Geek Mafia: Mile Zero | Page 2

corner and was now crossing over to her side of the street. She let him finish crossing before she turned and started walking again, headed back up the way she'd come from. At the corner of Petronia she turned right, toward Truman Annex.
Losing him now would be simple, assuming he was alone. But he could have help, and she wanted to string him/them along a little and see if anyone else had taken an interest in her. It didn't occur to her to be scared. She doubted that he/they meant her immediate harm, and besides she had plenty of friends in town if things got nasty. It was far from the first time she'd been followed by mysterious strangers, and she knew what she was doing.
She continued south on Petronia for the next block, which soon took her out of the crowded restaurant and bar scene. She risked a glance to her left, which allowed her to catch sight of her new friend in her peripheral vision. He was still there, only now he was talking on his cell phone. Or at least pretending to talk on his cell phone. He could be calling for backup. She thought for a moment about making a call of her own, but his presence where she could easily spot him indicated that he was either unprofessional or working alone and afraid of losing her. If he had nearby backup, they should have taken over the tail once she doubled back. She decided to have a little fun with him and see just how afraid of losing her he was.
They were now in Truman Annex, a small, upscale neighborhood of old-looking Key West style houses that had been built in the last twenty years. It was how Key West would look if designed by a corporate marketing team - neat and tidy and perfectly pleasant but bereft of any soul or history. The tree-lined streets gave her some cover, so she took another sideways glance. He was still there, although he'd crossed to the other side of the street, perhaps hoping that it wouldn't be quite so obvious that he was following her. He had put away his cell phone, so if he'd called backup they were probably on the way. That was ok. Soon he'd be forced to either expose himself or give up.
She came out the other side of Truman Annex, her shadow still with her. The road continued south, where a pair of large Civil War era cannon guarded the way to Fort Zachary Taylor Park. The entrance was well lit, with a booth where a park ranger would take your five bucks and let you into the national park and beach. But that was during the day. After sundown, the park shut down and a chain-link gate closed the road off to all foot and vehicle traffic. She knew there might be a ranger or two inside the park and probably security cameras too, but she didn't mind the risk of getting caught. It would be edifying to see if her pursuer felt the same way.
Breaking into a fast sprint, she dashed toward the gate and jumped up onto its side and then, agile as a monkey, clambered up and over the top, dropping down into a crouch on the pavement below. She looked through the steel mesh to see the man running toward her. It didn't look like he'd thought twice about it. She could probably keep him from getting over the fence, but that would attract a cop or a ranger for sure, and she didn't want that. She wanted some time alone with this creep. She smiled and winked at him before turning and dashing down the road deeper into the park. He didn't smile back.
The road to the actual park was about a quarter mile of asphalt that curved through trees and brush, so it only took a few seconds of hard running before she was out of his line of sight from the front gate. She heard him slam into the chain link fence and what she thought might be the sound of him hitting the ground on the other side with an "oof." Up ahead of her was the main parking lot and beyond that the beach. Ideally she would like to confront him there, among the pine trees and sand where she had plenty of room to maneuver. Unfortunately, there were headlights headed her way from the parking lot - hopefully just a ranger leaving at the end of his shift and not responding to some alarm - but either way she had to get off the road.
Ahead on her right was a dark hole in the tree line with a small sign marked "Nature Walk." She veered toward it and plunged onto