“We’re looking for someone,” Ellie said. She took a tablet out of her leg-pocket, and used voice-control to find a picture of the missing kid. Voice, because once she was holding the tablet she didn’t have any spare hands to touch the screen.
She showed the girl she was holding the photo. The girl looked, but didn’t say anything. Ellie showed the other girl.
“Let me see,” the boy said. His nose was bleeding where Sameh had hit him. He looked, then shook his head, “We don’t know him.”
Ellie had a voice analyzer running, and it lit up when the boy spoke.
“Yes, you do,” she said to him, suddenly very pleased.
She’d been fairly sure he was lying, anyway, even without the voice analyzer’s warning. He had spoken for all three of them, claiming something he couldn’t know for certain, rather than just speaking for himself.
“We fucking don’t,” he said.
“Watch your mouth,” she said. “Where’s this kid? Who’s he with?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you’ve seen him?”
The boy didn’t answer. He looked at Ellie’s tablet, then shook his head and didn’t say a thing. Because he realized she had a voice analyzer, she assumed. She switched the analyzer off, and then showed him it was off. She didn’t need it now, particularly. Not now she knew he was hiding something. If he was happier talking without it, if he was worried about recorded, or tricked, or whatever it was, then the analyzer could be off. She didn’t mind.
“Well?” she said, but he still didn’t speak.
She looked at him for a moment, and decided she was impatient enough she was willing to be rough. She thought for a moment, and decided belonging to some kind of marginal youth culture probably made him more accustomed to being attacked himself, but probably also more protective of his friends.
He was probably more likely to cooperate if she hurt someone else, she decided, so she bent the arm of the girl she was holding until the girl winced.
“Hey,” the boy said. He struggled a little, but Sameh held him.
Ellie twisted again, and the girl made a little sob and said, “Please…”
“Shit,” the boy said, looking scared. “Stop that. Leave her alone.”
“Tell me about the kid,” Ellie said.
“We don’t know him. We just talked to him once.”
“Where?” .
The boy looked towards the cafe he’d just left.
“There?” Ellie said, and he nodded.
“On his own?” She kept her pressure on the girl’s arm, so the girl sobbed a little.
The boy nodded again. Ellie looked at him, thinking. He looked scared, and nervous. She was fairly sure he was telling the truth.
“When was this?” she asked.
“Last week. Four or five days ago.”
“And what was he doing?”
“Nothing. He was doing nothing. Just having food. Being there. Talking to people.”
That felt true as well, Ellie decided. She didn’t bother turning the voice analyzer back on to check. “When he left,” she said. “Where did he go?”
The boy shrugged.
“Was he with anyone?” she asked.
The boy shook his head.
“On his own?”
The boy nodded.
“Did you notice anything else worth telling me?” she asked. Just in case the boy suddenly mentioned a convoy full of mercenaries that had been parked outside, or something.
“Like what?” he said. So that hadn’t worked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Anything that might be useful at all?”
The boy shook his head.
Ellie looked at him, and thought, and decided that was probably all he knew. It wasn’t much, but it was confirmation of a sighting of the missing kid, and that was a good start.
“All right,” she said. “So who do I talk to now?”
“What do you mean?”
“Right now I’m your problem,” Ellie said. “Make me someone else’s. Tell who might have seen the kid, or who might know where he is.”
The boy looked at her, and seemed confused, so Ellie gave him a moment to think it through. It would make sense to him in a moment, she knew. It always made sense to people once they thought.
This was how Ellie and Sameh often worked. People might not know exactly the information needed, but they usually knew who to ask. They knew of someone local who knew useful things, a gossip or drug dealer or local criminal. Ellie and Sameh got that person’s name, and then they left the first person alone. Because once they’d found out who knew the secrets in a given community, they could go and ask that person more direct questions. The trick was knowing who to ask. Finding the person who knew the secrets, finding the actual information-broker, that was always a little complicated. It wasn’t something you could see very easily as an outsider to a place. You needed to be told by someone inside. Ellie needed a hint, a place to start, that was all. And once she had a hint, then she had all the time in the world. She could keep on visiting new people, and asking new questions. If the first person whose name she was given didn’t tell her anything useful, she would just ask that person for a second name, and ask that person for a third, and keep getting suggestions, and asking different people, until she eventually found one who could help her.
It was all quite beautifully simple. All she needed was a place to start.
“You must have some idea,” Ellie said to the boy. “Someone I can talk to. I won’t say who sent me.”
“I don’t know anything,” he said.
“Just tell me someone’s name and we’ll go away,” Ellie said.
“Why should I?”
“Because I’ll hurt you all if you don’t. Badly.”
The boy swallowed, and seemed to suddenly remember to be scared.
Ellie looked at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was scared of her and terribly forgetful, or scared of whoever she was trying to get him to inform on. She suspected it was the second.
“Don’t be an asshole,” she said. “Just tell me someone’s name and I’ll go away.”
“I don’t know anyone,” he said.
“Just a name.”
