“Little Light Show” by W.R. Frixmargen

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You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.

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I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,

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and today’s story is

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“Little Light Show”

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by W.R. Frixmargen,

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who spawns sci-fi and madness of various sorts,

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and who wrote Oak Branch in Give Yourself a Hand by Goal Publications,

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and you can find more of his stories on his Furaffinity page.

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“Little Light Show”

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by W.R. Frixmargen

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It had rained earlier that day, but the sky had cleared up nicely and the city was well on its way to being dry once again.

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That didn’t mean there weren’t puddles in the alley Taru found himself in this particular evening,

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but it did mean the wall of the office building in front of him was nice and dry.

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Dry enough for the contents of his can to bond properly.

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The maned wolf pointed the bottle at the wall and began spraying.

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To the casual observer,

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the sprayed matter seemed clear.

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However Taru’s glasses gave him a very different view of the situation.

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The tag he was forming,

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which included his personal symbol and that of his crew,

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was forming up nicely.

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Quality loops and a little bit of taunting underneath.

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Not targeted at a rival gang, for Taru’s

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crew wasn’t that sort of group,

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but the daytime residents of the office buildings to either side of him.

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A few final marks later

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and the full tag was complete.

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Returning the bottle to his waist,

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he lifted his wrist device up and began poking at its buttons.

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As he did so the invisible marks he had made on the wall began to shimmer

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and activate, arranging the nano machines inside the paint

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into functional micro projectors.

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He then pointed his wrist at the lowest window on the wall,

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still a couple stories up,

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and clicked the project button.

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The wall before him came to life

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and a spinning projection of his tag appeared in front of the window.

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The maned wolf smiled

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and began to mark the rest of the windows on that level.

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And then the next,

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and the windows on the other side too.

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Each time a new, bright red or blue projection appeared in full view of the window,

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ready to be spotted by the office workers and bankers,

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mocking them for their subservience to the system.

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It was however about this time that Taru realized that he was no longer alone in the alley.

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He lowered his gaze to the rather displeased looking security guard blocking the way to the street.

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Normally this would not be an issue for Taru,

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but for this particular alley the other way wasn’t as easily traversed as the way he had come in.

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Still, he felt confident about his ability to escape along the alternative path.

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The guard cleared his throat.

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“About time you noticed me,”

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he said with a gruff tone.

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“Why hello there,” said Taru smugly.

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His smile however began to fade

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as he spotted the unusually long tail of the guard

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and all its stripes.

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“A lemur. Figures.”

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“Now are you going to play nice or are you…”

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started the guard.

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He stopped talking however as the maned wolf turned

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and began to sprint down the alley.

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The guard started after,

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but the tall maned wolf easily outpaced the lemur.

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Taru soon reached the end of the alley

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and its chain link fence.

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Being well over six foot, it was relatively easy for him to vault over top of it

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and onto the large piece of machinery on the far side.

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And from there a pull up onto the ledge

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that would give him access to the parking garage.

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However, all the time Taru had made up by outrunning the lemur was lost as the guard leapt up to the garage level in a single bound.

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The garage level was filled with expensive looking cars

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and was unusually busy with traffic,

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making straight sprints

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tricky for the maned wolf.

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A few close calls and one slide over some well dressed fox’s hood later,

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and Taru was nearing the ramp down and out of the garage.

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His thoughts of escape however vanished

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as the guard leapt from a ledge above the exit right into Taru’s path.

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“You gotta be kidding me,”

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growled the maned wolf before turning and sprinting back up the ramp, with the guard in hot pursuit.

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Up the garage he ran,

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quickly aiming for the stairwell in the corner of the structure.

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He began to hear the sound of

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police drone sirens from below as he neared the door of the stairwell

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and so quickly decided up was the way to go.

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Two flights of stairs later

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and he took the alternative exit from the garage onto a sky bridge.

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He rushed across it

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only to find the doors on the far side securely locked.

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Taru looked over the side of the sky bridge,

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witnessing the drones pulling up just outside the stairwell across the street.

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He looked to his sides.

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The building on that end of the sky bridge had complicated architecture he realized.

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Just enough for him to grab onto and pull himself up some distance to a ledge.

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He began climbing as the doors on the far side of the bridge opened

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and the guard, followed by two bipedal robots, marched out.

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The robots were the remote cores of the drone vehicles parked below

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and likely run by the real officers some mile or two away.

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They proceeded to cross the bridge but by the time they were at the far door

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Taru was already on the ledge,

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carefully balancing himself as he strolled his way

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around the corner of the building.

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Wary of more surprises from the lemur guard,

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he kept his focus on this path forward

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until the ledge ended at the edge of a large entry hall for the skyscraper.

