5

                                                      5
         “May I ask...”
         Julia looked up from her Kindle, to the black haired man sitting in front of her. He looked a bit disappointed, pissed even, as if what he was doing was something he never wanted.
         “Yes?”
         “Why are we looking for this guy at the first place?” he asked as he looked out of the window. And to make things worse, Julia, we're going somewhere totally          foreign. Do you get what I mean?”
         “You mean, why don't Ivan come along too?”
         “...” Not exactly, it seems.
         But the woman smiled, despite getting things not right, and turned to her friend sitting down next to her. She was looking out of the window, a wide, happy smile drawn on her face.
         “Stop complaining now, Dave,” she said as she got back to reading. “Can't you see someone is happy here? Let's not spoil it for anybody here.”
         “...”
         He turned to the black haired woman sitting next to Julia, who was looking out to the clouds, smiling like a kid who has just been given a huge jar of Gummi Bears enough for a year.
         Yeah, the kind of satisfied look was on her face, and it made him feel a bit guilty.
         “Well, whatever...”
         He sighed again loudly and took the white mug in front of him. He glanced at the woman once again, who was still looking out with the smile, then he sighed and sipped from his mug.
         Yeah! That's that, Merlin!
         Finally, finally, I'll get to meet Frederich Fuller!
                                                      ~•~
         London, 1230 hours
         “Can you just wipe that smirk off your face, Meg?”
         “Sorry, Dave, but I'm soooo happy!” a black haired woman answered as she took her black suitcase from the troveyor belt. “You get it, right? Is it wrong to be happy when you're travelling?”
         “...”
         Dave sighed as he zipped his backpack. He then carried it onto his back and took her hand.
         Yeah, we're playing as tourists. Isn't there something worse we can play as?
         “Come on, Julia must be waiting for us.”
         “No, she isn't.”
         “Eh?” He could suddenly feel the cold chill scross his spine, the fear of being left behind. Of course, who wouldn't be afraid, especially when you're visiting a place totally unknown to you for the very, very first time, and was left behind by your only guide.
         “She told us to go shopping.”
         “...What?”
         “You got off the plane first, so she only told me,” she said as she fished for something in her pockets. “ She said she's going to check into the hotel, and we should go shopping first. She's expecting us at the hotel at around lunchtime.”
         “But we don't even know what the shitty hotel is nor where it is!”
         “She said she’ll pick us up, and she even told me where a good department store is!” she said with a smile. The man looked away, seemingly pissed. But, my, men never likes shopping do they? Aside from shopping weapons of course.
         “So now we should go shopping?”
         “Um-hum.”
         “For what?”
         “What we need!” She smiled and squeezed his hand tight, making him feeling a little awkward, as he wasn't that good with women. He's only good with fellow males, he thought.
         So can someone tell me why I'm stuck with two females here...
         “Come on, it's been quite a while since we went somewhere together like this, no? We have to obey Julia at the hotel, now, so let's just enjoy this now!”

         “But I thought you were…”        

         “What?”

         He looked at her for a while, only to notice that she was looking at him with such innocent eyes of a child. He looked at her longer, half hoping that something would change, but of course nothing did. He could do nothing but to sigh, unable to reject a kid’s wish.

         “F… fine, whatever.”

         “Yay!”

         Really, like a kid…

~•~

         “This is your room, Ms. Hopkins.”

         “Thank you, mister.”

         Julia smiled to the concierge and entered her room. The door then closed behind her as she sat down on her bed.

         The room she was granted with wasn’t big, but wasn’t small either. There was only one bed in the room, and a big wardrobe next to the bed. On the wardrobe doors, someone has painted the picture of a woman in black kimono and yellow hairpin. She looked at the woman for a while then she sighed and stood up. She walked to the curtains and yanked them open, letting in the day sunlight. It was such a sunny day so that she even had to shrink her eyes for a few seconds after she opened the thick fabric, so that her pupils could adapt. From the window, she could see the busy streets of London – not very picturesque, especially if there’s a room facing the Westminter Abbey.

         “…”

         She stepped back and looked at the picture of the woman again for a while. Of course nothing has changed – she was still wearing the same black kimono and yellow hairpin. There were a few flowers drawn near the woman for art – different kinds of flowers in different colours.

         …Interesting.

~•~

         83 minutes later

         “Here, what about this one?”

         David couldn’t do anything but let the short-haired woman in front of him put a brown fedora hat on his head. She looked at him for a while, then she took it again.