The boy was looking even more worried, Ellie thought, so he was probably scared of the person whose name he wasn’t telling her.
“I don’t know anyone,” he said, sounding a bit desperate. “We don’t know anything. We don’t know that guy in the picture, none of us do. And we don’t know who can help you, either.”
“Well, I’m going to hit you all then,” Ellie said.
The boy suddenly looked really upset. He was probably feeling a bit trapped, Ellie thought. A bit afraid of all the consequences suddenly looming over him.
He just needed a little push.
Ellie twisted the girl she was holding’s arm until she heard a wince, just to remind them all that she was a callous unfeeling monster. “Just tell me someone else who might know something,” she said. “Someone it’s worth asking, and I’ll go away and leave you alone.”
The boy hesitated, and seemed undecided. The girls were both looking at him, and seemed unsure too. Even the one who was having her arm bent.
All three were almost there, Ellie thought. Someone was going to tell her very soon. She just needed to keep asking.
“You must know someone,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who. Anyone useful. Anyone will do.”
The boy didn’t answer, but the girl Ellie was holding suddenly decided to. “Mark,” she said.
The boy looked over, nervously, which told Ellie it was a name worth hearing.
She grinned, pleased. “Tell me about Mark,” she said to the girl.
The girl tugged at her arm, and Ellie loosened her grip. “Who’s Mark?” she said again.
“He’s in the Brotherhood,” the girl said. “He might know something.”
“I don’t know what that is,” Ellie said.
“Militia,” Joe
said. “Debt-resistors.”
“Would they know anything useful?” Ellie asked.
Joe and the girl both said, “Yes.”
“Thank you,” Ellie said to the girl, and let go of her arm. The girl went a few steps away from Ellie, then turned around, rubbed at her elbow, and then just stood there, watching, like the other girl was.
“You know someone in a militia?” Ellie said to the teenagers. They didn’t look quite the type, somehow.
“Not know,” the boy said. “But…”
“We went to school with him,” Ellie’s girl said. “He’s a friend of a friend and he’s older. But he’s in the Brotherhood.”
“Tell me,” Ellie said to her. “Give me an address or a phone number.”
“I don’t have it,” the girl said, and looked at the boy, and then stopped, as if she suddenly was wondering if she’d said too much.
She probably had, Ellie thought, but left her alone. She was fairly sure that look meant that the boy knew the details, and the girl didn’t. She looked at the boy and said, “Tell me.”
“I can’t,” the boy said. “He’ll be…”
He stopped, and winced. Sameh had started twisting his arm.
“Please?” Ellie said, politely.
The three teenagers all looked at each other. The boy said, “Ow, fuck,” again.
“Just tell her,” Ellie’s girl said to him.
The boy hesitated another moment, wincing, and then said, “Okay.” As if being told to by someone else had made it easier, Ellie thought. It probably did. He’d made his gesture, and in a way someone else had given in first. And he wasn’t doing this on his own any more, either. Other people were responsible as well. Now, if anything went wrong, it had been a group decision to give Ellie the name. Hajji troublemakers felt the same way, and did the same kind of thing. People everywhere did the same thing, Ellie supposed.
Sameh let go of the boy’s arm, and he took out his phone and gave Ellie a number and a name and an address.
“If this is wrong,” Ellie said. “If it isn’t useful, I’ll come back.”
He looked at her, and said, “I know.”
“I mean it, I’ll come back. So tell me now if you’re trying to trick me.”
“No tricks,” he said.
“And if this guy gets warned, mysteriously, before I get there,” Ellie said. “I’ll come back then too.”
The boy nodded.
“You understand?” Ellie said.
“Yes,” he said.
Ellie looked at the girls. “All of you?”
They both nodded too.
Ellie decided that would do. They were scared, and just wanted her to go away. She took copies of their IDs before she left, anyway, just to be sure, but she didn’t think she’d need them.
“Go,” she said. “Stay out of trouble,” and they all walked off quickly, not looking back at her.
She felt a bit grubby, a bit like the worst kind of bully, but she’d done what she’d needed to do. That way of asking questions worked, and had got her what she needed without anyone actually being badly hurt.
It was a success. She had a place to start.
She just felt a little nasty for having done it that way.
Chapter 8
Once they had a name, Ellie knew the rest would be easy. This was how it was, how it always worked. They asked one person for a name, and then they found another person. And then they kept doing that until they found someone interesting, someone useful, or the person they were actually trying to find.
They drove to the address the boy had given them and stopped in the street outside. Joe sat there, and seemed to be waiting for instructions. Ellie looked at Sameh.
“So, same as usual?” Sameh said, sounding slightly bored.
Ellie nodded. “Except you don’t have armor, or a decent weapon, or any hope of quick medevac, but yep, the same as usual otherwise.”
She meant be careful, and only wanted to remind Sameh. Sameh just looked at Ellie for a moment, then she leaned forward, and kissed Ellie, and grinned.
“Be careful,” Ellie said.
“I will.”
