Quick note: I'm imagining that in the tech heavy world of Cowboy Bebop, paper trails would be harder to follow than online trails, because they don't leave a trace beyond their physical presence. They are also easier to destroy more permanently unless someone gets their hands on the paper directly.
Session Eight
Ed had a decidedly unusual walk. It was something lanky and long, all limbs and a liquid grace Leon hadn't thought possible in a human. He was pretty sure Ed could melt into a human puddle if she decided to. The soft clap of her shoes against the pavement surprised him. He'd half expected her to wander through town barefoot, like she did on the Bebop. After landing on Venus, she and Leon were sent to do some low-level reconnaissance in town while Jet and Faye stocked up on supplies for their stay here.Leon and Ed were meandering aimlessly through the streets, hoping to find a sign of anything related to the Dragon's Eye. They passed a pool hall Leon recognized.
"That's where I caught my first bounty," he said, gesturing at the hall.
"Playing pool?" Ed asked, peering through the window on the outside of the hall.
"Well, I wasn't playing pool at the time, but I do play," Leon said. He'd been chasing an easy bountyhead, a local criminal who'd gotten too big for his britches. The punk wasn't expecting a kid to chase him down. Which is what helped Leon get close. Pretending to be a potential buyer for the illegal weapons the man was selling provided him plenty of cover and the rest was a cinch. The man didn't put up much of a fight after Leon broke a cue stick over his head. Leon had promptly blown the bounty afterward, but he'd been young. Well, younger. He laughed to himself. At this rate, he was always going to be young and inexperienced.
"Ed doesn't remember her first bounty," Ed said, leaving the window and walking down the street again.
"Do you even catch anybody anyway?" Leon asked, falling into step beside her. He found it difficult to match her meandering pace.
"Nope!" Ed declared. She didn't seem offended by the question. "Not in person. Ed catches all her little fishies online."
Leon nodded. "That's true. I'd hate to try to hide in the cyber world from you."
"Villanova's doing it," Ed growled.
Leon raised an eyebrow. He'd rarely ever seen Ed upset about anything.
"How do you think she's managing?"
Ed shrugged. "Two things." She held up two long, slender fingers. "One," she folded one finger. "She doesn't exist online because she's a sneaky, sneaky spider. Or two," she folded the second finger into a fist. "She's better than Ed."
Leon had never seen Ed make any sign of aggression before. "Better than you? Online? I don't think that's possible."
"Everything is possible," Ed shrugged, but she was frowning.
"Well, let's just go with option one for now. She's probably keeping herself off the web. After all, I saw her name on a paper docket back on Ganymede. And nobody uses paper unless they're trying to hide."
"Paper's untraceable," Ed agreed. "And it can disappear. Poof." Ed snapped her fingers and waved her hands like she was doing some sort of disappearing magic trick.
"Right. So how many shipping ops would run on a paper trail?"
"Ed doesn't think we should start with the ships," Ed shook her head. "Ed thinks we should start with the drugs."
"With the Dragon's Eye?"
"With it's pieces," Ed nodded.
"So, the Grey Ash?"
Ed nodded harder.
"You want to check out the pharmacies? See who's supplying an inordinate amount of Grey Ash to a hidden contractor?"
"Yup!" Ed slipped her goggles over her head and held out her hand like she wanted Leon to take it.
"What are you doing?"
"Ed's your blind sister with Venus sickness and you're looking for a cure."
"Ed, we look nothing alike."
"Ed's your fifth cousin twice removed on your mom's brother's dog's side then!" she declared brightly.
Leon laughed. "Sure, cos, whatever you say." He took Ed's hand and the two headed into town.
"One last stop and we're good to go," Jet said, readjusting the bags of supplies he held in his mechanical arm.
"One more," Faye moaned, staggering under her own load of supplies. "I don't think I can walk that far."
"It's your own fault for buying an entirely new wardrobe just to spend a few weeks on Venus," Jet pointed out.
