Contraband

“Boss?”

Lenny jolted back to the present, uncomfortable as it was. He glanced over his shoulder at Jules. It was the kid’s first job, and already he got the feeling it’d twisted south.

He straightened behind the steering wheel, hiding a grimace as he dabbed at his forehead.

Ahead of them, traffic crawled painstakingly to the checking booth. Lenny leant to one side, glimpsing the visored face of a Detector. Only five cars between them.

“You all right, boss?” said Jules.

“Yeah, yeah, bad coffee,” muttered Lenny, still desperate to posture as the grizzled veteran runner. Thing was, he’d gotten grizzled by listening to his instinct. Right now, that instinct screamed at him to ditch the contraband before the Detector appeared at their window.

“You don’t look so good, boss.”

“You just worry about yourself, kid,” barked Lenny, and Jules dropped back into his seat.

A suitcase full of forged documents rested in the seat beside Lenny. The more he glanced at the case, the more Lenny was convinced the Detector would see right through his ruse.

The cars rolled forward. Sky the colour of rotten fruit shone with the bruised light of evening. The desolation of the Plains stretched ahead, the cramped sprawl of Glass Town behind. Just like Lenny’s life: nothing ahead of him, a mess he’d rather forget behind him.

His glasses slid down his nose. The car inched closer to the checking booth. Now, Lenny had a clear view of the Detector stooping to inspect the vehicle at the booth.

“What do you think’s in the package, boss?” asked Jules.

“I don’t ask,” said Lenny. “That’s what you’ll need to learn. When Mr Ridley gives you something to take into the Plains, you don’t ask. You get the location, the time. You plan around that.”

“You don’t get curious?”

Lenny scowled at the bright-eyed, scrawny kid in the back. Jules wasn’t cut for this life, and he could tell. Greed drove people to a runner’s life. It often took them from it too. But Lenny had kept a plan – this would be his last gig. He’d make a new life, away from Glass Town, as soon as this exchange was done.

Maybe that was why he felt so rickety.

“Taking some time, ain’t they?” said Jules, propping himself between the front seats.

As he spoke, the Detector wrenched open the door of the car it was inspecting. Lenny’s hands clenched on the steering wheel. Jules swore.

The Detector hauled a struggling man from the driver’s seat in seconds. Lenny’s breath stopped. The man flailed wildly in the Detector’s gauntlets, stray blows bouncing from the thing’s armoured skin. It just watched through its black visor, unflinching.

Two Agents of Order trotted out to drag the man away. He twisted free and ran, heading back towards Glass Town. Lenny shook his head at the stupidity.

The man reached their car, then careened drunkenly. He stumbled a few more steps. Eyes misting, he collapsed in the baked dirt, a tiny black dart in the back of his neck.

“Is he dead?” said Jules.

“No.” Lenny’s spine crawled.

The Detector strode over to the fallen man, holstering its dart-gun. Meanwhile, the two Agents of Order moved the car out of the road. The Detector heaved the man onto its shoulders, carrying him back to the booth and throwing him down inside. It stalked out to inspect the next car in the queue as if nothing had happened.

“We should ditch the package, boss!” hissed Jules.

“You go if you want,” said Lenny, making up his mind. “I’m getting this deal done and getting out of Glass Town for good.”

Jules sneered. “No one leaves Glass Town for good. And I ain’t letting you scare me off.”

Lenny inched the car forward. There were two cars between them and the booth.

“Ridley won’t be happy with you ditching us, boss.”

“I don’t care,” said Lenny. “I’m sick of this.”

Now only one car remained between them and the booth. Lenny swallowed another impulse to rip his seat up, exhume the contraband, and fling it from the window. But it was too late for second thoughts.

Jules drummed his feet on the floor, humming to himself. Lenny reclined back in his chair.

“Don’t act nervous, kid,” he said.

“Heh, I ain’t nervous, boss. Not me. Not Jules.”

Lenny cursed Ridley for saddling him with this new-blood rookie. If Jules cracked here, all his years of planning for retirement would mean squat. His last days would be spent in the custody of the Detector, and he’d heard enough stories to want to avoid that.

The car in front spluttered off into the Plains. Lenny froze, hands bony around the wheel, as the Detector’s head swivelled his way.

“Boss?”

Lenny growled, easing the car forward. His heart lurched into his throat as he pressed the window down, eyeing the blighted wasteland ahead.

“Are you in possession of any artifacts from before the Fall?” came the Detector’s scratchy voice. It lowered itself to peer through the window at them. “You must declare any artifacts and submit to questioning.”

