Reo and Hei came out of Seri's house with a luxurious car standing in front of them. The sky was a dark hue of orange. The boys quietly get into the car without saying a word to each other.
"Can you drop us near Hinsing Academy?" Reo asks the chauffeur. The chauffeur looks at the two of them shadily through the rear window before agreeing to it.
Reo looks straight into the chauffeur's eyes, with a displeased expression. Hei just looks at both innocently. The vibe coming from the car was mysteriously strange. Not one of them said a word during almost the whole ride.
"Hey, I actually clicked the picture of-" Hei starts but Reo puts a book in his mouth. Hei widens his eyes. the chauffeur pretends to look in the rear view mirror. Reo writes on his tab and then passes it to him without looking. "Not now." was written on the tab.
"Sir, we're here." The chauffeur speakers up, turning his head towards them. Reo and Hei get out of the car. The sky was dark and the streetlights were on now. The car drives off with them standing there, but his eyes were fixed on them till he turned at the intersection. Reo turns around to Hei.
"Nobody can attack on us here, but still be alert till we reach the safehouse."Reo says.
They move through a series of maze corridors, the light getting fainter as they were going forward. Reo shakes his phone and the torch gets switched. Hei does the same. They finally reach a dead end.
Hei was flustered but tries to stay calm.
"Close your eyes." Reo says.
Hei does like an obedient child. When he hears some noice and footsteps, he opens his eyes.
"Fu*k" Hei says, without realizing he had just sweared. In front of him was huge room, filled with lots of people. He sees that reo had already entered. He brisk walks into the room. He had just seen magic and his sees were still not feeling stable.
"You clicked his picture right?" Reo asks turning to him.
"Not his, but of the gun." Hei says looking at the enormous screen in front of him. He was feeling like he was in some drama.
"Give me your phone." Reo says. Hei hands him his phone reluctantly. Reo taps on the phone several times in the dim light and a after a minute, returns him back his phone.
"A private search engine?" Hei looks at him.
"Now don't use the normal search engine, don't text me using Wechat, Kakaotalk etc." Reo says. He takes out two small black plastic cases with the Lime logo and hands it to Hei.
"Airpods?"Hei asks, opening one.
"I designed them, they aren't ordinary." Reo says. "It will probably take the whole day if start telling you the features, so I'll be brief. Press it once, blue light will flick once showing it is switched on, if you press the button for more two seconds, purple light, will flick once and everything henceforth would be recorded, 48 hours battery, it requires 10 minutes to be charged full from case, this button for lime assistant, it has GPS too."
"Hell. I don't even know this kid.'Hei thinks. Hei gulps down his saliva and then opens the second case.
"What are the features of this extraordinary watch, which I guess has also been designed by you?" Hei asks.
"Wear them." Reo says.
As soon as he puts it on his wrist, a blue circle appears with a triangle, square and circle. "Hello Hei" the watch speaks."Please press the triangle to know the features." The watch continues. As Hei looks towards Reo, he finds him working on a tab.
He looks towards the screen. He was reading about the rifle on his tab.
"Its Remington 700. An elite military sniper." Hei reads aloud.
"It's effective range is 1398 yards.That means he was always in our 1 km radius. He was keeping an eye on us, and was probably not to far." Reo says.
"Cost is $2500, a typical hunting rifle." Hei says."Do you think it was linked to father's death?"He asks.
"65% not." Reo says.
"Lets go back to the cafe."Reo says.
"Its 9pm." Hei says stressing 9pm.
"So?You want to become a police officer, think of it as field work. " Reo says.
"Don't you think it is a little too late for a café to be open at this time?" Hei asks, not believing Reo.
Reo smirks and grins a little. He turns turn towards one of the people sitting in front of a computer. The person stands up, making space for them.
Suddenly, Reo pushes the monitor towards him. It was showing the CCTV of a room which looked like it belonged to the police headquarters. He knew this room well, he had been there to provide testimony. Hei's heart rate quickens with his breath growing shallow.
The transparent glass board was showing all the pictures of suspects along with the pictures of the crime scene. All of the room was clear due to the placement of the CCTV. But the thing that made Hei lose his mind was that. the thing on the top.
His photo was at the top of the suspects.
"Try to listen to the audio. Might be more than you can take but it is important." Reo says plugging in his airpods. Hei hurriedly takes out his airpods and plugs them in his ears and switches them on.
"We have to close the case as soon as possible. It's the order from the higher ups.He is a nobody after all. We have to clean this to climb the ladder" The person with the five star batch says.
"Hey, stop those Niagara falls, we just started." Reo says looking at Hei.
Reo takes out his airpods and keeps them on the table, and moves towards the big screen.
"Take out all the the camera recordings in the 1 km radius of this cafe.I have sent you the coordinates. Look carefully for traces between 16:00 to 17:00." Reo says to the girl, sitting in front of a computer. The girls nods, looking at Hei suspiciously. She stares at him without blinking and when he smiles at her, she mutters something under her breath and then resumes typing on her laptop.
"Play this recording on the bigger screen. I might have captured his voice. Run a speech recognition." He says handing her the phone.
"You are gonna identify him by his voice?" Hei asks.
"Voice is like a fingerprint: never doubles. Resonators' structure is unique and produces "wave sign" of the speaker." The man replies.
A phone starts vibrating breaking the tensed atmosphere.
He picks up the phone. "Mr.Ken came to Korea. He is in the Ken mansion." A person says.
"Don't let him meet him. I'll be arriving soon. Tell him I am at school. Get that person out of the house immediately. it doesn't matter him. Just don't let him him see him." Reo says a cold voice.
As soon as he hangs the call, he bangs his phone on the table. He runs his hand through his hair.
"How the hell, you all didn't realize he was here, weren't you looking at the CCTV footage of the mansion. You couldn't track his plane. You were unable to track a plane" He says in a harsh tone, trying to swallow his anger, focusing on the word plane.
Everyone just remains silent. Some of them look at the ground. Hei was looking at him leaning on the wall, his arms folded. Reo rolls his eyes at their reactions.
"Guys, I don't pay you for slacking off. Now, correct this blunder. I won't be able to come here till father leaves. Ava, you are gonna look after him."He says pointing his phone towards Hei.
Ava rolls her eyes as Hei smiles at her again.
"Ryle, search the area using Drones."Reo continues.
"Min, you'll look after my secretary, he is hiding something. Sam, you'll look into the Hamyang case. Also try to find why father came?" He says.
Everybody resumes work as soon as he stops speaking. The room was suddenly filled with the sounds made by the tapping fingers on the keyboard keys. Reo moves to a room and comes out in a different set of clothes. He looked calmer than before.
"I believe in you all, you are the best so don't make mistakes. Notify me as soon as you find the person. Hei would identify him." He says looking at everyone, then at Hei and then at Ava.
Reo walks towards a wall. He presses his palm, then his fingers on the wall. Hei looks at the wall, his eyes glued, determined to find how this wall opened into that messy corridor. A light falls on his eyes, gets reflected and then he disappears.
"Are we on some other planet. How did this just happen. How did he disappear?" Hei asks Ava, unable to believe what he just saw.
"Are you from the Joseon dynasty or what?" Ava says pushing her glasses, looking at him once and then resuming tapping on her laptop, ignoring Hei.