Midnight and Dawn (6/13)
Title: Midnight and Dawn
Authors: e and hopeandmemory
Rating: NC-17 (for sex and violence)
Overall Word Count: 36283
Warnings: Whatever you'd reasonably expect to see on western television in a crime drama will be found in this fic. If you are easily triggered by material referenced (but rarely explicitly shown) in these kinds of programs, you might want to tread carefully.
Summary: In 2006, Kim Heechul put Kim Youngwoon behind bars. He became a legend almost immediately--the guy who watched Star King instead of doing work, drank more than his fair share of the shitty office coffee, and managed to drive off every partner he'd ever been assigned. And then in 2009, Kim Jungmo joins the force, a new case leaves Special Ops Department 1315 grasping helplessly at straws, and everything changes. Heechul/Jungmo
Jungmo is at his desk by the time Heechul saunters in Monday morning, and Heechul shoots him a lascivious glance before collapsing into his chair, snapping his fingers.
“Where’s my coffee?”
“Oh, sorry,” Jungmo deadpans, but he stands up and walks toward the break room anyway. “What was I thinking, actually doing work?”
He returns ten minutes later with Heechul’s favorite mug, two red stirrers protruding over the lip.
“You know,” Heechul says quietly, breath teasing at Jungmo’s ear when he leans in to hand Heechul his coffee, “If you hadn’t left so many bruises on me the other night, I might’ve been able to get it myself.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Jungmo replies, but Heechul likes the way his breath comes unevenly between words.
“Your lack of faith in me is astonishing.” Heechul leans back in his chair and lifts his coffee to his lips.
“But accurate.” He pauses, tilting his head to get a better look at Heechul’s neck. “That doesn’t hurt, does it?”
“What?”
“Those bruises.” Jungmo fingers one, two inches to the left of Heechul’s neck. Fire skitters low in Heechul’s stomach.
“Not at all. I just bruise easily. You’re welcome to leave marks anytime you like.” Heechul arches slightly into Jungmo’s finger.
Jungmo pulls away. “So can I sit down to do work, or should I be worried that you’ll start throwing things at me?”
“You saw the spitballs?”
Jungmo sighs. “I’ll cancel if you do. I really will.”
“You wouldn’t dare. I’d have you make it up with hours of manual labor.”
“Whipped already, Jungmo,” Sungmin calls from across the floor.
“Who isn’t,” Heechul retorts, sticking out a tongue. Geng raises a hand. Everyone ignores him
Suddenly the door opens and Hyukjae rushes in breathless.
“You’re late,” Heechul notes. “Wife keep you busy this morning?”
“In my office Heechul, now.”
“Really? For that little snipe? Man, someone is touchy.” Heechul winks exaggeratedly at Jungmo. “Maybe he’s not getting enough on a regular basis.”
Siwon clears his throat. “I’m sure you all know the story of Elisha’s succession. ‘He went up from there to Beth-el, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you bald head! Go up, you bald head!” And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.’ Second Book of Kings, chapter two, verses twenty-three and four.”
The office is silent for a split second, and then Sungmin starts howling so hysterically that he falls out of his chair. Heechul is glad he’s no longer holding his coffee cup, because he’s laughing so hard he can’t stop shaking.
“Now you’re just pulling this out of your ass,” Jongwoon says between gasps. “I mean, bears of the Lord? Really?”
“Do not mock him,” Heechul calls out, finger in the air, “remember the Bears of the Lord. Beware the Bears. They will tear into you. And your forty-two children.”
“That really didn’t teach me anything other than to avoid forests,” Sungmin splutters. “And not to be drinking water when you speak. I almost choked on my own spit there.”
“The Bears, Sungmin. You are not scared enough. Let us hide! Let us take Precautions. We shall take arms against a sea of Bears, and by opposing, end them!”
“One Bear to rule them all!”
“The Chosen Bear!”
“A Strange Bear in a Strange Land!”
“Finnegans Bear!”
“Jane Beyre!”
“Heechul,” Hyukjae calls. “My office. Right now.”
