Stakeout [Mission]

Erika gave Isaac a half amused smile at his reaction after she hugged him fiercely, but she was no longer thinking about that now. Nothing mattered, just that they got it right, and her heart was hammering with jpy just as doing that thing right. Whenever she did, her mother's voice would rise in her brain, praise her, remind her of home, and that she was proud of her being in Beata, and that was happening now. She stopped, her answer to Isaac's question hanging in the air, unspoken, before she shook her head. She needed to keep those thoughts under controll, she couldn't just get distracted like that.

"Well, much time before we were born, you were smart to know how to start your Skype. But now, to be smart, you need to know how to hack them." she responded promply. She'd learned how to hack computers since she was ten, so doing it now didn't seem like a big thing. "We need to get to a store that has been marked to times, for safety, and get to their surveilance room. I suggest we get in by day time and hide." she continued, closing her eyes slightly from exhaustion. "I believe doing it by night-time would be smooth, no interruptions, but it also means were basically stuck in for the night." she added, rasing her face to look at Isaac, hear his comment on her bold idea.

It had been quite sudden, Erika's hug attack thing. Isaac continued to dwell on it in the back of his mind, but discussed the mission with the rest of his brain. It was very important that they get it done and Isaac's personal discomforts were a little less important. Granted he was sure Erika would refrain from too much close contact if he asked, but he didn't because it had been short lived and they were talking about something else. If it happened again, maybe.

Her plan sounded reasonable enough. Isaac would have never assumed he would be doing something illegal when he came to this school, but he never knew with the way Beata was. Silently he wondered if it was okay because they were on a mission. Maybe there was a way to do it without being caught, then no one would ever know. Isaac hummed in thought before responding. "What if we ask to shadow a security guard? Just two kids looking at future career options? We can get into the room that way. The only problem would be getting rid of the guard but that might actually be easier. If I distract them directly in front of one of them cameras, they run off to get me, you can hack while they're gone. That would save us time and allow us to find him later, but it would also be risky."

Part of Isaac felt stupid after saying it aloud. Erika was right, going in at night was perfect. But he didn't want to spend more time in Halifax than they had to. Plus, they might have the security guards to deal with at night as well and it was easier to distract them during the day when it was more likely to have people. A location that was hit twice was very likely to have upped the security. Hopefully he had made sense. After some thought he summarized their two options aloud. "Either we go in at night and waste a day or we go in during the day and risk being caught." If Erika was a good hacker, she could get in and out without being detected at all and that would save them loads of trouble. But Isaac didn't know how good she was.

Erika listened to Isaac's version while half lost in thought. Had she just hugged Isaac? She felt dumb at her own reaction, she might have as well kissed him without knowing, and that made her heart scorch on the inside. Why? She couldn't tell, but it mingled the name Ash and Isaac together and made her ache. She just had to get over the fact, it was just a friendly hug, no big thing. It won't definitely happen again. Never.

"Indeed, this may be faster, but what about you? What happens if they catch you or me? It will get bad,a nd we'll probably be banned from the shop, and as we have only two tries... We might as well try yours first, and if it doesn't go good, we'll try at next shop my plan. In any way, we'll catch Barry. she finished, giving him half a smile and let her chair more on her back, feeling the need to rest more than ever now. She yawned and closed her eyes, taking a blanket from besides her chair and covering herself with it as she cuddled on the seat.

"Night." she whispered as she tucked into sleep like a cat.

The whole hug thing had shocked Isaac, but after they had continued the conversation, the whole event just dissipated from his mind. It was a hug, she had been excited, big whoop. Isaac wasn't a touchy feel-y person in the first place, so it had been super awkward, but it hadn't meant a thing to him and his mind had forgotten it quickly. It was onto their planning for the mission, which was very important to get done since they were mere hours from Halifax. They needed to know what to do when they got there.

"It may be a stretch to expect it, but I might have a good excuse that could let him give me a warning instead of instantly sending me off. I don't think it'll be too hard, but it might not be too easy." Isaac answered her. Again, it was a risk, but it was definitely worth taking if it would be faster. It was true, there were only two tries with the stores that had been hit twice, but there was still the chance - albeit a slimmer one - that the other stores had caught something on their cameras. They would keep going until they got something. "That sounds good to me." Isaac responded, realizing they had finished planning and they now had just over six hours of endless flying before they reached Halifax. Well that wasn't a big deal. Erika had wanted to sleep anyway.

