TARGET

스물 둘

He folded his arms across his chest, slightly leaning back into his office chair.

The six Ursula Minor members sat around the elliptical conference table, silence heavy in the air. they rushed over as soon as they could as soon as they heard the news, making sure not to alarm the trainees in the process.

It wasn't a type of uncomfortable silence, just that stillness that would settle over the group when they sat engrossed in thought. The sound of the clock ticking on the wall was the only noise that rang out into the soundless room, getting absorbed into the hushed atmosphere.

Soonyoung felt his leg bounce under the surface, leaning forward so his arms now planted on the cool face of the pearly white table, still folded so his head could hang in between the cage of his arms.

This was it.

They had the information they needed.

This was the moment they worked towards.

Now what?

"...So..." Soonyoung seldom-vocalized his precarious thoughts, reading the room:

Minghao fiddled with his thumbs, lips drawn into a involuntary pout purely from thought; Jeonghan was stilled, eyes out of focus and beating down on some random cactus plant that sat in the middle of the table next to the office tools; Seungkwan bit at his nails, a habit he swore to drop, but it would always resurface in times such as these;  Joshua absentmindedly running his fingers through his hair, hunched over the table;

And Wonwoo,

Soonyoung had to admit, the guy was hard to read at first, but as their bond grew, Soonyoung noticed almost everything about him,

and currently, in particular, his thin-framed specs slid down his sculpted nose bridge,eyebrows furrowed; occasionally, he would scrunch his nose, deeply invested in some type of introspection as he always would:

Soonyoung knew well of that.

He didn't look like the observant type, but Soonyoung was an expert at reading body language and reaction, it was apart of his job.

If there was one thing he understood, despite not being conventionally bright for the most part, it was the realm of psychology and behavioral habits.

Jeonghan drummed his fingers on the table, Soonyoung noticed from the silhouette in his peripheral vision, but he didn't need to see it to know it was Jeonghan, he picked up that the elder would do that when he was stressed.

The aforementioned blond's eyes skimmed across the faces of his members, "Before we bring the kids in, we need to talk about this,"

Beside him, Wonwoo nodded, but his eyes weren't focused and his mind was preoccupied, racing in thought, "I know that we need to act fast. If they detected a breech and the artifact we uncovered was super important, I'll guess that they'll probably relocate it,"

"Maybe we should get back on and try to.. I dunno... reverse that- maybe?" Joshua remarked, voice raspy and tenacious, Adam's apple bobbing.

Minghao was strangely invested in his hands in his lap, "That's not possible, all of our malware that allowed us to go undetected is totaled, unless..."

"Unless?" pressed Jeonghan,

"I mean, we don't know if they did a full shut down of our systems, so technically, we could see if we're still in, but it would be a huge gamble,"

Jeonghan nodded at this, sitting up a bit in his seat, "So, lets hear it Minghao,"

To this, Soonyoung raised his hanging head, leaning further into the table.

Minghao ran a few lanky fingers through his long mane, causing it to gracefully sweep back over his brow line,

"Chip number #7812764829473; coordinates 37.5665776° N and 125.97888770° E; base number 32 of 17th Circle Junior squadron; top priority files enlisted; 5.08 cm in length, 2 gram AuGe silicon AeroGel enhanced hard drive; guard rotation schedule randomized." he recited,

"Run that back turbo, I'm recording today," Seungkwan hummed, reaching for the blue pen in the compartment in the middle of the conference table, whipping out a notepad and opening his macbook.

Minghao repeated the segment, peace by peace, Seungkwan recording.

Soonyoung felt a rush of exhilaration, stomach feeling light:

This is it.

But yet, that same dreaded yet essential question lingered and hung over the heads of the six as a constant reminder:

What now?

"Ok, we know the location of the artifact, which is located in the base. We know that 15th Circle is arriving in like 2 days, and we know we don't have time," Soonyoung verbally recollected,

A hush fell among the group again, the faint shifting of seats heard among the silence,

"What time is it Seungkwan," Jeonghan asked,

"8:56 am,"

"Still pretty early," the blond mumbled under his break, folding his arms to hover in front of his lips, elbows propped up on the table. "We can to a brief scouting of the area near the coordinates and meet back here,"

Soonyoung murmured his version of an affirmation, mind still swarming,

"But before we do that, Wonwoo give us an overview briefing,"

The raven haired nodded, momentarily going through everything he knew. He spun his chair around and sifted through some files on the table behind him, picking out a few folders and tossing them onto the conference table.

Wonwoo pried open one of the sealed files, skimming over the contents,

"17th Circle Junior Squadron, 6 members, 2 confirmed Starborn, 2 others speculated; last spotted activity is dealings with the 17th Circle Senior Ringleaders at Daegu for roughly 2 days; net accumulation of the squadron solely piles to about 20 million this year alone, stemming mainly from the underground lab they run, harboring Starborn and mutating them in works with Blue Bird corporation- the relationship between the two are investor and company; out of all circles in Asia, the identities of this unit had been concealed for years,"

At the mention of the lab, the group stilled,

they had already investigated into the lab as far as they could a few years ago, the work they did was quite unsettling and disturbing,

Especially to a certain boy with midnight blue hair, who's typing went on the burner after the mentioning of the dreaded place. No one said anything, because he didn't really need to write all of it down since it was mostly information they already knew,

"Okay," Jeonghan cleared his throat,

"I think its time to bring in the trainees."