by Pete Molina
***
Terra saw Agent Dawson sitting at one of the bistro tables near the back of the automated café. There were several ordering booths that would make anything on the menu in less than a minute. No one would want to spend their time working in a place with such high volume, no personal contact. And no one needed money enough to have to take that kind of work. The booths worked well for their purpose and freed people to do other less menial things.
She walked up to Agent Dawson and he stood up. “It’s good to see you again, Ms. Gates. Can I get you something?”
“Sure, I’ll have a Chai latte,” Terra said, sitting down.
Dawson walked over to one of the dispensing booths and put in the order. Terra looked around. The café was about half full. There were several of them around the perimeter of the large terminal. After a moment Dawson returned with her Chai and whatever it was he had ordered. He handed the drink to her and she thanked him.
“No problem. I trust everything has been going all right for you this past week. Are you getting used to your new body and the circumstances that brought you here?” he asked, taking a sip of his drink.
“As used to it as one can get in a week, I suppose,” she replied. She clasped the warm drink in her hand. She was a bit cold. She should have remembered to bring a coat, but she hadn’t been thinking about it.
“Yes, I can understand that. I wanted to let you know that besides the wire you’ll be wearing, we’ll have real agents posted very near by to keep an eye out,” he said, getting to business. “If there is any trouble, just slip the phrase ‘lost at sea’ into any conversation, and we’ll come after you. The bug also has a tracking device so we’ll be able to keep tabs on you if you should be forced to leave the apartment,” Dawson explained.
“Is all this really necessary? They can’t be that bad can they? I met Jeff Hughes not that long ago and he seemed like a nice man to me.”
“No, we don’t expect you to be in any real danger, but remember Jeff is Sam 6.7’s crèche mate and a Newbie. Who knows how deep this thing goes? Whomever Sam is working with were willing to kill helpless non-corporeal people. We’re not sure that they wouldn’t resort to violence. We just want to be prepared, that’s all,” Dawson assured her.
“Well, I do feel better knowing you will have people nearby,” Terra lied. It was just going to make her life more difficult.
Dawson just nodded. He reached his hand in to the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small plastic bag. It looked empty.
“Is that the bug?” Terra asked squinting at the bag to try and see whatever was supposed to be in there.
“Yes, don’t bother trying to see it; it’s about the size of a grain of sand. I’m going to have it implant itself in your blouse. It should give us a good view, and it will even camouflage itself to look the same color of your shirt,” Dawson said, opening the bag. “I’m interfacing with the bug through my companion. I’m going to tell it to implant itself.”
Nothing appeared to happen, Terra waited patiently for a few seconds then arched her eyebrows.
Dawson stopped concentrating and looked back at her. “It’s done. I’m running a system check now. Good, I’m receiving a good picture and good audio. It’ll stay on your shirt until we retrieve it later after the meeting.”
“Well, that was a little anticlimactic,” Terra commented.
“Yeah, well that’s modern technology for you, too small to see and kind of boring. It only gets interesting when you have millions of these little guys. Kind of like utility fog,” Dawson agreed, taking another sip of his drink. “You should probably go soon. There’s an express leaving for Denver in about ten minutes. I’ll have someone following you and we already have our surveillance team watching the apartment. You’ll have someone nearby the whole time.”
Terra nodded and stood up. She realized that she hadn’t even had any of her drink. She took a sip. It was already getting cold but it was still good.
“Well, I guess I’m ready,” she said, taking a deep breath.
“Don’t worry, and remember the code phrase ‘lost at sea’. Just say that and we’ll be inside as fast as possible,” Dawson reminded her.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that. I’m really ready to head back to Mars.”
“I can’t say I blame you, Ms. Gates. Good luck.” Dawson stood and extended his hand his hand. Terra didn’t hesitate to take it; no need to break character.
“We’ll want to talk to you after the meeting, or tomorrow. Just a debrief to get any information that the recording might have missed, and your impressions of everything.”
Terra just nodded. She sincerely hoped that tomorrow she’d be on her way to Mars. “Of course, that will be fine. Well I’m ready, thanks for all your support, Agent Dawson.”
“You’re most welcome,” Dawson said. “And be careful.”
“I will,” Terra replied, turning to leave. Dawson watched her go and then sat back down