RECLAIM

Chapter 6. Trouble Smell

~ Laith ~

Your day is bound to be beautiful when it starts with a cup of freshly ground coffee. Except, then you realize that you can't find a single clean cup to pour the coffee on. That and the fact it isn't even a morning anymore. Here she is, stuck in the dilemma of either to throw something at the sun or just get over it. Laith creates a third option instead, which involves taking a quick shower then follow by egg and bacon servings enough to feed a tiger.

Sipping her coffee from a small bowl, she set her meal and waves the screen on. Tapping on the table, Laith cruises through channels and nets. No news, not even a thread on the deep net mentioning yesterday incidents. Good. The safety filters doing its job for now. Flies that attracted to the rotten meat smell will only make her job harder.

Finishing the last drop of grease from her plate, Laith takes her time to clean the pile of dirty dishes. A gun, knife and swipe of card key later, she's set to go; only to be stopped by somebody as soon as she opens her apartment door. Naturally, Laith does what every sane person would do if put in those situations. She pulled her gun and trained it directly at the shocker, which he expertly deflects, in which case she pulled her knife next.

He jumps back and raised both of his hands. "Woah, easy there. It's me, Arden. We parted on good term last night. Remember?"

Laith leveled both her gun and knife for a while longer before finally holstering them. "The truce is over because you decided to show up unannounced." She raised one eyebrow at him. Taking a step forward, she closed the door and stared at him.

Letting his hands fall, Arden plastered what looked like a sheepish smile. "I got a brilliant idea last night. Since we're going to meet either way, why not meet right way?" She just nodded and moved away from him without further comments. He matched his steps with her and they ended up walking to the elevator together. Once inside, they stayed at some kind of pin drop silence filled only by an out of place music until Laith can't stand it anymore.

"Arden, you're supposed to tell me the reason you show up at my place right about now."

"Oh, right. Sorry. Got any news?"

"Nothing useful. The blood on the walls came up empty. It's a common synthetic blood."

"Well, at least it's not the renters blood. Good thing we decided to divide and conquer. Remember that kidney loan Mr. Grim tells us about?"

"Sure. What about it?"

"I'm thinking we can do some digging on that." He gestured his eyes e-Link soft lenses. "I compile a list. You can take a look. It's an open channel." 

Pairing her own e-Link, Laith scrolls the list. It displays a couple of mug shots and informant aliases. Looks promising. Familiar faces among the crowds, some even also on her own list.

They fall into another silence as the cubic descend flawlessly. Tapping his foot, Arden jumps out of the elevator as soon as it dings. Considering she lives at 117th floor guess that's a given, but still. Impatience much? Exiting the elevator, she falls not far behind him when all of sudden the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

Dropping her attention from everything except to locate the source of danger, Laith strolls through the parking lot as if nothing amiss. Eye scans show no threat, so does sound and smell. Two cars on her right side, a father and his little son getting in their own car. On her left, a young woman locking her vehicle. Other than the three of them, herself and Arden, Laith sees no one else. Yet somehow, the air vibrates with unforeseen warning. It's telling her that somehow, somebody is here, and waiting.

After a couple of long minutes passed by whiteout any incidents, Laith was just about to treat it as baseless morning paranoia when out of nowhere, there's a flick in the corner of her right eye. She immediately focused all her attention on it. Keeping a calculated distance from both the flick and Arden, Laith takes a fast left turn. She slows her pace before suddenly turning back and breaks out on a mad dash, just in time to see a shadow moving away at unbelievable speed.

Before long, she can feel a footsteps right alongside her. So, he noticed it too. "Arden, stay with him!" Pumping more energy to her legs, Laith shouts. Arden pointed to his ear and she gave a quick nod in return before they split up.

"In pursuit at emergency staircase, heading up to level 1. Target moving at very unrealistic pace," Arden voice registered in between breath as soon as Laith activate her comm and e-Link. Slowing down, she searches frantically for a shortcut. Bingo. She spotted a ladder. Running at full speed, she used several stacked dumpsters as jumping point, leaps and manages to land in the upper section of the said ladder. Adjusting her hands and feet, she climbs.

"At level 1 exit, position?" Laith relays her location as soon as she clears the climb. Standing by the glass doors, she scans the outside area.

"That thing just--" Arden voice on her comm was cut by a sudden high pitched static sound that efficiently cut their line. It even manages to disorientate Laith at the same time a rain of glass falls on her. Rolling away, she watched trough blurry visions as a big silhouette lands near. It straightens, inclined its head before taking off faster than anything she had ever seen. By the time she was able to shake the dizziness, every hope of catching up has gone up in smoke.

"Are you OK?" Arden asks as soon as he reached her, a little loss of breath.

Laith nod and glanced briefly at him. "What about you?"

"Intact, at the very least." He rolled his neck. "Anyway, you got any idea of whom or what is that thing exactly? He just ran past the both of us, ram through everything on its path, jump from the second floor and land like there is nothing."

"Never seen him before in either my past or current life." Laith moved closer to where the big figure stands before. A deep dent was visible on the floor. Looking up, she can see a massive hole in the glass windows.

"And that static. It's odd, since our comm line was supposed to be super secure. Sounds like he's got some help." Arden scratched his chin as he observes the dent.

Laith grimaced "I agree. That level of noise must be designed to throw someone off."

A hand briefly pats her shoulder. "We get them next time."

Laith exhale a long sigh. "I got the feeling it's going to happen sooner than later."

"It's better that way. I'm going to report this first, then we should go back to our original plans." He restarts his comm  before walking back towards the building.

Laith stands there a minute longer than necessary, watching the direction where the shadow disappears. A relatively empty sidewalk, without any surveillance available. Add to that, even after all of that commotion, in broad daylight nonetheless, it's bizarre nobody takes notice. Sure, it's an emergency exit, but there are just too many possibilities to be called a mere coincidence. Guess this time they think she's the prey. Well, it's on. Let the hunt begin.

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Another day, another new mystery. Is the shadow a friend or foe? Please share your opinions.

Once again, thank you so much for giving this book a chance. I would love to hear your feedback, so feel free to comments. If you like this book, please do vote and add it to your library. Thanks again and read on!

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