the sound system, somewhere between an Islamic call to prayer and orgasm with a drumbeat. Half the titles were in Hindi with Chinese and Spanish translations. The other half were English with Hindi as the second language. The clerk was hardly more than a boy. Sixteen, seventeen years old with a weedy black beard he wore like a badge.
"Can I help you?" the boy said, eying Havelock with disdain just short of contempt. Havelock pulled his ID, making sure the kid got a good long look at his gun when he did it.
"We'd like to talk to" - Miller glanced at the complaint form on his terminal screen - "Asher Kamamatsu. He here?"
The manager was a fat man, for a Belter. Taller than Havelock, the man carried fat around his belly and thick muscles through the shoulders, arms, and neck. If Miller squinted, he could see the seventeen-year-old boy he had been under the layers of time and disappointment, and it looked a lot like the clerk out front. The office was almost too small for the three of them and stacked with boxes of pornographic software.
"You catch them?" the manager said.
"No," Miller said. "Still trying to figure out who they are."
"Dammit, I already told you. There's pictures of them off the store camera. I gave you his fucking name."
Miller looked at his terminal. The suspect was named Mateo Judd, a dockworker with an unspectacular criminal record.
"You think it's just him, then," Miller said. "All right. We'll just go pick him up, throw him in the can. No reason for us to find out who he's working for. Probably no one who'll take it wrong, anyway. My experience with these protection rackets, the purse boys get replaced whenever one goes down. But since you're sure this guy's the whole problem... "
The manager's sour expression told Miller he'd made his point. Havelock, leaning against a stack of boxes marked, smiled.
"Why don't you tell me what he wanted," Miller said.
"I already told the last cop," the manager said.
"Tell me."
"He was selling us a private insurance plan. Hundred a month, same as the last guy."
"Last guy?" Havelock said. "So this happened before?"
"Sure," the manager said. "Everyone has to pay some, you know. Price of doing business."
Miller closed his terminal, frowning. "Philosophical. But if it's the price of doing business, what're we here for?"
"Because I thought you... you people had this shit under control. Ever since we stopped paying the Loca, I've been able to turn a decent profit. Now it's all starting up again."
"Hold on," Miller said. "You're telling me the Loca Greiga stopped charging protection?"
"Sure. Not just here. Half of the guys I know in the Bough just stopped showing up. We figured the cops had actually done something for once. Now we've got these new bastards, and it's the same damn thing all over again."
A crawling feeling made its way up Miller's neck. He looked up at Havelock, who shook his head. He hadn't heard of it either. The Golden Bough Society, Sohiro's crew, the Loca Greiga. All the organized crime on Ceres suffering the same ecological collapse, and now someone new moving into the evacuated niche. Might be opportunism. Might be something else. He almost didn't want to ask the next questions. Havelock was going to think he was paranoid.
"How long has it been since the old guys called on you for protection?" Miller asked.
"I don't know. Long time."
"Before or after Mars killed that water hauler?"
The manager folded his thick arms; his eyes narrowed.
"Before," he said. "Maybe a month or two. S'that got to do with anything?"
"Just trying to get the time scale right," Miller said. "The new guy. Mateo. He tell you who was backing his new insurance plan?"
"That's your job, figuring it. Right?"
The manager's expression had closed down so hard Miller imagined he could hear the click. Yes, Asher Kamamatsu knew who was shaking him down. He had balls enough to squeak about it but not to point the finger.
Interesting.
"Well, thanks for that," Miller said, standing up. "We'll let you know what we find."
"Glad you're on the case," the manager said, matching sarcasm for sarcasm.
In the exterior tunnel, Miller stopped. The neighborhood was at the friction point between sleazy and respectable. White marks showed where graffiti had been painted over. Men on bicycles swerved and weaved, foam wheels humming on the polished stone. Miller walked slowly, his eyes on the ceiling high above them until he found the security camera. He pulled up his terminal, navigated to the