I raced down the side of the street chasing after my prey with a synthetic focus that man was probably not supposed to possess. Too bad for my quarry. He ducked into a door as I whipped between a set of hanging sheets just barely in time to glimpse the sole of his right foot disappear through the alcove.
I leapt over a synthetic wicker basket, probably painted on the Cape, and slammed on my heels to gain purchase on the asphalt to right-angle it into the same door without wasting any time. I had to get him.
The first thing I noticed was the darkness. The second thing
I noticed were the stairs; the only way was up. I blinked the short sequence to
activate the night vision in my contacts at the same time as I breathed the
sequence to squirt the necessary extra adrenal fluid and stims into my blood.
While I bounded up the steps taking three at a time I blinked
another sequence and time slowed down to a crawl, or at least my mind was
now experiencing time go by ten times more slowly than usual. This allowed me
to effectively think ten times as fast a normal person.
Now I could see in the dark, I was jacked up on adrenaline
and stimulants and everything slowed down from my perspective so I could take
my time thinking through my next moves and plan while I ran. I had no time to
lose because the man I was chasing was a pro and he was getting away. I watched him get to the
last stair, like a fat fish floating through the sea on the way to the surface.
In what seemed like minutes, he slowly rotated a bit as he began to run down a
hallway. My advantages allowed me to make it to the top a lot faster than him.
I barely felt any exertion at all. Climbing stairs was no effort and I was soon
in the hallway too and right behind him.
Once again he ducked into a door and disappeared. I
followed. The room I entered was bright and airy and he was gone! My contacts
automatically adjusted so I wasn't blinded by the light. Tiny half-inch drones
buzzed my head, my prey's defensive measures.
To my right was an antique
Gustavian desk and in front of me was a large open window with its curtains
flowing in the breeze. To my left was a pair of antique Swedish chairs on
either side of an odd-looking door. I took this all in within a half a second and
swatted at my enemy's drones with an armored and weaponized forearm.
Shit! Did he go through the window or the door?! It seemed
as if it was a fifty-fifty chance and I had to flip a mental coin. But if I
chose wrong, he would get away, I didn't have time to choose incorrectly. He was
too good and too fast for mistakes. There was something about the chairs. One
seemed askance. Maybe he bumped it as he passed?
I made my choice, he went
through the door between the chairs, I was sure of it. As I accelerated towards the door, I noticed
why it all seemed so odd. There was no door. He had set a trap hoping I would
choose the door. An almost invisible force field was extended between the antique
chairs and when I tried to run through, the force field not only stopped me,
but electrocuted me in the process, rendering me useless and writhing on the
floor in painful convulsions. I had lost him and it was over.
