Tipperman went to take a slug from his drink, then stared at the empty glass for a moment as if wondering where it had gone.
Then he re-focused on Wanderer, his manner of speaking very different, almost as if he was explaining something to a new recruit. “You are valuing your contact network highly, and asking us to do the same. A thousand nuyen – a grand -- sounds like a lot of money. If you found a credstick lying on the sidewalk with a thousand nuyen on it, it would make your week, maybe your month. A nice dinner, maybe some new clothes, maybe get your Salish-Sidhe visa and go skiing, ah it would be a grand grand – if you already had an income that covered your costs. As payment for a job for someone squatting in a factory that was burned out ten years ago and will finish collapsing next year, it would still be the sort of payment that would make them happy to do nearly anything. But as payment for a job for people who aspire to shower and eat regularly – even cold showers and drek food – or who want to keep any possessions they can’t clutch to their chests while sleeping? It’s grandness, it is less impressive.”
“You see, even if we view it all as net profit at the end of the day, that might cover a couple of weeks of costs. Even cold showers and drek food and a locked space where you can lie down at night begin to get expensive. Between food, clean water, and bribes to whatever gangs, police, landlords, or corps are shaking you down. Worse, of course, if you are supporting others or have debts to pay.” He glances around the table to see if anyone seems to be nodding at the mention of dependents or debts.
“But it isn’t all profit, now is it? In a job like this I could have my Ingram and a couple of clips of ammo taken from me, and it would cost nearly that grand to replace that – not accounting for sentimental value. I could wear out the insulating coating on my jacket, and it would cost more than a grand to replace. I could burn an ID, and it would cost far more than a grand to replace it.” Truth be told he needed more IDs, for himself and ‘Elga, and had been hoping for the sort of payday that would cover them.
“When you sum that all up, accepting this job for a grand makes it far from a sure thing that any of us even come out ahead on a strict cashflow basis. Throw in that we would not even see all of the money until some time later --none of us are strong candidates for walking into a bank for a bridge loan -- and you are setting us up to rush through this; we literally cannot afford much time on this job, on these terms, because we need to find other ways to cover our costs. So even IF we value your contacts so highly, we would be gambling just by taking this job.”
He let his words hang in the air with his tailored pheromones, then leaned forward and tapped his finger on the table as he enumerated options.
“Now, if while we were waiting for that money to be paid out, there was somewhere we could stay for a month – along with maybe a couple of dependents – that might help. In your extensive contacts list, is there anyone who might need some ‘house-sitting’ done, or even some casual guard work that we could rotate through? Knowing that when the current groceries and bribes run out, we have a dry place to stay, that could be one way to make this investment of our time more palatable. And if you know somebody who could be persuaded to stitch up any holes in us, and somebody else who could stitch up our armor, well that would help too. You get the idea, maybe we eventually get all of our grand, maybe access to your network brings us more, and more lucrative, work. But maybe we need a bit more to help us hang in until we arrive at the land of milk and honey.”