         “There, looks good on you!” she said with a smile. “Let’s buy this too!”

         “Aren’t we buying a bit too much?”

         “That’s what you think!” Women sure agree differently from men. “What have we bought so far?”

         “A jacket, about four shirts, a scarf, two trousers and two shorts, and for you, and for you, three dresses, two shirts, two trousers, a jacket, and…”

         “It’s sale season, so it’s reasonable to buy a lot, Dave,” a blonde woman suddenly said. “Men never understand this kind of things, do they?”

         “That’s right,” the black haired woman said. “Will you buy something, Julia?”

         “Me? No need,” Julia answered. “I’ve bought my stuff in the hotel.”

         “There’s a shop in the hotel, too?”

         “Yeah,” Julia answered with a smile. “Go shop as much as you want, Meg.”

         “Yay!” Really, like a kid.

         Julia turned to the man, who looked kind of tired, then she smiled and looked away. There, she could see a statue, wearing a black poncho and white trousers. The statue looked arrogant, standing with her hands folded and her eyes looking somewhere afar. Suddenly she felt something in herself woke up.

         “Well, maybe I’m going to buy something too.”

         “Oh, no, don’t start, now, Julia!”

         “Why not, since the boss will be paying for us?”

         “Just don’t!”

~•~

         RIIIIIING

         “Yes, hello?”

         “I spotted something, friend.”

         “Ah, yes, send it to me.”

         “I have.”

         “Already? Okay, thanks, I’ll check it now.”

         Frederich pushed away a screen, and it quickly disappeared after moving for about an inch or two. He then sat down and typed something with some lightning speed, and another green screen appeared right in front of his eye. There was a picture of a black short-haired woman on the screen, taken from the front, back, and the sides. The woman had rather small eyes, hidden behind a pair of square glasses. He quickly felt something snapped inside him, and moved his face forward to see it.

         Wait, this woman…

         Next to the pictures, there were a line of words of information about the woman – her name, birthdate, nationality, and… well, everything you know from a passport.

         And there, it was clearly stated that the woman’s name was Megan Shirley.

         Megan Shirley, Canadian, 32 years old, single.

         But…

         “Well, let’s end it here for now, loser.”

         …Have I seen her before this?

         

6

6

         “Open the wardrobe doors when you sleep.”

         “Huh?” Megan quickly turned to her friend with confused eyes. Dave was walking in the bathroom, checking some things – perhaps either the tap is running or not  - making her stay outside to unpack. She was putting her newly bought clothes into the wardrobe when he walked out.

         “Isn’t it kind of creepy to have someone looking at you when you’re sleeping?”

         “No, not really.”

         Dave turned to his friend, who was putting some clothes into her wardrobe. She looked busy and… maybe she wouldn’t really respond to what he said, so he was thinking about leaving.

         “Can I… leave?”

         “Go.”

         “…” Well, she doesn’t change one bit, does she?

         “See you later.”

         “Um-hum.”

         The door closed with a click, leaving Megan alone in the room. She pulled a blue dress lightly to tidy it, then she slid the wardrobe door closed and sat down on her bed. She then looked around her, finally sure that she was alone, and looked up to the lamp right above her head. The lamp was on, reconsidering night has fallen on the city.

         …I wonder, I sure do…

         Will I die this time?

~•~

         “You didn’t do it…”

         “…?”

         “You didn’t do it, right, Kyrie?”

         “Well…”

         BANG

         “You’re better off knowing.”

         Frederich quickly snapped open his eyes and sat up from his seat, almost falling from his seat. But somehow – perhaps because he did sit down for too long – and fell down from his seat to the floor on his knees. He panted for a while as he could feel his chest hurted a bit, before he eventually stood up and sat back on his seat.

         “Damn…”

         He turned to the green screens floating on the air of his room, and he could see one of the screens showing four numbers.

         ’20:30’

         He sighed again and pressed a red button on his desk, and all the screens disappeared in a wink. He rose from his seat and took his black trenchcoat on his desk before walking out of the room.

         Summers in London hardly ever felt like one. The temperature will not exceed 25⁰ celcius, making it much colder compared to summer in tropical areas that may reach 40⁰ celcius. That’s why Brighton is never a place nice enough to get a tan, perhaps.

         But Londoners are used to it, aren’t they? When they go to a country in the equator, they’d love to stay there, because it’s much warmer when it’s so hot for the locals.

