The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 59

Business had to be weapons or drugs, Ellie thought. With a fortified compound like this, business had to be weapons or drugs or something worse, human trafficking or the like. Ellie didn’t have any drugs on her, and she didn’t want to pretend Sameh was a captive she intended to sell, and she imagined that selling weapons probably fit their appearance better anyway, especially if the person looking at them through the camera happened to notice their tactical armour.

Ellie pulled Sameh closer, as she reached for the bag. “I’m improvising,” she whispered, as she unzipped the top.

She glanced up and down the road, obviously glancing, acting all suspicious and furtive, and making too much of it. The road was empty, so she took out the topmost submachine gun, probably her one, and held it down in front of her body.

She turned towards the gate, towards the camera, and stood there for a moment.

“Can you see?” she said.

“I see,” the voice said.

Ellie nodded, and turned back to Sameh, and put the gun back in the bag, quickly.

“I’m selling these,” Ellie said to the intercom. She glanced around, needlessly, and said, “You saw what it was? What model?”

“I did.”

“You could see clearly?”

“Yes, I saw.”

“They’re debt-authority issue, from a depot and a shipment that got misplaced. They’re new, never used except to test. I was told John would be interested.

“He might be,” the voice said. “How many do you have?”

“Sixteen,” Ellie said, picking a number out of the air. Because sixteen was an unusual number and seemed more believable than fifteen or twenty, and because she wanted it to be a large enough number that it was worth the militia dealing with her, but not so large it seemed odd she was trying to sell them at a shitty little militia compound in the middle of nowhere.

“Sixteen,” she said, then added, “And five thousand rounds of mixed ammo.”

“We need to see them.”

“I assumed,” Ellie said. “But not here. Either let me in, or meet me somewhere else, somewhere private.”

“Do you have everything with you?” the voice said.

Ellie didn’t answer. She didn’t look at the SUV, which was probably where the watchers were assuming the guns were. She just stood there, silently, fairly sure a grey-market arms dealer wouldn’t answer a question like that.

“How much do you want for them?” the voice said, after a moment.

“Something reasonable,” Ellie said. “We can talk about it. But not here.”

There was a short silence. They were talking to each other with the intercom off, Ellie assumed. They were probably suspicious, Ellie thought, but not as suspicious as they would have been once, or would be in other parts of the world. Here, in Měi-guó, there weren’t really very many undercover arms-control officers wandering about, so someone trying to sell guns door-to-door was probably actually just selling guns, not trying to catch them in illegal weapons trading.

The intercom buzzed again. “Why didn’t you contact us first?” the voice said. “Why just turn up.”

“What, talk on the phone?” Ellie said, doubtfully. She waved upwards, meaning signals interception by satellites and drones.

“You should have contacted us.”

“I’m contacting you now.”

There was another silence. Ellie assumed that meant the voice had decided she was right about the risk of the phone call being overhead.

She thumped the gate again. “Come on,” she said. “It’s just an offer. If you aren’t interested, just say so and I’ll go somewhere else. But don’t be assholes about it and waste my time.”

“Wait,” the voice said. “We’re deciding.”

“I’m waiting. But not very much longer.”

“Wait.”

“I’m about to leave.”

“All right,” the voice said. “Okay. Come inside. But just you,”

“Nope,” Ellie said. “My security too. I need her to carry the samples.”

The voice didn’t answer, but the gate buzzed, and clicked unlocked, which Ellie assumed meant they agreed. She was a little surprised this had actually worked, but she grinned at Sameh, and then pushed the gate open. ‘

The gate had unlocked remotely, Ellie noticed, but it hadn’t opened by itself. That was good. It was very good. It was lucky, like guessing the correct name had been lucky, because it meant she and Sameh could leave a line of retreat open in case they needed it, and not be trapped between the two fences.

Ellie opened the gate, swinging it as wide as it would go, and then deliberately left it open. She picked up a small rock from beside the driveway, and placed it against the gate, so it couldn’t swing closed. It wasn’t a very big rock, and it would have done little to stop a motorized gate. But here, when all she needed to do was make sure the wind didn’t nudge it, it would do.

She put the rock down, and kicked it against the gate to make sure it stayed put, and then she and Sameh walked up the driveway towards the second gate.