Mirage

Chapter One

            "Stop right there!" The loud, commanding voice made Ryder freeze in his tracks. He didn't scare easily but that voice sent his pulse racing. He was knuckles deep in a stranger's coat pocket and the previously unsuspecting victim turned at the sound of the commanding voice. The man in the middle of being pickpocketed had thinning gray hair, a few wrinkles and deep purple eyes. His neck and chin were covered in tattoo's. 

           "Hey! What-" The man exclaimed, upon seeing a short figure wearing black cargo pants and a black and pink hoodie with a facemask with one hand in his coat pocket. Ryder stepped back to evade the hand reaching for him then took off, pushing through the crowd. Around him, the colorful clothing and scents swirled around him. 

           He dove between a woman with white hair, olive skin and neon blue eyes. On his other side, another woman cursed and tried to right herself as she almost toppled over. 

         "I said stop, in the name of the Peace Corps!" The same commanding voice that had blown Ryder's cover drifted through the air behind him. It seemed to be closer than last time. He cast a desperate glance behind him and felt his asshole pucker. 

         The Peace Officer was almost four times the size of him. Dressed in the standard uniform, a black bulletproof vest with the blue and white markings of a Peace Officer, standard black jacket and cargo pants along with several weapons and a radio. Ryder caught sight of several decorative strips on the man's uniform, along with the logo and letterings and a flicker of panic welled up inside him. The Peace Officer chasing him was highly decorated and looked like he could tear Ryder apart with his bare hands. The man's red eyes were fierce and intimidating. He had an almost feral gaze. Not only that, but he was surprisingly fast and agile for his massive size. 

          Ryder shoved his way to an alleyway, turning his attention back to the front as he glimpsed the Peace Officer reaching for a weapon in a leg holster. His heart was hammering in his throat as he scanned the scaffolding that crisscrossed the space between the two buildings about thirty feet above his head. Perfect, most Peace Officer's didn't bother chasing after him on the scaffolding. He found the fire escape then sprinted for it and leaped with all his strength. 

         The Needle Highway or The Needles, as the locals called it, was a rather infamous structure. The scaffolding that sprawled across the outsides of the buildings were meant for maintenance, but after world-wide climate control had been invented and perfected the scaffolding had been abandon. Now, it was home to criminals and thrill-seekers. Because the buildings were too close for choppers to slip between them Peace Officers had a hard time patrolling the area. And sending in drones wasn't easy either when the inhabitants had developed tricks for taking them down.

        The cool metal met his hands with a small thwap and then he'd hoisted himself over the railing. The rusty metal left small flakes on his palms. He bounced on the balls of his feet as he ran to minimize the noise he made on the metal scaffolding. He risked a glance behind him to see the Peace Officer standing below the scaffolding and giving it an appraising eye before attempting the same jump. 

      Shit! Ryder's palms were beginning to sweat as a feeling of unease swept through him. He felt the scaffolding shift and rattle slightly underneath the Peace Officer's weight as the huge man clambered up a little less gracefully than Ryder had, given their size difference. Ryder clambered up a few levels, hoping up onto the railing and then leaping for the next level of scaffolding. He slipped through the metal bars. He was about 60 feet in the air now. 

     Ryder kept running, sucking in deep mouthful's of air. Behind him he heard the annoyed grunts of the Peace Officer who was finding another way up, the scaffolding rattling under his movements. 

     Fuck it, Ryder thought to himself. The Peace Officer was stubborn as hell. He sighted his next jump, the distance between the two building's wide enough most people would die if they attempted the jump. It was about twelve or thirteen feet between the two scaffoldings. Ryder, however, wasn't most people. 

      He leaped, sucking in a deep breath as his body hung in the air. For a heart-stopping moment the wind rushed through his hair and the ground seemed awfully close, then his right hand caught on the edge of the scaffolding and he used his momentum to swing himself neatly up onto the walkway before sprinting farther away from the Peace Officer. 

      "Suspect is fleeing on foot south-bound into The Needles." Ryder heard the Peace Officer bark out the words into his com unit but he didnt bother looking back. He needed to get out of here. He slipped through the railing, darting onto someone's back porch and accidentally knocking over a deck chair before vaulting across the gap onto another small landing. 

       Ryder shimmied higher, leaping from railing to railing as he moved like a cat across the metal framework. The buildings were skyscrapers, even in this part of the city.  The ground seemed very far away under his feet. His black combat boots made faint clunking sounds as he moved. Behind him he heard a few teens emerge from various corners and begin harassing the Peace Officer below them.  

       "Go back to the ground, Lenkh*!" Ryder heard someone screaming obscenities at the Peace Officer in Laehlian and he cringed. It had been a while since he'd heard someone speak the native language of Laehlay, the slaver kingdom in the Eastern part of the galaxy. He took a deep breath and turned his focus away from the teen's and continued across The Needles.

 
   Ryder turned back the way he'd came, leaping across the space again before doubling back, careful not to make too much sound in case the Peace Officer was below him. He stealthily crept along the scaffolding, crouching slightly to make himself a little smaller. 

     He made his way home, using the scaffolding to traverse the distance without setting foot on the ground. Below him, life moved on. People moved through the streets. Occasionally he caught glimpses of others like him scaling the architecture but he left them alone. 

    *Bitch