“Excusez-moi,” someone said in a young voice. (Excuse me.)  “I didn’t see you.” 

Jimmy steadied himself, while his jaw muscles bulged. After taking a quick breath he turned to find out who the idiot was who almost destroyed his phone. 

The skirt that went to just above her knees, white headphones, and that growing bubble gum balloon threw him off entirely. When it popped he snapped out of it, and remembered what he was up to. 

“I… uh…” Jimmy said. “Nevermind.”

“You dropped your phone, Sir,” she said. 

In the background he heard some headphones thumping. It was some dance number that was making waves in the area. Apparently some local deejay remixed an old song from the Roaring Twenties, ramped up the beat and was being called a musical genius for it. 

The music was getting louder, and louder. Until he nearly fell over. Jimmy grabbed onto a railing and dropped his phone in the process. The device bounced on the brick sidewalk several times before landing screen up and lit. 

“Excusez-moi,” someone said in a young voice. (Excuse me.)  “I didn’t see you.”

Neither showed the tells expected of a vampire. Lack of breathing, and hard to catch tells like the vampire’s face blurring as though looking at two places at once. You’d think this was a young lesbian couple out on a honeymoon. 

Still, he did his duty and took several shots of the couple. He remembered watching old movies where spies had large cameras to do this. Now all he needed was a purpose built compact lens and his phone.

He looked down at his phone and cycled through the shots and videos. He had seen more interesting footage in a romantic movie. Then spices used for these dishes wafted in his direction, teasing his empty stomach. 

In the distance he could see the blue iridescent glow of the algae. While life on the surface of the planet was slowly being choked into extinction, those along the sea could still get by without a mask. 

He shuffled his feet a few times to get some circulation back in his legs. He had been standing at this spot for what felt like an hour. However, it was the best vantage point he had of his two targets. 

“I’m not sure where they got their intelligence from,” Jimmy muttered. 

Nothing about this situation made any sense to him. His target was supposed to be some high level vampire and her human girlfriend, but both were spending their time tasting an assortment of Indian dishes paired with expensive French wines.

It was early evening and the weather was oppressive. Despite it being late November the temperature was a steady twenty-two celsius with a humidity that made clothes feel like they were just pulled from the washer. Five years ago they would still get snow around this time. 

At least Jimmy Cooke did not have to wear his rebreather.  A device that recycled exhaled air for extended periods of time outside. Most relied on manual versions that took a few minutes of steady breathing to output air, whereas newer models stored a usable supply.