"Isn't this the code for my bee drone?" Agent X asked, lips curled in a confused frown.
Hacker turned around to face him and smiled mischievously, her eyes twinkling. "Yes, it is. I was reading your code today morning, great job once again, by the way, I realised that there are a few improvements I could make."
X raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise, but Hacker mistook the sentiment. "I've tagged all the changes, so you can undo them if you don't like it." She hastened to explain. X shook his head slowly, reading the changes. "No, that won't be necessary. These improvements are actually remarkable. I've wanted to reduce that buzzing sound but haven't been able to find a solution till now" He admitted sheepishly.
Hacker grinned delightedly and added the finishing touches to the code. X took a seat beside her and waited till she was done. Then he asked her about any progress made on the coffee shop mystery.
Hacker shook her head. "I researched about it for a long time, even ran it through our database of enemy secret locations, but nothing came up. It seems like just another coffee shop." She shrugged
X narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "Since this is our only lead as of now, I think we should pursue it. we'll have to check out this place and see for ourselves."
X pulled out the bee drone from his pocket and held it in his open palm. He rolled over to the screen and typed in something and the bee achieved lift-off once again. But this time it was much quieter. He practically beamed at the improvement. "You have no idea for how long I've wanted to correct that stupid noise. I've even stayed up late, trying to fix it. In fact, the loud buzzing almost got me caught quite a few times" He laughed.
Hacker smiled secretly. She had another surprise in mind and was preparing for it but decided to only tell him about it once it was ready. Then she shook her head. "Shall we begin then?"
X nodded and stood up. "So I'll first carry a stakeout of the place and get important details before we proceed with this." He nodded a bye to her and briskly walked out of the place. It barely took his time to get to the coffee shop, his constant walking dramatically increasing his speed. Within no time he was pushing open the doors of a quaint little café tucked in a corner of the street.
He stopped for a moment and surveyed his surroundings. The place was quite cosy on the inside, the kind of place one would expect to see in a movie. Round white tables dotted the warm room, accompanied by matching chairs.
X sat down at a chair and picked up the newspaper laid out at each table. While pretending to read the paper, he carefully surveyed the room for any suspicious behaviour. Nothing stuck out to him, but he was very patient by nature, so he ordered a few things and took his time for the mystery to start unravelling slowly.
After a while, he began to notice a pattern in a few of the customers. Some of them were just ordering a coffee before asking around for the bathroom in an inconspicuous way. To anyone else, it would have seemed normal, but for X's trained eyes, his instincts buzzed. Something was up.
So, he got up and slowly followed an innocent-looking customer to the bathroom. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the guy take a completely different route and head over to the shop"s storage room.
He waited behind a corner and saw him look at the room through the glass on the top of the door, before apparently deciding no one was there with a slight nod of the head.
The guy carefully pushed the door open and entered the room. X slipped in behind him when there was enough distance between them. But as soon as he got in, he realised that the room was completely empty.
"What in the.." X muttered to himself as he quietly scouted the room, but it was crystal clear. The mysterious guy had completely disappeared. He ran his hands over the walls for any hidden passageway, but nothing turned up. So he first went around the room and placed many hidden cameras all over the place.
Then he hid behind a stack of cardboard boxes in anticipation of the next person to enter. When someone came in, a woman, he tensed up and watched with bated breath as she carefully looked around to make sure no one was present in the room.
He allowed himself a slight swell of pride when she completely missed him and began walking towards a corner of the wall. She stood on a particular tile after careful deliberation and just disappeared. Poof. Without a trace.
X rubbed his eyes in shock and stared at the spot. He'd just been there, and then he'd vanished in the blink of an eye. So weird.
He lay there in anticipation, but no one else was coming in any more. With a start, he realised that he had to get his bee here to figure things out more clearly. So with a determined nod, he stepped out of the boxes and hurried towards the HQ.
On reaching there, he gave a hurried greeting to Hacker before plopping down on the chair and hurriedly spilling everything that happened. She listened with rapt attention, and as soon as he was done, she pushed the bee into his hands and pulled him to his feet again.
"Okay, so you're going to go in there again, with the bee this time, and get as many leads as possible to figure this thing out."
X nodded, not even protesting in the slightest as he operated the bee from his screen and obediently followed in its wake. This time Hacker made sure to send him off with proper earpieces so they could keep in touch.
Quite a few people on the way flinched at the sight of the oncoming bee, making them laugh. "You'd have thought a whole group of highly trained operatives wouldn't get scared of something as silly as a bee." X remarked with a languid tone. He heard Hacker give a dramatic "humph" over the earpiece.
X chuckled slightly and turned back to the camera. The bee was almost at the coffee shop. Even Hacker was completely silent in anticipation. This continued for a while longer, after which the coffee shop came into view.
Luckily, it still wasn't very crowded, it being working time for most people, so the bee could roam freely without the fear of being smacked down with a broom by a paranoid person, which of course wouldn't happen anyway with X right behind it.
X settled it down on an overhead wooden raft, where they could survey everyone safely from a distance. When landing, X audibly marvelled at the increased flexibility of the drone. Hacker noted his impressed tone and tapped her own shoulder proudly.
"I would love to see all the changes you made later on." X chuckled. Hacker grinned, took off an imaginary hat and made a sweeping bow to an imagined audience. "Why sir, you are too kind." She proclaimed in a dramatic tone.
Amused, both took their places; one behind the screen, the other on a soft sofa, and settled down for a long while of people watching.
