The Target

The viinerine was never really any good at the dining facility, but today it looked particularly subpar. Nevertheless, Verelan carries a lukewarm tray of the uninspiring dish as she approaches a small table in the corner with a single occupant who is doing a poor job of pretending to read whatever is on his tablet. With a practiced casualness, she clears her throat and gestures towards the vacant chair.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asks the man sitting at the table. He seems somewhat surprised by her. Clearly, she is not quite what he was expecting.

"Uh, not at all. Please, have a seat." He speaks with a hint of nervousness and uncertainty. Clearly, he was more comfortable spending his midday meal in solitude, but, just as she predicted, he would not turn down the company of a woman that fit his definition of attractiveness so precisely. She places her tray on the table, taking care to bend at just the right angle to display her physical aspects that he would likely find the most alluring, and slips into the vacant seat across from him.

With some apparent difficulty, the young man tries to focus again on his tablet. Verelan gives him as sincere of a smile as she can manufacture and pretends to enjoy her meal.

"The, uh, the viinerine looks good today," he stammers. Verelan could not tell if he was simply uncomfortable speaking to women he found attractive or if he had never attempted subterfuge in person before. Still, he gave the correct signal.

"Indeed, I should ask for their recipe." His eyes widen slightly as she gives the agreed upon response. "It is good to finally meet you in person... Daehlen, is it?"

He seems a bit taken aback that she would know his name. Then she points at the ID badge he is still wearing.

"Oh, right.” He fumbles to remove the badge and stuffs it in his pocket. “Nice to meet you too, umm..." he says a little nervously.

"Verelan. My name is Verelan." She smiles disarmingly. Smiling was one of the more difficult things for her to learn to do convincingly. It seems to be enough to put Daehlen at ease though.

"Verelan, that’s a lovely name."

"Well, thank you, Daehlen." Her cheeks blush with a very pleasing shade of green. She had spent countless hours training the blood vessels in her cheeks to dialate on command like that, but it was necessary to simulate an authentic emotional response.

Verelan continues making idle conversation with Daehlen until the end of the midday meal. She had already been watching him for several days and knew he found her attractive, and she played on that advantage now. Whenever he said something, she would smile. Whenever she paused, she made sure to tilt her head and brush her fingertips through her hair and across the delicately pointed tip of her ear. More than once, she would lean forward conspiratorially and whisper something that may be considered borderline treasonous if overheard. She always used statements he had anonymously expressed on the underground commnet message boards where she had first contacted him, but his attention was not only on her words. Clearly, he was also admiring how she left her lips moist and slightly parted when she was done speaking, and how her neckline would dip to reveal just a little more skin than convention would normally allow.

"I have to get back to work now, or my office overseer will have my head." Verelan stands up and casually taps in a personal comm number into Daehlen's tablet before picking up her tray. "I would love to see you again, perhaps somewhere where we can talk more freely."

"I would like that," he says and tilts his eyes towards the tablet for an instant to indicate the number.

She gives him a wink as she turns towards the food reclamator to deposit her tray, letting her hips sway just enough to be certain he keeps his attention on her as she walks away.

Target acquired.