The Shattered Mirror

Red lights flashed in his peripherals as he stared directly down the dark, black corridor as he sprinted away from the security guards. He wasn’t tired at all, he was actually far from it, he was a runner, and all he does is run. He delivers messages to anywhere in the city. This mission was supposed to be simple: get in, get information, and get out. Mercury, Merc for short, wanted him to check out a new company that moved into the bright gleaming city. When he managed to get in, he instantly felt something was wrong. He crawled through an air vent to eavesdrop on a meeting that was going on that Drake, the information gatherer and little voice in all of the runner’s ears, had found out about. When he found the opening leading into the room, he appeared just in time to see an ominous glow disappear behind a wall as a dark skinned man in an all black suit and black sunglasses walk to the head of a table full of important looking business men. He silently pulled a rectangular camera, no bigger than a cell phone, from his pocket. He focused the lens on the man, and snapped the picture, but then the man suddenly looked up directly at him. He instantly froze in place inside the vent, which seemed to be getting smaller. The business man walked away, then suddenly, all power in the building cut off and red flashing lights flashed, signaling its time for him to leave. Before he backed out of the vent, he quickly took a dark picture of the man, and backed out of the vent into the hallway. He sprinted down the hall and pressed the mic in his ear.

"Drake, Drake, are you there?" he said, panic flowing in his voice.

"Always here, what’s up?" Drake said from his cozy room in the main runner base.

"Everything's gone south, I got one picture of him, but somehow he knew I was there. Now security is all over my tail and I’m trying to get out. I’ll upload the picture as I go." He said as he pulled the camera out of his pocket and opened a compartment in the back of it.

He took the mic out of his ear and plugged it into the drive slot. He shoved them both back into his pocket as the picture was transferred to Drake's computer. As he sprinted down the hall, he heard steady footsteps behind him. He glanced back to see the silhouette of the business man walking down the hall after him. He rounded the corner and continued to run through the labyrinth of a building. He came to a split leading left and right. Suddenly and unexpectedly, he heard the familiar footsteps to his right, so he ran left and tripped and fell. He looked up to stare into the black dress shoes of the businessman he was just running away from. As he stared at the leather shoes, he soon tasted leather and blood as the man kick him onto his back. Suddenly before he could react, he was staring down the barrel of a modified desert eagle.

"You pathetic runners, you think you can get away with whatever you want, but soon, very soon, this will be my city, and you runners, will be no more." He said with a deep dark voice.

Suddenly a pinging sound came from the runner's pocket, signaling that the picture was done uploading.

"That'll be the last sound you'll hear." And with a wicked smile, he pulled the trigger.