Chapter Text
A nervous journalist stands outside the White House, microphone in one hand, printed report in the other. Despite the breeziness of the afternoon, there is no reason for her hands to be trembling as much as they are. This, more than anything else, draws attention from television viewers all across the country.
“We have just received breaking news,” she begins shakily, voice carried on the wind, “that President Christopher Bang has been assassinated during his speech on bureaucratic transparency at the annual World Summit.” There are tears in her eyes as she reads out the next segment of the script.
“Beloved by all, the American President succumbed to his fatal wound at 6:40 AM this morning, Monday the 17th, in Geneva, Switzerland. The entire nation will mourn his passing in the face of this terrible tragedy. His remains will be transported back to the United States approximately…”
Jisung’s nails have long since been bitten down to the curves of his fingers and then some, and yet there is nothing he wants to do right now then tear at them more.
“Now is not the time, Seo,” he mutters quietly, trying to keep his expression neutral as he hurries down the austere hallway. Sometimes, he hates how clean Langley was, especially when he knows just how much blood had been spilled in its name, his own included.
“Now is exactly the time, Han,” Changbin retorts, his permanent scowl furrowed even more deeply than usual.
At those words, Jisung stops and whirls around to face the older man. He can tell Changbin is about to start up again, but his nerves are already as frayed as they can be, and his patience wears thin.
“Now is exactly not the time,” Jisung hisses, so fiercely his leg twinges in half-forgotten pain, but he pays it no attention. “It’s a zoo out there right now. The press is two seconds from falling into a panicked frenzy and everyone is at the end of their rope, me included. Now you will let me set my department straight so they’re prepared to take up the job that your department bungled so thoroughly or there will be hell to pay.”
“You don’t need to tell me about the state of the nation, Han,” Changbin replies sourly. “I’m directly in the line of fire.”
Jisung lets the last of his self-control prevent him from fully baring his teeth at the Chief of Staff. “Then do your job, Seo, and let me do mine. Everyone’s a little trigger happy right now, especially a fully-trained black ops team.”
Changbin blinks slowly, unfazed by the threat. “You sure that’s the kind of wording you want to use right now? They are still looking for a suspect, you know.”
Jisung shrugs, long past caring. “We both know what you already think, and nothing I say or don't say will change that.” He doesn’t wait around for a reply, stalking down the hall and leaving a nonplussed Chief of Staff in his wake.
The New York Times @nytimes • 9h
The White House has issued a call for Agent Lee Minho to turn himself in for questioning on President Chan's assassination.
The White House has not released another statement since the tragic event itself, and there is no publicly available information on Agent Lee's involvement.
10:03 PM - 18 Mar 2020
This time, it’s Jisung out on the hunt for Changbin. Luckily, the other man hasn’t flown back to Washington yet, leaving the perfect opening for Jisung to stalk up to the Chief of Staff and shove a tablet into his chest. “What the fuck is this?”
Changbin gives a look to the woman he was talking to, and she nods hurriedly before disengaging. Changbin ushers an irate Jisung into the nearest conference room, glancing down at the tablet. Before he can even reply, Jisung presses on. “You didn’t have clearance in this division. You’re not even authorized to access this information, let alone release my agents’ names to the press!” Jisung hates how his voice shakes whenever he’s frustrated, hands clenched in tight fists at his side, but he’s too furious to regulate his voice right now.
It’s not just the anger, but the fear, a helpful voice suggests in his mind. Fear of everything that this oblivious bastard in front of him had set in motion without even realizing the danger he had just put their operatives in.
“You told me to go do my job,” Changbin replies steadily. “And that job is to give the American people the answers they demand, even though you’ve given me even less information than what the public already has.” He continues to scroll through the tablet even though he already knows what the news headlines say. After all, he had been the one to feed those words to the media.
“They’re going to think that Minho’s responsible for assassinating the President when he isn’t—”
“Then where’s my list of suspects, Han?” Changbin interrupts, setting the tablet down on the table with a sharp clack. “If you had just given me all the data upfront like I had asked, I wouldn’t have had to go all the way to the Director of the CIA for names, who, by the way, was a lot more forthcoming than you have been this entire time.”
A pause. Jisung bites back the fury and inhales deeply, trying to maintain some semblance of calm. “You have no idea what danger you have just—”
“SKZ-9, was it?” Changbin cuts Jisung off again, staring intently at his expression. Jisung struggles to not let anything show on his face, but something must still make it through his mask. Changbin nods sharply. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“You already knew?”
Changbin shrugs, sliding the tablet back over to Jisung. “I suspected. The Director gave me the last few hints I needed to figure it out. I always wondered why you weren’t in the conventional chain of command. Now I know.”
Jisung’s leg aches fiercely. “No, you don’t.” At Changbin’s raised eyebrow, the words come spewing out. “You might know of our existence now, but you have no idea what you’ve done, how much you’ve put at risk.” He stands up fluidly, gritting his teeth against the throb he’s long since learned to ignore.
“One name, that’s all I need. You know where it’s going to go from here. One agent, Jisung, or all of them.”
The Huffington Post shared a link.
8 hours ago • 🌍
An arrest warrant has been issued for CIA Agent Lee Minho regarding the assassination of President Christopher Bang. Insider sources at the Pentagon claim that Agent Lee was part of a secretive Black Ops division operating overseas at the behest of an unknown department in the CIA.
Warrant for CIA Agent Suspected of Assassinating U.S. President
www.huffingtonpost.org
Jisung stares blankly at his computer screen, but the words blur out across the screen as he lets the tears fall.
He’s never wanted this job, always struggling to coordinate movements from HQ when he knows in his heart he should be right there out in the field with his fellow agents, bum leg be damned. But despite his doubts, he likes to think he’s done as good a job as any administrator could have in his position.
And now? Now he can’t even protect his operatives, since Minho’s name is in the open and their entire unit is one wispy rumor away from facing the scrutiny of the entire globe. All their covert operations, all the intelligence gathered in the name of this greedy country, and Jisung can only wonder if Changbin had found out the true purpose of Unit SKZ-9, the black ops of the black ops.
Sure, Jisung had his own reservations about their missions sometimes: the people they’ve murdered, the foreign lives they’ve ruined in favor of protecting their own. But it’s not his place to look at the larger picture, and sometimes it’s easier just to not think. But he’s one of them now, the thinkers, the people who puppeteer other people. Jisung can no longer pretend not to acknowledge what Changbin has been implying all along.
It would make sense, wouldn’t it? For a professional assassin to have murdered the President himself?
The tears dry as Jisung smiles bitterly, no one around to see the surprisingly crooked expression on his face. The worst part is, as bad a liar as Jisung can be, he’s learned to utilize that weakness. It was one of the first lessons he had beaten into him during training: if you can’t hide a weakness, at least make sure no one else can take advantage of it either.
So the crux of the matter was this: Jisung had no idea if Minho was guilty either. And when a mess this large needed a cleanup to match, there was only one team called in to do the job.
Jisung grits his teeth as he jerks the mouse and wakes his monitor back up. He has field agents to assemble for the most difficult task of his career: hunting down his fiancé.