Chapter 15 #2
It was a look of panic on Rune's face, with my hand on his neck. The angle made it look intimate and possessive.
Caption: Who is this security guy and why is he always touching Rune???
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Beside me, Rune stared out the window, his shoulders rigid. I reached out and touched his hand.
I pressed my palm over his knuckles. Steady pressure.
Rune's hand turned under mine, palm to palm. His fingers curled inward slightly.
We stayed like that. Connected. In full view of everyone.
Taemin saw it first. He said nothing. He returned to looking out of his window.
Minjae noticed next. He raised his head to look at me, and then he turned toward Jinwoo.
Jinwoo was already watching. He leaned forward and said something quietly in Korean to Kang.
They all saw it. No one said anything.
We didn't let go until the van reached the Forum.
When we arrived, they'd already canceled the walk-through and adjusted the schedule. Kang moved the band into a secure green room. No windows. Two exits.
Rune stood in the center of the room, hands pressed against his thighs, trying to stop them from shaking.
"I'm okay," he said.
"You're not."
"I will be." He looked up at me. "Because you got me out."
I stepped up closer. "May I?"
He nodded, and I pulled him into my arms. He came willingly. His breathing steadied.
"Still real," I whispered.
We stood like that for thirty seconds. His heart pounded against my chest.
A knock on the door. Kang's voice: "Griffin. Call when you can. Privately."
I released Rune. "I'm okay," he said again. Steadier.
I left the green room and called Do-hyun. He answered on the first ring.
"The staffer. Micah Nakamura. Twenty-eight. Hotel events coordinator. Clean background. Statement describes the crowd surge. Someone pushed, and he fell. Doesn't remember who."
"Where's Soo-jin?"
"Unknown. Arrived 9:17, left 9:23. His assistant says it was urgent business.
" Do-hyun paused. "Griffin, the optics are terrible.
Forty-seven pieces of footage posted. They show Rune panicking.
It looks like you're all that is pulling him through.
Your hands are on him. After the staffer fell, you moved Rune to the exit while everyone else tried to process what was happening. "
"That was my job."
"Yes, but the narrative isn't about protection. It's about your proximity to the events they hired you to prevent."
A chill raced up my spine.
"Soo-jin doesn't need to prove you caused harm," Do-hyun continued. "He needs to show that keeping you correlates with severe incidents. This footage gives him that."
The strategy was simple.
"He didn't set out to hurt anyone," I said slowly. "He wants to make Rune too much of a threat to keep on the tour. He wants the costs, to reputation and insurance rates, to be high enough that removing him is the only logical choice."
"And if they drop Rune from the tour—"
"He becomes irrelevant. Shelved. Managed into retirement."
Do-hyun's voice was soft. "Where does that leave us?"
"Operationally? Intact. For now."
"For how long?"
"Until Seattle. Maybe less. We still have to make it through San Diego"
Do-hyun sounded resigned to fate. "There will be another incident."
"I know."
"Document everything," he said. "Build a counter-narrative."
"Yes."
The line went dead.
Then my phone buzzed. It was Eamon.
"Not a good time," I growled.
"Make time." His voice was sharp. "I've been reviewing footage. I need you to see something."
"What?"
"Not over the phone. Sending a secure link. Watch it. Call me back."
Two minutes later, the link appeared. I opened it.
It was footage from the hotel lobby. Multiple angles stitched together. The fire alarm went off. The crowd surged.
A new angle appeared. It was from a phone held high.
Micah Nakamura positioned himself beside Rune, creating space. A figure I hadn't seen appeared, threading through the crowd from behind. Male. Dark jacket. Face partially obscured.
He reached Micah. He gripped the staffer's shoulder and then gave him a sharp push.
Micah flailed until he fell and his head hit the marble. The dark figure was already disappearing into the crowd.
I paused the video and rewound frame by frame. The moment before he turned, his face briefly caught the light from an overhead fixture. Motion blur obscured his features, but the height and build were right.
I'd seen that movement pattern before.
I called Eamon back.
"You saw it," he said.
"Yes."
"You recognize the build?"
"I think so."