“Exiting left! Pursued by Bear!”
--
Heechul is still cackling when he sinks into the only clear chair in front of Hyukjae’s desk, formulating more puns for his exit.
“Heechul,” says Hyukjae, sitting down in his own chair, and then more sternly, “Heechul.”
“What? Are you really that upset over that crack I made out there? You really want to start the week--”
“Heechul.” Hyukjae leans forward, hands balling into fists on the desk. He looks exhausted. “Kim Youngwoon broke out of prison last night.”
Heechul’s brain slows to a halt. The words sound foreign. I didn’t hear that, he thinks desperately, confused. He swallows. “What did you say? I wasn’t listening.”
Hyukjae sighs, rubbing at the greying hair around his temples. “We’re not sure how he did it, if he had inside help or a visitor brought him some kind of tool to break the lock on his cell, but the fact remains that when the guard on duty this morning did inspections, his cell was empty.”
“But I put him away already. He’s supposed to be gone.” Heechul’s hands are shaking, and his mind is completely blank, totally inaccessible. “He took the plea bargain. He’s supposed to serve life in jail. That was the deal. I wasn’t going to press charges about any of that. That was the deal.”
“I know,” Hyukjae says weakly. “I’m going to let everyone know so we can start figuring out how to get him back into custody. All of the old rules apply--no outright combat, no sponsored raids. We have to assume that his private militia is still guarding his house. I can’t risk the personnel, not like last time. But Heechul, we’re better off than we were a few years ago. We just need to catch him. It’s only a matter of time before he’s back in custody. But I wanted you to hear it from me first.” He pauses. “I’m giving you the week off, with pay, if you want it.”
Heechul doesn’t even have it in him to make a joke about Preserving The Budget. His fingers are numb, and his eyes glaze over. “Yes,” he says mechanically, standing up and leaving the office silently. Hyukjae follows him out.
“Everyone in the conference room. Now.”
--
Jungmo looks from Heechul’s retreating form back to the Lieutenant’s ashen face. Han Geng is working the phone frantically at his desk, paging Seohyun to 1315’s conference room. The office starts buzzing with whispers, and people start standing up slowly, heading toward the conference room with coffees in hand.
Dread settles uncomfortably in the pit of Jungmo’s stomach, and he follows Sungmin and Siwon through the doorway. For once, everyone settles down in a reasonable amount of time; maybe it’s because Heechul isn’t there antagonizing them. It makes the proceedings seem strangely somber and wrong.
Sungmin appears to agree. “Is Heechul coming back, boss?”
Seohyun arrives, flipping back the first few pages of a thick yellow legal pad and taking the chair to the Lieutenant’s right; Siwon is on his left. She uncaps her pen just as Lieutenant Lee speaks again.
“I gave him the week off.” He swallows, and looks like he’s about to speak again, before Seohyun raises her hand. “Ah--yes, Seohyun?”
She stands up. “I have the official statement. You can brief them afterwards--I think Jungsoo is really going to need my help for the next few days, so I’ll make this quick.”
“Go ahead.”
Seohyun takes a deep breath. “At 7:35 this morning, Gyeonggi-do Detention Center reported that Kim Youngwoon, alias Kangin, had broken out of his cell. SMPD is working in conjunction with the city of Seoul and the cooperation of a detachment from the South Korean army to bring him back into custody.” She folds the note in half. “Unofficially, of course, the rule is as it was in 2001: you will not raid his hideout. I don’t care how the army tries to go about it, but we will not lose vast numbers of good men. Not all over again. So your job is to sit here and think of a way to do this, to get Youngwoon out of his house, away from his guards. We did it in 2006, we can do it again.”
Sungmin’s fists are balled and he’s knocked over his drink. “Seohyun, Heechul did it last time. We can’t--”
“We won’t. But if it can be done once, it can be done again. Your supervisor will brief you on the strategies the department is currently employing.”
The door shuts behind her, and Donghae stands up, and whirls his mug at the wall. It cracks viciously. “Did you really give Heechul that time off, or is he going out there again? All by himself, chasing after Youngwoon--”
“No one is chasing after Youngwoon alone, Donghae.”
