Chapter 312: Book Shop
Jace savored the taste of his burrito as he walked toward their next objective. Vana and Ulin were already moving into position across the way from the building. They had of course gone and dropped off burritos at the ship before coming here. They had the time, Fenrir had left a note saying this secondary objective was not as time sensitive as anything else they had to do. Which was why it was the last thing they were doing. Besides grabbing food and rations for the road.
He glanced over at the tea shop that was across from the bookstore. He could see Vana and Ulin enjoying some tea and cookies. There were a number of ancient styled establishments on this street. They were all replicas and had more modern takes. Like there was a music store but it had modern music, nothing from ancient Earth.
As Jace walked up to the book shop he tossed his burrito wrapper into a trash can and pushed the door open. It had fake wood shelves with books on them. The books were a bunch of more modern ones that he had never seen before. He walked over to a shelf and gave a wave to the owner who was sitting behind the counter working on something.
Jace walked over and picked up a book. It was titled ’My Alien and Me’. He opened it and frowned at the descriptions he was reading. This book was just a smut between a human and various types of known aliens. Apparently there were quite a few septic fantasies about the Cthulians.
He did not need to actually read the book, he just needed one to make it look like he was doing something as his senses spread out. He could sense through the floor that there was a hidden basement underneath this library. Down in the basement he could sense a bunch of complex machines and equipment down there.
It seems that Fenrir was right about possibly dangerous experiments going on right beneath the republic’s nose. Some of this equipment he could not tell off the bat what they did. But some of it was definitely subspace detection equipment. The kind of thing that definitely should not be on a celestial body. It was known to cause dizziness in people in the surrounding area where the detection equipment was located.
Now that he was done confirming the Director’s suspicions it was time for them to move on. As he moved to put the book back his earpiece buzzed to live. "Hold up, you got company." The warning came from Vana. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw her still sitting at the table. It looks like Ulin stepped away.
The pair that walked in were a normal human and a Siren. "Come on Yuti, we could just take the information and pass it on for a hefty profit. That is all I am saying." The human spoke as they entered the store.
"Attilo shut up for a moment." The Siren, Yuti, told him as she walked straight to the counter. Glancing at Jace as she did, "Hello, we are here to pick up a book on Xenobiology."
"There are a lot of those... you are going to have to be a bit more specific." The human book store owner answered. But the words felt off, almost like they were scripted or practiced. It had too much of a monotone voice to it.
The Siren pulled out a data pad and showed him something on the screen. "This is the particular book I am looking for. Can you direct me?"
The book store owner frowned and then nodded, "I may have something. Give me a moment to look in the back to see what I have." He then slightly bowed his head and walked into the back. Going through a door that he disappeared into. Jace could still sense him going to the deeper part of the shop and opening up a hidden safe.
"Do you think he is going to rabbit?" The human called Attilo asked in a quiet whisper that Jace would not have heard if he was a normal human.
Jace’s eyes widened and he blinked in surprise, forgetting himself for a moment as he heard a voice he was not expecting to hear come from their ears. "He will not try to run. He is an information broker as well as an asset to the Union since he stores the equipment the Xenoarchaeologist we are looking for has been using. They kept it hidden but it looks like they were doing something on the side and he is only one part of it." Salem explained into her comrades’ ears.
Jace bit his lip and glanced out the front window to see Ulin had returned. Jace discretely raised a hand that the human and Siren could not see and then made several hand motions. He watched as Ulin froze at the signals and then spoke to Vana. Both of them stood up and left the tea shop. No doubt doing as he asked.
"Yeah yeah there is no reason to give us a lecture, Wintry." The human called Attilo spoke mockingly in response.
"Sure Attilo, because you never needed an explanation before." Salem responded over their communication channel. Jace had shook off the shock now so he had his HUD Aviators search and find the channel they were using. "Remember that Atlas and I are behind the building and Marcus is taking up position at the tea shop across from the building."
Jace discreetly sent a message using his Aviators. Informing his squad what was going on. At the moment they were just waiting. Nila should have sent the long range message to Fenrir by now. So they just needed to standby and wait for a response.
"Hey, I do not mean to piss on your parade, but you have incoming." Another voice announced, Jace took a moment to recognize it as Marcus Trentwood. "Four armed policing officers. Two people in suits and a fat puddle of a man covered in gold and cybernetics that definitely were not designed for him."