Machine Sense by Dominic Schunker

Author:Dominic Schunker [Schunker, Dominic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781999347130
Publisher: Offworld Publishing
Published: 2019-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

Manny had searched Nancy Figueroa and he had a picture. By the time they walked into Dover Street and took a table near the corner, they knew where she was.

As they waited for their drinks, a small kerfuffle persisted at the table behind them, bringing unwanted attention in their direction. Some old boy was kicking off about the wine. The nose was dipped in soil and the taste more farmyard that vineyard, in short, unacceptable.

The waitress was still and calm as the old boy showed her the offending bottle, which turned out to be extra virgin olive oil, poured to taste but quickly rejected. The waitress did well to conceal the laughter that was already putting pink on her cheeks, seconds away from erupting with colleagues backstage. She agreed to replace a bottle never ordered in the first place and bring another.

The attention from customers to the confused antics of the old boy had included Nancy Figueroa, sat a few tables away. Zak thought her gaze rested on him slightly longer than it should but maybe this was a little paranoid.

Nancy Figueroa was a sophisticated looking lady in her late sixties and she was on her own. It wasn’t impossible to drain the color from the scene and imagine her sitting here, lighting a cigarette, waiting for Bacall to join her. She’d arranged to meet someone, Adeline according to her calendar. Soon, Adeline joined her and Nancy got up to greet her with a hug and a smile. In the midst of this smiley hug, a Manny they didn’t even notice leave the table walked past and bumped into Nancy, slipping out of sight into the toilets before she could turn to say no problem. Seconds later he emerged and returned to the table.

Manny pulled out a bizarre looking cable with all sorts of adaptors and possibilities. He plugged his own phone into another phone and looked up at Zak and Allie.

‘What?’

‘Is that her phone?’

‘It certainly is and in eight seconds it’ll be my phone too.’

After eight seconds, there was a subtle double beep.

‘Done.’

He unhooked Nancy’s phone, headed back over and popped the phone she’d just dropped on the floor back on her table and with a smile he was away. He was past her before Nancy could thank him. She mouthed what looked like ‘what a nice young man. I’m such a ninny’ to her friend and Manny again returned to the table. He spared a few seconds to feel pleased with himself, eyeing up Zak and Allie in turn and smiling briefly. Then his head was down into his phone clone.

Zak and Allie watched his every eyebrow and expression, waiting for the smile of a boy who’d found something.

‘Damn it,’ he said. ‘Nada.’ He placed his phone on the table and sat back to take delivery of his fizz.

‘Can I…?’ said Allie.

‘Sure, your password is m.i.l.f., sorry.’

Allie smiled and picked up his phone. She started swiping through photos. Fairly soon she stopped and looked up at Zak with a half smile.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.