034 POV chase hopper run away 974

I drive slowly following the hopper. I watch him ride to the end of the street where he turns left and out of sight. I accelerate to the cross road and look for him. He rides down the sidewalk, moving at a decent clip. He may be small and young but he can ride fast. As I turn and follow him I try to imagine who this child is, who his parents are, where they are, and why don't they care that he's out at this hour?

'Don't drive too fast.' The man says. 'If he realises he's being followed he won't go to the stash house, he'll take off and lead us on a goose-chase.'

I ease up on the accelerator and we drop back a little.

'My eyesight isn't so great,' I say. 'Beyond fifty yards things get blurry pretty fast, that's why I was trying to keep up.' 

'I can see him just fine from this distance. Keep going at this pace.' The man says, sight fixed on the hopper riding ahead of us on the sidewalk. It would be easier to see him if he was wearing something white or bright colored. Unfortunately, he's dressed head to toe in black, his bike is a dull grey, and his backpack is dark blue I think. He blends in against the grimy concrete walls and the ashen facades of the warehouses he rides past. 

The kid suddenly takes a hard right down a small alley and he's gone from sight. 

'Shit, pull up there.' The man snaps.

I stop in front of the alley. There's only one street lamp halfway down that casts a weak sodium haze. I can just make out the silhouette of the kid riding away from us. I can't turn down the alley as it's not wide enough for my car.

'I think we've lost him,' I say, hopefully. 

The man cuts me a look that reads: Don't get too hopeful, then says, 'Keep driving, turn right then right, I know where the lane goes to. We'll catch him up at the other end.' The man says. 

I drive to the end of the street, turn right as instructed, drive for a block then turn right again. I drive down the road until we come to the other end of the alley but the hopper is nowhere to be seen.

I look to the man, waiting for instructions on which way to drive. He turns in his seat, looking left, right, front and back. He's obviously frustrated that he can't see the hopper. After a moment of indecision he says, 'Drive.'

I do as told. As we pass a side street the man peers down looking for the kid, but there's no sign of him. 'Get to the next side street as fast as you can.'

I accelerate to the next one, but again, there's no sign of the hopper. 'He has to be on one of them.' He says as much to himself as he does to me. I continue another block to the next street but there's still no sign of the kid.

I look up into my rearview mirror and despite not seeing anything, I say, 'What's that?'

'What's what?' The man says as he turns in his seat, looking behind us.

'I think I saw him.' I say, even though I definitely did not.

I do a U-turn of my own volition and drive back the way we came. I return to the first street we looked down and slow to a stop. As I peer across the car, out the passenger side window, I let my right hand innocuously fall onto the release button on my seatbelt. 

'There, is that him?' I point down the street with my left arm. 

The man stares out the window. I press the release button on my seatbelt gently, hoping that he doesn't notice. 'I don't see shit.' The man says, frustrated. 

'On the sidewalk, about two blocks down, that's a kid on a bike, no?' 

As the man peers harder, trying to see what I'm pretending to see, I lower my hand to the door release handle. 

'Just past the parked truck halfway down, you can't see?'

The man squints, looking harder, he wipes the condensation of his breath off the window, 'There's nothing there.'

With the man's full attention on the street I steel myself, readying to escape. My fingers tremor, my stomach turns, my legs tingle, You can't bail this time, you have to do it now Susan, you may not get a better chance. There's no way in hell you're leaving your daughter alone at the airport.

'He's right there!' I say, then rip the door open and roll out of the car. I hit the asphalt hard, stay down and slam the door closed behind me. I hear the man yell at me, though I don't hear specifics of what he says. I stay low and soldier crawl away from the car to the cover of a parked van nearby as the man gets out of the car and yells behind me, 'Get back here now!'

I don't look back as I make a mad dash for the alley. I stay hunched as I run, using the parked cars on the side of the street as cover. 

I hear the Pop! Pop! Pop! of gunshots followed by the shattering of glass from the car windows he hits. Fortunately, none of the bullets come close to me and I manage to turn onto the alley where I keep running as fast as I can.