By Bruised, Davijai and brandied

The expression on Steve's face changed from frustration to calm remembrance as he began to recall what had happened in his life lately. He began to bring up his relationship updates.

"I broke up with Artemisia Feldman and began dating Luann Meyer." He paused a little. "Then I broke up with her."

"Broke up with her? Aw, what happened?" Peter asked.

"It turned out that she was too much of a traditionalist. Luann told me she dreamt of being married and living in a nice Victorian house on Williams Street." He blew out the word "nice" as he said it. "And children. She talked a lot about having children with me."

"How many did she want?"

"Three. She was big on the idea of settling down. But me, I didn't want to think that far into the future. I don't want to think about being buckled down with lots of children in a house I'm going to have to pay a lot of down payments for years on end to buy. And playing the role of the square parent." He stuck out his tongue. "I really don't want to become a parent, Peter."

"I hear you."

"I know you do." Steve thought that Peter would have his mind more on techno than on fatherhood as he went through his daily life. "It seemed that Luann was more comfortable with the nation and its laws the way they were in the nineties than in the twelveties."

"Well, I'm dating Tenisha Coleman. Real up-to-date girl, into the hottest clothes and bands." Peter paused for a second. "And liberated too", he said sticking out his thumb.

They sat there for several more hours. They finished all the granola bars. They hadn't brought cards along or anything like that, so they tried entertaining themselves telling knock-knock jokes. Another hour passed by and both of them, to differing degrees, began getting sleepy. The somnolence was becoming evident in Steve's eyelids.

Steve glanced at his watch as he fought sleep.

It was getting late and there was still no sign of the theives.

"Pete." Steve's voice cracked from the cold air. "Pete. Are you asleep?"

Pete seemed hypnotized by his music when Steve startled him with a few taps on his shoulder.

Pulling his cans down once again, Pete looked over at his long time friend.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Nature's callin' buddy!" Said Steve as he slowly rose to his feet.

There were no restrooms in the immediate area and Steve glanced around for a quick place to relieve himself.

He spotted a nice big bush off the beaten path and slowly began heading over to the rather dark area. It was only a few yards away but Steve was a little nervous.

"Don't take too long Steve! They could show up at any minute," Pete whispered loudly.

Steve stood there relieving himself when he heard a noise coming from where they were sitting. It was the sound of feet shuffling, and then running. Since Steve didn't have a good view of where Pete was sitting, so he called out to Pete very quietly.

"Pete! Hey Pete! What's going on?"

There was only silence.

Steve continued on with his business until he could take the suspense no more. He zipped up.

He saw a man in a leather jacket rushing over the bridge. Was this it? Steve checked his watch. 2:58. Did they say it was at 3 a.m.?

Steve called out to Peter, who followed him as he was walking. At a distance, he could see the four men who had been at the coffeeshop. "It's them", he whispered.

Frank walked up to the man in the leather jacket. "Welcome. We've got the cards."

Lee reached into his pockets. "You say it's $100,000?"

"$185,000", said the man who would give the four the deal.

"Delighted," said Lee. He pulled a few high-denomination bills out of his pockets and handed them over. "I got 12 AALL cards." Lee pulled out 12 AALL cards, then pulled out their corresponding thumb prints. "Switcher's the man though. Switcher and his buddies got 37."

Switcher opened an empty guitar case. He pulled out the cards and proudly displayed them.

"Hey look", Steve said, "He's got the AALL cards". Steve and his friend watched as the man in the leather jacket went over the cards and thumb prints. Then they saw John pull out some more AALL cards. Steve turned his head and saw that by now Peter was videotaping this.

They heard the man in the leather jacket saying, "That's what I like."

"Did he say, 'That's what I like'?", Steve asked.

"Hey!", shouted Lee, "It's the kid from the coffeeshop!"

"RUN!", yelled Steve as he grabbed Peter by the collar and pulled him away from the bridge. Peter spun to follow Steve and tripped on his own toes. He stumbled to his feet dropping the camera. Tempted to just leave it on the ground, Peter took a few steps to follow after Steve. But he knew full well what that physical likeness meant to the case. He stopped short and sprinted back the few steps to retrieve it. Once he had it in his hands he raced to catch up with Steve. Even though Steve's sprint had taken him out of catching range for now, Peter knew that Steve could not hold out much longer. As Peter gained on Steve he realized that Steve had about run himself out and tried hard to think of a way to get Steve to move faster.