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He looked around to try to find a way forward.

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And then he looked behind him.

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As he expected, the guard was rounding the corner having left the not so nimble robots behind.

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Taru then glanced down.

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Above the entrance below

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was a series of flag poles sporting a number of colorful banners, local and national.

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Taru leapt. Grabbing the first pole hurt more than he expected,

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but soon he was swinging back and forth.

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He glanced at the approaching lemur before refocusing on the next flag pole.

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As he swung forward, he let go of the pole and reached for the next, successfully grabbing it.

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A couple swings later

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and he was swinging on the third.

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The final part of this traversing

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was to extend a leg out on the next swing forward so he’d catch on the building again,

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allowing him just enough leverage

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to climb up on the ledge once more.

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If he was an inch shorter

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he’d have not been able to reach.

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As he pulled himself up onto the next bit of ledge

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he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye.

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He looked to the middle of the three flag poles and saw the guard

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hand landed atop it.

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And was readying up to leap again.

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Taru pulled himself up

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and began to move along the ledge,

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getting only a few meters along before the guard landed on the ledge behind him

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and then immediately started to shimmy along after.

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Taru rounded the next corner of the building and was delighted to see a possible way forward

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that didn’t require as much swinging.

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A little further along

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the next building over was particularly close.

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Particularly where there was a series of balconies.

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Taru made this jump easily enough,

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but the doors of the first balcony were locked.

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Mindful of his pursuer,

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he clamored over the railing

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and hopped to the next balcony, and then the next,

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finding time after time

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that his way inside was locked.

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He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the lemur was casually making his way still along the ledge,

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not bothering with the more complicated antics the maned wolf was engaged in.

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Taru tried a few more balconies but had no luck.

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He then looked over the edge

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and saw that there was one more row of balconies below him.

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Over the railing one more time he went,

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dropping down onto the next balcony,

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and then once more down for a rather uncomfortable landing in the alley.

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“We done?” asked the lemur

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as he landed right behind Taru.

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Taru didn’t bother to answer,

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and instead returned to running.

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The guard sighed and then started after,

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operating a device to summon the police drones to his location.

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Taru rounded the corner and kept running,

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hopping over garbage and avoiding obnoxiously large holes in the concrete.

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The end of this alley was starting to be a problem, he realized

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as he neared it. A large piece of machinery

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chugging away was blocking his path.

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It had too many moving parts for the maned wolf to feel comfortable trying to climb it.

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Instead he opted for the low route,

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flinging himself under it

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and sliding through a narrow gap under the machine.

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The loud echoes of its workings slid overhead

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and soon he was back on his feet.

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The guard landed not too far behind him,

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but as Taru began to pick up speed,

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he began to leave the lemur behind.

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Another turn, and then another

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and he was back on the street.

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He turned towards the bridge over the river

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and went into a full sprint down the sidewalk.

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The bridge was deserted other than the car traffic,

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which was again heavier than normal for this hour.

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Taru reached the middle of the bridge as he began to hear the sounds of sirens once more.

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There was a figure yet following him he spotted

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as he stopped to check his situation.

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The lemur, still in hot pursuit,

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struggling to catch up,

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but still eager to do so.

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Taru sighed, climbed up on the bridge railing,

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and went over the side.

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The guard pushed himself harder

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and began to look over the side of the bridge as he came close to where the maned wolf had been.

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But below was only the inky blackness of the river.

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No maned wolf. No sign of splashes or impact.

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The guard stopped

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and looked over the side.

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He craned his head around looking for a spot where his quarry could have grabbed the side of the bridge

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and tried to hide.

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But all he saw was the girders and solid concrete structure of the bridge below.

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And nowhere even someone as tall as the mane wolf

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could grab on to and swing underneath the bridge

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without likely losing their grip and falling into the toxic river below.

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The drones pulled up next to him

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and the robots unraveled from their wheeled portions

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to share in the gazing.

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And then there was the conversation with the lemur, who was quite cross.

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And quickly it was determined that likely the suspect had jumped into the river,

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as unwise as that was.

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And that they would be better served getting a statement elsewhere as the river patrol went to work looking for a body.

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After all, no one had survived that jump before.

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Taru overheard some of the conversation from his hiding spot behind the projection

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of a solid expanse of concrete,

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safe in the small gap in the side of the bridge, just out of view.

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There he would wait until he was sure the coast was clear.

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And then he’d returned to the safe house with an exciting story to tell.

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This was “Little Light Show”

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by W.R. Frixmargen,

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read for you by Khaki,

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your faithful fireside companion.

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For more stories you can find us wherever you get your podcasts,

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or on the web at thevoice.dog.

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Thank you for listening

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to The Voice of Dog