will get better.

The events of the other day still hadn’t fully processed in her mind. There was minor talk at the company about the shooting at the mall but Hyomin had not told anyone really about the events. She didn’t know if she felt shock yet or not. She figured she’d be freaked out about it, but for some odd reason she felt really safe being with Sunny. The truck had came so close to killing and was saved by Sunny, she rationalized that she wasn’t’ afraid when the shooting started was because the safety blanket presented by Sunny.

“Hyomin!!!! Focus!!! What are you doing?” She had gotten lost in thought in the middle of the routine and forgot to perform her part. She apologized, and they ran the number again and she performed until their break period. Eunjung approached her and asked about her. “Hyomin, are you okay? You seem so out of it.”

“Oh, I’m okay. I’m just feeling a little sick... that’s all... or um... I was just thinking about the mall shooting yesterday too you know...”

“That was pretty crazy. We shopped there before plenty of times so that’s tough, but no one was really hurt except for that one person that was killed. They said he was a bad guy too. You shouldn’t worry.”

“You ever met someone, and wanted to thank them and owe them quite a lot but you’d didn’t get their number or anything... like you won’t see them again...” Hyomin started, taking a sip from her water bottle.

“What are you talking about?” Eunjung asked confused.

“I’m just saying... there is someone I just sort of owe my life too, and it’s sad that I won’t see them again or properly... It makes me sad...”

“What does the mall have to do with that?”

“I was close... that’s all... it’s just silly... Argh, we’ve been dancing so long my feet hurt, when is practice going to be over?”

*******************

She once again broke into Jessica’s apartment to find a nice place to listen to the new CD. She raided through Jessica’s refrigerator for a snack. She went to the guest bedroom where her things were, she was about to plug the computer and listen but decided to exercise a bit.

**I don’t know where people get the idea that you can maintain athletic ability and fitness without exercise. It’s silly to think former tough guys and spies who go months and years without exercise or practice can get back right into it. It’s not exactly like riding a bike; you can remember things and have muscle memory but a lack of fitness and practice won’t get you anywhere. Plyometrics are great for cardiovascular exercise; they don’t require any equipment or a lot of space and you get your heart bumping quick and in no time. There was the tried and true military method of body-weight workouts, pushups, dips, pull-ups, squats, lunges. It’s not a complete full workout but it keeps the maintenance of one’s fitness. It also passes idle time. I would have been bored out of my mind in Iraq otherwise.**

She showered and took a nap after her hour and half of exercise. When woke she decided to call Bora, who should be leaving the office right about now but to her surprise Bora had an assignment. Bora was on a solo stakeout mission, which to Sunny seemed rather dangerous. Sunny demanded to know where Bora was and would join her to help immediately.

**Maybe it was because of what I was taught in the military, but rarely do I do missions alone. Snipers do not work alone, a recon patrol does not go alone, stakeouts and tailing should not be down alone. You got to have a battle buddy. Besides no matter how pretty you may be, you’ll still look like a creeper sitting by yourself somewhere for an extended period of time. Stakeouts are also boring; you know why cops and spies get fat? Stakeouts are the reason why, when you’re sitting in a car or a building for so long, you just start munching away. Last I heard the CIA and FBI were having a problem with body fat percentages going up on agents.**

“I told you not to come. It’s dangerous for both of us. Seriously Sunny you need to listen. You can be so stubborn sometimes,” Bora said when Sunny entered the car. Sunny in all her wisdom did bring snacks, and hoped Bora would have good sense to exercise sometime later in the week. “Still, I’m glad you came. I was about to literally pass out. I have been here for like four hours. Oh, look, activity!”

Sunny looked to the direction that Bora was looking to find only men trading information and talking. Sunny asked if there was anything additional to Bora’s orders other than taking pictures. Bora mentioned if the opportunity came, she should try to take one of them into custody. With some convincing from Sunny, Bora decided to make a try at approaching one of the suspects while Sunny waited in the car. Sunny began to wonder why Bora’s mission wasn’t supposed to be told to others, it seemed strange to Sunny for a junior agent to have anything in the ‘off the books’ area. Sunny pondered hard until she noticed something when she stretched out her arms. The human is rather sensitive to contrast and movement, Sunny noticed activity in an upper window of a building overlooking the suspects and Bora.

Sunny hurried out of the car and worked her way to flank around the building and move to see what was inside the window. She was sure she saw what appeared to be glass, meaning the optics of a weapon. She snuck her way to the floor with the window and thought of a plan; she couldn’t kick down the door, if she was wrong then she would look like an . Knocking on the door seemed just as silly but maybe she could make it work. She found the door, she took a few deep breaths and knocked on the door. No response. She tried again. Nothing, she tried the doorknob but it was locked. She moved her hands around the door to check for any noticeable markings of a y trap.

