Yeji and Winter fist-bumped and set off. Winter headed for the train to her apartment so she could suit up and grab a small assortment of weapons. Once she was loaded up, she would meet Yeji at a Starbucks across the street from the MI6 building. Then, Yeji and Winter would rescue Allam's family in the hospital, and see if they were in good enough condition for an evac. If things were dicey, Yeji and Winter would make the conditions good enough.
Once they were done with the first two parts of the mission, the third - rescuing Ryujin - would begin.
Yeji caught a cab outside of the hotel. The irony wasn't lost on her. She was taking an ordinary cab to a deadly, probably fatal, mission that would require the best of her to unleash the worst of her. But this time Ryujin's life was in the balance too. Her fingers tapped on the car door nervously.
Yeji stopped at home and suited up, and then took an Uber to the MI6 building. Once outside, she squinted in the bright sunlight and looked for Winter. She found her sipping an iced coffee outside on the sidewalk, and rocking a stroller back and forth with great difficulty.
Would winter steal a baby? Yeji asked. Best not to speculate.
Winter rolled her eyes. "Before you ask, yes, I did steal a baby. Well, I didn't steal it officially. I simply moved it from one stroller to a stranger's stroller. They'll figure it out eventually."
"May I see your baby?" Yeji asked.
"Of course. I think she's the spitting image of her mother - me!"
Yeji carefully pulled back the little blankets in the stroller. There was brick after brick labeled: "SEMTEX 1A."
"Winter, how much did you bring?"
"About 75 pounds. This is what we'll need to do what you want, and then some. I'll place charges around the building. No one's going to pay attention to a young mom pushing a stroller."
"I'll never be able to thank you enough," Yeji said.
Winter grinned. "Just save Ryujin. You don't owe me anything."
. . . . .
There was one way to find out where Ryujin was being kept. She was going to walk right in the front door of MI6, and she'd ask the first person she found. Simple. Human nature was something Yeji knew intimately. Most people were perfectly polite and cheerful, but they usually knew nothing, or just knew the lies they had been told and chose to believe. But the higher up the chain you went, the more you found out, but the more that person had to make that person suffer in order to cooperate.
She approached the reception desk at MI6's headquarters, located on the bank of the Thames.
"Hi, I'm here for a meeting with Sir Robert Whately, the Chief of MI6."
The receptionist was taken aback. "Um... can I get your name?"
"Vector."
"Vector, of course. Let me see if anyone is available." She picked up the phone and whispered low enough that Yeji couldn't hear her. Finally she set the phone down. "Someone will be down in 20 minutes or so, if you'd like to wait."
"Of course," Yeji said. They need 20 minutes to get a kill team ready, she thought. Finally a young man appeared, dressed very fashionably in a slim fitting blue suit. They got in an elevator. The button for the 19th floor was lit up. Yeji smiled at the young man. He cleared his throat and smiled back.
She hit him with her elbow, squarely in the orbit bone on the outside of his left eye, which shattered. He slid to the floor. Then she yawned and pressed the button for the 18th floor. The 19th was the home of upper management, in particular, the director of the agency. Once it stopped, she crept out carefully and headed for the stairway in the corner. Now she would dictate the battle terms on the floor above. There wasn't much time. Once the unconscious man was found, the building would go on full lockdown. Actually, Yeji was counting on a lockdown. Chaos would erupt and the staff would immediately go to their assigned rooms - and stay there.
As the office workers looked on in wonder, Yeji began shoving things off their desks looking for some kind of improvised weapon. She found a letter opener and a wooden umbrella.
"Hi everyone, sorry to interrupt. I just have to take a few things with me. Just a piece of advice, when the evacuation siren goes on, please exit the building in a safe and orderly manner. Until then, if you call the authorities or tell anyone you saw me, I will cut off your hands. Thanks your cooperation, and I apologize for the disturbance."
Next, Yeji filed the tip of the umbrella on the modern-style concrete floor until it was extremely sharp.