"Think or know?"
I watched it three more times. "I can't prove it's him, but the movement pattern matches."
Eamon spoke slowly. "Soo-jin."
Saying it made it real.
My voice was barely above a whisper. "He made sure someone got hurt."
"Not someone. Micah Nakamura, the man who was helping Rune."
"Making it look like proximity to Rune creates casualties."
I heard Eamon rustling papers. "Then Soo-jin appeared on exterior cameras twenty feet away, establishing his alibi."
I leaned against the corridor wall while staffers swept past me, oblivious to our conversation.
"Griffin, this isn't about making Rune too expensive anymore."
"What is it about?"
"Think it through. What happens if the next incident is fatal?"
My blood ran cold.
"Tour cancels immediately," I said. "Multiple investigations. Liability."
"And Rune?"
"Medical leave, I suspect. Mandatory."
"How long?"
"Long enough for people to forget. For the group to restructure without him. For his absence to become permanent." I understood. "They will frame his exit as a tragic necessity instead of a removal."
"Right. Soo-jin only needs to make continuing with Rune impossible."
"By creating conditions where someone—" My breath caught. "Dies."
"Yes."
I replayed the clip again. Right before Micah went down, Soo-jin’s head turned. Away from the fall and toward me. No panic or surprise. Assessment.
He was checking whether I understood what I’d just seen.
I thought about Micah Nakamura. Conscious now, but he'd been seconds from not being conscious ever again.
"He crossed a line today," I said.
"He didn't cross it. He erased it." Eamon's voice was grim. "He put someone in the hospital. Deliberately. Documented from every angle. Established himself as a witness. This wasn't a warning. It was another field test."
His words were like ice in my veins.
"You think he's testing how far he can push it."
"I think Soo-jin has run the numbers. Injury creates sympathy for Rune.
Makes him look like a victim. That's the opposite of what he needs.
" Papers rustled again. "He needs Rune to look like a danger.
Proximity to him costs lives. One injury concerns.
A death is unacceptable. Continuation becomes impossible. "
"Who would be the target?"
"Anyone. Crew. Staff. Security." Eamon slowed the cadence of his voice. "Could be you. You're already on camera protecting Rune. Already documented as compromised. If you died in the line of duty—"
"It proves management's assessment was correct. Tour cancels. Rune goes on medical leave. And I'm not there to contradict the narrative."
"You see it now."
"Yes."
I leaned against the wall.
"Griffin. This is attempted murder. You need law enforcement."
"With what evidence? Blurry footage showing a push in a crowded evacuation? We can't definitively ID him. Can't prove intent."
"Then what do you do?"
"I don't know yet."
Eamon jumped ahead. "You need to pull Rune off the tour. Now. Before Soo-jin moves again and takes you down."
"That's exactly what he wants. It validates everything he's done and absolves him of injuring three people."
"Rune staying gives him four more days to engineer a murder."
Both options were wrong.
"Seattle," I said. "It's going to happen in Seattle."
"Why there?"
"Because it's my city. If someone dies while I'm responsible for security on my home ground—it destroys any credibility I have."
"Can you stop it?"
"I don't know. Soo-jin has access and authority. I have instincts that already got me crucified once."
"What do you need?"
"Eyes on Seattle. Anything unusual. Anyone Soo-jin meets with."
Eamon jumped in. "I'll coordinate with Mac. We'll position support ahead of your arrival."
"Quietly, please."
"Of course. Griffin, if we're right, if Soo-jin is planning a fatal incident, you understand what that means?"
"It means I'm protecting someone from a man who might kill to erase him."
"It means you might not stop it without becoming the casualty."
"I know."
"And you want to stay on the assignment, anyway."
"Yes."
"Why?"
I thought about Rune in the van. His hand under mine. Still here. Still real.
"Eighteen months ago I walked away and accepted an undeserved verdict. I'm not walking away again. Particularly not when the stakes could be someone's life."
"That's not professional detachment."
"No."
"It could get you killed."
"I'll take my chances."
Eamon exhaled. "Call me when you get to Seattle. Watch your back. You're as much a target as Rune."
The line went dead.