Mekdes Tesfaye, who introduces herself as Mika, works at an airport freight counter in Djibouti. She is Amhara, comes from Addis Ababa and describes herself as nonreligious. Her knowledge of outbound cargo helps Ben Etxina follow the robot carrying Hammett to Macau.
Ben describes Mekdes as tall, slender and dark-skinned, with delicate features and large, bright eyes. At work she wears a loose sheer headscarf over straightened hair and Western business clothes. At home she wears her hair with short bangs. She speaks English and French and enjoys older romantic films.
Home and aspirations
Mekdes lives above a Yemeni restaurant in a large apartment furnished with salvaged and refurbished pieces. A heavy dark table, a geometric accent wall and a faded French Roman Holiday poster distinguish the room. She acquired the poster from a local theater and watches films on a secondhand hotel television connected to her laptop. She introduces Ben to the 1954 Sabrina while they share wine.
She hopes for a cosmopolitan life in America and imagines familiar film images of New York and suburban neighborhoods. Her offer to marry Ben includes a share of her future earnings, permission for him to see other partners and a proposed divorce after two years. Ben refuses, fearing scrutiny of a dishonest marriage.
Cargo records and Ben
Mekdes’s supervisor refuses Ben access to manifests, despite his warning that a stolen robot carries a weapon. She then approaches him privately, offers the records and invites him to use her laptop at home. They have sex after watching the film and talking about her ambitions.
The following morning, Ben finds a Black Diamond Logistics printout hidden in her vanity drawer. A circled entry lists a 320-kilogram robotics frame with nondetachable batteries sent from Djibouti to Macau. Mekdes admits withholding the record to keep him with her and persuade him to take her to America. She denies working for anyone seeking to obstruct his search.
Ben leaves $600 for her information and assistance, and she arranges his flight and taxi. Later, a LinkedIn message under her full name includes a Vertigo image and the hope of seeing him at Golden Gate Park. Ben recognizes the reference and asks his new employee to send a warm reply.