The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 33

The man in the house looked at Ellie, a little warily, apparently waiting to see what she did next. Ellie understood his wariness. She was armed, and at his door, and part of a military occupation force. He was wary, but he also hadn’t shot at her or run away, which implied he didn’t have a guilty conscience.

“I’m a security officer with the debt-recovery authority,” Ellie said, and held out her secureID in case he wanted to look, or scan it, or something.

He waved it away. He seemed to accept that she was.

“We’re looking for someone,” Ellie said, and took out her tablet to show him a picture of the kid.

The man’s expression changed. His face became stern. He shook his head, and said, “I’m not helping you find anyone.”

Ellie was surprised. Actually surprised. Until then, they had both been being reasonable.

“Why not?” she said.

“I’m not helping you,” the man said, and began to close his door.

“Sir,” Joe said. “It’s one of our people. He’s gone missing and his family is worried.”

The man in the house stopped closing his door, and looked at Joe, thinking.

Suddenly Ellie understood. Even though she’d been trying to look harmless, it hadn’t really worked. They still looked too much like a grab team, here to arrest someone. For all the old guy knew, that was exactly what they were.

“Sir,” Joe said. “This isn’t what you think. The missing boy is one of ours.”

The man looked at Joe, and thought for a moment. “That’s the truth?” he said.

“It is, sir.”

The man nodded, and then said to Ellie, “Show me.”

Ellie held out the tablet again. “Four days ago,” she said.

The man looked. He did actually look. “I haven’t seem him,” he said.

“He was near here four days ago,” Ellie said.

“And I haven’t seen him.”

“He was right outside,” Ellie said, surprised.

“Like I said, miss. I haven’t seem him.”

“Does anyone else live here? Anyone he might have visited?”

“Just me.”

“And you were home four days ago?” Ellie said. “All day?”

“All week. I don’t get out much.”

Ellie stood there for a moment, wondering if the man was lying. Or if he was senile. She almost asked all her questions again, just to make sure, but then she decided it wasn’t worth it.

She was surprised the man didn’t know anything about the kid. She’d assumed the kid had visited, here and the other houses, but perhaps he hadn’t. Perhaps something else was going on.

Their kid might well have just walked past, and not gone up to the house. The tracker data wasn’t so spatially precise that Ellie could be certain he’d actually gone inside any particular building, and as well, trackers worked on ten-minute blips, to conserve power, so she had a series of approximate points she knew the kid had been, rather than a linear path of his every movement. That ten-minute window complicated things. The kid might have been standing where Ellie was right now for as long as nineteen minutes, or equally easily, he might simply have happened to be walking past, on his way somewhere else, at the moment the blip was sent. There could be another house entirely, a little way down the road, which the kid had visited, and where he was known. He could be in that house right now, but because the blip hadn’t gone off then, Ellie would never know.

Or the man in front of Ellie, the old man in this house, he might be lying. That was a possibility too. And if he was, Ellie wouldn’t know that either, because she hadn’t thought to switch on a voice analyser before she spoke to him.

She suddenly realized how stupid that had been.

She was annoyed at herself. She should have thought of it.

It was her mistake, not the old man’s, so she decided not to punish him for it. She decided to stay polite, to stay civil, at least for now. She could come back later if she had to.

“You don’t know anything?” she said. “You can’t think why our data might be wrong?”

The man shrugged, and shook his head.

Ellie decided there wasn’t much else she could do. “Thank you for your time,” she said.

The man in the house nodded.

“Sorry to have bothered you,” Ellie said, and turned around, and walked back to the SUV. Joe said thank you as well, and followed her.

The old man watched them go.

Sameh seemed a little surprised, as Ellie went past her, but she got into the SUV willingly enough when Ellie did.

“Thank you,” Ellie said to Joe as well, once he was in too. “For stepping in and helping.”

Joe shrugged, and started the SUV.

“Go,” Ellie said, and Joe began to drive, and as he did, Ellie reached out the SUV’s window and dropped a sensor package gently. It was only a basic package, a signal interceptor that would lie inert in the grass, and couple of cambots which would right themselves on their stumpy little legs and scuttle to some hiding place with a good field of view, then watch the house, uploading a video stream, though the satellites above them, to corporate operations centre, where it would be monitored. Ellie had plenty of sensor packages, so she left one behind just in case. Just in case, as soon as they were gone, the old guy ran out to a car and drove away. Just in case he started making phone calls, or sending messages about having a visit from the debt-recovery authority.

Ellie looked at her tablet, and checked all the sensors were working, then she showed Joe the map and pointed to the next house on their list.

Joe drove.