When Erika said 'night', he wasn't entirely sure how to respond and decided he wouldn't. She would sleep most of the trip and he would read most of the trip. This was his resolve as he cracked open his book and began to read. The minutes dragged into hours and onto what felt like a lifetime. About three hours outside of Halifax his eyes began to droop and two hours outside of Halifax he was sleeping peacefully, his eyes twitching occasionally with his dreams.

Two hours later, after having been asleep long enough to still feel tired, a voice came on the intercom, waking Isaac with a start, and announced their impending landing. Isaac slowly rubbed the sleep from his eyes and turned to check and see if Erika was awake or not. If she still slept he would gently nudge her with his hand in attempts to wake her. But if she was already awake he would turn to face the back of the headrest in front of him and wait for them to land. When they did so he stood with shaky legged stretching, reaching for his bag in the carrier above them. With that he headed off the plane sleepily, making sure Erika was behind him. The first stop was the hotel, to get settled and finalize the plan.

Erika had fallen asleep rather soon after she prepared for it, curled under her blanket like a cat. Her sleep had been blank and clear as usual, helping her clear her mind after the plans they had made. Likeable, her mind forgot about the usual sleepiness when she was thinking. Which, by the way, was more than great. It was helpful, too. And after they had decided on the plan, she had fallen asleep so pleasantly, it was like her gift was no longer super intelligence, but super sleepiness. Weird.

When the monotone voice boomed from the intercom, she got up also with a jump, her green eyes wide with surprise. She gathered herself up and gave Isaac a nod as she saw he had woken as well. It was funny, how relieved she was he did not remain asleep, and that she didn't need to wake the boy up. It seemed rude, to wake someone up because there was something to do, like you only cared about the fact they had to do it, not about them. She dragged herself like a sleepy cat nehind her partner through the airport, taking her luggage and trailing behind her untill they reched the exit of the airport, the crowded, cold room she hated the most. Outside, it looked like it was about midday, which was even worse, as the sounds from talking outside and inside annoyed her greatly.

She didn't evenrealize that when goosebumps sprouted on her skin from the unpleasantness she had put her hand on Isaac's shoulder and turnd to face him, thinking about talking about their next step. She slightly leaned towards the heat his body was radiating feebly, their shoulders touching lightly, as if they were embarrassed. "So... are we taking a taxi, walking, or..." she began her question, shyly.

Sleeping on the plane hadn't been much of a problem, Isaac just hated sleeping in public and was a bit embarrassed that he had actually fallen asleep. He needed the sleep, but the feeling of being vulnerable scared him a bit and sleeping in front of anyone made him wary. But everyone on the plane was nice and probably sleeping as well. Part of him had still felt worried and embarrassed when he realized he had fallen asleep. But he brushed it off and stood to leave, making sure Erika was behind hm, which she was. They walked through the airport, sleepy bodies shuffling along the cold floor, shoes clicking as they walked. It was fairly busy as people took short flights or prepare for extra long, overnight flights. It was buzzing with people and it kind of made Isaac even sleepier. They headed out toward the outside where people were being picked up and dropped off by relatives and taxis. The street was lined with cars and luggage and people hugging goodbye.

It reminded him of moving to Japan.

Isaac barely noticed Erika's presence, his body till numb to the waking world and suddenly prickling at the chilly, coastal air. "Um, taxi." He managed to say before stepping forward to get the attention of a cab that had been ready to take off after dropping off its occupant. He opened the passenger door for Erika before getting in himself and telling the driver which hotel they were headed for, making sure to tag on the street address in case there were multiple in the area.  They drove the whole way there much faster than Isaac had expected and soon he was getting out of the car, making sure Erika was still there, before heading inside to get their room key. He wondered why he felt the need to check for the girl every time they stopped. She was always going to be there.

Erika seemed to take a few steps back from Isaac after he spoke to her about deciding to take the taxi. Well, not much spoke, but muttered. Was there a problem? Was he mad at her that she had hugged him? Surely, boys didn't get all angry if a girl just hugged them... She hadn't meant to anger him, and she realized with sorrow that she had just made her partner angry with her at the beginning of their mission. They hadn't even done anything about Barry, yet, and now everything will be bad if he hated her.

