The Girl in the City by Harris Philip

Author:Harris, Philip [Harris, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2015-02-01T16:00:00+00:00

Leah spotted the woman as she turned into an alley off Coyote Avenue. She was plain and unassuming, average build, brown hair, wearing a beige work suit of a type Leah had seen dozens of times around the city. But it was her face that caught Leah’s attention, or more accurately, the scar on her face. It ran from just above the woman’s right eye, across her forehead, and down over her left eye to her cheek.

The woman was trying to act nonchalant, but when Leah varied her pace, the woman followed suit. Leah took a couple of quick turns and the woman hurried to catch up to her. Leah slowed, considering her options. The woman was probably working for Transport, an undercover officer. Which meant she’d have called for backup, and Leah didn’t have long before more Transport policemen arrived. There was no way Leah could confront the woman. She’d have to lose her somewhere in the city if she could; otherwise her best bet would be the tunnels.

Leah headed to one of the indoor markets that littered the City. The markets were raucous collections of salvage traders, performers, information brokers, and the odd food stall run by the rare entrepreneur who elected to use their food vouchers to buy ingredients they could cook and sell for a profit. Afternoon was peak time for the markets. There’d be plenty of opportunity to lose the woman there. Leah picked one of the smaller side entrances and ducked inside.

The smell hit her immediately, a pungent mix of spices and meat, grease, and sweat. Despite her fear, Leah felt a pang of hunger, and her mouth began to water. The air was filled with the strident cries of dozens of vendors, all intent on proving they could shout the loudest. The narrow passages between the stalls were jammed solid in places, the customers shuffling slowly forward as they craned their necks to see what the vendors were peddling.

Leah pushed her way through a group of people huddled around a young boy performing sleight-of-hand tricks with a grubby deck of cards. She needed to get to the middle of the market. There would be a mealspace there, a wide area filled with tables and chairs where the inhabitants of the City came to eat and talk and make their deals. She might have already lost the woman, but she couldn’t tell among the crowd. The mealspace would give her a clearer view of the people around her, and it would provide more options for escape.

Leah kept checking over her shoulder as she wove through the throngs, but she didn’t see the woman. Not knowing where her pursuer was made her nervous.

When she finally found the mealspace, it was bigger than she’d expected. The air was filled with the chatter of dozens of men and women huddled around the tables or leaning against the posts holding up the sagging roof of the market. Leah made her way to the center of the space and began searching for the woman with the scar.

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