NOVEL NEXT Chapter 347: Negotiations that I'm not privy to
Hearing the exchange, I could already imagine the transaction going through.
Why would Makary bother to hold on to anything on the other side of the gate when this world was full of opportunities to earn more wealth than it was ever possible back home?
And yet…
"So you want me to give up all the control I still have over parts of the city in exchange for… supplies?" Makary raised his right eyebrow while locking his arms over his chest. "Quite the convenient solution for you, isn't it?" he asked, leaning his head to the back and raising his chin so far up, when looking at Leo he did so along the bridge of his nose.
"And let me guess, it's all going to be a one-off transaction, so if we need anything in the future, you will have the monopoly of procuring it for us?"
'Oh shit.' I gulped down my saliva.
The deal that I took as an easy and pretty much obvious solution… wasn't as easy nor as obvious as I believed it to be.
'And what's with Makary and keeping control over parts of the city?' I suddenly caught myself thinking as I analyzed Makary's words. 'And didn't he mention how he liquidated what he could by now?'
I squinted my eyes as I moved them from one man to the other and back.
'And what about the fact that I can change the location of the permanent gate pretty much at will?'
I took a deep breath.
'Well, having him keep silent about that part is reasonable. There's no point in bringing it up if we can use Leon's obliviousness to the reality… But damn!'
I rolled my eyes over my own naivete.
'To think that this simple deal was actually so much deeper than I thought!'
Still, as annoyed with myself as I was, I could hardly find any fault in myself. It wasn't my mistake to be born in circumstances that barred me from ever learning about stuff like that.
'On the other hand, though…'
As much as I wanted to shy away from the responsibility for my own lack of deep thought, I wasn't going to lie to myself.
'It's my fault and my fault alone that I didn't investigate Makary any deeper than just the surface of who he and his group are.'
"Well, you can't blame a man for trying, can you?" Leon grinned, seemingly unbothered by Makary calling out his scheme. "But what else can you suggest? Splitting the power and benefits here, in this world? But are you ready to give up on parts of your authority?"
Leon's smile fainted, only to then turn into an ironic smirk.
"I'm sorry man, but I just can't picture it happening."
To this, Makary appeared not to have any retort prepared. He simply stared back at the young man's face, as if judging something in his thoughts.
"Peter," Makary turned his head to the side and looked me directly in the eyes. "If I recall correctly, you were about to move into the new headquarters. And you still have some priority tasks to perform later in the evening, don't you?" Discover exclusive content at empire
Between the intensity of Makary's stare and the suggestion hardly hidden behind his words…
"Since when did you become a diplomat?" I asked back while putting a small, although reluctant smile on my lips. "But well, I got the message," I stated as I turned around on my heel. "I guess I will see you tomorrow?"
"No, wait!" Leon suddenly exclaimed. "Once we are done talking here, I want you to accompany me back to earth," the young man said, his expression changing into one I hadn't seen before.
A face of all seriousness if not even grave determination.
"Oh, right," Makary nearly jumped, his eyes widened, "there's that matter still…"
Puzzled, I looked up at the mercenary's face, yet upon failing to learn anything from it, I helplessly looked over to Leon.
"Don't worry about it for now, it's nothing binding or dangerous," Leon shook his head, "I just want you to take a look at something."
My eyebrows moved a little bit up on my face… Yet, seeing how both men appeared to be reluctant to talk about whatever the hell this topic was, I simply shrugged my shoulders and nodded my head.
"Sure, give me a call on the radio once you are done, and I will tell you back how I stand with my current tasks. So, while I might be unable to follow right away, I will do my best to accompany you back. Oh, and before I go," I turned my eyes over my shoulder to give Makary a meaningful glance, "regarding that priority job of mine, should we hold on to it? Because if you take too long talking…"
Makary squinted his eyes a little.
After all, if I were to follow Leon back to earth… Then he had to leave before the time for reopening the permanent gate would come. After coming in from the gate in the forest, if he were to leave through the newly opened gate at the camp's center…
'Sure, we could bullshit him that one gate serves to enter while the other only works as an exit…'
For a second, I entertained the thought of doing so. Yet, as I finally turned around and actually started to leave the area, I ended up shaking my head over its stupidity.
'Yeah, there's no way. He's not stupid enough to believe something that far-fetched…'
"Just give us some time. I don't know, play around with how you want to furnish your new room or something. And don't worry," Makary nodded his head, "we will be done before it will be your time to shine here."
"Well, call me when you are done, then," I requested before finally managing to get away from the two men and directing my steps towards the very center of the current camp, where Fay and all the other high-ranking officers of the camp tirelessly toiled away to keep up with the extensive paperwork produced by this enterprise.
Thankfully, at least for now, the camp wasn't all that big.
It looked like that given all the empty space separating the areas designated for each respective project, but in reality, it was the size of a middling town or a mere district of a bigger city.
'Thinking about it, just the slums of the academy town are several times bigger than this,' I thought, turning my eyes from the line of the trees on one side to the crest of a small rise that hid the part of the camp lying beyond its edge.
In the end, the relatively small size of the camp disallowed me from sinking too deeply into my thoughts, given how quickly I'd arrived at the edge of the temporary headquarters.
And by now, even though we still had some sunlight for the day left, this place was a mess much greater than I remembered it to be just a few hours prior.
Most of the communication equipment was either gone, packed up, dismantled, or outright abandoned, with the glorious exception of four spots where communication officers worked tirelessly to keep the whole camp connected and managed.
When it came to the others, though, they were all busy packing up the bigger and multi-channel radios and moving them quite some distance down the beaten-down path, most likely moving them into the new headquarters.
The communication side of the old headquarters was in shambles… but the decision-making table remained the exact same way I remembered it from my last visit.
Even Fay and the officers who worked there to sort the papers and make the decisions up to the limit of their authority didn't seem to be bothered by the general commotion, all too focused on their respective tasks to pay any attention to other people doing whatever the heck they wanted.
And even though as annoying as it could be for someone to tear them out of their focused state… I wasn't going to let Fay stay in the open with only a thin layer of clothing above her head to protect her from the elements.
"Fay," I whispered while approaching the girl from behind and fully opening up our bond, just to make my presence known when I reached out and laid my hand down on the girl's shoulder.
"A moment please," Fay answered with an absentminded voice, too busy writing something down in some sort of a form to spare me even a single glance. Yet, when I shook her shoulder again, I felt her consciousness slipping through our bond, leading to the young man finally awakening from her bureaucratic daze.
Still, she raised her eyes and gave me a sharp look before barking, "What?!"
Fay's startled and slightly annoyed expression quickly mellowed down when she laid her eyes on my face and noticed the sparks of excitement flashing in my eyes.
"Why?" she asked again, this time in a much kinder, calmer voice.
"I've got the news our lodging is finished, but we need to figure out how to furnish it," I explained the reason for my presence. "So, could I count on your help with that?"
As far as I knew, hardly any woman would turn such a request down… But this wasn't the earth the standards of which I pretty much knew by heart by now. And as such, I dared not to impose my own line of thinking on others.
"Wait, are you for real?" Fay's eyebrows moved up as her eyes widened to her limit, right before her lips curved out and up, forming one of the most lovely smiles that Fay ever graced me with. "Sure thing! Let's go!"