Rogue(109)

Then a moment later, the screens switched to a pan of the audience, swept from back to front then back to me. My face popped up on the screens three meters high, holding my phone. It caught me by surprise and I twitched.

I stayed right where I was, staring at the stage and looking horrified with everyone else. There was nothing else I could do. Either some camera operator had chosen my expression for the news loads, or Randall had staged it to gain extra leverage.

It wasn’t more than a second, and then a few brave souls figured out the flaming man was real and rushed the stage, which triggered most of the rest to flee screaming for the exits. I chose the exit. There was nothing I could accomplish onstage; it had gone sour last time, and I might run into Randall. While I wanted to find him, it had to be on my terms. He’d won this round tactically.

I was scared, though. That was a clear shot of my face, and I might have been snapped several times on Earth during the attacks. I’d escaped then because most infrastructure was down, and because I’d left as soon as they put word out. They’d had no reason to look for me on the way in. If they did a search now, though, I was dead. Deliberate or not, that image of me was a problem, and I was sure it was going to come up.

I pinged Silver and said, “Three turns back,” and headed for that location.

There was a press at the door, with several suited security guards reciting, “Remain calm, keep walking.” They had no actual power, they were mostly for courtesy, which makes little sense, but it meant I could ignore them.

Once out the doors, the crowd thinned out, and kept moving quickly, but the flow slowed, much like a river delta, into the mass of people who hadn’t seen anything and weren’t aware of it. Rumors propagated out, and distorted into stories of cooking demos gone wrong, pyrotechnic failures, and the inevitable “Fake!” comments.

I walked slowly, and Silver was waiting at the marked spot. We linked back up in a general way, nearby but not with each other, so she could evade if I got snagged.

We took ramps, slides and escalators down fast, though “fast” is relative when we’re talking fifty to sixty levels. I did not want to be in an elevator. That would be too easy to stop or stall. I also wanted lots of witnesses and shields against apprehension or attack. I was worried more about cops than Randall on that.

The news caught up fairly quickly. Groom was critical but alive and being evacuated. Cops were arriving in swarms to secure the area, interview witnesses and look for evidence. Incendiary attacks were frightening to Earthies, especially after the War. I didn’t blame them. We’d cooked millions.

I was glad, though. If I couldn’t intercept, I appreciated the victim surviving, even if he was scum. In this case, the target survived because Randall was trying to be too cute and clever. He thought he could orchestrate my downfall with it. That just wasn’t going to happen. I was going to vacate the area and start over, though.

It took most of an hour to get down to ground level in a hurry without looking like it. We found a way out to the street, though it’s hard to tell they’re streets with all the buildings around, the waste heat, and the crowds. The light’s a bit different is all.

I needed to move farther out of town.

I snagged a cab, left the door open and Silver climbed in a few seconds later. I gave an address two squares away, swiped a card and off we went. This was standard urban evasion. There’s not much can be done to stop it, and it just takes practice.

I tapped a message on screen, showed it to Silver well out of sight of the forward mounted security camera. It gave a location well out of town I’d used during the War, a park. It was west and south. She reached over and deleted it.

At the stop, I climbed out; she went on. She whould bail out herself within a few blocks. I grabbed another cab and went another three squares while changing my jacket down behind the seat, walked half a square, took another cab, walked some more, rode again.

It was almost eight hours of walking, riding, walking and occasionally sprinting and ducking before I reached the safe area.





CHAPTER 23





It wasn’t safe. Though I didn’t find that out at first.

What had been a park was now a commercial complex. I couldn’t loiter in a cab, it was late night, and most places were closed or quiet.

I got out and let the last cab run, and walked around the area. There were quite a few wholesalers and some mass retail outlets. I decided to go around back and pretend to be a laborer. I headed that way.

It was a big complex, and I should have had the cab drop me round back initially. Mistake on my part.

It all added up. I was a tourist by ID chip, walking through a closed area alone, heading for the back, and clearly out of place. A cop got me.