“Joe?” Bibi looked into her room.
“Yeah?” Joe was watching the crowds of demonstrators in the road beneath. Their banners sodden in the rain.
“Earth give us Food.” “Hungry for Al Banduq.” “Earth out of our space.”
“Were getting you out through the UP embassy. This is Elton. He’s my opposite number there.”
“Hi” said Elton. He was wearing official looking overalls and had some more in his hand.
“These are for you.” Said Bibi “His security guard is staying here and you are going out to the UP embassy in his overalls.”
“What about my space suit?” asked Joe “I may need it.”
“You will. The next step is getting you off planet to wait around for the Vengeance. We’ve set a rendezvous at one of the sun shades.”
“Your suit goes in here,” said Elton, holding out a large diplomatic bag. “And anything else you want out. Like the Black Box from the registry. This bag is metal weave and radioed up so it can’t be scanned.”
“Right.” Joe started to get undressed. Elton and Bibi seemed to be very friendly. They weren’t touching, but they were standing very close together. Joe felt a bit uneasy about that. He realised he was jealous.
Just a bit.
The three of them jumped down the shaft to the ground floor and along to a garage. The kit car was a small wheeled vehicle with two seats in the front and a half size cargo container at the back. It said “Solovyov Truck EB11” on the side
“Right Joe.” Bibi was getting serious “ This has to look like a normal embassy delivery. The drivers don’t get much and they’re mostly on the make. So if you went buying some crystal carvings it wouldn’t look that odd.”
“Oh. Yeah, great, but what would I use to pay for them?”
“These. They’re food coupons. I pay my informers with them.” Bibi gave him a plastic bag full of little cards.
“That’s women for you.” Said Elton “I use virtual porno’s.” He smiled knowingly at Bibi. Joe felt uneasy about that as well.
“Yes, well you can tell what sex most of our informants are.” Said Bibi quickly. “This is a lot. But bargain, or it will seem strange. Elton can drop you at the end of Endless Street. You walk down. Buy your stuff and he gets you at the end of the block. Are you up to it?”
“I lived here for a bit you know.”
“They weren’t trying to kill you in those days.”
“No. But I’ll be all right. I can pass for local”
“OK” said Elton “Put your bag in the back.” He shut the door “And get in the front.”
Joe got in. Then Bibi leaned in and kissed him. It was a long kiss. Joe hadn’t expected it. She pulled away and looked into his eyes. “I’ll see you around Joe.”
“Yes.” Joe was going to say more but Elton hurriedly and deliberately got behind the steering wheel.
Joe and Bibi just smiled at each other and Joe closed the door.
The electric kit car whirred towards the garage exit. The big door opened with a shower of rainwater. Joe looked back but couldn’t see Bibi. Rain started pounding on the trucks metal roof. Mirconian Police in glistening wet capes held the crowd back. There was some jeering, but they could see this was just a kit car. Just deliveries. No one important.
“That big banner on the left scanned us.” Elton was talking above the roar of rain on the cab roof.
“Which one?”
“Don’t look. I’ve
got detectors in my head. Just take my word for it.”
Joe
wondered if Bibi had the same ironmongery inside her skull.
Slowly, half-heartedly the police laid lazily into the crowd with long sticks and cleared a way through. Elton buzzed through the gap. They were off.
Once out in the slow moving traffic Joe felt safely anonymous.
Just one more vehicle heading from junction to junction. Under the dripping trees, between the rusty trucks, over the puddles and potholes, over all the little bridges.
“There’s someone on a bike following us.” Elton glanced in his mirror. “Looks like a magician.”
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