Three animal-helmeted men turned savage eyes on him, and Jak saw three more racing to flank him. Ryan had long ago impressed on him the importance of counting bullets in a firefight, and he knew he had only four rounds for six rapidly moving targets.
Jak pivoted on his heel, put his head back and started to run. He heard a deep voice shout, “Take him alive!”
“Easy to say, stupe,” Jak whispered.
A raging chorus of orders and counterorders erupted behind him. He raced across the plaza, feeling as if his feet scarcely touched the ground. He ran down the narrow side lane that J.B. had followed, then up a narrow alley hardly wide enough to accommodate his slight frame. The much larger Incarnates would find it difficult and painful to negotiate.
Emerging into a broad street, he spotted a stone stair leading to the roof of a building. He loped up the steps, taking three at a time. Though he was the smallest in stature of his companions, except for Dean, he was the fleetest of foot and arguably had the deepest reservoir of stamina.
Running at full sprint across the flat surface of the roof, he took an alleyway yawning before him in a single leap. He misjudged the distance of the adjacent building, came down too low, fumbled his one-handed grip on the edge, scraped skin from his wrist and pulled himself onto the other side. He dashed across the top of the building and jumped over another alley, down a few feet to a tiled rooftop.
Only then did he pause to look back and catch his breath. Though the early-morning sun wasn’t even at midpoint in the sky, the blazing heat and the exertion had already drenched him in sweat. His shock of white hair was a soaking mass, and salty, stinging trickles slid into his eyes. He considered removing his camouflage clothing, not only because of its weight but because there was nothing in sight to use as decent cover. At any rate, his white skin and ruby eyes couldn’t be disguised.
He listened intently, but he heard very little aside from a distant shout. He had lost his pursuers. Swinging over the edge of the roof, he dropped down into the street below, landing lightly in a crouch. He moved along the street warily, trying to stay close to the sparse shadows.
The street funneled into a lane, then narrowed to an alley. The short, squat buildings hemming it had recessed doorways and windows covered with wooden shutters. It was fairly shady there, not yet exposed to the direct blast of the sun.
As Jak walked, he encountered no one, not even a dog. He crept along the alley, holstering his blaster and unsheathing one of his flat, leaf-bladed throwing knives. If he ran into trouble, he didn’t want to pinpoint his position by firing the Colt. A blade was just as quick, just as deadly and it was silent.
Jak had no plan except to evade capture. Escaping the city and leaving his friends behind never entered his mind.
A voice suddenly wafted to him on the air, a female voice lifted in a lilting song. A very small space, fifteen inches wide, between two of the buildings was the only bolt-hole available. As thin as he was, it was a struggle to cram himself in sideways, pushing himself back from the alley. He waited, staring out with slitted eyes, his thumb resting on the razor-keen edge of his knife.
A nearly naked girl strode down the alley, her slender body draped in the filmiest of coverings. Her heavy black hair was as shiny as a raven’s wing and rested on her shoulders. Impudent breasts swayed beneath the thin material. She carried a water jug in one hand and she sang as she walked.
“The evening river’s calm and still
The evening flowers drink their fill
The north wind comes to cool the night
And put the river’s waves to flight.”
Jak stared, entranced by the girl’s grace, sensual beauty and sweet voice.
Lingering grief over the deaths of his wife, Christina, and their infant daughter had frozen the softer emotions in him, particularly toward members of the opposite sex. That ice had thawed a bit during a brief sojourn in Japan a few months earlier, when he had been deeply attracted to a young geisha. But Issie had apparently perished in an earthquake, and the ice had slowly formed again.