Lenny cleared his throat. “No, no artifacts.”

The Detector turned its eyeless gaze on Jules. Lenny leant back casually, one hand going to the suitcase beside him.

“What is your reason for leaving Glass Town?” rasped the Detector.

Lenny had heard they could perceive the subtlest change in someone’s emotions. He’d heard they could smell the scent of the world before the Fall on artifacts from miles away. He struggled to keep his heart from racing.

“My friend in the back is part of a program for first-time peace-breakers,” said Lenny. “My job is to show him the Plains, show him what happens when people break the peace.” His eyes drifted to the radiation-blasted desert. “Got to put the fear in them early.”

The Detector stayed silent. Lenny became convinced it had seen through his lie. It knew about the contraband.

“Proceed,” it said, handing Lenny a twenty-four hour permit to leave Glass Town.

Lenny gave a wobbly smile, accelerating as soon as the barrier raised. Jules flopped back in his chair with a sigh. Relief flooded Lenny’s body. He’d done it. His final job was as good as done.

The car shot out across the Glass Town border, wheels crunching over dust and rock. Within a half-hour, the heat became sweltering.

Lenny checked the mirror, finding Glass Town nothing but a wavering mirage in the distance. He veered to the side, letting another car rocket past. Most people only left Glass Town on a pilgrimage to the sea. Either that or they worked as Agents of Order, patrolling the Plains.

“Let’s stop for a bit,” said Jules.

With no road to follow, Lenny stopped only a moment later. Out in the wasteland, nothing moved, nothing lived. So the Agents of Order said. Lenny had been running contraband out here long enough to realise their lies.

“Look around, boss,” said Jules, as they climbed out into the heat. The sun had almost disappeared now, but cold was some way off. “You can’t really want to spend the rest of your life out in this?”

Lenny leant against the car, exhausted. “There’s more to the Plains than you’d think.”

Jules snickered. “At least let’s see what it is we’re moving out here – your last run.”

“I told you, I don’t-” Lenny stopped as Jules pulled a small pistol from his jacket pocket. He rolled his eyes. “This is no time for joking around, kid.”

“Ain’t no joke, boss,” said Jules. “I see it this way. You’ve lost your nerve for running. I’m just getting started. I tell Ridley you tried ditching the stuff, I had to do something heroic, and Ridley gets me jobs where I don’t have to split the rewards.” He smirked. “Get the package.”

Lenny leant into the car, yanking up his seat. The small parcel he’d been told to deliver was taped underneath. He tore it free, weighing it in one hand. Sighing, he let Jules snatch it.

The younger man ripped the bag open, holding up a heart-shaped locket on a silver chain. His smile dissolved.

“What’s this?”

“An artifact,” muttered Lenny. “Put it back, and we can still get-”

Jules tossed the locket down in disgust, pointing his gun at Lenny. “Stuff like that’s as good as worthless! Where’s the real package, boss?”

“You’re being difficult,” said Lenny.

Jules stomped over to him, swinging the gun. Lenny moved quick, ducking the blow, punching Jules hard in the throat. Choking, the younger man sank to his knees. Lenny dashed to scoop up the locket, kicked Jules aside on his way back, and leapt into the car.

He stamped the accelerator just as Jules scrambled for his pistol. Bullets whined past like angry hornets, but soon Jules was lost to the Plains. Lenny kept driving.

The exchange point was marked by a boulder the colour of old blood. Lenny stopped the car, and got out to wait. He popped an anti-radiation pill as he leant against the rock, though he was certain they were only placebos.

Scratching by his feet announced the arrival of the buyer. A circle of blasted ochre ground lifted up, and a small man stepped up from a ladder.

“Last job?” asked the man.

Lenny nodded. “My partner got carried away.” He held out the locket. “Hope this is in good enough condition.”

The stranger frowned at the locket. “It’s not about the condition, friend.”

He pressed a switch on the side, and the locket snapped open. Delicately, he extracted a tiny seed from inside, pinching it between two fingers.

“It’ll grow?” said Lenny.

“Down here it will,” said the stranger. “Nowhere else.”

Lenny lingered between the car and the hole in the ground. He’d often pondered what it would be like in the city beneath the Plains.

“You’re welcome to join us, friend,” said the stranger, tucking the seed back inside the silver heart. “You’ve helped our gardens grow as much as any of us over the years.”

Lenny looked back towards Glass Town – a shimmering speck on the horizon. His life there was done.

“I’d like that, friend,” said Lenny, and he followed the man down into the city beneath the Plains.