Sanctioned Scarcity

Yunak market was the city belt's bumping, thumping heart. Even with a government that kept everyone housed, fed and cared for, some people had more extravagant or illicit needs, and that's what they came here for. Between all kinds of culinary, fashion and carnal pleasures, one could get almost everything between the tents and ancient sandstone buildings of the Yunak. Even a week into the evacuation effort, its narrow pathways hardly left room to maneuver. 

Helen Ceres stepped out of the suspension railway car and the crowd parted before her like she was some sort of Moses' second coming. Her leather bomber jacket's collar covered the stars on her neck, but the way every single meta's eyes lingered on her for just a little too long told her that didn't fool anyone. 

"Clemens, clock out for a minute."

Yes, Helen.

A myriad of foods' combined smell made Helen's stomach growl, but there was no time for that. Walking down the alleys, she scanned the crowd. Found what she was searching for. Smiled. 

"Hey, kid. Any chance you could tell me where to find the boss man?" A scrawny girl on the corner between an oriental clothing shop and a brothel flinched. Until a second ago, she'd been hiding in her oversized flannel shirt, busy pretending not to notice Helen. Ironically, that was what set her apart. 

"What boss man?"

Helen had neither time nor patience for her, but used all of her willpower not to grimace. 

"Listen, I still remember how this goes. I can't pay you or you're a rat, I can't beat it out of you because he'll make a sneaky getaway in the meantime - besides, I really don't want to. But I promise he'll want to know what I have to say, Lily. Call it a business offer."

Lily's eyes widened at Helen calling her by her name. She tried very hard to suppress a tremor when she pointed to the left. "That way, then take a hard right after Demitri's and another left behind the purple hut."

"Thanks."

Before she turned the next corner, Helen looked back at her. She was frantically texting on her datapad. If things still worked like the had during her time, there was a solid fifty-fifty chance she was either informing her boss Helen was coming or mobilizing the thugs to intercept her in one of the side alleys. Or both. 

The route described by Lily led her past a shawarma place, then another. Helen's stomach screamed in protest, and the third one made her fold.

Roughly one in five stores were closed, some dusty gaps between the tents bore witness to the steady evacuation progress. Had Helen had more time, the sight might have made her sad. Luckily, she was on the clock. 

The 'purple' hut was a sad pile of second hand tapestries, the kind of store people ran to have something to do after retirement. The one without actual product to sell and a gun under the counter top. Some things never changed. Hopefully. 

Helen took a left and squeezed through a particularly tight passageway, careful not to drop her pita. The backyard on the other side had no openings other than a pair of low basement doors and a few barred windows too high to reach. An excellent spot for an ambush. Behind her, a chain rattled. 

Helen sighed and gulped down the last bite of her shawarma. The hot sauce burned just right. Then she turned, slowly. Three metas stared her down from the passage she'd just come from. One was holding a chain, the second one had a bat wrapped in barbed wire and the third, arms crossed, might have looked unarmed to the uninitiated eye. But his jacket bulged under his armpit; either an old-fashioned handgun or a taser. 

Bat and Chain fanned out to the sides while gun blocked the path. It was a good strategy. 

"Let's dance another time, fellas. I have no time for this crap."

Gun spat out. If Helen was informed correctly, his name was Taka. 

"This is our turf, Commander. You stay up in your high and mighty tower, we stay down here. No trouble. You always respected. Why the transgression?"

A vein on Helen's forehead started twitching. She hated nothing more than macho posturing.

"Not sure if you noticed, but there's a horde of Kaiju that will be here in less than a week who care much less about your personal space than me. So you take me to Scarce and we can all move on with our days, yeah?"

Helen clenched her left fist. Back in the day, she would have brought a pair of brass knuckles. Now she was a meter taller and a hundred kilos heavier, her own steel knuckles harder than any artificial crutch. 

If the thing in Taka's jacket wasn't an overclocked taser, there was nothing he could do to stop her if she wanted to simply go through him. Thirty years ago, Helen might just have done it. Now she couldn't afford a back yard brawl, but she would dance if she had to.

Taka's pocket chimed. Maybe a message from his boss, maybe from his boyfriend. He wouldn't know unless he checked, and the instant he moved to fish his pad out of his pocket Helen could close the distance before Chain and Bat could react. Sure, she might take a hit to the back and piss blood for a week, but there was no doubt about the outcome. 

His eyes locked with hers. The language of the lower parts was still the same, and Helen could see in his eyes he had done the savage maths of the situation same as her. Some things never changed. Very slowly, Taka raised his hand. 

"I'm gonna call the boss now. For that I'll have to reach in my pocket. Is that okay?"

Helen only unclenched her fist, which Taka took as the yes that it was. Agonizingly slowly, he pulled his datapad out. Tapped a contact. Held it in front of his mouth. In Helen's left, Bat was sweating profusely. The guy was fidgeting with the handle of his weapon, too nervous for his own good.

Taka's call got accepted. Someone on the other side said something she couldn't hear. Taka's shoulders dropped. There was a very subtle difference in body language between a person who was getting ready to draw a gun and a person just standing. Helen saw him go through the shift and relaxed. Which was why she didn't immediately lunge when Taka spoke.

"Get her-"

Unfortunately for him, Bat only had eyes for her and a very twitchy arm. So when he heard the beginning of Taka's response, he jumped to the wrong conclusions. 

Barbed wood swung towards Helen in a high arc. A sloppy attack by any measure, but hopeless against a trained combatant. Sparks flew as her back hand swatted the weapon out of the way. Then she extended her arm in a jab. Her palm hit Bat's chest and he staggered backwards, ungraciously smashing into the wooden door behind him. 

The whole thing took less than two seconds. When it was done, Helen's feet hadn't moved a bit. Neither had she broken eye contact with Taka. The guy blinked twice.

