Chapter 5

Ian Kabra didn't understand the word 'puke.' It is American, it just is...improper. It was either vomit or spew, how it was supposed to be. But now as he walked out of Glassons with his younger sister, Natalie Kabra, he finally knew what it meant.

"Do you realize how much money we spent in that one store?" Ian exclaimed.

Natalie shrugged carelessly as she dumped the bags of purchases into his arms. "Please don't bore me, dear brother."

"Oh I'm boring you, am I?" Ian retorted. "Two and a half grand makes you yawn, does it? I mean seriously, you might as well buy the whole bloody store!"

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Ian, you know it's important to get the latest designer fashion. There's a new season on, I need new outfits!"

"That might've been okay a year ago but now it's different. We're not rich anymore! We only have four million dollars to live on. You are the cause of us losing that precious money! Natalie, wake up. It's time you had a reality check."

Natalie sighed. "Please, I don't need a reality check, I know what we have to live on, I'm well aware of that."

"Can we at least stop shopping so much?" Ian asked.

He watched her younger sister as they walked down the mall. She looked aghast at having to relish the prospect for limited shopping sprees. But she nodded reluctantly.

"Fine, I suppose." She said.

Then her eyes lit up as she spotted something in view. Ian followed her gaze to what she was looking at. Another designer store.

"Just one more store." Natalie said excitedly.

"Don't even think—"

Before Ian could finish his sentence, Natalie ran ahead towards the store.

"Natalie, no!" He shouted.

Of course, she didn't listen. Ian let out an exasperated sigh and marched after his sister, muttering what rash things he would do to her. As he approached the store Natalie had gone into, he felt a familiar feeling tingle his nerves. Ian stopped. He remembered that feeling.

When his parents had been training them, an excercize they would perform was what to do when being followed. He was expected to identify when he was being followed and what to do about it. Ian always felt a tingling in his nerves whenever he was, although that wasn't the Lucian way to identify when he was being followed. And now as he stood there among the crowds of people in the busy mall, he could feel that exact feeling.

I'm being followed.

Ian scanned the environment. Teenagers his own age walking past in groups. A family with a stroller coming put of a children's store. An elderly lady at an ATM machine. A middle-aged man tapping at his smartphone. Nothing overly suspicious.

Ian shook his head dismissively and regarded that inclination as non-existant. He turned to the store and saw Natalie take about eighty-five things to the dressing room.

Oh God.

••••

Vesper Five withdrew the cash and placed it into her purse. She'd seen her target walk into a nearby store from the reflection of the window next to the ATM machine she had just used.

Vesper One underestimates for who I am. This is far too easy.

Vesper Five had noted when the boy stopped and looked around him, glancing at her for a brief moment. He was cautious, she gave him that, but not good enough to identify her.

She turned and made her way to the store Ian Kabra had entered.

Now that she had located him, Luna Amato could begin the retrevial.