Accidental Villainy 60 (Patreon)

Once I decided to get Emily’s help to secure my bar, I started working on how to expand those plans. 

I spent most of the day shopping for cameras and other detection equipment under various disguises. Not just cameras, but also thermal detection equipment, noise detectors, movement sensors, the whole kit, enough to cover the whole neighborhood. Also, I bought three computers, one to stay in my office and act as a dummy, and the other two for the basement we dug, to create a real command center. 

Carrying all of them while trying to avoid attention took quite a bit of time. I even had to bring Tara out to help a couple of times, leaving the bar temporarily defenseless. 

Altogether, they were far cheaper than a full-fledged security system installed wholesale — barely costing around a hundred thousand — yet not many people tried to replicate my way. 

There was a reason for that. Ordinarily, designing a security system from discrete, unrelated pieces would leave many security gaps, weakening the defenses. Even with Emily’s assistance and my power, the best we could do was to improve its performance to somewhere near a professional system, and not surpass it. 

Ironically, unlike it would have been the case just several days ago, it wasn’t the high cost of such a system that had kept me back. I had the money, but I didn’t have the contacts, so if I purchased such a comprehensive security system from an established provider, it would inevitably be filled with backdoors. 

Worse, the only reason I was safe despite being in the crosshairs of two threatening organizations was their belief that I had a bigger one behind me. I was able to convince them that my lack of apparent security was about information-gathering methods they were unable to identify, together with some hidden measures. 

That illusion would shatter if I purchased commercially available protections. 

That was the other reason I wanted to use a mishmash of different methods across the neighborhood. Even if the Syndicate started to swipe the area openly — which they were reluctant to keep their involvement as secret as possible — they would likely assume those came from different organizations trying to keep an eye on the area. 

At least, assuming they bought it. 

Once the preparations were complete, I sent a message to Emily, asking for a meeting. She replied positively … along with a beautiful picture of her that she didn’t have much in terms of dressing. That was beautiful, yet ordinary. 

Yet, what put a smile on my face was the next one, that it was once again from the locker room of the heroines, and she had one of the minor heroines in the background, still wearing her mask, but otherwise dressed to her underwear. 

Emily was carrying a tray of drinks. I guessed that she had been ordered to bring those, and probably quite rudely as well, considering the way Emily chose to ‘punish’ the girl. Risky, but I couldn’t complain about the view. 

Also, I was happy to see Emily being petty. She was a cute girl, and a nice one as well. She had also been a good person, but she wasn’t good the way Daria was, willing to risk her life and endure intense discomfort. 

She was good in a more ordinary way. She lived a middle-class, ordinary life, never pushing her limits. Therefore, her goodness was a position of passivity and ignorance. 

And, considering she was willing to punish her superiors in a way that violated their privacy and risked their identity, she wasn’t willing to stand that test. 

It made her a good potential recruit, but one that needed to be coddled and protected rather than one that could be trusted to meet challenges on her own. If it wasn’t for two details, I wouldn’t have even dared to think of pulling her deeper into my fledgling operation. 

The first one was her power. Since her power was communicating with technology, even if I recruited her fully, she didn’t need to leave the base, avoiding the stressful situations that might have challenged her fledgling and fragile conviction. 

The other was my power. Emily was not someone that was particularly hard to read even without my power. And, once my observation was factored in, I was reasonably confident that I wouldn’t miss any change on her side. Of course, it was not an absolute assurance…

However, my situation was not strong enough to allow me to search for the luxury of certainties. 

I continued to text Emily even as I went to our meeting location, receiving several more photos in exchange. 

When I arrived at the cafe that we arranged to meet — one that I picked because of a combination of expensive menu, limited popularity at this late hour, and lack of security cameras — I picked a seat near the other end of the cafe, and sat down with my back behind the door. 

It would have been dangerous, but the cafe had a few distorted mirrors that I could see via my power. That way, not only did I observe the visitors, but also I could conceal that fact. 

A waitress immediately. A cute brunette with nice curves and a friendly smile, but with my power, I caught many other details. Like the fact that she was a student, learning to play violin, and having trouble making a living. 

Also, not exactly well-liked in her work, considering she was assigned to the worst shift as a sole waitress. 

“May I get you something, sir?” she asked. 

“Just water for now,” I said, and her smile trembled, probably assuming that I was going to be a stingy customer. Combined with the understated way I dressed to avoid the attention of the Syndicate, I looked like a stingy tipper. 

That would not do. The last thing I needed was for her to annoy me during my talk with Emily, which, depending on the circumstances, might require the cute waitress to ignore some public decency laws. I pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and put it on the table. “I have a date coming…” I said. 

“And, if I give excellent service, you might give me that as a tip,” she completed, but not looking particularly interested. Probably because people used it as bait and switch. 

“No,” I said, and put two more bills. “This is your advance. Keep your eye on our table subtly, but say nothing, and you’ll receive double the tip,” I said, happy to throw around my cash. 

I was surprised just how far a few hundred dollars and some confidence had gone when combined with a confident demeanor. “R-really?” she asked. I nodded. Her doubt was understandable, as I had just given her enough to afford a nice dinner. She took the bills, and left with a blush. 

How entertaining. 

“Here’s your water,” she said as she placed a glass of water on the table, followed by a small tray of snacks. “And, those are on the house.” 

“Thanks, sweetie,” I said, smiling just enough to make her blush. When she left, she moved so that she could watch the table from a distance, though she mostly watched me with a blush, unaware that distorted mirrors allowed me to watch her. 

By coincidence, she had been called from inside when Emily arrived. I noticed Emily immediately, but I acted unaware. Instead, I continued texting her, a gentle smile on my face, like texting her was the highlight of my day. Well, not exactly a lie, though it was less about her conversational skills and more about the beautiful photos she compulsively shared to fulfill her exhibitionist kink. 

She approached, and soon, the perfume I had bought for her during our last trip reached my nose. Yet, I kept looking at my phone, acting unaware of her approach. I didn’t want her to realize I was hyper-aware of my surroundings. The more I could keep hiding my approach, the better. 

However, she stood behind me with a mischievous smile rather than revealing herself. Curious, I texted her again, but she had enough presence of mind to keep her phone silenced. I wondered what she was planning. 

While she waited, I took in the way she dressed. She wore a pencil skirt and a blouse, complete with stockings, but that I knew from her earlier photos. Still, without posing for a picture, they were relatively tame … until she started playing with them. A quick pull ensured that the pencil skirt didn’t cover her knees but barely covered a third of her thighs, revealing the stockings she wore underneath properly, including where they ended. 

Even before she started unbuttoning her crisp white blouse, I had noticed that she had gotten rid of the bra that she had been wearing during work, but only after she started unbuttoning her blouse, it reached a point that I might appreciate. 

At first, it was merely deep enough to tease. Sexy, but not enough to be inappropriate in the office. Yet, she continued unbuttoning it, turning her cleavage into a deep valley that was more like a stripper costume than a secretary. 

Yet, that was not the extent of her surprise. She looked around worriedly, making sure there was no one around before she pulled her blouse to the side, and took a picture that revealed her amazing breasts along with me. 

Her exhibitionist tendencies were getting more exaggerated every second … not that I was complaining. 

When I received the photo, I made sure to widen my gaze appropriately before I turned, catching her seductive smile. 

“W-welcome,” I faked a stammer, doing my best to look captivated. Luckily, with the view in front of me, it wasn’t particularly difficult.