venom

CHAPTER 19 | The Temptress' Game

Taehyung has changed.

If there's anything Jimin's constant jabs and angry remarks get right, it's that; Taehyung has undeniably, unforgivably grown conceited, cold, and deviant — even to his own people.

W.R.A.I.T.H is getting bigger, stronger. Their technology and research is getting more and more advanced, and Taehyung knows this. They aren't going to stay on standby any longer, and this scares Taehyung. If he chooses to present that in a manner that pushes away his own comrades, so be it.

"Anything?" the dark-haired man mutters lowly, hovering over his tangerine-haired friend with squinted eyes, trying to determine anything he can from what's displayed on the screen of numbers, codes, tabs, and words before him. Much of it looks like an ancient foreign language to him, indecipherable and downright enigmatic.

Hoseok sighs, typing away on the laptop with hasty clicks. His veined, long fingers tap expertly along the board, educated and aware of what he's doing. His brow stitches into a consistent visual of stress, eyes darting all over the screen.

"I'm working on it," he grumbles out. He doesn't apologize for his tone, nor does Taehyung expect him to; they've been trying to get into this mainframe for months, years even. Although Hoseok is a talented hacker, Taehyung knows even he has limits.

"You said you paid somebody," Taehyung says, watching Hoseok's actions closely as he works. The meeting room is dimly lit, the large dark oak table sitting just Hoseok with Taehyung standing over him. The others are in the training room meanwhile, preparing. "With the money we got on the heist. Who was it? And what did you get?"

Hoseok sighs, still multitasking and typing away. "A guy named Haeil. He's pretty famous in the hacker world for breaking through even the strongest of digital protections and firewalls, including governmental ones."

"Has he now?" Taehyung speaks in response.

The orange-haired hacker nods. "Yup. Apparently, he has people consult him a lot about things like this. He told me he'd give me some tips, but he didn't guarantee it'd work."

"How far have you gotten compared to a few months ago?"

"It's unmeasurable." Hoseok appears grim. "Got past one line of blockage, but there's so many that it'll be years before I can get into that mainframe."

Taehyung slams his hand onto the meeting room table, Hoseok not reacting as the dark-haired leader curses. "Damn it! We don't have years."

"That's why we're starting on these heists," Hoseok says calmly, stopping his typing for a moment. He goes back to it seconds after. "And missions. Although it didn't do much this time, it was a good start."

"Maybe," Taehyung paces around, blowing out hot air. This would be a lot more challenging than he originally thought.

Taehyung runs a hand through his hair, grumbling out strings of complaints. " . . four years and we've gotten nowhere. All we know about is the experiments and the women that were taken . . Fuck."