Sui Generis – 10

 

Brand was ready to move on to another spot. Fedor wasn't anywhere close by, unless he had disguised himself, which he hadn't the last time Brand had seen him. Not that I'd know until it was too late.

He glanced at Mag, who was on the roof of a building at the far end of the alley. He'd been splitting his attention between his friend and the alley for the last hour, undeniably proud that Mag seemed to be overcoming his fear of heights enough to actually watch what was happening, or not happening, in the alley.

Hefting his backpack over his shoulders, he moved rapidly from rooftop to rooftop, easily handling the different heights as he made his way across them to where Mag was kneeling with his attention locked on whatever was going on below him.

Without thinking he might frighten him, Brand walked up behind Mag.

Mag swung around, his hands tightly fisted, a look of terror on his face.

"Whoa, it's just me," Brand said, dropping down to kneel beside him.

Mag stared fearfully at him, his breath coming in fast pants. Slowly he relaxed, muttering, "You scared the hell out of me."

"So I see. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Brand hugged him quickly.

"I know." Mag sighed. "If you'd been him, I'd have been up shit creek."

"But you'd have done some serious damage to his knees in the process," Brand retorted, when he realized Mag held a penknife in one hand.

"Yeah, maybe." Mag managed a smile, then a weak laugh. "Not much of a weapon, but I felt safer having it." 

"No doubt," Brand agreed, chuckling as he got to his feet again. "Ready to move on?" When Mag nodded, Brand held out his hand to help him up.

"I wish…"

"I had been him?" Brand asked.

"Yes. Then this would be over, or at least moving on to the next step."

"I'm with you on that, though I'd rather you see him before he gets as close as I was. I really do not want you in his clutches. You're supposed to be bait, not a victim."

"True enough. So where are we going next?"

They decided to move, block by block, closer to the creek, spending an hour or so in each of the alleys. It was close to morning when they finally gave up and headed home.

"If he was around, he's still playing games," Mag said, as they walked.

"I know but somehow I don't think he was. Or at least not where we were, when we were where we were." Brand chuckled. "If you get what I'm saying."

"At lot of 'weres', but I do. So we try again tomorrow night."

Brand nodded. "Or…"

"Or?"

"I was thinking. Alleys aren't the only place we'd go if we were still on the streets."

"The creek," Mag said, apparently getting what Brand was thinking.

"Yeah. It would be easier for him to find us, and—" Brand smiled, throwing one arm over Mag's shoulders, "—you wouldn't have to be up high, having panic attacks every time you looked three or four stories down."

"I wasn't. Well, okay, yeah I was at first but I started to get better. A bit." Mag grinned. "I wasn't leaving fingernail marks on the parapets on the last couple of roofs."

"Still, the creek might work to our advantage. I should have figured that out a month ago, instead of playing hide-and-seek in the alleys."

"So tomorrow we try it and see."