I sat on a bench in Central Park, under the branches of a large oak.   I tossed peanuts to the squirrels, now and then eating one myself.  The life of a temporal policeman didn't have many relaxing moments, so I wanted to take advantage of this one.

Before too long, however, I caught sight of Shinobi approaching.  She moved with a sense of grace and danger, even dressed in casual clothing.  I moved sideways on the bench and she sat down beside me.

"Did you miss me, Jack?" she asked. "Nice move back at Shreck's office, by the way. Remind me to put you in a situation where you have to take out fifteen armed guards and then escape through the air vent."

"I'll be sure to mention it next time."  I tossed the last peanut to a waiting squirrel, then shifted to look at Shinobi.  "You know, while I was downloading Schreck's data, I noticed that someone else had already gotten to it.   I figure it had to be you.  How much is it worth to let me know who got the files?"

Shinobi snickered lightly.

"What files?  And even if I had them, what makes you think I'd tell you who I'm going to give them to?"

I nodded, suppressing a grin.  So she hadn't yet passed the files on to anyone else.  That might mean she took the files on speculation, without being hired.  That would make it easier to get them from her, eventually.  But right now she seemed to be enjoying teasing me entirely too much, so I knew I wouldn't get anywhere on that subject today.

"So why'd you ask me here, Jack?"

"I have a client who wants to know where Hex gets her technology."  I didn't mention that there was no client, and I really just wanted to know if Hex was being supplied futuristic technology from some uptime source.   "I figure you're a better bet for finding out than me."

Shinobi's eyes lit up.

"Now that would be a challenge."  She took a long, leisurely look at me.  "And you're right, you're just the type to set off Hex and her group."  She nodded.  "I'd love to take your job, Jack, but first I need to get a better feel for you.  After all, our first encounter was a bit less than friendly."

I frowned.  "What do you mean, get a better feel for me?"

"You do a job for me, first.  I've been hired to keep tabs on a certain individual, and would like you to help me.  If everything works out, I'll take your job."

I didn't like the sounds of this, but according to everything I'd been able to learn about Shinobi, it fit her character.  Reluctantly, I agreed.

I found myself in Dallas, driving a minivan with Shinobi in the passenger's seat.  Shinobi consulted a handheld computer and directed me to a cozy little restaurant, where we waited.  A beat cop was doing his rounds close by, ticketing cars with expired parking meters.

"So who are we looking for?"

"Jacob Garner."

I hid a start of surprise.  Garner was a novelist and pop psychologist popular in this time period, and was one of two twins.  His brother had been a telecommunications analyst and amateur physicist who recently died.  I made a note to do some more research at my first opportunity.

"How did you know he was here?"

"My employers have taps on his credit cards.  Not just that, but they have surveillence at the public and university libraries, red-flagging queries on certain subjects that Jacob is interested in."

"Really?"  An organization that could do that type of monitoring in this day and age would be pretty powerful.  "What subjects?"

Shinobi smiled, and pointed to the restaurant's entrance.  Jacob Garner, looking just like the picture on his book jackets, walked out.  He soon drove off in a Jaguar.

"Now, let's see how good you are," Shinobi said, gesturing toward the receding car.

I pulled out into traffic quite a ways behind the Jag, and tried my best to keep Garner from seeing us.  He clearly felt he was in danger of being followed, because he went through a series of maneuvers designed to catch any tail.   Unfortunately for Garner, my trainers had had a couple centuries more refinement of vehicular trailing techniques.  Staying with him was no problem.

Complicating the issue was the fact that a Honda was also following Garner.  I checked the license plate, E 0013, and asked my recall bracelet for details.

License plates beginning wtih E are issued by the Energy Research and Development Administration, an arm of the United States government.

"Know anything about the Honda that's following Garner?" I asked.  Shinobi smiled one of those sly smiles of hers.

"They're with me, to draw attention away from us."

After a few miles of driving, we pulled along the curb of the road as Garner parked in front of a bookstore.  Maybe he wanted to check out how his books were selling here.  As he browsed the shelves inside, the Honda parked a few cars over from his Jag.  The driver stepped out.  He wore a black suit and black sunglasses.  Go figure.  Garner stayed in the bookstore for about thirty minutes, all the while the Man in Black occupied a phonebooth close by.

Garner walked across the street, heading to our minivan, and then stepped into a nearby ice cream parlor.  As he headed back to his car with a cone piled high with ice cream, he stumbled and dropped half the cone on the trunk of the Honda.  He cursed, but made do with what was left of the ice cream.  Shinobi laughed.

"He just dropped a transponder onto the Honda."

I wondered where a psychologist gained the skills to identify tails and work with surveillance equipment.

Garner continued from the ice cream store.  He circled a particular condo in University Park several times.  I noted the address and mentally queried my recall bracelet.

Specified condominium is owned by Jonas Ranger.

The name didn't ring any bells, but my guess was that Ranger was connected with Garner somehow.  I again looked towards my bracelet for possible answers.

Jonas Ranger is an obvious anagram for Jason Garner, the recently deceased brother of Jacob Garner.

Cute.  Garner was turning out to be a real piece of work, but I liked his style.  I definitely wanted to research him and his brother some more later on.

"Does he do this often?" I asked as I followed Garner away from his condo.

"For the last few days, he's been in the same pattern."

I glanced at Shinobi.  Privately, I thought Garner was setting up a pattern for some purposes of his own.  But Shinobi was professional enough to think of that on her own.  In fact, this entire trip wasn't something that required someone of her caliber or mine.

Garner finally ended up in a different car, in the lot of a small hotel in Richardson. We watched as he entered the inn.

"Well, that's that," Shinobi said.  I shook my head.

"Why bother with using me on something like this?  Or yourself, for that matter.  Any two-bit thug off the street could have done the same."

"Thugs," Shinobi said, "are so inelegant.  Besides, I needed to know if I would be working for a professional, or a dilettante.  Our encounter at Schreck's might have been a fluke."

"So are you happy, now?"

"Overjoyed."  Something in Shinobi's silken voice resonated with a part of me I hadn't felt for quite a while.  "So, Jack," she said, glancing at the hotel and smiling, "are you tired?"

"That depends," I said, looking at her, "do these hotel rooms come with air vents?"

Shinobi's laughter rang in my ears all the way up to the hotel room.
 

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