Prologue
The Edge
The city used to pulse with energy, dirty and dangerous, but alive and wonderful. Now, it’s something else. The changes came slowly at first. Most didn’t realize, or didn’t care, and accepted them. They chose a comfortable life. Some didn’t. Those who refused to conform were pushed to the sidelines. Criminalized, they became our clients. We call ourselves runners. We exist on the edge, in the gloss of reality, the mirror’s edge. We keep out of trouble, out of sight, and the cops don’t bother us. Runners see the city in a different way. We see the flow, rooftops are pathways and conduits, possibilities. The flow is what keeps us running. It keeps us alive.
***
“Faith... Faith...? Yeah, I’m sure the birds are real impressed, but when you’re done showing off, can you maybe concentrate on some actual work? I’m getting Celeste in position for a handoff; you need to get the delivery to her. She’ll be near the communications tower on the other side of the district.” Merc’s voice rang in my ears.
I grunted in reply, and dropped down to the building below me. I ran to the edge, and leapt off, break falling onto a building with solar panels. In my mind, I saw them as ramps. I ran up one, and jumped onto the small tower jutting out of the roof, and leapt to the zip line that ran down to the next set of buildings. I jumped off early, and went left, using a railing and a vent as a springboard to propel me to the next ledge. I paused, gauging a route. There were two tower structures, like the last building, a few feet apart. I could climb up the one on the right, the shorter one, and jump to the other… Or… I backpedaled to the ledge and sprinted forward, and started to run along the left tower, jumping to the right, I climbed up a few feet and spun around, and vaulted over the railing atop the left tower. Easy. I looked around. Some piping ran from here to the next building. In my mind, I saw it turn a saturated, dark red. I stepped out onto it.
I made it across, nearly falling only once. I hopped down to the building, glanced towards the next. I was on top of a tower, and a wall stretched between me and the next tower. “You’re taking you’re sweet old time, Celeste’s getting pissed.” My mind let that wall turn red. I sprinted towards it, placing my right foot on, then left, right, left. A wallrun. At the last second as I was about to fall, I pushed off with my legs, and landed on the next building. I maintained speed. I knew where I was now. I saw a ramp at the end of the building. Across the gap, there were some external pipes. AC for them, climbing for me. I felt the ramp nearly tip off as I jumped onto the very top of one of those pipes. I climbed up.
I leaned against the wall to catch my breath for a second when I heard ‘flup, flup, flup, flup, flup, flup, flup, flup’, getting faster every second. I knew the sound. A helicopter. I heard it before I saw it as I ran towards the door. A City Eye news chopper had spotted me. I went through the halls of this empty section of the building, and at the end, I jumped onto some boxes, then to a small edge in the wall.
“The Wire’s are fizzing about you Faith, news chopper tipped them off.”
I jumped up to the vent, where I climbed inside.
I heard an office worker below me say, “Damn, those rats have gotten fat.” I smiled. At the end, I heard the hardened chatting of police officers. The ‘blues’ as the runners have dubbed them. I dropped down, landing with a breakfall.
I heard them shout ‘Hey! Drop the bag!”
“Get the hell outta there Faith!!!”
I sprinted toward the stairwell, and instead of taking the stairs, ran up the pillar holding them up, and then 180 turned and jumped off, taking me up a floor quicker than I can run. I got up the second flight, kicking the both doors open as I rushed outside, back onto my home turf. I spun on my heels to the left, and ran up a small set of stairs, and jumped over the railing, coiling my legs under me. I turned right, jumping off another ramp onto the next building.
“Blues ahead Faith, you’re gonna have to get through them.” I turned right, my mind perceiving two objects as a springboard, using it to get over a fence. I dropped down, turning left and used a plank and a railing for the same maneuver. I landed on some large AC units, and jumped over to the next building. A man with close cropped hair was pulling out his handgun. I ran over to him, sliding and landing a kick in his right shin. He bent over, and I grabbed his head and knocked his skull onto my knee. KO. I ran forward, and one of the other blue’s bullets scathed my shoulder, and pain exploded from the would. It wasn’t bleeding, but it hurt. I jumped up to his ramp and lashed out my fist, catching him off guard. He fell back, and started to swing his gun. I grabbed it, and knocked it against the back of his head. I dropped it, and climbed to another tower. I saw a ramp, and used it, taking a long leap. I almost missed the fire escape I was jumping for. I caught the railing with one hand, performed a muscle-up, and sprinted up.
