The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 23

Ellie looked at Joe for a moment, still not completely sure why he’d done that. If he was trying to tell her something, though, he’d made his point. He’d been overseas, and was a smartass too, and apparently wanted her to know about both.

And now that she did, she could go back to deciding whether she trusted him.

Ellie glanced over at Sameh, and made a slight gesture with her two smallest fingers towards her ear. They had hand-signals they used between themselves, private little signs they’d worked out together and which no-one else knew. That one told Sameh to start a voice-stress analyser and then to quietly listen, and tell Ellie if Joe was lying.

Sameh took out a tablet, very casually, and Joe didn’t seem to especially notice her doing it. People had tablets around all the time, checking this or doing that, and he was mostly paying attention to Ellie, anyway.

“Go on,” Ellie said to Joe. “Tell me.”

Joe seemed a little confused.

“You speak lots of languages,” Ellie said. “You know how to be polite in other places. So how did that happen? Have you worked in the MidEast?”

Joe nodded.

“For how long?”

“Long enough.”

Ellie looked at him, then tapped her comm and told whoever was listening to send the local guide’s personnel file to her tablet. And his security file too.

Joe looked at her for a moment, then shrugged.

“Can we start again?” Ellie said. “I do need to know.”

“I don’t think you do.”

Ellie tapped her comm again. “Someone have a CEO or something call the guide.”

“Don’t bother,” Joe said, into his own comm.

Ellie grinned at him. “Someone would call.”

“I believe you.”

“We doing something important,” Ellie said.

“They told me.”

“I can’t tell you what.”

“They told me that too.”

“I can’t tell you yet,” Ellie said. “But I do need to know I can trust you.”

“Okay. So ask what you want to know.”

“You worked in the MidEast,” Ellie said.

“I did.”

“And now you’re here.”

“Now I am.”

“Why?”

Joe shrugged. “I need to work.”

“Why work for us? Against your own people?”

“I’m from here,” he said. “I’m not one of these people.”

Ellie nodded. Sameh got the same way about hajjis and hajji places, and Ellie supposed she would as well, if Australia had ever fallen apart as completely as half the rest of the world had.

“Just tell me,” Ellie said. “Please. It’ll save me having to read it.”

“I worked in the MidEast, back before the debt settlement. Work like this. I know what I’m doing.”

Ellie nodded.

“I have no personal debt,” Joe said. “I’ve never defaulted. And I’m cleared with the debt settlement agency.”

“But?” Ellie said.

“But when things got bad here, I came back to look after my family.”

Suddenly, Ellie felt more sympathetic. Which might well be the point, she reminded herself. It could be a lie, intended to arouse sympathy, but she didn’t think it was. It had a feel of truth. Something of the sort had happened to a lot of people, and especially people Joe’s age. He was a little older than Ellie, old enough for it to be true.

“Family like kids?” Ellie said.

“Parents.”

Ellie nodded again. “Go on,” she said.