They finished eating. Plates were cleared, containers sealed, the table retracting back into the floor as if the conversation mattered more than the food ever had. Veyr stood and motioned toward a side wall. A layered display ca alive, projecting inventories, tallies, and sealed manifests pulled straight from the vault.
"Everything recovered is listed here," Veyr said. "Raw tals, rare stones, legacy tech, weapons, artifacts, half-built systems stole from labs, and a few things none of us can properly identify yet."
He started dividing it up without drama, numbers shifting on the display as he spoke.
"Fifty percent to you," he said, glancing at Xavier. "That was the agreent. Twenty to Rin. Ten to Arlen. Ten to Klatos. Ten stays with ."
A few items blinked amber instead of green. Limited stock. One-of-a-kind pieces. Veyr adjusted the split, trading equivalents across categories until the totals balanced out again.
Xavier scanned the list, expression flat. There was nothing he needed. So of it was useful. So of it was dangerous enough to be comforting. Most of it was just weight, future leverage, problems for another day.
"Nice haul," he said. "Not life-changing."
Xavier leaned back, already thinking past the vault. The real problem wasn’t what they’d taken. It was what ca next. Bull hadn’t left things in one place. Every treasure was supposed to point to another, and that ant digging again, cross-referencing again, wasting ti he didn’t feel like wasting.
Before he could pull any of the data feeds up and search for clues, Veyr spoke again.
"The Graveward units held," he said. "Iron Mandate didn’t break through. They were immobilized, and then surrendered. They’ll crawl back to whoever sent them."
Xavier looked up. "Good."
Veyr studied him for a mont. "That brings to sothing I want to understand. Iron Mandate doesn’t move like that without reason. They don’t burn resources unless soone higher up tells them to. So what did you do to make them co after you."
He waved a hand and the display shifted, pulling up a corporate lattice. "Iron Mandate isn’t independent. They’re a subsidiary enforcent arm under Astraxiom Industries Limited. Black logistics. Covert acquisitions. Suppression. The kind of work you don’t want your brand attached to."
Arlen’s expression hardened slightly. She knew the na.
"In several systems, the Iron Mandate is classified as a terrorist organization," Veyr continued. "Other places pretend they don’t exist. Either way, they don’t chase people for sport."
He looked directly at Xavier now. "So tell . What exactly did you do to get their attention."
Xavier lifted one shoulder and leaned back in his chair, face settling into sothing close to harmless. "I honestly haven’t done anything," he said, voice light, almost polite. "I’m new to Jupiter. I barely know how things work here. I don’t pick fights, I don’t harm people, and I can’t even rember the last ti I cursed at soone."
Veyr didn’t wait a second.
"That’s a lie."
Xavier nodded as if agreeing with a complint. "That too," he added smoothly. "I also never lie. I’m terrible at it. Can’t even think bad thoughts properly."
Veyr let out a sharp breath and pushed his chair back just enough for the tal to scrape. "That’s a pile of bullshit, and you know it."
No one jumped in to defend Xavier. Rin didn’t roll his eyes. Klatos didn’t argue. Arlen didn’t even bother pretending to look neutral. They all just looked at him, that shared, quiet stare people give when they know exactly how deep the ss goes and don’t feel like listing it out loud.
They rembered the warehouses. The bunkers. The stops that weren’t on any official route. How Xavier had decided which places to hit without hesitation, how he’d walked away before the dust even settled. At the ti, none of them had understood why he’d gone out of his way to burn those facilities. Now it made sense. Those weren’t random targets. They were Iron Mandate’s footholds, cut apart before they could tighten their grip around Helior Pri.
The realization settled in slowly, and it wasn’t comforting.
Rin wondered how far ahead Xavier had actually been thinking, whether this was planning layered on planning or just reckless montum that kept working out.
Klatos questioned if luck alone could really explain how neatly things kept lining up.
Arlen watched Xavier in silence, trying to decide whether she was sitting next to a man who saw ten steps ahead or soone the universe kept bending around because it didn’t know what else to do with him.
Xavier, anwhile, kept the sa relaxed posture, looking every bit like soone who had done absolutely nothing wrong and didn’t understand why anyone would suggest otherwise.
Veyr watched Xavier for a mont, then leaned forward slightly. "So what’s your next move?"
Xavier shrugged. "I’ll stay down here for a few days. Walk around. See how the underworld here actually works. Check the black markets, maybe sit in on an auction if sothing interesting cos up. After that, I’ll head back to Helior Pri."
Veyr’s expression hardened. "I wasn’t asking for your itinerary. I’m asking what you plan to do now that Iron Mandate is actively coming after you. Once you return to the surface, they will be up your ass in no ti."
Xavier didn’t miss a beat. "I’ll take a shit so no one can stay up my ass."
Veyr hissed through his teeth, patience snapping. "I’m being serious. Don’t treat this like a joke. Astraxiom doesn’t stop once they commit. Iron Mandate doesn’t forget targets."
Xavier finally turned fully toward him. "Then answer sothing. Did Bull ever have real beef with Astraxiom Industries Limited?"
Veyr froze, just for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. "Why do you think so?"
"I read Bull’s logs back in the old mines under the prison," Xavier said. "Not a diary. But transaction records, logs, movent data, broken comms. Enough to connect the dots."
Veyr leaned back slowly. "AIL hired Bull a few decades ago. They wanted instability on one of Jupiter’s moons, Caldris. Riots. Proxy wars. Resource disruption. Bull took the contract."
"And then didn’t do what he was paid for?" Xavier said.
"He didn’t just refuse," Veyr replied. "He flipped it. Used AIL’s own funding, assets, and routes to hit them instead. Cost them fleets, supply lines, political capital. They were warned and fined by the Universal Justice Court. Back then, Astraxiom didn’t have Iron Mandate or anything like it. They bled badly. Probably the first and the last ti soone fought a giant like that."
"And won," he added imdiately. "He had beco the symbol. There isn’t anyone in the universe who doesn’t know his na."
Rin shifted, listening closely.
"After that," Veyr continued, "Bull never ca back to Jupiter, not that I am aware of. A bounty went up. Everyone hunted him. Dead or alive."
Xavier’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Which ans there’s a good chance Astraxiom is the one that got him arrested on Earth instead of handing him over to UJC."
Veyr didn’t answer imdiately.
Xavier leaned back in his chair, the thought settling in deeper now. Dominic’s panic replayed in his head, the way he’d reacted when Bull died, the way he’d avoided certain questions. He’d never said who paid him. Never said whose order it really was.
Xavier exhaled slowly.
"Looks like I stepped into soone else’s unfinished war," he said.
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