Chapter 533: Chapter 533 Reporting to Cerise
"Well, I won’t say that we hit the jackpot, but we definitely came out ahead."
Upon returning to the Intrepid, Avery had called over the officers of his mercenary company to review the information they had collected from the distribution center.
They had not learned the location of every single one of the Odium Syndicate’s bases or received a list of all of their members, but they had obtained some useful intelligence.
The identifying information for hundreds of vessels smuggling Paradise was by far the most prominent intel that Avery’s team had been able to acquire.
This would allow Cerise to continue her operation chipping away at the Odium Syndicate’s manpower which would in turn make Avery, in his role as Ferdinand, more valuable.
What was possibly more important though, was that the information they had retrieved contained the coordinates for one the Odium Syndicate’s manufacturing plants.
Now Avery’s company had a new target to go after. One where they would likely be able to obtain far more information on their target.
"Hm, there’s less names than I thought we’d get." Liesel commented.
Avery pursed his lips and nodded in confirmation.
Among the intel they were hoping to obtain was the names of some of the Odium Syndicate’s higher-ranking members.
Unfortunately, they did not get much in that regard.
There was only one person they were able to identify as an executive from the data they had acquired.
The individual in question was the Odium Syndicate’s liaison who dealt with the distribution center and made sure that everything was running smoothly and their interests were met.
Sadly, this person did not have a public persona so far as Avery or anyone in his company could find.
Most likely they were someone that had long ago discarded their original identity and worked only within the Odium Syndicate.
"There’s not much we can do right now though. Until we return to the Dramid Alliance and can contact our employer for further instructions, we’ll have to continue as we have been." Ezra said with a sigh.
The rest of the gathered officers agreed with his notion.
As much as all of them might have wanted to immediately act on the information that they had gathered, it was honestly up to Cerise how it would be used.
It was also too risky to get in contact with her at the moment.
They were currently still in Zatis Consortium space and there was no telling if any transmissions they sent out might be intercepted.
Even if the message was encoded, it was best that they not offer their enemies any chance to learn about their true objective.
...
Once the Intrepid had passed the border into the Dramid Alliance and dropped off its cargo, both the legal goods and the drugs, Avery contacted Cerise using the priority frequency they had established before the mission had begun.
Within just a few minutes the call was picked up and Cerise’s face appeared on the monitor on Avery’s desk.
’Oof. She’s certainly seen better days.’
At just a glance, Avery could tell that Cerise was exhausted.
She had tried to hide the bags under her eyes with makeup, and her expression was a mask that did not show any emotion.
For anyone that did not know her, it would be difficult to tell that she was worn down, but Avery had interacted with Cerise enough to know that she was not in her best condition.
"Please don’t tell me you’ve called because your cover has been blown and you need an extraction deep in Zatis Consortium space." Cerise said, almost pleadingly.
"No, we’re currently in the Alliance. Just finished with our last drop off. I’ve contacted you because we’ve finally gotten our hands on some useful intelligence on the Odium Syndicate. I figured that you’d want it before our scheduled data transfer. "
Hearing that Avery brought good news, Cerise’ eyes brightened up.
She had been expecting he worst after what she had been through during the last couple of weeks, and she certainly needed a win.
"Got it. Send the information over. I’ll start reviewing it immediately."
Cerise was obviously trying to control her emotions, but Avery could tell how excited she was to finally be getting some results.
After Avery finished transferring the data, he kept the call open in case Cerise had any questions for him.
"This is pretty good. We didn’t know most of this." Cerise mumbled as she skimmed over the information.
A few times she popped her head up and asked Avery about certain details, and he answered them to the best of his ability.
"So, how’d you get into the distribution center and out again without being noticed. You told me about your plan to infiltrate the place and I approved it, but I’d like to know the details for future refence. It could prove useful."
Avery understood what she was getting at.
If there were similar stations in the Zatis Consortium, she could arrange other teams to infiltrate should that ever prove beneficial.
"Yeah, I can tell you. But I think it might be difficult for anyone else to replicate."
Avery told Cerise exactly what he and his team had done, only leaving out the parts where he used his psionic abilities. He trusted Cerise, but he did not trust her enough to give away his trump card.
"Your crazy. No way I could order any of my subordinates to do something like that. There are so many ways that plan could have gone wrong. And who even thinks to brining Douveilian Voles with them as a distraction."
Cerise had started out shocked and ended with a far off look in her eyes that told Avery she did not even want to think about the crazy stunts he and his team had pulled off to successfully infiltration the distribution center without being discovered.
’Hm, I thought that it was pretty tame compared to some of the stuff we do, but I probably shouldn’t mention that to her. She seems to have enough to worry about already.’
The last thing that Avery wanted was for Cerise to think that he was some sort of thrill seeker that liked to live life on the edge.
Certainly, when the situation called for it, he was willing to do some pretty extreme things.
But it was not like he sought such scenarios out on purpose. Well, at least not most of the time.
Avery liked to have some excitement every now and then, but not so much that he and his entire crew were at serious risk of dying. He typically tried to play things within a margin of safety.
"So, is there anything else that you want us to do, or should we stick with our current course of action?" Avery asked once there was a lull in the conversation.
Cerise wore a contemplative look on her face for a few moments, before shaking her head.
"No stick with what you’ve been doing and keep gathering more intel slowly, and perhaps even a bit more carefully."
From her initial reaction to his question, Avery could tell that something was going on. Cerise had been close to telling him something.
"Are you certain? It looked to me like you might have an idea for us to speed things up. As long as its not a clear suicide mission, I’m willing to consider just about anything you want us to try." Avery replied, fishing for more information.
"No, its fine. Continue as you are. I’ve been receiving some pressure from above lately to get results quicker, but I’m not going to put you and your team at any greater risk for them. They’re just a bunch of desk jockeys that have never been in the field and have no idea what we’re dealing with out here. All they see are numbers."
As it turned out, there were some in the Alliance Police that were unhappy with how much money Cerise was blowing through to hire Avery’s Company and increase the number of ships active in her sector.
Apparently, the head of the accounting department was literally breathing down her neck.
They had personally come to her command ship and asked for explanations for some of the expenses that Cerise had approved.
It seemed that giving away eighteen million Krenin a day to a mercenary company and offering extra overtime to thousands of Alliance Police officers did not sit well with the people managing the Alliance Police’s budget.
"That sounds pretty rough. You’re going to be able to pay us though, right?"
"Yes, don’t worry about that. The people in the accounting department can throw as many fits as they want, but I still have the Chief of Police’s approval. He understands when something absolutely needs to get done no matter the strain on resources. Plus, he owes me for forcing me to become the Dramid Alliance’s public hero. Just because I do my job well doesn’t mean I wanted my face and name spread everywhere."
Avery listened to Cerise grumble for a few more minutes before she had to end the call.
She had another meeting coming up with the head of the Alliance Police’s accounting department, and she planned to shove the intel Avery had gathered in their face to justify the costs of the operation.
"Well, I suppose that went fairly well. It would have sucked if she told me that the mission was over and that we wouldn’t be getting paid."
Feeling satisfied with the work that he and his company had accomplished recently, Avery opened a secret compartment in his desk where he stored a few bottles of expensive alcohol.
He figured after their recent success; he could have a small private celebration.
