NOVEL NEXT Chapter 629: Gunrunning
I obviously wasn't just going to open the door without some questions first so I used my Codex to connect to the intercom outside the door.
"Who this?"
The guy wearing the suit turned to look at the camera of the door and smiled, "Someone who is interested in doing business."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"Ah, but names are something that we both would like to avoid, right? Especially in this line of business. You have something I want, I have the Credits to pay for it. Is that not enough?"
At least he's honest about it I guess? Though it's obvious that these guys were definitely outlaws.
I looked back at the girls and all of them nodded at me, indicating they were ready.
Alright then.
I turned back to the screen showing that suited guy, "I don't suppose you would be willing to disarm before you enter my ship?"
"Oh, that would be a problem I'm afraid. You don't trust us but we also don't trust you, you see. And since you have the home ground advantage, I thought that you might just allow this small concession so that we could at least even out the playing field."
"You really want to talk about trust after bringing an army to my doorstep?"
"An army? No, no. These are just my personal bodyguards! You have to understand right? The law and order of this station isn't that great and for a sophisticated businessman like myself, such precautions are necessary!"
"Fine then, I assume you are here to buy weapons?"
"You assume right."
"Give us a moment to set up then. Since I'm assuming you'll be purchasing them immediately?"
"That is correct."
"Give us five minutes."
I cut off the call indicating that it was not up for debate and nodded at Ries before jerking my head at the other girls.
Ries tilted her head for a moment before she realised what I wanted and started running in the direction of the workshop.
The other girls also started preparing the weapons out from the boxes to display them out in the open for these gang members to inspect.
As for me, I followed Ries to the workshop and she helped me fit up with my Power Armour in record time.
Since we were just dealing with a bunch of thugs, I didn't really need anything fancy so I only took the arm mounted shotguns and miniguns.
Returning to the cargo hold, I made sure everyone else was ready before I unlocked the hatch, the door letting out a hiss before it cycled open and allowed those thugs inside our ship.
They slowly stepped inside and obviously, the first thing they noticed was me standing at the front with my Power Armour staring at them.
I had the arms relaxed by my side so it didn't look like I was directly threatening them.
The suited guy didn't even look fazed by me, nor did he bat an eyebrow at the multiple drones floating around the cargo bay that were clearly combat drones ready to unleash a hail of bullets on them.
He stretched out his arms invitingly, "Hey! Good to see you! That's a really nice Power Armour! Don't suppose you have one for sale as well?"
"Unfortunately not, we're only selling guns. Everything there is for sale. See anything you want, just tell us."
"How exciting! Let's see what we have then!"
He went over to the tables and started inspecting the guns that were laid out while his 'personal bodyguards' stared at us with a number of them looking worryingly at me.
They were clearly not expecting to face someone in Power Armour when they came here which meant they brought no anti armour weapons that could put a dent on my Power Armour.
"This is certainly a lot of weapons. Don't suppose you would be willing to share where you found all these weapons?" The suited guy asked from where he was inspecting the weapons.
"Business secret," I answered vaguely.
"So mysterious~ I like it. In that case, I'll take everything you have here. Pack them and ring me up!"
I nodded at Yumiko and she tapped on her personal terminal before projecting a screen in front of her, showing the suit guy the amount of Credits we were expecting him to pay.
Since these weapons were basically second hand weapons and we're selling him used guns, we went with the bulk sale price of one point seven million Credits.
He pretended to be shocked, "Wow! What a number! I suppose this is where the businessman in me has to appear! I don't suppose I could convince you to knock down that price a little to maybe… Say… One point two million Credits instead?"
It's not that bad of an offer but definitely way below what we were expecting to make from this sale.
"That's too low. One point six."
"How about one and four? We'll even throw you some energy cells since you have trouble buying them on this station, right?"
"Make it one point five and you can keep the energy cells, we don't need them. We have enough in our storage."
He seemed surprised by my answer but recovered quickly and smiled, "Deal."
He gestured for one of the armed men and he went forward to hand him a Credit Chip which he stuck into his personal terminal for a moment before passing it to me.
I stuck the Credit Chip into my Codex and saw the number one million and five hundred thousand Credits pop up on the screen being added to my total Credits.
Huh… That was easy…
I was totally expecting him to try to threaten me or something, like what Yumiko had suggested they might do.
Yet he really just paid up and said nothing else…
I nodded at the other girls to let them know that he had indeed paid the full amount and they began packing the guns into their respective crates.
The suit guy then turned back to flash me a smile, "You know what? I like you. And I would really like to build a lasting business relationship with you. So as a gesture of goodwill for future businesses, I'm happy to give you some energy cells anyway. How about that?"
I raised an eyebrow at him, "This isn't our usual trade route though. We might never come here again and this would just be a one time business for us."
"Oh, that won't be a problem. Consider it an investment of ours, how about that? In case you ever come back here again, at least let us have the first pick of any hardware that you might be selling. Alright?"
"As I said, this is basically a one time thing for us. We don't really need more energy cells anyway."
"Oh, just consider it a gift then! Bring it up!"
Before I could refuse again, I realised there was another group of people coming from the corridor outside the entrance hatch.
The pair at the front were pushing a crate of what I assumed must be energy cells on a hover drone which they then unloaded in front of me.
The others had empty cargo drones which they must be planning to use to carry all the guns we sold them back to their own hideout.
The suit guy walked over to the box his men carried and opened it up to reveal several canisters of energy cells inside of it.
"My gift to you, for future business."
Tsk… I can see he was really insistent on this and I suppose I might as well just take it. It's free stuff anyway.
"Fine. Pleasure doing business with you."
He gave me a mock salute, "Likewise. Pack them up boys~"
He didn't even bother to wait and started to leave while the rest of his men busied loading up the crates of guns he just bought on the cargo drones.
None of them said anything and they left just as quietly, the entire group squeezing into the narrow corridor and taking turns to wait for the lift that would take them to the main part of the station.
I shut the door after the last guy left before turning to my girls, "Well… I would say that went better than expected? Seems like they're being managed by someone who is somewhat civilised?"
Yumiko, however, wasn't that convinced.
She pointed at the box of energy cells the guy left behind, "I'm pretty sure this is a bomb."
I stared at her for a moment before frowning, "Are you sure?"
She nodded, "Classic tactic. They most likely already know you will be selling to Feng as well so they aim to take you out before you can make the sale."
"We did see that it was filled with energy cells though? Is the bomb underneath it?"
Mara chimed in, "There were thoughts about it being a bomb being present in his mind… But there weren't any specifics on it."
If Mara is saying so, that means it is undoubtedly a bomb.
"I think… It would be safer if we just shoot it out the airlock to be honest…" Yumiko added.
Amber gave me a peace sign, "It's alright, Tera! Let me just burn the entire thing! I can contain the explosion if there is one!"
Ries also chimed in, "We should just send this back to that gang, Boss! Let them have a taste of their own bomb!"
Before I could decide which is the better option, Renata went over to the box and opened it before picking up one of the energy cells to toss it into her enlarged mouth, swallowing it in a single gulp.
Renata?!!!