The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 77

Ellie glanced at the bunker building. “Are the women and kids in there?”

Suddenly, the man looked wary.

“Just answer,” Ellie said.

“Yes,” he said, sounding reluctant.

“Do you want them left out of this?” Ellie said.

After a moment, the man nodded slowly.

“We can leave them out of this,” Ellie said. “We can do that, but you have to talk to me.”

The man just stood there, looking at her.

“What’s your name?” Ellie said.

The man hesitated. “I think I’d rather not tell you.”

“Any name,” Ellie said. “Whatever you like. I just want to be able to call you something.”

The man shook his head.

Ellie sighed, and looked upward quickly, at the trigger spot for her e-glasses interface, so the glasses would begin tracking her eye movements. The menu system activated, superimposing text over her field of view. She picked through a few options, blinking to activate each screen, and found the infonet data displays. She stared at the man in front of her until the glasses registered she was looking at him, and then the sensor net made a guess as to who he was based on his height and weight and eye colour, on nearby vehicle registration chips, on known associations with this location, and on the wireless-enabled store and credit cards he had in his pocket, which Ellie noticed weren’t all in the same name. She grinned, but didn’t say anything, and waited while the system picked through the data it had, and made a best guess as to who he was.

It superimposed the name next to his face.

“Terry?” Ellie said.

Terry looked at her for a moment, surprised, and then shrugged. “Yeah.”

“It’s just so I can call you something,” Ellie said. “So we can talk. I don’t care more than that.”

“Fine,” Terry said. “I’m Terry. What do you want?”

“I’m looking for someone,” Ellie said. “And I think he’s been here.”

Terry thought about that, then said, “Who?”

“A boy. A kid. From Shanghai.”

Terry just looked at her, and didn’t react, and that look was enough to tell Ellie everything. Terry wasn’t surprised. A kid from Shanghai wandering around out here was fairly unusual, but Terry didn’t even bother pretending that Ellie had said something unexpected. More importantly, he also didn’t say that hadn’t seen anyone who might be a kid from Shanghai, and Ellie thought that if he hadn’t seen the kid, he probably would have told her. There was no reason for him not to. He probably wanted to be unhelpful, and she understood that, but there was being uncooperative, and then there was just being stupid. If Terry didn’t know anything useful then the smart thing to do would be to tell Ellie that, to convince her, so she went away. But Terry didn’t even try. He just stood there, and didn’t react, and that told Ellie everything she needed to know.

Now she had to decide what to do next.