Andromeda, a novel by Joe Nobel, Part 50 -- running

Andromeda

Liudmila crumpled a handful of dried meadow flowers in a ceramic bowl. She lit a long wooden match and set them smoldering. She was following the directions from the book she bought at an occult shop. It was far not as good as her mother’s old book of magick that she'd left behind. She was doing spell of protection for Anna.

The smoke hovered around the bowl, refusing to rise. It was supposed to follow a stately path out the window. What little did, rose into Liudmila’s face.

“Anna, be careful,” she muttered. The patern of the smoke was a bad omen.

Undeterred, Liudmila screeched another chant as a part of this offering to appease the spirits. Smoke soon filled the kitchen in a chaotic jumble. It even seemed to circle her neck, as if so many fingers were choking her.

“This is terrible. Anna’s in trouble.” Liudmila coughed. She knew the spell had more than failed, it was being thrown back into her face. She backed away from the offering bowl, and after hesitating for more than a moment, for what she was contemplating was grave, she flipped through the new book to find a summoning.

She couldn’t find anything like the ceremony she had first used to for Odin. Although she remembered how she did it, that particular spell required someone to be bound in the middle of a pentagram. There must be some other way to get that good-for-nothing horny god's attention.

“This is ridiculous,” she said after paging through the book twice. She slammed it shut. “Odin isn’t even mentioned. How do these English witches expect me to summon a god without decent instructions?”

Liudmila stuck her head out of the open window looking over the back alley.
“Odin!” she yelled at the starless sky. “Anna’s in trouble. I can sense something bad is about to happen to her.”

“Ahh, shut up, you sodding bird! I’m trying to sleep,” an annoyed voice yelled back at her from the dark of the night. A dog barked from somewhere beyond the next alley.

Anna left the apartment and reversed her steps: up to the roof; a jump across to the next building; and then a dash down the stairs to the ground floor. Once back on the street, she became that prostitute again.

Anna crossed the intersection of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Road, just when Uri’s Lada rumbled up the street. She was fully illuminated by his headlights for more than five seconds as his car turned up from Joszef Attila Road, five seconds that seemed like two hours.

“Did he recognize me?” Anna wondered. “Or was I just a common street walker to him?”

Uri climbed out of the black Lada with one small suitcase. He gave the driver a wave and went in through the archway of his building.

Soon he would unlock the door to his apartment. Soon Sofia would tell him everything. Anna had seconds, just seconds, before he would call out the police, army, and his cadre of clandestine agents.

“Hurry!” Anna imagined Sofia telling him even as she lay on his bed in bondage. “Anna just left! She can’t be more than a block away.” Then he would remember the prostitute in his headlights and know that she was his beloved Andromeda. Anna broke into a run.

She threw off her stiletto shoes. She regretted doing it even as they tumbled against a wall. Uri’s agents will find them and know she’s running barefoot. And they would know her direction. There were a few MI6 goodies in the heels. A transponder in one, always showing her location, and a smoke-making gadget in the other. The reason for the latter, she didn't know. And why high heels in the first place? Someone at MI6 was watching too many James Bond films.

Anna looked to her left, past the tree-filled Elizabeth Park. The British Consulate was just beyond. As close as it was, she knew she would never make it there. Having learned their lesson, the secret police constantly watched the building. She’d be picked up the moment she approached it. The prostitute’s persona wouldn’t help, her handlers had warned in the strictest of terms. She resisted the urge to gravitate to that closest of refuges. Instead she followed her contingency escape plan and made her way down Joszef Attila Road.

After running for two blocks, she crossed to the other side of the road, ever listening in the silence of the night to be sure that no cars were about to careen around a corner. By now, Uri would have made the call and his people would mobilize. She would soon expect to see one car after another fan out looking for her. She made it across the street to the hidden shadows of the other side.

The building on the left side of the street had a pedestrian walkway under it with monolithic granite columns supporting it. They'd make for good cover. She heard an engine rumble as she arrived at the end of the block where she'd have to run across an open square to reach the shadows of the next building.

A car careened in from Roosevelt Square. It slowed to a crawl as it passed by the building in front of her. That building, too, had the same pedestrian arcade. Someone from the car shone a flashlight between the pillars. Anna froze in place, her heart jumped up her throat. She barely remembered to flatten herself against the nearest column.

From her new vantage point against the pillar, she could no longer see the car. But her other senses compensated for her limited vision. She heard the engine as it idled and the tires rolling forward ever so slowly. She saw the reflections of light as the driver checked between every pillar, rolling forward only when satisfied no one was lurking in the shadows. Anna almost cried when the flashlight probed the spaces around her hiding place. She felt her knees melting. She felt the urge to bolt.

“Control yourself,” she mouthed. Then, the flashlight beam moved to the space between the next set of columns, and the next, all the way down to the end of the block.

Those agents should have gotten out and checked the passageway lengthwise, Anna thought. She was glad they were lazy. She heard the car roll forward slowly. She looked back, not breathing, not until the car turned right at the intersection onto Karoly Boulevard, bordering Elizabeth Park. No doubt, they would drive the perimeter of Elizabeth Park then circle back around, knowing she couldn’t have gotten far.

Anna ran across the open expanse between the two buildings. Then she made it along the next covered sidewalk much quicker than the first. But soon, there was nowhere but the open for her. She crossed back over to the right side of Joszef Attila Road and found herself overlooking Roosevelt Square and the Danube.

The night was still and silent. She surveyed the park ahead of her. She wondered if there could be someone waiting in the shadows. But if she froze now, she knew she would lose. A drop of rain fell on her forehead. Oh great, she thought, just what I need! She crouched and ran — her goal was the cover of a statue in the middle of the park. She crossed the road circling the elongated square. She ran onto the grass median at its center. A few more steps and she would be up against the baroque statue — and into the cover of its shadow.

---

… to be continued …

Look for more Erotica, Science Fiction, and Fantasy at @joe.nobel
Then find me on my web page at http://www.joenobel.com

for …

even more stories,

links to my published works,

newbie help with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Upvote Generously!
Comment!
Re-steem!
Follow!