The Runner Records

10th Chapter

Thankfully, Rina and I didn't start yelling at each other anymore while we waited for 1:00 AM to come around. I still couldn't get an answer on what was going on with her, but at least she wasn't trying to bite my head off. Rina seemed happy and like she was actually enjoying herself, which is all I wanted. It was just like the old days.

A lot of Runner jobs are done in the dark of the night. Though, in the City Of Glass it's never really that dark. Sure, the sun goes down. But the huge billboards on most of the buildings light up the night. So I'm pretty used to staying up late and so is Rina. We had no trouble keeping our eyes open. Though Noah sounded pretty tired as he talked to us.

"Okay, so the plan is you guys show up before the deal happens." Noah told us as we got ready to leave our safe house. It was about 12:45 right now, but it wouldn't take long to get to the deal since it's in the same neighbourhood. "You find Premer and ambush him before he can make the deal. It needs to be quick and full of surprise. You surprise him, grab the chip, then get away at all costs. Got it?" Rina and I both nodded, though Noah couldn't see us.

"He'll probably try to chase us down and get it back." Rina said as we got to the tricky part of the run. We had to get into the stairwell that Premer would be using to get down to the ground. Dogen isn't a Runner, he doesn't run around on the rooftops like we do. Or if he does, no one knows it. Most of his men are bodyguards and bouncers and they aren't Runners either. Premer would be taking the stairs and that's when we'd get the chip back. The hardest part though would be escaping quickly, the stairwell was small and compact. We wouldn't have much room.

"Yes, but you two know the rooftops much better than he does and I'm confident you can lose him." Noah replied. "This is very risky, especially because it's with Dogen's men. If he ever finds out that you two had anything to do with Premer, things could get bad."

"Don't worry." I told Noah and Rina with my best casual voice. "If Dogen finds out about this, then he'll know that Premer was doing all of this behind his back. I'm sure he'd go after Premer long before us."

"Let's just hope it doesn't come down to the that." Rina said, trying to keep the moral high. We reached the stairwell and it didn't take long for us to find a vent that we could use to get inside. I was never a big fan of travelling through the vents, but we didn't have many options here. The vents are always a little too tiny for my liking. It's just way too easy to get lost and then not be able to turn yourself around and just the thought of getting stuck in those things makes me shudder. But fortunately the trip in the vents wasn't long and soon we were standing in the stairwell that we were supposed to be.

"So it's probably safe to assume Premer will be armed, right?" I asked Rina and she nodded.

"Unless he's sure that this is a safe place, but it probably isn't. I've done runs here before. The only kind of people that come to this place looking for Runner help are the kind that can't afford for anyone to find out their working with the Runners." Rina explained. This is certainly one of the more shady places in the City of Glass.

I checked the time and saw that it was 12:55. Premer would be here any moment. Both Rina and I took to checking everything and everywhere in the stairwell to make sure that there's no other was Premer could come into the stairwell and also to see if there was a quicker way out of here. Shuffling through the vents isn't the fastest mode of transportation and if Premer did bring a gun with him, it wouldn't be hard for him to just shoot us through the metal.

After a little bit of waiting and watching, we began to hear footsteps on the stairs above us. Heavy footfalls, definitely a big man. Only one pair of footsteps, Premer was alone. Rina and I shared a look that said "That's him." before getting into our positions.