“Get to Celeste. There are more blues on the way.”
I climbed the ladder to the roof, and Celeste stood, on top of a higher roof, blocking out the sun with her lean figure. “Throw me the bag, Faith!” I grabbed it, and threw it hard. She caught it.
“You gotta get off that roof Faith, I don’t care how you do it, just do it.”
I heard the organized stomping of boots, and I saw a pack of SWAT officers armed with SCAR rifles. I ran forwards, coil jumping over an AC unit, and through an open door in the fence. I slid under some piping, and kept going. I was going as fast as I can when I heard the City Eye chopper again. It rose above the roofline and before I ran off the edge of the building I jumped. A leap of... Well, faith. I grabbed the guardrail under the chopper, and it lowered down, and I saw myself in the mirrored windows of the building. It flew towards away, and I dropped down, onto a large padded surface, not too far below.
Merc rang in my ears, “This was a low key job, why were they shooting? What the hell did you do?”
“Nothing! They just opened fire!”
“I don’t know what happened. I’ll ask around. Meanwhile, get your ass back to base, Faith."
Chapter One
Flight
“Say again Officer Connors?”
“Going to see Pope. Robert Pope. Getting a statement on that break in last week. Anyways, its uh… 56 West Arland Drive.”
“Copy that. I’ll relay the message, Officer Connors.”
“Roger that.”
I smiled, and mumbled, “Hello Sis,”
Merc’s voice sprung out of the now quiet Police radio, “You there Kiddo? Bet you’re listening to the chatter.”
“You know me, Merc.”
“Try and get some sleep. Rough day you had. I’m gonna get the word out tomorrow; see why those blues had such overdeveloped trigger fingers. Now don’t chuck that pizza, I like the toppings on that shit.”
I glanced at the open box on his desk, and chuckled quietly. It was more than halfway eaten, smelled, and was starting to mold. His cup of coffee from the beginning of the day still sat, half drunken, and a sticky line of coffee sweat had formed.
“Yeah, yeah,” I replied.
Merc signed off, and I sat back down on the couch and resumed my card tower, when the radio squawked an alarm; “Shots fired, I repeat shots fired! All units to 56 West Arland immediately!”
I stood up, knocking over the table, and sat back at the computer. Typing with fervor, I pulled up the plans for the building, and scanned for Pope’s office. There.
Merc, quite literally, dropped in behind me from the hole in the ceiling of his ‘Lair’, as we had called it. “Hey.” I stood up, and put my earpiece in place. “You off Faith?”
“Just get on coms and track me.”
***
“Merc, almost there,” I said, looking up at the building towering ahead.
“Well, anytime you wanna tell me where the hell ‘there’ is, feel free.”
“It’s my sister,”
“Ah. OK, gimme a sec, I’m gonna see if I can find out what’s going on.
I looked left, and saw another building, leading me closer to West Arland. Perfect. I ran over to the corner, and then jumped to the next, and took a flying leap off it, tucking my knees to my chest, and barely making it over an electrified fence. A ramp stretched before me, and I took it, feeling it waver as I left its edge. I coiled my legs again, making myself smaller, and landing on the next building. West Arland was one building over. I looked to a small pathway coming out of a tower structure. I sprinted over to the tower, and wall-ran over the path, flopping down full speed, and took a jump off the edge. I fell far. At the last second, I tucked my head against my chest and leaned my right shoulder forward.
I hit the ground with my feet for half a second when I leaned over and let my roll take the force of the fall. The door ahead of me would take me inside, and I busted through it, smashing it open with my forearm. It stung, but it was more efficient than having to fumble with a handle while running from a group of blues.
