Smuggler

"You shot first!"   "I did, it's not like he was going to give me a few tries to get it right! Get your head on straight."   "But you... you killed him..."   "Aye, I did, and as I said, it's not like he gave me much of a choice."   "But..."   "But you liked him, didn't you?"   "I hate you!"   "I'm sorry, daughter, that you had to see it, and that I had to do it to someone you liked. I doubt it makes it any better, but I wish he hadn't tried to kill your dear old dad!"   "I am sorry he tried to kill you, dad, why would he do that?"   "Well, I suspect he knew I was onto him, do you remember what I do daughter?"   "You're a lifeguard, you fight fires and such."   "Ah, I am a lifeguard, but I don't fight fires, not since I got that bum hip, daughter."   "So what do you do now?"   "I work at keeping the peace daughter, I try to catch criminals.  Lately I've joined my skills to a special task force of Border Guards to try to catch those who bring this Blue Tcha into Kagomei."   "But..."   "And this boy you like? He was... carrying this... He opened up the boy's pockets, and Blue Tcha fell out.   "What's that?"   "Blue Tcha, it's the latest garbage on the street, supposed to taste like regular Tcha, if it is steeped, or it can be smoked... It'll give you euphoria for a time. But you'll be hooked, you'll NEED more and more of this junk until it kills you, or you get caught. You cannot sleep without a fix, so withdrawal is painful and nerve-wracking."   "And Briand was taking that?"   "Or selling, that's a large quantity for him to be carrying."   "He... he never mentioned it..."   "You would tell me if he had?"   "DAD!"   "No shame in admitting his pretty face would have made you lie to your old da, daughter, I've been in love before."   "No, well, he wasn't that trusted...yet..."   "Well, those smugglers, they work hard at not getting caught, trying to find good hiding places, avoiding camera scans from the obvious angles.  We got lucky with some of them when we broke their codes, but these Silvertips, they have better computer support, we do not yet know how to break their codes.