A/N: This chapter is the shortest one yet. Uh... oops. Next one is longer.

Escape into the eerie night
In the dark I’m out of sight
Shadows on the alley wall
Are dancing like a lovers brawl

North south east and west
Foreign land is right and left
Don’t let them see you cry
I didn’t know which way was home
Ten degrees without a coat
Don’t let them see you cry
The Hush Sound, 'City Traffic Puzzle'

10/07/02

4:43 PM

"All right... it was the zeta quadrant, wasn't it?" Mira said, frowning, as she surveyed the half-empty sheet of paper.

XR nodded, propping his helmet in the palm of one hand. He glanced down at the digital watch built into his arm. He had fifteen more minutes before he got off work.

He closed his eyes. Man, this stupid delivery job was killing him. He'd been working his butt off all weekend. Oh, well, pretty soon here he'd have enough money to be comfortable quitting.

"XR?"

"Yeah, what?" he said.

Mira tilted her head to the side, furrowing her slender eyebrows and pursing her ruby red lips. Golly, she was pretty.

"You look kinda tired," she said. "Something wrong?"

"No, no," he said, shaking his head.

"Okay," she said, though she didn't sound like she believed it. He pressed his cheek against the inside of his helmet.

The cool glass felt good against his face.

He closed his eyes, listening to the hum of his own engine. It was oddly comforting.

"Zeta quadrant..." she mumbled. "Yeah. Okay."

She wrote in silence for a few minutes, then the eraser went to her lips and her eyebrows furrowed thoughtfully.

"XR, how do you spell 'terillium'?" He should know, he was made of it- though granted there were particularly dimwitted humans who couldn't spell 'flesh'. "Two Ls, right?"

There was no answer.

"XR?" Mira asked, looking over her shoulder. She blinked, then frowned slightly.

XR was sitting perfectly still, slumped over the table with his face pressed against the inside of his helmet and his eyes closed. He was making a low, even humming noise from somewhere in his chest.

Mira reached out to lightly touch his shoulder, biting her lip. "Are- are you asleep?" she said cautiously.

No answer.

Mira frowned. Normally, her reaction would be extreme irritation, but he'd seemed so under the weather lately she could only muster up a few little twinges of annoyance.

She sighed and wrestled with herself for a moment. Did robots even benefit from sleep? Well... it wasn't like he'd been helping much anyway. She'd just finish this report, first, then wake him up.

Nodding, she touched the tip of her pencil to the paper and continued to write. Finishing the report, she started on another one.

5:05 PM

Mira got up from the table, stretching her muscles. She reached out and took her teammate by the shoulder, shaking him gently.

"Hey, pencil head," she said playfully.

XR shuddered and looked up. It was weird how groggy he could manage to look without even having real eyes.

"Ohuh?"

"I just did all the reports myself, you're welcome," she said, scooping up all the papers.

He yawned (Mira had gotten used to him yawning by now and didn't bother wondering how that was supposed to work) and looked at a digital clock on his arm. He gasped.

"What?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing," he said quickly, standing up. "Uh, I have to, y'know, go."

She frowned. "You okay?"

"Uh, who, me? Fine," he said, hurriedly gathering up the pen and paper he'd been using. "I, uh- I have to meet someone."

Oh, of course. Mira raised an eyebrow. "Patty?"

He gave her a hunted glance over his shoulder. "Eh? Oh. Yep, her. Meetin' her at Cosmo's."

"Well, all right," she said, but the worry-crease on her forehead didn't go away as he scurried out of the room.

10:56 PM

Tradeworld at night was dark and chilly, with a clingy mist that condensed on his back and dripped off his hips like a cold sweat.

XR shuddered, hugging the package to his chest. This job got old fast. The late nights, the dubious clientele, the heavy packages... also he didn't like being a delivery boy. It gave him a weird, phantom ache in his chest where his AFD used to be.

He was almost there. Phew. He sped up a little.

He was approaching a seedy, dirty crapshack of a house. XR swallowed and slowed down again.

See, this was where they had him go every time. Crappy, dirty, broken-down places like this. It made him nervous.

The people who lived there were always scumbags, too. Ugh.

He was on the front step now. He gnawed his lip and knocked on the door. There was a shuffling noise from inside.

XR tapped his foot rapidly, grimacing. Ugh, this job was the pits.

"Comin'," a gruff voice said from inside.

XR froze. That sounded familiar. No, no, it couldn't be. Nooo.

The door creaked open and XR's jaw dropped.

