Robert went into the office early. It was a Thursday. His surveillance of Matthew still showed no anomalies. He did his work and went home every day. The events of the fiasco with Genevieve had not shown any trace of manipulation, but it was obvious that it was not just random chance that broke up the date.

He had really pushed Matthew to go on the date. It was getting harder to cover for his missions with Skip. Matthew was going to catch on at some point. He even found the malware that was being used on that server. The same infestation had been showing up on servers in several corporations. None of the companies shared data, and had no direct vectors for the contamination. That either meant that the vector was an unknown connection, or they had all been infiltrated by the same person or persons.

Robert’s cybersecurity consultancy was his best kept secret to everyone who did not work with him. Everyone else saw him going to an events planning company. The amusing part was that even the cybersecurity consultancy was a cover for his more interesting activities.

He and Skip would be doing some light breaking and entering this evening. If it went well, they could enjoy a nice date after.

There was a knock on his door that broke into his speculation about a rendezvous with his man. “Come in!”

In came Skip in his charcoal grey suit. His white shirt and dark blue tie were the epitome of the conservative male. His six foot frame was broad enough to require a slight sideways turn of his body to fit his shoulders through the opening. “Hi boss! Are we on for tonight? By the way, I have concert tickets for tomorrow night.” The big grin softened the image cast by his clean shaven head. Skip and Robert had been a thing for the last three years and it was the worst kept secret in the company. That was fine with their staff, there was never a conflict when work had to be done.

Tonight was going to be a fun little romp. There were three primary targets that related to his investigation.

Robert enjoyed the view as Skip waved and strutted out of his office. He knew the strut was a show for him.

Tonight’s first target was the lab where the implant had last been seen, before showing up on Matt’s wrist. Word had it that the last test subject was still comatose. Her unique value to the CEO could raise issues with the investigation.

The second target would be the recovery site where the materials for the implant were discovered. It had crashed to earth in a meteorite. It had been recovered by  research team that had tracked the path of its fall.

The third target was the unknown person who had swooped in and snagged the prototype from his contact. The description that had been given was not the most unique. At least there were suspects in the area.

A prominent suspect was some junk dealer named Bob. Too bad a record check showed Bob as deceased. He ran afoul of a gang several weeks before the prototype went missing. Oddly, the locals swore his storefront was still open and doing a brisk business.

Obviously, somebody was squatting in the store and using the stock and money left behind to fund their own activities. The landlord was indifferent, as long as the rent was paid.

Surveillance video from the block where the store was located showed the ‘new Bob’ doing his opening each morning. His routine did include meeting with some ‘questionable’ individuals on a regular basis. He would buy items from gangs and sell them to other gangs. Stolen property changed hands in his store frequently enough that it was amazing the police had not come down on old Bob.