Chapter 107: Discussing Anti-Espionage Over Takeout Is Apparently the Norm Now

They picked up takeout on the way back to Magnus’s basement dorm from a Vietnamese place Jade had recommended, tucked a few streets off campus, the kind of hole-in-the-wall that smelled better than it looked. Magnus balanced the drinks and containers while Alex unlocked his door, and they settled onto the floor with plastic boxes spread between them, the rich aroma of lemongrass, stir-fried vegetables, and fish sauce filling the small room.

“It’s bothering me,” Alex said, halfway through a spring roll, still visibly stewing over their failure at the café. “It’s like they knew what we were going to do before we did it.” She pointed her chopsticks at him. “Tuesday, they were already prepared for the way I was probing them. Today, we show up at their supposed date and suddenly they’ve got an executive Council briefing ready to go. It doesn’t feel like these are just coincidences, it feels like—”

She suddenly stopped, her eyes widening as she considered the possibilities.

At the same time, Magnus was probably entertaining the same idea Alex had just put in his head when a familiar chime of a System Notification sounded in his head and the quest menu popped up.

He stared at the updated Hidden Objective line for three full seconds before his phone buzzed with a new message notification.

Magnus pulled his phone out, glanced at it, looked up at Alex in confusion, back down at his phone, then back at her again. She simply nodded and gestured for him to read his messages.

Alex: Don’t say anything out loud.

Alex: I think your room MIGHT be bugged.

Alex: I know that sounds paranoid.

Alex: But humor me, on the off chance I’m onto something…

He glanced around his room, considered it seriously for a moment, then texted back:

Magnus: You might be onto something.

Magnus: The System just revealed the Hidden Objective for Emily.

Magnus: “Find out how Emily Carter knows your plans!”

Alex stared at his last message for several seconds, popped another bite into her mouth as she glanced around the room, then replied to the message.

Alex: Okay. That’s definitely not helping my paranoia.

Out loud, she said, in a light and conversational tone, “Anyway, I think we should try that place again next week. Maybe get the pho instead of the spring rolls.”

“It’s pronounced ‘phở,’ according to Jade,” he corrected her.

“Pho.” She tried to say it.

“Phở. You gotta move your tongue like this, see?”

Alex: Really?

Magnus: Hey, I’m not you! I’m just looking for literally anything to say here.

Alex: Fine. Whatever. Keep talking. And keep eating. But think back with me.

Out loud, she made another attempt at the word. He corrected her again.

Alex: The first time it seemed like they were always steps ahead of us, it was Tuesday, right?

Alex: And we planned that here, on Monday.

Magnus: Yeah.

Another attempt. Another correction.

Alex: But they were totally caught off-guard when I improvised that ambush on the fly on Wednesday.

Alex: And they both hesitated, even got nervous yesterday when I invited them over for dinner.

Magnus: Right. And we made that plan in your room.

Alex: Actually, this is stupid. I’m gonna change the subject.

Magnus: Huh?

Alex: Not here. I mean… I’m not taking Vietnamese lesson from you right now!

“So, remember that Chinese place Sofia recommended like almost two months ago?”

“Yeah?”

“Which place has food better suited to your taste, babe?”

Alex: But today, it seemed like they knew we were coming after them again.

Alex: And we only made that plan last night.

Alex: Right after Jordan told me about it right here actually!

Alex: Hang on! I need to check something. Say something while I do it.

“I mean, you can’t really compare it like that, Alex,” Magnus started, clearly thinking as he kept rambling on. “One place is Chinese while the other place is Vietnamese. The cuisine and palette might be similar but it’s still two countries, babe…”

Alex, meanwhile, was texting Jordan.

Alex: Hey, quick question. Who was your source for the Emily and Dash café date intel?

Alex: Any chance it could have been leaked from your end?

Alex: Because they somehow knew we were coming.

A reply didn’t come back immediately. Instead, Jordan called.

Alex swiped to answer, lifting the phone to her ear without putting it on speakerphone, ensuring the content of the call wouldn’t be caught by any surveillance that might be in the room.

“Hey,” she said easily.

“What happened?”

Alex bit her lower lip. “Remember that game we played when we were kids, when our dads were just a few feet away?”

A pause from Jordan’s side, then: “You think you could be overheard right now by people you don’t want overhearing?”

“Something like that.”

Another pause. “Alright, you owe me an explanation later. But to answer your question, no. Remember that guy my dad assigned to tail and protect me? I’ve been… occasionally having him run special errands for me. That intel came straight from files my dad apparently keeps on all personnel and persons-of-interest from our college—it’s basically military-grade.” Jordan scoffed. “You think there’s any chance one of my dad’s people could have leaked it?”

Alex pressed her lips together, updating her understanding of her Uncle James in real time. Then, she replied, “Of course not. Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.”

She hung up the phone and immediately texted Magnus.

Alex: Info definitely didn’t leak from Jordan’s side.

Alex: Your room is likely bugged for real.

“We should clean up and throw the trash away,” Alex announced.

While she made a show of clearing the food containers, Magnus’s hands flew over his phone keyboard.

Magnus: How did they do it though? They would have to get in here during the term without anyone noticing.

Alex: Right, and it’d be even harder for them, since they’re well-known around campus.

A long moment passed in silence. Then—

Alex: What if it’s not during the term?

They shared a look and saw in each other’s eyes the same conclusion: Spring Break!

Magnus rustled the containers again before shaking his head in frustration and picking up his phone.

Magnus: This is getting ridiculous. Let’s just look for the thing so we can talk normally again!

He stood up and started looking around.

“Wait, did I drop my earring in here last night, babe?” Alex said, following his lead. “Help me look for it.”

They started looking for it: doing an initial sweep around his bed area, then the ceiling windows. Before they found anything, a shadow darted into the room through the window.

