Living in the Fray

Chapter Nine

Cas! CAS! Wake up dammit you've been out for ages.'

Krieger woke to the sound of Ronson shouting directly in to her brain. She sniffled and yawned as she rubbed her eyes in an attempt to come back in to the world of the living. Krieger remembered she was currently in a safe house atop a building in the warehouse district with a pretty good view down the main street. The safe houses provided for the Hunters on the Chase were never luxurious; containing a single bed, toilet, shower, kettle and a basic first aid kit that hopefully hadn't been used by somebody else beforehand.

'Are we moving?' Krieger yawned out as she stretched out her arms and legs before she stood up.

'Yeah we're moving. There's been movement up the road from you I suggest you go check it out.'

'Ugh, no rest for the wicked.' Krieger said aloud. She pulled on her boots and slung her double holster round her shoulders; checking her guns were secure then carefully set about securing her sword back on to her belt. Happy everything was in place; she grabbed her cropped jacket and slid it on before slamming her hand on the doors security system which opened with a slick swooshing sound. Night-time New Edo greeted her with a slight chill in the breeze that cut through the usual balmy, warm evenings and carried the smell of the dusty roads and takeaways with it.

'Jesus Christ I could go for a kebab right now.' Krieger announced with a slight eye roll as the smell of food found its way in to her nostrils.

'Shut up you got work to do you can get a kebab later you fat cow.' Ronson retorted. 'Ah shit I want a kebab now.'

Krieger just cackled to herself as she casually made her way over the rooftops in the direction of where Ronson said where he had spotted some goings on. She had updated her ocular HUD before the Chase had started and it was working beautifully giving her all the information she needed without having to look down at her holowatch all the time. Her last HUD wasn't nearly as sleek or efficient or pretty for that fact plus it had a habit of crashing so she barely used it. On her new update she could customize the text size and colour just by thinking about changing it. She had it set to a nice, calming, slightly dark mauve colour; the current time and date visible in the upper left corner of her vision and a little sat nav arrow in the bottom left giving her directions on where to go and approximate distance.

'Cas get a move on. It's Daisuke making all the noise down there.'

'Shit.' Krieger hissed aloud. She picked up the pace, bounding her way over the rooftops with an attempt at some kind of athletic grace with the occasional stumble here and there.

'What's Akiyama up to? He finally come down from his perch?' Krieger panted as she asked Ronson. She slowed down a bit just to take a moment to get her bearings and decide the best route to take.

'He's chasing someone but I can't get an ID confirmed, they're moving too fast.'

'Fuck sake.' Krieger huffed. She started running again in hopes of finding a fire escape or a down pipe to shimmy down to ground level. She would have jumped straight down but knowing her luck right now, her nanomachines would decide to screw up mid-fall so they would not be at the full potential; meaning she would not be able to take the impact. She had learnt that from previous Chases, almost like her nanomachines knew her every move was being broadcasted to millions of people and would spectacularly fail just to show her up.

Krieger peered over the ledge of a building she was on, about three stories up. As luck would have it there were several balconies that she could jump down on. With haste, she carefully dropped down to each balcony; safely reaching ground level only to start running as soon as her feet landed; or at least something close to running as she hated it with a passion. Out of the corner of her eye she saw what looked like a man wearing a dark coloured hoodie pelting along the road that led out to the far end of the warehouse district. He was closely followed by what was obviously Akiyama who had his right hand outstretched with his gun ready to fire. The running men disappeared out of sight. Krieger ran as fast as she could in order to keep up, hoping that Akiyama wouldn't get a hit on the guy he was chasing. She was steadily catching up but slowed down as soon as she heard Akiyama's gun going off and the running man skid to the ground face first.