Four Days Later. 19:30 La Mer

John and Alice were at a famous three-star French restaurant on Oahu. John was wearing dress pants, a light blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a red tie. Alice was wearing a tastefully simple black evening gown that covered up curves.

When they were getting ready to leave John laughed when he saw her hair and joked that it was a ‘Karen-style.’ He then instantly led into his next statement that she was gorgeous. While the comment was sincere his timing as usually was trash.

“So, I’m a Karen is it?” Alice took a sip of wine.

“Come one, you know I was joking. I haven’t seen you ever actually be a ‘wild Karen’ in public or private,” John was still trying to put out the fire he had started.

“Your way with words is epic dear. Truly epic. Now that I’ve had my fun beating you up on it I will change the topic, but please for the love of god choose the order of how you talk. It will be less stressful for both of us.”

John took a gulp of Guinness and smirked, “I solemnly swear to try to improve my timing.”

“Apology accepted. So tell me, what did Flavio want with you?”

“I was the one that reached out first. Was seeing if he knew if he had any connections.”

Alice paused, “Oh, about that.”

“Yeah, the price was too high though. But it confirmed something for me.”

Alice put her wine glass on the table, “That it’s run by corporate bigshots.”

“Yup, though who, why, and where has yet to be determined. At a minimum, he’s heard things. Unless he’s fucking with me,” John sighed and smiled, “Really hope that wasn’t the case, but my hunch is he was honest, but I suspect he doesn't know as much as he thinks he does.”

“What’d he want for the info?”

John leaned back in his chair, “He wasn’t asking for my soul or our firstborn. But he was asking for things way above my paygrade. Could pull it off but if it ever came out I did any of it I’d be run out of the military.”

“Even with your boss's approval?” Alice had a confused look on her face.

“No way I could get official approval to do what he wanted. I thanked him and decided to move on. Got a couple of VIs snooping around for unofficial servers and communication on the down-low. Chances are unlikely to find anything big though.”

“But a bread crumb here or there…” Alice let the sentence hang.

“That would be pretty damn cool.”

John looked across the room and noticed a pair of couples that were recently seated. He pulled his tablet from his pocket and pressed a couple of buttons, then slid it back in. He then took the glasses from his front pocket and put them on.

Alice sighed and whispered, “I knew damn well that you picked here for a reason. Who are they?”

John grinned, “The richest woman on the island and her husband. The Japanese man is the CEO in waiting for the Hojo Corporation. Shinji Takeda and his new bride. The ruthless young bastard that one is.”

Alice moved her chair slightly and to get a less conspicuous view. She did remember her dad cursing about a deal that they had lost money with them. They were lax with the contract and got taken advantage of slightly. Enough so that her father swore to never do business with them ever again.

John was using the glasses to record video. He had a VI that was translating what was being spoken. Another VI was hooked into the surveillance cameras in the restaurant and copying everything that was being recorded. It was a stretch, but if anyone on the island was involved with this nonsense it’d be her.

The rest of the dinner went by without much of a fuss. They took their sweet time doing everything. Alice was a bit annoyed with John that their meal was slowed down because of this crazy investigation but she went with the flow.

22:30 Fort DeRussy Boardwalk

“Despite your ulterior motivations, you were kind of romantic. But then…”

John interrupted, “I did want to come here. But yeah I pretty much shit all over the romantic part.”

“True, you did, but you did take your wife for a nice walk down the boardwalk here and the ocean is what, twenty feet away?”

John leaned against a palm tree, “You know, I’ve known this all along but tonight it really hit home.”

“What did?” Alice stopped and turned around.

“How much I relied on my abilities to let me coast through everything.”

Alice laughed, “Well, given your prodigious talent at stealing, lying, manipulating, destroying, and killing any obstacle along the path to your destination that doesn’t come as much of a surprise.”

John bent over and picked up a stone which was promptly tossed into the ocean, “I was an idiot on Manchester. I let my bloodlust get the best of me.”

“Yeah, you did. You knew to trust us, but you didn’t that day when you should have. I’m not going to kick you any more than I already did. You know you fucked up,” Alice walked to John, reached out, and held John’s head, “But you are still more talented than the rest of us. You just are getting used to walking around with the rest of us mere mortals.”

“C’est la vie,” John said with a smile.

“You speak French don’t you.”

“Yes, but honestly I suck at it. I have the words right but my pronunciation of them is fucking terrible.”

Alice took John’s hand. The couple walked to their car. The drive home was rather boring and took longer than expected. There was far more traffic out and about than expected and as a result, there were a couple of accidents that caused gridlock. The twenty-three-mile drive took an hour and a half. In the end, both John and Alice were more than a little grumpy.

06:45 Living Room

John was grumbling as he sat down in front of the terminal. Alice literally kicked him awake while she was sleeping. Since he was awake, he may as well get some work done before going out for a run. John unlocked his account and began reviewing the transcript for the dinner conversation.

Unfortunately, the transcript didn’t provide much in the way of detail for the investigation. The VI had discovered that Shinji disappeared on a semi-regular basis. There were no traces of what he did or where he went. For such an important person in the corporate world that was an intriguing find.