"-to Kabuto's. Sure thing."

They left Chain behind to take care of Bat while Taka guided her through the Yunak's labyrinth. 

Damien Scarce awaited her at a sushi kiosk that was tended to by a four-handed man with red skin who tried really hard to look away from her.

"Commander Ceres."

A fluid gesture both swept his hair back and showed her to a fresh plate of Temaki. The stool creaked as she sat. Showing off hadn't been particularly exhausting, but tension always burned calories like crazy. She let Scarce wait.

"So." She licked the last few grains of rice off her fingers. "We going to ignore that botched hit job just now, or am I getting an apology?"

The smuggler leaned back, giving her more space. In all likelihood, Lily had simply followed the protocol for what was supposed to happen if Helen sent a representative. The kid had overreacted, Taka had followed orders, probably before their boss had even had a chance to intervene - his orders on the phone had told her as much. But his reaction now would tell her more. Besides, it felt good to make him squirm a bit. She would have to bare her belly soon enough.

"I'm sorry, Commander. I hope you didn't take it personally, but I thought the sushi would be enough of a peace offering to get to business. I'm a busy man, and you even more so. What gives?"

Pragmatic. A minimum of formalities wrapped in a minimum of words. Helen found herself smiling.

"Believe me, I would have called if I had your contact."

Scarce scoffed and whipped his pad out of his carmine coat. He flipped her the data.

"Can I help you with anything else?"

Instead of an answer, Helen turned away from the kiosk. She made a vague, sweeping gesture toward the market. "Do you love this city, Scarce? And I mean really love it."

Scarce frowned. "I've grown to like it."

"No, growing to like something is really just slowly forgetting what you dislike about it. But it is the correct answer. The city has history, sure. I joke with my assistant sometimes, about becoming a tour guide when I become too old for field duty."

"Surely that day is still far, Commander. You're still young at heart." Scarce smirked.

Helen scoffed. "What's for sure is that I'm not getting any younger. And I know more about the city than I would like and sometimes need. Did you know that about fifty meters that way..", Helen pointed south, "there used to be an old MAK workshop, before they built the rings? They had to reinforce the street for transport. That's why Corey Lane gets so hot in the summer, there's alloy under the dirt they never removed."

Damien took a sip of his soda. "I knew about the alloy, but not why it's there. Remind me to book a tour when you set up shop. And now, Commander, your point?"

Not many people spoke to her like that any more. Helen found that verbal sparring with Damien Scarce scratched an itch she didn't know she still had. 

"The point is that I don't love the city, same as you. What I love is its people. I grew up here, over in Eastshore. We used to joke about going for a swim in the sea on Sundays, my siblings and me. The sea was only an hour away, if you ignored the walls. Of course, nobody ignored the walls. I went to school here, had my heart broken here and when I had one too many drinks at fifteen, the streets I threw up on were these very ones. I don't remember the street name, but I could still tell you the names of every single person I went out with that night. 

When I got tested and graduated the academy, they wanted me for the Vanguard, but I turned them down. The reason why I became a pilot was to protect the people of this city, my city. Every time I get into Emerald Golem, I do it for my people. And don't get me wrong, I love what I do. But I would have chosen a profession less dangerous if I had a choice."

"Now you're just waffling. I'll ask you again." Scarce placed his soda can on the counter and leaned forward, hands folded. "Respectfully, Commander. What the fuck is your point?"

"Right, let me cut to the chase. I love this city's people. And from what I hear, so do you. You get people what they need, but not just for a profit. You cut people off when they've had too much and you even actively hunt down the people who are trying to get the really dangerous shit in circulation. Thanks for that, by the way. Saved my Tailers a lot of work."

"Don't mention it." There was a lot less pressure in his voice now. Seemed like Helen had struck a nerve. Time for the closer.

"I have a complex problem and only uncomfortable solutions, Scarce. Coming here was the lesser evil."

"This concerns me? How?" Sarcasm dripped off his words,, but something in his eyes betrayed another emotion Helen couldn't quite identify.

"I need you to stop skimming off my shipments, both within the city and what's going out." 

"I have nothing to do with-"

"Sure you don't. Let me finish, Damien."

"We're on first name basis, Helen?"

He got her there, but she hoped her death glare didn't give it away.

"I need you to stop skimming them because I'm giving you full access to our logistics. Top level system clearance for everything regarding the coordination. No red tape, no administrative locks."

Even behind his shades Helen could see him blink. 

"You're going to have to repeat that, Commander. I'm afraid I didn't hear you right."

"Clemens?"

Yes, Helen?

"Authorise full relief coordination control access: Scarce, Damien Kim Long." 

She rattled down his chain code that she'd memorized on the railway and finished with her personal override. With every number, Scarce's eyes grew wider.

"There, it's done."

"May I ask what gives me the honor?"

Helen grimaced. "Well, the fact is this: I have a huge amount of logistic coordination to do and both very little time and very few people I can delegate this task to. You know what the people need and have the network to get it to them, but you also have to steal for it. Let us work together. Your methods are questionable, but you're a man who cares and there's people in need. Am I wrong?"

"I must admit that I'm dumbstruck, Commander. What will you do if I keep stealing, but this time with much easier access?"

"Well, in that case I'm hardly worse off than before. And every scenario where I have time to notice, I'm still alive. Which I would consider a win. So?"

With a swagger that showed no sign of nervousness, he extended a hand.

"You got yourself a deal, Helen."

Helen took his hand and shook it with a little too much pressure.

"Don't push it, Scarce. I have no doubt you will come out of this a richer man if we come out of it at all, but make no mistake: This is temporary. I trust in your conscience. Don't make me regret it, or I'll kick down your door and throw you out of my office window. I've been told it's a long way down."