Happy Valentine's Day!

Somebody said it was their birthday... tomorrow? I think... I'm so sorry - I can't find your name anywhere, but have a very, very happy birthday.

The Kangs rang up asking if it was possible for Xiumin or Semi to look after Taeyong on the Tuesday, since he was ill at home and Mrs Kang needed to go into hospital for check-ups while Mr Kang was abroad.  After negotiation with Lay, who wasn’t actually too bothered about the matter, Xiumin sent Semi off to university and then moved his laptop into the Kang’s flat so that he could keep an eye on the ill child.

Taeyong did not like being confined to bed, though that had been pretty evident from the time he’d had the ear infection.  Xiumin found himself trying to think up things the boy could do that weren’t too taxing but meant he could get out of bed, and they ended up building a train set around the dining room.  For most of the morning, Taeyong was content to push the train along the tracks, and after having some soup at lunch time and some fever medication, he conked out and Xiumin used the opportunity to sneak him off to his room and then to get on with the surveillance and tracking he’d been doing.

“Luhan,” he said over the phone half an hour later when he rang him, “Mighty Mouth seem to have some kind of syndicate back here already.”

“This is bad,” Luhan responded fretfully.  “I need to pull you out as fast as possible – forget about the girl until we’ve dealt with the threat.”

“It’s okay,” Xiumin told him, keeping an eye on the camera.  “I’ve been part of police surveillance for one of Mighty Mouth’s men for nearly a week now.  The police think he might be one of Suho’s men.  If I can get to him, I can probably get information.  Lay’s refused to let me interview him, but I’m pretty sure I can do it if I’m the one who brings him in.  The thing I’m worried about is whether Mighty Mouth don’t trust Suho and that’s why he’s with Suho’s men, or whether they trust each other so much they’ve merged forces.”

“I hope it’s lack of trust.  What’s happened with Byun Baekhyun?”

“Extradited to the States.  That bodyguard you told me about who beat him in the States is actually over in Korea.  He came back with Semi.”

“Holy ,” Luhan swore.  “This is really bad.”

“He’s the one who caught Byun.”

“Is there any way to take him out?”

“No.  I have absolutely no idea what his limits are, and if he can bring Byun down, I wouldn’t move in on him until you know everything there is to know about him.  Pretty much the only thing I can tell you about him is he has this dumb intern act, but I’m pretty sure he’s a highly trained American field agent.  He was one of the ones who set the trap when they caught Dia, and now that Byun’s out of the way, I’m pretty sure if I give Lay a reason to distrust me, I’ll be back in prison and the American will be looking after Semi again.”

“They can’t do that forever.  They can’t keep their hacker forever either, and I’m pretty sure they know their hacker is the only reason my hacker doesn’t have access to all the sensitive police data.”

“I’m assuming Jongin will stay until his superiors want him on a new mission.  We have no idea how long that will be.  Or who his superiors are.”

There was a long sigh on the other end.

“How are we going to do this?” Luhan asked wearily.  “From what you’re saying, if we spring you without you bringing the girl with you, she’s going to be under the agent’s protection and then it’s going to be very difficult to get at her.”

“They’d need two agents of similar calibre to provide 24/7 protection, but I suspect they’d move her into a different apartment with her brother and that the security would be extremely high.  University would be the weakest spot, but at least one of Semi’s friends is aware of exactly what’s going on because Suho tried to have her bumped off when he had her kidnapped last time, and the girl escaped by herself.  She’s often hanging around Semi and having met her myself, I suspect she’s not going to leave Semi by herself now she knows what’s going on, so the only way to get to Semi would be by causing a huge ruckus on campus and I suspect the police are constantly on standby for anything happening at the university.  In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s one of the areas Kyungsoo has under constant surveillance, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are undercover officers around.  I highly doubt they’d be letting Semi loose in university without precautions like that.”

“I have contacts at the university.”

“Oh, and it’s a place Suho’s probably going to target, too.  He’s no idiot.  He went after Semi because it was the fastest way to get to both of us, so he might well try again.  His mole actually worked on Semi’s case, so he’s also likely got more information on that front than we do.”

“God, this is such a mess.”  He heard Luhan sigh.  “We had everything set up to spring you on Thursday, too.  I need to get hold of Donghae and tell him the plan’s off.  It’s probably best if we get the machine back so it won’t cause problems accidentally, as well.  What are we going to do?”

Xiumin shrugged, forgetting for a moment that Luhan couldn’t see him.  “I need time to think.”

“To be honest, the simplest thing would be to get that chip messed up and for you to kill her and make a run for it.”

“I’m not killing her,” Xiumin said.  “I don’t have it in me.”

There was a soft chuckle at the other end.  “You going soft?”

“Luhan, I know myself.  If she has to die, I won’t be the one to do it.  I’m not going to be able to pull the trigger on her, and I’m definitely not going to be able to kill her in any manner that requires contact, and there would be too much blood for me with that in any case.  I’ve never particularly liked killing in the first place.”

“You’ve only ever killed people who’ve betrayed or physically threatened you in the past, right?”

“I’ve killed people who’ve physically threatened you or hurt my boys and girls.  And I shot dead somebody chasing Semi and a friend of hers, though I had little choice with that.”

“Would she come with you if you asked?”

“Not if I told her the truth.  Not at the moment, at any rate.  I could trick her into it, but she’d hate me for it, and that would mean either killing her or having her live as a prisoner.”

“Hmm.”

“I’m working on it.”  Xiumin tapped aimlessly at one of the keys on his keyboard.  “Did you get my note about the deal Lay offered me?”

“It’s a good one, Xiu.  I know you’ve technically already taken it, but it could be the easiest way.  Once Suho’s out of the way, you could always refuse to have anything more to do with the situation.  It would probably mean you go to jail for about five years and that girl would be under the American agent’s protection for a while, but you’d be completely free at the end.  That’s not to be sniffed at.”

“No.  I don’t want to go back to jail.  It’s horrible in there.  I know he’s using the opportunity to see if he can find anything out about you, but he’s got serious brains, Lu.  I don’t want to leave you up against him alo