Tasìa mulled over the matter.
Leòn wasn't coming back.
She was on her own. The heart of the operation was now in retrieving Demona's NeoPalm and restoring it to working order.
It was stored inside a jewelry safe built into the Alfa Romeo HybrClydis floorboard. Whatever impoundment lot out of at least a dozen located in the greater Vida Escondida Region that her vehicle was gathering dust Tasìa would need to access the data banks inside the VEAA headquarters to narrow down the right one.
As she floated through traffic it dawned on her that she was indeed subconsciously steering towards that goal uptown.
The HQ was located in the higher end commercial district far away from the downtown strip where the sexy Lamborghini would stand out amongst the more sedate German and other European luxury sedans that dominated the uptown business class social matrix.
As she began to plan for what she would need to carry out that scheme, Tasìa was cut off by a black 9X LT Saab sedan speeding towards the VEAA lot that still lay several kilometers away.
The driver wore her hair fashioned into a homely, all-business bun. In stark contrast to the merely serviceable hairstyle, the woman wore a creme tinted silk blouse that would look lovely at any formal occasion.
Even as she mentally indexed these useful data points, Tasìa side swerved to avoid ramming into both the business woman and a second vehicle that rode near bumper to bumper behind the Saab.
As Tasìa cursed the woman's lineage, she made a U-turn. The Lamborghini needed to be off the nearby roads before the conspicuous luxury sports car caught the attention of the parameter security trucks.
Tasìa headed up an overpass connector onto the main highway that led back to Asunción to the northeast. On the next exit several commercial lots lined up along a drag strip with a fully accommodated Quick Mart boutique kiosk beside the service store for all of her operative needs.
The boutique made it almost too easy to apply the spy trade. Why didn't everyone else use it to fulfill their dreams of snooping about like secret agents?
The Modality spoke up:
- Most citizens of the Quadra don't possess a hero complex; neither do they care to die for unfathomable, obscure causes.
Tasìa was taken aback.
When did the Modality acquire a sense of humor?
After she pulled into the Quick Mart lot, Tasìa contacted a car rental enterprise. They would have a BMW drive itself over to the lot and have it's relay activated to her account.
Estimated time of arrival - 15 minutes.
She next entered the Quick Mart, grabbed a case of Ki-Jack All Natural Ginseng Energy Elixir and a Donca Donut blueberry cake donut pastry from the plate warmer for a quick meal to offset the alcohol in her blood.
While she was driving previously, Tasìa noticed the effects of Francesco Sala's Resucitadórs and port wine on her reaction time and set the auto steer for a .08 correction to match the level of alcohol in her bloodstream.
She never felt comfortable on a fully automated ride but the Lamborghini's built-in intoxication refactor feature was highly copacetic to her driving needs.
Walking now gave Tasìa a feeling of being a bit slop woozy. The bottle of Ki-Jack she gulped down hit her brain almost instantly. She enjoyed that lightning effect that went Boom!Boom! inside her head because she dared to gulp it down in one go.
Tasìa nibbled the donut quickly as she stood over the boutique's digital display. When finished, she wiped her hands with the complementary QM wet towel.
She now needed to purchase a high-end business formal top like the one the reckless driver wore.
She made an assumption that the VEAA employee wore a pair of black striped formal slacks, and given it was a late night shift, a pair of quality comfy shoes instead of formal heels. It would be the more appropriate choice.
Tasìa also added two bottles of nail polish, and a box of aluminum foil in her virtual cart.
When she punched in the desired merchandise the kiosk reported back in all neon typeset - feliz feliz noticia!
'Happy, happy news,' it glared.
The warehouse merely six kilometers away, and nearby the Vida Escondida mega helioport, had the items she requested in stock. Estimated time of arrival was ten minutes due to the dynamic bustle of commerce in that part of Vida Escondida.
The kiosk AI would let her know when the package delivery drone arrived with her merchandise. When she paid for the items the receipt returned with twenty-five free tokens that could be used at the Quick Mart Casino located conveniently in the back lot while she waited for the delivery.
Unfortunately, recreation was not on the current agenda. She did, however, walk towards the back lot by the QM Casino to find a comfortable seat at an outdoors table under a low-light emitting parasol.
There were many patrons milling around, but that was to be expected. The QM Casinos operated 24/7/365.
Once she sat down, Tasìa searched for social intel on the VEAA headquarters' personnel.
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What was the demographic make-up of the employees? Would she fit in? She was quite aware that for most Salvage internal personnel employment opportunities she sure as hell didn't.
The Vida Escondida Autonomous Authority, however, was an entirely different operation.
Tasìa flipped through the local business recruitment index and searched for past and present employees of the VEAA headquarters. Scrutinizing their faces, she determined that her mestiza phenotype would not make her stand out. Unlike the Salvage, the VEAA recruited from the local populace.
Her athletic build might work against her, however. That was the next bit of scrutiny; Tasìa leaned her head over and as she examined her haunches Tasìa shook her head. She had hoped her month long lazy spell fluffed up her butt at least a little bit.
But it didn't.
Nope, her buns were still a bundle of taut long and lean muscles. It didn't resemble that of someone who spent twelve hours a day sitting on it.
Whether her athletic build mattered depended upon the competitive mating rituals inside the VEAA. If it were an active scene, and selectivity was in high demand, it would not be uncommon for the desk domicile bound personnel to also be gym rats.
Was outside of business fraternization discouraged by management or ignored? She indexed her search for profile pics.
A few she found were even outstanding. Indeed, there were many married couplings. Better still, many were quite healthy in appearance.
