Salvation 2035

Chapter 16- Did You Miss me?

『Lindy』

      "How goes the search on your end?"

     "Alright, I guess," I shrug. "I heard a rumour from one of the girls back at the brothel that he came by a while ago so at least I got a lead. You?"

     "Nothing too much yet," Naomi frowns, "but I did connect with this kid named Abel who escaped from prison recently. Given the fact that there's word on the street saying that my little bro is out there they might know each other."

     "Abel, huh?" I take my feet off of the table and roll my chair over to a different monitor and begin to look through police records for someone with a similar name. "What's the last name on this dude?"

     "Palomo, I think," she replies.

     I pause for a moment, "that sounds weirdly familiar."

     "Well, the news doesn't report on escaped convicts since it reflects bad on the state so it couldn't be that," Naomi muses. "Anyways, I should probably try to contact him so I'll see you around?"

     "Yeah, tell me if you get something, and I'll try my best over here," with that, Naomi ends the video call. Where have I heard the name Palomo before? I feel like I should know this.

     I guess I should explain the obvious. Very clearly I'm not dead, I'm very much alive and well. I didn't OD; I've been clean ever since Tsuki left. It's just that everyone thought I was dopehead so I decided to use that to the best of my abilities. And I'm free as can be! Well, I still keep a low profile and all that, but not low enough for Naomi to find me, apparently. She's a cool chick, really, she is. Helped me destroy that darn tracking collar over a video chat despite the fact that she didn't even know me. I was just lucky enough to stumble into one of her fugitive tracking whatevers. She was probably hoping for someone else, though. I can't imagine what it's like for her to know what her little bro has gone through and not be able to do anything about it. I guess I know a little, but it's probably nothing compared to what torments her.

     Honestly, I thought we would've found him by now, but unfortunately, it isn't that easy. You see, it's relatively easy to find out who's been arrested but finding out where they are is another story. That sort of stuff is kept under multiple locks and keys. I thought I could narrow it down by looking for prisons owned byCromwell, but turns out we can't find that out either. Also, I hear that they're keeping prison inmate records in paper these days to keep it even more unreachable to the general public. The stigma surrounding having gone to prison is insane. The expectation is that if you go there, you're to be forgotten entirely. Now, under my religious beliefs, I can't kill anyone, but if a tragedy was to befall Cromwell I wouldn't be too upset. You know, if she was a dude she would have been outed years ago. It's just that people are a lot less suspicious of women. The best thing you can be when facing damning legal challenges is to be a woman. I swear, if she ever goes to trial she'll be absolutely fine, because she'll play some sort of victim game. I've never met a more disgusting person than her.

     I'd be lying if I wasn't worried about Tsuki. I mean, I know he's alive, but I'm pretty sure he's had the worst possible time anyone could ever have at prison. I'd be naive of me to assume people didn't do the same terrible things the Johns out here paid to do to him. It would be great if the inmates were all just regular folks who made little mistakes in the past and are just trying to live out their sentence and be on their way, but I'm sure that's not the case. When Tsuki decided to go to prison instead of being at the brothel, Cromwell stopped coming around so often. She was always so gross around him. She'd get all touchy around him and pretend to be kind when in reality all she was doing was manipulating his gullible preteen emotions. I'd always yell at her for doing that, but she'd say she was just trying to be nice or some bullshit like that. Yeah, I shouldn't swear, but it pisses me off. I'm pretty sure she was the one who drugged him up and took those explicit pictures of him. Again, I won't be the one to do it, but I won't be mad if she gets what's coming for her.