11.
"They're here," murmured Rei.
She was looking out of the window down into the rainy street below. Maya dropped her bag and crossed the room quickly to her side. Rei pointed. Two cars, unmarked, had just pulled up to the front of her apartment block. She watched as three men in suits exited each car, crossed the side-walk and passed out of her sight and into the building.
Plain clothes police, most likely, she thought. She considered the bulges she had seen, that could only be concealed weapons, at the hip and ankle of each man. More guns. What is humanity's fascination with guns?
"We have to leave," said Maya.
"Already?" asked Asuka. The young German was throwing the clothes they had purchased at the shop earlier into two medium sized travel-bags, along with more clothes that Maya had collected.
"They're on their way up," replied Maya, picking up her own bag (containing mainly food and a few other useful items). Asuka zipped up the bags and handed one to Rei, who slung it over her shoulder without a word.
"How do we get out?" Asuka asked, "They'll be in the lobby and covering the stairs..."
"The roof," replied Maya.
"Do you have any kind of protection, a side arm, or...?" the German trailed off at the look on Maya's face.
"No."
"But what if they start shooting?" pressed Asuka, "How do we defend ourselves?"
"I don't keep guns," replied Maya, "and I won't use them either."
She moved to the door and opened it. Checking the hallway was clear she motioned for the other two to follow her. The bank of elevators stood to their right and already the lights were showing the lifts travelling upwards. All three of them.
"Stairs," said Maya, indicating to take a left. They moved swiftly down the corridor and passed through another door leading to the inner stairwell. A quick glance down the central well revealed shadows that could only be more plain clothes police – many floors below, but moving steadily up towards them.
She leaned back and looked at Asuka and Rei.
"Go," she whispered, pointing up the stairs. "Quickly!"
They moved as fast as they could, hugging the walls so their pursuers wouldn't catch sight of them. Three quarters of the way to the roof, however, there was a commotion below.
"They must have reached your apartment and found it empty," said Asuka.
Maya risked a glance down the well again and instantly regretted it. A man in dark glasses was looking up at her from about five floors down. As she jerked back, Maya heard shouts from below.
"Crap!" she muttered. The time for quiet was officially over. "Run!" she said. And they did, pounding up the steps.
They were soon out of breath, weighed down as they were, but they soldiered on, bursting through an emergency exit, out onto the rain-slicked rooftop. The rain itself had slackened to a light drizzle, but the night air was cold.
"This way!" gasped Maya, her ragged breath misting in the night.
They pelted to the edge of the roof and stopped, looking down. Perhaps fifteen feet below, across a six foot gap, the roof of the next building awaited them.
"We have to jump down," Maya told them.
That didn't go down well.
"What?!" cried Asuka, "Are you crazy?"
"We can make it," replied Maya, "we have to."
"Rei isn't fit for that! None of us are, we'll break our necks!"
"I can do it, Pilot Soryuu," said Rei, falling back into her old ways as she studied the gap.
"It's either that, or go along with those men," said Maya, throwing their bags onto the lower roof, "which would you prefer?"
As if to punctuate her speech, the door to the roof burst open and four men piled through. They started yelling all at once. Asuka took one look back, then gritted her teeth and jumped.
"DAMNIT!" she yelled as she fell. She cleared the gap easily, but the force of the landing was jarring, even though she bent her knees and rolled to lessen the impact going through her legs. With a grunt of pain, she looked up in time to see Rei leap. Instinctively, Asuka pushed herself to her feet to try to catch her. Rei crashed into her and they fell in a tangle. They struggled to extricate themselves.
Back on the upper roof, Maya turned to her pursuers. They were edging towards her, spreading out and aiming pistols at her. They all looked the same; same suits, same dark glasses, same haircuts even. Were these really policemen?
"Don't do it, Miss Ibuki," one of the men said to her, holding a hand out to Maya, even while he still pointed his gun.
"Are we really back to this so quickly?" Maya spat. Then she turned and hurled herself from the roof.
