A Bullet to the Heart, ₗₑₑ Fₑₗᵢₓ

21.

⇝ ⇝ ⇝ We were at the small town which made up the entry into Nowon-gu. The narrow streets were lined with tightly packed buildings, creating a maze of compact alleyways and small structures that loomed over the surroundings. The small town set as an introduction to the area of Nowon-gu, and I was quite fond of it.

The buildings, despite being compact, had character. A restaurant, no doubt the one we were going to be watching, was set up with chairs and little tables on the street. Lights dangled from the overhead canopy creating a nice ambience, making it sheltered and cosy. The lights weren't on at the minute but I had no doubt it would be inviting to the people walking past on the night, when they were on.

There was a gas station, simply for passing visitors. The town was too small for long-time visitors and was mainly used by the locals or the people making the journey into central Nowon-gu. I did my practice rounds of the town, cutting off alleyways in case things went south tonight.

One of my colleagues was out of uniform. She wore a pink jumper and a simple pair of jeans to convey a sense of normalcy. She was talking to the locals of the town, giving them the information that they needed to stay safe but told them to let things happen naturally so we could do our job. Many of the locals were willing to help us, and others shut down their shops for the night because they didn't want the trouble.

I just hoped that the dark web culprits wouldn't notice the shops closed and suspect something. The weight of expectation bore down on me heavily, as if everything had been building up to this one pivotal night, this singular mission. If I could finish everything this night, and then work on the last remaining things, then retire, then stay with Felix...I was just praying things went right.

I was positioned in a building that resembled a church, located at the bottom of the town. My workspace was at the highest point of the building, where there was an open area and a bell positioned behind me. I had the vantage point, overlooking each small building till the town came to the isolated road. I set up the sniper rifle, and lay on my stomach, looking through it.

As the sun passed down by the horizon, a light purple hue lit up the world. It was fast approaching night and everyone in the squadron was in position, ready for the culprits to arrive at the small town. I wondered why they picked this place. What was so special about the small town? Did they not realise it would be easier to get captured in a place like this?

I couldn't blame their stupidity. After all, these people were normal. None of them were from the military, they were just citizens with an intense hatred for this one music group. It was so crazy to me how such aggressive people could be united in their intense hatred for 8 men.

At 7 pm, a run-down car with wasting away red paint pulled up beside the main street. I watched the car from the telescope on my rifle, and I put my finger on my in-ear.

"Red car approaching the restaurant, all eyes on," I said quietly and got a quiet 'heard' from my squadron second hand.

A young man got out of the car, tattoos littering his neck and hands from what I could see. He had a piercing through his eyebrow as he turned away from his car and to the restaurant. I don't know what I was expecting but a young man, who couldn't be older than 28, wasn't who I thought would turn up. I wondered what his hate stemmed from. I couldn't imagine him ever being the type to give a fuck about 8 men who made music.

"1 out of 11, we continue waiting," I said to my colleagues.

Eventually, everyone showed up and I watched them carefully as they put together 3 tables on the street so they could all talk together. If you were a normal person, it would've looked like a massive group of friends or family sitting together on a nice night. I watched them for a few minutes as they ordered drinks from the owner of the building. I noticed the madam of the restaurant looked around awkwardly, waiting for us to make a move.

"Move in," I said to the team.

The team moved in from the shadows, their uniforms a mixture of camo and black. My night vision helped to see them in the dark, but to the naked eye, they were almost impossible to spot. My squadron surrounded them, hiding in the shadows of alleyways and across the street. They moved in slowly and then I gave them the order.

"Ga," Meaning go in Korean, the one Korean command I chose to learn and this signalled for them to make a move to arrest them and apprehend them.

They moved in quickly, making themselves visible. Half of the group aimed their weapons, their guns full of blanks instead of real bullets. Our goal wasn't to traumatise the whole town and kill these people, it wasn't justified and their crimes weren't bad enough to warrant death. They would be tried as criminals and the court would give them a sentence. Whatever crime they committed, it would be doubled knowing the government went through the trouble of arresting them instead of regular police officers.

The members of this dark web group were frantic immediately, standing up from chairs, shouting, some even trying to run. Some were shot with blanks in their legs, no longer fit for running away. The collaboration within my team was exceptional as everyone worked together seamlessly and efficiently. As I watched, 3 of the members escaped so I followed them with my rifle and shot them down from above.

As they fell against the road and pavement, I felt no remorse for the blood coming out of their legs and their cries. Despite it not being a bullet, the blank cartilages were just as painful and they did pierce the skin but the blanks were made of cotton and plastic and did not sit in the wound. They would be rendered motionless and could not drive back to wherever they came from. My team ran to put cuffs around their wrists and a special kind of cuff around their ankles.

"Steeleye, everyone is now apprehended," I heard in my ear and I started packing away my sniper rifle.

I made my way down the building on the inside, the darkness creating shadows and paranoia. I stepped out of the church into the night, the restaurant lights now feeling ominous and less cosy after tonight. There was no doubt the night created a little ruckus but the locals were sworn to secrecy of tonight's mission and if they spoke about it to news sources they could get arrested.

My phone began ringing in my inside pocket, I picked it up and looked at the number. Allisa from SIS in London, I answered it immediately. After all the time in Korea, she had rang only a handful of times. Our calls were professional and through messages, we could communicate easily and get the information I needed. Yet, this seemed like an emergency and I wondered what she had found out.

"Steeleye,"

"Allisa, speak,"

"We got word that not everyone was attending the meeting," She spoke in her posh accent, "Two men have found the location of the new apartments,"

"How?"

"Not sure, but whoever gave the information knew that they moved and where they moved to,"

"Shit, can you find out?"

"We're on it on our end, those two men didn't say when they would go to the new apartment,"

I thought in the silence for a few seconds. These two men who were a part of the group chat knew about the meeting tonight. Why didn't they attend? Were they going to the location of the member's new apartments? It would make sense since we're busy with the mission tonight.

"Thanks, Allisa,"

I ended the call and ran up to the rest of the squadron, I was panicked, needing to get to the members as quickly as I could. My squadron could see the panic.

"What's wrong?" One of my colleagues asked, she was short but buff.

"Two members of the group chat didn't show, they know the location of the member's apartment, I need to get there as quickly as possible," I said to her, not even knowing if she would understand how quickly I was talking.

"Take Hanjin's bike!" She guided me to the parked bike, a bit away from the town, "I'll tell him you had to take it,"

"Thank you,"