"You are a Zeltron," the Handler said as if it was a revelation that even Koji himself had never known his entire life.
"Your species have a gift with people... I mean, you can feel emotions. And emotions are everything in the new role you are going to play. Wants are emotions, excitements are emotions, desires are emotions. All this is what we sell."
He paused to gauge whether the Zeltron was following.
"That is why your duty will be looking for new clients. That means your main time of operation is the mid cycle and late cycle."
Koji just stared at him dumbfounded
"Wait, can you at least speak in common language?" The old man looked at him as if that was common enough as far as he was concerned.
He, however, obliged.
"Ord Mantel does not operate with just plain day and night like most planets do. Here we have a low cycle, which is to say it is the time most people are hitting the climax of their sleep. But the day shift workers have not woken up yet.
There is not much population on the streets. Still, you will find night shift workers, dockrats, and industrial workers.
"But there is not much to be gained by pitching... then there is mid cycle, which will be your time. This is when most people are out in their labors. Streets are booming with populace. Enforcement is chaotic, and regulations are almost too impossible to impose due to the sheer number of activities going on simultaneously.
"This is your cover, and this is the time you pitch. Your work is never to sell the actual product. Your work is only to sell desire, curiosity, craving, want. Never the product."
"You never mention the price. You never mention the supplier. You never mention your affiliation. You never mention the route. You do not mention nothing."
"Let the buyer want. Let the buyer crave. When they come to you the first time, you turn them down. The second, you turn them down. The third time, it is only then that you can forward the name as a solid client."
Koji looked flabbergasted.
"Wait, could you say it again? So I go, I pitch to a client. What is pitching exactly? You are moving too fast, honestly. I have no idea what you are speaking about."
A cloud of frustration and exhaustion fell on the man. It seemed to occur to him that these were not the seasoned runners he usually briefed. He was talking to complete noobs.
He, however, seemed to resign to the fact that he had his instructions, and these ones had come from the highest man in this syndicate.
He took a deep breath and faced us.
"How do you find a client? You must have realized by now. I am assuming you were dockrats on the lower level. The crates you were moving. What do you think they carried?"
We kept quiet.
I do not know about Koji. Maybe he did not know, but I knew it was spices. But you never really said what a crate carried. There was a rule down there that you were not supposed to know what a crate carried. And even if you did, you were not supposed to say. That detail, however, did not seem to matter to this man.
But I did not want to take that risk. Let him say it if he wanted to.
"Spices. Those are cold stock spices. Now, of course, you do not expect those crates to use them, do you? Someone has to get those spices sold. And that someone is you," he said, looking at Koji.
"You have a skill set that, if utilized well, can aid you in that. But if you are too eagerly manipulated, you might be disappeared. Or stolen to another syndicate and start a syndicate war."
He let that sink in.
"Pitching is how you find those clients. Take this example."
The man got up again .
"I have a spice, and I walk into a cantina. A few industrial workers are seated, sipping down their different drinks. I spot one of them Pull out a sachet. Using spices openly is not a problem. Selling them is. So these new workers, one of them pulls out a sachet and pours something into his hands before sniffing it or putting it under his tongue. The reaction that follows is a crisis of disappointment.
"Lack of satisfaction. Or for you as a Zeltron, you might feel the frustration. They want more. They crave better. They do not speak it, but they stash back their sachet.
Now what do I do? I give it a couple of minutes and I equally pull out my sachet. Casually, never making eye contact with them. I pour mine. And sniff, or put it under the tongue. But instead of falling to that disappointed, frustrated look, I go into ecstasy. The magic of the spice takes over.
"My face brightens. A smile broadens. And I become charming, active, happy. I have not spoken one word. I have not made eye contact. That is silent pitching."
The Handler scanned our faces before resuming his seat.
"Nine out of ten instances, a genuine client, and most dock workers and industrial workers are, will approach you.