She went up the stairs to the 19th floor. The door was locked, probably because a security escalation had begun. She took a deep breath, and kicked the door squarely off the hinges. As Yeji exploded through the opening, a man knocked over by the door was fighting and squirming to get back to his feet. Yeji dropped flat on the door, reached underneath, and quickly stabbed the man with the letter opener.
The hallway had a locked custodian's closet on one end, and ended in a left turn at the other. She could hear a man's voice shouting.
I don't care who you are! I don't care what you think! I don't care about your degree! You're missing one fact. She cannot be stopped. It isn't that she won't stop, it's that she can't stop. All of us, all of us are dead. The chickens are coming home roost. Do you get it? Dead!
Stealthily she tiptoed down the hall. There were cameras everywhere, but that was to be expected. She hid behind the wall and listened. Her guess was that these were real tactical people: pros, wearing body armor, trained in hand-to-hand, and intimately familiar with their weapons.
She took a deep breath and threw the letter opener as hard as she could. A man in a gray suit was hit in the center of his forehead. A thin trail of blood trickled down his nose, and he collapsed like a rag doll.
Go.
Yeji charged at the five men, screaming at the top of her lungs to disorient them. Since they were in a hallway, she'd only have to fight 1-2 at a time, Battle of Thermopylae style. Yeji attacked with the umbrella.
She stabbed the first man in the abdomen, just beneath his body armor. Pivoting the umbrella, she struck him under the chin, breaking his jaw and causing him to sag to the ground, which further made the guard's attack difficult. The next man swung a heavy billy club, but Yeji used the umbrella to deflect the blow. Since the man had the billy club attached to him with a wrist strap, Yeji gave the club a few quick turns to lock it around his arm. Seeing what had happened to his friend, the man closed his eyes and waited.
"IT'S OK! YOU'RE IN NO DANGER HERE! I'M NOT LOOKING FOR YOU!"
"REALLY?" the man asked in disbelief.
"NO! OF COURSE YOU ARE IN DANGER," Yeji said, and knocked him out with a blow to the jaw.
She just as easily took out the remaining three men. Once it was quiet, Yeji had blood spattered on her face and one of the glass conference room walls now had a smear of blood on it. Exhausted, she dropped the umbrella.
At the end of the hall was the glass door, the big kind powerful people have. She pulled on the handle and it swung open. Carefully she scouted the space until she was standing in the doorway of the office of Sir Robert Whately, the head of MI6, who was leaning back in his chair and smoking a pipe. She took a seat facing his desk.
"Thanks for not locking your doors, Sir Robert."
"What would be the point, Vector? Or should I say Ms Hwang?"
"On this mission, we are the same person."
Sir Robert inhaled. "Of course, I know why you're here, but of course, I'm not going to tell you the answer to your question."
"It doesn't have to be like this, you know. You could just hand her over. I'll go back to kpop, my world, and you and your people can go back to the shadows. But if you insist on refusing, well then... your people are trained to get information from reluctant people. And I'm trained to kill those people should they harm Ryujin."
"You don't know who you're threatening, girl. Your girlfriend can just disappear, and you'll be left wondering what you could have done to stop it."
Yeji smiled. "You're right. You can do that if you want, and I won't have Ryujin anymore. But I'm not going to leave without taking something from you."
"Like what?" he sneered.
"Does it matter? Here's what I want. I want Ryujin freed and I want out of this life. You've gotten more results from me than from any other operator. Next, I want the Allam's left alone. Let me and Arkangel walk away clean."
"Or what?"
Yeji reached into her back pocket and took out five photos. She held up the first one. "Christina! It's her last year before university, right? She's a bright student."
Yeji tossed the picture on the desk.
She took out another picture: "Stephen, the Oxford boy who wants to follow in his father's footsteps. That's so sweet."
She set a third picture on the desk. "April, your little angel. She's loves playing at that park near your house, right?"
"Your wife must be a saint," Yeji said, putting the final picture down. "You work such long hours, travel so much, and let's say that you haven't been the world's best husband."
Sir Robert was pale and barely breathing. "I see that you've spoken to Radius."
