“I’m surprised you tolerate breakfast pizza. Doesn’t seem very New York-style purity or whatever.”
Shay shrugged. “If someone’s upfront about what they’re doing I’m very tolerant. Little Dom’s has two pizzas a person of taste can reasonably consume for breakfast.” She held up a finger. “One is flatbread topped with smoked salmon, crescenza cheese, capers, and red onions.” She held up a second finger. “Or, if you prefer, you can try the one with egg, speck, and mozzarella. Like I said, they are both damn good, and I’ve had them both several times.”
“Okay, you’ve convinced me, and it doesn’t sound like I have much of a choice.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I think I’ll have the second one. What about you two?”
Shay furrowed her brow. “I’m more in a salmon mood.”
“Fish on a pizza? Yuck!”
Shay rolled her eyes. “What do you think anchovies are?”
“Well, I don’t like them either.”
“I’ve never had salmon. I’ll try it,” said Lily.
“You’re both crazy.”
“You need to expand your horizons, Peyton, especially if you want to become a true master of pizza and not just a wannabe.”
Peyton snorted. “Says the woman who called Chicago-style pizza an abomination and a lot worse.”
“Chicago has their own pizza? I have a lot left to learn.” She glanced over at Shay. “No, not going to that boujee school.”
Shay smirked. “Wasn’t bringing that up. Hey, Peyton, there’s expanding your horizons, and there’s evil. I’m not a monster.”
He chuckled.
They fell into silence until the waiter returned and they placed their orders.
The tomb raider waited until their server departed to speak again. “So, you tried to burn down the warehouse, poison Lily with your pizza, and you brought your cat to work. You’re lucky I’m not allergic.”
Peyton winced. He’d not even considered the possibility.
“Anything else happen while I was gone that I should know about? You join a boy band, too?”
“I’m okay at dancing but not that great at singing.” Peyton shook his head. “And nothing much, really. I’ve been trying to look into those symbols for you using a lot of heavy-duty image-matching algorithms, but I haven’t found anything yet.”
“Not a big deal.” Shay nodded slowly. She’d held back before because she wanted to see if he stumbled onto anything without being led there. But she decided it wouldn’t hurt to nudge him onto the right track.
She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Poke around people interested in underworld alien shit. See what you can turn up for the symbols in that context.”
“Aliens? As in extraterrestrials, Oricerans, or visiting Mexican citizens?” asked Lily with a mouth full of pizza. “Whoa.”
“The first. Just see where that leads you.”
The researcher nodded, a hint of excitement in his eyes. “You found something pointing that way? You really think it’s that and not just people misinterpreting Oriceran stuff?”
“Maybe. Hard to say. Doesn’t hurt for you to check into it.” Shay picked up her coffee and took a sip. “Twenty years ago, most people were skeptical about magic being real. When the world is insane, insane explanations make a lot more sense.” She shrugged, setting down her coffee. “I find magic items for a living, and I’ve run into a lot of weird shit.”
“If this involves aliens, are you’re saying it was an alien demon you fought?” Peyton rubbed his temples. “That kind of hurts to think about.”
“I don’t know, could be. Or it could be nothing more than a crazy elf with delusions of grandeur. My…solution to the issue seemed to handle him okay.”
Peyton laughed. “You know, both of our lives used to be a lot simpler and safer. I never used to worry about things like demons, alien or otherwise.”
“Shit happens, then you die.” Shay shrugged. “And if you’re really lucky, you don’t come back as a skeleton or zombie.”
“Amen,” said Lily.
A man in a long trench coat bumped into a woman outside. Shay couldn’t make out what he was saying, but it seemed like he was apologizing. If she’d not been watching closely, she might have missed his hand sliding into the woman’s purse.
If Little Dom’s hadn’t been one of her favorite places Shay might have been impressed by the man’s pickpocketing skill, but his presence ruined what should have been an otherwise relaxing post-job victory meal.
“I have some ideas on how to improve some of our notification systems,” Peyton began. “Okay, Lily and I have some ideas. Also, if you take more time between jobs, I’ll have more time to improve things instead of having to concentrate on support and always playing catch-up.”
Shay gave him a distracted nod as she watched the pickpocket take another man’s wallet. She shot up. “You know what the problem with our world is?”
“Where did that come from? I was talking about notification systems and improving our IT resources. Is the problem with our world outdated electronic notification infrastructure?”
Lily gave him a nudge and nodded toward the door. She had noticed the same thing and kept looking back and forth between the pickpocket and the tomb raider, learning.
Shay locked her attention on the pickpocket as he entered the restaurant and made his way toward the bar. He nicked the wallet of a man at the bar while reaching over him with his other hand for a straw.
“The problem is that too many people don’t quit while they’re ahead,” Shay explained.
“Some people might say that about you.”
Shay snorted. “They’re probably right.” She grabbed her cup. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get a refill.”
“You can’t wait?”
Lily shook her head, rolling her eyes. “How are you so good at what you do and so clueless about so many other things?”
“No. I can’t. This stuff isn’t Turkish coffee,” said Shay. “It doesn’t have the same punch to keep me going.”
Shay marched to the bar and looked the opposite way. She bumped into the pickpocket.
The man grunted.
Shay let out a feigned embarrassed giggle and lowered her free hand inside his jacket.
“Sorry about that,” she offered. “I don’t even have an excuse unless I’m still drunk from last night. I should watch
