Haley was about to leave but the mention of an Augur was enough to pique his interest, ‘What exactly could be in this store that they had to predict fate to discover?’ He thought with intrigue but also a hint of confusion as he thought back to the frail old man who ran the store, there seemed to be nothing special about him at first glance.

Haley ordered a drone to come recon the area, luckily because he was only a short walk away from his base it was only a short few minutes later that one arrived and began to scout the area from above as he ordered.

He felt much safer now that he had aerial recon for the surroundings, he wouldn’t be caught off guard by anyone else who came for whatever the item was that they were looking for.

He crossed the street and sat on the street like a beggar, an easy appearance to pull off after he made a few tears in his jacket and rubbed it in dirt on the ground before putting it back on. It wasn’t a perfect disguise, but it did the job for anyone who wasn’t observing too closely to begin with.

With everything set he set the drone to alert him if anyone approached his physical body and integrated himself into the CCTV network of the store to observe what they were doing on the inside.

…

“Welcome dear customers, what can I do for you today?” The old mans eyes lit up upon seeing the well-dressed appearance of the woman as she stepped into his shop, ‘Two rich customers in a single day! Hahah, fortune is finally favouring this old man!’ He thought giddily as he put on a humble smile and stepped towards them.

As he stepped forward however, he was blocked by Winston who’s hulking figure caused the old man to take a small step back in retreat. “Ah, I’m sorry dear customers! Please don’t mind this old man I was just too enthusiastic, please understand.” He pleaded, bowing slightly as he thought that he might’ve offended these customers unintentionally.

The lady, Sarah, shook her head and sighed before motioning for Winston to move out of her way – begrudgingly the man stepped aside and allowed for her to step forward, “I’m sorry for my bodyguards actions, he’s rather overprotective – please raise your body, please consider your age elder I don’t deserve such respect.” She said kindly and gently grabbed his hand.

The old mans expression eased up considerably although the glare from Winston behind her caused him to flinch, understandable considering the obvious hostility in his eyes. The old man guessed that if he made just one suspicious move, he would be a cold corpse by the end of the day with no one to mourn him or know that he had left this world.

“Y-yes, thank you miss. Is there anything I can do for you today?” He asked politely while pulling his hand back, the satisfied smile of the bodyguard behind her didn’t go unnoticed when he did this. He heaved a small sigh of relief before smiling and waiting for her response.

Sarah didn’t see anything wrong with this and thought for a second before replying, “Have you seen this stone?” She asked politely before pulling out a small holo-display from her pocket, the picture of a crystal appeared – a familiar purple crystal rippled on the screen, the eerie purple glow caused Haley’s heart to speed up even when observing through the cameras.

Subconsciously, his hand moved to his front pocket out of instinct. He had almost forgotten that it existed, when his hand brushed against his front pocket, he felt the pouch which the crystal was contained in and sighed after realising it was still there.

Although he felt the situation getting more dangerous for him every second longer he stayed there was still nothing being reported by his drone so he continued to watch, his curiosity was outweighing the potential danger of lingering around longer so he continued to watch the situation unfold.

“This is…?” The old man asked with hesitation as he looked at the purple crystal, “I’m sorry miss but we don’t sell such high-class gems here, would you like me to suggest a few local gem stores that I can personally vouch for or I could eve-“

“Don’t play games with us old man.” The old man was interrupted by the gruff voice of the bodyguard who once again stepped forward, using his figure to intimidate the old man, Sarah sighed and shook her head before once again pushing Winston out of the way.

“He’s telling the truth Winston; he’s never seen something like this before.” She said with a troubled expression, “Now step back, or are you doubting my abilities?”

Winston winced at this and took a step back behind her quickly, “I’m sorry sir, he can be rather hot headed – please, take this as compensation.” She said while handing him a small blue crystal chip, “This is?” He asked in confusion as he turned the chip over in his hands.

There was a small, ‘1’ Hologram on the surface of either side of the chip and small complex engravings along the sides that normal engravers or machines wouldn’t be able to achieve.

“Oh, I forgot that most people of this planet have never seen a Val Chip – I apologise.” She said before briefly explaining how the old man could use the chip and how much it was worth to him, “A Val Chip is another official currency of the universe but unlike Luna they can be used across the Universe rather than just the Federation, this Val chip is worth one-million Luna please exchange it at a Ilunas Bank, there should be one in the central colony dome.” She said with a smile.

“Thank you miss! If there’s anything you need please just ask!” He said enthusiastically as he looked at the chip with a greedy glint in his eye.

“Would you kindly let my bodyguard search the store briefly? We have reason to believe that the item we’re looking for is in this store.” She said politely, but Winston didn’t wait for a response before beginning to move around the store using a device that began to scan the direction, he pointed in it in depth before moving to another section of the room.

The old man simply moved to the side with a smile, he wasn’t offended at all considering everything in the room in total was worth less than 10% of the money that he had just gained for doing absolutely nothing.

A few minutes later Winston returned with a sour face and shook his head, Sarah looked disappointed but unsurprised.

“I’m sorry that you didn’t find what you’re looking for, if I could be of any other help please tell me.” The old man said to the two of them.

Sarah looked troubled but asked another question absentmindedly, “Was there somewhere else here before us?”

The old man thought for a second, hesitating, before saying, “There was a young man here before, he paid 50,000 Luna outright, he was in a black jacket and seemed to want to be seen as little as possible – you must’ve seen him come out of the alleyway on the side right? He couldn’t have gone far, he had two bed frames and mattresses with him.” The old man easily gave Haley up to them, which wasn’t so surprising considering the money he had just gained for practically nothing.

“Winston, can you track him?” Sarah asked suddenly as she immediately walked towards the front door of the store, Winston didn’t respond and instead rushed ahead of her quickly moving out of the store.

Haley cursed but stayed where he was, hoping they wouldn’t spot him across the street and instead silently ordered #01 to fly to his location. He was nervous as he watched Winston come rushing out of the door, #01 was merely a minute away but that could be enough time for them to notice him.
A few seconds passed.

Winston took out his scanner device and started to scan the alleyway – Haley saw holographic footprints appear, his footprints. He cursed as he watched them follow them quickly, luckily, he had walked a few tens of meters from the store giving him enough time to move into another alleyway to his side before they realised, he had crossed the street and backtracked.

Just as he was running down the alleyway, “Stop!” He heard the gruff voice of the woman’s bodyguard behind him and the echoing of his footsteps as he rushed towards him.

‘Come on #01’ He thought as he continued to run, their speed seemed equally matched and despite his gun he didn’t want to risk offending whoever these people were for the time being.

There chase lasted exactly thirty seconds before Haley saw #01 descend before him, quickly he jumped on just as Winston turned the corner to see him lift off into the sky. “Dammit!” He heard the man curse, but Haley had already reached high into the sky and disappeared.

…

“He managed to escape you?” Sarah asked with a look of surprise, “How?”

“He had a hover drone waiting for him, he literally flew away.” He said depressingly before opening the door of the car for her, she chuckled bitterly and shook her head before getting inside. “Mother really isn’t going to like this.”

…

Back at his base Haley was oblivious to the troubles he had brought upon the woman and her bodyguard, despite him being somewhat worried about today he was more than happy to forget about his problems for a short period of time and collapse onto a bed with a satisfied expression as he drifted off to sleep.

Haley, fortunately, had not forgotten Antares and the kid and been placed onto a bed – despite the lack of covers and pillows the comfort from the mattress was still considerably warmer than the cold floor he was laying on beforehand.