ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 158 The Stakeout (Patreon)

Chapter 158

The Stakeout

Black Friday (1 A.M.)

It was a date, at least that is what Gina went with, and most importantly Alexa agreed. At least Alexa had encouraged that thinking when she first proposed the idea of going out to scout out the area where her orb thingy had been taken. The one Gina mentally called tequila, you know, because it makes her clothes fall off.

From there it was a bit of heart racing action, as Alexa, the by the books pragmatist that she is broke the law. Well not the law perse, as there were no real laws governing the use and regulation of entering and exiting dungeons, other than the overall federal statues that stated all states and cities oversaw policing and protecting the safety of the citizens of their region from all dungeons that appear. This was the reason most had a tax of one shard per Tier rating of the dungeon. This was generally done as a way to reward higher ranked supers in order to get them to stick around and help them meet their level requirements.

With Alexa and her not one, but two new classes, she had a lot of room to grow. Worse, she needed practically every growth crystal she could get, especially as she was well under her threshold for her level in terms of her physical attributes. This was becoming more and more apparent as time went on, her physicality while high for someone of her age, especially as she had to be one of the few people to fully Awaken their class early was now in the big leagues, as they say, and she was finding that she was lacking. This Gina figured was why their action tonight was just a scouting operation. At first Gina had been hesitant to go out on a mission with Alexa, for fear that she would only get in Alexa’s way. Fortunately, Gina’s fears were unfounded, and it also appeared that Alexa was taking it slow, at least for the moment.

Gina realized that there were a lot of factors that likely played into the exact reason that Alexa would opt to go slow for today. First and foremost, today was the day of her father’s viewing, which Gina was both excited and a bit anxious to hear that she was invited to, particularly as it was only meant for family. To Gina, this meant a lot, as it all but proved that things were going in the right direction with Alexa, that she wanted her to be there with her. What did the viewing have to do with the pair going for a stakeout, versus a full-scale invasion of the enemy compound? Well simple, neither could afford to be too injured to not make the viewing, or to be late in any way. Thus, Alexa had used Gina as cover.

Twitch.

Gina found her body twitching from having to sit still and forced her racing heart and mind to calm down. So many emotions were roaring through her, as she broke the law. Or at least she entered a dungeon without paying the entry fee. Alexa had used her Illusion magic to make it, so the guards and all recording equipment didn’t record their passing. This was the equivalent of jumping the turnstiles to enter the metro, by all means a minor crime, but it still got her heart racing. Mentally she prepared to get more crystals to pay back both her and Alexa’s entry, but for now she felt a thrill of exhilaration that made tonight even more memorable. Added to the thrill of not paying for entry into a dungeon, the two once again hid their actions by exiting from another dungeon that was apparently near downtown Chicago. Of course, Gina had no clue where they were, and she was fairly certain that Alexa didn’t know either, rather Alexa had just been following the tracking runes she placed on the box, which led them here. Where here was she couldn’t quite tell, it was clearly in the section of the city that was upper middle class, and one that seemed to cater to businesses that worked all day every day. Thus, why they were at the one coffee shop that was open even at 1 AM, the morning after Thanksgiving. A coffee shop that was clearly frequented by many of the members and executives that worked at the gated compound across the street.

Though the term gated was a bit of a misnomer, there was a clear gate that blocked the road, and guards did regular searches of the compound, but there was no fence around the grounds themselves. At least that is what people wanted to believe, Gina’s heightened senses were telling her that something was there stopping people and animals alike from just entering the compound. Maybe some form of mental suggestion, as there were a few runes around that compound that were up that Gina had no clue about their meaning, but she could infer a few things. First, the runes were powerful as they seemed to work on a suggestive level, even now Gina had a hard time focusing her attention on the compound as her eyes would occasionally gloss over and try to ignore the compound entirely. Secondly, the only reason she was able to focus on the facility once again was the fact that Alexa would occasionally stare at it so intently. Also, Alexa would do something, she would wave her hand and use some form of energy disruption that would make it so Gina could think clearly about the place. During those times, her mind and class informed her that her senses were in fact being tampered with.

Gina of course wanted to talk about this, well about everything, but a quick glance at Alexa and a shake of her head was often enough to get her racing mind to calm down.

Clatter.

The sound of a coffee cup and saucer being placed down rang out, distracting Gina and making her realize that somehow, she had drunk a second cup of coffee, where the barista that had been particularly attentive to them had refilled her cup with a smile on his face.

He smiled at Gina, but then glanced over to look at Alexa. Alexa had taken the moment to lock gazes with the teenager who Gina guessed was only a year or two older than she was, and jumped with shock as her full attention was on him. Not only that, but she was smiling.

“Gah!”

The boy cried out, as he jumped and fumbled with the metal percolator poured some coffee out. Fortunately, Gina’s heightened senses and analytical acumen both warned her about the spill and allowed her to move out of the way.

