When the guy ran by me, I saw that the loop on his arm was glowing yellow, just like the guy who’d gotten carted off inside the arcade. I wondered if the big crime this guy had committed was that he had lost a game. As he ran by, I saw the panic on his face. He was breathing hard and sweating. It wasn’t just because he was tired either. No way. This guy was scared. I felt bad for him, but then again, maybe he really was a thief and deserved to get caught. Either way, it wasn’t my business. The guy continued past me, dodging pedestrians. I looked back to the chasing dados, who would soon pass by. I stepped back into the shadow of the doorway. I didn’t want them to give up on the scared guy and pick on somebody who wasn’t moving so fast. Me. Everyone parted to let them pass. I crouched down, but peeked out from between two people to get a better look at these dado guys. I actually thought they looked strangely familiar, but couldn’t imagine where I might have seen these thugs before. Still, there was something about them that I recognized.
It was at that moment that a woman riding a motor scooter shot off the street, headed for the sidewalk. She jumped the curb, shouting: “Look out! The throttle is jammed!” She was out of control. People dove out of the way. The woman maneuvered the bike into the space the pedestrians had cleared for the dados to run through. You guessed it, there was a collision coming.
“Help!” she shouted, and turned the motor scooter toward the running dados.
“Clear the way!” shouted one of the dados. His voice made me shudder. It didn’t sound human. It was low and gravely and monotone, like he was some kind of, yes, I’ll say it, like he was some kind of robot. Could it be? Were these dados actually robotic? His warning came too late. The woman saw the dados headed toward her. She screamed, and bailed off the bike. The bike fell on its side and skidded right toward the sprinting dados. They didn’t have time to dodge it. The woman couldn’t have hit them any more perfectly if she had been aiming. They were running side by side, and the careening bike hit them both at the ankles. They tumbled simultaneously, like circus performers. They hit the ground, rolled, and got tangled up in each other. It was a jumble of arms and legs and would have been kind of funny if the whole scene weren’t so intense.
The woman tucked and rolled a few times. I wanted to run out to see if she was okay, but I had to keep a low profile. I wasn’t on Quillan to get involved in minor disputes. I had bigger game to worry about, so to speak. So I stayed back and observed. The woman looked dazed as she sat up. Oddly, nobody else went to help her. If anything, all the pedestrians backed off even farther. There was now a wide circular clearing on the sidewalk, with two crumpled dados, a trashed motor scooter, and a dazed woman in the center. The woman looked pretty young. I’d say she was in her twenties. That was good. If she’d been really old, she probably would have been hurt by the fall. As it was, she looked to have only skinned her elbows. She sat on the sidewalk, looking as if she were trying to clear her head.
A few feet from her the dados were getting their act together as well. They both surveyed the scene. I truly don’t think they knew what hit them, until they saw the bike and the dazed woman. One of them jumped to his feet and looked in the direction that their quarry had gone. He started to go after him again, but the other grabbed his arm to stop him.
“He will not get far,” the second dado said in that same eerie, low robotic voice. The two turned their attention to the woman who had allowed the guy to get away. Both took a step toward her. They didn’t look like they were worried about her well-being. They looked angry
“What is your sequence?” the first dado demanded.
The woman looked up and was about to answer, when another guy suddenly pushed his way through the crowd and into the circle.
“Hey!” he shouted angrily at the woman. “What is wrong with you?” He looked even angrier than the dados. It was a guy with graying hair who could have been the woman’s father. “I lend you my scoot and this is what you do? Drive like a crazy person?”
The woman didn’t answer. She seemed too dazed. The guy didn’t stop to help her. He went right to the scooter, or “scoot” as he called it, and picked it up. “If this is damaged, it’ll come out of your pay!”
One of the dados grabbed him by the wrist and said, “Do you know this woman? She has obstructed a pursuit.”
The guy cowered a bit. He may have been steamed, but it was clear he didn’t want to mess with a dado.
“Sure I know her,” he said. “She works for me. But not for long if she keeps acting so recklessly.” He then turned to the woman and barked, “Get back to the store now!”
“I–I’m sorry/’ she stammered, and started to get up. “I lost control. It was the throttle-“
“I don’t want to hear it,” the guy snarled. “Go!” The guy smiled at the dado and said, “Forgive me. She won’t be driving a scoot again anytime soon. At least not one of mine!” Without waiting for a response, he started to wheel the scooter away.
The dados looked from the guy to the woman, as if they weren’t sure what to do. Finally one of them said to the other, “Come. We must continue the pursuit.” Without another word the two dados took off running after their quarry.
The excitement was over. The crowd started to move along again. I didn’t. I kept my eye on the woman and the man. Something didn’t feel right. What happened was an accident, sure, but it all seemed to happen a bit too perfectly. The woman on the bike hit the sidewalk at the exact right time to nail the dados. Was it intentional? Who knew? Maybe it was a total accident. But one thing definitely happened because of it. The guy the dados were chasing got away.
There was one other thing that made me think there was something more going on. It happened a moment before the crowd filled up the sidewalk once again. The woman got to her feet, brushed herself off, and looked to the older guy. I followed her gaze. The older guy was looking back at her. His anger seemed gone. That’s when it happened. He reached up and clasped his hand over his left biceps. It was an odd move. I quickly shot a look back to the woman in time to see her do the exact same thing. Her expression didn’t change; all she did was clasp her right hand over her left biceps. It was fast. By the time I looked back to the guy, he had been swallowed by the crowd.
I stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what I had just seen. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but it sure seemed as if these two people had given each other a silent signal. I couldn’t begin to guess what it meant, but there was no question, the accident allowed the running guy to get away, and the older guy made sure the woman didn’t get in trouble for it. It all happened so fast, the dados didn’t know what hit them. I couldn’t help but feel that I had witnessed something important.