**TV always shows police kicking down doors and busting in. SWAT teams usually camera in to see what’s inside before entering. Truthfully, you never just kick down doors. You have to check them for traps. It saved lives in the Middle East and sure as hell could save yours. If the door is cleared all is left it just kick it down. A door is typically two or three hinges and the latched. You don’t have to be big and strong to kick down a door, just use simple physics. Apply your energy near the handle and remember force is equal to mass times acceleration. If a tiny gal like me can do it, then it’s doable for anyone.**

Sunny kicked down the door and entered the room was welcomed by guns pointed at her. This was one of those situations that she didn’t want to be in. They didn’t look like law enforcement, they were dressed tactical, in fact just like the people who first showed up at her apartment trying to kill her. The only good news was that none of them seem to recognize her, so this must be a different team or else they would have killed her already. She was pushed to her knees and secured with a zip-link and gagged. Sunny heard them discuss what to do with her; they were going to kill her, and they told the guy to make it quiet. She was picked up and moved to another room, she was thrown to the floor. The man let his gun rest on its sling and reached for his knife. This confused Sunny because stabbings usually tend to be loud, but then she forgot that she wasn’t making any effort to be loud. She started to kick her legs and scream through the gag.

If things went right, all this would speed the man up to making his strike. He grabbed her neck and she whimpered like how she was taught back in training, she put on the scared and helpless girl act. The man was sick, because he was enjoying it, the man backed off and stood up to his pants. “Are you fricking serious? You got to be kidding me. How unprofessional!” Sunny thought. She didn’t want to see this go any further so she placed two hard heel kicks to the man’s groin before he could show any skin. Her small size and frame made her nimble and she quickly got up, despite her hands tied behind her back, and kicked the man further in the head while he was preoccupied with his pain below. She felt no shame in attacking a man’s private, all is fair in war. She wrapped her leg around the man’s neck and swiped him to the ground. His head was placed between her thigh and calf. She flexed the muscles in her legs and the man began to choke, just as he was about to pass out she made a quick jerk of her leg and snapped his neck.

She reached for the knife and cut the ties off and took the gag off. “That’s what you get you sick bastard. I saved you the embarrassment of telling your friends you’re not a real pro. You should have secured my legs, and maybe you would have gotten me. Just maybe.” She reached for the man’s weapon, a simple MP-5, she checked to see if he had a pistol with a suppressor which he didn’t. She took the weapons and magazines anyways and grabbed the knife. She opened the door slowly to notice the other men were busy looking out the window or waiting around for a command it seemed. They must have felt secured because there wasn’t any security of any kind, and the noise from her struggles didn’t even reach to their position. Then the one who appeared to be in charge signal to the rest of them after he got off the phone, he said it was time to move and to finish the NIS agent as well.

Sunny had to act; they were talking about moving in to kill Bora and the people she were watching. She tried to count how many hostiles were in the main room, eight. Eight was a big number compared to her lonesome. Sunny went back to the dead man and checked to see if he had a flash bang, a non-lethal grenade designed to blind and deafen the enemy for a brief moment. She got lucky; the man had one. She peered out the door and heard one of them talking and asking about the guy she had killed. ‘He was a freak, I bet he’s her dead body.’ She fought the urge to puke from hearing the words, she made a mental note of everyone’s position, and she pulled the pin on the flash bang and tossed it out into the man room. POW! (Or BANG!). She charged into the room and used the MP5 to fire at the men.

**Federal Air Marshalls and some personal defense shooting courses follow the idea of ‘Firsts Before Seconds’ when engaging more than one target. That is, each person gets one bullet each before you give them another round. The military favors a controlled-pair or multiple successions on targets, which is shooting each target more than once first. FBS works well in the confines of an airplane cabin and maybe an ally against street thugs, but harder in open space with tactically trained gunmen. It’s easier to treat the situation as room clearing, except by yourself. Use the MP5 in its burst mode and fire at the targets as you move in a straight line through the room. Burst mode will handle the multi-hits and moving quick and fast will handle the multiple targets.**

She dropped each of the gunmen, she knew she got lucky because the dazed effect of flash bangs don’t last that long and she was fortunate enough to have a general idea where each of the men were to point the weapon to her next target. However her brave dash to save Bora was a bit ill advised, the shooting was loud and apparently the ones she killed weren’t the only team. She went to look down and out the window to see more men crowd down below to attack the suspects Bora was watching and Bora herself. She fired the last six shots of in the magazine and reloaded. Bora would die on the street level, Sunny was in the best position to help; it was military basics: the high ground is a good thing. The only problem was the enemy had high ground too, she noticed from a rooftop some men in gear aiming something in her direction.

“Oh hell...” Sunny muttered noticing the situation. The weapon was a multiple-grenade launcher that could fire 6 or 7 40mm grenades as fast as one could pull the trigger. Sunny turned and ran for the door. Unlike hand tossed grenades, 40 mike-mikes (military way of saying 40mm) usually detonate on contact. Quick thinking saved her life as the room exploded behind her and showered her with debris and splinters. The concussion blasted her down the hall. Her cellphone rang. “Hello?”

“Sunny?! Where are you! Something is wrong, there is people shooting here! Come help me!”

“Oh okay, give me a minute. I was just part of a bit of building renovation,” Sunny said, in a rather straight tone.

“Get your out here and help me! You owe me!” Bora screamed and hung up.

“I would have just treated you to dinner or something,” Sunny said getting back up and scrambling down the stairs.