Devil in the Shadows

Round One

Commander Ming stood in the middle of the large living room of an empty house. He had his hands behind his back. His posture was calm and collected.

"Quite sharp aren't we?" Commander Kwan asked as he stepped into the room. He looked around the room. It was empty except for the two chairs in the middle of the room and a small coffee table. There was steaming hot coffee on the table.

"I suppose we are really here to talk huh?" Kwan amused.

"I told you that I want to talk. So that's what we are going to do." Commander Ming replied casually.

"You can sit." Ming offered and sat down on the chair in front of him.

"Sure. Why not?" Kwan pulled the chair and sat down calmly.

"I suppose your team is nearby." Kwan spoke after a brief moment.

Commander Ming poured two cups of coffee. " Are you scared Kwan?" Commander Ming chuckled a bit and held the coffee in front of Kwan.

"I am not." Kwan accepted the coffee as if to prove that he wasn't scared but he occasionally eyed the coffee.

"It's not poisoned." Ming replied and sipped the coffee.

Kwan felt like he was caught. But he quickly recovered and sipped his own coffee.

"I don't have much time. It would be better if we get into it quickly." Kwan replied.

"Very well then. Did you read the newspaper today?" Commander Ming asked.

Kwan looked at Ming confused." No, why?"

"Here take a look." Ming threw a newspaper at Kwan who caught it gracefully. He flipped the newspaper and his eyes widened in shock.

A former Korean gang member's confession had the country shook

"You may remember Jun. He worked for the Mun's back then. Poor Jun had to die a painful death. But he did gave us something. Read the confession." Ming pointed towards the paper.

Kwan looked at the paper again.

"Are you having difficulty reading Kwan? Here let me read it for you." Ming picked the newspaper from Kwan's hands and started reading.

"Mr. Jun confessioned minutes before his death that majority of the organised gang crimes in the city during the late 80s had strong military support. The weapons were made locally, using cheap metals and alloys. The design ofcourse resembled the ones used in the battle field. " Ming placed the paper on the coffee table.

"You got something to say Kwan?" Ming asked curiously.

"It's a thug's confession. What are you going to get out of it?" Kwan replied confidently.

"Maybe nothing...maybe they will look into every other soldier died in the battle field. Maybe they will look into every weapon those soldiers used. Maybe they will find out someone infact replaced the good ones with bad ones. Someone who doesn't work for the government anymore. You betrayed your own kind Kwan. " Ming replied sharply.

"I did nothing of that sort. You are bluffing." Kwan was furious.

"Me? Bluffing? Every other female soldier in your regiment died in their first battle. All of them were the flowers you crushed on your way towards your promotion. You used them. You raped them, threatened them and you killed them very effectively. Send them to battle field with counterfiet weaponaries and strip them off their rights." Ming stood up looking directly at Kwan while he spoke.

"You can't prove anything." Kwan smirked.

"I can." Ming replied coldly.

"Well I wish you luck on that one. It was a pleasure meeting you Ming. But I guess our times are up." Kwan replied and stood up.

"Pleasure is all mine. Your death is few feet away from you Kwan. Keep running." Commander Ming replied. Jeongyeon stood behind the wall of the room listening to the conversation. Death infact was only few feet away.

Kwan didn't respond he walked out of the building unharmed.

*************************************

The shadow team met again with Commander Ming that day.

"What's with this newspaper article? Is it true?" Jeongyeon asked curiously.

"When you came to me with the video clip of Jun's confession. I felt like I had seen him somewhere. I couldn't pin point. Two weeks back, I met my senior during my trainee days, he talked about something along the lines of weapon trading. That's when I remember. Ten years back there was an incident of a soldier shooting another soldier in the barrack. I don't know if you guys remember it." Ming looked at the team.

"I guess yes. But I heard it was something like a rivalry or something." Jihyo replied.

"That's what the report said. But the officer who was in the investigation team was one of my friends. He said that there is no way that soldier would pull the trigger. He kept on saying the gun went off just like that. " Commander Ming said.

"Then what happened." Momo asked.

"Nothing. They closed the case. When this came up I looked up the soldier's info. He was released from prison last year. I met him. Ever since he got out, he had been working day and night to figure out what happened that day. He had lots of information regarding this. One of which was Jun's data. He was the middle man. Further digging turned out, Kwan helped this dealer" Ming explained.

"What will happen now?" Jihyo asked.

"Since this is weapon trading which will effect national security. The government will make sure to get involved quickly. They will be doing a quality check on each and every weapon. This means Kwan will have to move his inventory. We need to strike there. Most probably they will use Mun's illegal drug cartel to move the weapons. " Commander Ming was clear with the plan.

"Should we destroy them?" Jeongyeon asked confused.

"No. I want Mun against Kwan. Is Yeri ready? Mun needs something to go against Kwan. She would be the perfect weapon." Ming instructed the team.

Jihyo stood up along with the rest of the team. " Team Shadow...buckle up. 1.2.3... Let's go get it." Everyone cheered and saluted Commander Ming.