A Meeting On The Edge Of Town

They took their passages out. Secret subterranean extensions in the parking garage led them into the storm drain system, then up the drainpipe, down the fire escape, across the building, and safely conveyed them to their vehicles a few blocks away.

They drove out in all directions, to have the spoof RFID tags on their cars removed and replaced, and then drove back home. The box with the data - the raison d'être of the mission - was taken out of the car, put in a Faraday cage, and driven away...

Darren Vargas pulled up to the kerb, along the baseball field. He spotted, in the distance, the Old Man sitting in the bleachers. As he approached him, he saw the laptop in his lap and the binoculars on his eyes.

His head swivelled away from the barbed-wire fence in right field and toward Vargas. The Old Man held his gaze for a moment, then lowered his binoculars. Vargas thought he caught a note of surprise on the Old Man's face, before he turned his attention to the screen.

That, he thought, is not a good sign.