“That’s probably what he’s thinking, at least.”
“His reaction wasn’t unwarranted, given our goal.”
That was true. I didn’t want to take the fight to space.
“What should we do?”
“Iga Security… They aren’t easy to deal with. But if I recall correctly, they have a competitor.”
“Koga Services. Maybe get them to fight each other?”
“His group isn’t the only one with money. Let’s wait for an opportunity.”
If our target had fled to somewhere near the capital, it would’ve been really annoying, but there was no way for him to know that. However, he’d decided to remain here, which was convenient; apparently my luck wasn’t so bad after all.
“Booooss, why not just try to make contact nooormally?”
“This involves her, so that’s not a gamble I’m willing to take. And I don’t want them to flee—that’d be the worst-case scenario. Did you finish investigating his background?”
“I couldn’t find a thiiing. He first showed up in the Tarmein System, but not even the mercenary guild knows his origins or who his backers are.”
“Are you asking me to believe he just happened to show up right in Tarmein and coincidentally ran into her, then brought her aboard his ship, rose from bronze to platinum rank within a few months, and gained the emperor’s favor? Something about him is definitely fishy.”
“Yeaaah, but I reaaally can’t find anything! The Empire’s intelligence bureau seems to be investigating him too, and I don’t wanna screw uuuuup and get caaaught by them.”
There she went again—whining, whining, whining. Why was she always like this? “I’m sure you can handle it. Do your best.”
“Waaah! You old witch…!”
“Oh—do you miss my fist?” If rolling up my sleeve is enough to silence you, then you shouldn’t have said anything to begin with.
That man was awfully hard to read… I’d pegged him as the rash, overconfident type. Well, whatever. I’ll just proceed as usual. He won’t escape.
✦ ✦ ✦
“All right, then… Fifty thousand Ener per day.”
“Yes, let’s go with that.”
The daily cost of a team of twelve people performing bodyguard and recon duties, came to fifty thousand Ener, which worked out to roughly forty-two hundred Ener per person a day. Is that cheap or expensive…? If I remember correctly, a Warrant Officer First Class in the Imperial Fleet earns a monthly salary of roughly four thousand Ener. Skilled engineers like Tina and Wiska were paid even less than that at Space Dwergr.
That didn’t mean that each of the twelve people working for me would receive forty-two hundred Ener per day, but I’d still pay the equivalent of a highly skilled professional’s monthly pay for a day of their time, so their services definitely didn’t seem cheap.
“Is something the matter?”
“No, don’t worry about it. How long we need you will depend on how long the overhaul takes. I expect those to be finished in two weeks at most, so how about I hire you for fourteen days for now?”
“That’s fine with us. If an extension is necessary, we can renegotiate.”
“Okay, then. Fourteen days means seven hundred thousand Ener. I’ll pay directly, so have your people send me an invoice.”
“Yes, we’ll do that… Platinum-rankers are quite wealthy.”
“I do all right for myself. Prep your people as quickly as possible.”
“Leave it to me.”
Ota politely bowed again, which was followed by Killam bowing as well. Now, I hope this’ll effectively deter whoever’s monitoring me.