Kaito leaned back in his chair and gave a look after I was done.
"I see... So this really is an unfortunate series of events... Ironically, if you had not been where you were, both mine and that stupid bitch’s plans would have failed and neither of us would have known about it."
I only told him the bare minimum where I admitted that I found his ship stranded in space and received their distress signal.
I did tell him about finding the ship infested with those creatures and I had to work together with my crew to clear them out before finally coming across the turtle that was basically bulletproof.
That was where I lied and told him that the turtle basically went back to its broken container and we used that fact to move it into my ship.
I conveniently left out how I managed to hide that animal from the police and if he were to ask, I’m only going to tell him that it was a trade secret.
Kaito then turned to one of those secretary girls to give her a nod, prompting her to leave the room without a word.
I’m assuming he’s sending her to check the authenticity of my words but I’m not that worried since I doubt they would be able to figure out the truth anyway.
Like what was she going to do? Call up Clent and ask what happened?
I’m pretty sure they don’t even know him or else they would have specified to the police who they should be targeting instead of just using so tracker to track the turtle instead.
Now that I’ve told him what I know...
"So... You ntioned sothing about working together?" I reminded him.
He nodded, "That’s right. This bitch wanted to try and pull a fast one over by making use of you. So I figured why not make use of her in turn to use this to my advantage, right? We can ruin her reputation and destroy any chances she might have of getting the contract while you get paid a substantial amount of Credits. This is a pretty good plan, right?"
"That depends on what the plan actually is... What are you planning to do?"
"First thing’s first... You do have the creature, right?"
I shrugged, "Maybe."
One of the secretary girls pulled out a tallic sword before resting the blade on my shoulder, the edge disturbingly close to my neck.
"I would choose your next words very carefully, rc."
I looked down at the blade that was placed on my shoulder before looking up to raise an eyebrow at Kaito.
"Your subordinates aren’t very smart, are they?"
The CEO grimaced, "They are... Very protective... Please forgive them..."
I looked back at the woman with the sword who didn’t seem to understand why I wasn’t threatened by this.
"Did you forget? The police literally left stating that they know I’m under your care. If I were to disappear, the pri suspect would be you guys. So it’s actually in your best interests that nothing happens to , you know? If that rival of yours goes ahead and kills as well, the first people to be suspected would still be you guys. Good luck getting any contract why you guys have this investigation going on, I guess."
The woman hesitated and Kaito nodded at her, "Lower that and apologise."
The woman quickly pulled the sword away and bowed her head, "Please accept my apologies, Miss Tera."
I leaned back in my chair, "Not good enough."
Kaito frowned, "What do you an?"
"She just threatened my life and I’m pretty sure she had full intentions of following through with that threat had I not reminded you all about this. If I recall... The person who are asking for a favour isn’t but you... And I was brought here with the understanding that you were supposed to apologise to and offer compensation for getting involved in an unwarranted search and arrest by the police. Yet what I got here was soone threatening my life? I wonder how that’s going to sound if I were to report that?"
Kaito narrowed his eyes, "What do you want then?"
"I would still like to point out that I have yet to receive any compensation from you, you know?"
One of the secretaries leaned forward nacingly, "That only applies when you were wronged. The truth is you have the creature on board your ship, don’t you?! Yet you’re asking for compensation after we already know that we were right from the very beginning?!"
I feigned surprise, "Oh? Were you? I don’t rember saying you were right about the creature though?"
She pointed an accusatory finger at , "You just told us that you took the creature from the smuggler!"
"Hmm? I did? Do you have any proof that I said that?" I asked with a smirk. "I, on the other hand, have impartial witnesses that can prove that I had nothing on board and you had wronged ."
The woman sputtered, realising that they indeed had no evidence as they had disabled all their recording devices before this. The only people who heard admit that I had the creature on board were themselves and no one would be taking their word for it.
Kaito eyed from behind his visor, his face stern, "You are a very shrewd woman, Miss Tera..."
"That comnt coming from soone who set up a trap for the smuggler and is trying to discredit and ruin his competitor through tricks? I’ll take that as a complint."
He stared at for a good minute before he reached into his drawer and pulled out gold coloured Credit Chips.
He then stuck them into his personal terminal before sliding one of them over towards .
"Five million Credits. As an apology for everything that we’ve done to you so far..."
He then slid the next one over, "Fifty million Credits to buy your cooperation for helping us with this task."
I raised an eyebrow, "Just fifty five million Credits? Are you guys poor or sothing? And seriously? Just five million Credits for giving all that trouble? I’ve been paid more doing work for other companies and they never threatened my life before. You really think five million Credits is enough for to overlook the fact that I had a blade at my neck just a few monts ago?"
"What are you suggesting then?"
"Since she tried to take my head... Then I think the proper compensation is that she offers hers in turn, right?"
His face soured when he realised what I was suggesting.
Of course, I don’t really intend to have her killed right here just for that... But I definitely wasn’t going to go easy on them either. In fact, I would have gone a little easy on him if he hadn’t tried to pull off that act.
He really thinks that I couldn’t tell that the whole interaction with his secretaries earlier where they threatened wasn’t an act to try and see if they could just intimidate into cooperation so that they can use that as leverage instead of using their own resources.
If those won had really stepped out of line earlier, this guy would have been panicking more and also cut them off before they could even make the threat.
Yet... All he did was sit there and watch until I voiced out my complaint.
So even if I was mistaken about this being an act, his lack of an attempt at stopping his subordinates before they did what they did was already sothing I was not going to overlook.
Kaito frowned, "You’re asking my woman... To kill herself?"
"It would be a start to show that you were being serious about this, right? This subordinate of yours basically went against your wishes and tried to sabotage you by antagonising , don’t you think you should be getting rid of soone like that?"
"I will punish her appropriately later... That is none of your concern."
"Really? Then I suppose whether I have that creature or not is also none of your concern. In that case, I would like to wish you a good day."
I was just in the midst of standing up when the woman suddenly took up her blade and held it at her neck.
I saw the look of panic flash in Kaito’s eyes and the woman had the look of determined resignation on her face.
Right before she could slice her neck open, I grabbed onto her hand and stopped her.
Satisfied that she was actually serious about this, I turned back to Kaito and nodded in the direction of the Credit Chips.
"Bump that number up to a hundred million Credits for the inconvenience and at least three hundred million with space for negotiation for going along with your plan. Then we can talk about a deal."
He scowled and I guess the fact that I stopped his woman from offing herself convinced him to agree to it.
"Fine..."
I nodded, "Let’s talk business then."
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