         Frederich had to wear his coat while walking on the hall way as his thin layer of fat couldn’t quite protect himself from the summer cold. Most of the lights in the hallway were off, maybe only half a dozen is on from tens of lights, and he could even hear his footsteps echo in the darkness.

         “Frederich, loser!”        

         “What? Shut up!”

         “You’re still working at this hour?”

         “No! I’m just…”

         “Just what?”

         He stopped on his place and looked back to the path he’s passed, which was as dark as the M(cari) tunnel. He sighed silently and walked away.

         “You said you’re gonna treat me for dinner!”

         Yes, those times…

         Wouldn’t come back, would they?

~•~

         “Well…”

         Julia smiled as she buttoned the top button of her newly-bought black poncho and looked at herself on the mirror. Not bad, she thought – she was wearing the black poncho with a black shirt and a black skirt. Not a very long skirt, but still enough to protect her dignity.

         “I like this outerwear,” she said as she lifted her arms. Since poncho is only a piece of cloth sewn at the two ends to form a semicircle form, she looked like she had some wings between her arm and body, a bit like a bird.

         “It’s not bad at all,” she said as she unbuttoned the top button o her outerwear. Of course she would leave it for the hotel laundry to wash before she wore it later. “It looks a bit like those outfits professional, pretty assasins wear…”

         She looked at herself once again in the mirror, and now that her poncho’s buttons were open, she could see the black shirt she was wearing underneath the poncho. She smiled – a wicked smile, as she walked back to the wardrobe.

         Yeah – really alike.

~•~

         Night has fallen.

         A blonde man was walking in the empty streets of Southern London – it was midnight already so that no stores were open but pubs and bars. He walked past a pub, where noises could be heard from inside, and walked into the depth of the night’s darkness.

         The alley was so dark – there was no lightning in the alley not somewhere around. There were a lot of trashcans there, with flies flying around it and some cats fishing for something in the bins. Some of the cats ran away when they heard some creaking sounds, some hid inside the bin, and some stayed outside.

         The man stopped after a few steps into the small alley and took out a stick of cigarette from his pocket. He lit it with his match, then he smoke carefreely, even if that wasn’t the kind of place recommended to smoke.

         Well, I guess this is the kind of place we suit in…

         Why not? Because at nights, scary things might come out…

         He could hear some noises behind him, making the night very noisy, and suddenly he could feel his area turned a bit darker. He quickly turned back and saw a shadow advancing upon him, as if it was a lion that was going to eat him.

         “My, my…”

         The man spitted out his cigarette and reached his hand out to the shadow, and how strange – he could grab it. He smiled in victory, knowing that he has took over the control, and pushed the shadow to the wall. The shadow struggled for a while, until he reached out his left hand and felt something hard, which he pressed.

         The shadow screamed – and he smirked.

         “That’s not a very polite way to introduce yourself, is it,” he said as he stepped forward. The shadow struggle a little more, before it finally stopped and he could feel it glared at him in wrath. But he didn’t mind – he didn’t care, either, as he was feeling so good – he was feeling the best in years.

         “Interesting… How about we join our hands?”

~•~

         “Lead Researcher! Lead Researcher!”

         “It’s stabilized! Please, come and take a look…”

         A blonde haired woman in white coat walked into the room, where the neon lights were shining brightly and antiseptic could be smelled. In the middle of the room was a metal wall, where a girl with long brunette hair was being tied there. Her hair was falling gently towards the earth, being pulled by gravity, and so was her head.

         “Stabilized?”

         “Yes, ma’am, we’re sure!” a man in white coat said. “The heartbeat is stable, blood pressure is normal, and…”

         “Okay, okay.” No need to listen more as long as the main things are alright. “Good job, everyone.”

         All the men in white coat in the room turned to her, and a smile appeared on their faces. Some started giving high-fives to their workmates as she walked out of the room without turning back. There’s nothing to worry as long as things are alright, at least for that time.

         A little bit more, just a little bit…

8

8

Moscow, 1100 hours

         “Yes, thanks for reporting in, Dimitri.”

         A brown haired man smiled and tapped the screen of his phone, not noticing the curious young man standing behind him, looking at him from his back. He wouldn’t possibly notice the young man until he touched the older man’s back. He quickly turned back and smiled.

         “Hey, Ivan. What’s wrong?”

         “Well…”

         The younger man smiled and looked down, blushing a little. Of course it was nice to be at least, noticed by a senior worker.

