Chapter : 7
As soon as she approached the people who had stepped out of the car, she lowered her body first. One of them had already thrown a punch.
Hyun immediately pulled a portable titanium three-section baton from her coat.
When another man lunged in close, she pressed the button on the baton she was holding. It snapped out to full length, and she drove it straight into the attacker’s solar plexus.
“Urgh!”
A clear liquid spilled from the man’s mouth as he gasped in pain.
Rising from her lowered stance, Hyun swung the baton through the air.
A sharp whoosh cut across in an arc.
The man who had tried to attack her from behind was soon subdued as well, overwhelmed by her swift movements.
Is that what an international agent looks like?
Because she had moved so quickly, Jae-hyuk could only watch from a distance.
Hyun’s movements were astonishing.
There was not a single unnecessary motion—only speed and precision.
If you blinked for even a moment, you wouldn’t be able to follow her at all.
She dealt with the two lackeys in an instant. But just as she caught her breath after knocking them down, dozens of black cars surrounded her.
“Get her!”
Men dressed in black suits poured out of the vehicles.
Jae-hyuk glanced at Hyun’s expression. A faint smile of enjoyment curved her lips.
“I’m busy, so don’t come at me one by one. Come all at once.”
With so many men blocking her view, she couldn’t spare any attention for Jo Chi-hoon or Wang Hun.
Damn it, backup is slow as hell.
At this rate, she might lose them. Anxiety flickered through her.
If she made it back, she swore she would turn Cyclone headquarters upside down.
While she was fending off dozens of men, one black sedan quietly began to move. Noticing it, Jae-hyuk stepped out of his car and made his way around to the rear of the group encircling Hyun.
“Hello, Mr. Dae-ik’s father.”
He stepped in front of Jo Chi-hoon and greeted him first, just like he used to when he visited Dae-ik’s house as a child.
“Jae-hyuk? I heard you became a detective, but I didn’t expect to see you like this.”
“Yes, sir. Thanks to you, I achieved my dream.”
“My boy, don’t act rashly. This isn’t your place to interfere.”
Jo Chi-hoon’s aged eyes pierced through Jae-hyuk. Though he was elderly, his gaze remained sharp.
“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stop here.”
Before Jae-hyuk could even finish speaking, the Chinese man standing beside Jo Chi-hoon pulled a long blade from his coat.
The moment he swung it, a thin cut opened on Jae-hyuk’s cheek, and a bead of blood formed.
In the blink of an eye, Wang Hun was standing in front of Jo Chi-hoon.
“这个人是谁 (Who is this man?)”
Wang Hun asked without turning around.
“杀了他 (Kill him),”
Jo Chi-hoon replied indifferently, already looking away from Jae-hyuk.
“What the hell are they saying?”
Irritated by the Chinese he couldn’t understand, Jae-hyuk made the first move.
He aimed for the hand holding the knife. Wang Hun effortlessly dodged his punch and struck Jae-hyuk’s shoulder with his opposite hand.
“Ugh—why are you so fast?”
Clutching his shoulder, Jae-hyuk dropped low and targeted Wang Hun’s legs.
Wang Hun was lean, and in terms of raw strength, the larger Jae-hyuk had the advantage.
When Jae-hyuk slammed his fist into Wang Hun’s shin, his balance wavered—only for a moment. The blade grazed Jae-hyuk’s shoulder in return.
Jae-hyuk quickly judged that he needed to create distance.
But once he had allowed a blade to touch him, he became Wang Hun’s target.
Wang Hun began swinging his knife wildly.
Under the relentless slashes, Jae-hyuk finally grabbed the blade with his bare hand.
The sharp edge bit into his palm.
Even so, he didn’t let go. Instead, he pulled Wang Hun toward him.
“Ugh!”
With one hand gripping the blade, he used the other to strike at the man’s vital point.
But Wang Hun immediately drew another weapon—a dagger.
In the next instant, searing pain shot through Jae-hyuk’s body, and he dropped to his knees.
“An Jae-hyuk!”
As the dagger grazed his abdomen, Hyun’s voice rang out.
She had already broken free from the men surrounding her and was running toward him.
“Interpol! Drop your weapons!”
Right on cue, vehicles carrying Hyun’s colleagues arrived.
They leapt out and swiftly subdued the crowd. Wang Hun resisted briefly, but his hands were soon restrained.
“An Jae-hyuk, are you okay?”
A faint voice drifted closer.
As consciousness slipped away, the strength drained from the hand that had been gripping the blade.
Beyond his fading awareness, Hyun’s face blurred.
“-b0-07, you know full well that moving before orders are given warrants disciplinary action, right?”
“Yes, yes, I know. I should’ve just waited for orders and let Wang Hun escape.”
“Lee Hyun!”
Sunlight streamed through the blinds in the afternoon.
Standing by the window, Hyun followed the light with her gaze. Even over the phone, she could practically feel her superior’s frustration.
Well, it wasn’t as if this was the first time she had defied upper management.
But she had never once botched a mission.
If anything, thanks to her, Wang Hun had been captured easily. She felt they should be thanking her instead.
Honestly, the organization had no flexibility whatsoever.
“…You haven’t forgotten we’re an unofficial agency, have you? You’ll have to take responsibility for causing such a public scene.”
“And when exactly am I taking that responsibility? If it’s suspension or something, I’d welcome it.”
Hyun knew full well that b0-02 wasn’t truly blaming her. He was just grumbling because he now had to file tedious reports.
“So, what were Jo Chi-hoon and Wang Hun trading?”
“What else? Isn’t it obvious?”
“So it’s that again?”
She had suspected as much.
She had heard that illegal drug distribution had been on the rise recently, giving domestic detectives a hard time.
And at the center of it all stood Jo Chi-hoon.
Drug-related crimes were the type Hyun despised the most. Watching civilians ruined by addiction was unbearable, and those cases were always filthy and tangled.
“Yes, and since there’s talk of uprooting it entirely this time, follow orders for once. You’re not the only one with a brain. For now, keep a close eye on that detective like we instructed, and make sure you memorize the briefing.”
Knowing her personality inside out, b0-02’s sigh grew heavier.
Hyun let her senior’s concerned advice go in one ear and out the other as she glanced at Jae-hyuk, who still lay unconscious on the bed.
After the incident, he had been moved to her house.
And she had been ordered to monitor him for discovering Cyclone’s identity. Along with that came another command she had no choice but to obey.
Rubbing her face as if exasperated, she replied,
“I’d rather take disciplinary action. This is just more of a hassle.”
“This is an opportunity for us—to borrow the authority of the law. Haven’t you been whining about having to conduct investigations from the shadows forever, Hyun?”
“If you’re going to keep nagging, I’m hanging up.”
“Don’t take it as nagging—take it seriously. And don’t you dare cause another incident.”
Everything about b0-02 was fine—except he talked too much.
Just as her ears were starting to hurt from his lecturing, she noticed movement from the bed beside her.
“Sunbae, I’ll report back later. I’m hanging up.”
Before Jae-hyuk even opened his eyes, a familiar voice tickled his ears.
Where am I?
His body felt stiff, and a dull ache began to settle in.
The voice that had been on the phone faded, replaced by the sound of someone approaching.
Though his mind was waking, his heavy body wouldn’t move as he wished. Nor would his eyelids.
He sensed a shadow fall over his closed eyes.
“Ugh.”
There was a rustling sound, then cold fingers touched his abdomen.
His eyes flew open.
“You’re awake?”