"It doesn't matter. Outcomes from us talking matter. So let's cut to the chase," she said. "You hurt anyone in my family, I hurt your entire family. If it's 20 years from now, and something suspicious happens to any of my people, I hurt everyone. Are we clear?"
Sir Robert nodded. "I'll make the call," he said, his voice quavering.
"This is what I want you to read. I'm not taking the chance that you could work in a coded alert word or phrase into the call." She handed him a crumpled slip of paper.
He picked up the phone and dialed 0, then asked to be connected to Section 4.
"Hello, this is Sir Robert. I have an update on targets Vector and Arkangel and associated assets. Effective immediately, stand down all operations, surveillance, and tactical assistance. Also terminate Allam spy-ops and kinetic ops, effective immediately. These commands cannot be rescinded."
"One question," Sir Robert asked. "Let's say you get everything you want. We're always producing a new crop of assassins like you. Governments always make shady deals with shady people. You'll have done all of this for nothing."
"Not for nothing. For Ryujin. Where is she?"
"S4. Scotland."
"Thank you. Now be a nice boy and --" She stabbed his hand to the desk with a pen. "Stay put." Then she took a lollipop from a bowl on his desk.
Yeji pushed down her thoughts of Ryujin and focused on getting out of the building. The security staff were running around like mad, mostly forcing people to stay in their offices. She ran into three guards on her way down the stairwell. Two, she tossed over the railing, and the third pulled an M-4 on her. A quick kick and he shot himself neatly in the chin.
Things were a bit chaotic outside as every kind of EMS in London had shown up to arrest a crazed mass shooter. Yeji walked towards Winter, still sucking on the lollipop. Winter was gesturing wildly and screaming something.
"DO THE THING!" she screamed. "DO THE SUPER COOL THING!!!"
"WHAT!?!" Yeji screamed back.
"DO THE COOL THING! THE SUPER COOL THING!"
Winter mimed throwing the lollipop away. Then it hit Yeji.
As she walked away from the building, she took one long lick of the lollipop, and then threw it over her shoulder and kept strutting.
The instant the lollipop hit the pavement, Winter pushed the detonator and MI6 Headquarters was blown to ashes.
. . . . .
Yeji and Winter approached S4 from the other side of Mt Misery. Since they left London, they were outcasts: no money, no transportation, no weapons, and no backup from special forces operators. So part of their plan involved... renting a car to drive to the base. But they liked, for once, doing it their way, and keeping it simple. But in this case, "simple" still included some explosives for Winter and a long katana for Yeji.
They hiked for about an hour up the easier slope of Mt Misery, until they reached the top and broke out the night vision binoculars.
"When I was here," Winter whispered, "There were maybe 50 people, and only 20 were security. After all, how many guards do you need to protect a secret base? Everyone else are trainers, cooks, secretaries, etc."
"Are you saying they'll frighten easily?" Yeji asked.
"I don't know of many cooks who'd want to die for this place. They saw how we were treated. So I think they'd just like to find a quiet place to hide and then go back home."
"Winter, I... now's the time I need you..."
Winter winked. "I thought you and Ryujin had something special...?"
Yeji laughed. Not 'need you' like that, you crackhead." She put her hand on Winter's shoulder. "What I need is... Winter, I can't come up with a plan. Now that she's so close, I can't think strategically. I'll just go get myself or her shot. I need your help, Winter. Please, I'm out of rope now."
Winter patted her hand. "Of course, Yej. Anything." She put her binoculars up. Yeji followed. "My guess is that they're keeping her in that bunker. They never let any of us get near it during training, and if you look around it, there's lots of foot traffic coming and going. I don't think we'd see that much if it was just for storage. They have to be keeping people in there."
She continued. "My first instinct is, of course, to blow the door. But on something that reinforced, the concussion could kill anyone inside. Instead, I'm going to blow the power, and then take out anyone who gets between me and you. You'll need to find a way to open that door. I'll work my way toward you, and once we get Ryujin, we can melt back into the mountain and be on our way."
