Daughter of Zeus ✔

16.3

The subject's habits had been fairly predictable until tonight: the old man's townhome, the coffee shop, the Congressman's mansion, then back to the townhome. Erma was starting to believe Moretz duped her into following a normal.

Can't trust a special. They say anything to save themselves.

For years, Moretz had been trading information to the State to keep his name from the POI list. Every other name checked out, except for Ada Freyr.

Erma thought of Freyr as a person of non-interest, even as her superiors urged her to keep up the surveillance. As proof, they offered Erma a video feed of her arrival to the office weeks ago and the subsequent report she had given about Freyr, the person of non- interest.

"Yes?" she asked after watching the feed. "What's this proof you speak of?"

Her superiors were incredulous. "You don't see it?"

"See what?"

One of the authorities pointed at the screen. "You were like a robot, Erma! You walked into this office in a daze, then told us blatant lies. Now, you were drugged, or brain-washed, or the who-knows-what, but this woman is behind it, and we want to know how. Understand?"

"Okay."

Her boss wasn't happy with her answer. "Watch Freyr at all costs. That's an order."

Whether she believed Freyr was a relevant subject or not, Erma wasn't going to disobey orders. She kept on with her day-to- day surveillance of Freyr, yet she felt it to be wrong, even a waste of time. And boring.

Then Freyr went somewhere new in the middle of the night. The tiny electric car she drove led Erma to a money dispenser.

Activating the night vision glimmer on her glasses, Erma zoomed the lens in closer to see tiny blue sparks ripple across Freyr's hand as she touched the dispenser. Standard procedure was to sync one's interface with the dispenser, but she bypassed that with a touch of her hand. Numerous bills shot out from the machine. Some two minutes later, the dispenser finished, and Freyr pocketed an enormous amount of cash.

She seemed confident in her anonymity. Erma laughed at her subject's stupidity, and her own. Of course her superiors had been right. Should've never questioned the State. Her mirth made her sloppy, and she accidentally honked the horn.

Before Ada could turn around, Erma dove into the passenger seat. On the way down, she bumped her head on the dashboard. She bit her lip to keep from crying out. After a few minutes of hearing nothing but her own shallow breath, she peeked up over the dashboard.

The subject was gone. "Fuck." She rubbed her forehead. "Erma, you idiot."

But she didn't have to follow Ada one second longer. Her subject had provided what she was looking for: confirmation.

~ * ~