Maybe if she was hateful back? No, that was not an option if he was actually not mad with her, so then what was she supposed to do? She anxiously fiddled with the rim of her sweater all the way to their hotel, listening tensely to the radio as if it would cost her her life if she missed any detail. It was playing a lousy love song about betrayal and junk... great. Maybe it wouldn't be bad to tell the driver to turn it of. Just as she prepared to say something, she closed her mouth with a snap. Maybe Isaac liked the song.

She followed him in the hotel lobby, like a ghost, trying not to look at anything, nor stare at Isaac's neck. She was sure she'd burn a hole through it.

"So... now what?" she asked him as they were up in front of the door reading number "174", waiting for the boy to open the door, feeling her hands turn cold as she held the handle of her luggage with an iron grip, her body tense with exhaustion from the trip they had taken.

Isaac hadn't meant to come off as angry. He was tired and so his general indifferent demeanor seemed to turned slightly irritated. Granted, he did wish he could sleep longer, that would be really nice. But they needed to keep moving if they wanted to get anything done. So they took the taxi where Isaac formulated the idea in his head, the exact words he might use to explain to the security guard they would trick that he didn't need to go to jail. Or maybe to soften the punishment to one night in a cell to 'shake him up' or whatever the cops said. They'd have to deal with a night lost, but that would be fine. Barry didn't strike every night, just every once in a while. They never knew which night he would strike so every night was a possibility.

Driving in the taxi, Isaac thought of these things. He didn't even pause to listen to the radio, not caring a single wink what it was playing. They just needed to get to the hotel and settle in and then decide if they were going to sleep for an hour or two or if they would head right out. Isaac was leaning toward sleeping for a little bit.

Erika remained behind him the whole way there, which was good and pretty obvious since she was supposed to be his partner on this mission. Which she was, there wasn't any reason she wasn't. Getting the key was easy and soon they were standing in front of the door of the room they would be staying in. It had two beds, luckily, and enough space for two teenagers on the small side. It would be pretty nice.

Sliding the key into the door he waited for the light to turn green before turning the handle and pushing it open gently. "Well, it's around one-ish. Um, we could crash for a couple of hours and pick up again around four or five when there's still daylight. It shouldn't take long to get the footage." He was leaning toward this decision. "Or we could set our things down and get right to it." The only con to this was that, once they got the footage, they'd have several hours before night fell and they could actually stalk the locations Barry would be. "Either way, around eight or nine is probably the soonest Barry would strike the next location."

Erika didn't really have any idea what the room was going to look like, and she found herself hoping it would be big enough so she and Isaac could have personal space, but small enough for them not to have be a light-year away from each other. A medium room, that's what they needed. Medium. Not that anything like that even existed.

Ah, at least it looks fine, Erika found herself breathing out sharply as if she had been holding her breath in fear. She entered the room wearing her best skeptical face and trailed her luggage to the bed near the window, where she let down her luggage and simply fell in bed, face first, her sneakers still on, and she stopped moving, aside from the movement of her chest, the only sign she was alive.

It seemed there was no need for Erika to answer out loud. Isaac watched, confused, as she walked toward one of the beds and then just fell into it. For a minute or two he stood there, waiting for her to say something or to get back up. But her breathing slowly became even and her body didn't move, so he assumed she had opted for the sleeping first part of the plan. Thank goodness.

Isaac followed her example and fell into the other bed, curling himself into a small ball and hugging his arms around himself. He made a very small ball. His layers of clothes often made people think he was bigger than he was, but he really was just a small person. Isaac slept soundly, without dreaming, and began to feel drowsily awake hours later when his body told him he needed to use the bathroom. Groggily he rose, shuffling toward the bathroom door and finishing his business before crawling back into the bed and glancing at the clock. The bright red letters read 4:30 and Isaac groaned. They probably needed to start getting ready.

"Erika, we should probably eat and get ready to go." Isaac said, hopefully loud enough to wake her if she wasn't already awake. He crawled back out of the bed. They could probably stop somewhere on the way to the store they were going to hack.

Erika slept like she always did. No dreams, no sleep-walking. No waking up in the middle of her sleep. No nothing. It was pleasant to sleep like that, just undisturbed by anything. That's they way she had been sleeping since she learned about her gift, super intelligence. She didn't really get the connection, but it fine with her to sleep like that.