Yeji looked grim. "Then let's do it." She fist-bumped Winter.
For the first 15 minutes, they hiked down the mountain together. Then Winter pinched Yeji's arm and whispered "Time for me to go my way. We'll save her, Yeji. Believe it."
In return, Yeji gave her a quick hug. Then they parted.
Yeji remembered what it had been like on this mountain. The fiery, hard-charging recruit had been replaced by a mature, seasoned operative who had killed more people than she could remember. After the rescue, she could live with Ryujin's hatred as long as Ryujin lived. That would be enough for Yeji, a lifetime's worth of penance.
Yeji scaled the fence into the grounds of S4. No one was in the area. The guard must have just passed on his round. She jogged towards the group of buildings that had once been her home. Even though it was 1am, one of the offices still had its lights on. Yeji crept beneath the window sill to listen.
This is a unique opportunity for us, if you look at it. Now the symbol of Britain's intelligence service has been destroyed. We have the chance to build it back out of sight, as it were. Imagine what we can accomplish around the world if the national government has total deniability? People just have to accept that we know what is best for them. Eventually, the British Government will realize that we know what's best for them, too.
Yes. But she's a problem we can solve easily, as is Arkangel. Vector and her girlfriend will die in a terrible murder-suicide. No one will be surprised when they discover that 'Yeji' is actually a heartless killer. We'll leak something about her history, fabricated, of course. And Arkangel... think about it. Someday soon she'll be crossing the street, and a car will run her over and just keep going...
I don't care what Sir Robert ordered. The Allam's are going to die.
The voice was all too familiar to Yeji.
Radius.
Yeji unsheathed the katana and slowly made her way to the front door. Gingerly she took the doorknob in her hand, and was about to turn it when a voice called "Come in, Yeji."
Yeji kept the blade at the ready as she crept into the room. There was only one light on, and behind a desk sat Radius, her white hair pulled into a ponytail as usual. Yeji sat in the chair facing her and slowly she leaned blade against her chair, at the ready if she needed it fast.
"You called me Yeji," she said.
"What's the point of old secrets like ours, when we've already started making up all-new ones? You're not an asset, not 'Vector' anymore. You're just boring old Yeji again. No more HALO jumps for you, you'll just go back to sorting your whites from your colors before you do your laundry."
"Where is she?"
"Do you need me to tell you?"
"It would save a lot of time, lives, and blood. And you need to look deep inside of yourself and ask whether or not I'm capable of killing all of you."
Radius laughed. "Why do you think we picked you? You have no soul, Yeji. You're whoever you're told to be. We didn't have to train you to kill. You are a killer. We just realized it before some other government did."
Yeji's grip on the katana handle tightened until her knuckles cracked. She stood up.
"You know, Radius, you are right about me. You and me are more alike than you'd think. The difference is that I've found someone to lead me out of this darkness. But if I need to be in the dark to keep her in the light, that's what has to be. And if I have to stay in the dark, I won't be alone..."
Yeji sprang onto the desk and whipped the katana blade across Radius' throat. She didn't stick around to watch her die. At that moment, Winter blew the compound's power supply.
. . . . .
The bunker was about a quarter-mile from the camp's main buildings. Yeji ran at a full sprint, tossing the bloodied katana to the ground. She approached from the back, looking for guards or regular fence patrols. But nothing.
Her heart beating fast, Yeji went to the front entrance and put her hands on the steel. She could almost feel how heavy it was. Planning for this, she was carrying a lock pick set. She got down on one knee, placed the tension bar in the lock, and then she heard a crunch in the gravel behind her.
Turning around, she saw a woman about her own size wearing an all-black tactical combat outfit. Her fists were raised in a boxing position.
"Who are you!?!" Yeji asked.
"I'm Vector," the woman replied in a Scandinavian accent. "Or should I say, I'm Vector once the job opens up."
Yeji rushed at her, ready to fight. She threw a punch to the face, but all she felt was air. Then she was hit in the jaw, throat, and stomach in rapid succession. She fell to her knees, and then was hit in the head with something heavy, a rock perhaps.