The VI also indicated that Shinji and his new wife were staying in the resorts a mile north of where they were. His itinerary for the day also had him staying at home conducting several meetings. His wife was going to go shopping with her escorts.

“No rest for the wicked,” John said as he locked the terminal and stood up.

John walked into the bedroom where Alice was now awake, albeit incredibly groggy. She was trying to fix her messy hair. She noticed John walk into the room.

“I’m still tired.”

“Love you too honey, and good morning,” John said as he opened the pelican case, “By the way, your legs got super kick happy last night.”

“It’s the white wine you know. Every time you complain about that is after I’ve had white wine.”

John pulled the stealth suit out and laughed, “Maybe don’t drink white wine?”

Alice still hadn’t decided on being awake yet but continued with the conversation, “Honey, if the chef recommends white wine with dinner, you drink what the recommend. Not do what you do.”

“Hey, beer is beer. For as high a caliber that restaurant is, and the food was amazing, their scotch selection was fucking terrible,” John had slid both legs into the suit and was about to put his arms in as well.

“You know, we are on vacation,” Alice said with a smirk.

“Mhmm, Shinji is about a mile from here. Gonna snoop on him and be back later this morning.”

Alice noticed John had taken a pistol and knife and locked them to his suit, “Most people don’t take weapons to snoop on them. Well whatever, I’m going back to sleep. Sorry about the legs.”

Alice fell back onto her pillow and pulled the blanket up. John chuckled quietly and closed the doors behind him. He activated the suit before leaving through the patio sliding door.

7:15 Royal Resorts at Mililani

Security was light from what John could see. Three guards were patrolling outside. Getting inside wasn’t going to be too difficult. The ideal way inside would be from the roof, but there was no way to be up there and not make a hell of a racket for whoever was inside.

John decided on trying to enter via the deck on the second floor. It was on the north side of the building and attached to the in-law suite. Getting up there would be pretty easy. Jumping from the fence would be fairly easy, but maybe the loudest way to get there. Scaling the wall was doable, but could damage the stucco, which would give him away. The trio of palm trees could work though.

He was standing on the fence working on gaining access to the security system inside. For such an influential and powerful man, the security being used to guard him was pitiful. John pushed those thoughts aside and jumped onto the big palm and began climbing up. John waited until the security guards were the farthest from the deck and leaped towards the deck.

He barely cleared the railing and landed about as quietly as he could. While the stealth field was active and you couldn’t see it, it doesn’t cancel noise. John crouched there without moving a muscle. He tracked the guards’ movement outside, but no one appeared to be alerted to his presence.

John was surprised to find the door unlocked. Despite his VI having made its way into the security systems, the doors and windows on the second and third stories didn’t appear to be tied into the security system. He opened the door and closed it behind him quickly.

“What the fuck?” John whispered.

John was repulsed by all of the various fetish equipment in this makeshift sex room. He made a note to bleach the suit when he got back. He also ordered the VI to store all of the video footage he had. While this level of kink wasn’t unknown in the corporate world, having this information could be used for leverage down the road.

“Fuck me,” John whispered to himself, “He and his wife are fucking perverts. Eve, doctor yesterday’s security footage to have me be captured by the external cameras creeping about the compound.”

John saw a confirmation message on his HUD from his VI. It would take twenty-six minutes to produce the video and upload it to the video storage server. John walked silently through the room. He ordered the VI to scan archived security footage at the house to determine if any videos were captured inside the room. If there were to copy them to John’s private server. There was unlikely to be any footage for obvious reasons, but John had been surprised by the stupidity of the affluent in the past so it couldn’t hurt to check.

Using the schematics John had downloaded, he made his way through the home. Shinji was in the third-floor office. John walked down the hallway and then up the stairs. He stopped when he could see the third floor. The guard was outside the office door. That did present a bit of a problem.

The guard couldn’t see or hear John at this distance. But if he got within several feet the guard would definitely know something was there. Only one room’s door was open, which appeared to be a bathroom. John walked up to the top of the steps and quickly stepped into the bathroom.

“Switches,” John delightfully said to himself, “Thank you for not being totally modern.”

John flicked the fan switch on and walked down the steps. The distraction worked as the guard slowly walked down the hallway. He stopped short of the bathroom and cautiously peered in. Then he stepped in front of the bathroom and cleared the room.

When the guard stepped into the bathroom John quickly walked down the hallway and opened the office door. Shinji was too focused on his meeting to notice the door open and close briefly. John locked the door and walked over to another workstation.

He pulled a dongle from a pouch on his belt and plugged it into a port on the side. The VI stored on it began to copy copious amounts of data. Most of it was corporate bullshit that John didn’t really care about and swore to delete anything that wasn’t relevant upon reviewing.

While this was happening the VI on his suit had indicated it had finished its scan of the security footage. John was relieved when it indicated that all the cameras in the room were disabled. John genuinely had no interest in the sex life of his prey.

“Himiko-san, please make sure the reports are accurate. Should a hostile takeover be necessary I’d prefer to know the costs ahead of time. Joel-san, my security here is absurdly lax, why are there not my normal numbers.”

