I could potentially spirit this attendant away into the outskirts, but the streets would be hard to traverse. Best to make this practical joke short. I dove into an idle restaurant and marched straight towards the back walls. Sat the dizzy woman down to face towards the entrance. Impossible to miss.

Pulled a napkin off a holder and briefly wondered what slight would rub the most salt into this wound. I didn’t know the guy all that well to customise this. Telling him to piss off wouldn’t do much good, and would betray my cracking nerves. This was becoming a problem after all, and not one I would be able to solve. Being on a radar of people with unlimited resources was the worst no-win scenario. I’d have wished to avoid this the most. The only way forward was to imply I’m an unattainable quarry, always one step ahead. They must have better things to do than bash head against a wall, right?

Wrote the reply to a single question he has ever asked me.

“You did.”

I was even sure it was true. Anybody would be at loss for words after multiple insults like this. Stuffed the napkin in between drooling girl’s intertwined fingers and ran straight into a waitress.

Quickly typed up, “She’s not feeling well. Will be pick-d up shortly.”

“Oh,” young woman with the menus glanced back and forth. “Let me get some water.”

I used the chance to make an abrupt disappearance.

Wanted to leave a spy camera behind to see how this unfolds, but decided against it. They were expensive and I’d rather avoid an ambush. I was known for going back for my stuff, after all.

Just as I considered notifying my no-longer-mysterious pen pal about a change of locale, heard combat boots echo all around. Way more than would have fit inside a single chopper. They were casing the shops in pairs. More milled outside in the open air, as if not entirely sure which building to cordon off before a raid. But they sure seemed prejudiced against this one.

“D-damn.”

Chewed on my lip.

Just finding a back door won’t work here. An employee popping out to dump trash was too conspicuous. Climb up? I didn’t have proper tools to make a getaway from higher floors. Down, it is.

Descended past several locked doors. If this indeed was a well-prepared trap, long-forgotten underground garage would be watched too. Even so, I knew this place better than an entitled brat from a whole another region. This was my home ground. Not the first time I had to sneak out from these buildings under precarious circumstances.

Jogged down the unused bunker. Signs of remodelling littered the place, but no owner ended up turning the vast space into anything useful. No creature has lain siege fierce enough to rouse sufficient fear to warrant this project. Not for decades. Socialites’ ambitions distended towards the heavens these days.

Repeating concrete columns stretched far under the other high-rises. I decided to pop out at the far end of it, at a former intersection. I stood and listened.

The vegetable patch up top seemed silent. Light footsteps came and went and calm chatter accompanied it.

“What is the army even doing here?”

“I don’t know, radio said something about a drill?”

“But why are they not letting anyone in? I’m gonna be late for my shift!”

“Just enjoy a long break.”

I cracked the metal door open to look. My eyes have not met anyone else’s and I breathed relief. However, this was expected. Even knowing the access shaft was somewhere around here, it would have taken some effort to find. This door was a part of another structure, and even then – hidden by the edible jungle.

I shut it behind me, inverted my jacked and laboriously slunk out into open. A pair of eagle-eyed soldiers watched this overgrown boulevard, but their gazes didn’t even linger on my crooked elderly visage.

A group of civilians sat on the bench and enjoyed their extended lunch.

“Who do you think was that kid?”

“Gotto be of a general’s lineage.”

“Yeh. So young though.”

“And so lucky!! I too want to order a horde to storm a place.” 

“You were lucky to rise above a private.”

“That’s because of my leg!”

Unsettling. I had been under an assumption the lord had left for the bogus meeting. Instead, he was gallivanting somewhere close by. He, of course, was not supposed to run headfirst into danger, even if I had baselessly assumed that would be the case. Or was he here because I had grown that predictable?

Had my stalker been anyone else, they’d be already dead. I stuck to innocent pranks precisely because full attention of a ruling family wasn’t desirable. So how did I reach this outcome anyway?

Sure, disabling the perimeter defences was a big deal, I guess, but normally they would just start an internal audit and found someone to blame there. Response in seeking me out had been quick and far too precise.

That haughty nuisance obviously had something to do with this. I didn’t even need to retrieve my spy camera to know who burst into the electronics shop. In fact, it’s for the best if I don’t. Helicopter’s timing was hard to ignore. That highborn figured out my shopping habits.

However, the local force would have come in much quicker. They could have flooded the street and blocked that emergency exit, too. It would not have made much difference as I would have found some other gap, but it was a noteworthy development nonetheless. It’s as though the two halves were not working in tandem. Political tensions were a literal goldmine in my field.

How did they get a hold of my client, then? As much as I didn’t like having been predicted by Raktkalis, to be completely seen through by two parties was way worse. Dismissing that as impossible, arrived to the only conclusion.

Single-sided communication. Raktkalis, as a junior officer, got debriefed and shoved aside.

Oof.

Today had had the potential of having gone much differently.

Even so, this means he managed to decode the contents of warhorse. As irritating as anyone getting that database for free was, that was just the tip of a nose. The client list was compromised and I can’t work with any of them again. Naturally, I obfuscated the identities, but it’s not impossible to connect the dots. After all, he clearly did.

Things were beyond bad. I’ll need to hunker down and play dead for a little while. Perhaps play dead for real, offering up someone else’s corpse with necessary proof taped to forehead.

The radio on a tiredly chugging bus prattled on about the thrilling developments downtown, “We have reports of bodies being carried out, as well as what could be witnesses lead away into government-issue automobiles. We can only speculate about the motives of this horrendous attack, as authorities on the scene are refusing to make an official statement at this time, but it might be in connection with the recent sabotage. It would certainly explain increased military presence within the city. Wildlife sympathisers have not commented either, but it is speculated...”

Great. All I needed is to be pursued with the vigour set aside for insane radicals.

And what was that about bodies?! Whose?! I hadn’t even left as much as a scratch on anyone.

Scenes from academy flashed in my mind and I ground my teeth. Fuck. That tetchy maniac was determined to make things unbearably miserable for me.

As much as I’d like to believe it was an emotional outburst, that man wouldn’t be a recognised heir if he was prone to erratic hissy fits. This was calculated. An invitation, almost. Raktkalis committed a mass-murder to lure me into retrieving a recording which would prove I didn’t do it. Something that would not only get the heat off me, but also nuke the scion’s entire career. Perhaps more. Branded and exiled, or even sent to the mines. That’d be something to see.

I savoured that notion. However, even if I had left anything, the news simply wouldn’t report on it.

Perhaps the body of a scapegoat will need to turn up sooner than later. No more poking general-in-the-making, either. I need to completely disengage from this mess.