Chapter Text

“Room number 405. Potbelly Red is in the suite.”

It was not the kind of hotel that teemed with excited tourists and overly amorous couples. The hallways were quite enough for Sehun to hear his own heartbeat. Only the elite came here for businesses they intended to keep from the eyes of the public. None of them were up to any good. Perfect location for illicit activities.

“Potbelly Red?” he muttered into the comm, the small and discreet earpiece in his ear.

“That is my codename for Harlan,” said B.I on the other side of the connection. Rolling his eyes, Sehun tugged at the collar of his shirt with one hand while the other pushed the food cart along the hallway.

“Redundant,” he remarked. “This uniform is choking me.”

“I share your suffering,” said Jaehyun from the other end. “Where are you?”

Pushing the cart into the elevator, Sehun quickly punched the button to the fourth floor. “Just entered the elevator. You?”

“Closer to the suite,” said the rank-3 agent.

“Oh! Update,” rasped B.I. “Porcelain has now left our beloved Potbelly Red.”

“Who’s Porcelain?” asked Sehun, grimacing. His frown deepened when he looked at his reflection in the mirror inside the elevator. He looked like a buffoon, dressed as a bellhop. But it was the perfect disguise. Still, could never be too careful in this field. He kept his head low as the elevator doors opened on the third floor and a man walked in.

“A pretty lady,” said B.I. “Don’t know who she is.”

“So, that’s the reason why Harlan booked a suite here so late in the evening,” scoffed Jaehyun. “We could tip off his wife, and she could do the work for us and finish him off.”

Sehun bowed his head and the man in the elevator who was now staring at him.

As soon as the elevator dinged open on the fourth floor, Sehun hurried out of it. “That is not why we’re here,” he said into the comm.

“Exactly,” said B.I. “We still need him. Alive. And try not to cause a scene.”

Sehun soon met up with Jaehyun just a couple of doors away from room 405. “Ready to bust in?” asked Sehun, smirking at his subordinate.

Jaehyun shrugged. “You do know that this is not my first rodeo, right?”

“Try not to get too cocky,” said Sehun as he approached the suite and gave the door a knock. “Room service.”

“Come in,” he heard Harlan’s response from the other side of the door.

Rolling his shoulders back, Sehun turned the doorknob and pushed the door open before entering along with the cart. Jaehyun followed with his.

Rhodes Harlan. 36 years old. Rather young for someone who had overseen 24 heists and 51 jailbreaks. For someone so famous, he was very private. The agency had a tough time tracking him down. It had taken them years. He never showed up in person to his meetings. He always sent an envoy. A notoriously confidential criminal who brokered countless covenants between extortionist and terrorist groups.

There was no point in taking him in as there was a severe lack of evidence to prosecute him. Until quite recently when it came to intel’s attention that he was sought out by a criminal organization that had been at large for the past couple of years. Infiltrating the organization had been impossible previously. They were good at covering their tracks. But Rhodes Harlan was capable of paving the way now. He could lead them right to Red Peril.

“We don’t know what Red Peril wants from him,” said B.I. “So, whatever you do, don’t put a bullet in his head. We need the intel out of him.”

Harlan was lounged on the bed, clothed in nothing but a silk robe. The room stank. Wine stains on the carpet. Used condoms tossed onto the floor. The sheets on the bed crumpled.

“Well, what are you standing there for like a couple of rocks?!” the man yapped in Sehun and Jaehyun’s way.

Sehun sighed and turned to the food cart. Removing the cover of the serving tray, he picked up the tranquilizer gun and cocked it before facing the plump man again.

“We can do this the hard way or the easy way, Harlan,” he said with nonchalance. “Dealer’s choice.”

With panic paling his face, Harlan slowly got off the bed and gaped at them, jaw slack, eyes bulged out in horror. “Y-You… You don’t want to do this. Trust me. You won’t get away with it.”

Sehun and Jaehyun exchanged a glance. Then scoffing, Sehun handed the tranquilizer gun over to Jaehyun before he picked the Glock 19 from the holster around his thigh and fixed the silencer to it.

“I think you got this wrong,” said Sehun, locking the silencer in. “Who are you sending in your place to meet up with Red Peril on Tuesday?”

Harlan did not answer as he continued to stare at Sehun. His eyes briefly flitted to his phone on the bedside table.

“Don’t even think about it,” said Sehun as he raised the gun and pointed it to Harlan. The man held his hands up at once.

“He’s the mastermind behind all those heists?” asked Jaehyun cynically.

“He’s more of a catalyst and an enabler,” said B.I. “He helps make it happen.”

“I am losing my patience, Harlan,” Sehun chimed, flourishing his gun. “Tik-tok.”

“Jude Beckett,” said Harlan at length. “He’s a tech guy of mine.”

“All right. You’re gonna let Jude know now that Tuesday’s deal is off.”

