Sather: No thrills? No point?
Liojb: Oh my poster, yeah I thought it fit being the type of customer I deal with.
Sather: And what type of customer did you deal with?
Liojb: Drifters, drugers, travelers, anyone not too kind to authorities.
Sather: How did you come into this business with these people?
Liojb: Simple, after Blano corp left my home town a lot of crime happened. Former factory workers were breaking into houses and cars. Gosh, the homeless alone overwhelmed the shelters. It was just right. I was a seventeen year old idiot and joined a homeless camp. Though I was gonna live amongst the bottom class, write a book on it. Be “Autre”.
Sather: Did you write the book?
Liojb: No. Instead I was caught holding a pound of semelf for this local dealer. I never even touched the stuff, just a carrier while the GDAC was watching his place. Sentenced twenty years for dealing. That and I punched the GDAC officer on my way to the courts.
Sather: Did prison change your life?
Liojb: In many ways. The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life was hold my dog while the pincher stopped her heart from moving. First week I was in two fights, I thought nothing, I’m not sure. It didn’t help that my accent showed my hand. I wasn’t a killer and everyone knew. Food, that was a big thing. I had most of my meals stolen the first year. They had to put me on a liquid food diet. After that I took my meals in the guard area. It only made it worse, things were bad for a while.
Sather: What changed?
Liojb: In year three one of the gang leaders realized that I was special. Well not me, my taking meals in the guards area. I could be his spy in return for some protection, some peace. Of course I accepted, anything to not have to endure all that pain.
Sather: Did you ever spy anything worth reporting? \
Liojb: Well it wasn’t as much spying as mapping that area. For some reason there were no cameras in the guard cafeteria. Not even a bio scan! So yeah my job was to sketch and map the guards room out. Pretty good too, my grandpa taught me how to make maps and sketches. I was never like him though in the quality sense, but good enough. Another year it took me to make that map. Towards the end of it I was afraid they were going to drop me afterward. I began to make the map slower and slower, of course a couple slaps to the head changed that approach. The leader was nice, he made sure that I wasn’t hurt or even that people talked bad about me. On more than one occasion a few prisoners were talked to for cracking jokes about me. Nothing bad, bad enough for them to be bedridden. I felt bad, but it was a little nice to get some justice. It took selling my soul but I got it.
Sather: What happened after the map finished.
Liojb: They didn’t drop me, thank God. They had me join their group. From there I functioned as an accountant of sorts. Some guy cops some cash from us for solar batteries, I tally that to make sure they pay it back. Shocking to have all that power you know? I had guys offering me their mattress for an extra week.
Sather: Solar batteries don’t seem like an object to go into debt to.
Liojb: They are once you learn how to make them into flasher. You see, if you take solar battery juice and add some talcum powder to it, you get a good old flasher. It was sleek, economical and most importantly insanely good at getting you high. You could lick maybe a drop and be gone for the whole day. Guys would be laid out in their bed just staring out somewhere; not the ceiling, that’s for sure.
Sather: Was solar batteries the top thing people borrowed?
Liojb: It was only slightly beaten out with Bezing pacers. You could send one message around 140 characters once before it would fry itself. No one could trace and it was small enough to beat most cell searches. Piece of work to use though and there was no period button so most of the messages looked like rambling sentences. Still I had guys buy packs of them at a time. Years of income for enough words to make a couple sentences. It was almost admirable to think about.
Sather: There was no outside communication?
Liojb: Yeah once a year. You got ten minutes on the phone, oh man the energy was something else on those days. No one complained, no one fought. You could owe a guy all the flasher you want, but on that day? Nothing. If anything that guy would hug you more then kill you. I liked it that day for a different reason. You know besides talking to my mom. It was interesting to see a business I worked so hard on. I probably spent most of my prison time perfecting my debt system. Color coded binders and hacking some of the Bezing pack to hold current debts. A list too long for even me to remember. But on that day? It meant nothing, all my power was gone. And it felt good. A reminder that my life was going to one day change and nothing I did here really mattered. It took the bite out of tomorrow. Today, just for today I could just talk some smack with the other guys about the outside world. No worries if he was a Grengenk or he was in it with the cops. Just flat hanging out with some people that are in a bad situation.
Sather: It didn’t affect your day to day life, being someone so powerful?
Liojb: No, it meant nothing. I could have forgiven everyone’s debts even the worst guys and it wouldn’t even cross their minds.
Sather: Did anything happen towards the end of your sentence?
Liojb: We lost our leader. That was hard, I never thought the guy was a good person. Not in any sense; he gave me a chance though; a chance to ease my prison woes at the very least. It was expected of me to take his spot. Change jobs and use my seven-teen years of mentorship to lead us to greatness. I would have taken that role. Instead though I was let out a year early for good behavior. Ironic of course, I probably ran the biggest illegal operation inside there. But I guess it just showed how good I was at hiding my business.
Sather: And now?
Liojb: I hide my business. A very nice business.