Donghae’s face is white and his hands are trembling. “You promise me that we’re not using him as bait again, right?”
“I promise, Donghae. You know I only approved that plan because he came up with it himself. No one expected that mission to work, or to last for over two years.”
Siwon clears his throat. “Not to gossip or anything, but what actually happened back then?”
“You don’t know?” Sungmin asks, surprised.
“No. Vice was only ever told that Heechul and Jay Kim infiltrated the building, gathered evidence, and tricked Youngwoon into visiting a store in town alone.”
“That’s not really the whole story,” Donghae says. “It’s much more--there’s a whole part of it that Heechul’s never told anyone, but in 1315 we heard pretty much everything when Jay escaped two years into the mission.”
Lieutenant Hyukjae sits down and clasps his hands. “Kim Heechul was recruited out of the training academy at the age of twenty-two. Everyone thought he was a genius, and we were just beginning the Youngwoon investigation--we needed someone like him. He was partnered with Jay Kim, our intelligence specialist, and was told to start drafting plans for document raids. They all failed--Donghae’s father was one of the first casualties. And so in 2004, Heechul presented me with a strategy that he’d been working on secretly for years. He’d discovered that Youngwoon was a huge player in the entertainment industry, and was interested in starting up his own company and training a talent. Heechul thought he knew how to use that. And so Jay and Heechul--”
“You don’t have to tell them that,” Donghae says sharply. “He wouldn’t want you to. We’re the only ones who know.”
Hyukjae nods. “They were there for two years in total radio silence. We tried other means of infiltration, but nothing worked. And then in 2006, Jay came back, wounded, and said that Heechul was safe for now, but probably not for much longer. He explained what had been happening, how Youngwoon had totally fallen for their trick, and how Heechul was at his side almost all of the time. It was just a matter of months before we could get Heechul to send us the material we needed for conviction. Six months later, we got a call from Heechul--he’d lured Youngwoon away from his guards. And we arrested him.”
Jungmo gapes. “Heechul did all of that?”
Sungmin nods seriously. “We weren’t kidding when we told you that he was our best agent.”
“And now he’s escaped,” Donghae mutters. “All of Heechul’s work--everything he did--”
“We don’t need evidence this time, Donghae. We just need to capture him. It’ll be less dangerous. Now we need to come up with a few ideas of how to do that risking as few men as possible.”
“Shouldn’t we ask Jay Kim if he has any ideas?”
“Jungmo,” the Lieutenant says kindly, “Jay hasn’t spoken about the incident since. I don’t think either of them can. They were undercover for over two years--it’s amazing that they came back at all.”
--
Jungmo spends most of the week in the conference room, terrain maps and floor plans strewn out across the table. Kyuhyun has been given a stipend to draw up a program enabling 1315 to access Youngwoon’s computer network. He’s unofficially set up shop in the conference room with Jungmo for as long as he’s needed, leaving Changmin to handle the rest of SMPD’s computer woes until further notice. (I AM NOT PAID TO DO THIS, YOU REALIZE, he mass e-mails the entire force on Tuesday. Everyone deletes the message.)
Wednesday is the first day he leaves the office to go anywhere but home, going with Siwon on a plainclothes mission to speak to the family that lives next to Youngwoon’s property.
“Take these,” Siwon says, handing Jungmo a black necktie, a white dress shirt, and a Bible.
Jungmo looks at the pile of items in his hand, and back up at Siwon. “Why?”
“We’re posing as Christian missionaries. You know, so Kangin’s guards won’t be suspicious.”
“Pretty lazy disguise, Siwon,” Sungmin comments.
“I don’t believe in lying. ‘Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.’ Leviticus, chapter nineteen, verse eleven. And besides, I want to spread the word. I am a soldier of light, after all.”
Soldier of light? Jungmo makes a note to pass that on to Heechul.
“Get changed,” Siwon says, interrupting Jungmo’s thoughts. “We’re leaving in ten minutes. I’ll drive.”
