Issue #170 : Commencing The Chase
This is the second installment in a five part story. If you haven’t yet read the first part, click here to go there now. Enjoy!
Richard pushed through the door and strode out onto the roof, Jacob close behind. There was little on the roof to offer cover that their subject could have concealed itself behind, other than a few over-sized air compressors and a shed. Still, there was no sign of anyone and no sound of movement. The buildings surrounding them were too far away for the vamp to have jumped, but still they found themselves alone, no one to find.
“You guys are too slow,” the voice came from behind them and they turned in time to see bright light bursting forth from one of the nearby outlets. It projected out into the air before them, forming a roughly human shape out of pure light. As they waited, the light began to dim and reshuffle until the form of a young man had replaced it, grinning at them as his physical body took form.
“Brett,” Richard said in greeting, turning his attention back to the examination of the rooftop. “You have the most convenient timing.”
“I told you there isn’t anything up here to find,” Brett said as he jogged around to get back into Richard’s line of sight. “I caught a quick glimpse at your guy from the data stream but he was gone too fast to do anything.”
“How did you get access up here?” Jacob asked.
Brett nodded back over his shoulder. “Their wifi hub starts at that junction. I just coasted in through that.”
“You aren’t supposed to rush into confrontations by yourself,” Richard said. “Especially if it isn’t a place where you can project a digital version of yourself.”
“I only showed myself when you guys came up here,” he protested. “I’m not an idiot. I know I don’t stand a chance against a vamp by myself. I leave the heavy lifting to you.”
Richard turned to Brett, finally giving him his full attention.
“So what did you see?”
“Not much. He moves way faster than anything I’ve seen so far. Not that I’ve seen that many of them but this one was definitely strange. And I swear for a second he knew I was watching him.”
“How would that be possible?” Richard asked.
“You got me. All I can tell you is that I was watching from the stream and I could see him clearly look up at me, as if we were making eye contact. Could just be a fluke, and it’s not like he could have done anything if he had seen me, it was just strange. People don’t generally get the jump on me like that, you know?”
“So…anything else that might help us?”
“Look…” Brett trailed off as the smart-ass slid away for the moment. “I can’t give you any reason for feeling this way. The things we normally track down are dangerous enough as it is. I just get the feeling that this one is worse. The whole time I was watching him, I felt like he was laughing at me.”
Jacob glanced at Richard, the concern clear on his face. “What are we going to do?”
“Not much we can do. We can’t track him from here. I’m afraid we’ll have to wait until he kills again.” Richard turned back to Brett. “Get back onto the Net and keep an eye out for anything unusual. I don’t care what it is. I’d rather you waste our time than ignore something important. Get back to us as soon as you find anything.”
Brett nodded and began walking back towards the data hub.
“Oh, and Brett? Don’t jump back into my cell phone again like you did last time.”
Brett grinned and nodded, lighting up from within himself with a brilliant white light before dissipating into nothingness.
“Are we going to be able to find this thing?” Jacob asked as they moved to the edge of the roof, looking down at the confused mess below.
“We don’t have a choice,” Richard responded.
“We’re the only ones who can.”
* * *
Besides making the travel faster, Brett’s ability to convert himself into digital data made it possible to wait inside the police database, on the lookout for any emergency calls. It made him uncomfortable being this close to law enforcement, even in this state, considering his near brush with incarceration for his own extra-curricular activities.
He could stay here for as long as was needed. In this state, he wouldn’t get tired, hungry, or need anything else that his physical form might require. It didn’t help him when the was task mind-numbingly boring, though. Call after call came in for domestic abuse assault, robbery in progress, fires spotted in alleys but never what he was looking for. Brett often felt like he got the raw end of this relationship, doing the dull busy work while Richard and Jacob got to run off into glory.
Finally, he saw what he needed. A body had been discovered behind a diner, nearly drained of blood. Officers were on site but they had put the call out for medical examiners and detectives as well. There would only be so much time before the scene was flooded with people getting in the way. And as much as he knew Jacob loved using that time-piece and just freeze everyone in place, Brett knew that this thing they were looking for would likely not hang around the scene again. Not that he knew there were people out there looking for him. Brett needed to act now and try to collect some information for the others that would actually be useful. Strictly speaking, it was not something he was supposed to be doing but what the hell? It wasn’t like he couldn’t make decisions for himself like an adult, and there wasn’t any real danger. Just observation.
Sweeping out of the Police server, he coasted along the data path until he ended up inside the cell phone for one of the officers on scene. This kid happened to be hanging around near the perimeter, keeping unwanted civilians from wandering in to gawk or take pictures. Brett waited for him to stroll near an alley before generating himself out of the phone, taking physical form behind a nearby dumpster so the cop wouldn’t see him. He peeked around at the scene, trying to get a glimpse at the body but could see nothing.
Brett began scanning over the crowd, wondering if this thing would indeed be brazen enough to hang around and risk being caught or at least spotted. It seemed like the normal fare of voyeuristic on-lookers though, people trying to see something juicy in this city in which they had managed to survive for another day. This had nothing to do with them, it was just something to stare and marvel at.
Brett moved to stand up when he suddenly felt the presence behind him, heard the hissing breath and then the hand drop heavily down onto his shoulder. He looked down to see the elongated, spindly fingers as they gripped tighter, razor sharp fingernails already starting to break the skin. He turned to look back but another hand took a firm grip on the back of his neck, forcing him to keep looking forward.
“Yessss,” the voice hissed at him. “You have a very distinctive scent, yes? I remember you from before, your sniveling mannerisms, watching me from somewhere I could not see. I commend you on your abilities at camouflage although they clearly failed you here.”
“Please—” Brett started to say but was cut off as the thing jerked up on his head, causing his breath to rush out uselessly.
“Do not speak. You will listen to my question first, and then speak, yes?”
Brett nodded jerkily.
“Very good. All I require is to know where your friends are. The other two. And I want to know what you want with me, why you follow me so. Tell me now, yes?”
Brett shook his head. There was nothing he could tell the thing, nothing he could say. Even if he wanted to, he never knew where Richard was hiding out. Likely the two of them were sitting it out in some relatively decent hotel nearby, but for the most part, his employer stayed as much off the radar as possible.
“You will tell me now what it is you seek or I will snap your neck.This is your choice.”
Brett gasped in a breath and looked around frantically for anything he could use to get free. There were people walking past, out on the sidewalk, but none of them were close enough for him to divert the cop’s attention.
Then, just as spots began to appear in his vision, Brett saw a cell phone lying on the floor of a fire escape, across the alley and up on the second floor. It was just close enough that he could make the jump. As if sensing he was about to try something, the grip tightened and he thought he could feel his bones threatening to crack as the thing howled in rage.
Brett’s head went light as his body made the transition, slipping out of it’s physical form and rushing up into the phone. At the last minute, it occurred to him that he had no idea if the phone even had a charge but there was just enough battery and signal for him to leap-frog through the phone and into the network.
As he rushed away from the scene, he inexplicably heard the things’ voice, gravelly in his ear as he went.
“Interesting. We will meet again, yes?”
