“Yup, I’m just a little old level four.”
“Are you sure?” she asked skeptically.
“That’s what they told me.”
“And when was that?”
“When they first classified me. I don’t know, maybe 160 years ago?”
“Oh,” the woman said again, thinking. “And you haven’t been tested since then?”
“No,” I said, instinctively flexing my pinky that had long ago been chopped.
“Hmm,” she said, scrutinizing me. “I would like to give you some money to purchase some drugs for me.”
Ugh! I can’t believe I listened to all this just so she can try and get high.
“I don’t really do that. But there are plenty of people who I’m sure will be happy to sell to you.”
She ignored me and pulled from her glove a folded piece of paper and handed it to me. It was a list with a truly fantastic amount of drugs on it. Not enough to go into business, but certainly more than enough for personal use.
“I want you to get these. Or as many as you can. I will pay you 10,000 if you can get them to me in 48 hours and 20,000 if you can get them to me in 24 hours.”
Those numbers made me reevaluate the list. I’m not a prima donna. Odd jobs are what I do. And I can help out a nice blue lady now and then.
“This stuff is pretty expensive,” I said. “If you’re new to Belvaille you have to realize that only a few dozen drugs are actually manufactured here. The rest have to be smuggled in and there’s just not a big market for a lot of these.”
She handed me a token for 40,000 credits.
Tokens weren’t used much anymore in the rest of Colmarian space I’ve heard, most transactions being tele-to-tele or straight to banks, but Belvaille was sentimental about anonymous, portable tokens.
“Will this be enough?”
I looked over the list for real this time, doing some calculations. I wasn’t a big drug expert, never really got the appeal. I figured she gave me more than enough to cover most of the list, and a few of the drugs wouldn’t be available at any price, they just weren’t here. She probably gave 10K too much, which I considered a good sign of faith. Even if she tried to screw me over, I had a solid cushion to make sure I got paid.
“Okay, I can do this. What’s your name and where do I reach you?”
“I’ll come back tomorrow if that’s okay?”
Wasn’t she a polite little drug addict?
“Well, I come and go a lot. I actually don’t spend much time here. You can tele me, though.” I gave her my number. Hey, anyone who gives me forty grand is a new personal friend.
“My name is Jyen,” she said, offering her gloved hand.
I awkwardly shook her tiny hand with three of my fingers.
“I’m hoping this shouldn’t take too much time to gather.”
“Thank you for your assistance, Hank. May I call you ‘Hank’?”
I briefly thought of what else she could call me, but I didn’t come up with anything funny.
“Sure.”
I showed her out and closed the door. Hot damn. Old Hank’s luck was definitely taking a turn for the better.
CHAPTER 4
I headed to meet Zadeck. I gave him a tele, but I liked talking face-to-face. People can say whatever they want to a little screen on your wrist. If you’re there in person, I find it’s just a completely different atmosphere. He said to meet him at one of his clubs.
I spoke to a few familiar faces on the train. One guy wanted to use me as a reference for bodyguard work, but I declined as gracefully as possible as I didn’t know him well. Another guy passed along an offer of a permanent job, but I declined that also. My motto for survival on Belvaille was: don’t take sides. It’s what had kept me employed all these years.
Gangs were unusual things. They were like fraternities, only meaner. They often had their own clubhouses and uniforms and they could be as tight-knit as families. I could never understand why guys gave so much to such a random collection of people. Why they were willing to die for some emblem that wouldn’t even notice they were gone.
I stopped along the way at a soup spot to refill the tank. I normally ate more than an average person, but not nearly as much as my mass would indicate. Another anomaly of my mutation.
The soup was on the house, because that was one of the occasional perks of being me. I really tried to take care of the people who worked on Belvaille by tipping well, as it never hurt to have too many friends. But the proprietor in this case was refusing my money.
As I entered Zadeck’s block, the populace and atmosphere changed immediately. They had painted all the walls garish colors and there were statues and sculptures everywhere.