"You know I haven't bought new clothes for ages, Jet," she said. "Besides, I hardly had an adequate wardrobe for Venus."
"And what kind of wardrobe do you need on Venus?"
"I might tell you if you tell me what 'one last stop' you need to make."
"I was going to pick up the parts to repair the Swordfish's MONO computer. You know it had a few bugs the last time we took it out."
"Why would you need to repair the Swordfish's MONO computer?"
"So we can use it."
"We haven't been using it before," Faye pointed out.
"I have a feeling we might be needing it on this mission."
"Why's that? You don't think my Redtail's good enough?"
Jet pinched the bridge of his nose. "Your Redtail's fine. However, I think now would be a good time to let you know I gave the Swordfish to Leon."
"You gave what to Leon?!" Faye demanded, stopping dead in her tracks.
"The Swordfish," Jet said slowly, stopping as well.
"You gave him Spike's ship? You know Spike would kill you for giving his Swordfish away."
Jet turned to face her. "Why else do you think the kid sold his Shark? I offered him the ship when he joined. We both know Spike isn't coming back to use her. What else was I supposed to do with her?"
"And just when were you planning on telling me you're giving away Spike's stuff, huh?"
"I didn't think it was important. It's not like you use the Swordfish anyway. What were you planning to do with her? Let her sit like she has these past fifteen years?" Jet asked.
Faye scowled, but she didn't have an answer.
"I thought so. Faye, you've got to let go. We've talked about this. It's not healthy to keep hanging on to Spike. He's not coming back. Much as we hate it, we've got to face it. We can't let nostalgia get in our way. Leon's the rightful owner of Spike's stuff now anyway."
"But giving away the Swordfish? A hundred woolongs Leon wrecks the thing in a week, Jet."
"At least it would cost me less than your gambling habits," he muttered.
"Hey!"
"Look, it's not like the Swordfish is going to bring Spike back. Besides, Leon's as much in love with her as Spike was."
"And you know how that turned out." Faye rolled her eyes. "Spike was always riddling that ship with holes."
"And patching her up. Just wait, I think Leon will amount to more than you think."
"Oh, so that's it," Faye said accusatorily.
"What's it?"
"You think Leon will replace Spike. You're ready to hand the kid all of Spike's stuff so you can feel like you've got your old partner back again."
Jet sighed. "No, Faye, I don't want to replace Spike. That's wishful thinking and you know it. Leon may be Spike's son, but he's not Spike. You need to stop looking at him like he is."
"I am not-"
Jet held his non-mechanical hand up and interrupted Faye.
"Yes, you are. Faye, I don't want to cut you out of this mission, but you're letting your feelings cloud your judgement on this one. We could use your help catching Villanova, but I can't have a cock-eyed first mate. So can you bury the past for this one or not?"
Faye was silent for a long moment. She bit her lip. "You know you can trust me, Jet."
"It's not you I don't trust," Jet said. "It's your emotions."
Faye took a slow, deep breath. "I can handle it, Jet. You can count on me."
Jet gave Faye a long nod and held out his hand. After several moments of parcel juggling, she shook.
"Now let's get that part so you can go try on your new clothes."
Faye stuck her tongue out at him.
"No luck there," Leon said, looking at the map of Venus displayed on his phone. He crossed another pharmacy off the map. He and Ed had looked up a list of the pharmacies in town and started methodically hitting them one by one, plying each with a list of questions under the guise of looking for a cure for Ed's "Venus sickness." Ed did an excellent performance as a quiet, unassuming blind girl with a knack for bumping into things. Leon quickly came to find out that Ed was playing for real and probably walking around with her eyes closed under her reflective goggles. If he wasn't careful with his instructions or guidance, she'd walk into doors and walls or trip over loose stones and objects on the ground. At this point, Leon felt himself qualified to be a passable guide for a real blind person.
