A Fated Meeting

"Here is your orange juice. Are you ready to order?" Gisella asked him.

"I've been perusing the menu for a while, but everything looks so delicious and I'm really not sure what I should get. Do you have any recommendations?" Jack asked her. He made sure to initiate and maintain clear eye contact as he asked for her opinion.

Surprised, Gisella responded, "For the first timer, I would definitely recommend any of our pizzas along with a tall glass of Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbeer. The pizza's are big and the beer complements the taste of the pizza sauce very well.

"Then I guess that's what I'll order." Jack smiled as he spoke.

"What kind of pizza would you like? We have a decent variety of toppings that you can choose from. I could get you a menu in English if you want." Gisella outlined the main pizzas on the menu, thinking that Jack couldn't read the German well.

Jack smirked at the menu, looked towards her and spoke in fluent German."Don't worry. I can read the menu properly"

Gisella was even more surprised this time. This customer was definitely interesting. Unknowingly, she had made the same mistake as the hostess in the front. Judging by his clothes, the man in front of her seemed to be a tourist, so she had made an effort to interact with him in English. When he was ordering, she initially thought that he couldn't decide because of the menu being in German. However, it turned out that he could perfectly read and speak in German, causing her to be a little embarrassed at her mistake.

Blushing slightly, she switched to German and remarked "Your German is very good for a tourist Mr...?

"Devereaux. Jack Devereaux. It's not my first time in Germany but I was always busy and never got to enjoy the sights and sounds."

"Oh, so that's how it is. Did you come to do some sightseeing in Berlin? We have some of the best tourist attractions in all of Germany."

"No. Sadly, I came here for a business trip and I'll have to go back home once my work here is done."

Her curiosity seemingly satisfied. Gisella gave him a refreshing smile and said "Well we are happy that you chose to come to the Cafe am Neuen See during your visit. Have you selected the pizza you will be having?"

"Not yet." Jack paused and glanced at the menu, waiting for a couple seconds before saying "You know what? Why don't you decide which pizza to give me?"

"Excuse me?", Gisella was confused by his request and looked at him weirdly.

"What I mean is, you obviously know the best pizza to go with the beer you recommended. So I'll defer the judgement to you."

"You are asking me to chose which pizza you order?", Gisella seemed to have gotten his request.

"Exactly. Are you okay with that?" Jack asked as he looked directly into her eyes, showing a look of trust and confidence in her judgement.

"Oh, of course, I was just a bit surprised that you would ask me to choose."

"Well, I can't say what it is about you Gisella, but you have the eyes of a good person. You look like someone that is trustworthy and reliable."

"Really? You can trust someone just by looking at their eyes?"

"It's a skill I picked up along the years in my line of work. It has helped me succeed many times before."

"And what exactly is it that you do, Mr. Devereaux?" Gisella had been sucked into a conversation and what had started as a simple request that surprised her had captured her interest. What was it about this man that was so mysterious? She couldn't put it into words, but if she had to, she would say it had to be charisma. Some people just had a magnetic personality that made you want to be around them. She had never remembered talking so much with any customer, apart from a greeting and the regular interactions that one would expect. It helped that the man before her was relatively good looking.

He had a lean build, but he wasn't by any means weak looking. While his muscles didn't bulge beneath his jacket, one could definitely notice that he had them. His jet black hair contrasted well with his slightly pale complexion and he had piercing set of icy blue eyes that seemed like they could see right through her. Then there was the way he moved. When she had seen him walking towards the table, he had moved with a confident, athletic grace that she couldn't fully comprehend. Most tourists shuffled their feet awkwardly as they navigated their way through the bustling atmosphere, but not him. With small controlled movements coupled alongside that confident stride of his, he seemed like he had been here a thousand times before. With that intriguing personality of his and that unorthodox request, she was curious and wanted to know more about him.

"I'm in sales." Jack replied while lightly smiling at her. "Sometimes, the best way to realize if a customer is going to buy your product is to look them straight in the eyes and understand their intentions. As the old saying goes, the eyes are the windows to the soul."

"Really? And how does my soul look like to you Mr. Devereaux?" Gisella playfully asked him.

"You? Well, let me see."

Jack's play was to act as his favorite fictional character, James Bond. While unrealistic with his various interactions with women across the different movies, one thing had stayed with Jack for the longest time. It was a lesson that he also learned back in The Company's "charm school", where he was taught about the different methods to seduce targets.