The walls inside of the building were painted a pale green gradient, light near the floor, dark and saturated at the ceiling. I weaved past pillars and saw an elevator, the same one I had seen earlier in the plans. Perfect.
I slammed the ‘open’ button, and it opened quickly. I jammed the up button, and the new started to scroll down the LED screen inside the elevator. An ad for ‘New Eden’ malls played in the background.
The article on the screen was an editorial by Robert Pope. It talked about how he planned to loosen the hold that the government kept on the city, and how far the city had come since the November Riots.
There was a slightly audible ping just before the door slid open, and I stepped out. I turned right, heading up some stairs, and the third door was an office. A blue stood inside. I went in, and then saw the body, sprawled across the desk. I called out, “Kate?”
She turned around, “Sis? What the hell are you doing here?”
“What happened? Did you…” I motioned towards the lifeless body.
“No! Don’t you… Recognize him?”
“Should I?”
I stepped up to the desk, taking a closer look. A gunshot had entered his right temple, and hadn’t come out the other side. Nasty wound. Must have been a low caliber bullet, standard issue for the blues.
“It’s Pope. Robert Pope? You don’t remember him? Friend of dad’s?”
“Shit. That Pope.”
“He called me. We hadn’t talked much since I joined up. He had a break-in last week. He’s still a campaigner!” Kate sat down in a chair, wringing her hands; slouching over so far it looked like it hurt. “Don’t you read the news Faith?”
I sighed and replied to her, as, sounding annoyed, “It’s not news anymore. It’s advertising.”
“Well, he was running for mayor.”
“So the break-in must have really spooked him then, right?”
“That’s what I thought! But it was odd, he told me about the break in, asked me to come, then asked about you.”
“Really? I haven’t seen him in at least ten years.”
“I don’t know. Anyway, he was alive when I got here. Just sitting at his desk, writing. Everything went black. When I came to, he’d been shot. And I’m damn sure it was with my gun. There was a book on the desk. A diary. It’s gone. I’m sure there was someone else in the building. I left my radio in the car, I haven’t had time to phone it in.”
I heard sirens. I glanced out the windows, and saw them pulling up. “Come on. Come with me. I’ll take you somewhere safe.” I grabbed Kate’s hand, pulling her away from the body.
She broke away, and yelled at me. “This isn’t about running, Faith! This isn’t the time to run! I’m not like you. Running will just make me look guilty!”
“Oh, you think this was an accident, Kate? There are no accidents in this city.” I stepped back down, ready to break for it. “Someone wanted him dead, and you to take the fall.”
“Faith, please! There’s gotta be more to this. You’ve got contacts. There’s something he new, something he wanted to tell us.”
“I can’t get involved in this Kate. I just can’t.”
Merc’s voice broke through, “Blues incoming Faith. You might wanna get going right about… Oh, now.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a shred of paper under Pope’s hand. I went up and grabbed it, pocketing it. “Kate, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Faith, if this goes down bad for me, find Lt. Miller. My... Superior. Take anything you find to him.”
Merc broke into our conversation again. “I’m serious Faith. Remember, they’re not playing nice.”
I jogged over, and gave her a hug.
“Now go!” Kate yelled. And I was gone. I ran out the door and then hopped over the railing as the shots started blazing past.
“Shit!” I exclaimed to myself as the deafening clatter of gunshots started ringing in my ears.
“Get outta that building Faith, squads swarming on you, find a way out of there!” I ran forward through the halls, and vaulted over several displays of the cities’ buildings. I climbed up a flight of stairs, spinning around kept running. “Should be an exit through the accounting office.” I jumped up into a vent, through the other side and landed with a roll, picking up my speed again. I climbed up a wall, and spun around, grabbing a hold of a rafter and pulling myself into another vent. Bullets tore through the metal around me. I jumped up, and then fell down, landing hard.
