Chapter I. An InvInvitation
-X- Myeong
"Agent, I know you enjoy jobs like this, and they hired you because of your incoherent methods, but please try to make it out of this one alive." Vanderwood's radio buzzed in my ear.
He was the supervisor for one of the field teams here in South Korea. His team was one of the best here, but they haven't found a replacement for their last field operative that failed a job in the worst way possible. While I do live in this country, I'm usually traveling abroad for other insane missions.
"Don't worry, Mary. I know what I'm doing. Even if I do die, I'll complete the mission, and destroy my own corpse. They won't know who was here."
"That would be a bit less concerning, considering that your clothing is ready to explode on your command." He sighed.
"Myeong has a suicide vest??!!" I turned down my radio with the scream of another one of our teammates.
"None of your business what 733 does to complete the mission. How are you coming with that security issue?" Vanderwood asked.
"Please don't fail Myeong. Well, I can take down the easy stuff like cameras and bugs, but as soon as I take down the locks on the vent, they'll get notified. I'll lock the doors and disarm the vents at the same time, but once I do that, you have one minute to find the victims and free them with the element of surprise on your side. Any later and they'll know you're coming." 707 explained.
"Not the worst odds I've faced. Anybody off limits?" I asked as I racked both of my pistols and checked all of my clips. I had already finished setting the charges on the base of the building.
"Everyone there is a hostile, except for the hostages. So go, anybody but them are in season." Vanderwood clarified.
"What I like to hear. 707, ready in your mark."
"Three… Two.. One. Go!"
The vent was unlocked and I dropped down to the floor. I sprinted through the halls and slid down the stairs as fast as humanly possible for me. Some unfortunate soul's head at the bottom of the second flight got caught against my boot and the wall before he was rendered unconscious with a minimum of a skull fracture.
"Damn, she's fast." 707 laughed as I continued.
Moving down the second hallway, I found myself shooting down two men before moving past them. I started receiving fire until I shot down the offending gunman.
"733, there's an unmapped room we're picking up from the sonar drone." Vanderwood informed.
"Not on the plans, not with the police." I found the door and kicked it open. Five different gunman were already aimed at me. While they hesitated, I had already fired at them and killed one.
My movements and thoughts were nothing but mindless commands that I was supposed to do. Mission number 37-b-8. Objective 1: free the hostages. Objective 2: gather digital files from head computer system. Objective 3: demolish the building.
"Lord, she goes through there like a video game." Seven commented.
There were no more men in the room after I had taken down the next four. "Unlock the base level door to the left. C'mon people, let's get out of here fast!" I lead the victims out to the door while I protected them. Ushering them all out, I headed back into the building. "Get as far away from here as you can! Lock it now!" the door locked once again.
Objective 1: complete.
"733? You were supposed to get out of the building." Vanderwood deadpanned.
"There was a server room on the second floor. We need any information we can get. If you don't hear from me in five minutes, blow the charges."
"What??!?!!"
"You heard her, 707." Vanderwood growled. "This is why nobody hires you for intense operations."
"I beg to differ, he's actually the voice of survival right now. Even though it's unnecessary, the thought that I could get out of this alive is a comforting sentiment." I fired a few times at the locked glass door to the server room so I could kick it down. Placing the drive in the main computer, I left it to start downloading.
"See, I make sense!!!" 707 cheered.
"Making sense is a stretch."
The information finished downloading as I took it with me. A stray bullet grazed my arm before I turned around to kill the offending gunman. Poor woman.
Objective 2: complete.
"You need to get out of there fast." Vanderwood warned.
"I got it." I panted as I shot the window before jumping out of it. Hitting the ground with a roll, I ran to the tool shed and hid behind it. I barely managed to cover my ears before the massive explosions got me flinching.
Objective 3: complete. Mission 37-b-8: complete.
"I'm around the block. The police will be here any minute now." Seven spoke up as I now jogged my way to the luxury car. Opening the door, Seven was ready to get out.
"Are you bleeding?" He asked.
"A little. Bullet grazed my arm. Will leave a scar, won't need stitches."
"First aid in the glove box. Mary said you were insane, I didn't think she meant literally." I pulled off my mask and took a deep breath in. Taking the first aid kit and patching up my cut, I winced at the pain of the alcohol.
"Well someone's gotta do the crazy jobs, so why not me?" I rolled my eyes at him referencing Mr. Vanderwood as a woman.
"I actually did some research on you before you came. You lived in North Korea before coming here, yeah?" He asked.
