Episode 43: The Girl With Two Faces
"She's gone?"
Kevin's voice cracked.
"Yes," Alex said, eyes glued to the monitor, fingers furiously typing. "Camera feed is fried. Whoever took her knew how to disable everything. This was premeditated."
Kevin clenched his jaw. Guen slammed his fist against the console, a rare crack in his calm exterior.
"Goddamn it," Dohee whispered, her voice trembling. "She was right here... she said he hummed her lullabies... this isn't just a kidnapping. He's playing with her mind."
"We need to track them," Minjae growled. "Now."
Alex's fingers danced over the keyboard. "I'm tracing the last IP ping, but ZEROFACE scrambled it mid-connection. He's smart. Too smart."
"Use the AI triangulation subroutine," Guen said sharply, already pulling up medical scanner data. "Match her last pulse signature with environmental fluctuations. Anything. Temperature drop, acoustic interference—"
"I'm trying," Alex said, sweat forming at his brow.
Suddenly, Kevin's phone buzzed.
He ignored it.
Buzz.
Buzz.
Buzz.
He finally snapped and picked up. " Yes, dad " !
His father's voice came through, sharp and unrelenting. "Kevin. You need to listen to me—this is classified information. And you won't like it."
Kevin froze. "What are you talking about?"
"Your friend Miran. She's not just a chemical expert."
Kevin's eyes narrowed.
"She's a North Korean spy," his father said coldly. "She came to South Korea for a secret mission. She's been living here for four years. Tell me: where is she? Police are starting an investigation... I don't want any fuss. Understand?"
"That's impossible—"
"She has a brother. We never caught him. Assassin. Embedded here for years. They were trained to infiltrate the system from within. The president has issued a directive: arrest or kill them on sight if they attempt escape or harm."
Kevin felt the breath leave his lungs.
The others had turned toward him, reading the horror in his face.
"Dad, she's not like that. She's been with us for years—she's loyal!"
"She's trained to be loyal," his father snapped. "And now she's compromised. We also got to know that her brother is a dangerous hacker, living under the fake name ZEROFACE. Tell me, where is she ?"
Kevin hung up, eyes blank.
His dad was constantly speaking on the phone. "Kevin, Kevin, can you hear me? Answer me, you bastard!"
Then Kevin cut the phone with a shocked face.
"What was that?" Dohee asked softly.
Kevin didn't speak at first.
Then he turned to them slowly.
"She's not who we thought she was."
"What do you mean?" Guen asked.
"She was a spy," Kevin said hoarsely. "From North Korea. She has a brother... also a spy. Embedded here. The president has ordered her to be taken dead or alive."
A silence fell like a stone.
"That's a lie," Minjae said flatly. "Miran isn't a spy."
Kevin looked down. "She is. Or was."
Alex slowly turned toward the giant wall-screen.
The TV flashed with breaking news.
> "This just in—an explosion in the Mapo district tech building has revealed classified surveillance data. Intelligence sources say the hacker responsible, calling himself ZEROFACE, has leaked records on a covert spy program involving North and South agents embedded within Seoul's infrastructure. Among the names listed—Jung Miran, chemical researcher . Government authorities have issued an arrest-on-sight protocol."
>
Kevin's face paled.
Alex muttered, "This can't be real..."
Then, as if cued by the very devil himself, a call pinged across the secure channel.
A private voice transmission—heavily scrambled.
ZEROFACE.
Kevin tapped it open.
His voice slithered through the speakers.
> "Hello, CHIPER. I'm so glad you all care about your little Miran. Sweet of you. But she's not yours. She never was."
>
Kevin growled, "Where is she?"
> "Somewhere dark. Familiar. Deep in the folds of memory. Shall we play a game?"
>
"What do you want?" Alex snapped.
> "Answers, of course. And chaos. But let's keep it fair, yes? Here's a gift."
>
A new signal dropped into Alex's interface. GPS coordinates.
Alex's eyes widened. "He just sent us a location."
"Where?" Kevin asked.
Alex zoomed in.
"Warehouse 7. The old research district. Near the old subway lines."
"That's a trap," Guen said.
Kevin grabbed his coat. "Then let's walk into it."
They suited up.
Kevin in his tactical vest and comms; Guen packed sedatives and a portable scanner; Dohee carried her legal ID and a stun baton. Minjae, with loaded dual pistols and a switchblade at his ankle, strapped into the car.
Alex monitored from HQ, earpiece in.
"Stay linked. If anything moves, I'll shut the grid down. Do not go dark."
Kevin drove, face grim, hands white-knuckled on the wheel.
Guen finally broke the silence. "Do you really believe she's a spy?"
Kevin didn't answer right away.
"I don't know what to believe. But I know she cried when she talked about her grandma's lullaby. I know her eyes shook when she saw fire in the hallway."
"She's not a traitor," Dohee said. "She's a survivor."
