Story 03 – Part 2 – Unseen

“I feel like a spy or something,” Jordan said as he readjusted the glasses Vire had given him.

Jordan had been in his apartment, unpacking the latest slew of boxes that his mother had sent, when Nero had given him a call. The plan seemed simple enough, and kind of exciting. Jordan was supposed to pretend to be a shopper and somehow plant a tracking device on a crazy cult member. Nero’s latest minion, a young father by the name of Boomer, was going to help out.

“The key is finding the happy medium of being overlooked rather than being obviously trying to look obscure,” Boomer suggested as he walked with Jordan.

“Crazy people won’t believe that someone is naturally awkward?” Jordan asked as they neared the mall.

“You don’t want them to give you a second look,” Boomer explained. “They look at you once and decide you’re of no concern. Be seen but not, at the same time.”

“In other words, pretend to ignore them.”

“Something like that,” Boomer agreed. “It’s actually easier with someone else because then you can always be turning your head to look at them.”

“Are you boys going to get to work?” Vire’s voice came through the headset that she had rigged into the hats both men were wearing.

“Haven’t you been listening?” Jordan chided. “We need to act natural.”

“Then stop talking to the voice in your head,” Vire teased.

“Game on,” Boomer added as he pushed open the door.

It actually went really well, to Jordan’s surprise. Working with Boomer was actually pretty fun. The young man was completely natural at blending in. They spent most of the time in the gun section of the sporting goods store. Boomer was pretending to look for a gun to purchase and had dragged Jordan along for advice. It turned out that Boomer knew how to shoot guns pretty well, but he knew nothing about the different models.

By the time Boomer was seriously considering buying a gun, Jordan realized that they had been there for nearly an hour. When the clerk went to the back room, Boomer grinned and looked to the side. After a few well placed comments, Jordan realized that the people they were looking for were nearby. Boomer had mentioned that the people had a tendency to go for the climbing gear. The plan was to go there when the crazy cult members came into the store.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Boomer said. “It’s a good thing my wife isn’t a girly girl, but I would like to impress her by knowing something about guns. You don’t mind if I pick up a few carabineers while we’re here, do you?”

“Not at all,” Jordan replied.

“About freaking time,” Vire’s voice said. “I’ve got the camera rolling on your glasses so we’ll be able to photos of them if you completely fail to get tracking on them.”

Jordan ignored her comment as they made their way toward the climbing gear. There was one thing that Jordan knew he could use to his advantage. He had kept his right hand in his pocket almost the entire time. By saying he had a bad cybernetic, Jordan could effectively drop anything around the cult members with limited suspicion.

It actually worked a lot more smoothly than anyone had expected. Boomer had tossed something at Jordan and had actually missed catching it. More than missed, he had accidentally flipped it into one of the guys who were standing nearby. Between his horrible catch and Boomer just laughing, the two managed to bug the three guys that were standing there.

“I’d say we were pretty smooth,” Jordan said after he and Boomer left the mall.

“I’ll give you credit in that you pulled it off,” Vire’s voice popped in his ear. “Your work is done and the two agents are now happily working on tracking their suspects.”

“You handled doing something like this pretty well,” Jordan told Boomer.

“Well,” Boomer laughed, “if you must know, my sister is a bit of a bounty hunter.”