She's too fast.
She fell on her side and tucked into the fetal position as she was kicked over and over. There was a pop, and her breath became ragged. Her ribs were broken and at least one punctured her lung.
Yeji managed to raise herself on her elbows despite the blows.
"Ready to have your neck broken?" the woman asked sarcastically. Suddenly the woman gasped, and foamy blood spewed from her lips.
Then the katana blade emerged slowly from her chest. She fell limply to the ground, revealing the woman who had just killed her.
"WINTER!" Yeji croaked.
"I'm just glad I got here in time and very glad that you dropped that blade."
"Me too, Win. Thank you."
"Ok, let's stop this syrupy talk. How do you want to do this?"
"I can get the lock, but then... it... it might be time to leave me behind, Win. I'm in bad shape. I'll just endanger you both."
"Ridiculous," Winter said. "I'll pick the lock, and then you have one mission: go get your girl, babe."
Yeji grinned, her teeth streaked with dry blood. "Help me up," she said.
Once she was standing, she felt unsteady and nauseous, and her breathing was still difficult, but she thought she could proceed. Ryujin was at stake. Yeji's health was secondary, if not something that could be ignored.
There was a click as Winter picked the lock and opened the door slightly. Then she offered her the katana. Yeji shook her head. She was going to do this her way - hand to hand. Face to face.
She slipped past the door and crept down the short hallway. As she neared the corner, she pressed her back against the concrete and peered around the corner. No one.
Then she heard a horrible scream, a scream of pain. She could tell it was Ryujin. Then all hell broke loose.
Yeji raced down the maze of hallways until she ran around a corner and suddenly the sheer terror in Ryujin's screams hit her full force. She knew that she was going to turn off everything except the deep reptilian roots of her mind.
Ryujin was being kept in a cell. Between her and the door stood a tall, burly guard. He had barely raised his rifle a centimeter when Yeji attacked. In an instant she had taken his gun, and after a step back, hit the man in the head so hard with his own gun that the stock split in half. He fell to the ground as stiff as a tree, and he remained alive until Yeji took his head between her hands forearms and twisted his head almost 180 degrees, screaming with rage when she heard his neck crack.
She kicked the door open and took in the scene in an instant. Ryujin was tied to a chair and her face was bruised and bloodied. A small man - the mean one from her training days - looked up in surprise. Yeji pushed him to the floor and put her hands around his neck and squeezed as hard as she could. Ryujin watched in terror.
"YEJI, STOP! DON'T KILL HIM!"
Yeji looked at her with a sad expression. "Oh, my love, I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier."
"It's ok! You're here now! I love you. Please don't kill him. I'm sure there's a way he can face justice!"
With dead eyes Yeji said "For people like him, I am justice." Then she crushed the man's larynx. After a few seconds of twitching, his body went limp.
Winter rushed into the room, untied Ryujin's bonds, and helped the injured Yeji to her feet. She could barely stand but managed to help Ryujin stand up. They embraced. Yeji held her tight, afraid that she might be taken from her again.
"Yeji," Ryujin stammered. "I don't understand this world you live in, but now I understand you. Both of you. Thank you for saving my life."
"Full disclosure, Ryujin," Winter said, "on two missions I spooned Yeji. She was innocent. She was asleep in her bed when I did it, and I'm pretty sure she thought it was you."
Despite her pain Ryujin managed a weak smile. "That's ok. I used to spoon with Karina before either of us met her."
"Whoa, wait a second!"
"Can we get going?" Yeji barked.
With the camp lights out, it was easy to make it through the hole in the fence they had cut for the escape. Then they reached the marshland that lay around the mountain. Ryujin was only wearing socks, and Yeji wasn't going to allow her to hike him them. So Yeji sat down and undid her combat boots.
"Take them," she commanded Ryujin.
"No way! You rescued me, remember?"
"If you don't, I'm just going to toss them."
Ryujin groaned and put the boots on. Then they headed off to Mt Misery, wading through knee-deep marsh until they were at the base of the mountain.