“Food!” Tony announced, then he looked around and immediately frowned. “You are eating without me, young wanderer!”

Magnus sighed. “Tony, we’re kinda in the middle of something.”

“You are always in the middle of something. This is why your training takes so long.” Tony waved one paw dismissively. “Everything can wait until you’ve offered me tribute, kid. I am hungry.”

“You’re always hungry—” Magnus started before stopping himself. “…Actually, Tony. We’re looking for something and we could use your help.”

Tony was already sitting on the ground and poking his head into one of the containers.

“Can it wait?” the raccoon said from inside the plastic box. “I’m eating!”

“Did you notice anything different since we got back from the beach house?”

“Yes,” Tony intoned as he pulled his head out of the box. “Several things.”

Magnus blinked. “Really?”

“Your habits are becoming more disappointing.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“We are omnivores, cub.” The raccoon gestured between them with a paw. “And yet you’re not eating diversely enough.”

“I’m eating enough!”

“You’re not eating enough trash.”

“Tony, I’m not gonna start eating trash!”

“We’ll see about that,” Tony said, unbothered. “Also, speaking of, you have not improved the nutritional quality of your trash.”

“Tony! I meant about the room! Is there anything different about my room?”

“Your bed is a mess. Very bad den-keeping practice! Especially since you perform your mating rituals with your main mating partner there.” He tilted his head in Alex’s direction.

Alex snorted behind him and Magnus whirled on her.

“Hey, this is not funny!” he cried out. “He meant you, you know? You’re my… main mating partner.” He rubbed his temples as he repeated that last part.

Alex was shaking with laughter now.

“Maybe bad den-keeping practice is why you haven’t produced offspring despite all the mating rituals,” the raccoon concluded.

Alex was no longer laughing.

Magnus rubbed a hand down his face and turned back to Tony. “Anything else? Anything that wasn’t here before we went on that trip to the beach?”

Tony considered the question, then stood up. He scratched behind one ear, trotted over toward the desk, and pointed a dark, agile paw at the seam where the desk met the wall near the electrical socket.

Magnus’s gaze followed the gesture. And there, tucked deep into the narrow gap near the outlet socket, obscured by electrical cords and other obstacles, was something coin-sized and matte-black, practically invisible unless you knew to look for it.

The instant Magnus’s eyes locked onto the device, the System chimed triumphantly in his head.

Come on! Give me penalty nullification! Give me penalty nullification!

Magnus groaned under his breath. Of course! It just had to be the extra power!

He stared at the power description, then glanced at the bug he’d just located, then back at the new power. This felt like too big of a coincidence.

“Well, I guess we’re about to find out what this thing does,” he muttered under his breath and focused on the new power.

A new, humming sensory layer flooded Magnus’s awareness. He could feel the faint, high-frequency electromagnetic pulse radiating from the bug’s internal battery.

He focused his mind on that tiny current vector and gave it a gentle, deliberate push.

A microscopic spark snapped inside the socket with a satisfying pop, and the bug’s faint electromagnetic pulse went dead instantly.

He glanced around the room, then turned to Tony, who had already gone back to the leftover Vietnamese food.

“Tony, is there anything else—” he started, then stopped himself, anticipating another lecture on mating rituals. “Never mind, I’ll check myself.”

He focused on the power again, sweeping his awareness across the room to search for the faint electromagnetic signatures of anything that didn’t belong.

Nothing.

He checked again just to be sure. Still nothing.

Finally, Magnus relaxed. “That seems to be the only one.”

Alex let out a slow breath. “Good.”

Magnus looked at Tony, holding up the deactivated listening device. “When did you first notice this?”

“Shortly after we returned from the beach place,” Tony said from inside the food container.

“And you didn’t tell me?!”

“You didn’t ask. I assumed it was one of your kind’s useless little trinkets. Unimportant.”

Magnus opened his mouth, closed it, then wisely decided not to further engage with Tony and simply turned toward Alex.

“Okay, so you were right,” he said. “It’s been here since Spring Break.”

She nodded. “Which means they know. Not just our plans regarding them, but… everything.”

“Right,” he agreed. “The System, the quests, our whole explanation to Jordan at the start of the week.”

“So, the question is, what are their real goals?”

“Come again?”

“Babe, think about it.” She started pacing the room. “They already knew, but they still came up to us with a recruitment pitch for the Student Council first—that was before the System pinged her. And then they’ve known this entire time our intentions toward her, but they’re not exactly malicious toward us, are they?” She stopped, turning toward him. “At least, I didn’t get that vibe from them. Did you?”

Magnus thought about it, then shook his head. “The readings from Affective Discernment finally made sense now that we know what we know. But you’re right, they didn’t seem like they held ill-intentions toward us.”

“This changes things about tomorrow, though!” Alex said. “They know what we know. They know what we’ve been doing and why we’ve been doing them. But they don’t know that we now know they know.”

Magnus stared at her. “…That sentence hurt my brain.”

“But,” he added after a moment, “I assume that means you have a plan?”

Alex opened her mouth to answer, then she looked at him and suddenly closed it again. She pressed her lips together and stared at him with an expression that was starting to make him nervous before finally saying, “Actually, what do you want to do?”

He blinked. “…Wait, what?”

“I’m serious. How do you want us to handle this?”

“Can we just…” he began, “…I don’t know, ask them for the truth?”

Alex snorted, then burst into a full-blown laugh.

“Alright, fine. Laugh. I know that’s a bad idea. Just tell me the actual plan then!”

“No, no.” She wiped her eyes with one hand while pointing at him with the other. “Let’s do exactly that!”

“Not funny, Alex!” he protested.

“I’m not kidding.” She cleared her throat, saying with her utmost serious tone. “Let’s just ask them for the truth.”