Chapter 56: Tiny Bit Unhinged
The wolfman reared his head back and looked at me. "You think that you will be the scariest thing in a room?" he growled in disbelief.
"Yes," I assured him. "But if we maybe put a bit of trust in each other, we will both profit from this deal and have a good business partnership in the future."
"Big words for a child that refuses to show their face," snorted the wolf as the two of us continued down the deserted hallway. Like everything else on this planet, it was dark gray and dingy, making me almost appreciate Jun Li’s sanitized look.
I did say almost. I will be making some changes. The hallways, combined with the smell of the filtered air, made me think of a hospital, and no one wanted to live in one of those.
"If it doesn’t yet, the Alliance is going to have a hard-on for me. I am not in the mood to make their life easier for them by showing my face," I answered with a shrug.
"What does it mean, ’hard on’?" asked the wolf, cocking his head at an almost unnatural angle.
"To my species, it is a sexual term to indicate a male’s interest in a female. In this case, it means that I am planning to go against a lot of their rules, which will piss them off and make them want to hunt me down."
"And by showing your face, you will be registered on the video feeds, and easier to find," continued the wolf in understanding.
"And if I am locked away, I can’t get you whatever goods you want," I continued with a sly smile.
"Then let’s keep you out of the eyes of the Alliance," agreed my buyer as we finally reached the bay where the runner was waiting. Before I opened the door, I looked at the male with a smile.
"How about half now, half when you are satisfied?" I suggested. But let’s face it, it was really not a suggestion. I couldn’t take the chance that wolfman would try to kill me and take the weapons for himself.
It wasn’t like I was dealing with the most upstanding citizens here, after all. If they were, they wouldn’t be looking for illegal weapons.
The wolfman pulled out a screen the size of his palm and tapped a few things into the screen. "Done," he said right before Jun Li came through my earpiece.
"Half of the money had been delivered to our account. I am now going to make it untraceable."
"Thank you," I said with a smile.
"You didn’t check," replied the wolf, confused.
"I did. Like I said, I have a lot of surprises up my sleeves," I said, unable to hold back my smile. I punched in the code that Jun Li had given me and watched as the bay doors slid open with the familiar hiss. Would I ever open a door again without hearing that sound?
I sighed and walked towards the runner, my client following closely behind me. I punched in another code to open the side ramp, not caring if wolfman saw it or not.
"You are too trusting for your own good," said the wolf as he looked into the runner and saw crates and crates of his goods. I gestured for him to go inside and inspect his goods.
"I really am not," I said as I stood just outside of the opening. "I just have a really good partner that will be able to change the codes as soon as I give the order."
"And if you are dead?" asked the wolfman as he pulled one of the laser rifles out of the crate and pointed it at me.
"If she dies, you die too," said Jun Li over the speaker of the runner. "And I can kill you much faster than you can kill her."
The wolf placed the gun back into the crate and held up his hands in a mock gesture of surrender. "All good," he said, a grin stretching over his muzzle, reminding me of the horror movies with the big bad wolf. "Simple question. After all, I don’t want to have a partner that freaks out over the smallest of things."
"No, wouldn’t want that at all," I said, never moving from my original spot. It wasn’t like I believed he was faking his threat; I was just more interested in what my passive weapons would do as a result. Not to mention I was interested in seeing just how bulletproof this fabric was.
"Everything seems to be in order," he said as he replaced the lid. Once again, he took out the small tablet and entered some information.
"Money has been transferred," said Jun Li, coming over the speaker so both myself and the wolfman could hear him. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"I have some males on standby," said the wolf as he looked at me. "We should be able to get the boxes out of here quickly, and you can be on your way."
"Or you can just take the runner and make life easy for everyone," I offered as a suggestion.
The wolf looked at me suspiciously. "It is a Sisalik vessel," he pointed out.
"Yup," I replied with a nod of my head. "If you think I have an issue with the Alliance, it is nothing compared to the Sisalik."
"May I ask why?"
"Didn’t you just?" I said with a bark of laughter. "They held me captive for over 5 years. They are not my favorite species and any chance that I have to send them a ’fuck you’ I will take."
"How did you get free?" asked the wolf softly and I would have sworn that he seemed to become softer, almost gentler than he was before. The poor male needed to learn better.
"My partner and I killed them," I replied, grateful that the wolf couldn’t see the smile under my veil. I couldn’t promise that it wasn’t a tiny bit unhinged.