Ed was even playing the part in the street outside the pharmacies. Despite his insisting that she didn't have to carry the charade that far, Ed kept up the game no matter where they went. Eventually Leon gave up trying to talk her out of it. Ed was Ed and there was no changing her mind.
"It looks like we've been to every pharmacy on the planet," Leon sighed.
"Nooot yeeet," Ed said in a sing-song voice.
"What? How do you even know that?" Leon looked up from his phone to find Ed absently staring off into space.
She just giggled.
Leon looked back down at his list. Ed was right; there was one pharmacy he'd missed. It was in a poor part of town, located in a side street that was barely more than an alley. They found the place after about fifteen minutes of walking. Leon almost passed the alley on the first go. The buildings on the alley were mostly empty. Only three or four of them seem occupied and those only looked halfway legitimate.
"C'mon, this is way too obvious," Leon grumbled as they started down the alley. The place certainly looked seedy enough to be dealing underhanded Grey Ash to Dragon's Eye dealers.
"The thing you want to find is always right under your nose," Ed quipped, like she was quoting some kind of profound prophecy.
"But this?" Leon gestured at the grimy alley, completely aware that Ed might not even be looking at what he was showing her. "This is too cliche." He shook his head and pocketed his phone as they reached the pharmacy. A grey sign with faded green letters proclaimed the tiny building to be R. Blanche and Sons, Apothecarie and Physick Shop. No one called a pharmacy a Physick Shop anymore. How freaking old was this building anyway? It looked like someone might have plucked it off of Earth and dropped it on Venus. The building was tiny, a two story brick affair squashed between empty buildings that had probably been warehouses at some point. The shop windows were clean but permanently smudged with the odd glaze of aged glass. The paint was faded, the store so small that Leon doubted it even supplied the surrounding neighborhood with Grey Ash, let alone a major drug dealer. Something about the building made Leon pause. It reminded him way too much of the Lion's Den.
"Well, are we going in?" Ed asked.
"Yeah, of course," Leon said, not wanting to let Ed sense his hesitation.
The two walked into the shop, a small bell tinkling overhead as Leon opened the door. He guided Ed through it and took the time to look around. The shop was full of shelves with just enough room for one person to wind their way between them. The shelves stood about as tall as Ed and were, as far as Leon could tell, covered in a legitimate display of various remedies for anything from a headache to the Space Flu. A wooden counter stood at the far end of the shop, opposite the door, and a locked glass case sat behind that, displaying medicines you had to have a prescription to buy. With the neighborhood this place was in, Leon was surprised they didn't have all their drugs locked up.
Despite the fact that the store was well-stocked, Leon didn't see anyone working the counter.
"Here, hold onto my shirt," he said, transferring Ed's hand to the back of his shirt. He didn't even stop to think about it this time. "The shelves are really narrow in here, so you'll need to walk behind me."
Ed nodded emphatically.
Leon rolled his eyes. He was going to go back to the Bebop and slip up and start describing things to Faye or Jet and they were going to think he was crazy. He started walking through the shelves toward the counter, the gentle tug on his shirt telling him Ed was following. She ran her free hand lightly over the shelf beside her, as if to get her bearings. She'd done this in all the pharmacies they'd been in and Leon was starting to wonder if she was doing something more than just feeling her way around.
As they neared the counter an older man with grey hair and a large mustache stepped out of a doorway behind the counter. Although his hair was grey, his eyes were a bright, vivid green. He wore an old-fashioned apron and white hat like Leon had seen in pictures of drug stores from over a hundred years ago. "Hello," he greeted Leon and Ed with a pleasant tone. "Can I help you?"
Leon cleared his throat. "Uh, yes, well, um," he stepped to the side so that Ed had enough room to stand beside him in front of the counter. She instinctively stepped forward when he reached for her hand.