Two minutes later, the trio were sprinting along metal gangways and clattering down metal staircases that dropped into the blackness of the alley behind the two large buildings. These alleys were a warren, Maya knew, with multiple entrances and exits. Even with ten men it would be difficult to cover them all, and they'd left four of them on the rooftop behind them. Hopefully.
That meant even if the two cars had carried its maximum number of occupants, there were at most six pursuers on the ground. Their odds of slipping away were good.
But then what?
They'd already chosen their point of egress from Kaibyaku, but they were a long way from the city limits with no transport. They might be able to steal a car, but the roads would likely be watched, as would public transport. That left trekking on foot and that would take time.
And even if they got out of the city their travails wouldn't be over. According to Rei it had taken weeks to reach Kaibyaku from Shinji's location, across open countryside.
No, the best thing to do, Maya decided, was to make for the refugee allocated section of the city. All cities had their run-down, or slum-like areas and Kaibyaku was no different. A steady stream of humanity flowed into the city from the countryside even now, and they had to be housed somewhere. The camps that had initially been set up to process the refugees in order to allocate the ever more needed housing had quickly grown and sprawled and now an area the size of old Shibuya had turned into a shanty town. New housing was always being built and the slums wouldn't be there forever, but for now it was the perfect place to disappear while they planned their journey to reach Shinji.
They made the ground and Maya looked quickly back and forth along the alley. There was no sign of suited men with guns, but that would surely soon change. They'd done well to make it this far. Now if only their luck would hold.
"This way," she told the two former Eva pilots.
They ran as fast as their tiring limbs would allow down the alley then took a right, followed by a left. The exit was ahead, but it was blocked. A suit with a pistol spotted them almost immediately. He barked into a walky-talky and raised his gun. Maya gritted her teeth as they skidded to a halt.
"Follow me!" she said and they dived down another alleyway to their right. After another right and a left, they found their way blocked once more.
"Damnit!" yelled Asuka, "it's like they know where we're going!"
"This way!" cried Maya.
They backtracked and went right, two more men were there with flashlights. They went left and right again. Another suit played torch-light across them. He yelled something.
"How many are there!" gasped Rei.
Two more were running up the alleyway to the left. There were more now than there should be. With a sinking feeling, Maya realised that whoever these men were, they must have brought backup. They could have the whole block surrounded for all she knew. The only saving grace was that they seemed not to want to use their firearms.
Maya cursed and pulled them through a doorway. It turned out to be a kitchen. They crashed through, startling the chefs and helpers. Then they passed into an empty cafeteria, a lobby, cleaners' quarters and out into the night again by a tradesman's exit.
Glancing quickly around to get her bearings, Maya saw that they were close to the street again. This time, however, she couldn't see any suits. Had they caught a break?
Something was on the street at the end of the alley, something bulky and dark. Probably a vehicle of some kind. It was much too large to be a car, maybe it was a delivery truck or a lorry.
Shouts came from behind them through the closed door and more from deeper into the block at the other end of the alley. They had no choice. Perhaps the vehicle could provide some cover, or maybe they could hot-wire it and escape.
"Come on," she said, pulling them along.
They sprinted for the entrance.
Half way there, sudden blinding light illuminated them. The bulky vehicle was pointing into the alleyway, shining its headlights directly at them. Unable to see, they stumbled to a halt. Shadows flitted across the headlights and a man shouted.
"Halt!"
More shouts came from behind. They were trapped. It was over – over so soon.
"So much for our grand flight from Kaibyaku," muttered Asuka at her side.
Maya strained to see who was at the end of the alleyway. Two suits knelt and held pistols, aimed steadily at the trio. Another figure stood between them, wearing a long trenchcoat. Maya couldn't make out a face, as the figure was backlit.
"Lower your guns," said a voice, "they're not a threat to you."
The two men holstered their pistols and stood up, flanking the third figure.
"Who are you?" she called.
"A friend," replied the figure, "I have a proposition for you."
"What proposition?" replied Asuka, squinting as well against the light, "show your face."
The figure raised a hand and the headlights dipped. She stepped forward.
"I'd like you to come and work for me again."
Maya's eyes widened. At her side, Asuka gasped.
"Misato...?"