The café was small, the facade dark blue. It was tucked into the corner of a much older building, facing out towards the Thames. A small chalkboard sign outside advertised their daily specials.

" There's no legal limit on caffeine intake?" Christel asked, leering at it.

" Quit acting out of place and come inside with me," Allen said, opening the door.

" Whatever," Christel huffed at him.

It was warmer inside, and there was contemporary music echoing out from tinny speakers. Allen took a table in the back corner, watching the rest of the café.

" What's the time? Can you get a map of the city infrastructure?" he asked.

Christel scoffed a little bit, taking off his jacket before he sat down.

" 10:34. And yes. The electronics of this era are incredibly easy to access, the security is so primitive..."

" What time did the eyewitness say that Marian was here?"

" We should be within the correct timeframe..."

" What do you want to drink?"

Christel paused, looking up at him.

" I don't have to consume anything from this era, do I?" he asked, a measure of distaste evident.

" We can't just sit here without ordering anything," Allen said.

He made a face.

" I guess it doesn't matter, it's going to taste bad anyway," he said, eyes focusing as he went back to browsing the contemporary electronics. " I have access to about 75% of security cameras within the city. Should I run a facial ID match scan?"

It seemed superfluous, but Allen agreed to it anyway.

" Mm, we need to see how accurate our identification data is," he said. " I'm going to go place our order."

He got up and approached the counter, looking up and down the chalkboard menu. Coffee. Brunch. Ideas he was familiar with theoretically, now ideas he had to contend with practically.

He ordered, gave the apathetic barista their names, and went back to his seat.

" Find anything?" he asked.

" 99% probability that an individual positively identified as Marian Lu will be here within ten minutes," Christel said. " She's coming down the next street over with a group."

" Place a temporal pin on her for later," Allen said. " Run ID on the people she's with and give me some short descriptions."

" Anna Hampton. 23. Graduate student. Employed at Hathcomb's, the same financial firm as Marian Lu. Eye witness testimony on file. Suman Biswas. 23. Graduate student. Employed at Hathcomb's. Eye witness testimony on file. Liza Ellington. 24. Graduate student. Employed at their college's Student Resources office. No eye witness testimony on file. Stewart Cauling. 27. Night security guard at Hathcomb's. Eye witness testimony on file. Case data indicates he was- is- Marian Lu's partner. David Long. 26. Graduate student. Employed at Hardworth, a financial firm. Case data indicates he is Suman Biswas's partner. No eye witness testimony on file," Christel rattled off.

" Put a temporal pin on Stewart Cauling," Allen said. " Do you have full internet access? Go look into Hathcomb's private servers before their group gets here."

" Yes," Christel said, and he rubbed his temple. " Give me a break for a moment. I'm not used to this body yet. It's a lot of data to sift through."

" That's fine," Allen said.

Christel's eyes snapped out of internal focus, and he leaned back in his seat with a deep sigh.

Neither of them spoke for a minute.

A woman's voice called out their names, so Allen went up to get their drinks. By the time he returned, Christel was working again.

" Company records indicate that Marian Lu's job performance was suboptimal," he said. " They have scheduled a call to terminate her employment at 12:30."

An obnoxiously loud 'ding' went off, apparently for both of them.

" New evidence recovered! +500 credits!" a featureless, smooth voice said, accompanied by a text pop-up on Allen's optic contact. " First development! +500 credits! First case development! +250 credits!"

" God, that's annoying. Can we turn that off?" he asked.

" Unfortunately, no," Christel said. " I can turn the volume down. Let me check the payment settings..."

He took the drink that Allen had ordered for him, and grimaced as he drew a sip from it.

" Horrible," he said.

" You said it didn't matter what you got," Allen told him. " It's a decaf soy latte."

" I don't understand how people used to drink this shit all the time," Christel groused, eyes still flicking through data.

" Is there anything else of notice in their company records?" Allen asked him.

" Stewart Cauling isn't scheduled to work for another two days," Christel said. " Anna Hampton and Suman Biswas are both scheduled for tomorrow."

Slightly quieter notifications helpfully informed him he'd earned more credits by collecting evidence; he did his best to ignore them.

" Run a forward check on Stewart Cauling to see if he ever engaged in any violent offenses during his lifetime," Allen said, watching the door. It wouldn't be long before they arrived.

Christel blinked, and made to do so.

" Ten years from now he's convicted in a serious domestic violence incident, and divorced," he said. " What made you think to check that?"

Allen absently tapped the side of his head.

" That's why observers are natural state, Christel," he said. " Cybernetics can't make up for intuition."

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