She gets away

Kate glanced around the rooftop with an increasing number of nerves, hearing the footsteps of the Crows over her pounding heart. She moved around the shed again, skin brushing the wood still, pressed tight against it so she was as hard to see as she possibly could be.

The Crows turned the next corner. Kate kept looking around.

The door was open! She took a step sideways into it, opening it as little as possible before closing it on her hand, making sure it was silent. She crouched low again.

There were windows that they might look into. She looked around, hiding just under one of the windows again, hoping she was out of sight, breathless.

She waited for what seemed like quite a while before uncurling, looking up nervously. Then, silent, she crept to the door, pushing it slightly ajar. There was no sign of anyone. Biting her lip, Kate stepped outside again, grateful to see the Crows had gone.

Alone. She breathed a sigh of relief, unconsciously crossing an arm over her breasts. That had been far too close.

Cautiously she moved out, looking around. No sign of the helicopter anywhere close, and no Crows. No one was going to see her naked. So far, at least. Kate bit her lip. It was still a long way to anywhere safe.

Bracing herself, she took another running jump to the next rooftop. She stumbled to a stop, breathless, reddening anew at how the wind had felt rushing between her legs. She closed her eyes to steady herself, then started moving again.

She only made it to the next roof when she came to a stop. The adjacent buildings were all significantly taller than the one she was one; without her grappling hook, there was no chance of getting up there. Scaling a sheer wall wasn't easy at the best of times, and being stark naked made it...

Unless she wanted to try some miracle jump across the road, she was stuck up there. Kate hesitated. Nerves playing up again, she clutched both her arms over her front, glancing back.

There was no way around it. If she wanted to progress any more, even backtracking (as uninviting a prospect as it was) wouldn't offer her any better routes. If she wanted to get any closer to anywhere, she'd have to descend to the street.

Maybe she should take Luke up on his offer of a lift. Running naked along the sidewalk didn't seem like a great idea. She tapped her comm with one hand. That had survived the suit's dissolution at least, and was too sturdy to be destroyed like clothing.

There was a click. She faltered, quickly disconnecting and yanking it off.

The Crows were still looking for her. She knew the sound of interference cause by monitoring a line, if she called for help they'd track her down, and they were far closer than Luke. They might even have heard her already. Kate threw the comm to the floor, stamping on it with a bare foot, then panting, jumped down to the building's fire escape before she could talk herself out of it.

She couldn't linger anywhere. Cheeks burning, she clattered down the metal stairs, hearing yelps as the occasional stranger suddenly saw the flesh-colored blur pass their window, hurrying down as quickly as she could.

She gasped as she reached the street, but knew she couldn't hesitate. Now she just had to decide which the best destination was.