Jungmo meets Siwon in SMPD’s lobby, tucking the ends of his shirt into his pants.
Siwon eyes him critically. “I wish we could do something about your hair.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
SIwon sighs. “‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ Romans, chapter twelve, verses one and two.”
“Meaning?”
“You were created in the image of the Lord. The Lord didn’t intend for you to bleach your hair.”
Jungmo blinks at him. “And you know that because...?”
“Regardless, we can’t do anything about it right now. Come on.”
--
Twenty minutes later, they pull into a long driveway. Jungmo makes sure his badge is still in his pocket and checks his ankle holster before climbing out of Siwon’s car. It feels weird--being driven for a change. He’s not sure he prefers the loss of control. He clutches the Bible to his chest the way Siwon told him to, and follows the taller man to the front door.
A middle-aged woman answers when they ring the doorbell, looking between the two of them.
“Hello,” Siwon says, bowing politely. “I apologize for interrupting your afternoon. I’m Sergeant Choi Siwon, with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Department, and this is my partner, Kim Jungmo. Might we come inside?”
The woman pauses, uncomfortable. “Can I see some identification?”
Siwon hands her his Bible. “‘For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.’ Psalm thirty-three, verse four.”
Jungmo rolls his eyes.
The woman looks confused for a moment, but Siwon gestures for her to open the Bible to the Book of Psalms, where his badge and photo ID has been pinned to the page. Her mouth opens in shock and she welcomes them inside.
“Can I get either of you anything?” the woman asks, showing them into the sitting room. Jungmo is again hit with the realization that Heechul isn’t here; he would have requested--No, Jungmo corrects himself, demanded--coffee, at the very least.
Jungmo shakes his head, and Siwon smiles at her. “No, ma’am. But we were wondering if you would be interested in doing our department a favor.”
“Oh?” The woman picks up a cup of tea she’d left on the end table and takes her own seat. “And what’s that?”
“Now, I don’t mean to frighten you, but I’m sure you’ve noticed some... activity on the property next door, haven’t you?”
The woman nods slowly, turning instinctively toward the western window that looked out on Youngwoon’s complex. “There’s always been something weird about that place. Lots of turnover, lots of people with weapons milling around.”
Siwon nods. “We’d like to have you and your family placed into protective custody so we can potentially use your home as a base of operations, in hopes of infiltrating that compound and bringing an escaped criminal into custody. I assure you, there will be no damage done to your property or belongings. We merely want to use it as a lookout - to set up cameras and scopes so we can get the lay of the land, essentially.”
The woman’s hand shakes, and Siwon reaches out to take her teacup before she drops it. “What kind of criminal?” she asks worriedly. “Not--not a murderer?”
“Well--”
“No,” Jungmo says quickly. He’s shocked by Siwon’s tactlessness, and wonders if Heechul’s isn’t just a personality flaw, but one which 1315 shares. “No, nothing like that. Fraud. White collar crime. But he’s certainly someone you’re better off staying far away from, and we’ll be sure to keep you and your family protected while you let us use your house.”
“My children don’t live here anymore,” she says slowly, “so if you wait until my husband gets back, we can leave immediately.”
“Thank you,” Jungmo says, impulsively taking her hand. “Really.”
Siwon smiles tightly and stands, offering her a card with SMPD’s phone number. “This is the direct number to our department. Han Geng, the assistant--he’ll connect you to Lieutenant Lee Hyukjae, and he’ll answer any questions or concerns that you might have.”
The woman nods and turns to Jungmo. “Thank you for explaining everything so clearly, Officer Kim. I really feel much calmer.”
“We’ll look forward to hearing from you,” Siwon says, turning to bow again when she sees them to the door.
As they walk back to the car, Siwon taps Jungmo gently on the shoulder. “You did a great job in there. You really know how to talk to people. Did Heechul teach you that?”
Jungmo remembers telling Heechul after their first assignment that his biggest flaw back at the academy was dealing with civilians. And Heechul had made him go on every assignment by himself, taking the lead in investigations and questioning. “Yeah,” Jungmo says finally. “I guess he did.”