Splash.

Only after an awkward moment did the kid move. “Oh my gosh. I am so sorry you two.” He said, looking back and forth between Alexa and back to Gina.

Gina couldn’t help but notice how most of the waiter’s attention was clearly on Alexa, who was much further away, and nowhere near the splash zone. At first Gina wanted to be angry, but then she looked at Alexa and couldn’t help but sympathize with the boy, as Gina knew exactly how he felt.

The aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafted up on the crip night air, momentarily filling the moment with enough senses to make it a truly memorable moment for Gina. Realizing this, she wanted to encapsulate this moment in her mind, here she was on a date, well technically a stakeout, but she considered it one nonetheless. She was here with Alexa, in downtown Chicago, or maybe at one of the upper end suburbs, it was honestly hard for Gina to differentiate the areas. And now she had the sweet scent of coffee, caramel, and a faint trace of vanilla to firmly cement this memory. The moment Alexa frightened a waiter by locking gazes with the poor boy.

Gina almost wanted to laugh, but instead picked up her coffee that was still steaming in the night air, and rather than drink, she just sat there holding the cup beneath her nose and breathed in deeply, enjoying the smell and hoping that the next time she smelled coffee like this, she would remember this moment.

Chatter.

Only after a moment of breathing in the scent and forever cementing the look of Alexa sitting in front of a no name coffee shop that was somehow open at 1 AM on Black Friday did Gina realize that Alexa was still in her role, of information gatherer.

“Do you get a lot of business out here?” Alexa asked.

“Normally yes. We are almost always busy. I have to say today was a nice reprieve from our normal. Slightly slower pace, while also making holiday pay.” The waiter said, a slight smile coming to his face as he brushed some of his shaggy hair behind his ear. Gina did a quick inventory and found that the rag he had pulled from his apron was once again shoved back into his apron, despite it still being at least partially wet. Gina noted that this was likely a sign that the boy was a klutz and therefore prone to having to clean up messes. That or the midnight crew were often messy, requiring him to go around with a rag in his hand to clean up even outdoors.

The boy trembled slightly, as the cold Chicago wind seemed to cut through his thin jacket he had also been wearing. The more Gina watched the waiter, the more she was able to gleam from his personality. He seemed to be a friendly loner if Gina had to put him into a category. One of the people that would like to make friends, or at least have a friendly conversation, but then would also like to be left alone. In fact, had it not been for Alexa, Gina figured that the boy would have been completely quiet. This of course made a slight pang of jealousy form within Gina as this boy was clearly getting in between her and her Alexa.

It was at this point that she also realized she had been referring to the waiter as a boy, despite his clearly being older than her and Alexa both, though his slumping shoulders and bad posture seemed to make him appear younger than he actually was. By contrast Alexa sat in nearly perfect form, back straight and eyes focused and intent.

Jealousy.

Gina realized it was petty and shallow to be jealous of Alexa giving attention to someone else, but she couldn’t help it, at least not at this moment. For right now Alexa was staring directly into the clueless boy’s eyes and giving him her full undivided attention.

“So what brings you two here?” The waiter, Sam, by his name placard asked.

“We are new to the area and looking for jobs. Do you know anything about that company?” Alexa said, and asked, pointing to the major compound across the street. Directly pulling attention to the large facility. At first Gina felt shocked that Alexa would ask such a brazen question, one that practically declared, ‘we are watching this place.’ Then thinking about it for a second Gina’s mind raced and concluded that it would likely be more mysterious if they were at this coffee shop and didn’t ask about the major building with well-kept lawns.

“Oh, that’s the Browning Corporation Headquarters. They do shipping, acquisitions, and something with computers.” The waiter said.

Gina paused, hearing all of this, but then realized that the boy had clearly been working at this shop for a while and would have likely had many conversations with the people who came to the shop. Suddenly, Alexa’s overly familiar cadence of speech with the waiter made sense, and a slight pang of jealousy she felt was eroded away. Not that she wanted to admit that she was jealous, but she was. Realizing this was not the way she wanted to be, she let out a long breath and forced herself to relax.

Alexa, always aware of her surroundings, must have seen Gina’s reaction to her and chosen that moment to turn away from the waiter to Gina.

“Did you hear that Jane?” Alexa asked.

The words came as a sucker punch to Gina, who momentarily felt off by the question. Then realizing they were on a stakeout and likely wanted to use aliases followed suit. “Yeah?” Gina asked, realizing that se was now going by Jane for the remainder of this conversation, and likely any future interactions with Sam the waiter.

“They have IT jobs, so hopefully we can get in.” Alexa said, then flicked her eyes up to Sam.

“Oh, oh, right.” Gina said, realizing that her cover now dealt with being Jane, an IT consultant who was looking for a job in Chicago.

“Well good luck.” Sam said.