When she was woken up by Isaac's voice, she was drowsy and the last thing she wanted was to have to wake up. But that was exactly what they had to do, if they wanted to succeed. She raised herself up and instinctively threw pillow towards the direction of the voice. Meaning Isaac's face. Not waiting to see what he would say, nor if the pillow hit it's mark, which she highly supposed it would, she pulled out some clothes from her small luggage and headed for the bathroom, in one hand a pair of skinny jeans, s shirt and a jacket, in the other a hair-brush and a tooth-brush with tooth-paste as well. "Be right back." she said blankly , dragging herself towards the bathroom of their room.

Sleeping was such a beautiful thing, Isaac always hated stopping when he was so far into it. His body always woke him to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and it was rather annoying because he liked his sleep uninterrupted and smooth. But this time it had been a good thing it had woken him up because they needed to go.

Isaac hadn't seen the pillow coming and jumped when it hit him on the back of the head. He had stood up by his bed but hadn't really made any action to move so it hit him from behind and surprised him. A lot. Readjusting his mask - it had shifted in his sleep- he turned around and grabbed the pillow. He nodded as Erika headed toward the bathroom to get ready. Isaac figured he could do the teeth brushing thing later, while they were looking through the footage together. But he didn't feel it was necessary to change clothes. So he tossed the pillow back to the bed. "We can probably stop at someplace on the way to the store to eat." Isaac called to Erika, hoping she could hear him. Sometimes he wasn't sure how loud he was through his mask.

Erika went into the nice, hotel bathroom, splashing cold water on her face and changing from her sweaty and trashed clothes into another outfit, better for colder evening. She brushed her short hair that, for her own sake and happiness, didn't tend to get tangled easily. After she brushed her teeth for a few minutes, she finally emerged from the bathroom, tossing the clothes she had been wearing, her hairbrush, toothbrush and toothpaste on top of her luggage, some on them topling of and falling on the carpeted floor.

"Sounds good." she said as she went to fetch her phone, obviously in a green case, and opened it with two quick taps of her slender index. After she fidled with it for a while, she came at Isaac and showed him her phone, now giving them the location of one of the stores that had been robbed twice, the one closest to their hotel, on the GPS. "We'll get their in about twenty minutes on foot, which means that if we eat for another half an hour, we'll get their with about three hours until the store closes." she said and put her phone into a small leather bag, in which she also stored her wallet, and USB stick, and also a lollypop.

She flipped and closed the mouth of her bag, hanging it on her shoulder then stretched her hand out to Isaac. "Let's go, buddy." she said, smiling shyly.

Erika seemed very cool and collected about this whole thing, which was good, because Isaac sure didn't. He was a nervous wreck on the inside, he was just good at hiding his emotions beneath his mask. He waited for her to come out of the bathroom, fiddling with his game system but not playing any of the games. He wasn't sure he would be able to concentrate and he didn't want to ruin any progress he had made. So he simply tapped at the buttons and looked at the blank, black screen. Lost deep in thought.

He was glad when she finally came out but she had a few things to grab. When she showed him her phone he looked at it and nodded at what she said. "That's more than enough time. Once we're out, we look at the footage, and stakeout at the first location we think Barry might hit later tonight." If Barry even struck tonight, there was still the chance they could easily get the location wrong and Barry wouldn't even strike later than night. But they needed to try and locate him or the mission would never be a success.

Her call to action sounded a little odd to Isaac, mostly because she had called him buddy, but he followed her out of the room, making sure the door was locked (he was just a bit paranoid) and then heading outside and down the street. It wasn't long before they came across a good location to eat food. It looked like it would have a great diversity of food, so he didn't mind walking in without Erika's permission. They needed something to eat and this looked like it would have some good stuff.

They left the hotel quick, Erika catching Isaac testing to see if the door was locked with the corner of her eye. She giggled lightly but said nothing more as they left the building and began their walk towards the store. There were many people out and the air was chilly, making the young girl feel even happier that she had put on a jacket.

When Isaac led her into a restaurant, she imediately observed with relief that it looked like one of those cheap restaurants that served any food, at a digestable state, at an affordable price. Which was exactly what she was looking for. They sat down at a table and a waitress came and dropped of two menus before hurrying off.

Erika picked up her menu and opened it lightly, closing it almost right afterwards. She put it down on the table and tapped on the table to attract her partner's attention. "Pizza?" she asked simply, her expression giving a hint of amusement.