Thankfully, as always Steve had already figured out the rest of the getaway. He only had to figure out how he could make it all work out the way he had it in his head. First things first though, he had to find a way to stop running. His legs were beginning to cramp up and his lungs were screaming with the pain of each panted breath. Steve stopped short of the St. Charles and Iglesias intersection. As luck would have it a taxi had just dropped its fare at this very intersection and was about to take off to find another one. In his amazed state Steve forgot that Peter had to return for the camera and was therefore no longer directly behind him. Steve dove into the cab and as best he can through his panting told the driver to take him to 2131 Friedmont Drive, which was Peter's home address.

Peter watched dumbfounded as Steve's taxi began to pull away from the curb. Peter yelled at the taxi and flailed his arms in vain. Peter had no idea what to do now. Switcher and Frank were merely a block behind him, and the man in the leather jacket about half a block farther back and the other two, John and Lee, were nowhere to be seen. With no better idea for a way to get away Peter continued running after the taxi yelling at Steve to wait.

"Wait for me, you nim!" The taxi began to merge into traffic as Peter hit the sidewalk along Iglesias.

In his now exhausted and befuddled state Steve thought how amazed Peter would be when Steve got to his house and showed him the video. Steve wished the taxi driver would hurry up as he could hear the criminals yelling at them to stop.

"Stop the cab you nim!" Peter had never had to run this far before and he wondered if his legs could last much longer. He glanced behind to see the progress of the thieves. The two better runners have now fallen behind by a half a block. This was a good sign and Peter hoped he could hold out until he was far enough away that they wouldn't catch him. Or at least until Steve remembered to wait for him, the nim.

Steve was regaining his breath while trying to remember where he put the camera. Peter was supposed to have brought it. The thieves' voices were not getting any fainter so the cab must be going awfully slow. Steve looked to the cabby and saw that he was watching the thieves in his rear view mirror and looking to Steve as if to say "Shall I stop?"

"STEVE, YOU NIM!," Peter couldn't last much longer and the thieves looked as though they had gotten their second wind. "STOP THE CAB!!"

Peter did bring the camera. Peter dropped the camera. Peter had to go back for the camera. Peter had been running right behind him. Peter was still running behind the cab. Steve sat bolt upright when this realization hit him and yelled at the cabby the same instant Peter said the words, "STOP THE CAB!"

Seeing that his fare had finally come to his senses the cab driver slowed the cab to a near stop and Peter dove in next to Steve. Not even waiting for the door to close the driver took off again just as Frank caught up with them and grabbed a hold of the door. Because of the traffic the cab driver could not get going fast enough to lose him. Lying across the back street panting for air Peter used all the strength he had left in his legs to kick Frank's arm and wrench his hand free of the door. Without him holding the door it swung shut on its own and the driver wove his way into traffic and away from the thieves.

"You boys okay?"

Glaring at Steve, Peter answered, "We're fine now, thanks."

"Pete, I'm sorry man! Everything happened so quickly. I knew you were there and I knew we had to get away, but then when I saw the cab I just started thinking that I had to get the tapes to you at your house. I'm sorry man." Steve really was sorry that he had forgotten Peter was there with him. He had no idea how he could have forgotten such a major fact.

Peter stopped glaring at Steve and asked if he thought it was a good idea that they go back to his place.

"Of course we should head to your house. We need to go over and copy the tapes so we have back up. We need to make sure we got all their faces and voices on tape." Steve thought this all sounded very logical and normal but the look on Peter's face was telling him otherwise. "What? You don't think we need to do any of that?" Peter didn't answer him. In fact Peter was not paying attention to him at all. Peter was staring out the back window at the car behind them.

"Driver, can we lose the car behind us please?" Steve looked to see whom Peter was talking about and was yet again dumbfounded. How could the thieves have gotten a car and caught up to them so quickly? Peter knew it was the two that he had not seen running behind them. They must have gone and gotten their own car and when they got to the intersection they either saw Steve get into the cab or the saw Peter running after the cab. Either way the thieves were still after them.

The driver bobbed in and out of traffic for fifteen minutes and finally came to a hard stop in front of the street market on Kings Castle. He told the boys to make a run for it and to hide amongst the stands. "They are too far behind to know where I have dropped you but I don't think it would be wise for me to take you to either of your homes. The chance of them finding out where you live is too great. Good luck and God's speed boys."