The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 8

Ellie stood there for a moment, wary. The church was empty. There was no-one else there, and no coffin up the front.

The only person in the church was a man in a suit, sitting at the front of the room. After a moment that man stood up and walked back towards Ellie.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We deceived you. Your daughter is alive and unharmed.”

Ellie stepped towards him. Sameh was quicker. The man tried to back away, but not quickly enough. He was down almost as he finished speaking. Sameh had him on the ground, in an arm lock, and was kneeling on shoulder and face. He was bleeding a little from a graze on his lip, where he had hit it as he’d fallen.

Suddenly, people appeared around them. Through the door Ellie and Sameh had come in by, and through another at the far end of the room. The backup team, flooding in, pointing guns, trying to overwhelm Ellie and Sameh with surprise. Ellie wasn’t surprised. She’d expected them, once it was obvious this wasn’t a funeral. There had to be a team, and Sameh probably expected that too, and decided it was best to get the team out into the open.

There was a lot of noise, and a lot of confusion. Everyone was shouting, what the fuck and you can’t do that and let him go. Everything Ellie would expect from a crowd of outraged hajjis, except they were shouting in English. That was a change.

It was a small room, and they were all standing too close to Ellie and Sameh. They had handguns, but their guns weren’t raised, weren’t leveled, which meant they had instructions not to risk hurting Ellie and Sameh.

They wanted to talk, Ellie decided. They had no intention of shooting her.

“There’s no problem,” Ellie said. “Everyone calm down.”

Then she had to grab at another of the backup team, a woman, who took a swing at her for no apparent reason except getting caught up in the excitement of it all. Ellie blocked the swing, and grabbed the woman’s arm, and turned into a bouncer’s lock, twisting the woman’s wrist until it bent enough the woman stopped moving. Ellie held her like Sameh was the man, until she decided they were both under control.

Then she looked at the others. “I’ll have to hit you,” she said. “I’ll have to put you down. I can’t hold two of you at once.”

“We’re not doing anything,” the first man said, from beside Sameh, the calmest of the lot. “We just want to talk.”

Ellie thought about that.

“It would be easier if I wasn’t bent over like this,” the man said.

Ellie said, “Let him go,” to Sameh.

Sameh did. She might have twisted his arm a little as she released him. Ellie shoved the woman she was holding, so she stumbled forward, out of Ellie’s way, and took a few steps towards the man who Sameh had just let go.

He watched her, then took out a gun and pointed it at her.

“That’s close enough, I think,” he said.

Ellie stopped, and thought about what to do now. He was obviously in charge, which meant he probably was allowed to shoot her, if he wanted to. Unlike his team of minions, who had been told to keep their weapons down.

Ellie was unarmed, and too far away to reach him with her hands, and wasn’t wearing tactical amour, either. Australia was modern, civilized, and didn’t allow aircraft to land that hadn’t been screened properly. Ellie and Sameh had been screened at the border, and screened in the street, passing e-sniffer checkpoints too. They were scanned and inspected and made certain they were disease free.

Disease free, and weapon-free, and free of unserviced debt, as well.

This man had a gun, and Ellie didn’t, and she didn’t have a hope of doing anything much to him from where she was standing.

So she stopped where she was, and said, “I’m not moving.”

“We need your help,” the man said.

“I don’t think I want to help you.”

“All the same,” he said. “You will.”

“Why?”

He held out a tablet so she could see the screen. It was Naomi, her kid, sitting in a room, on a bed, apparently watching something on a wall screen beside the camera. Naomi seemed unharmed. There was a trustlock id in the corner, with the date and time, confirming it was a live stream.

Naomi was alive, just like the man had said.

She was somewhere else, probably being held captive, Ellie assumed, but she was alive, right now.

Naomi wasn’t dead.

Ellie stood there, and to her surprise, she felt something. Some odd mix of relief and gratitude. She had been upset the kid was dead, although she hadn’t wanted to admit to herself. Upset enough to plan a revenge killing, she supposed, which must mean a little bit upset.

Ellie stood there, thinking, trying to work out her feelings. She didn’t want the kid harmed, she decided. She felt some kind of obligation to Naomi. She didn’t quite know why, when Naomi was obviously trouble and so ought to able to take care of herself, but Ellie cared enough to try and help.

She didn’t want the kid harmed, and that probably meant doing what this man wanted her to do.

She would do what he wanted in the end, but she tried playing him first, just because she had to. He’d probably expect it anyway, but she tried anyway.

“I haven’t seen her in years,” Ellie said. “Why do I care?”

“Because you’re here,” the man said. “For her funeral.”

“It’s polite to turn up, that’s all.”

“And yet, you’re still here. Interrupting an deployment. Losing field pay. And it’s the first time you’ve been back to Australia in years…”

“I’m very polite,” Ellie said.

“Or you care.”

Ellie shrugged. She stood there. Sameh and the backup team were waiting too, all looking at Ellie and the man with the tablet, waiting to see if they all needed to try and kill each other.

“Well, if that’s all you wanted…” Ellie said.

The man waited.

“I mean it,” Ellie said. “She means nothing to me.”

The man nodded. He pretended to look regretful. He shrugged, probably copying Ellie. “All right then,” he said. “No problem. I understand.”

Ellie suddenly felt suspicious. He was giving in too easily.

“If your child is no hold over you,” the man said. “I suppose that can’t be helped. Our mistake, and we apologize for the unnecessary travel. I hope there’s no hard feelings, and I’ll let you be on your way.”

“And kill the kid, right?” Ellie said.

“Of course.”

Ellie stood there for a moment, then sighed. “Don’t do that.”

The man smiled.

“Don’t do that,” Ellie said. “Tell me what you want me to do.”