"Just drive, Agent."
"Call me Luciel. But our records only go as far as when we found you. I could tell Myeong isn't your real name, but there are no records of what your name was previous to it. You were a member of a coup d'èta looking to over throw the government. We have records of some of your acts from your work there as a teenager, and honestly, it's a bit concerning that you started there when you were thirteen and left only at seventeen."
"You normally stalk a girl's past to flirt, or am I just special?" I grunted. My brown hair was nearly shaven on the sides and back, but my bangs stuck to my sweaty face as I finally tried to relax.
"If I were flirting, you would be swooning." Luciel dramatically sighed.
"Yeah good for you. We need to turn in our reports by tomorrow morning if we want to get paid."
"Ahg. Why by tomorrow?! I wanted to waste so much time!"
"Because hostage operations need to be followed up immediately. Not my fault the rules are like that."
"You talk about rules, when you fly through a building, disobeying every law of physics I'm aware of."
I shot him a bored glare and rolled over in my propped back seat. "My capabilities are limited like yours, just in a different area."
"Well, I can break the normal law, and you can break the laws of reality."
"No I can break the normal law too. It's a little hard to live in a place like North Korea and not break any laws. Especially when your rousing a coup d'èta with twelve of your closest friends."
"But you are not affiliated with them anymore."
"A dictatorship doesn't care who's friends with who, they care that they destroy the threats of instilling hope into their people." I explained.
"So they've all passed away?"
"They're dead, no need to sugar coat it. 'Passed away' makes it sound like a peaceful event. I was just lucky enough to not be there when they blew the warehouse sky high."
"You got out of there, though. We made sure of it after we had heard that you were alive and functional. What kind of revenge are you planning?" He asked.
"I'm not. I spent all of my teen years learning how to fight, fear nothing, and do the most irrational things. The Agency was one of the only places that wanted my skills and that I was okay with working for."
"Damn, and I thought I had a tragic backstory." He chuckled.
"Your brother and abusive mother." I pointed out. "Yeah, hell of a story. I don't see you willingly rambling it off."
"Well, when I'm sure it won't be a problem in the future, maybe I'll tell you about it. But unless any of your friends suddenly decide to start a revolution of the dead, I think you're safe when it comes to sharing your past."
"I was never ashamed of anything. I learned how to play emotions, language, even bodies against my targets at a very young age. I can speak nine languages as though all of them were my native one, I know a mix of four martial arts, all of them specified to me personally, I can wound or kill everything I aim at and the majority of that I didn't learn from some guerilla revolution in North Korea as a teenager." I explained. Even though I could say all I want about it, nothing changes the fact thay I am ashamed of a lot more than I care to admit.
"Then why did you catch the eye of the Agency?" He asked.
"You know exactly why. The Agency could tell me to strap a bomb to my chest and I would willingly. You weren't incorrect in your assumptions."
"Speaking of suicide bombs, what about the bomb you mentioned on you earlier?" His voice cracked nervously.
"It's not actually a bomb…." Luciel appeared relieved to hear that. "It's a system of flammable fluids that will release and ignite should the heart rate in my wrist tazer read that I am dead. I will erupt into flames, and it will destroy any ability to identify my body accept for dental records of which I have none available to anyone other than the Agency."
Luciel swallowed and stared forward like a deer in the headlights of his own car. "Why do you do it when you know you'll be in danger. Even as a hacker for Vanderwood, I could never leave my friends with any doubt that I may not come back."
"Because someone has to do it. It's safer for it to be me too. I have no connections other than between governments and within our career field. So there is nobody that should miss me or care that I'm dead." I rationalized. There was no way for me to argue with something so flawless in my mind.
"Yet, you somehow manage to understand and help every victim you encounter when given the chance to talk to them." He pointed out as I stiffened. "You have a talent for espionage and assassination, yet you fail to admit that your biggest talent is in empathy. And caring for those who are under stress no matter how big or small. Your reports from Afghanistan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, China, Vietnam, The U.S, Japan, and even here in South Korea prove my point."
I scowled at him as he smirked with his eyes on the road. "If you ever stopped talking, you'd understand that the people I help are nothing but numbers. I can't afford to let them be anything else."
"Yes, I can't help but get a little suspicious of an agent I've never seen before. And one that is so famous like 733. You've made quite a name for yourself. And I can't say it's a clear name."
"I never tried to clean up my reputation. What people know about me is most likely true even if they only have a little bit if information." The car slowed to a stop outside one of the agency's buildings.
