Sixteen blocks away, its urban camouflage hiding it in the shadows of the Carnation building, a Catalano 625-VS surveillance drone responded to Allyce’s cybernetic commands. The small infrared laser mounted on it shifted to re-target Cortez’s waterglass as he put it down again. Fractions of a second after he removed his hand, the laser was once again measuring the minute vibrations that the voices of Cortez and the other man made in the glass. A second laser targeted the nearby guardrail, measured the frequencies of the wind vibrations present in it, and filtered them out of the main signal. The transmission was more than clear enough for reception by the equipment in the hotel room. A high-definition video camera recorded the conversation internally, but beamed back a low-res picture for immediate viewing.