Collateral

Rose is pushing through the crowd. It seems like her target has entered a busy street, in an attempt to shake her off. She puts away her gun, in her belt, no way she can use it here without harming an innocent bystander. Rose sighs. Maybe her target was craftier than expected.

She spots the target. The woman is ordering food from a food stand, near the metro station. She is quite close, Rose just has to climb a bunch of stairs. It is strange, even though her target knew she ran away and knew to hide in a crowd, she then waits around at a point where she is easily visible, at the top of an escalator. She isn’t even using it as a vantage point, she is waiting for her food to be made and checking her phone in the meanwhile.

Rose runs up the escalator. The woman is now arguing with the food vendor. “What the hell is this?” she yells. “Are you trying to poison me?”

The food vendor sighs. “If you aren’t satisfied with your order, I can remake it.”

“Don’t even bother.” The woman throws her Synth-Kebab demonstratively in the trashcan. “I’ll buy food somewhere else.”

Rose reaches the end of the escalator and gets ready to grab the woman from behind. The device on her arm is flashing a red light, and emitting a loud buzz. Before Rose can act, the woman turns around, looks Rose in the eyes, and pushes her.

Rose stumbles back, but there is no floor behind her. She falls from the escalator, and people jump out of the way. She keeps tumbling down until she hits the floor. Her back and legs impact the ground, and pain surges through her body.

A small crowd gathers around her. Many voices mumble around her while the world spins.

“Oh my god, did she just fall from the stairs?”

“Is she okay?”

Rose picks herself up from the ground, her head still pounding. Every muscle in her body hurts, and she has to push her body to move forward. Her blouse and pants are drenched in sweat. Or at least she hopes it is sweat. Guaranteed she has lost the target now, Mr Johnson is not gonna be happy.

Rose looks upward and sees the target on the top of the stairs, still arguing with the food vendor. The hell. What is she waiting for? Nothing she does makes any sense.

Rose takes the escalator back up, and when she arrives upstairs, the woman has walked a bit further, to another food vendor.

She looks back at Rose and then at her lower arm and starts running. Rose pushes the crowd aside and runs after her. The woman runs on the sidewalk, her implant still buzzing and emitting a flashing red light. After a while, the light returns from red to green. The woman stops, looks back at Rose, smiles, and enters the nearest building.

Rose arrives in from of the building and walks inside. She enters a hotel lobby, which looks familiar. Her target has already run to one of the security guards.

“Help me, this woman is following me.”

The security guard looks at the target, and back at Rose. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

The security guard pulls his gun on Rose and gestures for her to raise her hands. “You are that woman that pulled a gun on the hotel owner, ten years ago!” he exclaims.

Rose now realises where she is. The Redgroove Hotel. How could she forget? Maybe a better question is, how did the target know to come here?

The target meanwhile looks at Rose, with a wide grin on her face.

The security guard looks at the receptionist. “Mel, can you please call the police?”

He gestures for Rose to sit down, and she takes a seat in one of the lobby’s chairs. She shivers when her bruised back and legs make contact with the soft surface. The man removes Rose’s gun from her holster and puts it on a nearby table.

The target keeps standing and crosses her arms. “Who are you? What do you want? Why are you following me?”

Rose stays silent, averting her eyes.

The guard speaks instead, keeping his gun pointed at Rose. “Her name is Rose Griffith, she came here ten years ago asking for a job and put our boss at gunpoint. I suppose she is a common street criminal now. She hasn’t changed a bit.”

Rose looks back at the gun. Maybe not all is lost, the guard is standing close enough for her to disarm him. If she just waits for the right moment, maybe she has a chance.

The moment she contemplates that, the target’s implant’s light blinks red, and it buzzes again. “She is planning to grab your gun, you should take a step back.”

How does she know that?

“Thanks,” the guard says and he takes a step back.

Rose hears sirens outside, and the target’s implant beeps again. She suddenly turns around to the guard.

“Are you selling me out?” she yells.

The guard looks confused, and the woman pushes him aside. Rose uses the opportunity to jump forward and knock his gun from his hands.

The woman looks at Rose. Her implant is beeping and buzzing.

“Follow me, if you want to live!” she yells.

Rose is confused but considers following the woman a better bet than facing the cops. Together, they run through the hallways and run past a hotel room that isn’t closed.

“Here, go me inside.”

The woman and Rose enter the hotel room and she closes the door. The light on her arm goes back from red to green.

Rose sits down on the Hotel bed and looks at the woman.

“Ok, I have no clue what is going on. Can you please tell me what mess I found myself in?”

The woman shakes her head. “You are the one that is following me. I was gonna ask you the same question.”

Rose sighs. “I am a fixer, hired to recover the stolen device that is implanted on your arm.” She points at the device, that is still flashing a green light.”

“Wait, the device is stolen?” She woman exclaims. “No wonder. I never thrust that wicked doctor again!”

Rose tries to focus, but her head is pounding. She lies down on the bed. Maybe that fall hit her harder than she thought.

“I haven’t introduced myself.” the woman says. “How rude of me. My name is Linda. You must be Rose. Are, are you ok?”

Rose sits back up, wincing in pain. “Ye, I am fine. That fall from the stairs really hurt me.”

“I am sorry about that.”

An awkward silence hangs in the room. After a minute or so, Rose speaks up. “So, your device, what does it do?”

And Linda starts to explain.