Jaehyun picked up the phone and tossed it to Harlan. “Try any monkey business and your head will be split open,” he warned the man.

Scowling with a lockjaw, Harlan began to type a message in his phone. “Done,” he then spat, handing the phone back to Jaehyun.

“Good,” said Sehun. “How will Red Peril know that Jude Beckett is your guy?”

Harlan did not speak. He groaned and fell to his knees when Jaehyun smacked him on the back of his head with the butt of his gun.

“There is a… passcode,” said Harlan.

“Which is?”

Jaehyun booted him on the face when he would not answer.

“Ramrod Mustang,” he hissed through his grit teeth.

Sehun dropped to a crouch and looked at the man with a cocked eyebrow. “Bad things will happen if you’re lying, Harlan. So, for your sake, I hope you’re not.”

“You don’t want to mess with Red Peril,” he then spat like a snake spitting its venom. “You walk in there, pretending to be one of my guys, you’re not going to walk out of there alive if they find out.”

“Look at you catching on,” Jaehyun scoffed and grabbed Harlan by the back of his robe to yank him back up to his full height.

Heaving a sigh, Sehun gave Jaehyun a nod of his head to go ahead and tranquilize the man. “Send the men in,” he told B.I. “Get me a complete rundown on one Jude Beckett.”

* * *

“It was a smooth operation,” said Julien from where he stood with his arms crossed over his chest. “But Harlan’s not giving us anything more to work with. So, unless you get something out of Red Peril at the exchange, we have nothing.”

“We’ll get something,” said Jaehyun. “You worry too much.”

Julien turned around and faced Jaehyun with a critical look. Then sighing, he glanced over to Sehun. “Are you sure you got this, Agent Oh?”

“It’s not failproof. But we have a shot at finding out what Harlan was up to with Red Peril and what Red Peril could possibly want from him,” said Sehun.

Julien nodded his head, though he looked more worried than usual. “B.I, anything on this Beckett guy?”

“Nothing other than he is Harlan’s most valuable tech support,” B.I scoffed. “Meaning he’s the brain behind the heists.”

“The nerd,” said Jaehyun.

B.I stuck his tongue out at him.

“Am I to impersonate him?” asked Sehun.

“According to Harlan, all you have to do is walk in there and listen to what Red Peril has to say to you,” said B.I. “And don’t blow your cover.”

“I’ve got a pretty good poker face.”

“All right,” said Julien. “You’re all dismissed. Jaehyun, don’t forget to hand in the report.”

As Sehun made his way out of the room, he fished his phone out of his pocket and turned it on. 12 missed calls. He smiled at them. It was nice to have someone who worried for him.

When he reached home that night and walked into the shared apartment, he squinted in the darkness and reached for the light switch, but he stopped, noticing the candlelight that surged from the dining area.

“You’re late, and you didn’t answer any of my calls,” said Jon, rising from where he was sitting, pouting, on the sofa.

Shutting the door behind him, Sehun walked over to the dining table and smiled at the platters of food displayed on them along with a bottle of crisp Chardonnay. “Are we… celebrating something?” he asked, looking back at his quite annoyed boyfriend.

The anger seemed to have dissipated from Jon’s face. “Our second monthiversary,” he said.

“Didn’t know that’s a thing that people celebrated,” he sighed. “This is nice, though.”

“It would have been warm if you had come home earlier.”

“Sorry,” he said, ambling over to Jon. Throwing his arms around Jon’s neck, he pulled the man down for a quick kiss. “I got caught up at work.”

Although they had been dating for two months. Sehun never divulged anything to Jon. It was not fair to him to be kept in the dark. But Sehun needed the normalcy in his life to help him move on. Jon was doing that all too well. The one normal thing to happen to Sehun in a very, very long time. Sehun did not want to ruin it.

“Let’s eat,” he said, smiling at his boyfriend’s green eyes.

They sat down to eat. Something was still bothering Jon. His expression was all scrunched up in dismay. As tired as Sehun was, he did not want this night to turn into something sour.

“The trout’s wonderful,” he commented.

Jon said nothing, but he gave Sehun a small smile.

“Is… something wrong?” asked Sehun.

Jon licked his lips and was mum for a moment. “Actually… there is something that I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh.” Sehun wiped his mouth with a napkin. “What is it?”

Jon sat up straighter in his seat and exhaled heavily. “I don’t mean to pry, but last night, you were… mumbling in your sleep. I think you were having nightmares. And you… repeatedly said the name… Kai.”

That was it. It was all that it took for it all to come back to Sehun to haunt him, torment him. “Jon…” He closed his eyes momentarily and shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“So, that’s an actual person?” asked Jon. “Kai?”

Sehun clenched his jaw. “Please. Stop.”

“Who is it?”

“I said stop.” Sehun shot up from the chair then and stomped away with his hands balled into fists at his sides. He could not breathe. It was as though all wind had been knocked out of his lungs.