Without looking, Yeji knew her feet were being slowly sliced to pieces. But her feet were so trivial now. She was getting married soon. And she would be out of her secret existence and could go back to being a member of Itzy. She could sing and dance everyday.
The girls took about seven hours to traverse the mountain. They reached the car muddy and in pain, and Yeji had to be carried by the others. She was bleeding so badly that the other girls gave Yeji their socks so she reduce the blood loss.
"We need to get her to a doctor," Ryujin whispered so Yeji couldn't hear.
"We can't risk it. The entire British intelligence network is looking for us, either to kill us or throw us in a hole - and then they'll throw away the hole. I have combat medicine training. You drive, and I'll get in the back and patch our girl up as good as new."
Ryujin looked out the window and sighed. What was happening?
They stopped at a petrol station and as Ryujin was filling the car, Winter scoured the gas station for medical supplies. There was a tiny first aid kit, which Winter jammed in her pocket. She also shoplifted some gel packs used by runners for a quick burst of energy. Then she went to the bathroom and ripped the tampon dispenser off the wall, and put a handful in her pocket. They made excellent bandages to stop severe bleeding.
Once they were on the road again, Winter began treating Yeji's injuries. They didn't have any bandage that they could put around her ribs, so Winter improvised a brace out of parachute cord. Yeji winced as Winter pulled it tight. Then she washed Yeji's feet with drinking water, wrapped them in tampons, and then held the whole arrangement in place with the socks they had been using. Finally, they pulled over so Winter and Ryujin could switch spots.
Yeji seemed a bit more comfortable, and dozed off with her head on Ryujin's shoulder.
"Winter, I don't know how... how to process all of this? One minute I'm planning a wedding with a wonderful fiance, and next... well, we're in this car, and she's been beaten so badly, Winter... I'm scared that I'm going to lose her."
"This world her and I live in is through the looking glass. I wish so much that there was something I could say that would make it all ok between you. But there is one thing I can say."
"What?"
"Ryujin, had it not been for Yeji, millions, maybe billions, would be dead, including us and everyone we love. Yeji has literally saved the world, many times. Her life has been on the line ever since she was recruited. And I guess I'd say that you keep in mind that she did this voluntarily, and because she believes in humanity. How it played out between you two is one thing, but just remember who she is, and what she has given all of us."
Ryujin's eyes filled with tears. Gently she stroked Yeji's cheek with her finger. She couldn't wait for them to share a bed again so she could hold her.
"We have about five more hours to reach the hospital where the Allams are recovering. If you need to sleep, I'd do it now."
. . . . .
They arrived at the hospital at 7pm. Yeji had cleaned her face in the sink in a washroom, but it hadn't done much to change her appearance. The receptionist directed them to the 11th floor. They tried to walk as nonchalantly as possible. When they got out of the elevator they approached the nurses' station.
"Hi, we're looking for Mary Allam," Winter asked.
The nurse took one look at Yeji. "You really look like you need a doctor." She picked up a phone. Gently Yeji took her hand and put the phone back in its cradle.
"I'm ok," Yeji said, forcing a smile. "Just took a tumble. Can you tell us where the Allams are?"
The nurse looked at her monitor. "They were checked out yesterday. A gentleman picked them up. A very charming gentleman. Yeji's pulse skipped a beat. "Who was it?"
Again the nurse checked the computer. "It was her father. David Allam."
Winter and Yeji gasped. Had he survived? Was the whole crash a cover story? A hoax? Whatever it was, could they ever find the truth? With his money, Allam and his family had to have fled the country. Yeji hoped that they found the peace and happiness they deserved.
Once they were outside, the three girls arranged for Winter to drop off Yeji and Ryujin, burn the car to eliminate any evidence, and then return to Karina. Her girlfriend.
The three girls hugged, and Yeji, barely able to control her emotions, took Winter's hand.
"I can't thank you... Winter, you could have..."
"It's ok, Yej. It's ok. You're safe now."
Finally.