Payoff

“You threw it away?!” I shouted at her once we got back to our hotel room.

“You don’t understand…” Ekko tried to defend herself, but I really wasn’t onboard with whatever was going on in her head. “It was either that, or they would have found me carrying it out.”

“But now we’ll never find it again,” I argued. “What are we supposed to do now, check the dump?”

Ekko laid down on her bed and put her hands over her face. She said something, but I couldn't hear it through her hands.

“What?”

“Not the dump…but a dumpster.”

“A dumpster?” Ko questioned. “Do you mean, ‘that dumpster?’”

Ekko nodded.

I couldn’t even imagine what they were getting at. Was there some dumpster that the scanner device would end up in?

Apparently, that’s exactly what happened. Because the next morning before we headed back to base, Ekko took us to a back alley in the city.

We’d passed by this place a few times a week heading to school, but I’d never seen it from this angle. Probably because I’d always kept my eyes forward while walking down the street.

Just in case we were spotted by anyone still taking their pills, we had our Guardians of the Soul disguises on, including the masks.

“I’ll keep watch from above,” Ko said as she bolted up a fire escape and kept an eye on the street from above.

As for Ekko and I, we both found ourselves heading right for a dumpster full of recently discarded items.

Just around the corner of the dumpster was a very old man. His clothes were torn in several places, not to mention very dirty. His hair and beard were longer and more unkempt than I’d ever seen on a man. I would have thought he was a modern caveman if I didn't know bums people existed.

“Woah…” he raised his hands in a disarming way. “More a’ you guys? Heh! I like the masks.”

“Old man, it’s me.” Ekko removed her mask.

“Hey-kko!” the old man clapped his hands. “It’s been a while. How have you been?”

Ekko caught the man up on our adventures since last they met, even introducing me as her husband.

“Oh, so you’re the lucky man who…wait…husband?” his brow raised toward Ekko, very curious about this development. “You two already tied the knot?”

“Er…” Ekko blushed. “Well, we were both in love…isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”

He gave it some thought, eventually concluding that given the circumstances, there really wasn’t much else we could have done.

“Not like you two are gonna’ find a better match for each other,” he laughed, slapping his knee. “Anyways, I’m assuming you didn’t just come here to say hi.”

“Aww, come on, old man…” Ekko rubbed her arm, turning to the dumpster. “I mean, you're not wrong, but don’t sell me so short.”

“I’m just kidding around.” He waved his hand at her. “So, what are ya’ here looking for?”

Ekko briefly explained that there was a card reading item that may have been in the dumpster, not telling him any more info then he needed to know.

Immediately the old man started digging through the trash and pulled out a big bag of junk.

“They just dropped this crap off this morning.” he threw it down and opened it up, letting the trash scatter over the ground. “Don’t worry about the mess. Just find what you need.”

Ekko and I started digging through the stuff.

“Come on…come on…come on…” Ekko kept chanting.

While we were looking through the pile, the old man checked the dumpster again for any other bags.

“Got another bag for ya’!” He scattered another pile of junk and let us dig through it.

After a few minutes of digging, neither of these piles had what we were looking for.

“No…” Ekko leaned against the wall. “Are there any more bags?” Ekko asked.

“Mmm…” he double checked. “Not that I can see.”

“Crap…” Ekko shook her head. “Old man, are there any other dumpsters out there?”

“Well, yeah, but I wouldn't know what gets thrown in them. Have you tried the dump?”

“So, I wasn’t wrong,” I shook my head. “We need to check there.”

The old man had some words of wisdom to offer us. “Maybe they haven’t dropped off the last bag of the day yet. They usually come after 7 on days like this, especially if there’s a lot of trash.”

That was our only hope. Unless of course, we wanted to explore the dump. But that place was pretty closely guarded, so getting there would be a lot of work.

“You kids come back around 7. We’ll see if what you're looking for is here by then.”

***

We returned a few hours later, the old man wasn’t here, but there definitely were new bags.

With haste, we started piling up the trash and digging through it all.

“I’d hate to do this for a living,” I joked.

“Let’s just pray the scanner’s here so we don't have to do it again.”

Another hour of digging went by, but nothing turned up.

“Oh God, we're in so much trouble…” Ekko covered her face with her hands and cried. “I can’t believe we couldn’t find it.”

My mind was already thinking up ways we might be able to salvage this mission. For instance, we knew who the guy we met was, so we might be able to get in contact with him again and get his info again.

Just then, the old man returned to his spot carrying a big sack of trash.

“Ho ho ho!” he announced. “I bear gifts for good little boys and girls!”

He laid the trash out in a pile.

“There it is!” Ekko cheered, grabbing it, but quickly regretted her eagerness, since it was covered in something slimy. “Yuck…” she waved her hand to get that gunk off.

“Old guy, where’d you find this?” I asked.

“A buddy down south found a few piles of trash out in the countryside. He said they dropped it off this morning. I made a few trades with him and he let me take all this stuff, even that card reader a’ yours.”

Ekko hugged the old guy, then started crying.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” she sobbed.

“Eh…don’t worry about it.” He accepted her hug. “Just promise you guys won’t get into any more trouble then you need to. Okay?”

There wasn’t any doubt we’d be getting in trouble sooner or later given our jobs, but we did have a lot of reasons to stay alive. So we both agreed to keep going, but avoid unnecessary danger along the way.

Well, we got what we came for, thank God. Now it was time to head back to base. Ekko asked the old guy if he wanted to come back with us, but he said he'd be more useful up here if we needed help.