Chapter 502 "Informant

“You dare!”

Elise retorted, “And whose fault is it for abusing their employees? You docked my pay so much I can’t afford to eat. If I don’t get a side job, am I supposed to just starve?”

Sean watched this play out with a chuckle.

‘It would be nice if they still bickered like this even after everyone’s identities are out in the open.’

‘No one gets genuinely mad, and it keeps things lively.’

This gave Sean a small goal to work toward.

Soon, a text message arrived from Owl.

“Rehial Street, Number 31 convenience store. Go there now. I’ve already sent the contact your photo. He’ll approach you on sight.”

Sean slipped his phone back into his pocket and said, “Let’s go, ladies.”

“The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go home.”

Elise reminded him, “We haven’t eaten yet.”

Their steaks had just been brought to the table.

“That’s easy.” Sean snapped his fingers, calling over a waiter. “Hi, could you pack all this up to go, please?”

The two women were speechless.

In any other city, eating on the street would be considered quite inelegant, but one needn’t have such concerns in Cadola Royal City.

Because everyone did it.

The pace of life in a big city is fast. You could tell from the morning traffic jams that the people here were caught up in a fierce rat race, eager to spend all their time on work. At night, however, they would let loose and vent to their hearts’ content. Daytime belonged to others—everyone worked for someone else. Only at night was your life truly your own.

In that sense, it was very similar to Mozgo Castle in Krim State.

Besides, walking along eating steak and then deciding to pop into a convenience store to buy water was perfectly logical behavior. It wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention.

It’s all in the details.

Personally, though, Elise preferred Sean’s cruder side. It was very manly.

Of course, she couldn’t say that out loud.

Elvire would kill her.

And she wanted to live a little longer.

Rehial Street was close to the restaurant, which was one of the reasons Sean had opted for takeout.

After a walk of less than ten minutes, they arrived at the convenience store mentioned in Owl’s text.

But to their surprise, it was an unstaffed convenience store with only customers and no cashiers.

Sean had assumed the informant would be the cashier or the owner.

It was just after the dinner rush, so the store was still full of customers. Sean had no idea what the contact looked like, so he could only lead the two women to pose as tourists. They munched on their steak as they browsed the shelves, tossing items into a shopping cart while they waited to be approached by a “stranger.”

They waited for a full half hour.

They waited until all the other customers had left, leaving only the three of them, yet no one had come up to talk to them.

Clearly, Owl’s contact hadn’t been among the customers.

Elvire asked doubtfully, “Are you sure she didn’t send the wrong photo?”

“I doubt it…” Sean said. “Owl has seen me before. Her workshop in Witch’s Bay is practically a command center; there’s no way it’s short on surveillance. Getting a clear, frontal shot of my face would be a piece of cake for her. And even if we’d never met, with her skills, it wouldn’t be hard to get my photo. Owl runs a professional intelligence operation. I don’t think she’d make such a basic error.”

“Why don’t you ask Owl again and have her confirm?” Elise suggested.

“Alright.” Sean pulled out his phone.

Just then, a deep voice sounded unexpectedly from behind them.

“No need to ask. I’m here.”

The three of them were completely baffled.

Startled, Sean reflexively leaped back.

Elvire and Elise instantly moved to shield him, their movements uncannily synchronized, like a pair of guardians.

But they didn’t see anyone.

There were only the three of them in the convenience store.

“Invisibility Technique?”

Sean scanned the area and called out, “Where are you?”

“Over here,” the voice replied.

The trio followed the sound with their eyes, which landed on a vending machine.

It was stocked with drinks and cigarettes at various prices, but the screen at the top displayed several lines of error codes. It looked broken.

“Are you in the vending machine?” Sean asked.

“No,” the voice replied. “I *am* the vending machine.”

As soon as the voice faded, the vending machine let out a sharp BZZZT. The error codes on the screen began to flicker like a bad signal, then coalesced into a man’s face. At the same time, two hands sprouted from the machine’s sides. Under the dumbfounded gazes of the trio, the machine opened a panel, took out a pack of the most expensive Waffle-brand cigarettes, unwrapped it, and held one out to Sean.

“Hello. Care for a Waffle?”

Sean was speechless.