“Okay,” Ellie said, and glanced around. “Have we got everything?”
“Of course,” Sameh said.
“Cable ties?”
Sameh showed her. They were on a quick-release clip on her belt, like law-enforcement used.
“Tape?” Ellie said. In case the target started shouting.
Sameh nodded.
“And remember you don’t have proper armor on,” Ellie said, still worrying a little.
“I’m remembering.”
“Just do. Please. There’s probably weapons in there.”
“Yep,” Sameh said. “Of course. Like everywhere. And which won’t matter because we’re getting them outside.”
“Yeah,” Ellie said, still worried. “But just in case.”
“Same as usual,” Sameh said. “Remember?”
Ellie nodded.
There was a way they’d always done this, when they were grabbing someone from their home. Someone to interrogate, or to beat for a while as a warning that they, or their friends, or group, or town, should stop making trouble. Barging into houses got you killed. Looking harmless, and knocking on doors, and asking politely, getting people to come outside, that kept everyone alive.
Ellie and Sameh had always been a good grab-team because they knew how to do that. They were good at it, convincing. They looked harmless at first glance.
“Are there couriers here?” Ellie asked Joe.
That was they way they’d always done this in the MidEast. Pretending to be a courier, with something over here, in the car, so people came outside to see what it was they had.
“Couriers?” Joe said.
“Yeah, like delivery couriers. With parcels, you know.”
“Oh,” Joe said. “Yeah, of course.”
“Do they have uniforms? And are their vans marked?”
He thought. “Not always,” he said. “No.”
Ellie grinned. “Good,” she said. She looked back at Sameh. “So couriers, then?”
“I heard.”
“I’d better knock,” Ellie said. “I look local now.”
“No shit,” Sameh said.
“I will,” Joe said. “I’ll knock.”
“No,” Ellie said to him quickly. “You stay back, let us do this our way.”
Joe hesitated. He had a problem with that, but didn’t want to say. Ellie could tell from his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“You don’t sound local here, that’s all. You sound Australian.”
“But will they actually know?”
Joe didn’t seem to understand.
“Aren’t there people from all over here?” Ellie said. “How do they know I’m not from Texas or something?”
“You sound Australian.”
“But how do they know that’s different to Texas?”
“We still have TV here…” Joe said, a little uncertainly, as if he wasn’t completely sure if Ellie was serious.
Ellie was serious, but she hadn’t thought of that.
“Oh yeah,” she said.
“I should knock,” Joe said.
“No,” Ellie said. “You’re not going to the door. You’re not paid for that, and we don’t want you getting in our way, either.”
“I ought to go.”
“No,” Ellie said. “You’re a guide, not a grab-team. Stay put.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I do. Stay there.”
He shrugged, and then nodded.
“Okay,” Ellie said, and then sat there, thinking it all through, making sure she knew what she was going to do, and that she had a plan. She looked around. She thought. “Has this car got child locks?” she asked Joe.
He looked at her, and seemed confused.
“After we grab the guy,” Ellie said. “So he can’t just jump out.”
“Oh yeah
,” Joe said. He looked at the buttons on the dashboard, and then those on the driver’s door. He pushed one, and there was a click from inside the doors. “Yeah, it does,” he said.
Sameh pulled on her door handle and it didn’t open. Joe glanced back and then unlocked the doors again.
“Lock them again once we’re out,” Ellie said, and he nodded.
Ellie looked back at Sameh, and decided they were ready.
“We’re going?” Sameh said, probably impatient, now something was about to happen.
“I think so,” Ellie said.
“So let’s go.”
“Okay,” Ellie said, and got out the car. Sameh grinned, suddenly happy, and climbed out after her.
They walked up to the house’s front door. The separated at the bottom of the front steps. Sameh went one side, and stood next to a shrub, under a tree, out of the clear line of sight of the door. Not out of sight of the front windows, but they had closed curtains, and no-one was peering out.
Ellie glanced over, and made sure Sameh was in place, then she went up the steps, and thumped on the door. She knocked loudly, and called out, “Hey, is anyone home?”
No-one answered, so she knocked again.
A young man opened the door, but only a few inches. He was standing back from the doorway, well inside the house, looking out at Ellie suspiciously. The way he was standing, and only opening the door a little, meant the door was probably on a chain or a bolt, she thought. Either that, or he had it wedged against his foot, so Ellie couldn’t crash against it and knock it open.
Ellie assumed this was Mark.
Mark was smart enough not to just open the door and let Ellie drag him out, but he wasn’t so smart that he’d looked outside properly, far enough outside to see Sameh standing there, too. He was smart, Ellie thought, but he was probably also greedy, which was what she was going to use against him. She assumed he was greedy because she assumed everyone was greedy, and usually it turned out they were.
“Yeah?” Mark said, looking at Ellie.
Ellie took out her tablet, and looked at the screen. It was switched off, blank, but Mark couldn’t see that.
“Are you Mark?” she said.
“Who’s asking?”
The Debt Collectors War Page 11