MECHANTARES 2

The tech Kenzie had provided me wasn't perfect. Cryptid flickered in and out of view as he passed within the view of the facility's security cameras and then entered the blind spots.


The guards in the hallways ahead of us were the same. Major points were watched, but there were a few who retreated to places the cameras didn't see and stayed there. If this were Gimel I might have guessed they were smoking, but I hadn't seen or smelled a single cigarette yet.


The gaps meant I had to focus, devoting attention to tracking every single person who stepped out of sight, remembering that they were there, and accounting for the places they could be. I was reasonably confident in my ability to do that, I was good at memorization, I could wrap my head around who was where in a conflict and not be too surprised at any point.

***

Then he was running down hallways, sprinting as fast as a large dog. A rat disappearing into the maze, flickering in and out of sight as he passed beneath the cameras. Coalbelcher jogged after, but he was only a third of the way down the hallway by the time Cryptid was at the end.


Though they were distant, I could see Cryptid stop, pausing at an intersection. He jerked his head to one side. A signal to Coalbelcher.


They were after us.


"They're coming," I said. "Cryptid and Coalbelcher. Cryptid has some running form."


*****

Three guards up ahead. One disappeared from view as they left the camera's radius. The other two responded to something -a call, a message by radio or intercom, I wasn't sure what Shin had- and started running our way.


"Hiding spot," I told Vista.

- Breaking 14.12