With that in mind, Tasìa checked her butt off of her List of Matters Pertaining to Social Intel Scrutiny.
Next on her agenda, Tasìa needed to change her appearance to make her daring-do master thief visage appear more corporate compliant.
Tasìa flipped the PA to display a holographic cosmetic mirror spread out as a hologram on the patio table.
She eyed it as she pulled her hair up in a tight bun. The sight of it in the holograph mirror made Tasìa scowl.
She stuck out her tongue to protest the uncovered forehead. It made her appear slightly harsh. Her noggin was not the most symmetrical tater on the planet.
Tasìa knew it but did not need to be reminded of the fact.
She moved on to deglamorize her club-oriented makeup made to order for the Vida Escondida scene into a more modest office standard in her appearance.
Her lips were just too sexy.
And she felt she had hit a wall in her current mission.
How do I go about making this mouth appear not so luscious?
Tasìa pushed onward. She had come too far to stop now.
She got out her cosmetic kit. On the edge creases of her lips, Tasìa applied a tint that would help to blend the skin tone of her overall facial complexion into her lips.
She had used the tint many times before but now it was not a good match for her skin tone. It formed a dark outline along the cresses.
Tasìa had been such an outdoorsy girl her entire life she had no idea her facial complexion could defuse and lighten so much with a lack of sun exposure. Sure, she had awesomely contrasting tones on her panty and bra lines, but her face until now was always a lustrous cinnamon brown.
After rubbing the tint off, she applied another one that was more pink. With a Q-tip she blended the tones together.
And they came out - Perfect! With a blush shade of red applied on the plump body of her lips to flatten their natural sensuous tone, her mouth now appeared corporate compliant.
Now that her face appeared that of an office drone, and with nothing else needing to be done to it beyond removing her emerald and jade earrings, she moved on to studying the gait of her stroll.
Tasìa spent a minute walking back and forth from the holographic mirror display to the back end of the car lot.
Unfortunately for her cover identity, it wasn't the stride of someone who was set in the habits of day to day routine.
Needing more feedback, she strolled once more but this time Tasìa recorded herself in motion.
After scrutinizing the video, she bit her lips and cursed out a 'damn.' Her cute little sashay was going to give her away as not belonging in an office setting.
VEAA was local; it's focus of talent came from the local stock of Spanish, mestizas, and indigenes, perhaps they were more forgiving in their corporate culture. She could walk with her knees a little stiffened but beyond that an attempt at self-conscious control over the flow of her movement would throw her off of her game of staying alert.
A message came through the speaker.
"Miss T. d. A. G., your package has arrived."
It was for her. After Tasìa picked up the package from the kiosk, she made a beeline for the ladies room by the casino to change into her clothes and take a tinkle.
Tasìa took a much needed break from her purposeful activities. She sipped a second Ki-Jack as she watched a gambler play blackjack.
Before too long, the BMW arrived to pull her away from the distraction.
She glanced back at her Lamborghini rental. It was surrounded by the cars of the casino patrons. Aside from its aesthetic appeal catching an eye or two, it would remain untouched for several hours.
No doubt, QM Concierge flagged it as the property of a valued customer who spent thousands USD per year at their stores. Left in the lot overnight, she would come back with a tazerdart-turret hovering above it, and the Lamborghini unblemished.
That was not an exaggeration. Excellent customer service in most everything was the least dystopian aspect of life in the Quadra. It was the glue that kept them sane.
She tossed the empty drink can into a waste basket, and went back to work.
Back under the light of the parasol, Tasìa lay out a sheet of aluminum foil and wrapped the PalmEx PA tightly within it. She lay out a second sheet and repeated the process.
Tasìa removed two expensive bottles of fingernail polish and applied the entire content of one, called Shell Esconsed, on the surface of the package evenly. It was comprised of specialty, novelty product, ingredients necessary to do the job of bouncing frequency waves off the foil. Waves that would be weakened by the second layer she would apply as soon as the Shell Esconsed polish dried.
The Shell Esconsed brand was mostly used as a nude base for more flashy and design oriented polishes. It helped the paint last longer while also strengthening the nail.
For her purposes, however, the polish contained a common plasticizer called Dibutyl Phthalate that bound to molecules made from the shells of sea chitons.
As she waited for it to dry while the package was being held in place by a cigarette stand, Tasìa checked out the VEAA policy statement for guests online. All employees and visitors had their devices scanned both when entering and leaving the facility.
Unsealing the package would break the polish bond so that second part pertaining to how she would get the PA back out of the facility, Tasìa would have to improvise.
Finished with her inquiry, she turned back to the package, and blew on it gently. The polish dried into a well varnished shell.
The second polish, a luxury item from Buenos Aries called Susurro Plateado, silver whisper, was even more expensive than the Shell Esconsed bottle as the former was comprised of quartz and silver. Both minerals would work towards spreading along the surface of the package a continuous electropositive charge. A necessary condition for a Faraday Box to work.
After the second coat dried as Tasìa blew air onto it, she tapped her smart watch. The watch was purchased for the workout that she intended to develop to build up her operative effectiveness but that plan was cut short by the intermisdion of a love life.
Now, the PA was hermetically sealed. Tasìa glanced at her vital signs displayed on the smart watch. It was linked into the PalmEx.
It only read to default settings and not to the customized readout. Tasìa pinged the PA to start back up but the signal relay scattered without register.
Satisfied, that she had made a working Faraday Box, Tasìa checked that off her list.
All that was left to do for her prep work was to test her fake ID. Tasia hopped into the BMW and spent a solid minute becoming acquainted with the vehicle.
Now to have some fun.
Time to test the parameter security.