Ozzie Salcido

Twelve years collecting for the Risers. Carries the arrears and a valve key, and no gun at all.

He collects for the Risers, in the stacks, and has done for twelve years. He is thirty-eight, he knows every manager in Koreatown by name and most of the tenants by unit number, and he knows exactly how far a conversation can go before it stops being about money.

What he wants, every time, is the number settled and to be home.

What the crew knows#

• He does not carry a weapon. Twelve years, and his position is that the day you bring one is the day somebody uses it. He says this out loud, to his own crew, in front of people.
• He arrives with the arrears, years of them, on a comm he has never bothered to lock. He will turn it round on the table and let anybody read it, and he will scroll back as far as they want to go.
• He can shut the water off, and that is the actual threat in the room. He is a utility contractor and the tap is his.
• He will take a part payment, a schedule, or a name that vouches. He would rather have any of those than the full amount tonight.
• He is embarrassed by the kid and it shows.

Contact#