→ VII
Authors: e and hopeandmemory
Rating: NC-17 (for sex and violence)
Overall Word Count: 36283
Warnings: Whatever you'd reasonably expect to see on western television in a crime drama will be found in this fic. If you are easily triggered by material referenced (but rarely explicitly shown) in these kinds of programs, you might want to tread carefully.
Summary: In 2006, Kim Heechul put Kim Youngwoon behind bars. He became a legend almost immediately--the guy who watched Star King instead of doing work, drank more than his fair share of the shitty office coffee, and managed to drive off every partner he'd ever been assigned. And then in 2009, Kim Jungmo joins the force, a new case leaves Special Ops Department 1315 grasping helplessly at straws, and everything changes. Heechul/Jungmo
Jungmo is at his desk by the time Heechul saunters in Monday morning, and Heechul shoots him a lascivious glance before collapsing into his chair, snapping his fingers.
“Where’s my coffee?”
“Oh, sorry,” Jungmo deadpans, but he stands up and walks toward the break room anyway. “What was I thinking, actually doing work?”
He returns ten minutes later with Heechul’s favorite mug, two red stirrers protruding over the lip.
“You know,” Heechul says quietly, breath teasing at Jungmo’s ear when he leans in to hand Heechul his coffee, “If you hadn’t left so many bruises on me the other night, I might’ve been able to get it myself.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Jungmo replies, but Heechul likes the way his breath comes unevenly between words.
“Your lack of faith in me is astonishing.” Heechul leans back in his chair and lifts his coffee to his lips.
“But accurate.” He pauses, tilting his head to get a better look at Heechul’s neck. “That doesn’t hurt, does it?”
“What?”
“Those bruises.” Jungmo fingers one, two inches to the left of Heechul’s neck. Fire skitters low in Heechul’s stomach.
“Not at all. I just bruise easily. You’re welcome to leave marks anytime you like.” Heechul arches slightly into Jungmo’s finger.
Jungmo pulls away. “So can I sit down to do work, or should I be worried that you’ll start throwing things at me?”
“You saw the spitballs?”
Jungmo sighs. “I’ll cancel if you do. I really will.”
“You wouldn’t dare. I’d have you make it up with hours of manual labor.”
“Whipped already, Jungmo,” Sungmin calls from across the floor.
“Who isn’t,” Heechul retorts, sticking out a tongue. Geng raises a hand. Everyone ignores him
Suddenly the door opens and Hyukjae rushes in breathless.
“You’re late,” Heechul notes. “Wife keep you busy this morning?”
“In my office Heechul, now.”
“Really? For that little snipe? Man, someone is touchy.” Heechul winks exaggeratedly at Jungmo. “Maybe he’s not getting enough on a regular basis.”
Siwon clears his throat. “I’m sure you all know the story of Elisha’s succession. ‘He went up from there to Beth-el, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you bald head! Go up, you bald head!” And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.’ Second Book of Kings, chapter two, verses twenty-three and four.”
The office is silent for a split second, and then Sungmin starts howling so hysterically that he falls out of his chair. Heechul is glad he’s no longer holding his coffee cup, because he’s laughing so hard he can’t stop shaking.
“Now you’re just pulling this out of your ass,” Jongwoon says between gasps. “I mean, bears of the Lord? Really?”
“Do not mock him,” Heechul calls out, finger in the air, “remember the Bears of the Lord. Beware the Bears. They will tear into you. And your forty-two children.”
“That really didn’t teach me anything other than to avoid forests,” Sungmin splutters. “And not to be drinking water when you speak. I almost choked on my own spit there.”
“The Bears, Sungmin. You are not scared enough. Let us hide! Let us take Precautions. We shall take arms against a sea of Bears, and by opposing, end them!”
“One Bear to rule them all!”
“The Chosen Bear!”
“A Strange Bear in a Strange Land!”
“Finnegans Bear!”
“Jane Beyre!”
“Heechul,” Hyukjae calls. “My office. Right now.”
“Exiting left! Pursued by Bear!”