"They will want to know, what do you have that they do not? This is where you turn them down the first time, the second time. Only the third time, when you have established solid desire, is when you forward the name"
"That is called pitching. Silent pitching. All the while, you must observe the laws I have just said. Never mention the price or promise the supply of the spice. You cannot fulfill either of those."
"Never say who your supplier is. Or your affiliation. Or that, in fact, you are a runner. You should be just like normal workers. Never mention your route either."
Koji spread his hands hopelessly.
"You pitch. Your work ends there. Selling and delivering....That is where he comes in."
I was silent for a while. I had been following Koji's new job description keenly that I had almost forgotten that we were in the same boat.
"You," the Handler said, turning to me.
"While the Zeltron makes contact with clients, you do not."
I waited for him to elaborate.
"We deal in spices. Mostly, spices are cold cargo. And our mode of delivering cold cargo is dead drops. In Dead drops You do not meet the client. The client does not meet you. We use dead drop zones and zone markers.
"You will be given a location. You will go there and when you arrive at the dead drop zone, you drop your cargo. You use the designated marker. And you get out of that zone.
"If it is agreed upon that the buyer will leave payment, you will collect.If it is not agreed upon, we have other means of acquiring the payment, which then will not be your duty. At that point, your duty will have been fulfilled."
"What is cold cargo?" I asked, even though I had a very good idea of what it was.
It was better to play dumb. Pretending to know too much here was never a safe thing.
"Cold cargo is cargo that is not contended. There is no contention about its ownership. The opposite is hot cargo. But you do not have to worry about that. We use fixers to deal with hot cargo. That is beyond your package."
I nodded, though I still had more questions.
"So will I be mainly dealing with spices?"
"You will deal with cargo. You do not ask what I am dealing with. You get your cargo. You deliver. No questions asked. You do not open. You do not get curious. Similarly, if there is cargo at the dead drop zone, you take it, you bring it, you do not open."
His eyes pierced at me
"I do not need to clarify what happens to those who do the opposite of what you are told. Sometimes the fate is worse than you saw today."
'Well, you got your message through, man. No need to try and scare us,' I thought to myself.
"Each of you will receive a hundred credits every morning.. Sometimes more. That is your daily operational lump sum, your budget.
"Client finder. That is how you access cantinas, dockrats, food canteens. That is how you access entertainment spillovers. You must never use more than that. Mostly, you, Zeltron, will never have more than that.That is why I told you, you should never pay. Shadow tax. Shadow tax eats on your budget.
"As for you, you are the dead drop delivery runner. Sometimes you might need to cross into zones. Still, you must also never pay shadow tax. Because shadow tax..."
"Wait, but you said I might need to cross into other zones. Before, you said we should never cross them."
The man went on, unbothered.
"I teach you rules. But often we must break rules. I hope you never have to, but the client might be in a rival zone. Or your dead drop might be. Still, we must get the cargo delivered and bring the money back. That is why you need to be street smart."
For fuck sake, this was shaping up to be a death cage.
"In whichever case, you should never pay a shadow tax, because that means you will have been burned. Paying a shadow tax will only confirm it. And the result may be worse. You might be disappeared. Or they might take the shadow tax every time.
Since you have been burned already, every time you cross that zone, you will be obligated to pay. And I do not need to explain what paying means. More debts. More trouble."
"The key here is to blend. If you have to cross, blend. Your time of operation will vary. But mostly, since you will be dealing with drops in entertainment spillovers and pleasure hubs, your main working period will be during the late cycle."
He did not wait for me to ask for clarification this time.
"This is the time people have disappeared into cantinas, pleasure houses,Casinos and entertainment hubs."
"This is the high time we deliver most cargo drops."
"Now remember what I told you. These maps are your lifeline. You have only three days to internalize them and have them at the back of your head.
"There will be nobody to call upon. You get lost, you are dead, in both the literal and figurative sense of the word. The same map will be installed in your new quarters.
"I would spend my whole night reading them if I were you. Tomorrow, we initiate each of you to your individual roles."