Minor Setback

I’d put that at…six…six and a half metres? Ren thought to himself as he tried to gauge the distance to the next balcony. He knew with complete confidence that he would be able to make the leap. He’d already made similar jumps at least ten times tonight alone, but the years had taught him not to rush these things, the consequences could be very inconvenient indeed. The sound of a horn drifted angrily up from the streets. Ren could just make out the individual cars bumper to bumper in the rush hour traffic more than 100 storeys below him. The height made his head spin. He hated heights, and he hated jobs like this for that exact reason. Unfortunately for him, he was uniquely equipped to handle them and so they kept finding their way into his lap.

Ren tore his focus back to the task at hand and settled on six and a half metres. He locked eyes on the spot on which he wanted to land and in an instant the world bent around him in a confusion of greys, blues and yellows. His ears were filled by the roaring of wind hitting him at a hundred miles per hour and then all was still again. The world shaped itself back into something more familiar and Ren turned his head to confirm he was no longer where he started from. It wasn’t teleportation exactly. He wasn’t sure precisely how it worked, but the ringing in his ears confirmed to him that he most definitely moved across the space rather than simply appearing at his destination. Ruffling his hair quickly in a vain attempt at fixing the now windswept mop, Ren began searching for the next step in his journey.

It had been a little over four hours since Ren had left the ground and, as planned, daylight was beginning to give up on him as he neared the top of Crystal Tower. His target was Douglas Wade, the richest man in Anden and founder of Crystal Electronics, or more specifically his penthouse and the valuables within. The job was to retrieve a particularly valuable diamond that Wade kept locked in his safe, anything else Ren found while there would be his payment along with a guaranteed small fortune to be paid on delivery. It was Ren’s fifteenth contract with the agency and he was starting to build a bit of a reputation for being particularly successful. It was a reputation he would rather not have however as he found it often drew more attention to him than he would like. That said, it wasn’t the first time people had started to expect big things from him at the agency and he was sure it wouldn’t last. It was only a matter of time before he would be all but forgotten again, jobs of this risky nature had a habit of surprising you.

Half an hour later, Ren found himself on the railing of the penthouse balcony. The lights were still on inside, that was unfortunate. He would be in for a cold wait out here in the autumn air until Wade took himself to bed. Ren dropped down off the railing and moved to take a seat in the corner away from view of the glass door.

A movement inside caught his eye and stopped him dead in his tracks. Two men, one of which Ren recognised as Wade himself, were locked in a grapple by the fireplace. Wade, despite having more than enough money to pay people to be his muscle, was surprisingly well built and was seemingly holding his own against the much larger assailant. He landed a few good punches into the man’s gut before pulling away from the scrum to aim a blow to the face. His attacker however had other ideas, and lunged shoulder first at the now off balance Wade, driving him backwards at considerable speed across the room. Ren watched mid-stride, fascinated by the sheer ease with which the attacker was managing to move Wade across the room towards him. Towards him. The meaning of that detail clicked into place a little too late for Ren to make proper use of it. Instead of moving away from danger, he simply let out a little squeak of surprise as the pair came crashing through the balcony doors and straight into his side. The air was knocked from his lungs as he found himself sandwiched between the bodies and the stone railing, and then, he wasn’t.

The world bent around him in a confusion of greys, blues and yellows. This time however, he could still make out details of the world around him. Everything was moving much more slowly than it usually did when he jumped. A pair of desperate hands wrapped around his face as somebody attempted to climb him to safety. He managed to rip them away and was greeted with a very surprised and worried looking Douglas Wade. The pair looked at each in confusion for a moment before the realisation that they were both plummeting to the streets below truly crystallised in Ren’s mind. He made a desperate leap at what he thought was a balcony to his right, but Wade was still clinging to his body as if he thought it would somehow help his predicament. Ren had never been able to master jumping with somebody else, it only ever seemed to work when he was alone.

Ergh, here we go again. Ren thought to himself as the pair hit the road below with a sickening thud. All went black.

-----

It always amazed Ren just how quickly one could traverse a distance with gravity’s help. He’d spent close to five hours climbing that evening and it had taken all of ten seconds to undo all that work. He opened his eyes, stretched his neck from side to side, and pulled himself up off the tarmac. It was still dark out, as expected, and luckily there was nobody else around to question why he was lying in the middle of the road. He found himself outside the main entrance to the tower and noted that it had been renamed The Douglas Wade Tower. He presumed the move to be in memory of the man that, a year ago to this very second, had met his end in this very spot. Ren imagined it had probably been framed as a suicide, these things often were. He dusted himself off, made a note to ask when he made it back to the agency, and started the long walk of shame back to headquarters. Management had no doubt added this one to the list of failed jobs that they never let him forget, and they'd been waiting a year to rub it in his face.