Eyes in the crowd
572 Words
Chapter 17
Eyes in the Crowd
Saturday afternoon was unusually peaceful.
After leaving the study center, Nadia and Ethan decided to walk through a nearby park before heading home.
The streets were busy with families, street vendors, and university students enjoying the weekend.
"So," Ethan said, "our presentation is almost done."
Nadia nodded.
"Just a few corrections and we'll be finished."
"I still can't believe we completed it this early."
"We planned well."
"I guess we make a good team."
She smiled.
"I guess we do."
As they continued walking, Nadia's smile faded almost imperceptibly.
She felt it.
Someone was watching them.
She didn't turn her head.
She didn't slow her pace.
Instead, she casually looked at the reflection in a shop window.
A woman wearing sunglasses stood across the street, pretending to browse her phone.
Another man sat on a parked motorcycle a short distance away.
Neither looked directly at her.
But Nadia knew.
They weren't ordinary pedestrians.
She continued walking as though she had noticed nothing.
"What are you thinking about?" Ethan asked.
She glanced at him and smiled.
"Nothing important."
"You've gone quiet."
"Just enjoying the weather."
Ethan accepted the answer without questioning her further.
Nadia, however, was already studying every movement around them.
The woman adjusted her sunglasses.
The motorcyclist checked his watch.
Both remained in position.
Interesting, Nadia thought.
They're watching... but they're keeping their distance.
She decided not to react.
If they believed she hadn't noticed them, they were more likely to make a mistake.
Across the street, Vanessa lowered her phone.
"I got several pictures."
Clara looked uneasy.
"I don't like this anymore."
"Relax."
"We're only watching them."
"But why?"
Vanessa slipped her phone into her handbag.
"I want to know everything about Nadia."
"Where she goes."
"Who she meets."
"What she's hiding."
Clara sighed.
"I still think you're taking this too far."
Vanessa ignored her.
Her attention remained fixed on Nadia.
She never realized that Nadia had already identified her reflection in the shop window.
Later that evening...
Nadia arrived home.
She greeted her father and brother before helping prepare dinner.
"You seem distracted," her father observed.
"I'm just tired."
He smiled gently.
"You work too hard."
"I'll rest after Convocation."
"You've been saying that for months."
She laughed softly.
"I mean it this time."
Her father chuckled.
"I'll hold you to that."
Meanwhile, Ethan sat in his bedroom, staring at the security logs on his laptop.
The mysterious intrusion still bothered him.
He enlarged a digital map showing every device that had come within range of his computer over the past week.
Most of them belonged to students.
One...
Didn't.
"No name."
"No registered owner."
"No device history."
He frowned.
"Who are you?"
He saved the information into an encrypted folder.
Whatever this person wanted...
They hadn't given up.
Outside Nadia's apartment building...
The motorcyclist from earlier stopped beneath a streetlight.
He removed his helmet and spoke quietly into a wireless earpiece.
"I've watched her all day."
A calm voice answered.
"Did she notice?"
The man looked toward Nadia's apartment window.
"I don't think so."
High above, behind the curtain of her bedroom window, Nadia stood silently.
She had seen him arrive.
She had heard the motorcycle stop.
And she had watched him without revealing herself.
A faint smile crossed her face.
"You should have walked away," she whispered.
She closed the curtain.
For now...
She would let him believe he was invisible.
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