Guarded Hearts

part three

Jungkook had been in war zones. He'd taken part in classified dark ops against high-priority targets. He had orders that had his unit operate illegally on foreign soil. He was an elite soldier, and a lot of his secret service colleagues weren't aware of the extent of his service, because even they didn't have the clearance.

Taehyung being kidnapped - the emotional high of distress it brought him - forced his mind to go back to the headspace he'd had to survive in during those days. He narrowed his mind to the mission, and only had a singular focus: Get Taehyung Back.

Yugyeom kept him up-to-date using a burner phone. He was going against all their protocol, and breaking national security laws to do it. Both of them knew how much he was risking, and that it was highly likely that he'd be out of a job when it was done. Jungkook knew he couldn't do it without Yugyeom's help; his attempt to dissuade him out of guilt had been half-hearted at best and Yugyeom had told him to fuck off with it. He understood the weight of their actions, but he said that he'd rather be out of a job with a clear conscience from doing what was right, than any other reason.

Jungkook's access to any classified information had been restricted because of his initial suspension, and then because he'd gone AWOL. He was on the watchlist, according to the information Yugyeom sent through. They'd sent out a unit from the FBI to track him down, so he'd gone deep and dark. Off the grid. Burner phones, cash only, emptied his weapons cache from the storage locker he and Jin kept under the name of a dead soldier they'd served with. No one would find him unless he wanted to be found.

But he couldn't get Taehyung back alone. He needed a team.

While he'd been a Ranger, Jungkook knew he wasn't in it for life - not like Seokjin and some of the others. He had his goals outside the army; his family legacy, the dream to join the Secret Service. He couldn't deny that missed being a part of a team like that though. It had been dangerous, but the missions gave him purpose, and the team gave him a family. He was never alone. Never without back-up. Never without someone he trusted to give him the shirt off his back if he needed - and Jungkook would do the same for him.

The Secret Service wasn't like that, which he hated. There wasn't the same sense of loyalty to each other, and absolute grit to survive. It was a polished unit, with their mission to protect their target and work together to achieve that. It wasn't working together to save each other's asses, it was a unit working together to take out the enemy, or take the bullet - and earn your heroic promotion if you survived. They had to face the cameras in pressed suits, not get down and gritty in camouflage.

There was no one he would trust more than a team guy, and there was only one guy he'd trust to be in his ear, with eyes on everything. Hoseok had been discharged for a while, but Jungkook knew he was working in the private sector. Anyone with his skill set was in high demand.

He'd called him after the call from Yugyeom the first day.

"I'm in."

No hesitation. Jungkook had his sniper.

Jungkook had made his temporary home in an old training facility, an ex-military warehouse that had evidently been home to a few homeless, but they steered clear of him, keeping out of sight. It was barebones but it had space, and privacy - and better yet, an alarm system. He brought a bag of food, clothes, blankets, hygiene products, and medicine for the homeless. They'd let him know if anyone came knocking, one way or another.

Yugyeom called and told him more about the group that had taken him. It was a vigilante militia on the border. A group of racist, unpatriotic right-wing fucks who used the excuse of 'protecting' the country as a way to justify their violence and hatred. Intelligence over the last two years had implied they'd possibly made connections with an international terror group based out of Algeria, but they hadn't been able to confirm it officially. But with Taehyung's kidnapping, Jungkook was pretty fucking sure it was confirmed.