Mission Accomplished, Assembly Awaits
After perfectly erasing all evidence at the club and making our way back, I handed the terminal I'd gotten from Kwon Ji-yul over to her for analysis.
"I'm totally hopeless with this stuff. You got this, right?"
"Well... I can do it, but it's gonna be tough with the gear we've got here. It's just so crappy."
"Then heading back to do it properly is the best bet?"
"Pretty much. And once we're back at HQ, there are tons of people who can handle it for me anyway."
"...That's not really your true feelings, is it?"
With only basic equipment available here, proper analysis was out of the question, so Kwon Ji-yul said. In the end, we spent the day holding our breath quietly before boarding the ship back home.
Just as promised three days earlier with Kwon Ji-yul, the smuggling ship arrived meekly to pick us up. I'd half-expected them to bolt, but they actually showed up without a fuss. It was almost surprising.
"W-we're here to take you aboard."
"Oh, you actually came back instead of running?"
"Haha... I don't exactly wanna sink in the middle of the ocean like you said..."
Trembling all the while, the captain loaded us onto the smuggling ship and quietly ferried us back to the homeland. Seemed like his dream was to scrape by long and thin doing this smuggling gig.
And the moment we set foot on Incheon soil again, we removed the bomb we'd planted on the smuggling ship as promised. Right after we took it off, the captain vanished like a shot.
Slap—Slap—
"Ah, he's gone. Should've gotten his contact info."
"What? If we need to smuggle again next time, it wouldn't have hurt."
Kwon Ji-yul's quip would've probably made the captain freak if he'd heard it, but I just gave a casual reply and hailed a taxi. Mission accomplished—now all that was left was heading back and filing the report. My steps toward Baek Ya-seong Headquarters felt light as could be.
""Mission complete. Returning now, miss.""
After just six days, Baek Se-rin and Kwon Ji-yul were finally back. Jin Yeon-ah watched the two of them give their report right in front of her, a grin tugging at her lips.
"You two did great. Back even sooner than I expected."
"Our teamwork clicked pretty well. Didn't even take two full days."
"Handled it perfectly, so no loose ends or rumors."
Honestly, Jin Yeon-ah had figured they'd take a full week, but it seemed she was still underestimating her assassins. For anyone else, it would've taken at least a week—not counting the travel time to and from China—and yet these two wrapped it up in a mere six days total. Jin Yeon-ah felt anew just how capable her assassins were as she listened to the rest of the report.
They'd succeeded on the mission, but there were some incidents during it they needed to report. And what she heard next was shocking enough to rattle her.
"Mission went off without a hitch, but... that bodyguard protecting Shim Hyuk-jin was no joke."
"No joke how?"
"Kinda hard to put it this way, but... it was like a cyborg bodyguard."
"...A cyborg?"
Jin Yeon-ah's head tilted involuntarily at Baek Se-rin's unexpected word. Cyborg? She couldn't picture it easily, so the head tilt was natural.
Helping her understand was Kwon Ji-yul, who pulled out her phone.
"Here—this is bodycam footage from when Se-rin fought that bodyguard. I cleaned it up as sharp as I could."
"This is..."
Once Jin Yeon-ah checked the footage Kwon Ji-yul handed over, she finally got exactly what Baek Se-rin meant by "cyborg-like." A bodysuit wrapping the entire body, overlaid with a symphony of mechanical devices. Arms deploying rocket launcher and machine gun barrels—and actually firing them. And finally, that abnormal vitality where even a pierced heart didn't kill him.
It was a perfect match for the term cyborg. Jin Yeon-ah let out a hollow breath.
"Whoa... this is a first for me. Even if enhancement procedures are standard these days, modifying the body's structure entirely like this?"
"And he didn't die from a heart stab, so not just the organs—the vascular structure must be altered too... I thought there were no procedures that went that far."
"Right, you'd never find procedures that extreme anywhere in the world."
This wasn't something you could explain away as just special enhancement procedures. Yet it wasn't a full robot either—clearly a sentient being. In other words, a product or prototype test subject from some nation wielding impossible tech.