"Myeong, you know for a fact that a person's file can't capture even close to enough. A paragraph is worth a hundred words, a picture is worth a thousand, but a person is worth a trillion." He offered as I stepped out of the car. I turned back to look at him through the closed door, but now rolled down window.
"Then I guess you only need to know a hundred words about me." I shrugged and walked up the stairs.
"How long will you be in Korea?!" he called after me.
"Indefinitely. Until a foreign division needs me for something." I answered, now closing the building door behind me. I took a deep breath, and I climbed the stairs to find a form to fill out my report.
Beginning to feel the aching in my legs from sprinting, I took the elevator to the top floor to find the superior that called me to South Korea in the first place.
"733, back so soon?" he asked behind the desk.
"I have my report Yeong." He snatched it from my hand and traced over the words.
"And the flash drive?"
"In the custody of agent 707 for archiving."
"Your injury?"
"Barely an inconvenience. No need for change in any mission you may have for me." I answered without falter.
Yeong nodded, now placing the report in a file and locking in in a cabinet. "Well done. We don't have any missions lined up, but you are on call. Dismissed."
I turned on my heel and headed out, allowing myself to return to the sleeping area they have for traveling agents. Even though it was near 02:00 the agents there were usually suffering from major jet-lag and knocked out cold or wide awake, or trained to sleep in fifteen to twenty minute increments for constant call. I was the latter and decided that a few minutes of sleep wouldn't hurt if I wanted to be up and ready for anything.
The majority of agents were men. There was really nothing I could do about that, women tended to be a bit more practical and seek more stable and less dangerous jobs. The group of boys playing poker waved to me as I walked past. A couple of guys throwing knives into a thick corkboard and lighting cigarettes nodded in my general direction. Three girls enjoying a round of beers all greeted me with smiles and a couple of polite 'hello's. All to get to my thin mattress in the far corner, where I would love to be unconscious right now.
As I was trained, I slept for about twenty minutes, and woke up again for another twenty, only to fall asleep again and repeat the cycle until I wanted to do something else.
Each time I got up, a few people had changed spots. Faces and activities changed throughout the night as agents slept in their own weird cycles. Every once in a while, someone would come over the intercom and call for an agent by name or number.
You could always tell the type of agent by what they were called by. If they were a secret agent, they would be called by number, since their identities needed to remain secret for the dangerous field jobs they did. If they were called by name, they were a public agent, who never had to do anything absurdly intense like normal FBI agents.
At some point, I decided to shower and change into civilian dress and head out to keep my boredom at bay. I grabbed my pager that they would use to call me should anything be needed of me.
I typed in my number 733 and awaited the message that says I'm officially checked out. The item beeped with the little check mark and I was off.
I headed off to the judo gym first. Now, the agency has a gym and sparring area, but I didn't feel like getting cozy with anyone there. And also wasn't in the mood for any sparring that intense.
The air of the gym was identical to any other stinky place. The ground was padded and worn in some places, the vending machine at the entrance let out a constant, yet comforting hum.
And the best part, was that there were only about five people here. And three of them were small children and the fourth of that area was a teacher. And the last person was a woman. Slightly taller than me and going at it a couple of dummies with some advanced moves.
The woman's hair was cut short and in a lighter shade of brown than mine. She wore a black belt with her uniform. Which was fairly impressive in itself.
I stretched out, and kept my eye on the woman. She managed to pull off some things that even I found rare.
"Hey!" I called after her. Her head quickly turned to me. "You wanna spar?"
She looked around, making sure I was talking to her. "Yeah sure." She nodded with a smile. "I'm Jaehee."
"Myeong." I answered back. "You come around here often?"
"When I'm not working. And I'm working a lot." She answered.
I chuckled. "Tell me about it. But I get enough action with my work, so it's not much of a problem."
"What work do you do?" She asked, getting into position in order to take me down. I reflected the stance and allowed her to attack first. My response was almost as fast as her kick and I had her pinned to the ground in a matter of seconds.
"Personal bodyguard work." I gave a grin. "What work do you do?"
"I'm a personal assistant for a corporate heir." She answered as I attacked again, this time I saw the world spin around me and slammed into my face.
"They wouldn't happen to be looking for a body guard right now would you?" I grunted after she let me go.
"I might have to call you back on that one. We have an agency in mind for his current needs, but if it doesn't fall through, I may contact you." Jaehee helped me up after I had peeled myself off the ground.