Both of them didn't really expect anyone else to come in, but to their pleasant surprise, another suspicious customer came in through the door.
The bee took immediately off, tailing the guy secretly and adeptly hiding from his furtive glances. Soon they reached the storage room. X hid in the same spot while the bee hovered closely behind him.
Just like the others before him, he surveyed the room closely and carefully pushed it open and entered. X scrambled and made a beeline to the door before it closed shut. He zoomed as fast as possible, but they had underestimated how heavy the door was, and it closed around the bee with a resounding clang.
The visual and audio feed immediately went blank on the screen. X and Hacker were shocked into silence for a while, and then both of them exploded. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Both of them hyperventilated.
X shot up from his hiding spot, pushed his hair out of his face in a nervous habit, and ran to the bee. He immediately crouched next to it and picked it up carefully. Then he opened his phone and ran a few basic checks through it.
Apparently only the visual and audio devices along with a few minor damages to the internal workings and the outer looks.
"Well?" Hacker's anxious voice rang through his ear. "How is it? Is it in working condition? What is the extent of all the damage? How long will it take to be fixed?" She kept asking. X shook his head and interrupted her. Its camera and microphone are fully disabled, there are a few minor glitches we need to straighten out, and the outer bee design needs a complete makeover. Luckily, the more complex designs, including those of flight, are perfectly intact."
"And how long will it take to fix everything?"
"Around a week or so. Maybe even less if you're able to help me."
"Oh. So is the mission shelved till then?"
"No, we have to get as much information till then as possible. Till the bee gets fixed, I'll have to be our main source of information. I'll have to be our eyes and ears from now on." He declared a bit too dramatically. Hacker shook her head. "Yeah, yeah, save the theatrics. it's my department anyway."
X chuckled to himself. "So I'll attach a few cameras in strategic locations through here as well. That way it'll be easier to take intel and keep tags on this place. Something's not right about this situation, and I'm gonna get to the bottom of it."
He carefully fixed micro cameras around little corners in the shop and hurried out of there before anyone could catch him.
The short walk was covered within no time and before he knew it, he was walking into Hacker's room; one hand closed protectively around his precious bee. She spun around and exclaimed when he pulled out the bee and showed it to her. She dashed to him and took the bee in her hands, examining it closely.
"You're right about your assessment. Most of the damage is superficial, but for something as delicate as this, it"ll take time to get fixed."
"Yhup. Until then, I have another reliable means of intel. Come, I'll show you" X revealed and led her to a different screen. He typed into his account and a surveillance feed popped up again, this time of the coffee shop.
Hacker nodded and smiled. "Nice work. You've just made our job much easier."
Just then, they saw movement in the storage room. Both of them rushed to the screen and observed the person carefully. It was a woman, apparently one of ACE"s spies. She entered the room, looked around carefully, but missed the camera in her keen search. "it's a micro camera. Not easy to spot at all. And besides, I've hidden it in a great spot." X whispered.
The agent, apparently satisfied that she was alone, moved through the rows of shelves and vanished from the vantage point of the camera. "Oh goodness. The camera's range doesn't cover wherever these people are going. I'll have to put more of these in all the possible spots."
Hacker nodded and opened a drawer beside her. Inside it was many cameras, though they weren't as small as his. "I know what you're thinking. These cameras aren't micro, but they're my own invention. I figured it's better to have my own cameras, even though they could be smaller than to depend on SHADE for all my spy devices."
X nodded and accepted the cameras from Hacker. At that moment, his stomach grumbled loudly and painfully. He clutched it and groaned. "Is it lunchtime yet?" he asked, glancing at the clock in her room. It was apparently way past lunchtime. that's what reminded him of Sheaf. "Wait, did Sheaf come and give you lunch?"
Hacker shook her head. "Even I forgot to eat lunch." She glanced at the clock. "It's past lunchtime now but he's nowhere to be seen." She voiced his concerns. "It's alright. You can contact him and check if everything"s okay. he's probably gone on that mission to locate the asset." X replied. "Meanwhile, I'll go get lunch for us."
He grabbed lunch from the cafeteria and walked back to the room to find Hacker typing on the keyboard again. He cracked a small smile at her when she turned. "Has it become a prerequisite now for you to be doing something whenever I come in?" He joked.
Hacker chuckled too and tilted the screen. "I've contacted Sheaf to see how he's doing and to give him a progress report, and it turns out we were right. Tasker informed me that he's going to be out of contact for a while."
"That's okay. We can manage without him." X assured her. They quickly ate their lunch in silence. Then it was time for X to plant the remaining cameras around the shop. "I'll plant most of them in the storeroom, but some will have to be in other locations as well," X informed and set off.
Hacker stayed behind and began fixing the little bee drone.
X did a thorough sweep of the area, both checking for any possible cameras and fixing his own cameras in the best locations, like in various corners of the main shop, the washrooms, and the crevices of the storage room. He even managed to sneak a few into the kitchen. Once he was done, he ordered a coffee, so as to not seem suspicious and to help things run in the shop.
Then he walked back to HQ again. When he walked into Hacker's room, this time he found her bent not over her keyboard, but over his bee drone. "I see you've begun fixing it," X muttered softly, careful not to startle her when she was working with his precious bee. Hacker looked up and nodded. "Did you plant all those cameras?" It was X's turn to nod.
Hacker grinned mischievously. "Then it's showtime."
a/n:
in case you guy's haven't made out by now, my favourite member is Jungkook!
Do you have any bias? Comment below!!
And maybe it's time to show the author how much you can vote? :P