--
Heechul is still cackling when he sinks into the only clear chair in front of Hyukjae’s desk, formulating more puns for his exit.
“Heechul,” says Hyukjae, sitting down in his own chair, and then more sternly, “Heechul.”
“What? Are you really that upset over that crack I made out there? You really want to start the week--”
“Heechul.” Hyukjae leans forward, hands balling into fists on the desk. He looks exhausted. “Kim Youngwoon broke out of prison last night.”
Heechul’s brain slows to a halt. The words sound foreign. I didn’t hear that, he thinks desperately, confused. He swallows. “What did you say? I wasn’t listening.”
Hyukjae sighs, rubbing at the greying hair around his temples. “We’re not sure how he did it, if he had inside help or a visitor brought him some kind of tool to break the lock on his cell, but the fact remains that when the guard on duty this morning did inspections, his cell was empty.”
“But I put him away already. He’s supposed to be gone.” Heechul’s hands are shaking, and his mind is completely blank, totally inaccessible. “He took the plea bargain. He’s supposed to serve life in jail. That was the deal. I wasn’t going to press charges about any of that. That was the deal.”
“I know,” Hyukjae says weakly. “I’m going to let everyone know so we can start figuring out how to get him back into custody. All of the old rules apply--no outright combat, no sponsored raids. We have to assume that his private militia is still guarding his house. I can’t risk the personnel, not like last time. But Heechul, we’re better off than we were a few years ago. We just need to catch him. It’s only a matter of time before he’s back in custody. But I wanted you to hear it from me first.” He pauses. “I’m giving you the week off, with pay, if you want it.”
Heechul doesn’t even have it in him to make a joke about Preserving The Budget. His fingers are numb, and his eyes glaze over. “Yes,” he says mechanically, standing up and leaving the office silently. Hyukjae follows him out.
“Everyone in the conference room. Now.”
--
Jungmo looks from Heechul’s retreating form back to the Lieutenant’s ashen face. Han Geng is working the phone frantically at his desk, paging Seohyun to 1315’s conference room. The office starts buzzing with whispers, and people start standing up slowly, heading toward the conference room with coffees in hand.
Dread settles uncomfortably in the pit of Jungmo’s stomach, and he follows Sungmin and Siwon through the doorway. For once, everyone settles down in a reasonable amount of time; maybe it’s because Heechul isn’t there antagonizing them. It makes the proceedings seem strangely somber and wrong.
Sungmin appears to agree. “Is Heechul coming back, boss?”
Seohyun arrives, flipping back the first few pages of a thick yellow legal pad and taking the chair to the Lieutenant’s right; Siwon is on his left. She uncaps her pen just as Lieutenant Lee speaks again.
“I gave him the week off.” He swallows, and looks like he’s about to speak again, before Seohyun raises her hand. “Ah--yes, Seohyun?”
She stands up. “I have the official statement. You can brief them afterwards--I think Jungsoo is really going to need my help for the next few days, so I’ll make this quick.”
“Go ahead.”
Seohyun takes a deep breath. “At 7:35 this morning, Gyeonggi-do Detention Center reported that Kim Youngwoon, alias Kangin, had broken out of his cell. SMPD is working in conjunction with the city of Seoul and the cooperation of a detachment from the South Korean army to bring him back into custody.” She folds the note in half. “Unofficially, of course, the rule is as it was in 2001: you will not raid his hideout. I don’t care how the army tries to go about it, but we will not lose vast numbers of good men. Not all over again. So your job is to sit here and think of a way to do this, to get Youngwoon out of his house, away from his guards. We did it in 2006, we can do it again.”
Sungmin’s fists are balled and he’s knocked over his drink. “Seohyun, Heechul did it last time. We can’t--”
“We won’t. But if it can be done once, it can be done again. Your supervisor will brief you on the strategies the department is currently employing.”
The door shuts behind her, and Donghae stands up, and whirls his mug at the wall. It cracks viciously. “Did you really give Heechul that time off, or is he going out there again? All by himself, chasing after Youngwoon--”
“No one is chasing after Youngwoon alone, Donghae.”
