Yesu rode straight into the chaos.
People were running in every direction, no pattern, no order. Smoke rolled low across the ground, thick enough to choke the air.
A section of the water plant had collapsed inward, dragging tal and concrete with it.
Yesu didn't stop.
A man stumbled into her path. She swerved left before he even fully fell, the bicycle tilting dangerously, then correcting like it never lost balance.
A CCD officer slamd both hands into the ground ahead. Stone surged upward in a jagged wall, cutting off a collapsing beam.
Yesu adjusted instantly.
She leaned, cut right, slipped through the narrow gap between the rising stone and a scattering crowd without slowing.
Her tyres barely touched straight pavent for more than a second at a ti.
A burst of heat flared to her left. An officer thrust his arm forward, flas blasting outward in a controlled arc, forcing back a spreading fire licking toward a fuel spill.
The air warped.
The heat brushed past her face. She didn't flinch, didn't slow down.
"Move!" Soone shouted.
She was already past them.
A sharp hiss cut through the noise. She glanced sideways.
More fuel.
One of the demolition vehicles had split open. Liquid spread fast across the ground.
An officer dropped low, palm hitting the surface. The ground rose, not high but just enough.
A rough slab forced itself upward, breaking the flow, redirecting it away from the crowd.
Yesu saw it and adapted right away.
She rode up the incline without slowing, using the height.
The way ahead was blocked. A fallen vehicle cut across the path. No space around it.
Behind her was worse.
The rear tyre slipped a little and the bicycle tilted the w way rifle breaking for a split second.
Her foot ca off the pedal, scraping the edge of the slab.
For anyone else, that was the end of it.
Yesu adjusted mid-motion, shifted her weight, and grand ip corrected. The tilt snapped back into line like it never happened.
She didn't stop. She leaned forward and rode straight at the vehicle.
At the last second, she lifted. The front wheel cleared first then the rest followed. Barely.
She landed hard on the other side and didn't look back.
MacKayden's gaze shifted. Not to the explosion. Not to the officers.
To movent. Wrong movent.
A girl on a bicycle. She shouldn't have made that jump.
He watched her ride through the chaos like it wasn't there. With no hesitation, no misstep and no damage.
Cee Cee followed his line of sight. "Her again?"
A beam tore loose above the front line. It ca down fast.
MacKayden stepped forward. No rush.
He raised an arm and caught it.
The impact traveled through him. The concrete beneath his feet fractured. But the beam stopped, dead.
For a second, nothing moved. Then he shifted his weight slightly and forced it aside.
It hit the ground away from the crowd. Hard and controlled.
His attention lingered one second longer on Yesu riding away from the commotion unscathed, then returned to the scene.
"Focus," he said. But he had already seen enough.
***
An hour later, Yesu ambled out of a building after making her last delivery for the night.
It was drizzling.
She looked up at the sky, and dark clouds had gathered. It wouldn't be long before the real rain fell.
She smiled and stretched out her tongue, the rain tickled it.
She wondered, briefly, what Null Avenue would look like at the mont.
There was a telephone booth across the street.
Yesu dipped a hand into her pocket and brought out a penny. It was the tip the old lady had given her earlier.
She stared at it for a while, then sprinted across the street to the booth.
She put in the penny, picked up the telephone and dialed a number. She placed the phone to her ear, waiting.
A sharp click cut through the line. Silence.
She looked at the phone in her hand for a second, sighed and placed it back on the receiver.
She returned to her bicycle and rode off.
***
The rain had started. Thunder rumbled, and lightning danced across the clouded night sky.
MacKayden marched into the station and frowned imdiately.
The waiting area was packed. n, won, children, all clustered. Their voices ran into each other.
There was an officer at the front desk, making futile attempts to maintain order.
"What is going on here?" MacKayden asked the officer, advancing. Everyone went quiet.
"Sir…" began the officer, "We're getting lots of complaints. It seems that during the protest, houses and shops were robbed, people went missing, and soone got murdered… the list is endless sir."
MacKayden paused montarily, then faced the civilians.
"One at a ti or not at all." He let the silence settle. "Go ho. We'll clean up what your people started."
Then he went in the direction of his office. No one spoke till he was out of sight.
***
MacKayden sat behind his desk watching cara footage from early that evening, before the explosion.
He replayed it a few tis then paused suddenly. He zood in on a man walking casually away from the scene seconds before the impact, with a bag.
"Gotcha." He said under his breath. "Wrong place for a bag."
He saved the man's image, a shadow of a smile creeping on his face.
Then suddenly it was gone.
He clicked hastily, fast-forwarding to after the explosion.
And there she was, moving like it was no one's business. Weaving, dodging, using dangerous circumstances to her advantage.
Then there was the jump. The bicycle had slipped. She could have fallen, and died probably, because the slab shattered seconds after she cleared it.
The jump wasn't perfect. She still made it. That wasn't possible.
"Luck, she said."
The telephone rang. MacKayden answered imdiately.
"Officer MacKayden speaking."
"Hello Officer, this is Bertram Corvane. Of The Assembly."
MacKayden stiffened. "How can I be of service, sir?"
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