Nowhere is Safe | Pt. 2 Return to Base

[owned_by_a_cat]

Title: Nowhere is Safe
Pairing: JaeMin / MinJae
Rating: NC-17
Genre: AU, Suspense, Romance, Army!fic
Summary: Invisible up close, able to kill from a long way away… when an elite sniper operates in your neighbourhood nowhere is safe. To Major Kim Jaejoong, being a sniper is more than a job. It's a mindset he needs when the people around him fall prey to a shooter with a high-powered rifle and his new partner, Captain Shim Changmin from Army Intelligence, turns out to be as much a distraction as he is a help. Undeniably both smart and gorgeous, the man has issues. And an attitude. And he's about as subtle as mortar fire in showing his dislike of Jaejoong.
Thrown together by the crisis, both Jaejoong and Changmin struggle to reconcile mutual dislike and mutual attraction. But when events escalate and the stakes get higher, they must put their attraction and differences aside and work together.

A/N: Thanks for all the love you poured on the play piece! So let's see what our fictional sniper ace Major Kim is up against… (can you tell I'm having fun with this?)

Under Attack ||

Return to Base

It was peaceful on the mountain. The late summer nights were warm enough not to require a fire, and the meadow where Major Kim Jaejoong had chosen to spend the hours of darkness was bathed in moonlight.

Not that the sniper was sitting out where he could be seen. Far from it. His small shelter was concealed in the undergrowth, carefully hidden to blend with the foliage. He kept his eyes on the distance where the border ran along the ridge of mountains. He'd patrolled the area for the last eighteen days and had made camp in this particular meadow once before. It was one of the more comfortable places to observe the small river that had cut its way through the rock, to keep an eye on the ravine that was used as a gateway by enemy patrols and infiltrators alike.

Comfort wasn't high on his list of priorities. He'd not had a bath in almost three weeks. He drank water from the streams he passed and lived on MREs and ration bars, only rarely taking the time to hunt for fresh meat. Hunting, and processing and cooking his kill, required him to take his attention from the border, and he couldn't afford that. Not when they had intelligence telling them to expect a break.

He'd not had a full night's sleep in eighteen days either, catching naps here and there, always on the move. Actually setting up a camp and stretching out on his sleeping bag, rather than just wrapping the fabric around himself to ward off rain and early morning chill as best he could, was a luxury.

Most of all, he'd not spoken to another human soul in eighteen days. He sent a brief check-in ping every morning at sunrise. He waited until his base replied with an equally short pulse before he went on his way once more. No words were exchanged and none were needed. He knew what he was doing, and his command knew that he did.

Nights in the mountains were peaceful, even if Jaejoong slept sitting upright, with one eye on his target. The sky was alight with stars and trees rustled in the light breeze like a never ending song. Without being blinded by neon lights, Jaejoong could see all the way across the small meadow and appreciate the silver sheen the moonlight lent to grasses and leaves alike.

It was morning almost before he knew it. Another night without a sign of the expected insurgents, but Jaejoong didn't mind. They would come when they came and he'd be there to stop them. He pulled the radio from his pack and sent his daily check-in. He chewed on a ration bar while he waited for the reply and—once it had come as expected—he broke up his little camp, making sure he left no trace of his passing.

***

The meat locker chill hit him first and he shivered. Then the silence closed in around him and weighed him down. Each step he took into the white-tiled blandness echoed as if he crossed a graveyard at midnight. If there was one place on the army base that Colonel Seong hated with a passion, it was this space. The base's morgue. He had visited frequently in his almost twenty years as a soldier, he had learned that casualties were often unavoidable and yet, each time he left the white-tiled horror it was with a deep sense of shame and with the taste of failure in his mouth.

Today… today would be worse. In all his years, he'd never lost a single soldier inside an army base. Today he'd lost two. To an enemy he hadn't seen. A foe he couldn't apprehend. Could barely guard against. If the attacker was an elite sniper, then nowhere was safe.