         “How’s it going over there?”

         “Not very well, from how Dimitri made it sound,” the old man said. “But whatever, right?”

         The younger man smiled as he nodded slightly. Of course, there was nothing to fear as long as it’s the good ones on the move. The older man smiled and touched his junior’s back.

         “Now, now, anything else you need?”

         “Well, I just got a bit interested…” He gave a smile and looked down, then he saluted politely and walked away.

         Nothing to fear?
         How interesting…

~•~

         London, 0900 hours

         “I got a bit information, but I’m not sure if it’ll be useful…”

         “You’re always so modest,” Julia said as she typed something on the black portable keyboard. Megan was standing behind her, smiling sheepishly. Julia kept typing seriously, as more green screens appeared in front of her, floating, until then she stopped. She turned to one of the screens and pointed it.

         “This one?”

         Megan leaned down, finally – not in interest or whatever, just to verify. She could see a few words with some pictures in the screen her friend pointed, and nodded.

         “Yeah, that one.”

         Julia swiped that screen and it stopped in front of her, then she started reading the information on it. Meanwhile, Megan was walking to the fridge, opening it to take something.

         “Interesting,” Julia said. “I don’t know if it’s the pixel’s fault or not, but I’m certain I saw some cuts.”

         “Cuts?” Such good eyes… “Where? I didn’t even see.”

         “Here, around the neck,” she answered. “It’s visible from the sides.”

         “Are they stitched?”

         “I doubt that,” Julia said. “A bit like a mask… perhaps?”

         Heee… I hope my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me.

~•~

         RIIIIIIING

         “Yes, hello? Oh, someone hacked us… Has Fred got into it?”

         A blonde woman was tying up her hair as the phone next to her was ‘speaking’. It was esplaining the current situation – stronger security has been put and nobody should be able to break it. She brought all her long hair to the back and tied it with a pink hairband. She then turned back to the phone, which was quiet, and sighed.

         “Okay, then. Have a nice day at work.”

         She tapped the screen once and looked at herself again in the mirror. She was wearing an orange jacket and jeans – the normal outfit anyone would wear. She smiled, satisfied with her looks like a woman usually does, then walked away from the window.

         “Now, I’m glad this is my day off. What should I do today…”

         KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

         Open the door, yeah.

         She sighed loudly and walked to the door – who the heck is coming so early in the morning – and opened the door.

         If it’s just an android walking around, asking for donation, I’ll kick him.

         She opened the door, readying her right foot in case it was what she was thinking about – someone from the church – but forced a fake smile anyway, in case it’s not.

         “Good morning, may I…”

         “Morning, Abi.”

         She could feel her throat dried and her heart stopped in that instant.

         Standing in front of her was a man with red hair and round glasses. He was much taller than her – she had to to look up a little to look at his face, and suddenly, her expression changed.

         “Daniel? You’re back…”

         “Hey, of course,” the man said. “I told you I would.”

         “But I thought…”

         “I’m not gonna come back?” He gave a sheepish smile as he pushed his glasses closer to his eyes. “But I’m back now, am I not?”

         She could feel her heart leaped in joy – she could feel tears welled up in her eyes as she moved forward and leaned down to his chest. It felt so warm – she could even hear some heartbeat, confirming that he was alive.

         Is this real?

         If this is, then…

~•~

         “Charles Eddington – 38 years old, French, single.”

         “You sure this is our man, Julia?” a black haired man asked. “I mean, he’s French. We’re not exactly looking for him, right?”

         “What are you talking about? Of course this all is fake, Dave.”

         “…Eh?”

         “Let’s see… This guy wears a mask,” Julia said. “Number one. And then the boss said these people have no name. So this must just be some con stuff.”

         “Tracking him will be difficult, without any help,” Julia said. “Maybe, if we can find some help. Can someone facilitate us, since that’ll be something very good.”

         “You mean a sponsor?”

         “No, I mean facility,” she said. “If we can track him, it’ll be nice.”

         “That’s going to be difficult…”

         “No, no, no, have no worries!”

         They turned and saw a woman with black hair standing behind them, where she wasn’t there before. She was smiling brightly, as if there was nothing to worry when there was quite something to worry…

         “What do you mean? Of course we have to worry!” The man stood up in anger and walked towards her. The blonde woman kept calm, and so did the black-haired woman – maybe there was really nothing to worry.

