\u201cHow long do you think it\u2019ll be before they start lookin\u2019 for us?\u201d Sable asked. Cairo was driving, so Sable had her feet up on the dashboard and was eating Sour Punch Straws.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t expect that they will,\u201d Cairo said. \u201cAs long as they never find out we\u2019re working outside of the app, they should have no reason to think we haven\u2019t merely retired.\u201d<\/p>\n
They drove along for a while in relative silence, save for Sable\u2019s gooey chewing, the radio, and a beep every so often from the police radar detector, until Cairo\u2019s face shifted into a pensive frown.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrenchy could be a problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d Sable asked. She didn\u2019t look up from the candy straw she was peeling apart from the rest in their plastic tray.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt depends on what she knows. We don\u2019t know when she disappeared or where she fucked off to.\u201d Cairo considered the angles. \u201cIf she knows we took the money, she could report that it should be incoming.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWouldn\u2019 be in her interests though,\u201d Sable said. \u201cThat was her job. Means she\u2019d be responsible for making sure the money came in.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cLogically, yes, but she might report the score to explain why we didn\u2019t get the plates. If she does, she\u2019ll be on the hook for the money, but it\u2019ll also point the finger at us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShould probably check if the reviews are in then,\u201d Sable said. She reached down the floorboard to dig her phone out of her backpack purse. She flicked and swiped for a while, going through the newly pain-in-the-assened login procedure for the Hole-in-the-Wall app\u2019s secret backend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell you what, if we end up leavin\u2019, I ain\u2019t gonna miss this shit,\u201d Sable said. \u201cYou log in, and now they send a passcode in a text message and then you have to go back to the app and type \u2013 not paste! \u2013 but type the fuckin\u2019 combination in. And it\u2019s, like, twelve fuckin\u2019 digits, so you gotta go back and look at it three times before you can get the whole thing in. And then you gotta hope like hell you didn\u2019t mistype it or you\u2019ll be startin\u2019 all the way from the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cairo\u2019s face scrunched up in empathetic frustration. She hadn\u2019t tried to log in since the day of the bank robbery so she\u2019d yet to contend with the new two-factor authentication that the app had patched in yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cUgh, finally,\u201d Sable said. \u201cReviews, reviews\u2026 Nothing from Mitty, obviously. We should report him dead.\u201d Sable opened up his profile, tapped the Reporting Options button, and notified the app of his death. His profile photo reloaded with a black and white filter when Sable backed back out.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing from Frenchy yet either. Might as well rate each other up while we\u2019re in here,\u201d Sable said. \u201cHow did Cleo do? Five, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should at least take some points off for the utter mess I made in the lobby,\u201d Cairo demurred. She had tried to aim below the waist to minimize causalities, but there was only so much care you could take when you were shooting buckshot.<\/p>\n
\u201cPffft!\u201d Sable scoffed. \u201cI, for one, am happy to have less cops to deal with. And they started it anyway. They got exactly what they had comin\u2019 to \u2019em, endangerin\u2019 civvies like that. \u2018Sides,\u201d Sable said seriously, \u201cif this whole thing with Bijou doesn\u2019t pan out, we\u2019re gonna want our ratings as high as possible. Lemme have your phone so I can give myself a five.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cairo reached into the breast pocket of her jacket and handed her phone over. After a few moments of frustrated cussing, Sable said, \u201cThere. Fresh fives. What do you want to rate Frenchy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s wait on reviewing her. Since we don\u2019t know if she knows that we left with a score, we don\u2019t want to tip our hand or give her a reason to downrate us. We\u2019ll let her make the first move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sable shrugged. \u201cFine. What about our no-show driver? Hopscotch.\u201d Sable snorted at his codename. \u201cCan we review him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see why not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sable brought up his profile on Cairo\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuh,\u201d Sable said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d Cairo asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopscotch here\u2019s got almost a perfect rating. Four point nine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s impossible. That has to be a mistake,\u201d Cairo said. \u201cThere\u2019s no one way anyone has a rating that high. Especially not a guy who flakes on jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sable nibbled her lip. \u201cWhat if he didn\u2019t flake on the job?\u201d she proposed. \u201cWhat if somethin\u2019 happened to him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch as?\u201d Cairo scoffed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dunno. Car accident?\u201d Sable said. It\u2019d be the most obvious thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cA four-point-nine driver got in a car accident?\u201d Cairo reiterated to emphasize how absurd that was.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe mighta had to drive through Mississippi on his way, who knows?\u201d Sable shrugged. \u201cI just can\u2019t figure why a guy who had a score that good would fuck it up by not showin\u2019 up. It might not-a been deliberate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he thinks if his score is that good he can afford to ditch a job from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sable shook her head. \u201cNope. His reviews would say so if he was in the habit. Nothin\u2019 but recommendations. Pfft!\u201d Sable chuckled at one review in particular. \u201cWell, this guy thinks he\u2019s an asshole, but still said he\u2019s a great driver.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care how great he was on everyone else\u2019s job. He didn\u2019t show up to ours so he gets a zero from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, ma\u2019am,\u201d Sable said. She gave him the score and tapped the confirmation button. His rating went down to a 4.8. Sable set Cairo\u2019s phone in the cup holder and went back to her own phone to give Hopscotch a zero from her own account. There was a new email notification on the lock screen.<\/p>\n
Sable opened the email and read it. It was a scan of a hand-written letter from her old school friend, Desi. Sable used a mail forwarding service who would accept her mail and scan it just for Desi\u2019s letters.<\/p>\n
Sable frowned at the contents of the letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cBad news?\u201d Cairo asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cDesi says they started up some call center for a phone company and they\u2019re taking him off farmwork detail to work there instead. He ain\u2019t happy about it. And he\u2019s up for parole soon too.\u201d Sable exhaled and blew her bangs out of her face. \u201cGonna have to tell him not to get his hopes up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs the call center a pay raise at least?\u201d Cairo asked, trying to find a bright side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t pay inmates in Texas,\u201d Sable said. She leaned her head on the window and stared out, mood soured by the news.<\/p>\n
Cairo glanced over. That was no way to look when you were on your way to Las Vegas. Luckily, something to perk up Sable\u2019s mood was peeking over the horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook,\u201d Cairo said when it came fully into view.<\/p>\n
It was a simple blue sign with white letters.<\/p>\n
Welcome to Idaho<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not in Buttfuck, Montana anymore,\u201d Cairo said. \u201cNow we\u2019re in Buttfuck, Idaho!\u201d She checked the GPS. \u201cJust seven hundred and seventy-eight more miles before we\u2019re back to civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cHow long do you think it\u2019ll be before they start lookin\u2019 for us?\u201d Sable asked. Cairo was driving, so Sable had her feet up on the dashboard and was eating Sour Punch Straws. \u201cI don\u2019t expect that they will,\u201d Cairo said. \u201cAs long as they never find out we\u2019re working outside of the app, they should have no reason to think we haven\u2019t merely retired.\u201d They drove along for a while in relative silence, save for Sable\u2019s gooey chewing, the radio, and a beep every so often from the police radar detector, until Cairo\u2019s face shifted into a pensive frown. \u201cFrenchy could be a problem,\u201d she said. \u201cHow?\u201d Sable asked. She didn\u2019t look up from the candy straw she was peeling apart from the rest in their plastic tray. \u201cIt depends on what she knows. We don\u2019t know when she disappeared or where she fucked off to.\u201d Cairo considered the […]<\/p>\n