RAINBOW OF TEARS
SOMEWHERE IN SOUTH KOREA – THE "GHOST CONTAINER"
The mobile safehouse was a masterpiece of paranoia. It looked, from the outside, like any of the hundreds of refrigerated shipping containers stacked in the massive, labyrinthine Pyeongtaek port complex. But inside, it was a sterile, humming capsule of survival. Reinforced walls, independent power and oxygen scrubbers, electromagnetic shielding, and a single bank of monitors fed by satellite and hacked CCTV feeds.
Park Min-Ji sat on the edge of a narrow bunk, her silver gown replaced by borrowed black tactical pants and a sweater. She stared at a screen showing the live news feed from Seoul. Her own face, from the press conference, was still there, but the chyron below had shifted: "Luxe Plaza Heiress Missing After Family Dispute?" "Foul Play Suspected?" Her aunts were already spinning the narrative.
"They've declared me emotionally unfit," she said, her voice flat. "A 'victim of the traumatic events orchestrated by my late uncle.' They're petitioning the courts for temporary control of my shares. A regency." She looked at Min-Hyuk, who stood by the comms station. "They tried to have me kidnapped, and now they're using my 'disappearance' as proof I need to be protected from myself."
"It's a classic power play," Jang Sung-chul's voice came through a secure audio line. "They neutralize you physically, then legally. Clean and quiet."
On another screen, a video feed showed a luxurious boardroom at the Luxe Plaza headquarters. Min-Ji's aunts, Park Soo-jin and Park Hye-kyung, sat with their allied board members and lawyers. They were the picture of concerned, dignified stewardship. The "Family Council" was in session, and they were carving up her kingdom in her absence.
Min-Hyuk watched, his expression unreadable, but his mind was a storm of analysis. Instant Calculation: Legal maneuver success probability: 78% given her absence and manufactured narrative. Public sentiment shift probability: high. Ultimate outcome: Min-Ji stripped of power, aunts inheriting Yong-sik's criminal network through 'legitimate' control.
"Rainbow's usual methods won't work here," Ahn Go-eun's voice chimed in. "We can't take revenge on a boardroom vote or a legal filing. The enemy is using the system itself."
Kim Do-gi, on guard outside the disguised container door, growled. "So we break the system."
"There is another way," Min-Hyuk said, turning from the screen. All eyes, physical and virtual, turned to him. "They are using two weapons: the physical threat of 'Spade,' and the legal/broadcast threat of narrative. We must blunt both. Simultaneously."
He walked to the central console and activated the direct, encrypted channel to Operation Delta.
"Marco. Status update on the 'Spade' unit and their employers."
Marco's face appeared on a monitor, the Alpine chalet replaced by a moving vehicle's dark interior. "We tracked the van that extracted Yong-sik. It led to a private hangar at Gimpo. They flew him out to Macau two hours ago. 'Spade' has likely retreated to their home base to regroup. Their local contractors—the three you dealt with—were hired through a cut-out. The trail to the aunts is circumstantial, but clear to us." He leaned closer. "What is your will, Principal?"
Min-Hyuk's gaze was icy. He was no longer just the protector in the garden. He was the strategist, the commander activating his most lethal asset.
"The aunts have declared war on two fronts," Min-Hyuk stated, his voice devoid of all emotion. "We answer on both. Operation Delta is activated for a dual-code mission."
On the screen, Marco stiffened to full attention. The men around him in the vehicle did the same. "Awaiting codes, Principal."
"Front One: The Physical Threat. 'Spade' is a tool. We break the hand that wields it." Min-Hyuk's eyes flicked to the feed of the smug aunts in their boardroom. "Target: Park Soo-jin and Park Hye-kyung's private security apparatus. Their confidence stems from feeling untouchable, protected by hired guns. We remove that illusion."
"Code?" Marco asked.
"Yellow Code. Warning Operation." Min-Hyuk's words were precise, surgical. "I want a demonstration. Not a assassination. A show of force so intimate and so unstoppable it shatters their sense of security. I want them to know that the shadows they tried to use can be turned against them, in their most sacred spaces."
Marco nodded, a grim smile touching his lips. "Understood. Yellow Code: Intimidation via controlled damage. Objective: Demonstrate capability and penetrate their personal security without permanent physical harm. A message."
"Details are yours," Min-Hyuk said, trusting his commander utterly. "But it must happen during their council meeting. While they are at their most powerful, in their fortress."
"Consider it done."
"Front Two: The Narrative Threat." Min-Hyuk turned to Min-Ji. "They are controlling the story. We need to seize it back. Not from a hidden safehouse, but from the heart of their power. We need irrefutable, public evidence of their corruption and their attack on you."
Min-Ji stood up. "The evidence is in Grandfather's old study. At the Hanok. There's a safe behind his portrait. He kept files on everyone—blackmail, secrets, the real history. He called it the 'Dynasty's Ledger.' It has everything on my aunts. Their embezzlements, their secret deals. It's why they never moved against him directly."
"That is our target," Min-Hyuk said. "But the Hanok will be watched, now more than ever after tonight. It's a trap."
"Then we walk into the trap," Min-Ji said, her chin lifting. "And we walk out with the truth. On camera."