Women ultimately loved mystery, so the best way to quickly build up an image in a women's heart was to plant the seed of curiosity and string her along by satisfying her questions and assuaging her doubts one by one until you had her undivided attention. Acting as an international man of mystery, while slightly childish, had its merits for a quick and dirty play. It was not suitable for long term interactions where he needed to build a long-lasting relationship of love and trust before he could achieve his objective. This was precisely why he had chosen such a play with Gisella. For someone he was only going to mine short-term intel from, it was okay to exploit such a basic and inconsequential form of attraction.

Feigning deep thought, Jack focused on her face. It was a lovely face, to be honest. Her proportions were not the standard for a German woman, but it undoubtedly fit in with the rest of the populace. Her skin looked smooth and her complexion showed a brightness that looked very attractive to him. Her body was well proportioned and curvy in all the right places. Her arms had definition to them, which would be inline with her profession, seeing as she carried trays with heavy plates on them all day long.

All in all, she was a gorgeous woman and this was also part of the reason why Jack had chosen her as a target. Beautiful women often got passes to do and say things that regular looking women couldn't. He had seen his fair share of female intelligence operatives who were fully capable of using their good looks to wheedle out intel from unsuspecting targets. They could ask questions and get into places that average looking women not to mention men almost certainly couldn't.

"Your soul is very pure and beautiful. You look like someone who works hard and earns respect among your friends and family. No matter the task, you put 100% of your effort and make sure to complete it to the best of your abilities. You are sweet and friendly to others, choosing not engage in gossip. You are very loved by everyone around you, yet something seems to be wrong. You don't seem satisfied with your life and I feel as if there is a problem that you are trying your best to hide."

As he spoke, Gisella's face had gone from smiling to a more neutral expression, to shocked. Her eyes slowly widening at how accurate the man's description of her was. In fact, it was so accurate that it was a little scary how much he could tell from just her eyes.

Of course Jack wasn't simply looking at her eyes. He was looking at her face in a way that made her think he was looking only at her eyes. What he was doing was an old trick called cold reading. It was trick he had learned from a Romani Gypsy while operating in Eastern Europe. The old woman had called out to him in a crowded street and he had initially ignored her. To his surprise, she had insisted that he come and sit down before her, for he was in grave danger. He didn't believe in psychics any more than he believed the United States government was housing aliens in Area 51, but for whatever reason, he was interested in what she had to say.

In his line of work, many had their own individual superstitions. While some of them stemmed from universal ones that many adhered to, like not opening an umbrella inside or crossing under a ladder, there were also several cultural superstitions that were also adhered to by operatives of diverse backgrounds.

For example, there was a famed British assassin who had been stalking a target for days and was about to take the shot when he saw a black cat cross his path in his rifle scope. Spooked, he had immediately taken his finger of the trigger, tucked away his rifle and gotten the hell out of dodge. His target had gotten away and his employers were furious, but he ended up taking the job again and finishing it on his second attempt. Nonetheless, that slightly exaggerated reaction had proved that despite their line of work, it was true for everyone to follow certain superstitions to improve the chances of success, like lucky items or articles of clothing.

Jack had no such reservations, nor did he intend to react in such a manner. The precise timing of the old woman's words piqued his curiosity. Walking over to her, he chose to take on the guise of a tourist who didn't know any better.

"Were you talking to me, Ms.?" He politely inquired while staring at the lady across the table.

"Yes. The spirits warned me as you were walking by that you would be in terrible danger should you continue on your path.", she said in a deep and ominous sounding voice. "The only thing that can help you now is to give an offering to the spirits so I can channel their energy and read your future."

Jack looked at the woman with a shocked face. Inwardly, he was snickering at how amateurish she was at drawing him in and making him lower his guard, but he nonetheless went along with her little play.

"Oh my God. What do you need Ms. Fortune Teller? Will this much do?" He asked with a shaking voice while holding out some bills in his hand.

"Of course, dear child. The spirits will be very pleased with your offering and your sincerity to know your destiny." the old woman smiled at him and quickly snatched the bills from his hand.

"Oh thank you so much Ms.! You have no idea how scared I am!" Jack exclaimed while shivering.

"Come and take my hands, child. Let us take a peek into what the universe has in store for you." the fortune teller said as she closed her eyes, seemingly in deep concentration

Sitting down into the antiquated and slightly uncomfortable wooden chair across from her, Jack reached out with both his hands and took her hand into his.

'Well this ought to be good', he thought as he waited for the fortune teller's "prophecy".