Looking down at the two still forms on their gurneys, he didn't appreciate the irony that he, who commanded a troop of Korea's best snipers, had allowed his men to fall prey to the skills of one.

"Definitely a military-grade sniper rifle, sir," the ME reported, when the colonel had paid his respects and stepped into his office for an update. "We're still working to establish which model he used, but judging by the wounds the shooter was almost a kilometre away. And high."

The man didn't add 'there was nothing you could have done' to the end of his update, but Seong heard it anyway. The murderous rage that shook his frame held off the shame for a few moments. Long enough for brisk steps to carry him from the morgue out into the blaze and brightness of a summer afternoon. The smell of carbolic and disinfectant stung his nostrils. It would cling to him for the rest of the day and most of the night, he knew that. And while he hated that his mind had the power to play him like this, he accepted it as the price he had to pay for his failure.

He crossed the parade ground with brisk steps, aware that he was contravening his own orders right then. Aware that anxious eyes watched his progress. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up, but his rage was stronger than his sense of self-preservation.

Once in his office, he picked up the phone and called his adjutant.

"Bring Jae home," he demanded briskly. "Now."

***

"Major Kim, reporting as ordered, sir," Jaejoong saluted, standing rigidly at attention. His CO rarely insisted on the proper formalities, especially when Jaejoong had just returned from a tour. But there were other men in the room with Colonel Seong, men he didn't know from Adam. Men with worried frowns, tense shoulders and mouths in angry lines. And one man who was made from endless legs, even longer lashes, and cheekbones sharp as knife blades. One man who fairly took his breath away.

Trained to remain motionless when startled, Jaejoong neither moved nor spoke. He stood at attention and feasted his eyes, glad to have something so beautiful to distract him from his exhaustion and the noise in the room that battered his senses after three weeks of solitude.

"Come in, come in," the colonel waved him across the room, past the bevy of conferring men towards a quiet corner. "You made excellent time. I didn't expect you until tomorrow."

"Comms put up the bat signal, sir."

A tiny smile curved the older man's full lips. "I suppose I did say now. Have you heard the news?"

"No, sir. As you can see, I haven't even showered yet."

The smile grew broader. "You always were an overachiever. But I'm glad you're here. The base has been attacked by a sniper. All we know right now is that his nest was on high ground, about a kilometre away. And that he knows what he's doing. Long legs over there," he waved at the striking man Jaejoong had admired earlier, "is Captain Shim. He's going to be your intelligence. His CO tells me he's the very best they have."

Jaejoong frowned at that bit of news. He'd worked with the same intelligence officer for the last four years—ever since he'd been promoted to solo squad in fact—and their interaction was seamless.

"Why can't I work with Jong Ki as usual?"

The colonel's face clouded and all of a sudden he looked just like the other men in the room: tense, angry and…defeated. Dread crept up Jaejoong's spine and wrapped around his heart like a vice the longer his CO stayed silent.

"He was taken out?"

"Jong Ki was the shooter's first victim. I'm sorry."

Jaejoong closed his eyes. They'd talked about this often. Argued, even. Jong Ki had had a fatalistic streak that bugged the hell out of the more mercurial sniper. And now he was gone, well before his time. And Jaejoong's. If Jaejoong had wanted to believe in any higher powers, now might have been a good time to start.

"Was it clean?" he asked instead.

"Yes. Headshot. He wouldn't have known."

Jae bowed his head in thanks. He'd be asking the same question of the base's ME later, but for now he felt comforted.

"I want you to take the rest of the day to recover," the colonel said so quietly that someone standing three feet away wouldn't have heard him. "From tomorrow morning, your one and only job will be to find that sniper and take him out. Whatever you need."

Jaejoong had never been give carte blanche before, but he was too tired and heart-sore to care right then. He merely straightened his spine and saluted. "Yes, sir."

When he left the room, he had eyes for nobody. Not even the breathtaking Captain Shim.

Part 3: Pissed and Pissed Off