Collateral

Lucas, Vicky, Sophia and Ellie are sitting inside of the car.

“So, what is the plan?” Vicky asks

“It is easy,” Ellie says. “I just look up the last place Mom visited in the onboard navigation, and we drive there, and we find the person who gave her the package.”

Sophia replies, “So, that doesn’t sound like a plan at all.”

“You are correct,” Ellie says. “But we will improvise if we get more information.”

Ellie punches in some numbers on the console. “Seems like the last address entered was a hotel called the Regroove Hotel. Maybe we should go take a look there.”

Sophia shakes her head. “It is a hotel. The package could have come from anywhere.”

Ellie says “Let’s just take a look, we can figure it out later.”

“So, what is the plan now?” Sophia asks.

Ellie smiles. “I hack into the hotel’s security feed and see who gave the package to my Mom.”

Sophia sighs. “You think whoever gave the package to your Mom did so in the hotel lobby? She got the package from another runner. They probably traded it in a backally or something, or one of the rooms.”

Ellie shrugs. “Then we check all the cameras.”

Lucas looks at Ellie. “All the security feeds. That is hours and hours of footage?”

They are interrupted as a police officer knocks on the window.

Sophia slowly rolls down the window. The police officer is dressed in a black and blue uniform, with UCWSNCPPF written on it. Ellie always wondered why they couldn’t have chosen a better name. “United Coalition of Western States’ Non-Corporate People Police Force” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. She does wonder what they are doing here tho. In the downtown area, they are in right now, most police work is done by corporate security. In the end, they have the same privileges as police officers anyway.

Sophia looks around. “I didn’t see a sign, and the board computer didn’t detect a no-parking zone.

The officer shakes his head. “We are conducting a murder investigation, and we have a special team arriving soon, so we want the area in front of the hotel to be accessible by them.”

Sophia looks surprised, “What happened?”

“A local lowlife picked up a package at the hotel’s reception, and the moment he walked out, someone shot him.”

“Oh my. Is he ok?” Sophia asks.

“He died on the scene. Ma’am, please move your car.”

“I will.”

Sophia closes the window and commands the car to find a different parking spot.

“So,” Sophia says. “This makes sense. The original runner was killed, so your Mom delivered the package instead. That makes it easier right? We just have to hack the security camera in front of the building. And we can see who killed him. Perfect hook to investigate”

“Wait,” Lucas says. “Someone was murdered. Over that package. Maybe we should not poke the hornet nest.”

“This is my Mom we are talking about, Lucas,” Ellie yells at him.

“I know, Ellie, but she will be fine. maybe we should wait.”

Ellie scoffs, “My Mom is in the hospital. Do you expect me to just sit around and do nothing?”

Lucas is silent for a moment, then he exclaims “Actually, I do expect you to do nothing, yes.”

An awkward silence hangs in the van. Ellie’s blood is boiling. Does her boyfriend really expect her to just sit around? Wait. Wait for other people to handle this. How could he say that? Does he not care about her Mom or her feelings at all? What is he thinking? Then Ellie can’t bear the silence any longer and speaks up.

“If you don’t wanna help you can just leave,” Ellie yells a bit harder than she meant to.

Lucas sighs “Ellie please, I know you are upset about your Mom, but –”

Ellie snaps at him. “Yes, I am upset my Mom almost died. Do you even care? Do you care about my Mom. Or about me. No. You don’t. So if you don’t wanna help, nobody is forcing to, but don’t tell me I should do nothing.”

Lucas is taken aback. “Ellie, please, I love you, but –”

Ellie interrupts him. “Lucas, get out of the car. We are over.”

Lucas looks at her in horror. Then he picks up his bag and looks at his sister. “Come on, let’s go.”

Lucas jumps out of the car and Vicky follows suit. Vicky looks at Ellie in disgust. “You are a crazy bitch, you know that right.” Before Ellie could react, she slams the car door shut.

Sophia shakes her head. “He did care about you, you know.”

Ellie shakes her head, “Please, Sophia, can we not talk about this, I am not in the mood. And besides, we have a package to trace.”

Sophia shrugs. “Sure.”

Ellie gets out her phone. “Hmm, the security of the camera feed is horrendous. I can easily hack in.”

Ellie and Sophia watch the security feed for a while when they see a guy walking outside with a rather large package.

“Is this him?” Ellie asks.

“Maybe. Let’s continue watching.”

A woman in a black suit runs up to the man, shoots him in the face, grabs the package, and runs past him.

“What the hell, did someone just steal the package?” Sophia exclaims. “It is a pity we cannot see their face.”

Ellie shakes her head. “We don’t need to see the face, I would recognise her anywhere. That woman is my Mom.”