8 The Window: 02

As soon as she finished the report she went back to firing her weapon. It was my chance. With one foot on the concrete balcony I shifted my weight and slid carefully to the edge of the letter leaving on foot hanging on the black abyss that was the street below me. I was so exposed to either the cop in front of me or anyone on the buildings behind. My heart freezed when I jumped down on the safety of my corridor and threw myself into the corner away from the hallway. Finally safe I thought, but the pistol stopped and a light was pointed in my direction.

From my position she couldn't see me. Frozen in place, stiff as the concrete on my back I heard a boot walking towards me.

Running to my apartment would just draw them into my house leaving me trapped. Against my will I stood up glued to the wall watching the light get brighter at every breath I took. There was no avoiding it.

When the gun entered my field of vision I grabbed it and knocked it down with my thigh then with a quick move and without letting her arm go immobilizing her with an arm wrench against the balcony wall. The flash light was on the ground only throwing shadows on our faces, I didn't want to be recognized because it could lead to retaliation by the police. I had to get that woman out of my way.

- Bye bye, officer…- My heart was hesitant. I wasn't thinking straight, I only knew that that cop was between me and my house and I couldn't take any chances of being shot or arrested.

- Wait!!- she shouted when I started to press her against the wal l- Sato?

My heart beat so strong against my chest wall I lost my breath. I knew that voice.

It's me, officer Abrom!- desperately she tried to turn her head to look at me while I kept pushing her against the balcony. Half her torso was on the outside getting wet by the weak rain that started out again.

Inside my head millions of thoughts were crossing by like the bullets in the warzone downstairs. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't trust she wouldn't shoot me, it's not like we knew each other. My heart was killing me while my flesh shaked under my skin.

- Move faster!- shouted a male voice coming from the staircase.

The Trinity members were almost there, there was no time to ponder over hypothetical scenarios I had to do something. Under a grutoral grow I let go of her head and pulled her by the arm running to the deepest part of the corridor. Everything looked so dark, my vision was blurry and my hands shaked as I typed the code on my lock. Once again the shots began, this time coming from the street we were just looking at. They were so close my eardrums hurt with the sound. Never had I felt such things before, the latente fear until my door opened and I shoved the woman inside and closed it with my body. I leaned against the metal in a needless attempt to barricade the entrance.

- Thank you.

Of course it wasn't over, my biggest fear came in with me dragged by the hand in an act of despair to save us both. Looking at her in the dark single room apartment the only thing I could focus on were her green eyes, staring at me with relief. Something in that woman made me uneasy, I guess I had a debt with her but I don't think the proportions of this payment were right.

- Why are you here?

Even though nobody ever even came close to the door I couldn't bring myself to move. To be honest I didn't even think my words through, all I wanted was to get rid of that distressing feeling of fear and the metal under my palms and back seemed to slowly bring me back to Earth.

- The City Leader commanded a search in the lower tier.

To my comfort she didn't seem to be in a much different state than me. Also glued to the wall by my side, officer Abrom kept looking at me as if she was waiting for somebody to knock on the door. We were both apprehensive with what just happened, what I could have done.

- Search for what?!- I turned my head to her.

- The masked terrorist.

Finally I moved. Thinking about the police taking over the last peaceful place in this city overtook my mind, I had to check what happened while I was out. As I sat on my chair and pulled back the curtain letting the blue night light lighten up the place faintly, officer Abrom stayed by the door with her head down. Paying attention to anything in that moment was hard, we both knew how intense the last few minutes were there's no way to bring something up without sounding cynical. Nevertheless she was there and wouldn't leave soon that didn't mean I would initiate any kind of conversation. All I did was sit there face hidden by one very wide screen with a shell I used to put the junk I collected, like cameras, photos, action figures, some books I scavenged plus the red and blue back lights on my desk formed a very efficient wall between me and the lady cop.

After I got used to her not moving I managed to focus on my research. I had cameras installed around my apartment and some others used by the Trinity that I accessed, giving me eyes all over the slums. Going back a little before I arrived some cameras registered a very organized police operation entering the slums.

People started to run home, establishments closed their doors with customers still inside, it was a commotion. From their formation it seemed they had some notion of where to go but soon got lost and bumped into a group of Trinity men on the yard downstairs that's when the shooting started.

- How do you have access to so many surveillance devices?