Jace drove quickly through the rural area as Vana ate her food. She kept glancing at him. Jace was humming as she drove.
"So are you going to fill me in on our current target?" Vana asked in between bites of her egg sandwich. Every once in a while she was eating one of the hashbrowns from her container.
Jace smiled, "Arthur Sanders. The boyfriend of Devan. He is currently in one of the many shopping districts. As far as we can tell he is the only weak link that can lead us to Devan. For the record we do not know his real identity."
"Devan? I figured when you said the name of a popular pirate from a hundred years ago. I unfortunately do not know anything about local stuff like that." Vana explained.
"I know. We were given files on all of you this morning. Your speciality is infiltration and assassination." Jace pointed out with a shrug getting a glare in response. "We did not warn your people ahead of time to see if we could successfully infiltrate the country without issue. So they had to send whoever they could on short notice."
"How did you manage to get them to go along with your request for extended non-communication with headquarters?" Vana asked as she tossed the empty container into the back seats.
"We requested it and they obliged when we informed them that the person we are chasing has some method to brainwash people. It also helped that we showed them we could do the investigation without their assistance." Jace explained as they arrived at a large shopping center. "Leave weapons in the vehicle. We will come back to it later when he leaves here."
—----------------------
They were sitting at a cafe in the outdoor area. Across the street was the clothing store where Arthur was currently working. He was a receptionist for the store.
Jace took a sip of his tea as he stared at Vana who was glancing over at the store. She was focusing a bit too much on their target. Even an untrained person would notice if someone was following or staring at them if it was going on for too long.
"I think I am going to try this triple chocolate cake next. What do you think?" Jace asked, pulling her attention away from the store.
Vana frowned, "what?"
Jace leaned forward, "focus on our date. You are staring too much at him. He might notice. Now order something." Jace whispered to get his point across. Then he leaned back in his chair. "Ha… maybe I will have them bring out a variety of cakes."
Vana sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "So what are we supposed to talk about while we wait?"
"Likes and dislikes. Talking about a variety of topics. We just have to avoid the past and anything relating to our jobs." Jace explained. "For instance, what is the favorite type of cake you have eaten before?"
Vana shrugged, "my mother's lime cake. It was a homemade recipe."
"Then you can judge this cafe's lemon-lime cake recipe." Jace flagged a waitress down and began ordering some cakes and another pot of tea. Once she was gone Jace caught Vana looking at the store again. "If it will set your mind at ease he is working for another three hours then we will follow him. I am also tracking his communication device."
Vana quickly looked back over at him while frowning. "Communication device? Do you mean his phone?"
Jace shrugged, "sure. Anyways the point is you might as well relax while you can. You never know we might be up to our elbows in trouble later."
"Fine," Vana sighed and leaned forward. "How about… books? Do you have any books that you particularly like or dislike?"
"I read textbooks, studies, and anything about technological development. I do not really read fictional books." Jace told her.
"Why not? They are a good way to escape reality even for a little bit." Vana explained with a frown.
"It is just a view I developed growing up where I did. How about you? Do you have any books you particularly enjoy?" Jace countered with a shrug as the waitress arrived with a sampler tray of cakes for Jace and Vana's lemon-lime cake.
Vana took a moment as she waited for the waitress to leave. "Actually, I do have a few series I do enjoy. There are some romance stories that I enjoy reading. They always put me at ease and help me escape reality. But since you do not read, let's switch to a different topic. How about… favorite foods?"
"Foods?" Jace nodded and sat thinking for a few moments. "There are so many it is just so hard to pick just one. But there are a few I like more than others. I would say-" Jace suddenly flinched as he overheard something from the store. He brought up his watch and began paying for the order. "We are going to need to head out. Our guy just asked to leave early." Jace whispered as boxes and to-go cups were brought over for their order.
Vana frowned, "I thought we could only track his phone?"
"That is true, I was erring on the side of caution by not hacking into his phone." Jace began explaining, "but while we were conversing I was watching his reflection in this spoon and listening to his conversation. He asked his boss if he can leave early, as in the next ten minutes."
Vana raised an eyebrow, "people think Woltar's have good hearing, but you nanohumans must have it on another level."
Jace shrugged, "it is part of my talent. Now let's go." Jace lifted the two boxes with their uneaten cake and one of the to-go cups with tea.
Vana followed him out of the cafe and spotted some men in suits in the distance. She quickly moved up to him and began hanging off of his arm. "You are so funny!" Vana giggled as they walked past the men in suits.
Jace chuckled, "oh I know I am great. Now let's get back to the car darling. Your appointment is soon." He almost missed them, he was glad that she clocked them while he was distracted.
They walked to the car with her leading the way. Jace was busy listening to what Arthur Sanders was doing in the distance. He was leaving with his new escorts toward a generic black vehicle. There were three escorts in total. There are the two that went to pick up Arthur and the third who stayed near their vehicle making sure that it was not tampered with.
They arrived at the red sports car and Vana pulled the keys out of his pocket. Jace moved over to the passenger side and hopped in. Vana looked at Jace who set aside the cakes in the back seat, while grabbing his silenced pyre.
"They did not disable his communication device." Jace tapped his watch and a map with a blinking red dot and their location appeared. He was already seeing it on his aviators, but this map was for her benefit. "Red dot is them, the blue arrow is us." He swiped it and the image moved to the windshield screen.
"Got it," Vana pulled out of the parking lot and started following several cars behind their target.
Jace tapped the internal communication system for the sports vehicle, connecting it a moment later. "Ulin, get moving with your partner. Different vehicles. I think our target is about to meet our objective. We are tailing at a distance for now. He has an escort of three armed guards."
"Armed?" Vana asked in surprise.
"Yeah, combat knives and laser pistols. I spotted a knife on one of them and a suspicious bulge on the other. It would be best to assume they all have both." Jace explained.
"Understood, I am on route. How did your date go?" Ulin asked in a robotic and uncaring manner.
Her question caused Jace to chuckle. After their extensive training at Echo Base she had talked sometimes when she wanted to start up a conversation. She meant well, but it always amused him that her speech pattern always started unemotional. "It went well, Ulin. But it would probably go better if we manage to find Devan on our first day. So you could make it better."
"Yippee." Ulin responded while he could hear loud motorcycle noises in the background.
"Now stop doing tricks with Vana's motorcycle and hurry up." Jace told her before hanging up.
"Date?" Vana asked in surprise. "What was that about?"
"My unit is worried I will die an unchained man because of my habit of going from woman to woman." Jace explained with a shrug.
"There is nothing wrong with that. I go from man to man because I want to remain detached." Vana pointed out while she sped around a corner to keep pace with their target's vehicle.
Jace chuckled and then frowned as he noticed a pattern to the target's vehicle movement. "Slow down and pull into this garage. They are going to do at least one more pass to make sure they are not being followed."
Vana complied and they waited as Arthur's escorts did a few more circles around an area before pulling away. Vana followed the red dot diligently until Jace told her to pull over.
"The target just arrived at an apartment." Jace told the others over the open channel they began using while they were following the target. "Ulin sneak in and confirm our objective is onsite. No contact." Jace told her.
She acknowledged the message before going silent for a quarter of an hour. Then she spoke again after a bit. "In and out cleanly. Objective, Devan a goat anthro is onsite. What is our play?"
"Good, I found a weakness in the objective's protective detail. One of the guards has an unprotected additional communication device." Jace explained as he began running through scenarios and surveyed the area. "We will hold off on the snatch and grab. We will follow him until he goes to a remote location where the local law enforcement won't interfere. Ulin and Ellis, you are on follow detail for the next few hours. Vana and I will head back to the mansion to wait."