Long Odds Read online

him. Tara tried in vain to roll the man off it, but he was firmly locked into the foetal position and not going anywhere.

  “Leave it Tara! Let’s go!,” cried Isa as she started off down the street away from the cops.

  Tara glimpsed back to see the cops where only yards away and quickly gave up on retrieving her pokie. She leapt up over the man and sprinted after Isa. Isa lead the way rapidly down the street using her slim build and nimble athleticism to weave efficiently through the crowd. Tara was not as fit and quickly lagged behind.

  Isa reached the next intersection and intentionally waited for Tara to catch up.

  “You go left I’ll go right,” she said and they went opposite directions. Splitting up was always the best option since cops never split up during a chase unless there was more than one pair of them. That would give Tara a fifty fifty chance of getting away.

  Isa jogged a short way down the less crowded side street and looked back at the intersection. Tara was right, the cops never normally followed Isa, so she was surprised when she saw them both round the bend and head in her direction, shouting out for her to stop. With Tara having lost yet another pokie and the night only young there was no chance Isa was stopping.

  Isa sprinted flat out, leaving nothing in reserve as she tried desperately to get some distance between her and the cops. She burst through the next intersection oblivious to the traffic flow. It was sheer luck that she made it across without being run over.

  She cut right as soon as she crossed the street. She was getting close to one of her well used escape routes. If she could just make it into the maze of backstreets in the red light district, another old stomping ground of hers, she would be safe.

  With the cops now lagging behind, but still in pursuit, she weaved into a heavy part of the crowd, stopped momentarily and crouched down. She ran in the low crouch across the flow of people and into a narrow alleyway that was used by the city’s waste removal robots.

  The alleyway opened out into a nearly deserted street. It was at the edge of an old information technology precinct that had been long condemned and awaiting absorption into the commercial district. Something that was unlikely to happen in the near future while the economy was so bad.

  Isa did not look back, while she was confident that the police could not have seen her duck down the alley she pressed on at a jog down to the far end of the dead end street.

  She stopped at the door of an old three story building that still had a dull and rusty sign hanging above the main entry. It read “Interstellar Server Solutions”. Isa smiled, she never thought her old work place would ever be a sight for sore eyes until she had started using it as an escape route.

  She pushed gently on the double doors, but to her surprise nothing happened. Alarmed she pushed more firmly. Still nothing, so she threw her shoulder into it. It was no use, it was locked shut, which should have been impossible because she had broken the lock over six months ago.

  She cursed her luck. What were the chances of someone finding and fixing the lock to an abandoned building?

  Her luck got even worse a few seconds later as the two, heavily sweating and awfully annoyed, cops came running out of the alleyway behind her. It did not take them long to spot her and also to realise they were now blocking her only way out.

  They spread out a bit and slowed down in their approach with the clear intention of boxing her in. Isa was not about to give up that easily however and she sprinted down one side of the street away from them, trying each front door as she went.

  With a sinking heart she quickly reached the last building in the street, a huge abandoned computer chip manufacturing plant. It had several large locked roller doors across its front, but on the far corner she spotted her last chance, a small service door.

  She ran directly over to it and to her amazement the key had been left in the lock! The cops apparently saw it too and broke back into a sprint again. Before they reached her however, she was through the door and locking it from the inside.

  Isa spun around and laid her back against the door as the cops pounded on it and yelled from the other side. The door flexed as the cops pushed on it. It was alarmingly flimsy and Isa knew it would not keep them at bay for long. The problem was, now that she was inside, everything was jet black and even after her eyes adjusted she could not see a thing.

  “Wow Isa, how are you going to get yourself out of this one?” she asked herself quietly. No sooner had the words left her mouth when a single light came on.

  It blinked to life through a doorway on the other side of the small room that she now found herself in. The dusty fluorescent globe flickered and buzzed. Isa quickly looked either side of her to check she had not bumped a light switch, but the walls were bare.

