Fancy Seeing You Here

I ended up meeting that Alyssa girl over a week after our first encounter. I went to the same club as last time, and when I came in, she was already there. She was sitting by the bar, reading a book, although that must have been difficult in the relatively dim, changing lighting.

I came over to her. "Fancy seeing you here."

She lifted her sight from her book. "Good evening," she said politely, putting the book away.

"Shall we go?" Of course, I had no intention to have the conversation here. I planned to take her away somewhere, just like last time.

She got up from her seat. "Alright." Without any pointless chatting, she followed me out of the club.

She had a coat with her this time. Seems she came prepared.

Just like last time, I led her to a back alley, grabbed her and jumped on the rooftops to search her.

I frowned, checking her pockets. "No radios this time?"

Aside from the book from earlier, a wallet, and a pendrive, she had nothing on her.

"What's the point of bringing the radio, if I will need to leave it behind for our meeting?" She asked calmly.

I shrugged my shoulders. What she said made sense. I was only surprised because the boy mentioned that everyone carried their radios on the missions. But I guess higher-ups could be exempt from this rule if they wished.

Not wasting any more time, I threw her over my shoulder and carried her away, this time bringing her to a small park on the shore. Of course, I couldn't reuse the same location each time, especially not twice in a row. It would make it much easier for them to try to prepare an ambush.

I put her down and sat on the bench, lighting a cigarette. "By the way, how did you know I would be there tonight?" I observed her with my eyes narrowed.

She calmly took a seat on the other end of the bench, some distance from me, just like the last time. "I didn't. That's the only place I know that you visit, so I've been coming there every evening."

Obviously, I expected I was most likely to run into her in the same club as last time, but I couldn't tell for sure. We haven't made any plans, after all. Moreover, she was able to somehow find me there the first time, and I still didn't know how. I highly doubt it was a coincidence.

"Seems like the TROA members have a lot of free time on their hands," I smirked.

She looked at me expressionlessly. "It's my own, unofficial project. I'm doing it outside working hours."

I raised my eyebrows. What a workaholic.

"Is that so," I exhaled the smoke, sounding completely disinterested. "But how did you find me the first time then?"

"From the reports I've read about you, written by the field agents whom you encountered in the past, you visit places like that rather frequently. So, I have been checking every club and bar around, trying to find you," she explained.

I leaned back on the bench, observing the lights dancing on the waves of the dark water in front of us. It was a nice evening, although a bit cold. Since it was getting pretty late, the place was calm and quiet, and almost empty, save for a few people strolling around here and there. It would be quite a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere, if the woman sitting next to me wasn't a part of the organization trying to hunt me down.

What she said sounded reasonable. If she was walking around, entering every club she came across, and then moving on if I wasn't there, there was a chance she might have been able to find me eventually. It was very time-consuming though. Plus, was she walking around outside in such cold weather without a jacket? I had my doubts, but I had no proof that could refute her words.

"Alright," I sighed. "Let's just get straight to the business. Do you have anything new for me today?"

"Yes." The woman immediately reached out into her pocket and took out that pendrive I'd found earlier. "As you requested last time, I brought you a copy of all trans-reality legal systems currently in place. Additionally, I created a separate document with a short overview. I listed out the laws and regulations that are most likely to be of interest to you, in case you don't want to spend hours reading everything."

"What, is it that long?" I glanced at her sideways.

"Yes. When I was still in training, I studied it for over two years, and I am still not an expert in the subject. If you would like to, once the project is approved by TROA, I can arrange a consultation with one of our lawyers for you, before you enter into an official agreement with us."

I took the pendrive from her, and looked it over carefully. It seemed to be just a normal pendrive.

"Does it have a tracker inside?" I asked casually, acting nonchalant, but actually paying my full attention to her every tiniest move.

She shook her head lightly. "No, it's just a pendrive I bought in a shop in this world. Aside from uploading the files, I haven't done anything else with it."

She seemed honest. However, I was still reluctant to bring it home with me. I should probably find an internet cafe to transfer the files, and then dispose of it.

The truth was, I had no way of checking whether anyone tampered with it. I would be able to detect a hidden tracker on a person, because it was a foreign object, but finding it in electronics was beyond me. I simply didn't know much about how electronics are built.

And so, I slid the pendrive into my pocket for now. "Alright. I need some time to look through it… So how about we meet again in a week? Same place, same time."

"Will that be enough time?" She looked at me with her eyebrows slightly raised.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. If it's as long as you said, then probably not? But we'll see. Let's just plan a meeting, in case I have some questions or something."

I had time, after all. It wasn't a problem for me to spare an hour or so to go see her.

"Alright then," she agreed.

She still sat in place, unmoving, just observing me.

"Is there anything else?" I glanced sideways at her emotionless face.

She shook her head. "No, I just came to deliver the files."

"Is that so? I'll be going then." I stood up.

If it wasn't for the fact that I needed to find an Internet cafe that was still open so that I could dispose of the pendrive, I would stay longer and try to chat with her for a bit. It would be good to get to know her better, since we might be working together in the future. Right now, I didn't know her at all, which meant it would be difficult for me to manipulate her in any way, or obtain any information about the TROA…

But there would be more occasions for that later, I guess.

And so, I left the park, leaving her behind just like the last time.