lids, straws, and various spices. As that was outside of his usual habits, I made use of the necklace’s photography function, and at a tap of my phone’s screen, I set it up to continuously take one photo every twenty seconds until it ran out of storage space or lost connection with the CDC’s servers.
At most, it would last for twenty-four hours, although I doubted I needed that much time.
If Loureni was smart, he’d ditch my jewelry along with my purse shortly after making his move.
I texted Sebastian I had a bite, deleted the conversation in its entirety, and also removed all general evidence of my bounty hunting ways from the device. Once finished, I set the device aside and repeated the same with my laptop, doing as I’d done the entire time I’d been visiting the coffee shop, so my target would remain comfortable.
“May I join you?” he asked. “I asked the barista what your favorite drink is, and she gave me this. I hope you don’t mind.”
I blinked, glanced up from my work, and stared at him before staring at the coffee, which was marked with my regular drink. I expected extras, but I wouldn’t have any idea what unless I got a text from the CDC’s monitoring system when the device embedded in my arm detected something. While I hesitated, I reached over and accepted the drink. “That’s very kind of you. Thank you.” To adhere to my role, I closed my laptop and put it away, and I checked the time on my phone before setting it back on the table, screen down and close at hand in case Sebastian called and wanted to make my life difficult. “I have some time, and I’ve finished my work for the moment, so, sure. Please, have a seat.”
Loureni sat, and he smiled at me. “I’m Stefan. I couldn’t help but notice you’ve been here all week working quite diligently. Are you new to town?”
“Vanessa. I’m in town for business. My boss has a lot of business here this week, so I’m making sure his schedule is set and I’m available if he needs me. Today is a half day for me. He has a full meeting schedule, after which he’s socializing with some of his friends in the area. I checked my screen. “I’ll be off work in twenty minutes.”
“What wonderful timing, then. I have some time before I have to leave. Are you liking Chicago so far?”
“So far, it’s nice. Busy, and the streets are something else.”
“Underground city get you?”
“Surprisingly not. My boss was driving, and he knows his way around Chicago. I think he used to live around here before he moved to New York.” I took a sip of my gifted coffee. If it contained anything nefarious, from pixie dust to the more potent and dangerous influencer, I’d know within thirty seconds. It tasted fine, which eliminated several other drugs I’d been warned about during my briefing on what someone like Stefan Loureni might do to lure me away from the coffee shop. “I hope you tipped that barista. She remembered my drink.”
Loureni chuckled. “I did tip her for remembering. I’m glad she remembered it right. How long are you going to be in town?”
The trick to baiting the man involved being in town long enough to give him an opening—and not having any obligations to my boss tomorrow, so he would act on opportunity.
My phone beeped at me, and I sighed. “It’s probably my boss. Please give me a moment?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.”
I picked my phone up off the desk and checked my text, which informed me Stefan Loureni was a very naughty boy and gave me one of the higher grades of pixie dust, which would make me inclined to do whatever he wanted rather cheerfully, although the grade was low enough I could, if presented with something serious enough, maintain limited coherent thought.
As the grade fell within my treatments’ ability to handle, I forwarded the text to Sebastian while pretending I answered before deleting the evidence. Then, forcing myself to smile, I put my phone into my purse and packed my closed laptop into its bag. “It was my boss, and I’m being cut loose a little early today. Tomorrow, I have the day off, as he has personal business in town.” As pixie dust tended to make people talkative and happy, I drank more of my coffee. “This is really good.”