Skyscrapers: A Tale of Two Architechts

A day of remembering

Karl stepped out of the shower and walked into his room and slipped on some sweat pants and a t shirt. He walked into the kitchen. 

Aleks and Ola were there. They were making something that smelled delicious to him. The spices they were using were undoubtedly Indian. Aleks must have brought them. 

"How did you-" Karl started.

"For an asshole who left you he did a good job." Ola shot him a sad smile.

"He called you in sick for work already, and he left us an instructions letter." Aleks said from the stove.

"Russians," Karl said, "They can't ever leave me alone."

"What do you mean?" Said Ola.

"Remember Germany? They wouldn't stop trying to get the plans for the skyscraper. Come to think of it the lead guy's name was Vladimir."

"You can't have been the same one, right?" She said with some skepticism.

"No, it wasn't."

"Did you ever actually meet that guy?" Called Aleks from the stove.

Karl thought it over for a second. He never did meet that guy. He tried, of course. He remembered the voice on the phone. 

"Shit. You're totally right. I think my boyfriend was a Russian spy."

Ola laughed. They looked at her. "What you think this is legit?"

"Well..."

"Only one way to find out." Karl took out his phone and scrolled through until he found a few numbers from a couple months ago. They all were unknown callers. He tried a few. 

"Hello this is Oxo customer service how can I help you?"

"Hi, this the Moonlight Diner, if you're calling about reservations we don't take any."

"Hola-"

"Здравствуйте, это секретный архитектура ..."

This was just a recorded message, and even though it was in Russian, Karl could tell whose voice it was.

He turned to them and nodded.

"He probably went undercover to try to steal the skyscraper plans. Good news is he probably left because he actually loves you." Aleks consoled Karl.

"Hey, if he tried to do this to you, he probably has people tailing you."

"So the car probably has a tracker on it. So do you."

"On me?"

"It would have to be something you always had with you."

Karl looked at his shoulder bag. He got up and walked over to it. He shook out everything in it onto the floor. He turned it inside out and looked for any seems. All looked fine. He ran his hands over everything until he found it. It was in the corner so he wouldn't notice the hard small device. He took a pair of scissors and cut along the seem. he took it out.

"Well, here we have it."

"Hey, if we take it to a remote place they'll have to follow. Then we can place our own on their cars."

"Good plan. Does anyone have a tracking device?"

Aleks called from the stove again: "Yeah I've got a few."

"Why?" Karl and Ola both looked at them.

"You know my job is a little strange." They replied.

"Wait. If this person or persons is tailing you, then they would have to be dressed o that they wouldn't stand out, right?" Ola said.

"Yeah..."

"So what if we got them to stand out." Ola said with a smile.

"What do you have in mind?"

Ola explained her plan to them.