"She might have been both," Guen said quietly. "North Korea trains children to blend, manipulate, forget. They make them kill."
Kevin muttered, "But she chose to help people. To save them. That has to mean something."
The car screeched to a halt.
They'd arrived.
Warehouse 7 stood like a decaying monolith at the edge of Seoul's forgotten zone.
Cranes frozen in rust. Glass shattered like broken teeth. The air was damp with rot and silence.
"Keep comms tight," Alex whispered. "You have four heat signatures inside. One of them is hers."
Kevin kicked the door open.
They entered with slow, deliberate steps.
Miran was there—tied to a chair. Head down. Breathing. Alive.
"Miran!" Kevin called softly.
She looked up.
Tears stained her cheeks, but her eyes were clear now. Determined.
"Don't," she croaked. "It's wired."
Kevin froze.
Minjae scanned the area. "She's right. Trip sensors on all four corners. If we move wrong, the place blows."
Then the door behind them slammed.
A figure stood in the shadows.
Mask on. Dark coat. A voice that was both familiar and haunting.
ZEROFACE. The horrifying realization hit Kevin: this wasn't just ZEROFACE; this was Miran's brother.
"I wondered if you'd recognize me," ZEROFACE said, amused. "I never forgot. Unlike her."
Miran looked up.
"Oppa...?"
ZEROFACE didn't flinch.
"You were supposed to come home," he said, coldly. "You were supposed to finish what we started."
"I chose my own path," she whispered.
"You chose weakness."
ZEROFACE stepped forward. "It's ironic, isn't it? You were made to dismantle this country from within. And yet you built a family."
"So, ZEROFACE," Kevin said, his voice laced with a horrified realization, "you are Miran's brother."
ZEROFACE's smile widened. " Yes , mister Kevin !! "
Then, Miran's voice shaking, she pleaded, "Please let them go. Don't hurt them, please. I'll do whatever you want, but please, let them go."
"She's not your puppet," Dohee snapped.
"But she was," ZEROFACE growled.
And ZEROFACE raised a gun—aimed directly at Kevin.
Miran screamed, "No!"
In that split second, Guen tossed a flashbang.
Boom.
Light. Screams. Movement.
Minjae lunged for Miran, diving through the sensors while Alex remotely shut down the circuits from HQ.
"Tripwire disarmed!" Alex shouted.
Dohee engaged with ZEROFACE, baton crackling.
Kevin tackled ZEROFACE, fist slamming into mask.
It cracked.
The hacker hissed, pushing Kevin off. "You can't stop what's already begun."
Kevin punched again. "Watch me."
Meanwhile, Miran crawled away from ZEROFACE, blood trickling from her lip. "Oppa, don't. You're not this."
"You were supposed to be my partner!" ZEROFACE roared, pointing the gun at her.
Kevin drew his own, stepping in front of her. "Then shoot through me."
A pause.
A tremble from ZEROFACE.
Then—BANG.
The bullet didn't come from him. Dohee had fired first, her shot ricocheting off the concrete walls, a deafening echo in the enclosed space. It missed ZEROFACE by inches, gouging a chunk out of the wall beside him. The hacker hissed in frustration.
But before Kevin could press his advantage, before ZEROFACE could pull his own trigger, a series of small, metallic cylinders clattered onto the floor from the ceiling. A sudden, acrid smell filled the air as thick, white smoke billowed from them, instantly obscuring everything. It wasn't just smoke; it was a high-density chemical compound, designed to disorient and blind.
"Smoke grenade! Get down!" Guen yelled, pulling out his mask.
Kevin scrambled to his feet, trying to see through the opaque cloud, his hand outstretched for Miran. "Miran! Where are you?!" he shouted, his voice muffled by the smoke.
He could hear the chaotic sounds of a struggle—a grunt from Dohee, the clatter of a stun baton hitting the floor, a muffled yell from Minjae. He heard a whisper beside him, a voice he knew all too well.
"Not this time, CHIPER. She's coming with me." ZEROFACE's voice was a ghost in the fog.
Kevin lunged, but there was nothing there. Just a fleeting sense of displaced air, a cold whoosh.
The smoke began to dissipate, and the scene came back into focus, revealing the chaotic aftermath. Dohee was on her knees, dazed, her stun baton lying a few feet away. Guen was checking on her. Minjae stood, his guns still raised, scanning the now-empty space where ZEROFACE and Miran had been just moments ago.
"Miran…" Kevin whispered, his heart hammering against his ribs. The chair she had been tied to was now empty. Only the ropes remained, sliced clean through. She was gone.
ZEROFACE was gone, too. All that was left of him was a deep scuff mark on the concrete floor where he'd been standing.
"They're gone," Minjae said, his voice flat with disbelief. "Just… like that."
Kevin looked at the empty space, at the abandoned chair, at the still-swirling tendrils of smoke. The trap had worked, but not in the way they'd expected...