Rust

This sucks.

I almost shut the connection right there, but I realize there's no other way out of this.

I'm running out of time.

If I don't get this procedure, it's all over.

Painful as it may be revisiting all these bad memories, I have to plow through.

Mabel, as it turns out, died a few years back.

No details about that, but it says she had three children.

One of them, Zoe, moved out of Estrada and disappeared off the grid.

Possibly went off-world.

I have no way of tracking her down.

The other two, however...

They're listed in Dockerton, and since I have another package to pick up down that way, I figure I might as well check in while I'm there.

Alright, let's do this.

At the opposite end of Estrada, back down in Dockerton, it's a different world.

The air is thick with smog that never goes away, and the streets crowded with all sorts.

Pump workers making their way home from the late shift, thugs loitering and looking to start trouble.

Hookers with cheap body enhancements prowling for clients.

The homeless.

It's not the kind of place you wander alone, unless you can handle yourself.

And most of these lowlifes know my face.