Chapter 121

"Found it..."

Kiwi was the first to report to me that she'd found the data cluster that hid most of Smasher's identity and memory, and she'd done so seven hours after we'd arrived on the ship. And all that time, me, Becca, Panam and Triss had been wandering around the ship, gathering anything that might be useful.

However, if we remember that it was a ship of a very old mercenary, there were a lot of interesting things here... Weapons, and not just modern weapons, but experimental weapons. So we can assume that Smasher also moonlighted as a weapons tester. However, I was not very much interested in it, but the ancient samples, they can be sold quite well now. Collectors of all sorts would be very keen to get their hands on them.

Also on the ship was a lot of chrome, but for us this chrome is useless because it was created for the Borg, and the sale of this chrome ...

No one would just do it, it would leave too much of a mark, which means Arasaka would almost certainly come and ask politely, politely, politely, politely, politely, what the fuck? So we just put a couple of fuel drums in one place and put them next to the chrome, so that when we decide to leave the ship, we can just destroy it.

However, it was not the weapons and chrome that attracted special attention, but the trophy room. And now I was standing in front of one of them...

"So? Can you delete it?"

"Are you questioning our skills?"

Kiwi tried to show with her voice how offensive such a thought was to her.

"No, I'm just realizing that Arasak's techs could have tied in his identity or something to some system that would cause the ship to go down."

"We're just checking this out now, I'll tell you what's what later..."

"Uh-huh...

When Kiwi was back to work, I tilted my head to the side and took a chrome photo of the silver hand, which was lying on a special pedestal under a glass cover. Then I sent it to Bestia with a single question: "Interested?".

I don't know how it happened, but Bestia's call came literally five seconds after I sent her this file and I naturally answered it.

"Where did you find her?!"

I blinked in surprise.

"Bestia, so much expression..."

There was a touch of mockery in my voice, but overall I was showing surprise at this kind of conversation starter.

"...what about hello..."

"Quiet, shut up, I'm not in the mood for jokes. Where. You. Her. Found her."

"So you're the one who gave me the assignment through Regina..."

I grinned.

"So I sat in the harbor waiting for Ebunike to return to port, since I had no way to get to him covertly. Some sniper had taken out the doll that Smasher had put on the deck, so the ship never made it to the dock, but it was close enough for me to get to it."

"A doll?"

"I take it that was your man?"

"Yeah, uh. I went to, uh. a girl, and she's already reported back with an order..."

"Forwarding you the video files that were taken by my chrome."

"Uh-huh...

There was silence in the conversation for a couple minutes, which spoke volumes about Bestia studying the video data I had sent her.

"Fucking..."

"What is it?"

"I can't believe you took down Smasher in a direct confrontation, but you still prefer to work quietly."

I shrugged, which should have been reflected in my avatar.

"So, is a certain silver hand of interest to you?"

"Yeah..."

"Okay..."

"What do you want for her?"

"Don't worry, you won't have to pay for it, but it's not the only trophy on the Smasher... and I want you to get in on the action."

"Hmm?"

"It's simple, all the trophies are signed and you will have to find those who cared about the mind from which the trophy was taken and sell it to them. Just don't charge too much, if you can't get anything from the person, you can just hand over the trophy."

Bestia snorted at these words of mine.

"You're too kind..."

"I'll find something to make money from, but karma, it can be cleaned up sometimes."

"Karma? Are you a Buddhist?"

Now it was my turn to snort.

"Buddhists? Not at all, it's just that not everything should be done to one's advantage. And this is probably the moment."

"I see..."

I could tell from her tone that she didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't going to argue and find out my motives. I realized that I'd already earned an obscenely large sum from the trophies with Ebunike, so I didn't see the point in being greedy.

"...Okay, you send the hand and the rest of the trophies and I'll take care of realizing them."

"Here's the deal..."

I nodded my head.

"...Only Bestia..."

"Uh-huh?

"Say, can you get pure gold and silver?"

"Well, uh. I can, but how much do you need?"

I could hear the suspicion in her voice.

"A lot, a lot."

"Tychonya, that's not the answer, how much gold and silver do you need?"

I could hear the irritation in her voice.

"Well, let's say I'd like to buy myself a couple of kilo bars. I hear gold's worth in the neighborhood of a million."

"A little bit more, and the silver one. it's selling for fifty-five right now.

"Keeping track?"

"Just so you know, being a fixer imposes certain obligations in terms of having information, so yes, I know about rates and their expected fluctuations, so I can afford to make money from it."

I grinned.

"I see your point, total silver then ten pieces, you can do more, to total up to four million."

"Satisfy my curiosity, why do you need so many?"

"I want to get into the trade..."

"If you don't want to say it, you don't have to, but you don't have to say it. If you're a three-time Major League mercenary, you'll get chewed up in the precious metals trade without being noticed.