Torque raised one half of his unibrow at him. "What d'you think you're doin, tiny? Is this some half-baked attempt at a bust?"

XR found himself in a bit of a moral quandary. Giving something to a known criminal without taking action wouldn't look good on his record. However, taking said action without backup could get him killed.

He found himself unable to move.

Torque's eye-cluster (frog eggs, he thought randomly) narrowed at him.

"What's the matter, chips for brains? Your CPU froze?"

XR believed it had, actually.

Okay, so I have a choice between professional and literal suicide. Hmm-mmm.

He could give him the package and walk away, then give the address to Buzz and come back tomorrow to arrest Torque. But then of course he'd want to know where XR got the address and all kinda of nasty things would come out and he'd already had to be given a pay cut over his gambling- was firing next? What would he do if he was fired? His whole life would be in the toilet-

what if you don't get caught

"Hey! Slowbot!" Torque said, snapping his fingers.

"Eh? Uhhh..."

"What's in the box?" he demanded.

XR looked down at the box. He realized he was trembling.

"Oh, I- I don't know," he said. Then he heard the hum of a laser and looked up to see an impressively-sized gun pointed in his face.

"Don't shoot!" he cried, involuntarily throwing his hands up in the air. The package fell to the ground.

"Give me one good reason," Torque growled.

"Marian sent me!" he said. His voice sounded high and frantic to his own ears, and surprisingly young.

Torque's frog-egg eyes widened and he said "Marian sent a space ranger?"

XR tried to stammer out an answer but his teeth were clacking together too much. Also, he wasn't quite sure what he'd wanted to say in the first place.

"Out," Torque growled. "Now. And if I see any ranger hide because of you there won't be enough left of your fancy gizmo guts to fill the end of a toothpick."

XR didn't have to be told twice. He turned tail and ran for- he wasn't sure later how long or far, just that he wound up hugging a lamppost, somehow.

Well, its solid pole felt good against his shivering body and he pressed his cheek against the inside of his helmet. It felt solid too, and the glass was cool against his face.

Sweet mother of Venus, how many of the other people he'd delivered packages to were criminals? That guy that wouldn't take the package, the one who'd paid him not to give out his address- everyone who'd threatened him with a gun- okay, they were probably all criminals.

He was still shaking. His teeth had stopped chattering but now his lips were quivering and he clung tighter to the lamppost (he hadn't quite realized how stupid he looked yet). He felt like he might burst into tears (it was just kind of a good blanket response, a nice display of self-pity could be strangely comforting) but he had enough presence of mind to not want to cry on Tradeworld around all the thugs and murderers, he looked pathetic enough already.

Now what?

End his dealings with Marian, obviously. He'd already known the guy was poison. And if it stopped now, he wouldn't have to tell Buzz.

Yeah. He could give the names and addresses of all the guys he'd gotten assigned to to Buzz and say they were anonymous tips (or better yet, give them as anonymous tips!) and no one would be mad. And he would have done that Right Thing that Buzz was always yammering about with capital letters.

...of course, the real 'Right Thing' would be to admit to the business deal he'd made but... but...

He peeled himself away from the pole, pressing his lips together to stop them quivering. Yeah. Anonymous. It'd all be fine. Just fine.

He'd go to Marian and break off this gig right now.

11:12 PM

The familiar alleyway looked somehow even more threatening than usual. Maybe because he knew he was probably going to make Marian and his thugs pretty unhappy when he got inside... but that was stupid, right? They wouldn't get that mad over him wanting to quit, right?

They wouldn't hurt him, would they?

Pushing back these thoughts, XR glanced over each shoulder, gnawing his lip, then he reached up and rapped on the door. It opened about partway, there was one of those chain things stretched across the interior.

A big, angry eye glared back at him. XR's eyes widened slightly and he trembled.

"What do you want?" the guy rumbled. "Another package?"

"I wanna see your boss," XR blurted out.

He paused for a minute, then growled "You don't have an appointment."

"Yeah, but it's important," he said, wringing his hands. "I tried to call but no one answered."

"Everyone's busy," he said.

He began to slam the door. XR stuck his hand in the frame out of impulse. He yelped.

The stupid thug ground his hand in the door instead of opening it and he had to yank it away, whimpering. Tears welled up in his eyes and he cradled his dented fingers to his chest.

"Now, was that really necessary?" he cried. The closed door didn't answer. "I mean, really! Come on!"

He dropped his gaze to the dirty cement. Okay, now what?