Min-Hyuk looked at her, seeing not the terrified woman from the garden, but the queen ready to reclaim her throne in a blaze of truth. The plan was audacious. Insane. And it was the only move that could checkmate them.
"Rainbow Taxi," he said, addressing his other team. "This is a White Code. Standard Extraction. But the package is not a person. It's a physical ledger from inside a fortified, monitored location. And we will have company."
On the Rainbow feed, Sung-chul nodded. "Do-gi and Kyung-goo are with you at the container. We can have Jin-eon and a second vehicle as diversion. Go-eun can handle the cameras, but if 'Spade' or the aunts' men are there in force…"
"That's where the Yellow Code operation creates our window," Min-Hyuk finished. "While Delta makes the aunts scream and pull all their guards inward to protect them, we go to the Hanok. While their eyes are turned inward, we take the heart of their secret."
The plan was set. A synchronized strike on perception and reality.
"Marco," Min-Hyuk said. "Execute Yellow Code in T-minus 90 minutes. We move on the Hanok the moment you confirm their security is in disarray."
"Confirmed. Good hunting, Principal."
The channel closed. The Ghost Container hummed around them.
Min-Ji approached Min-Hyuk. "A Yellow Code… what will they do?"
He met her gaze. "They will make your aunts understand that the monsters under the bed are real, and that they work for me now. They will feel, for the first time, absolute vulnerability." He paused. "It will give us our shot. But we must take it. Are you ready to go home?"
She took a deep breath, looking at the live feed of her aunts dismantling her life. "No," she said, a fire igniting in her eyes. "I'm ready to go to war."
---
90 MINUTES LATER – LUXE PLAZA EXECUTIVE BOARDROOM
The Family Council was in full swing. Aunt Soo-jin was eloquently detailing the "necessity of stable, experienced leadership" during the "poor child's convalescence."
Then, the lights died. Not just in the boardroom, but in the entire top five floors of the Luxe Plaza Tower. The emergency lights flickered on, casting long shadows.
Before anyone could react, the polished mahogany table shuddered. With a sickening thunk, a black, weighted throwing knife embedded itself in the wood, precisely between Soo-jin's and Hye-kyung's hands. It pinned a single playing card to the table.
The Ace of Spades.
Gasps. Shouts. Bodyguards drew weapons, forming a frantic cordon around the shrieking women.
But that was just the opening note.
From the ceiling vents, a non-lethal but intensely disorienting gas began to hiss into the room. Tear gas mixed with a harmless psychoactive aerosol that induced paranoia and vertigo. The guards, trained for direct assault, scrambled for gas masks that weren't there.
On the private phones of both aunts, a single, untraceable text appeared simultaneously:
YOU REACHED INTO THE DARKNESS. IT HAS REACHED BACK. THE NEXT DELIVERY WILL NOT BE A WARNING. – THE DRIVER
It was chaos. Pure, undiluted, psychological terror executed with merciless precision. Yellow Code: Complete.
---
SEOUL – HANOK VILLAGE
As the panic engulfed the Luxe Tower, a single, unmarked van pulled into the service lane behind the Hanok. Min-Hyuk, Min-Ji, Do-gi, and Kyung-goo stepped out. The villa was dark, but Min-Hyuk's enhanced senses detected no hostiles in immediate proximity. The aunts' security had been pulled back to the tower, just as planned.
"Go-eun, cameras?" Min-Hyuk whispered.
"Looping the last 10 minutes of empty footage. You have a clear path to the study. For 15 minutes."
They moved in. Min-Ji led them through the silent, hauntingly familiar halls to her grandfather's old study. She went to the large portrait of the founding Chairman, felt along the ornate frame, and pressed a hidden catch. The portrait swung open, revealing a modern biometric safe.
She placed her palm on it. It scanned her retina. With a soft click, it opened.
Inside, nestled beside old stock certificates and seals, was a thick, leather-bound folio. The real Dynasty's Ledger.
As Min-Ji reached for it, a voice, cold and familiar, spoke from the doorway.
"I knew you'd come for the old man's ghosts."
They turned. Park Yong-sik stood there, flanked by two new, hard-faced men from 'Spade.' He looked gaunt, bruised, but his eyes burned with manic hatred. The aunts hadn't just hired Spade; they'd freed their brother to be the bait in the trap.
"Hello, niece," Yong-sik spat. "I have a new client now. And they so wanted to meet the lawyer who ruined me."
The two Spade operatives raised their weapons. The window of opportunity had just slammed shut.
Min-Hyuk stepped in front of Min-Ji, his body a shield, his mind already calculating the angles, the trajectories, the 2.7 seconds it would take Do-gi to draw his weapon.
The road to nowhere had led them directly into the dragon's den.
[End of Episode 11]
[Status: Dual Operations in Progress]
[Operation Delta: Yellow Code SUCCESS (Psychological Attack Complete)]
[Rainbow Taxi: White Code IN PERIL (Trap Sprung)]
[Location: Hanok Villa - Confrontation]
[Opposition: Park Yong-sik + 'Spade' Unit (Remnants)]
[Objective: Secure Dynasty's Ledger / Survive]
[Next Episode: The Ledger, The Trap, & The Red Code Decision.]