Donghae’s face is white and his hands are trembling. “You promise me that we’re not using him as bait again, right?”
“I promise, Donghae. You know I only approved that plan because he came up with it himself. No one expected that mission to work, or to last for over two years.”
Siwon clears his throat. “Not to gossip or anything, but what actually happened back then?”
“You don’t know?” Sungmin asks, surprised.
“No. Vice was only ever told that Heechul and Jay Kim infiltrated the building, gathered evidence, and tricked Youngwoon into visiting a store in town alone.”
“That’s not really the whole story,” Donghae says. “It’s much more--there’s a whole part of it that Heechul’s never told anyone, but in 1315 we heard pretty much everything when Jay escaped two years into the mission.”
Lieutenant Hyukjae sits down and clasps his hands. “Kim Heechul was recruited out of the training academy at the age of twenty-two. Everyone thought he was a genius, and we were just beginning the Youngwoon investigation--we needed someone like him. He was partnered with Jay Kim, our intelligence specialist, and was told to start drafting plans for document raids. They all failed--Donghae’s father was one of the first casualties. And so in 2004, Heechul presented me with a strategy that he’d been working on secretly for years. He’d discovered that Youngwoon was a huge player in the entertainment industry, and was interested in starting up his own company and training a talent. Heechul thought he knew how to use that. And so Jay and Heechul--”
“You don’t have to tell them that,” Donghae says sharply. “He wouldn’t want you to. We’re the only ones who know.”
Hyukjae nods. “They were there for two years in total radio silence. We tried other means of infiltration, but nothing worked. And then in 2006, Jay came back, wounded, and said that Heechul was safe for now, but probably not for much longer. He explained what had been happening, how Youngwoon had totally fallen for their trick, and how Heechul was at his side almost all of the time. It was just a matter of months before we could get Heechul to send us the material we needed for conviction. Six months later, we got a call from Heechul--he’d lured Youngwoon away from his guards. And we arrested him.”
Jungmo gapes. “Heechul did all of that?”
Sungmin nods seriously. “We weren’t kidding when we told you that he was our best agent.”
“And now he’s escaped,” Donghae mutters. “All of Heechul’s work--everything he did--”
“We don’t need evidence this time, Donghae. We just need to capture him. It’ll be less dangerous. Now we need to come up with a few ideas of how to do that risking as few men as possible.”
“Shouldn’t we ask Jay Kim if he has any ideas?”
“Jungmo,” the Lieutenant says kindly, “Jay hasn’t spoken about the incident since. I don’t think either of them can. They were undercover for over two years--it’s amazing that they came back at all.”
--
Jungmo spends most of the week in the conference room, terrain maps and floor plans strewn out across the table. Kyuhyun has been given a stipend to draw up a program enabling 1315 to access Youngwoon’s computer network. He’s unofficially set up shop in the conference room with Jungmo for as long as he’s needed, leaving Changmin to handle the rest of SMPD’s computer woes until further notice. (I AM NOT PAID TO DO THIS, YOU REALIZE, he mass e-mails the entire force on Tuesday. Everyone deletes the message.)
Wednesday is the first day he leaves the office to go anywhere but home, going with Siwon on a plainclothes mission to speak to the family that lives next to Youngwoon’s property.
“Take these,” Siwon says, handing Jungmo a black necktie, a white dress shirt, and a Bible.
Jungmo looks at the pile of items in his hand, and back up at Siwon. “Why?”
“We’re posing as Christian missionaries. You know, so Kangin’s guards won’t be suspicious.”
“Pretty lazy disguise, Siwon,” Sungmin comments.
“I don’t believe in lying. ‘Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.’ Leviticus, chapter nineteen, verse eleven. And besides, I want to spread the word. I am a soldier of light, after all.”
Soldier of light? Jungmo makes a note to pass that on to Heechul.
“Get changed,” Siwon says, interrupting Jungmo’s thoughts. “We’re leaving in ten minutes. I’ll drive.”
Jungmo meets Siwon in SMPD’s lobby, tucking the ends of his shirt into his pants.
