Page 68 of Enthraller
She felt a sudden surge in anticipation. Could they be headed to the warehouse that was storing whatever it was their enemies were trying so desperately to hide?
Up ahead, she noticed a few boxes stacked almost in a staircase up the side of a building the cafe owner had just passed, and her nanos urged her to use them to get up onto the roof and follow her quarry from above.
It was a good point.
If the cafe owner looked back now, she was the only person he’d see. They were alone on the street, with the warehouses in this part of the neighborhood obviously either used for long term storage, or the laser strike at the hover port had closed things down for the day.
She accelerated, running silently at the boxes, and then leaped up onto them. Four big jumps and she was on the roof, moving down a solid beam that ran along the front of the building.
The jump from one warehouse to the next was easy. There was only enough room between each one for waste disposal services access and a fire exit.
She caught up to her man quickly and slowed so she was walking just behind him.
He turned at the first intersection he came to, and for a moment she feared he would cross the street and she would need to find a way off the warehouse she was standing on.
But instead, once he was around the corner, he stopped, faced the building she was standing on, and knocked.
A door opened, and he stepped inside.
Wren turned to look at the roof, hoping for a way to peer inside, or at least listen to what was being said.
The roof had a steep pitch, like most buildings in Demeter. They needed it to deal with the torrential rain they got each year.
She walked up the slope, careful to be as silent as possible, and eventually she stood right at the peak, hands on hips, and admitted defeat. There was no way to get a look inside.
She moved back down to the side entrance the cafe owner had used, just in time to see him slip out and close the door quietly behind him.
She watched him go, wondering if she should keep following him, but eventually decided seeing who else was in the building would be more useful.
She crouched down and then sat cross-legged, settling in mentally for a long wait, but the door opened again almost immediately.
She rose up to her feet, and saw a woman with hair caught low on her nape in an elegant bun, her clothing dark and sophisticated.
Wren followed her back toward the city from the roof, then stopped to wait for her to get a bit ahead before she jumped down the staircase of boxes, in case she made a noise.
The street was empty but at least it was growing dark. Still, if the woman turned around and saw Wren, she would know she had been followed.
When she was far enough ahead, Wren quietly dropped down, taking the boxes carefully, and then sprinted to the corner.
The woman was gone.
Wren kept herself pressed against the wall, aware that she would give herself away if she ran into the street to look for her quarry. She searched for a few more moments, wondering if it would be worth doing that, anyway.
But patience rewarded her. She caught sight of the woman, finally.
She had crossed to the other side of the street and the long shadows of dusk had hidden her as she stood very still, looking into the window of a building a little way down from the corner.
Was she really interested in what was in that window display, or had she picked up that someone was following her, and was waiting to catch their reflection in the glass?
Suddenly, though, as if she was nervous, the woman straightened her shoulders and moved a little to her right, walking up a few steps to the door of the building. Wren expected her to touch the comms set on the side of the door but instead she simply pulled it open and disappeared inside.
Wren waited for a while, watching the shadows lengthen, and then finally she crossed the street and walked past the window.
It was a fabric shop, which looked like it had been closed for a few months at least. There was dust on the inside of the window, and the rolls of fabric on display had fallen over, lying in a haphazard fashion on the wooden floor.
Interesting.
She kept going, speeding up as soon as she was out of sight.
