She did the only logical thing that she could do: She blinked. Twice. Thrice. Before she could make any noise, he lunged forward and covered her mouth with his hand.

  She nodded at him in understanding and gently pulled his hand away. “I know what you mean, Bhuwakul.” She motioned with her hand to give her a pen and paper. ”It’s all pretty overwhelming, all of this. I am certainly hoping that the person who has Jackson is merciful and doesn’t hurt him. What would his wife and child say if something happened to him?”

  On the notepad, she jotted out several notes in quick succession. She handed the notes to him, one by one. She made sure that he read them first. Then made sure that he nodded in acknowledgment before handing him the next note.

  The first note said ‘Find Nayeon and Yeji and tell them what’s going on.’

  She looked him in the eye, and in a very rare gesture of affection, she covered his hand with hers. “I’m getting really tired of people. Too many people have been getting hurt. I want to you go away for a bit.” She fished in her purse and handed him some keys.

  The second note said: I am pretty sure that if he got this into my apartment complex, he might have gotten into my apartment. Would you please search my pce and see if there are more bugs? He nodded and took her keys.

  She took the note back for a moment, scribbled something with a quickness, and handed it back. “I know it should not need to be said, but I want to make sure: You mean the world to me. Everything said is a py for Him who is listening. Don’t take anything said to heart.”

  He just smiled and nodded.

  About this time, her intercom chirped. Over the speaker, one of the guards said “Seulgi? There is a man down here, he said that he’s looking for you by name.”

  Affecting a world-weary sigh, she replied: “Okay. I’ll be down, right away.” She sounded so listless that Bhuwakul, who was sitting right next to her, gave her a sharp gnce.

  She gave him an impish gnce and a wink of all things, before droning on. “Ok, Bhuwakul. Get going.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I have my own work to do, too, you know. I’ll be going now.”

  Seulgi emphasized the note about Yeji and Nayeon. He nodded got up and left. As he left, he looked right and then left. He looked like a hound that scented prey and moved with much more vigor than he sounded.

  “My goodness. Who could it be downstairs? I suppose I should go find out.” She was the epitome of depression, so she was sure that she would be winning the Best Actress Blue Dragon Movie Award this year. She spent a moment writing up a note to tape up on her door. She printed it off, pced it on her door, and went downstairs to meet the detective.

  The note on her door simply announced ‘Vital work in progress. Absolute silence when entering this area. This means you, Nayeon.’ Even in the potentially deadly snare, she could not help but take a jab at Nayeon. She grinned to herself for just a moment before putting her game face on.

  She put both her phones in her pocket and left to go downstairs.

  She made a mental note to write a second note saying ‘Do Not Disturb’ and pce it next to the bugs. It would be bad if the cleaning crew moved or destroyed the evidence. Or worse, Nayeon.

  She took the elevator down to the ground floor. She saw the detective walk over and took his hand. She motioned to the elevators while giving polite greetings. They quickly ascended to the floor with her office. Rather than going to her office, she took the detective to the break room.

  He was an early thirties young man. His sharp gnces made you think that he would never miss a detail. She had the mental image of this young man, in his neatly tailored bck suit, as a gloved hawk, just waiting for permission to swoop in for a hunt and kill.

  He was a bit like Bhuwakul in that while conventionally handsome, he was still forgettable. He would fade into the background whenever he wished. He was nowhere near as good as Seulgi’s pet spook, of course. However, to Seulgi’s keen eye, he would be on par with Bhuwakul and Wendy’s mother in time.

  With these thoughts in mind, she led him to the breakroom. She flexed her Seulgi Power just enough to shoo some people out of the pce.

  “Tea? Coffee? We have some free snacks if you like.”

  “No, thank you, ma’am.” She winced. “So, what can we do for you?”

  Yeji’s cousin mentioned this man before as someone to talk to if she needed to. So, she brought him up to speed in as few words as possible. She didn’t have Yeji’s talent in verbal thrift, but she could be very economical when needed.

  “So,” she continued, “This brings us to today’s find.”

  She expined how she found a box on her doorstep. She said that she tried calling the person whom she had been working with, but he was not answering his phone. So, she called the recommended backup, him. She mentioned that they found bugs in the box. She said that the bugs were on the table in the office. But, as they were trying to double-blind the antagonist, they were doing their best to keep to a ‘script’ of sorts.

  She wanted to give the detective free rein to do what was needed. However, he still needed to stick with the ‘script.’ Is he willing to do this?

  He was willing to do whatever to help the person that the man he admired was working with. They went over what needed to be said and, more importantly, how to say it.

  Nayeon and Yeji came into the breakroom together. He waved at Yeji much like an older brother would to a precocious little sister. She frowned and rolled her eyes at him.

  Nayeon said, looking at Seulgi, “I saw the note on your door. What’s going on?”

  Seulgi got her minions up to speed. She told them about the act that had been concocted. She told them what she needed them to do to assist. She also tasked them to get the Terrible Twins involved so they don’t blow the show. They did not need to know everything, but they needed to know how to either py the part or stay away. This was non-negotiable. This was potentially Jackson’s life in the bance. This was no game and she was not pying.

  She also handed a folded note to Yeji and asked her to give this to the Big Boss. Hand it to him personally. She heavily emphasized that. Yeji just nodded and took the note.

  The detective was floored by how masterfully Seulgi took control of the situation. She was able to do more in ten minutes than some people he knew could do in a week. He had been around Yeji for almost two decades and had never seen her this receptive to taking orders.

  They took some advice from the detective on how to talk around the bug. Be quieter, slightly defeated, but not over the top. Both Seulgi and Yeji looked at Nayeon and said in unison: No histrionics.

  “Hey!” she said in histrionics, thus proving their points.

  They needed to make the mastermind sloppy. Get his guard down. As Frank Herbert said in his novel Dune: “The slow bde penetrates the shield.”