Distortion

“Could she have sent a tail?” James’s voice sounded muffled through the dark scarf covering half his face. “We’re both on a leash,” Lauren turned to the man, a dark shadow following her. She had forced him to completely conceal his appearance to avoid trouble. “Even a dog on a chain can run away.” “Sounds like you’ve accepted your role,” Barnes, adjusting his cap, tried not to look at the hawking vendors loudly advertising their goods. The underground market in Laos—a rabble of makeshift weaponsmiths, drug dealers, and sometimes people. Rarely could you find something truly valuable there, which was what they were hunting for. One of the local traders had, through sheer misfortune, acquired the module that could lead to the Shard. He’d been entrusted with the role of a middleman for the Shard thieves, but they had also brought death upon him. “Why are these modules scattered all over the world?” James caught up to the girl hurrying ahead, grabbing her hood. “Stop grabbing me!” Lauren hissed, yanking the fabric from his hand. “What’s with that habit? They acted quite cleverly, scattering the chain of modules so that while it’s being searched for, they could resell the Shard a hundred times over.” “Look,” he nodded somewhere to the side, and Lauren turned, pulling up the sand-colored hood of her thin trench coat. “Doesn’t he look familiar?” “One of the Tower operatives,” they watched as the man talked to a vendor at a stall not far away. “Dave.” “Stay here,” Barnes tossed out when he saw the now-familiar black rectangle in the vendor’s hand. He ran toward them, pushing through the crowd, leaving Lauren frozen in place. “No,” Lauren exhaled and dashed after him, cutting her own path through tables of goods. She reached the stall first, shoving Dave aside with her body. “I’ll pay more than him.” “He’s not buying it,” the vendor smirked, clenching his fist around the module. “He’s taking it, as agreed.” “Oh?” Lauren turned to Dave. “You know, Dave, what Valentina does to traitors?” “Thought you were one team, thrown on the search?” The man looked at James behind the girl’s back. “She’s good at convincing.” “Better hand it over,” Barnes stepped forward, standing next to Lauren. “Or what?” Dave reached his hand out to the vendor. “You can’t use weapons here if you don’t want trouble. You know that yourselves.” Lauren looked at the people searching for those who’d caused the chaos, the traders gathering fallen goods. The air was thick with the smell of burnt food, making it even heavier, sticky, suffocating. He was trying to provoke her, press on her sense of guilt, but he didn’t know how to do it right. “Then I’ll strangle you with my bare hands,” Lauren’s eyes narrowed as the vendor easily handed over the module. Such information, packed into a piece of plastic. “Grab him.” Dave, the moment the module touched his fingers, bolted into the crowd, trying to disappear, and James followed, trying not to lose sight of him among the screeching women. Lauren, pressing her cold fingers to her forehead, noticed a ladder leading to the roof. Climbing up, she thought about how to catch up, hoping the crowd of onlookers would give her a head start. Once on the roof, Lauren remembered why she disliked Laos so much—narrow houses with flat roofs, standing close together. It was an advantage for her, but it took a lot of energy for jumps between houses, which was why she didn’t immediately notice James chasing the operative. “Damn it,” Lauren was distracted by Barnes’s cap flying off, snagging on a sagging garland, and didn’t immediately see the end of the next roof. The girl’s leg plunged downward, pulling her with it, but Lauren, gripping the edge, managed to pull herself up, collapsing onto the dusty roof surface. Getting up and shrugging off her trench coat, she ran to the edge of the street and touched the earpiece in her ear, turning it on. “Take a right.” Standing as a dark figure on top, Lauren calculated the timing in her head until her own legs gave way, sending her body downward. She pulled her knees to her chest, tightening all her muscles at the moment of impact against something not flat, but solid ground. The girl opened her eyes, realizing that foreign bones and muscles were pressing against her own, but her arriving partner didn’t let her panic. “Lucky shot,” James helped the girl up, pulling her by the hands. “There’s not enough air here,” Lauren threw her head back, watching the moonlight break through holes in the stone ceiling. “Take it and let’s go.” While Barnes searched the man’s pocket for the module, the girl pulled off her own cap, adjusted it, and put it on the man. “Don’t want you in the news tomorrow,” she explained, inserting the module into the scanner. “Valentina will be *so* happy we visited Laos and everyone survived.” “Everyone?” he nodded toward Dave. Lauren took a few steps to the side, as if remembering the body in front of them, and waved a hand dismissively. “We have to keep moving,” she tapped her nail against the earpiece. “You don’t have a problem with your earpiece? I hear some noises even when it’s off.” “I’ll check it on the plane,” James, taking one last look at Dave, followed after Lauren.