We went a few more rounds, making casual conversation, until the beeping in my waistband broke the talk. "Sorry, I have to check that." The message on the small screen read 733 call. Meaning that I was being called in. I pressed the button to notify that I got the message and turned to Jaehee.
"My apologies, I'm being called in. It was nice to meet you, Jaehee."
"I'll be here every week or so around this time if you want to spar again."
A small smile spread across my face. "I'll be in the area for at least a month or two unless something comes up." We gave a friendly wave as we departed and I rushed back to the agency building.
"733, you came quickly."
"That's the idea, sir." I gave a smile back to Vanderwood. He sighed, clearly in some depressed state now that I was displaying some of the sass that 707 often did. "What's the job?"
"Something the Agency hasn't done a lot of. But we are being offered a heafty sum for your services in particular."
"Brief from the beginning." I said.
Yeong nodded and started. "Last night, after you came back, 707 called in to ask if he could recommend your services as a bodyguard to a friend. Vanderwood told him that he may as long as the friend was kept in the dark about your mission details and other restricted information. He agreed and a few hours after that, we received a call from a representative of CR asking about your particular services."
Vanderwood nodded and offered me a file with several different building plans and other information about the client that I would be serving.
"Jumin Han is the man that you will be guarding. Corporate heir to CR and he funds charity parties for a group called the RFA, which we don't know much about since 707 is their security officer." Yeong explained in thorough detail.
"So, I'm doing personal bodyguard work." I shrugged off. "It's been a while. Does he have any specific enemies that I should worry about?"
"Not that was mentioned." Vanderwood piped up. "707 says he simply strives for the best service he can get, and you are the best at what you do."
"How long?"
"Until you are needed for something more urgent or he decides to drop our agency." Crossing his arms, Yeong let out a long sigh.
"Alright!" I snapped the folder shut. "When do I start?"
"Mr. Han scheduled your start and more specific job briefing for early this evening and that you will be his active bodyguard during a banquet tonight. You are dismissed."
I nodded and headed down to the sleeping area to grab what few things I had and headed off to meet my client.
The CR building was one of the tallest in the city. And a few blocks down from it was only slightly taller than it which was supposedly Jumin's apartment building with his penthouse at the top.
The doorman was a rather large fellow that towered over me. If I really needed to, I could take him down in at least four different ways, but he was here to ensure security that I wasn't breaking down.
"Hello sir, I'm here for Mr. Jumin Han. I'm from the bodyguard agency he recently employed." I offered the identification slip that was in the file Yeong and Vanderwood gave me.
"He's expecting you. Ms. Myeong." He opened the door for me and spoke into his radio for the other security officers to not me alarmed at my presence and for one of them to tell Jumin that I was here.
The penthouse was rather open, but no building around it was taller than this one, which gave a beautiful city skyline view of the outside world from the spacious windows.
"Ms. Myeong?" A deep voice called out. The owner of the sound was definitely the corporate heir type. Clean edges and classy style. His description reflected the house and the man in front of me.
"Yes. A pleasure to meet you." I offered politely. He now stood directly in front of me, and towered nearly a foot and a half over me.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but I was not expecting someone quite so small." His voice was cool and collected, as though he didn't have to ponder on his actual statement. Normally, when saying something that could be taken as an insult, one would stammer, or hesitate, but he said what he meant confidently with no ill intent.
"That is an understandable concern. But I am the best at what I do."
I offered a smile as the confident honesty was comforting. One would assume such a thing as honesty would be important to agents like me, but when people are trained to lie perfectly, there is no logical reason to trust.
"Luciel spoke highly of you. He says you are quick and efficient. And you value intellect and progress above all else."
In this job, either he will decide against using our agency or he will be forced to trust me with his precious life. I will either get Jumin killed or I will need to trust that he has a life worth saving.
"707 is quite a wild card, and I am not visually believable. I understand any concerns debating my abilities, and I appreciate your honesty. I am perfect for your needs, so I will let my actions show you exactly how reputable I am."
Jumin seemed to like my answer. "Please take a seat." He offered. "Can you give me a rundown of your abilities?"
I nodded as I took a seat across from him. "I am trained in a mixed style of four different martial arts to be most effective in hand to hand combat. I am an excellent marksman and haven't missed a target, still or moving in years. I am fluent in nine languages, learning more. I am trained in psychology, sociology, strategy, pseudology-"
"You are trained in the art of lying?"
