The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 58

Ellie and Sameh got out of the SUV, and walked over to the militia compound’s gate. There was no obvious buzzer or bell, so Ellie just thumped on the gate itself a few times, so it rattled as she banged.

Because there was no buzzer, she assumed she was being watched already. The militia were trying to be discouraging, to make casual visitors go away, but they would have to be watching, to see who was outside. Ellie couldn’t see the camera, but it must be there, and the camera being hidden was a good thing. A hidden camera ought to have poorer resolution than a more obvious one, and was probably somewhere up high too, on top the fence. A high-mounted low-res camera might not give a good enough image for the people inside to see Ellie and Sameh clearly, and to see they were wearing tactical armor under their clothes.

That was a piece of good luck.

“Hey,” Ellie shouted, and rattled the gate again. If it had any kind of remote lock on it, then shaking it like that would be setting off alarms inside, at the control panel.

She rattled, and called out, and looked around, trying to seem impatient.

After a moment, an intercom buzzed off to her left. Ellie looked, and saw it, screwed and also taped to one of the gateposts. It was dusty. She hadn’t noticed until then because of the dust.

“Hey,” she said, and leaned towards it slightly. “Is John here?”

“What do you want?” a voice said, from the intercom.

The voice was a man, and sounded American. That was all Ellie could tell. The sound was flat and scratchy. The intercom wasn’t very high quality, which was also good. It implied the camera wouldn’t be either.

“I want John,” Ellie said, glad that she’d picked a common name, and had guessed correctly. At least, she assumed she’d guessed correctly, since the man inside wasn’t telling her there were no Johns there.

“Who are you?” the voice said.

“It’s business. Could you go get him, please?”

“Why?”

“Business.”

“What kind of business?”

“Um, not yours unless you’re John.”

A pause. Someone inside was thinking, or getting instructions from a supervisor.

Ellie thumped the gate, and rattled it a little more. “Come on,” she shouted.

“Wait,” the voice on the intercom said.

“I’m in a hurry.”

“Just wait.”

Ellie shrugged, shrugged obviously, overdoing it, and then just stood there. She looked around. She waited, as she’d been told to do.

The intercom buzzed again, and then the voice said, “Someone will come down to you.”

“No way,” Ellie said. “Let me in.”

Being met out here wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to get inside their perimeter, not be stuck out here, exposed to their fire, with only an expendable hostage to negotiate with. Expendable, because they were sending that person out in the first place, so they didn’t care about them very much.

“Stay there,” the voice said.

“Not a chance,” Ellie said, thinking quickly. “I’m not doing this here, on the side of the road, where anyone can see.”

“Doing what?” the voice said.

“Business,” Ellie said sharply. “Which isn’t yours. Go get John.”

“I’m John.”

There had been a hesitation. Enough of a hesitation Ellie guessed it was a lie.

“Bullshit,” she said. “Let me in.”

“Not until you say why you’re here.”

Ellie thought for a moment, then took a risk. She turned around, and reached for the bag Sameh was holding, the bag with the submachine guns.