“Yana’s,” Zoe muttered as she walked the block to the boardwalk. She had gotten lucky and claimed a just vacated parking spot on Brighton Beach Ave. She activated Grave Robber and picked out an older record to disguise her profile. “At least the place should have one heck of a view of the beach being right on the boardwalk.”

Zoe stopped and took in the sight of the beach and bay. She considered taking a picture and then decided against it. The view was nice, but it wasn’t that nice. Zoe continued to the restaurant and entered. She paused at the door and scanned the modest crowd.

Adrik, the bartender, was Claire’s informant. At least Zoe considered him an informant since he was passing data to Claire about the Bratva, or Russian mob.

“May I help you, Miss?” the maître d asked. Zoe turned to him. Thankfully he was wearing a nametag.

“No Dominik. I was supposed to meet some friends, but I don’t see them,” Zoe replied. The man didn’t quite frown. “And I’m unsure which one made the reservation.”

“Ah.”

“Perhaps I could order a drink at the bar while I wait for them to arrive?” Zoe asked.

“Of course. That is acceptable,” Dominik replied. “May I send you our drink menu?”

“Yes, please.”

“Here you are Miss Smits,” the maître d said sending Zoe the menu.

“Thank you,” Zoe replied.

“Of course. If you need anything, let me know,” Dominik said. He seemed nice enough, but there was something about his eyes that made Zoe wary. She used her scanner on the man and the database returned that he was a suspected Bratva solider.

“Thank you again. I will,” Zoe replied before walking to the bar. Zoe took a seat near the left end of the bar and signaled Adrik. He nodded and handed the customer he was serving their drink.

“What can I get you?” Adrik asked after walking over to Zoe.

“What is the fresh squeezed juice of the day?” Zoe asked as she sent him the message Claire had given her to pass on.

Adrik gave Zoe a cocky grin and accepted the message. She thought he must get contact information all the time from those interested in him. Zoe thought he was cute enough, but she wasn’t interested in anyone that worked for the Bratva. Adrik’s grin slipped as he read the message.

“We still have orange and carrot juice today. We sold out the melon juice an hour ago,” the bartender replied to Zoe’s question. He sent the expected reply message to Zoe.

“I’ll take the orange juice,” Zoe said.

“That’s 15 credits,” Adrik replied. Zoe’s eyes widened.

“That’s robbery!”

“No. That is the price for me to serve you freshly squeezed real fruit juice,” the bartender countered. He started squeezing some oranges and sending Zoe the data Chloe wanted.

“I guess,” Zoe replied sending 15 credits to the restaurant’s account.

“It’ll take a few more minutes for the data to finish transferring. It’s a huge amount of video,” Adrik whispered to Zoe as he handed her the cup of orange juice. He stepped back and said louder, “Enjoy your juice.”

*

Zoe was half finished with her juice when the transfer completed. She noticed Dominik, the maître d, and two other men approach Adrik at the other end of the bar. She couldn’t hear them and almost wished for those cybernetic cat ears she had seen while picking out her frame and software so that she could. Since she didn’t have the ears, so Zoe sliced into the restaurant’s security system, which proofed to be surprisingly easy. Zoe expected more from one of New York’s largest criminal enterprises. The men were speaking Russian. Zoe fired up her translator software.

“Do not play games with me. What did you transmit and who did you send it to?” a man named Gennady asked the bartender.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Adrik protested. “I haven’t transmitted anything to anyone.”

“Kiril, you and Dominik remind our comrade of the price for lying to me,” Gennady said. A few people stood and gasped as Dominik punched Adrik in the nose. Zoe was one of them. She started to back through the crowd as Kiril punched the bartender as well. Zoe searched for and found the Bratva network. She stared to slice it.

“Wait! I transmitted financial data, videos, and our next heist’s plans.” Adrik screamed as Kiril pulled him up by his hair.

“To whom?” Gennady demanded slapping Adrik.

“The courier has it.”

“What courier?” Gennady asked.

“The girl.”

“There are a lot of girls here, fool!” Gennady screamed. Adrik looked up and his eyes found Zoe, who was almost at the door.

“That one,” the bartender said pointing out Zoe. The other men turned to look where Adrik pointed.

“Seize her!” Gennady shouted.

Zoe turned and ran out the door.

*

“Get her!” a man yelled as Zoe hit the boardwalk. Him and a few others were on the left. Zoe ran right. The boardwalk was crowded, and Zoe bumped into people.

“Watch where you’re going you goof!”

“Hey!”

“Watch it!”

“What’s your problem?”

“Sorry!” Zoe screamed over her shoulder. She continued her slice into the Bratva network. The network had excellent security in fact, it was corporation level.

“There she is!”

“The girl is almost at Svetlana’s Boutique.” A woman’s voice announced.

“I don’t have time for this,” Zoe said to herself as Aperture was only about a quarter of the way through the network’s firewall. She passed another business and started to slice the shops, food stands, and restaurants. Zoe implanted her Flood daemon in each of them. If she couldn’t slice the Bratva network, she would deny the Russians the use of it too.