“What do you mean?” Alexa asked, pressing Sam for more information.

“The Browning Corporation doesn’t hire just anyone. In fact, I haven’t heard of them hiring anyone new at all.” Sam admitted.

“How many people would you say they have?” Gina asked, her mind racing to help fill in this topic.

Sam, hearing Gina ask a question deflated slightly, it was clear from that micro expression of annoyance that he did not like talking to Gina as much as he did Alexa. But he was cordial enough to answer, despite being clearly put off by the vibes that Gina was giving off. Seeing his reaction Gina wanted to instinctively see if she smelled like sweat or had something else that was blatantly wrong with her that would elicit such an act.

For a moment Sam looked like he wasn’t going to answer, then Alexa pushed from an angle Gina hadn’t even considered. “Sorry if that seems like an odd question. We are really desperate to find work, so we need to know if applying to the Browning Corporation would be worth our time.”

Hearing that Sam’s ears perked up, as he realized that if he wanted to see them again, well let’s be honest he only wanted to see Alexa again, but he was now fully invested in providing as much information to her as possible.

“I’d say they have a few hundred people at most that work for them. Most are the guards, Steve and Emily are regulars here, well regulars for the night shift. The day shift has Paula and Bobby as regulars, but they are all former military people.” Sam said, then he began to think.

Pat pat.

Alexa patted at an open chair that was between her and Gina. Sam the waiter paused, looked at the chair, then quickly glanced over his shoulder to his manager. Apparently realizing that things were okay, he sat down and decided to have an in-depth conversation with Alexa and Gina the only two remaining patrons at this time. There were two people inside, an old person who sat in a corner reading a paper, and another who looked like they had a little too much to drink and were clearly trying to sober up before going out on the roads. This left Alexa and Gina as the only two people Sam’s age, and likely the only two people that he felt comfortable enough to talk to.

“Oh wow. So, you are like super observant.” Alexa said, her words coming out in a way that almost caused Gina to do a double take, only after hearing the words did Gina realize that this was just a persona that she had taken up for this conversation.

For his part, Sam just blushed brightly, and instantly fell under Alexa’s charm. If it wasn’t for the fact that Gina could still see the difference between her real smile and the fake one, she now wore, Gina would have been jealous. As it was, Gina felt better about this whole operation the more she watched Alexa, particularly with the way she had Sam feeding her information that could be useful later on.

“Yeah, kind of, I guess.” Sam said, his smile genuine, as he was clearly interested. Alexa’s on the other hand was a forced smile that could look genuine if you had never seen her actually smile. It was clear that Alexa had practiced smiling in a mirror and had likely been forced to practice just such operations. Gina made it a note to ask who taught her to do this, odds were that it was her father, as he seemed to be the more pragmatic one who would want her to use all the tools, she had available to her. While her mother seemed to be more by the book and therefore despise deception. Gina thought that this would be beyond Alexa, knowing that she normally hated lying, but it seemed for stakeouts and other scenarios like this she was a bit more lenient with her morals, again this implied that the father figure who instilled morality also showed signs for these deceptions.

It was interesting seeing Alexa work this tradecraft, if Gina didn’t know any better, she would assume that Alexa had gotten some type of interrogation-based skill. At the very least she now knew that Alexa was capable of getting information from an unsuspecting target, or in this case a clueless boy who did not know what he had walked into.

By the end of the night, they had found out that the Browning Corporation had a bit over one hundred employees who worked at the main building, there was a twenty-four-hour IT support staff, but they only had breaks at 2 AM. In fact, Sam had almost been willing to introduce the two to the staff workers who he swore would come in even being the day after Thanksgiving. Alexa of course used that as a time to leave, but not before promising to try to stop by again later on in the week.

That is when Alexa left, but only after giving the fake name of “Yolandara.”

Fortunately, that happened at the end, and the boy didn’t seem to know the name or its relevance.

As they began walking away, Alexa made the first move, and reached out to grab Gina’s hand. The act was so sudden and abrupt that Gina was momentarily lost for words, but then just smiled as she felt much lighter as they made their circuitous way towards the dungeon. Only once they had made a few random twists and turns did Alexa use her Illusion magic to hide their movement.

Then finally, in a wordless way that only Alexa could somehow pull off, the two entered the one dungeon near southside Chicago, where they made their way past the first checkpoint and were both pulled as one unit to Bottomless Gorge, their safe haven in the storm of the uncertainty that was yet to come.

As soon as they were there, Alexa turned, her normally stoic face dropping as she let a modicum of emotion fill her features.

“I’m sorry.” Alexa began.

“I’m not.” Gina said, then moving on instinct more than anything she lunged forward and hugged Alexa, holding her tightly. “This was a great night.”

There was more that Gina wanted to say, that she could say, but in the end, she let those words settle before they would think about what would come next. And there was still so much left to do.