The Title

by David Caldwell

When Shiva Starts to Dance: Part 08.

One step ahead


The Spinner navigated the darkened, nearly empty canyons of the city. Even without the power outages he knew that many of these huge towers would stand dark and uninhabited. The companies were gone as were most of the residents. The remaining trash from the streets could only scavenge and squat so far up in the buildings without power to operate the elevators and pump the heat and air. Yes, he was safe as long as the power core in his spinner held out. Once that was gone and he was confined to the ground he new his time would be limited.

Once again he cursed Bryant, his old Unit Commander, who had not pulled the right strings to get him assigned Off-World. He cursed his wife who had left him to escape with another man. And finally he cursed the disease that was crippling but not killing him and which kept him trapped here on a dying world.

Then, as always, he came to the prime focus of his hatred. 'Those dazzling, perfect beings, those flawless monsters, fucking, snake-hearted Skinjobs who were getting set to survive while the rest of us sink into the slime without trace.' He thought, 'Well I'm going to stop that from happening. I'll make sure not one of them survives and that includes my old Blade Runner colleague Deckard.'


Rolf had gone off to collect Rick's Spinner and now he and Deckard were on the rooftop landing pad loading it with supplies. Michael had told him that they were moving to the now deserted headquarters of the Tyrell Corporation.

"We've got at least twenty of our kin making their way to us at present and I'm hoping there will be more. After treating you with the last of the nanites we need to produce some more and the old Tyrell labs are the best place to do that. I've also found out that someone is tracking us and has located this apartment through the ESPER system."

"Who? I thought you said there were no more Blade Runner Units?" Rick asked.
"There aren't. I don't know who they are but I would like to avoid a confrontation until we know their strength," then grinning he added, "So in the meantime we're going home to mother."

Once the Spinner was loaded with the supplies and Kali had been placed in the passenger seat Rolf closed the doors and activated the start engine. After making their own way across the city Opal, Michael and Deckard would rendezvous with him at Tyrell's.



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