“Location sir,” Joel responded, “Not enough of our men are licensed in America. Bodyguards are more regulated than guns here. Most of our executives don’t go to America to conduct business because of that. That is why we go to our office on the station in orbit.”

“Sometimes it's good to stretch the legs and experience new and fresh places,” Shinji said, “Have a good day and send me the information as soon as you have it.”

Moments after the meeting concluded John had his VI take total control over the systems in the house. Shinji’s phone was blocked from working. The lights dimmed as the internet and extra-net connections were severed.

“What in the hell?” Shinji muttered.

The look of confusion changed to one of shock and horror as John disengaged the stealth suit’s optical camouflage. He pointed the gun at Shinji and sat down at the large and very comfortable chair across the table from him.

“Whoever made this chair has my compliments, even in one of these suits it just feels so bloody comfortable,” John said honestly.

Shinji composed himself, “Clearly you have the upper hand, do you need to point that thing at me?”

“Yes.”

Shinji sighed, “Very well, to what do I owe the displeasure?”

“In reviewing your activities, you were a rather difficult individual to track and verify all of your time. What were you doing?”

“It wasn’t work-related. The activities were of a private matter.”

John grinned, “Oh but I insist, what were you doing?”

Shinji gritted his teeth, “It… is… private…”

John began aiming his gun at Shinji, “Perhaps I wasn’t clear, I’m the one asking questions here.”

There was a long pause before Shinji quietly said, “My wife, then fiancé at the time, liked to enjoy a very specific and pleasurable time with one another. They involve various fetishes the two of us enjoy and I would prefer to not speak of them to someone I neither know nor trust.”

“Very well. That’ll do. What can you tell me about the odd military orders you’ve received?”

“I figured you were military.”

“For the record, while I’m wearing military tech, I am not military. My bosses are determined to figure out what the hell is going on with our requisitions and shipments.”

Shinji looked at John. John knew he was working on some internal calculus about the situation. After what felt like an eternity Shinji spoke.

“I don’t suppose you’d do me the courtesy of telling me who hired you?”

John chuckled, “Certainly. My employer is a short, fat, and balding man named Jeff. He was without question the first of several intermediaries between who actually hired me to pull off this op.”

“Very well, may I impose on you something?”

“Depends,” John said sarcastically.

“Please pass on a message that this type of corporate communication is detestable.”

John nodded his head in agreement, “I would certainly concur. And I’d be happy to pass on that feedback.”

“Yes, we’ve noticed irregularities. They are occurring weekly these days. Attempts to get them corrected are effectively useless. So out they go.”

“Who have you contacted to correct them?”

Shinji wrote several names and addresses on a piece of paper. He slid them across the table. John stood up and looked down at the paper, all the while the gun remained pointed at Shinji. He had his VI scan the names, all were in procurement in the Navy. John took the piece of paper and slipped it into a pocket on his belt. John would follow up on whether or not emails from Hojo Corporation were on record.

“You have my thanks; things will start working in five minutes. You and I will not meet again. Please also accept my apologies for this unsightly display.”

Shinji’s expression changed, “Just go and don’t darken this household any longer.”

John activated the optical camouflage and took a step away from the desk. The patio door at the center of the room opened briefly and then closed. John climbed over the patio railing. He bent over and grabbed onto the patio floor. When the guards were the farthest away from him, he pushed back as he let go.

John landed on his feet with a firm thump. The guards turned to look at what could have caused the mysterious sound. The moment he had hit the ground he was on the move. By the time the guards had turned to look John was two-thirds the way to the fence on the west side of the compound. When the two guards walked over to where they thought the noise came from John had already climbed over the fence.

14:00 Backyard Patio

Alice was awake and rather annoyed with John when he got back. She told him he would be forgiven if he would be her shopping bitch for the late morning. And if he treated her to lunch somewhere along the beach.

John had no choice but to take a shower and accept his punishment. Alice purchased a new dress, a couple of blouses, and some new workout gear. John pulled off the husband's act perfectly. He carried the bags, looked disinterested in the stores they were in, and answered incorrectly on most of the clothing or color questions Alice asked of him.

After lunch, the couple returned back to their rental house. Alice wanted to get a workout in. John took a nap. Eventually, the pair would take a swim in the pool and end up relaxing on the patio.

“Well shit,” John said as he read through a report.

“Your little stunt come up negative?” Alice smirked as she relaxed on a patio recliner.

“That too. Two of my investments are tanking hard.”

Alice shook her head, “How much money did you lose us?”

“Technically this was a pre-marital asset so you didn’t lose anything.”

“Oh, goodie!” Alice sarcastically exclaimed, “But seriously how much?”

“One is down twenty-five million dollars, the other is down sixteen million credits.”

Alice paused then started to laugh, “You know, it feels wrong and even terrible of me to say this, but’s just a drop in the bucket isn’t it?”

John frowned as he reviewed his portfolio. Several funds and stocks were underperforming but most were still in the black. These two felt like sure-fire investments. He felt like an idiot for thinking that. There were never any guarantees when it came to investments.

“Man I feel like I’ve been had. These were almost guaranteed to make a huge return.”

“You’re an idiot for believing that. And you know that.”