Shoot Your Shot

Chapter 11

"So, when you go over there next, you can leave me at home, right?" Pentious rolled his eyes at the rat and ignored the question. "Because, don't get me wrong, Sir, he's pretty and all, but I get the feeling that he's not into that." Stopping, he spun around to face the rat and glared at him. "Me watching, I mean. Now that he knows..."

"Isn't it obvious that you'll be left at home. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I've made sure to place you were you couldn't see anything. Even yesterday I threw you behind the chair so you had no sight line."

"I don't need a sight line to hear him screaming your name, Thomas." Growling at him, Pentious twisted back around and continued moving about the lab, shifting large pieces of metal and equipment around to complete the first prototype of the ship. He'd been working on it for months, just the small prototype, and the only thing holding him back had been funding. The materials definitely weren't cheap, so it had been a grind just to get this far. However, through the jobs he'd done for Arackniss and the Family, he was decently funded for the remainder of the project until the final construction. But that monster would have to wait a few years, at least, since it would not only be expensive, but it would take more than just two people to construct it. He had plans for how it would be constructed, but that was another project altogether. "By the way, Blue Grave Garden's opens in about an hour." He glanced back at the rat and nodded. They needed to get information out of them, but that would be easier said than done. It wasn't like they could just waltz into the place and demand to see their records.

Of course, they'd tried simply hacking the system to get the information, but they'd found it to be a system requiring a physical key card to access the logs. Clearly something a manager would have, and given the place itself, he wasn't surprised. Upon investigation into the establishment, they found out it's a sort of popular mingling spot. It had food ranging from breakfast to a fully stocked bar, a smoking section, and it was best known for being quiet and discrete. Rumors that it was a favored spot of many popular Overlords had raised a few of Pentious' red flags. They would wait until the place opened, and then hack into the logs once the manager scanned his card for something. Writing a code to duplicate the card was easy, now they just needed it scanned into the system.

He occupied his time for the next hour getting ready and setting up the system to catch the scan and immediately jump into the records to pull the night of the 28th. The Gardens, given their expensive establishment and decor had a sensor on the door that registered every time someone opened it for people entering and leaving. Pentious was hoping that their system had them separated so that he didn't have to discern it himself. The hour came and went, and the manager used their card to sign in, making their task easy and efficient. With no new scans coming through the door, he was able to download the information easily and slip out of the system before they caught on. From there, he put in an algorithm that counted the number of reservations against the numbers of those who showed up, and those who had been logged as part of the "Ahctog" party. Altogether they got a hit on two hundred people coming and going over the course of a few hours. The event itself had only been scheduled for two, so those were the only two the program looked for before checking for those who might have come early and those who might have come late. Once the program had tallied everything, he let it calculate everything while he focused on other things. "There's no way we're going to be able to find who planned this. Not if they're smart, anyways." Looking back at the rat, he sighed.

"You are so negative, Gregory." Turning in the chair he had seated in front of the computer, he faced the man and took the cup of tea he was handed. "Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone, so all we have to do is find the mistake. It's not like this is the first false organization lead we've tracked back." The other man nodded slowly but he still didn't seem convinced. "What has you feeling anxious the most?" His assistant thought about everything and shook his head.