And considering the company that scouted Shim Hyuk-jin during this mission, and the bodyguard they assigned... the nation in question was.
""America.""
For a moment, Jin Yeon-ah and Baek Se-rin's voices overlapped. They locked eyes and nodded without needing to say who went first.
"So it's a given that America's the one who made that bodyguard."
"Shim Hyuk-jin himself said as much, so yeah, definite."
The place that made what could only be called a cyborg? None other than America. The last research institute incident was tied to America too, and now this—Jin Yeon-ah swallowed a sigh inwardly.
But that lasted only a moment. Pulling herself together, she turned to Kwon Ji-yul approaching again.
What Kwon Ji-yul pulled from her bag as she drew near.
"What's this?"
"The terminal Se-rin took from Shim Hyuk-jin, our mission target. Apparently, it was what he used to periodically contact the company that scouted him. Analyzing it should yield some pretty useful intel."
"You got this off him? Nice work. Handing it to the intel analysis team will definitely dig up all sorts of goodies. Ji-yul, could you deliver this straight to them now?"
"Sure thing, on it right away."
It was a pretty crude-looking terminal, but as Kwon Ji-yul said, the info inside was likely gold. For analysis, Jin Yeon-ah asked her to deliver it, and Kwon Ji-yul nodded without hesitation, turning on her heel.
They'd covered everything in the report anyway, and Jin Yeon-ah had asked for immediate delivery, so off she went.
Clunk—
A quick farewell, and Kwon Ji-yul headed out of the office first.
"Alright, report's done, so I'll head out too..."
"Hang on, Se-rin. There's still something we need to talk about."
Baek Se-rin started to follow but Jin Yeon-ah stopped her. Baek Se-rin turned back with a puzzled look.
Jin Yeon-ah desperately wanted to let her rest after just returning from deployment, but unfortunately, there was still work for Baek Se-rin. More precisely, something Jin Yeon-ah herself had forgotten, so Baek Se-rin had to cover for it.
Thus, with an expression full of apology, Jin Yeon-ah spoke up.
"Sooo... sorry to hit you with this right after getting back, but there's somewhere you gotta come with me."
"Somewhere I gotta go?"
"It's the regular meeting today. And escorts from exclusive assassins are mandatory... Sorry, Se-rin."
"The regular meeting?"
What Jin Yeon-ah had forgotten was none other than the regular meeting. At Baek Se-rin's questioning look, Jin Yeon-ah rubbed her chin briefly before explaining.
"Think of the regular meeting as a spot where assassin companies gather periodically every March. Not just them—Central bigwigs attend too. Basically a place to commend the assassin firms."
"Ah, so like rounding up the assassin companies to check if the leashes are still on tight."
"...The metaphor's a bit much, but yeah, you could see it that way."
The regular meeting was exactly that—a periodic gathering of all so-called assassin companies. Central higher-ups showed up in droves to commend their efforts and exchange greetings in a social mixer. But crassly put, as Baek Se-rin said, it was also to confirm the assassin companies were still firmly leashed to Central.
A tiresome event she'd rather skip, but since Jin Yeon-ah had started public activities this year, attendance was mandatory. And to attend, bringing an exclusive assassin was required—so she couldn't help feeling sorry toward Baek Se-rin, who hadn't even rested properly.
"So, Se-rin, really sorry, but... can you get ready right away? We need to be there by 7 PM."
For Baek Se-rin, who'd spent six days including today on mission in Shanghai, this meant barely a few hours' rest before the next task. If she'd been even a day late finishing, participation might've been impossible.
It was entirely Jin Yeon-ah's own ditzy mistake, so despite being the boss, she kept apologizing as she asked. At her profuse apologies, Baek Se-rin let out a chuckle and cut them off.
"I'm your exclusive assassin, miss. What's there to be sorry about? Quit apologizing and get changed already."
"...Thanks so much, Se-rin."
No need to apologize to her exclusive assassin, Baek Se-rin said with a smile. At that utterly reliable sight, Jin Yeon-ah expressed her gratitude with a smile of her own.
The regular meeting where every assassin company in the country gathered. It was time to make her first appearance there.