Zoe smiled as she checked the bid site Sunday after lunch three weeks later. Her reputation had surprisingly improved to the point that she was now able to make 400 credits on single runs within New York City now and making between 750-1000 on runs going out of the city depending on distance and the client. Then again, maybe the reputation increase wasn’t surprising since a lot of her clients mentioned the Portsmouth job and how they were impressed that Zoe pressed on and completed that run instead of doing what some couriers had done in the past and given up the package. Despite the bump from the Portsmouth Job, the bidding for short runs in the city was highly contested and still went more often than not to the established courier companies and independents.

Zoe found she enjoyed the longer out of town runs more than she ever would have imagined for a couple of reasons; they paid extremely well and allowed her to just enjoy riding her motorcycle for hours at a time without all the city traffic and stopping. The only downside was that most of these runs were for high-ranking corporate executives, and most of them didn’t treat her as a person so much as a thing to be used and discarded. She was able to put up with that treatment since she mostly interacted with others that the executives employed, and she had been able to pay off Doc Brown for the Shielded Array quickly in addition to start adding to her savings again.

“The things we put up with for money,” Zoe mused.

The first job that caught Zoe’s eye was a run to Philadelphia on Monday for Katz Sipser PLLC, which was Henri’s attorney. The law firm was opening a second branch in Philadelphia at 1845 Walnut St in that not-so-distant city. They wanted some data and a certificate delivered from their Chrysler Building office to the Walnut St location. Snatching a job that Cartier Transport should get easily since they were clients appealed to Zoe. Then again, maybe that was a conflict of interest. Zoe shrugged since it didn’t really matter.

The trip was at least a two-hour drive, so Zoe looked for additional runs going to Philadelphia. She quickly found a run for Kaiser Optics going from their headquarters at 110 W 40th St to their offices at 500 S 27th St in Philadelphia on Monday. Zoe smiled again and took a chance by bidding 1500 for each job. Both companies could afford to pay that much since they would just write the expense off their taxes.

One other run caught her eye. The Smith, Wesson, & Winchester Arms Company, SW&W for short, wanted data run from their office in the Empire State Building to their Philadelphia location in the old Amtrak Global HQ at 2400 Market St. Zoe crossed her fingers, not believing her luck, and put in another 1500 bid for that run. Even just landing one of those runs for 1500 would be a heck of a payday for a little over half a day’s work, especially when said work was riding a motorcycle. Landing two or all three would be outstanding and allow Zoe to slack off the rest of the week if she wanted.

Zoe watched the bid site and her messages for a few minutes. She got up and washed her bike. Zoe checked the bid site the entire time.

“Ah! This is driving me nuts,” Zoe muttered to herself. She closed the bid site and her message app while putting away her cleaning supplies. Zoe then went into her bedroom and changed clothes. “I’m going for a run.”

*

“It’s nearly 11 and I haven’t heard a thing,” Zoe muttered to herself later that night. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. “I suppose I should start looking to see what’s left to bid on for tomorrow.”

There wasn’t much left for Monday. All Zoe found open other than the Philadelphia jobs were a couple low paying runs that either went to Staten Island or Long Island. That should be about 900 credits total and not a bad day usually if the clients would pay a higher rate. But both clients were local small businesses that always lowballed the couriers even after agreeing to pay more, which was why their runs were still open. If she took those two runs, she wouldn’t get more than 500-600 credits at best.

“Ugh. Perhaps I should just take tomorrow off,” Zoe told herself stifling another yawn.

She closed the bid site after deciding to take Monday off and started getting ready for bed. Zoe laid down and was almost asleep when she received three messages confirming she had won all three Philadelphia runs.

“Yes!” Zoe screamed bolting up in bed and pumping her fist in excitement. She then flopped back down. “Ugh. Now I have to try to go back to sleep.”

*

“Here’s the data cable,” the SW&W receptionist stated holding out the cable to Zoe.

“That’s alright,” Zoe replied tapping her right temple. “I have a Shielded Array.”

“Business must be good then,” the receptionist replied while accepting Zoe’s transmission and starting the data transfer and putting the cable away.

“Yeah, business has been pretty decent the last few weeks,” Zoe said with a small smile on her face after scanning and accepting the data. “See you around.”

Zoe turned to go when the receptionist stopped her. “Just a moment. Mrs. Newton, one of our senior VPs, wants to know if you’ve booked tomorrow yet.”

“No, I don’t have anything setup for tomorrow,” Zoe replied. “Why?”

“She wants a courier to run up to Beacon, which is a small town in the Hudson Valley, to deliver a contract to the Palumbo law firm there,” the receptionist explained. “She’s buying a fourth home there.”

“I see. Must be nice,” Zoe replied.

“I wouldn’t know,” the receptionist said giving Zoe a smile. “The run pays 1500 credits.”

“I’ll be here shortly after 9 in the morning,” Zoe quickly replied.

“Huh.”

“What is it?” Zoe asked.

“What model is your Eagle Vision?” the receptionist asked instead of answering.

“V2. How did you know I had Kaisers?” Zoe replied. “I haven’t changed eye color or anything like that.”

“Everyone that enters the office is scanned for implants and I know my implants,” the woman answered giving Zoe a grin. “Mrs. Newton says the leaves are changing and she wants you to take some pictures of them while you’re up there.”

“I’m not a photographer,” Zoe protested.

“Doesn’t matter with Kaisers,” the receptionist replied while smiling. “If any of the pictures catch her fancy, she’ll pay another 500 credits for them.”

“I’ll do my best,” Zoe quickly said.

“I’m sure you will,” the receptionist laughed. “And be here at 11 in the morning instead of at 9.”

“Alright,” Zoe replied walking out.