The plan (Dal-Geon)

Though at first his sleep was restful, somewhere along the night Dal-Geon's dreams turned into feverish delusions again. Hae-Ri woke him up sometimes in the morning, he assumed, and he was extremely cold, shivering under the blanket. Hae-Ri helped him to a sitting position, both of them surprised to find him missing both his shirt and his pants. After finding the missing items, she helped him into a shirt and handed him a hot cup of tea that helped warm him up and ease the incontrollable shivers, followed by a steaming bowl of porridge, with an instruction to not overdo it, then finished up with the pills and changed his bandages.

With each round of pills he was served tea and bowl of porridge, and his wound was checked for drainage. By the last round, his wound had nearly nothing come out of it as Hae-Ri pressed down around it, to her much apparent delight. It also hurt a lot less, and the swelling had significantly lessened. It was clear that the tricky part was behind them, he was recovering.

That day, an hour or so after the first round of pills, he was already feeling better, confident to walk around on his own, though he still didn't feel strong enough to last a shower just yet. Even so, he could make trips to and from the bathroom without having to support himself against the walls as he walked. On one of his trips, he stepped into the front room to find Hae-Ri sitting on the floor at the foot of the sofa, doodling with her deck of cards next to her on the table. Much like the cards, he had no idea where she found the stack of paper. On another trip he found her in the kitchen, cooking. Other than that, she stopped by the room a few times to hang and check on the laundry drying on the rack and check his fever, but that was it.

Hae-Ri didn't say much that day. She said not even a single word she didn't have to, talking only when it was necessary. It made Dal-Geon feel uneasy, though he also knew it was a good sign. She was taking care of him out of obligation, maybe even out of concern for her own wellbeing, as it was quite obvious that she couldn't leave this place without him. She was clearly displeased with him, and took no interest in him other than his health.

Still exhausted in a way he had rarely felt before, he spent most of the day sleeping in bed as he slowly recovered. It was after the last round of pills for the day, just before it was time to call it a night, when Dal-Geon realized something was missing. With the unexpected situation and him being too out of his mind with fever for the better part of the last couple of days, and though he has been frequently dreaming of Lily and Do-Soo, he didn't notice that his earpiece was gone. He sat bolt upright so fast that it made him dizzy, cursing himself, unable to fathom how could he be stupid enough to let something like that slip his attention. He got out of bed and tossed the blanket around, searched under the pillow, rummaging through the dresser drawers, looking even on the floor, unable to remember when was the last time it was on him.

He gave up, finding the search useless, and was about to step into the front room to ask Hae-Ri if she saw it, turning around to face the entrance just to find her standing there with a blank expression. She was holding her hand out, a black bulk and wire resting in her palm.

"Is this what you're looking for?", she asked apathetically with no interest in particular.

He closed the distance between them in two long steps and grabbed the transmitter. Holding himself back from thanking her, he settled for nodding, then turned around and went back to bed. As he sat down he looked at the entrance, expecting to find her still standing there, but she was already gone. After all, she had already provided him with his three meals and three rounds of pills, and gradually managed to get his fever down. There was no reason for her to stay around him any longer.

He got up after a short while, wanting to at least give her back the bed, but as he reached the entrance he found all the lights in the house, but the dim light near the door, were turned off. There was also no light coming from the TV to illuminated her form, but he could tell that she was lying down on the sofa with her back to him.

Tomorrow, then, he thought, determined to make a full recovery so he wouldn't have to inconvenience her further, and went back to bed.

He put the earpiece in his ear, not surprise to hear no sound. He waited for a while, just so be sure that Hae-Ri was indeed sleeping, and after checking on her, seeing that she was still in the exact same position, he pressed the little push-to-talk button.

"Any news?", he asked in a low voice, so as to not wake her up, and waited eagerly for the reply. It's been more than two days since the last update, and he was on edge to learn what had happened while he was out.

"That's all you have to say, you little fucker?", it was Do-Soo's sneering voice that came after not too long.

"What the fuck happened to you? We've been trying to reach your sorry ass since early yesterday. Thought you were dead," he went on, sounding way too indifferent to his death, considering he was only paid while Dal-Geon was alive.

"Give me a break, with this intrusive security system she'd know I was dead before god did. ANY NEWS?" he asked again, trying to emphasize the last part while keeping a subdued tone, but Do-Soo was getting on his nerves, doing wonders on his temper, and he felt himself losing his patience, as was often the case when talking to the North Korean brickhead.

"So what happened?", Do-Soo was ignoring him completely, as he talked while chewing on something. Just like always, he said whatever came to his mind, completely disregarding the other party.

"Put her on," Dal-Geon had it with him, this conversation was going nowhere.

"What happened to your goddamn Morse code, dumbass?", Do-Soo said, ignoring him again. Dal-Geon pressed his temple with two fingers, closing his eyes and breathing deeply, trying to calm himself, feeling so frustrated he was about to explode. He's been itching to yell at Do-Soo, and had to concentrate real hard to stop himself so he wouldn't wake Hae-Ri.

"He's not using Mo...", he heard Lily in the background before the line was cut off, and Dal-Geon was relieved to know that he would be redeemed of this punishment of a conversation soon.

"Geon?", Lily's voice came from the other side. He could now hear Do-Soo protesting in the background.

"...Yeah", he replied, though he saw no point in her asking. Who else could it be?

"So she knows, huh?", she asked curiously, though there were much more important things on the agenda, a fact which he knew Lily was well aware of. As expected, she was quicker to catch on than her idiot minion.