Siwon eyes him critically. “I wish we could do something about your hair.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
SIwon sighs. “‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ Romans, chapter twelve, verses one and two.”
“Meaning?”
“You were created in the image of the Lord. The Lord didn’t intend for you to bleach your hair.”
Jungmo blinks at him. “And you know that because...?”
“Regardless, we can’t do anything about it right now. Come on.”
--
Twenty minutes later, they pull into a long driveway. Jungmo makes sure his badge is still in his pocket and checks his ankle holster before climbing out of Siwon’s car. It feels weird--being driven for a change. He’s not sure he prefers the loss of control. He clutches the Bible to his chest the way Siwon told him to, and follows the taller man to the front door.
A middle-aged woman answers when they ring the doorbell, looking between the two of them.
“Hello,” Siwon says, bowing politely. “I apologize for interrupting your afternoon. I’m Sergeant Choi Siwon, with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Department, and this is my partner, Kim Jungmo. Might we come inside?”
The woman pauses, uncomfortable. “Can I see some identification?”
Siwon hands her his Bible. “‘For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.’ Psalm thirty-three, verse four.”
Jungmo rolls his eyes.
The woman looks confused for a moment, but Siwon gestures for her to open the Bible to the Book of Psalms, where his badge and photo ID has been pinned to the page. Her mouth opens in shock and she welcomes them inside.
“Can I get either of you anything?” the woman asks, showing them into the sitting room. Jungmo is again hit with the realization that Heechul isn’t here; he would have requested--No, Jungmo corrects himself, demanded--coffee, at the very least.
Jungmo shakes his head, and Siwon smiles at her. “No, ma’am. But we were wondering if you would be interested in doing our department a favor.”
“Oh?” The woman picks up a cup of tea she’d left on the end table and takes her own seat. “And what’s that?”
“Now, I don’t mean to frighten you, but I’m sure you’ve noticed some... activity on the property next door, haven’t you?”
The woman nods slowly, turning instinctively toward the western window that looked out on Youngwoon’s complex. “There’s always been something weird about that place. Lots of turnover, lots of people with weapons milling around.”
Siwon nods. “We’d like to have you and your family placed into protective custody so we can potentially use your home as a base of operations, in hopes of infiltrating that compound and bringing an escaped criminal into custody. I assure you, there will be no damage done to your property or belongings. We merely want to use it as a lookout - to set up cameras and scopes so we can get the lay of the land, essentially.”
The woman’s hand shakes, and Siwon reaches out to take her teacup before she drops it. “What kind of criminal?” she asks worriedly. “Not--not a murderer?”
“Well--”
“No,” Jungmo says quickly. He’s shocked by Siwon’s tactlessness, and wonders if Heechul’s isn’t just a personality flaw, but one which 1315 shares. “No, nothing like that. Fraud. White collar crime. But he’s certainly someone you’re better off staying far away from, and we’ll be sure to keep you and your family protected while you let us use your house.”
“My children don’t live here anymore,” she says slowly, “so if you wait until my husband gets back, we can leave immediately.”
“Thank you,” Jungmo says, impulsively taking her hand. “Really.”
Siwon smiles tightly and stands, offering her a card with SMPD’s phone number. “This is the direct number to our department. Han Geng, the assistant--he’ll connect you to Lieutenant Lee Hyukjae, and he’ll answer any questions or concerns that you might have.”
The woman nods and turns to Jungmo. “Thank you for explaining everything so clearly, Officer Kim. I really feel much calmer.”
“We’ll look forward to hearing from you,” Siwon says, turning to bow again when she sees them to the door.
As they walk back to the car, Siwon taps Jungmo gently on the shoulder. “You did a great job in there. You really know how to talk to people. Did Heechul teach you that?”
Jungmo remembers telling Heechul after their first assignment that his biggest flaw back at the academy was dealing with civilians. And Heechul had made him go on every assignment by himself, taking the lead in investigations and questioning. “Yeah,” Jungmo says finally. “I guess he did.”
→ VII