The Kid [2a]
01 Dec 2015Kurotama
[2a]Back at Neville and I found a message waiting for me.
The baymaster at Xihe'd been trying to reach me for a while. Seems the can I knocked over coming in from my close call broke open. It was a slave can some poor sap dumped after a mission gone bad and it was still on the pad when I came in. (No black market at Zhen so I guess the guy did what he could.) Nothing else; just told me to call ASAP.
Got in touch and the guy sounded nervous. Seems he'd been keeping it quiet because he didn't want to break his spotless safety record. Said I understood, but the look on his face told me there was something else.
Didn't push; just waited him out. Knew he'd spit eventually.
It was a kid, he said. Stasis lock released when the can opened. Slaves are one thing, yeah, but a kid slave was something else completely.
I just sat there blank and asked what it had to do with me. Not my fault there was junk on his pad, I said.
Now he seemed just about to lose it, but barely holding it together. Please come get him, he said, there's no way I can keep him here, he said.
And then this turdwaffle laid it on me that the kid's folks were in the can too and I killed them when I landed.
Just stared back like forever.
Asked if he was blackmailing me and he quite flatly said yeah. Better to report the can lost in the black than for someone to find out I wrecked their shit. He wasn't asking to get paid or something; just come get the kid and everyone could forget about it.
Told him where to put the can and stuff it.
Then I hung up.