I hit a door open, and jumped over the railing. My feet slipped out from under me as I hit a slanted glass wall. It stretched at least 300 yards. I leaned left, sliding towards the next building. I heard a chopper, and it rose to my level and started firing, it’s chain guns rate of fire getting faster and faster as it warmed up. At the bottom I jumped off, using my momentum to keep going. I made a hard left, letting myself fall from building to building. I had lost the chopper for now.
I came to an edge and jumped off, landing on a pad below. I jumped up to the top of the tower, and leapt over the barbed wire fence. I went right, and saw an empty flagpole by a fire escape. I ran up the wall, did an L-Turn and jumped over to it, swinging once or twice before flinging myself off onto the next flight of stairs.
I hopped up onto a vent, ran forward, sprinting, then wall ran to the next vent, jumping to it as I was about to fall. I jumped over to the next building, and jumped up to a tower to get over a fence. The helicopter was back. Bullets flew all around me as I jumped down, taking a sharp right, then took a flying leap off a ramp, landing on some plants to soften my fall. I opened the door, and jumped over the fence to the right. I sprinted forward, jumping earlier to enable a quicker vault.
I went inside the elevator as I saw a SWAT team click magazines into their SCAR’s. The doors closed as bullets started denting them.
“Go ahead, breathe out. Damn, what a mess. I can’t believe Pope’s gone. They’re shitting on this damn city. You sure opened a can of worms on this one. Take the bridge across the avenue, and head into Centurian Plaza.”
The doors opened, and I was ready to roll. They opened into the City Eye news building, and the walls were painted black and yellow. The TV’s lining the walls displaying their news station showed me running across the rooftops, as the Anchor told about the ‘Breaking News Story’ that was Pope’s death and my sister being framed. I slammed a door open, and went left. Around the corner was a drop, and I took it, rolling, then wall running to the next building. Into that door. I was on the bridge, and the bullets were piercing through the glass. I vaulted the railing, and opened that door. I coil jumped over the railing, sliding down the another bridge.
“They’re surrounding you Faith. Get to the Plaza. They’re trying to cut you off ahead. Get through them, quick. I jumped off the bridge, and hit the ground running. “Push the to the Plaza Faith. Go through the tunnels ahead.” I went right, into the tunnels, which were painted with the familiar gradient, light at the bottom, saturated at the top. They were blue here. I ran forward, taking a left, and sliding under a closing gate, as they turned to magenta. Here the walls were lined with ‘Vote Pope’ campaign posters. “You don’t want to know what’s behind you Faith, just keep running. Get some air in your lungs and run.” I took another left, sliding under a gate, and the walls were pasty white, then back to a solid blue. I went up a flight of stairs, and the walls were purple when I saw the sign that said ‘Centurian Plaza’
I went left, and Merc’s voice crackled, “One at a time Faith. Take em one at a time.”
A cop was pulling out his handgun, and as I ran past, I grabbed it, ejecting the magazine, unchambering the bullet and throwing it aside. I went up some stairs near a fountain, and then used a bench as a springboard as Merc said to me, “Get up to the rail overpass. It’s the only way through. I’m patching Krieg in.”
“Faith, let’s get you outta here.” I climbed up a ladder, and spun around, and jumped onto a zip line. As I fell, I spun around and flicked off the blues, staring at me as I fell through the glass. I landed hard, and Krieg, a big, tough black guy, came over. “You ok? Come on. Let’s get outta here.”
I stood up and followed him into more tunnels, and the chopper gave up. Merc told me quietly, “Faith. You did good. No word on what’s got the blues so trigger happy, but I’ll keep on it. And uh... Don’t worry about your sis. We’ll fix it.”
I like these kinda projects, I did it with Fahrenheit.
keepitup
I like this. The only thing you could improve is the amount of "I jumped off the ___ and landed on the ____," you could add more thoughts.
Hrmm, I gave it a quick look-over, and it seems a lot of your action sentences begin with 'I'. This is a common problem when working with first-person. You have to try and avoid starting three sentences with 'I' right after each other.
Thanks for the tips :)
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