Vess didn’t arrive with the crowd, she blended into it. By the time the Senator stepped onto the stage and the attention of thousands tilted forward in neat, expectant lines, she was already there, just another face in motion. Nothing about her stood out. Her clothing was clean but unremarkable, fitted well enough to belong without drawing the eye, the kind of look people glanced past without thinking. Even her posture helped, relaxed but aware, present without ever asking to be noticed.
Her hazel eyes moved constantly, but never sharply. She wasn’t scanning so much as absorbing, letting the scene build itself piece by piece in her mind. The speech carried across the plaza in polished phrases about unity and progress, but it barely held her attention. What mattered was everything around it. The way people shifted, where they clustered, where they thinned out, where attention naturally gathered, and where it didn’t.
Security came first. It always did.
The crimson uniforms were obvious, almost intentionally so, standing at key intersections and drifting through the wider avenues in slow, predictable patterns. That was for the crowd, something visible to reassure and deter. Vess’s gaze lifted briefly toward the surrounding architecture, tracking lines of sight, vantage points, the places someone would watch without being seen. That was where the real coverage would be. Passive systems, likely layered, maybe even adaptive depending on density and movement.
Her attention shifted back down, moving with the flow of people as she drifted past the smaller booths. Vendors, tourists, off-worlders with too much curiosity and not enough awareness. Hands full, eyes wandering, attention fractured in a dozen directions at once. Easy targets. Too easy. Vess let her gaze pass over them without slowing. That kind of work was quick, low risk, low reward. Not worth the effort here.
The larger pavilions were different. Corporate presence meant better tech, better data, and significantly more value. It also meant tighter systems and people who would notice if something went wrong. Her pace slowed just slightly as she let herself be carried closer, eyes tracking entry points, internal layout glimpses through open displays, staff positioning. Patterns.
Then her attention shifted beyond it all, toward the central island.
The ship designs sat in a clean ring, each one polished and presented like a promise. Concept proofs, unreleased systems, fresh designs that hadn’t been picked apart yet. That was where the real money was. Specs, architecture, proprietary tech. The kind of data people didn’t just buy, they fought over.
And the kind of place that would be watched carefully.
Vess adjusted her path without making it obvious, letting the crowd carry her toward one of the larger pavilions as her fingers brushed lightly along her sleeve where her interface rested, still inactive. No need to move too soon. Rushing got people caught. Her gaze drifted once more across the crowd, then back toward the ships in the distance, something thoughtful settling behind her expression.
There was money here.
A lot of it.
She just needed to decide how she wanted to take it. And not get caught of course.
TAG: OPEN
Indirect TAG:
Lily Rhodes
