The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 8: Rules

"Should we go ahead and get started, boss?" Tae-ung asked.

"Not just yet," she told him. "I have a few more things I want to go over."

"What things are those?" Dal-geon asked curiously. Hae-ri was just chock full of surprises today.

"Security measures," she informed him before turning once more to address the team. "Edward Park has powerful allies, and has proven that he is not only able to infiltrate the NIS headquarters physically, but that he can also breach a secure firewall to hack into NIS mainframes. We also know that he has familiarity with surveillance techniques. So we are all going to follow a few basic rules to do everything we can to prevent him from finding out what we have on him." She cast a meaningful look at Dal-geon. "Compliance with these rules is not optional. If anyone feels the rules are unimportant, or that he is somehow above the rules, then that person will no longer be welcome to participate in this operation. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Dal-geon said, disgruntled.

"Do you agree to abide by the rules I set?" Hae-ri asked him, abandoning any pretense that her warning was aimed at anyone on the team besides him.

"Well, I can hardly agree to follow a set of rules before I know what they are," Dal-geon said reasonably. "Let's hear them."

"Fine." Hae-ri got annoyed that he hadn't agreed straight away. Really, didn't she know him at all? Honestly, if he hadn't been difficult about her precious rules, it probably would have made her even more suspicious. "Rule number one: No one breathes a word about this investigation to anyone outside this team."

Off the team's affronted looks, she held up a placating hand. "I know you think it goes without saying. I'm not saying I don't trust you all to be discreet-just the opposite, in fact. I'm saying nothing goes outside the team for any reason, no matter how harmless it may seem. Not to friends, not to family members, not to other agents. I already told the Director we would not be keeping him in the loop on this, so if the boss's boss shows up and tries to bully you into giving him a status update on the case, I want you to let me know right away."

"You got Gang Sojangnim to agree to stay off our backs on this?" Tae-ung asked.

"Yes. He agreed that safeguarding the integrity of the investigation against moles is of the utmost importance, given the history of the case," Hae-ri said smoothly. Dal-geon noticed she left the details of her manipulation of Gang Joo-cheol out of this explanation.

"Daebak! You got Marine's Major General Gang Joo-cheol agreed to your terms. Our NIS Director. Heol." Se-hun said nodding.

"I'm serious, guys," Hae-ri spoke. "If the Director General himself shows up in the bullpen asking for information about the case, you don't say a word. You just direct him to me and I'll handle it."

"What's the next rule?" Hwa-sook wanted to know.

"Rule number two is that you sweep for bugs everywhere you go. I know it's a pain," she acknowledged, catching Se-hun in an unconscious grimace, "but I think it's a necessary precaution. NIS security has been breached before and it seems unlikely that word of what we're doing won't get back to Edward Park eventually once we really get going on the interviews. I don't want to give him any kind of advantage over us if we can possibly help it. If he finds out what we're doing, so be it, but I intend to make him work for it. So just like I made you guys do this morning, we do a full sweep of the office every day. If we're all out of the office at the same time, first person back does a second check."

Dal-geon raised his eyebrows. Apparently the team hadn't been idle while he'd been brooding in the attic that morning, if Hae-ri had already had time to drill them in sweeping for bugs. It was about this time that he realized that what Hae-ri had been doing all weekend wasn't remotely comparable to an arts and crafts project. She hadn't been simply brainstorming during her retreat in the mountains. She'd been bunkering down like a general preparing her battle strategy, drawing battle plans for a war she intended to wage on multiple fronts.