The old construction-plastic canopy hanging over the exit from the Shelter could not protect from the hot midday air, but it protected well from the scorching sun. Further ahead, the kingdom of sizzling heat began, from which the city of Laguna suffered every day and only at night could get a little rest from it. Dana was preparing for the race. she stood in the shade of the awning and took deep breaths and exhalations. It is necessary to properly saturate the blood with oxygen, then it will be easier and more cheerful to run. There are very few clothes on the girl - only dark gray shorts and a top made of elastic sprayed material. The feet were covered with light moccasins made of the same universal substance. Everyone walked like that here, because normal clothes were a luxury and overheating could easily kill. A small comfortable purse with two pockets is fastened on her belt, in one of them there is a pack of nutritional pills and a tube of moisturizing gel - in case she stumbles into trouble and she has to temporarily hide. In the other is a precious package. She didn't know what was in the coded airtight container in her bag, but that was none of her business. Her job is to deliver the container quickly and secretly to the addressee, whoever he is. In her right ear there is a pea of a comlink with a small antenna, it is not visible because it is covered with a shock of wavy, coarse black hair, which partially replaced Dana's hat. The whole body of a small skinny girl, especially her very dark skin, is covered with a thin layer of water condensate, which sometimes formed droplets rolling down the body - the breeze from the ocean, as always, caught up with moisture and the city became not only monstrously hot but also humid like in a steam room. But, for three years in runners, Dana got used to all the difficulties and perceived them as part of the game. She knew the area like her fingers on her hand perfectly, all the slums from the abandoned industrial zone where the Shelter is located to the most Average Areas where the public lives cleaner and richer than the slum dwellers. Standing right next to each other, randomly built multi-colored high-rise buildings intertwined with arrows of wires of masts and ropes. Turbulent chaos of multi-level flat roofs. They are Dana's home. But if it was necessary, she could run down the street, right down the street, using her small size and slim build to penetrate through holes and manholes in houses and fences through which no adult or teenager would leak. The little girl does not pose a threat, and therefore did not attract much unhealthy attention from the inhabitants of houses and passers-by. It saved her life more than once. Occasionally, when gangs once again fought in shootouts and it was dangerous to appear on the streets, Dana penetrated through a secret hole into the branched multi-level subway of the Lagoon. Smelly sewers stuffed with rats, tunnels for garbage trains and smugglers' manholes, Dana deftly navigated this devilish chaos of a decadent metropolis without any maps and navigation programs. The runners' service should always work, even if hell comes to Earth! - that was the motto of their little brotherhood. Runners don't carry weapons. A gun will not protect you from a meeting with a gang- the runner is always alone and the bandits do not go alone and while she fires one bullet or a plasma ball, five such bullets will be fired at her. An unnecessary extra load that the runners abandoned at the dawn of their origin when old man Alonso began to recruit the first children to learn this craft. Their weapons and armor are speed!
Suddenly a cheerful boyish voice sounded in my ear:
- Greetings, my dear listeners! You are on the radio "Move your legs", your favorite presenter Nathan Reinkrantz is with you!..
- Nathan?! Dana was surprised. "What the devil are you doing on the line?" Are you seriously going to lead me? Where is Granpa Alonso?
- My girl, our powerful old man has left... mmm... on business and attached me to the remote control without even asking if I wanted to or not. I sent the others to practice. And therefore- love me the way I am! Or don't like it and shut up. Don't worry, I've seen him lead us a thousand times and I know all the conventional signs and maps as well as our grandfather. My eyesight is definitely better than his! You won't be lost with me.
- Nathan, if you call me "my girl" again, I'll kill you when I get back. And if you lead me to the wrong place, I'll kill you, I'll resurrect you, and then I'll kill you again!
- What's the big deal? Don't you like me?
- You're cute, but not serious and you talk a lot. Stop talking nonsense and clarify the situation. What is on the way from me to the Three Crosses Area on the third route?
- Now... Wait a minute... One moment...
"Yes, Granpa didn't slow down like that," Dana sighed sadly.
- Done. It seems to me that everything is clean.
- It seems?
- Well, the sensors are silent. Dana, well, who's going out now? In lighted places plus sixty degrees! And it's as wet as in a hookah bar at a friend of Franco's!.. This time is only for complete psychos like us! Er... wait... There's something. Someone's drones are cruising back and forth along Fallen Rose Street. Hmm... Our sensors have detected them. They are in passive mode, flying according to the program, so I didn't see them at first. Be careful, there may be an ambush.
- At us?
- Hardly. But if the ambush isn't on you, it doesn't mean that you can't get into it... oh, this clever thought almost tied my brains in a knot! Take care of yourself! There was a radio with you, Move your Legs, see you soon!.. Uh, no, wait... I found the route. Run along the roofs between the Leaden Downpour and the Lopsided Boulevard, you will just be shielded from drones by taller houses from the eastern side of Rosa Street.
- You knocked my breath out. We'll have to tune in again.
Nathan didn't answer. Dana again conducted a series of breathing exercises and feeling that her heart was fluttering like mad and she was about to fly into the air from the tension, she took off and burst into the glowing hot space of the Lower City!
The flat roofs of the abandoned industrial zone did not become an obstacle for the girl - she ran with all her might and jumped over two-meter gaps between the buildings of battered buildings. Between the widest gaps, the runners prudently stretched the wires and the young runner ran from one roof to another with the agility of a tightrope walker. There are many disadvantages and dangers in the runner's path, but there is something that Dana would not trade for anything - a sense of flow! From the speed, the lateral vision is blurred, the heart is pounding with the rhythm of the motor, the movement of air pleasantly blows over the body, weakening the heat, and only the goal is ahead and the legs themselves carry it forward, it seems to pierce space without thinking about time. In moments of such a mood, she does not make mistakes even on the most difficult sections, all jumps, somersaults and turns are masterful! As Nathan had predicted, there were no people on the roofs, Dana only noticed for a moment the rare passers-by from below. Industrial zone- squat blocks of gray despondency were replaced by the Lower City. With this romantic word, the inhabitants of the Lagoon called slums. The chaotic conglomerate of light residential modules piled on top of each other and somehow fastened with frames in different numbers of floors resembled a mountain of children's cubes scattered by a naughty child. Yes, for Dana it was both a job and a kind of playground.