         “Let her handle that, Dave,” Julia said. “If she said it should be alright, then it should be. Should it not…”

         “Just blame me!” the black haired woman said. “It’ll be fine, so don’t worry about it!”
                                                      ~•~

         The few hours later

         “Night has fallen.”

         A blonde man was sitting on a chair placed on the rooftop of an apartment. He was looking up to the sky, where a bit of the moon has shown itself, not very shiny though, as the clouds were covering its shine. He could see some silhouettes passed by above him very, very quickly. Maybe nocturnal birds, or bats?

         The moon, despite being small, was beautiful that night…

         But even if it was so beautiful, he still couldn’t be that careless. There was someone standing behind him, perhaps he sneaked very silently, but someone could still sense him.

         “Well, what do you want, Kalinka?”

         “…”

         He turned to the shadow standing next to him. The shadow was standing still – whatever it was wearing soething, which waved as the wind blew. He sighed silently, knowing he wouldn’t get any answer, and looked away. However, it wasn’t a sigh of disappointment – he was kind of happy, actually.

         “I think we’ll be working together, now…”

         The shadow still didn’t answer. However, the man smiled discreetly as he stood up.

         “Now, now, I think we should be able to work together perfectly. How about I tell you what we’ll do?”
         The shadow stood still for a while, but then a smile formed on the shadow’s face.

         Surely, it must be something very enjoyable to be done…

7

7

         “Now that I’m here, now that I’m here…”

         A woman with short black hair was sitting in front of a few green screens, grinning like a kid. She was typing something on the keyboard at lightning speed – her hands looked like they were just put there and not moving. She grinned as she stopped typing and pressed a button on her right-hand side, then she lied down on her bed, where she’s been sitting all the time. She had a satisfied look on her face, as if she just beated the last level of a game.

         “Maybe I’ll play a small prank…”

                                                      ~•~

         The next few hours…

         “Frederich! Frederich!”

         A blonde man lazily swallowed down his bread as he walked to a screen mounted before a mahogany door. He tapped the screen once, and he could quickly see two men standing outside his house, from what the screen showed – one was a rather fat man, eating a chocolate bar, and the other was a blonde man who looked a bit desperate with his friend.

         “What’s up?” he asked lazily. “Work time is about thirty minutes from now. Please, for God’s sake, adjust your watches to Mr. Big Ben.”

         “Yes, we know!”

         “Go home then.” I mean, everyone do have the ‘sloth’ in them, no?

         “No, you can’t not come with us, Fred!”

         “Someone broke into our system! Go see it, Fred!”

         He stopped suddenly, as he could feel the flavour of the bread in his stomach suddenly dissolved and felt ill. He sighed and took his beige trenchcoat lying on the white dining table, then he bit more bread. No work will be done with an empty stomach, after all.

         “Of course, a minute.”

         If it’s the work of some naughty teenagers, then they’re gonna get it from old Mr. Fuller!

~•~

         A black haired woman sighed as she walked into a huge ballroom-like-room, and she quickly looked around. To find an empty table from all the tables in the room that should sum up to tens, perhaps. Either families or just a group of friends, or even tourists have taken over most of the tables.

         “Megan!”

         She quickly turned, only to see a blonde long haired woman sitting on one of the tables, drinking something from a white cup. There were a few plates placed on the table – put on one of them was omelette, put on another was a piece of french toast, and there were slices of apples, bananas, and melons on another plate. Megan walked to her friend and stood next to the table, looking at the foods.

         “I thought you’re on a diet.”

         “I am,” the blonde woman answered. “This isn’t that much of a breakfast, is it?”

         “…”

         “Go have something, Megan,” the blonde woman said. “They have a lot of choices of teas here. There’s something they called Breakfast Tea, Grey Earl Tea, Darjeeling, and, well, there’s a lot…”

         Megan’s eyes quickly brightened upon the good news. She smiled and turned away.

         “Okay, then I’ll try all of them while we’re here!”

         She walked a few steps away as the blonde woman started to slice the omelette served in front of her. Only a few steps, not even ten, after Megan walked away, she turned back to her friend.

         “Oh, yeah – where’s Dave?”

         “Dave?” The blonde woman sneered as she brought the food to her mouth. “He’s got something to do.”

                                             ~•~
         Something to do, yeah.

         “This is a bit strange, Felix.”

         A black haired man was walking around in his room while looking down to his phone in his hands. There was the picture of a middle-aged man with brown hair on the screen, in a military uniform.

