warm like a gun | ot23 nct; ot5 red velvet

Chapter 18

"Athena, will you turn on the news?" Jungwoo asks absently. His TV glows to life, and a commercial picks up mid-jingle.

"Thought we were trying to focus," Jisung says.

"We've been working for hours," Jungwoo replies, pausing to stretch long and deep before pushing away from the counter. "What do you want to eat?"

Jisung blinks, finally looking up from his computer to check the clock. "Oh, shit. It's already almost 14.00."

"Can we order fried chicken?" Sooyoung pipes up from next to Jisung.

"Ooh, chicken." Yukhei pops his head up from behind the couch, and Seulgi follows. They've been working on putting together the device that Sooyoung and Jisung are coding for. Jungwoo's been running back and forth between the two pairs, helping where he can.

"We can do chicken," Jungwoo agrees. "Athena? Whatever place is fastest. Get like, a family meal kind of deal. Actually—" he looks around the room. "Make that two. And soda."

"Real or imitation?" Athena asks.

"Real, I think we deserve it," Jungwoo replies.

Athena chimes. "One moment."

The group that had gone to check the door Seulgi had found in UltraViolet had returned with shocking news. The area they had been in was underground, in the space between one of the UltraViolet buildings and the main police station. Curiously, though, some of it spanned behind the police station. The group had been thrown off course to avoid guards, and they'd ended up in an area that was supposed to be government-restricted. Jungwoo had always assumed that it was a very small space behind those buildings and the wall that was connected to them, but from the map it must actually be a lot bigger.

They had ended up in a great expanse of hallway that Jungwoo hadn't been able to map, and had hit a door, which forced them to double-back. They took an image of the room beyond the door, and Jungwoo's been studying it in his free time. He has no idea what it's for, but he's decided it's either some kind of holding cell, or another testing chamber like the one that his friends managed to enter. It's somewhere back behind the police station and seems like it's circular—and huge. If it's a holding cell, he wants to know if Jaehyun—and maybe Johnny's dad—are there.

The problem is no matter how careful he is, he can't loop camera feeds seamlessly. There will always be a way to tell that the film isn't authentic or that parts have been cut out, especially in such a highly regulated place. Even if he can get access to the cameras, it won't matter. Whatever it is, it's very high-security, so he's certain they check over the tapes multiple times a day for discrepancies.

This kind of musing had led him to where he is now. He recruited all of his friends that are good at mechanics and coding, and they're trying to come up with a device that erases its holder from camera feeds in real time. The idea is that instead of putting the cameras on one big, universal loop, this kind of device creates a bunch of cuts that follow its holder. In the miniscule snippet of time it takes for the camera to record footage and cast it onto the screens in the security office, this kind of device would replace the image of its holder with the background scenery. Basically, the camera feed would still be accurate to real time, but it would just look like the holder of the device simply didn't exist.

There are a couple of problems with this. One, they'd still have to deal with people seeing them in person. Two, and more pressing at the moment, it's complicated tech, and Jungwoo isn't sure if it will even be possible. They'd have to be able to cut into every single camera, which is difficult, because it seems like that region uses a mix of security protocols—especially if they enter through UltraViolet, which seems to be their only option.