Chapter 463: Debugged
As soon as Mina and Mills finished eating, their waiter came to stand beside them, wearing an expression that said he was expecting them to make excuses on why they were not ready to pay. Mina produced her card, but Mills insisted on having Drax pick up the tab. She handed the waiter Drax's black card and the man looked at her accusingly.
"I will have to confirm this," he said, and Mills, having no idea what the norm was in Pan, started to write down Drax's number, but Mina interjected.
"Why?" she asked, "Show me something that says that credit card purchases have to be confirmed." The man glared at Mina, and she knew it was because he did not feel the need to explain to her.
"It is not the store policy," he admitted. The waiter felt no need to mince his words, because just looking at the women, he could tell they were nothing. It took Mills a second, but when she realized what was happening, she turned red in embarrassment, but Mina patted the table, letting the woman know that the only person who would be embarrassed was the man who judged them.
"I want your manager," Mina said coolly. The waiter scoffed and walked away. Not long after, another man arrived and while he smiled, Mina knew that he was also looking down on them. She did not give him a chance to speak before she did.
"According to Pan's DL-127A, discrimination is classified as…" Mina recited the full discrimination law code definition before continuing her sentence. "I asked this gentleman to show me something that says he had to confirm my friend's card before allowing her to use it, and he informed me that there was none. Would you say that I am wrong in classifying his actions as discrimination?" The manager looked perplexed. The woman before him seemed like an average person, but there was something in her speech that carried authority and he was afraid to pick a side.
"We leave that discretion up to our staff," the man said as a copout.
"I see," Mina said. "Then go ahead and confirm it," Mina made a gesture, and Mills handed her card to the manager who gasped when he read the name printed on it. He pulled his waiter to the side and returned with a flushed face.
"Ladies, I do apologize for the misunderstanding. We will make sure to issue the correct disciplinary measure on our staff that violates Pan law now and in the future. To show our sincerity, your meal is complimentary." Mina smirked and nodded, but Mills seemed unsatisfied.
The women left the restaurant, and Mina could see that Mills was struggling to rein herself in. Mina had experience with that sort of anger, so she gently redirected the woman by reminding her how thoughtful Drax had been; it was after all the truth. Drax had chosen the restaurant in which they ate, and she was sure he had done so because it belonged to close associates of the Lee family and he probably foresaw Mills having issues using his card.
The information served to calm Mills, but then her expression changed to one of sadness. Mina knew it was because she felt out of place, so she told the woman about her own experience at the Foxshire mall. The story did not help, and suddenly Mills wanted to go fight the old security guard who was involved.
"How do you stand it?" Mills asked. She had been waiting to question Mina about it since the night before. If left up to her, that Lisa woman would have had her nose restructured, but Drax kept telling her to let the situation play out.
"I use it as motivation to work harder."
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An hour later, the women wandered into a cellphone shop that was in a less prominent part of town. Mina asked for a specific device, and then asked if she could borrow a tool kit. Mills was curious as she watched Mina open a brand-new phone and remove several pieces from the inside before screwing the whole thing together.
"What did you do?" Mills asked, and Mina told her that she had removed the GPS locator from the device and the functionality limiter. Mills suddenly looked at her phone and Mina smirked.
"Let me guess; Drax gave that to you?" Mills nodded before Mina continued. "I can bet he uses it to track you." Mills slid her phone in front of Mina, who went to work in taking it apart. She gasped when she saw what was in Mills' phone.
"What is it?" Mills asked.
"It's a chip, but it's not a part of the phone. It was added, and it has a microphone. It doesn't appear to be active though." As Mina spoke, the nosey clerk handed her a thin tool with a magnetic tip. Mina used it to scramble the chip's signal, while she used a small screwdriver to remove it. Once done, she handed Mills her debugged phone.
"Shall we have some fun?" Mills asked, and she borrowed duct tape from the man in the store.
Once outside, Mills jaywalked into the road and covertly stuck the chip to the back of a passing car. Mina was embarrassed that she had never thought of it. If she had, she could have gotten away months ago.
With a new connection every second, Mina was finding it increasingly difficult to break away from Mills, because the longer she stayed with the woman, the more she liked her. They walked in and out of stores buying things neither of them needed, but Mills was trying to Piss Drax off for tracking her without her permission.
"How long have you two been together?" Mina asked, feeling as though Mills should have known.
"Maybe two or three months. I don't really keep track the way Drax does." Mina was shocked to learn that the affectionate couple had only been dating a few months. Judging from the way they behaved with one another, she would have believed they had been together for years. It now made sense to Mina why Mills slept in her room. "What about you? Who is your boyfriend?" Mina turned red in embarrassment. She confessed to being single, but Mills did not believe her. She took Mina's phone and started to scroll through the numbers that had only just started to upload into the new device. "Who is Connor Boyd?"
"He is a friend of a relative."
"And friends of relatives send 'Please don't be mad at me beautiful' texts in Pan?" Mina snatched her phone back and scoured through her messages. She was livid when she saw that there were replies she knew she did not send. Enraged, Mina called Connor, inviting him to meet her at a café, confusing Mills. "I thought today was for girls?"
"Connor is pretty enough to pass for one."
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Connor approached Mina's table with a smile, but his eyes kept being pulled to Mills. She leaned toward Mina agreeing that the man did look like a woman, and Connor, who spoke the Sani language, replied in his typical fashion.
"If you don't believe that I am a man, I can show you." He winked at Mills, who chuckled, unfazed by the risqué comment. Mina who was beginning to flush, quickly intervened, because she had not called Connor over to watch him flirt. She needed to use him as a distraction.
Mina apologized for the messages she 'sent' him throughout the week, telling the man that she lost her phone and somebody else was responsible. The man looked relieved, and then he, unsurprisingly, asked her if their deal was still on, all the while eying Mills. Mina smiled and excused herself to the restroom. She felt bad, but she knew Mills could handle herself and she needed to get away quickly.