         “Slowly, Dimitri,” the man on the phone said. “Tell me what’s strange.”

         Dimitri sighed loudly and looked away, as if it was something that shouldn’t be happening – something that wasn’t planned – but well, it happened.

         “We’re being watched.”

         The man on screen raised an eyebrow in surprisement. See – something unwanted, or else nobody would’ve reacted that way.

         “By who?”

         “I don’t know,” he said. “Nobody knew about us, this stay, this mission – just the three of us, you, the old man, Ivan, and… maybe Mikhail! But someone’s watching us.”

         “Precisely, how?”

         “Well, he put something in our rooms,” Dimitri said. “I don’t know what it does yet – that’s Merlin’s part, no? But I have no idea how to pry it out.”

         “Ask for another room, then.”

         “I can’t,” Dimitri said. “I have asked, but well, they have no rooms left.”

         “Okay, now listen.” When a problem comes, a solution is needed. “Now try to not do anything important in your rooms. Maybe in the bar, or in a café somewhere near.”

         “Whoever this guy is, he must be having a complete agenda of what to do and he should know who we are and what we’re doing in here.”

         “Make sure they don’t get anything while I finish the traitor here.”

         Dimitri sighed and tapped the screen of his phone once, making the face disappear – end of discussion, with a decision, fortunately.

~•~

         “How is it?”

         “I don’t precisely know.”

         In the dark room, illuminated with only a few bright neon lamps planted in the ceiling, a few men were working with green screens, some stacked together, some not. The blonde man with thick glasses looked the most serious among them all – he was typing something quickly as he would look up to the screen every few minutes.

         “Looks like whoever is hacking is looking for some high protected files,” he concluded. “But well – he couldn’t get it. But he actually managed to break into the low to medium security level. Let’s check the top secret files…”

         He typed some more, making a new screen appear with some scrambled words on it. The words kept scrambling for a while, until it has finally formed a few words. He swiped the screen to him using his index finger and looked at it closely. Another blonde man standing behind him leaned down in interest.

         “Hey, tell me, how is it, Fred?”

         “Wait…”

         Frederich typed a few more words, maybe codes this time, and a new screen appeared in front of the previous screen. His eyes widened in surprise as he turned to his friend.

         “Wait,” he said. “He got some top secret info.”

         Emergency. “What?”
         What a situation. First, someone hacked you, and unfortunately managed to take away some important stuff. It’s a bit like Julian Assange Junior’s work, no?
         “It’s a clean cut,” Frederich answered. “He took it, and left the hole he made – very, very tidily. He hacked the lower systems, hoping that we would focus on the datas stolen there…”

         “But bad for him, we didn’t.”

         “However, it was a very tidy hacking,” Frederich said as he typed some more. “See, nothing was taken from the lower systems.”

         “Track whoever it is?”
         “Imposibble. It’s clean – not even a code is left here.”

         This can’t be the work of some random teenager. It’s the work of someone very skilled – trained, or maybe even paid.         

         Terrorists? No, no. This is the work of someone trained.

         Must be someone like… an ex-spy…

         “So what do we do now, Frederich? If we can’t track anyone…”

         “Use a better protection system, of course.” When something fails, make something better and use it – that’s the law of nature, no?

         “Okay.”

         “If someone can break into this one I specifically modified myself, it’ll be easy to guess who did it,” he said as he started typing more. “Since I programmed it myself and only one person aside from me knows about this…”

         Yes. I sure do wonder…

         Are you alive?

~•~

         “Now, now, how perfect!”

         A black haired woman stood up from her bed and turned to a black haired man who just walked into the room. He was a bit confused with his friend – what was the purpose of being so happy, he asked himself – but gave her a grim smile anyways.

         “Something good happened?”

         “I got something on our man,” she said. “You see, thanks to some skills and brains!”

         Keep your cool, Dimitri. “Yeah, yeah.”

         “Wanna take a look?”

         “Okay.”

         “Wait…”

         The woman sat back on her seat and took a small black board with buttons on it – there were all sorts of letters on the keyboard – and started typing. A green screen appeared shortly after. The man looked from her back as some words started to scramble on the screen. A new screen then appeared automatically, where there were a few words and a few pictures of a man taken from the front, back, and sides. The woman smiled to her friend, proud and satisfied.

         “Well!” she clapped her hands, like a kid clapping her hands for a fake Santa. “Tell me, aren’t I great?”