Sender: [DEVICE OWNER — UNIDENTIFIED]
Recipient: Contact labeled 'Ma'
Status: UNSENT — Message composed but not transmitted. Device recovered during Meridian PD sweep of Shelf Block 19, Unit 7-C, following reports of an abandoned residence.

Message body:

Ma, I know you told me not to take the job. I know. But you also told me to eat three times a day and I was managing one, so I had to choose between your advice and your other advice.

The job was simple. Walk a package from Block 19 to the handoff point at Market 6. Don't look inside. Don't talk to anyone. Don't stop. Φ200 for twenty minutes of walking. That's more than I make in three days at the sorting line.

I looked inside. I don't know why. Maybe because everybody says don't look inside, and at some point you start wondering what's so important that they pay Φ200 to move it twenty minutes. It was a box of neural interface components. Gen 4. Still in the manufacturer's packaging. I don't know if they were stolen or just diverted, but either way they're worth more than I'll earn in a year.

I delivered the package. I collected the Φ200. The man at the handoff point looked at the seal on the package and then looked at me and said 'It's been opened.' I said it hadn't. He said 'I can see that it has.' I said I was sorry. He said sorry was the wrong word. He said the right word was 'remembered.'

I'm in my apartment and the door is locked and I don't think that matters. I'm going to send this message and then I'm going to leave. I don't know where. Away from Block 19.

I love you. I'm sorry. The second one more than the first.

[Message was never sent. Device battery was at 2% when recovered. Residence showed signs of rapid departure. No further information available.]