Chapter 2.8

With an economy of movement Katashi quickly and calmly moved to the rear entrance.  He knew the house was watched and all entrances would now be guarded.  They had let him in and now they thought they had him.  In the rear hallway he turned stepped into the hall closet, closing the door behind him.  He reached up and deftly slid tiles to the side and hoisted himself up and onto the roof.  He carefully and quietly replaced the tiles and keeping as low as he could and still move quickly began to head towards the edge.

When he got to the edge he cautiously peered over.  No one.  He sprung to the roof across the alley and continued on.  It wasn’t until he was three or four blocks away that he dropped down to street level.  Even then he kept to the back alley’s as he tried to put as much distance as he could between himself and the ‘safe house.’  None of this quite made sense but he still had a mission to carry out.  

His first thought was to leave the city and trail Hayato into the highlands.  It had of course already occurred to him though that if he was marked so to was Hayato.  He had escaped but had Hayato?  Both of them had been highly trained and so he had no doubt of the skills they both possessed, and yet he had been almost taken not once but twice.

This was most disconcerting and caused Katashi to modify his plans slightly.  The increase of risk to himself would be greatly multiplied but it would be much better to know here and now if Hayato had been eliminated or not.  The last place Hayato would have stopped at before leaving would be the Jade Monkey.  It was a tavern at the eastern edge of town and the bartender was his uncles friend.  He was well enough acquainted with him to be able to enter and discretely get some information out of him.  First though he must wait until the sun began to set.  Walking the streets in broad daylight was completely unnecessary. 

~ by ridgewalker on February 21, 2008.