Leeny stood up, pleased with himself.
“Well, I’ll let you two get at it. Take as long as you want. I need to work with our esteemed Adjunct Overwatch, anyhow. See you.”
“Yeah. Thanks,” I said.
Leeny left the office, closing the door behind him.
The bookkeeper took out some devices, ledgers, and things I didn’t know, which had been secreted about his person. He balanced them on his lap, the crook of his arm, his forearm, and a bulge in his jacket. He looked very prepared.
“First, can I ask if you have any investments?” he asked.
“Like, what do you mean?”
“Shares in corporations or municipals or derivatives. That sort of thing.”
“I-I’m not sure. How would I know, exactly?”
The bookkeeper looked at me a moment. The hair made it impossible to tell what his expression was. He made some notations in his various devices.
“Where do you store your funds?” he asked.
“My credits?”
“Yes. Your credits.”
“The bank. I guess,” I said. I was feeling unintelligent and didn’t know why.
“Ah, good. Do you have multiple accounts and what types? And which banks do you utilize?”
“I’ve just got the one. Just the bank. Am I supposed to use more?”
“Yes. You see, splitting your money among different banks makes it harder to track your activities. You could have some pay from one employer, use accounts for certain types of purchases, utilize different banks in different states and take advantage of the local regulations.”
“Oh,” I said. “Yeah, I don’t do that.”
“May I see your account, then? All this information is confidential.”
I punched in some codes to my tele and showed it to the bookkeeper. He leaned forward and stared at it for what seemed like an incredibly long time considering there wasn’t all that much to read. Finally he sat back and looked at me.
“Don’t you ever purchase anything?”
I looked at my tele.
“What?”
He closed up all his ledgers and instruments and stood up.
“I’m sorry, I can’t help you,” he said.
“Why?”
“I was under the impression you had less. Or at least had it more diversified. You would need to split that up among dozens of accounts to try and hide it and at this point there isn’t enough time. They will notice you moving around that much money even more than if you left it alone. I suggest you start coming up with alibis for your sources of income.”
I stood up. I had come in here fine, now I was worried about my money.
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“That money,” he said, pointing at my tele, “had to come from somewhere.”
“Working,” I replied, indignant.
“The government does not consider killing people working,” he said, moving to the door with his things.
“I do more than that.”
“You don’t have to convince me. You have to convince the auditors.”
He had his hand on the doorknob.
“Well, what are some good stories to tell them?” I asked desperately.
“I don’t do stories, sir. I manage funds.” And he strode out of the room.
CHAPTER 23
“Hey, pal,” Jyonal said as he opened their door.
“Back at you,” I answered with a fake grin.
He stepped aside and let me in. I was carrying a very heavy package I hoped to get rid of. I laid it on the ground gently.
“Jyen, Hank’s here,” he called to the back rooms.
Jyen walked in, wearing an undersized skirt that showed off her complete lack of body fat. What was most eye-catching, however, was the fact her skin was bright orange.
“Thanks for dropping by,” she said, giving me a hug. “You know, I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you smiling.”
I still had my shocked expression from having met Jyonal at the door.
“Yeah,” I said. “My teeth keep growing.”
“You’re probably wondering why I’m this color,” she said, twirling around.
No. But my job was to be a pet to these nuts so they didn’t kill us all.
“Sure,” I said.
“The blue is a disguise. This is my natural skin pigment. When they put out searches for us, they’d be looking for someone with orange skin. They might describe other stuff, but police were going to be looking for orange most of all. So the fact I was blue, and didn’t hide it, made me clearly not the person they were looking for.”
“Why not color yourself like everyone else?”
“Why blue? I needed to cover it with a darker shade.”
All that seemed a little shaky to me and it must have shown on my face because she continued.