Part Thirteen

Miss Sarah ran into the Sniffer when she returned to her building carrying the briefcase containing Marie's rifle. Fortunately she saw it before it saw her and she quickly sidestepped into an alley. It was rare seeing a Sniffer out and about during the day, the sight of the modded creature tended to freak people out, but it was equally rare for someone to avoid the Sniffers for as long as Marie had as well. Sarah watched the Sniffer and it's Handler stop near her neighbour's wall and she guessed that was where Marie had climbed over. The guess turned to certainty when the Sniffer swung it's bulbous head around to look at the Handler and something wordless passed between them.

Sarah didn't know how the Sniffer would react to the runes etched into her coal chute and she wasn't sure she wanted to stick around and find out. Still, her boss needed all the info she could get. That in mind Miss Sarah walked out from the alley, looking for all the world like she just happened to stroll by. The Sniffer and Handler had finished their little unworded chat and were moving towards the small gate, Sarah followed as slowly as she could without seeming suspicious. She wished she'd been carrying something less valuable than the weapon, something that could have been dropped "accidentally", creating a convenient excuse for her to stop outside the gate. The pair was through the gate now and had disappeared from view.

Sarah forced herself to continue to move slowly, when she was almost past the gate she faked a miss-step on the cobbled stones and sank to one knee. As she pretended to adjust her shoe she glanced through the gate, the Sniffer and Handler where in plain view and she could have sworn the looked confused. Miss Sarah couldn't help but smile slightly. It seemed the gold spent on the runes had been well spent.

With any luck Marie's followers would be stuck on the backyard of Sarah's neighbour for a while, trying to figure out how the scent of their prey could have just disappeared. It would give Sarah the time she needed to find her boss. Not wasting anymore of those hard-earned minutes she got up and started moving.