"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
Grace's voice hit like a lightning strike.
Ryan Li blinked. Beside him, Dr. Beth looked up from where she was definitely not just checking his pulse. Grace's glare could have frozen lava.
"It's not what it looks like," Beth said with a sheepish grin. "Okay—maybe it's exactly what it looks like."
Grace looked at Ryan. "And you?"
"I was... passive. Entirely passive."
Beth shrugged. "Don't blame him. If you can land a guy like this, you don't ask. You act."
Grace stared. Then exhaled.
"This is ridiculous," she muttered. "I swear we used to be normal."
Beth smiled. "We still are. Just... with better taste."
Grace looked back at Ryan again. The man who had, in one day, solved two dozen cases, broken the precinct's promotion system, and turned half the female staff into flustered messes.
She couldn't even be mad.
Meanwhile, back at LAPD HQ, rumors were boiling over.
"I swear he went home with Grace last night."
"No way. You serious?"
"Didn't you see her hair today? The bun was gone. That's a post-sparring bun."
"That's a post-something bun, alright."
Ryan ignored the noise.
He walked calmly into the briefing room, sat down, and was instantly met by Vice Captain Ahmed.
"This one's yours."
Ryan raised an eyebrow.
Ahmed dropped a file onto his desk.
"Explosion. Futang Embassy. High-yield C4. Someone tried to turn foreign policy into powdered rubble."
Ryan's eyes narrowed.
"You're saying someone bombed a national embassy on U.S. soil?"
"Yes," Ahmed said. "And LAPD Intelligence got the lead before DHS or the Feds could sink their claws in."
"Because?"
"Because you are now our most valuable weapon."
Ryan flipped the folder open. His lips curled slightly.
"This embassy… belongs to the same nation whose operatives tried to assassinate me last week."
Ahmed gave a dry smile. "And yet, here you are… investigating them."
—
The moment Ryan returned to his office, the entire squad gathered around.
"What's the case?"
"Must be huge if it's making your brow twitch."
"It's the Futang Embassy bombing," Ryan said.
Everyone froze.
"You're kidding."
"They gave us that?"
"Did someone lose a bet?!"
Ryan raised a hand. "Yeah. And we're going to solve it."
The Fifth Cell leapt into motion.
—
Two hours later, Ryan sat alone at his terminal, L4-grade clearance humming in the background as he ran a full 3D simulation of the blast.
He calculated the C4's pressure wave, modeled structural stress points, and mapped potential infiltration vectors.
Conclusion?
The explosives couldn't have been planted from outside. The embassy's internal security would have caught it.
No—this had come from within.
And the signature?
Matched a rogue cell from Futang's own special ops.
Ryan stared at the screen.
A false flag operation. Sabotage from within. Meant to provoke international tension—and justify breaking off from foreign oversight.
In short…
A power play.
One that could push Futang into full independence.
Possibly even war.
Ryan compiled his findings into a full report and hand-delivered it to Captain Erin.
She read the summary. Twice.
Then sat back in stunned silence.
"You solved a national security incident… in under three hours."
Ryan shrugged. "Terrorists are just messy puzzle pieces."
Erin passed the report to DHS and the FBI. Within an hour, Ryan's name hit another government shortlist.
They didn't call him "God-Tier Detective" for nothing.