  She left the door and crossed the empty room. The light was at the start of a long narrow corridor. The light was so dull that she could not see more than a few feet down it, but as soon as she stepped out of the room another light buzzed to life. It was the next light in the corridor.

  Isa froze. Although it was probably just some old sensor system that was designed to save energy outside of office hours she could not resist calling out just in case.

  “Hello, is there anyone there?”

  The only response was another light flickering on a little further down the corridor. The hairs on the back of Isa’s neck stood up when this happened. She had not moved this time. For a few moments she stood rooted in place and contemplated giving herself up to the cops.

  She started to turn around and the lights behind and directly above her went out. A moment later the remainder of the corridor lights all came on at once.

  Behind her she heard the entry door start to crack as the cops tried to force their way through again. Suddenly resolute she crossed her fingers and followed the lights, hoping that what she was walking into was not worse than what she getting out of.

  The lights lead her through a maze of rooms, old offices and corridors. She climbed up stairs, then downstairs and changed directions so many times that she was quickly disorientated. The whole time she was at the mercy of the lights that came on ahead of her and blinked out as she passed.

  After what seemed like an eternity she came to a closed door. The lights stopped outside it and did not change. She guessed that meant she was supposed to go through so she grabbed the handle and turned it. The door was not locked and she opened it.

  The room she stepped into was small, it had a small desk in its centre and behind the desk was another door. The room was lit by two things, one very dull desk lamp and the eerie glow from an ancient looking laptop. The young man sitting behind desk and the laptop looked up at Isa as she entered and gave her a nervous if knowing smile.

  “Hi, my name is Chance,” he said nervously, extending his hand as he stood up. Isa just stared at him not really knowing what to say or think. He retracted his hand clearly embarrassed. “Um, sorry, but can you shut the door behind you?”

  Isa creased her brow still trying to figure out the situation, but at the same time shoved the door closed. As it clunked shut the man appeared to relax a little. He was a tallish guy and fairly thin. He was wearing a dark tee-shirt and old jeans and sneakers. His hair was jet black, most likely dyed, and hung in a long ponytail. His eyes were such a dark brown that at first glance he looked as though his pupils were fully dilated all the time. He looked a little older than Isa, maybe late twenties possibly early thirties.

  He looked back and forth between Isa and his computer as he cleared his throat. Isa beat him to the punch though, she needed to figure what this was all about fast.

  “Are you the guy who was been playing with the lights?”

  “Um, yes,” he replied, sitting down again in front of the laptop and clacking away at the keyboard.

  “Why?” she demanded, as she looked longingly at the door on the other side of the room and wondering if it lead to a way out.

  “Well that’s a little complicated,” he replied looking up from the
screen at her again.

  “The short answer will do fine,” replied Isa.

  He attempted a friendly and disarming smile, but Isa did not fall for it and her face remained stern.

  “Your friend played around with the odds on her machine. She should not have done that. It mucks everything up,” he said.

  “How do you know about my friend?”

  “That would require the longer answer,” he retorted with just a hint of sarcasm. “The important thing is, that when she did that, she put you both in danger so I helped you. That is how you got here.”

  “Have you been stalking us or something?” demanded Isa edging towards a clear run at the rear door.

  “No, no,” reassured Chance. “Although I have watched you plenty of times before, at the internet cafe when you come in to see Jous.”

  Isa stopped and looked at him more closely. “I don’t ever remember seeing you there.”

  “No, I know,” he mumbled to himself solemnly.

  “Look, I don’t know what game Jous has you playing spying on us, but I’m leaving ok. Thanks for the help with the cops.”

  Isa sprang past Chance who remained sitting at his laptop. His only reaction was to tap at a coupled of keys.

  As she reached the door and grabbed the handle he swivelled around in his chair.

  “What do you think the odds would be that the door lock would temporarily jam?” he said smiling.

  Isa tried the door handle,