"I work for Luciel's agency, I will admit only that there is a large need for lying, but the majority of pseudology is telling when another is lying." I explained happily. "I am also first aid certified and I can be awoken at any point, no matter what time of day or night, should I be needed."
Jumin relaxed into his chair, crossing his arms over his chest in deep thought. "You definitely are qualified for the job. You speak confidently and what I can tell is honestly. Ms. Myeong, if you are truly as good as you and your reputation read, then why take a job as simple as the one I am offering?"
I caught myself in my mind. I could have easily just said that I wasn't interested in the job. I'm not required to accept every mission or job that comes my way. In fact, if anyone has grounds to reject a job they don't want to do, it's someone with my skill level.
"Because even simple jobs are jobs that need to be done. Just because being your guard is a simple job compared to the ones I normally take, doesn't mean it's unnecessary. It is a simple task needed to achieve a larger goal."
"So this employment is but a small stepping stone to a bigger task for you. What is the greater endeavor you hope to accomplish by completing this one?"
Damn, this guy is a great interviewer. "I am afraid I'm not equipped to explain that to someone in your mindset." I admitted.
"I want you to attempt."
And as I thought about it, I was actually saddened. He forced me to look at the bigger picture of my life, instead of the small ones that made up missions and blank spaces. It's been twelve years since someone has called me by my real name!
"In my line of work, memories have numbers. You are aware that I am an agent like your friend, Luciel Choi, but his work and mine aren't comparable." My voice shrunk slightly as I spoke slower and softer.
"A day is the number of the date. A memory is a mission record number. A person is an identification number. In a job as dangerous as mine you can only focus on getting to the next number."
Jumin simply paid close attention to the words I was saying, egging me on to continue since I was still managing to make sense to him.
"If I try to plan more than one number ahead, I have set myself up for the possibility of fatal loss. By staying in the present number, and focusing only on it's completion, failure and success are just two sides of the same coin and don't have any impact on me or the next number."
I silenced myself, deciding that I gave enough explanation for him to make some kind of sense of it all.
"So you are afraid of disappointing yourself. If you plan to succeed in a small task for a bigger task, but you fail, then it disappoints you that you cannot complete the larger purpose." He clarified for himself.
"By never hoping for success or failure, you have eliminated the possibility of falling short of expectations, since there are no expectations at all…. I think I understand."
I scanned his face for any sign of emotion in that understanding. He was more difficult to read, since he definitely relied more on logic than emotion. Yet there was definitely the hint of curiosity in his eye.
"I want to ask you one more thing, and you don't need to answer it if you believe it is too personal or if you think it is too soon to answer."
I nodded, eagerly awaiting the question.
"Do you want to keep living your life this way? As though you are a mosaic of numbers."
"I…….." the question hit the inside of my stomach like a deep drum. The only time I remember living my life like I wanted something from the future, was when I was a dumb teenager, fighting for change in the craziest ways possible.
I asked the future to give my country freedom and it said 'no'. I just stopped asking the future and stayed away from it.
But what if the future finally had something to give me after I hid from it for so long? Would I miss it because I was still scorned from rejection?
Now I actually have to plan for both scenarios. If I stop what I'm doing, and I get hurt again, I'm right. If I stop what I'm doing and obtain a gift, then I am pleasantly surprised.
If I am right, and get hurt, then I keep living my life with the agency and I continue to be their best agent.
If I get something better than what I have at the agency, then I leave for a superior life.
"Yes. I want to keep living my life like this." Because there isn't a second number. All I have is the current number, nothing to ask for, and no life to go to if I leave the one I have. No chance to create a life that I could love more than I am needed in this one. They made sure of that.
Jumin's eyes scanned my expression and body language. "Allow me to explain the kind of security you will be providing." The clank of the drawer in the side table broke the dreary mood and motioned it to the certainty of Jumin's decision that I was trustworthy.
"I have normal security and bodyguards, but your job is to scan for more subtle threats."
I looked over the contents of the file he handed me. He gave me tons of information on his company and business contacts from around the world. Names, numbers, charts, employees, chain of command, and so much more.
"In the past few days there has been an cyber attack on the messenger that I share with a charity fundraising group called the RFA. It has come to my attention that whoever has struck the messenger may have ill intentions towards the members of the RFA and their information. This is mine, but there are six more members that I need to get clearance to give you. However in order to get your help in this matter, our president has told me to extend an invitation to you."
"Invitation?" My brows furrowed in confusion.
"An invitation for you to join the RFA as a security consultant."