"Uh-huh. So, uh, can you get it?

"I'll get it. I think you'll pay for some of the trophies you'll sell through me?"

"Well, if there's a particularly rich person who cares about this trophy, you might be able to put a little bit of a price on it. So we'll see if there's any left after we sell everything here..."

So I sent Bestia a clip of me looking around the entire trophy room.

She dropped out of the conversation again, then laughed merrily.

"Fuck! Everyone thinks I'm a rich narcissistic bitch, and you're gonna make me a VERY rich narcissistic bitch!"

"Ahem. I didn't call you that."

"Seriously?"

"Well, maybe at the very beginning of our acquaintance I had such thoughts, but you managed to convince me pretty quickly that it's all nonsense and you're actually a nice girl..."

"Me? Honey?"

"Uh-huh...

I nodded at the question she asked in a dumbfounded tone.

"What. Would you go out with me?"

"Dating? Maybe I would if I didn't have a relationship with my girls."

"Uh, yeah. and it's busy."

"I thought you were, like."

"А..."

The image of Bestia waved her hand.

"...there's nothing there anymore. No love, no sympathy, only mutual respect and a child together. But he's grown up now."

"Well..."

I looked pensively up at the ceiling of the trophy room.

"What?"

"I've got a candidate. but he's a bit of a walker."

"A walker?"

In the voice of the interlocutor there was irony and a drop of contempt for the man under discussion.

"Well, there are two options here, either you'll find a scythe on a stone and you'll sleep together a couple times, or you'll be able to get him under your thumb."

"Interesting. from what you say he's a strong person, since you were the first to suggest that it might not work... and I don't think you'd recommend just anyone to me..."

"You're right."

I nodded.

"However, he is not here now and when he shows up..."

Now I shrugged, as if to apologize and say I wasn't aware of his plans at all.

"...but if he shows up, I'll try to arrange a meeting."

"Zaesh...and come on..."

It was said in a tone like she was jumping off a cliff.

"...try as they say, maybe I'll have a little fun at the expense of this type..."

"Maybe."

"Okay, I've got a solo coming to me here, I need to explain to her why I did the refund..."

"The one?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, good luck with that."

"Uh-huh...

The connection was broken, and I finally started collecting the trophies and carrying them through the portal Triss had created to the clan's parking lot. Not to the parking lot, but to the garage tent that had been set up just in case I needed to sneak into the clan through the portal.

For a few hours I hauled nitty gritty until I heard a report from Judy.

"Well, Smasher's done, and we were also able to get to some of his accounts, the ones he created bypassing Arasaki. Of course we could try to get to the rest, but breaking corporate ice via remote connection especially in our position, that would be a bit unsafe..."

"If we are closer to the port and manage to get through the ship's network into the port's network and from there..."

Lucy joined the conversation.

"Yeah, well. too much risk, and we've already got over a billion dollars."

"Huh?!"

"And what do you want, the old man was rich, and his paranoia bloomed and smelled, so he regularly withdrew money carefully and under the guise of various purchases transferred to other accounts not related to his employer."

"I see..."

"Is something wrong?"

"Well, I was just thinking that my efforts to sell the trophies through Bestia look pathetic compared to that kind of income. Of course, I'll sell some of the weapons through Regina as well, but it's only five million, or even less than four, and the Bestia will have to pay extra from the stash..."

"Pay extra?"

"I ordered two kilos of gold and the rest in silver to make it four mil. Considering the gold coin is, what's its name. florin, right?"

"Yes, that's the one..."

Triss answered my question in the affirmative.

"...weighs three grams, we'll get six hundred and sixty-six coins for one such bar, that's if we take pure gold, but in the world of Triss pure gold can only get magicians, and the rulers will not so soak and purify the ore to nine hundred and ninety-ninth grade, so can count on more than a thousand gold rounds. And how many silver ones we'll get, I'm too lazy to even count.

"Kha..."

Triss coughed.

"What?"

"It's just that it's a lot of money. With such money you can build your own fortress, and on your own land, bought for hereditary use."

"Well, we may have to build, but how do we know how my plans for Caer Morhan will pan out? So that kind of money will be essential. If the plans for the witches' fortress fall through, then we'll just put them in the treasury and just hoard the gold."

The girls laughed, but I was more than serious. The sum was quite impressive, especially by the standards of the Witcher's world, but not phenomenal. And... I still doubt the need to get into that world, although the plans have already built and even began to realize them...

Why do I doubt it?

Well so Mirror Man... either a demon or something else... On the other hand, is there less of a threat in this world? The same wild AIs. I've been lucky not to run into them, but if I hadn't. I think the result would have been similar to that demon. Except that with the latter there is a chance of victory, since he prefers games, but the AI would simply and without a hitch would destroy me.