>>> [BBS THREAD: The Toll has stopped answering. Anyone got a way across?]
[THREAD STARTED BY: /Half_Past]
/Half_Past
Posting because I'm out of ideas and the line just says the same thing.
"The Toll." If you've needed something moved across the wall in the last ten years, you know the name. Last confirmed crossing was Thursday the 21st. Since then, nothing. Her regular line gives a recorded message: "Out until further notice. Do not leave a message. Leave a deposit."
I have a parcel on the wrong side, a buyer on the right side, and nobody to introduce them. I need someone to do what she did.
/Ledger
I have nothing on this, and I resent it.
Every other disappearance on this board I can date, source, or at least argue about. Toll kept no public records of her own and never appeared in anyone else's. I have a nickname and a recorded message. That is not a file.
The one document I've found is a municipal procurement notice, dated Wednesday the 20th. The contract to supply the checkpoint canteen (bread, linens, cleaning supplies, and an unspecified "sundries" line) was re-awarded. The previous supplier is listed as "T. Strand Courier and Laundry."
/Abuela_Diesel
Well, there it is.
/RubyRose
NO. NO NO NO. the TOLL took me across with a broken arm and made me eat a sandwich before she'd take my money. she said "you're going to bleed on my linens, eat first"
i'm not saying she's my mother. i'm saying nobody else ever made me eat first
/Abuela_Diesel
Since Ledger found the paper, I'll fill in the rest. It was never tunnels or hidden doors, whatever the trideo says. Toll drove a bread truck through the front gate every morning, with a badge, a bill of lading, and a sweet little smile at the guard. The customers rode under the linens and the freight rode under the bread.
Then someone rebid the contract, and the badge stopped working. My guess is she's been on the wrong side of a gate that used to like her for nine days.
Also, her truck is in my shop. She dropped it off Friday the 22nd for a brake job, paid cash in advance, and said she'd be back Thursday. It's Friday. I was debating whether to post her methods or not, but I guess she is gone.
/Cubicle_9
Just asking questions. I do procurement paperwork (logistics, don't ask) and I read the notice Ledger found. Two things stand out.
The award amount is $200 under the threshold that would have required an open bid. That's not a coincidence. That's a number someone picked. The winner is "Meridian Provisioning Partners LLC," whose registration is eleven days old, and whose one listed service is "sundries."
/Small_Talk
Finally, our own wageslave figured out something deckers haven't. Good job Cubicle_9.
/Ghost_Lake
Three observations, all of which bother me.
One: a contract re-awarded nine days ago is a motive, but it's a boring motive. Boring motives account for most disappearances. That doesn't make me feel better.
Two: the same week the Toll's contract died, the Zone's north gate changed shift patterns. A friend who works near there says the guards now rotate every four hours instead of eight, so nobody stays long enough to be bribed.
Three: if I were the Toll and I'd been locked out of the front door, I wouldn't sit at home. I'd go find a way to make the wall need me again. What does a woman like that do when her only route closes? She doesn't call a lawyer.
/Ledger
Unsupported.
/Ghost_Lake
Unsupported for now.
/Abuela_Diesel
Update, and for once it's small.
There's a wedding this Saturday. The bride's family is on this side of the wall. The groom's family is on the other, and Toll was carrying the dress. The dress is in my shop, in a laundry bag with a paper tag: "Do not iron. Do not ask."
/RubyRose
oh my GOD. we have to get the dress across
/Ledger
We do not.
/RubyRose
WE ABSOLUTELY DO
/Half_Past
Late update, and it's a weird one.
Someone answered the Toll's number about an hour ago. Not her. A man's voice, very polite. He said the line was now "under new management" and asked if I had a quote request for "cross-border logistics solutions." I said I did. He asked for the parcel's dimensions and my preferred window. Then he said something I can't shake.
He said, "We'll be in touch. We really do appreciate the legacy customers."
/Cubicle_9
...that's a sales call.
/Small_Talk
Someone bought her customers.
/RubyRose
OMG SMALL_TALK REPLIED TWICE IN ONE POST