Exasperated, Dal-Geon decided to humor them for a short moment. Knowing them, it was the only way to get them talking faster, seeing as the duo put higher priority on gossip rather than their mission.

"She found out," he replied defeated, hoping that would quench their curiosity quickly, so they could move on.

"You told her?", she sounded excited, as if getting a rare sneak-peek behind the scenes of a drama she's been following.

"...I don't think so…?" he replied vaguely, tying to remember how she found out.

All that came to mind were glimpses and fragments of memories that he wasn't sure were memories at all, or a part of his feverish hallucinations. In some of his memories he came clean and apologized, which he highly doubted he did, while in others she was the one to out him, but it all felt equally real. Or fake. The truth was that he had not even a guess as to how she found out or when. Did he slip while having a fever and spilled the beans thinking he was dreaming? He didn't think so. Maybe she unmasked him while he was unconscious? Seeing as she was constantly targeting his mask before, it was quite possibly. Either way, it wasn't important anymore. The cat was out of the bag, and there was no way to put it back in.

"What the fuck does that mean, dumbass?", it was now Do-Soo's turn to question him in his less civilized manner.

"I'm not sure what happened, I've been down with a fever," he admitted, unable to believe his level of stupidity. He could say many things about Do-Soo, but this time the man was right. A dumbass he was indeed.

"What a convenient time for you to fall ill. Did she nurse you back to health?", Lily said, sarcasm heavy in her voice, clearly enjoying herself. It sounded very much like she was holding herself back from laughing. The amount of entertainment he was providing them with annoyed him to the extreme.

"Cut the chitchat, fill me in", about to reach his limit, he tried to make the duo focus on the matter at hand.

"Oh honey, breathe, will you?", her voice was lilt and calm, instantly relaxing him. She wouldn't sound so light-hearted if she had bad news to deliver.

"Another witness appeared, offering information for money," she started, and his heart fell instantly. Was he reading her wrong? He thought he already knew her well enough to recognize the meanings behind her rainbow of colorful tones, none of them simply ordinary.

"I don't know if it was an innocent mistake or whether he was doing it for the money, but he pointed BS in the wrong direction," she said cheerfully, proving that his hunch was correct. He let out the lungful of air he was holding in.

"This shepherd claimed to see a BS jeep with bullet holes get off the road heading east not long past the point where the first informant saw it get off the highway. Seeing as Cameltown is up north, I doubt you took that exit. Either way, they're focusing the search in the east, so you can sit back and relax, and be all lovey-dovey for a while," she said in a chipper voice. These news were so great that he didn't even mind the little jab she managed to fit in at the end. This scenario was exactly what he had hoped for.

"Suspects?", he prayed that in this department too she had good news for him.

"They're confused out of their minds. They don't know what to make of the matching blood stains in both scenes. They haven't found a match in any database, even hacked ones, so they had no choice but to give up. They considered the possibility that it might be the target's blood, but the fact that it was also found in the hide site makes it impossible. They suspect it might belong to whoever took off with the target, and that that person was the last to see you. Currently they have reason to believe Undertaker mercenaries might be behind it, since they did thwart other missions before. I wouldn't say you're in the clear yet, but they are considering a different scenario."

As he hoped, again, it was good news. Confusing Black Sun was the best he could get out of his little stunt, which filled its purpose to buy them time. Luckily, his senseless choice to leave evidence both at his hide site and in and around the Sheikh's SUV turned out to be a rather good idea, though he had no intention to rely on pure luck again. This could have easily turned into a huge disaster.

"We're not sure whether they gave up on finding either of you, as they seem to focus their efforts mostly on finding the jeep, and details weren't discussed on the frequencies we're manning. Still haven't found anything long distance. There's also no coded info, which is suspicious. Higher ups might have switched to a secure satellite phone, I think it's the most likely explanation," she sighed, sounding rather annoyed. Considering everything else, this was bad news he could live with, though it still bothered him that there was an unknown amount of real time intel that they were missing out on.

"Are you sure the search parties are on a wild goose chase?", he asked, waiting for a definitive green light that will put his plan in motion.

"Positive. There still might be random trackers searching elsewhere, so you need to be careful, but since you're so far up north I believe you're safe enough for the moment. At least until they find out they were duped," she decided to throw a wet blanket on the high note, clarifying that he still couldn't afford to be too relaxed. Even so, the news were great indeed, exactly what he's been waiting for. Soon he'll be able to wrap things up.

"We need to act now, before it's too late. I want her smuggled out of the country and back home ASAP. No passports. Find a trusted trafficker to get her into Ginapaso and on a cargo ship with a bodyguard. Pay however much is needed. Get the best you can find," he delivered the order, knowing he had nothing to worry about, leaving it in Lily's hands.

"You won't be going with her?", she sounded rather surprised.

"...There's no reason for me to do that, I'll find a way to go back to my unit once she's safe. Let me know when you have the coordinates for the meetup, I'll drive her to the border," he tried to sound detached, but by her long pause, he suspected Lily was on to him.

"...Roger that," from a perplexed sounding Lily's marked the end of the exchanged.

Dal-Geon was thrilled, his plan to get Hae-Ri out of this hell hole could finally be executed, and a lot sooner than he believed possible. Still, it was hard to ignore the pain that settled in his chest, getting heavier with every breath, as he knew that soon he would be forced to bid Hae-Ri goodbye, this time for good.