"This is my cousin, Edwina." Ed gave a wave to somewhere on the man's left. "And she's got Venus sickness pretty bad. It's made her go blind. We're from out of town and we've come a long way to see about getting a cure for her. I'm looking to see if you've got Grey Ash in stock."
The man gave Ed a long, hard look. Just when he thought he was sure the man had seen through their plan and was about to call them out on it, he shook his head.
"Sorry, lad, I'm all out of Grey Ash at the moment."
"All out?" Leon let his voice take a desperate note. "But, sir, you're the only place I was told I could get it!"
"Why don't you try the other pharmacies in town, boy? Someone's sure to have a bit of the Ash lying around."
"I have tried the others, and I couldn't afford any of the Grey Ash there. But they told me to come down here and see what you had." He was making lies up off the top of his head now, but judging by the shop's appearances and the prices he'd seen on some of the drugs up front, it looked like this would be the place to come for cheap cures.
The man sighed. "If you'd a come on Tuesday, I woulda still had a small stock. As it is, I've been bought out and I'm waiting on my own stock to come in. Here," he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and scribbled a note on it. "What's your name, kid?" he asked.
"Leo-roy," Leon stumbled over his name, realizing at the last second he probably shouldn't give out a real one.
The man raised an eyebrow.
"Leroy Russell," Leon said, this time without stumbling.
"Alright, Leroy Russell," the man said in a tone that indicated he knew the name was fake. He still wrote it on the top of the piece of paper. "If you go to these coordinates, they'll set you up with some Grey Ash for your 'cousin.'"
Leon didn't miss the glance the man gave Ed. Ed grinned, but she was looking at a place over the man's shoulder. Then again, with her eyes covered by those goggles, she could've been looking anywhere and no one would know.
"Really? Thanks," Leon said with fake eagerness. After a quick glance at the paper, he stuffed it in his pocket.
"Now, can I do anything else for you?" the man asked.
"No, thanks, sir. I'd better get my cousin something to eat." Leon leaned closer like he was telling the man something confidential. "I've been dragging her across Venus all day."
"You got the money for a meal?" the man asked. Leon couldn't decide if it was genuine concern in his voice or not.
"Yeah," Leon nodded. "We've got some relatives in town who are putting us up for now. Thanks again, mister," Leon gave the man a loose salute then turned to Ed. "C'mon, cos, let's go," he spun her around gently, walking her in front of him this time. He had the distinct feeling of two eyes boring holes into his back as he opened the door for Ed and ushered her out into the street. As soon as they were far enough away from the pharmacy, he dropped her hand, intending to walk back to the Bebop like normal, but Ed immediately tripped on an uneven piece of sidewalk when he let go. "Leroy!" she yelped as if startled.
"Oh, c'mon, Ed," he exclaimed, a bit fed up with her antics now.
But Ed just reached out for his hand again and he let her take it, leading her down the street once more. She played blind until they got back on deck at the Bebop. As soon as her feet touched the deck, she whipped off her goggles and sat down to take off her shoes.
"What was that all about, huh?" Leon asked.
"What?" Ed looked up at him puzzled.
"The silly charade! Why'd you insist you play blind till we got back here?"
"You didn't see them?" Ed asked.
"See what?"
"Ed was blind but she saw them."
"Saw what, Ed?" Leon asked, feeling his patience slip.
"Ed spied, with her blind little eye, two ugly spies, watching our lies." She recited the little line like it was a nursery rhyme.
"Wait, spies? We were being followed?"
Ed nodded. "Yup! Trailed and tracked and brick-a-bracked."
"What does that even mean?"
Ed grinned her customary bright grin.
Leon sighed. "They didn't follow us back to the Bebop did they?"
"Nope! We lost them a loooooooong time ago."
"You mean I still walked you all the way back here like you were blind for no reason?"
"That was for calling Ed Edwina!" Shoeless, Ed jumped up and laughed. She scampered off into the Bebop.
"Ed!" Leon dashed after her. "Ed, you get back here!"