Interstellar Age

Chapter 120 A Mexican Standoff

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What was supposed to be an easy trade of currency for information had suddenly turned into a standoff as the information broker Marcus held the data-file hostage. He was now attempting to extort Ghost, and the other WRAITHs for more than they had initially bargained for. Ghost was livid, and visibly so, as he curled his fists in rage while hissing his words through his clenched teeth.

"What exactly do you want from me, Marcus? I have already agreed to pay you a fortune for this information. And I have given you half up front. For you to suddenly demand more is not only outrageous but is an act of bad faith."

Marcus, however, was undeterred by Ghost's comments. After all, he was the only one with access to this critical information that was desired by several prospective buyers. Whether it was mercenary organizations, criminal syndicates, or rival corporations like the one Ghost supposedly represented. There were plenty of people who would want to get their hands on this information if word got out that Marcus had it. 

Thus, he simply grinned before speaking of his demands. Ones which Ghost found to be intolerable. 

"First and foremost, I want you to double my payment. And second, I want you to sell me that boy from the colonies. If you can't do even this, then I guess I'm going to have to sell this information to the next highest bidder...."

Doubling the payment wasn't exactly a problem. The currency of the Confederacy was entirely digital, and skilled slicer from the Empire could easily become filthy rich in a matter of seconds, by adding a bunch of ones and zeroes to their bank accounts. 

The banks of the confederacy might be encrypted, but their knowledge of such things was vastly inferior to the Empires' and because of this, it was a simple matter of using one's NeuroLink to hack into the system and make themselves rich. Theoretically, Ghost and his team had an unlimited amount of funds to access. 

However, for whatever reason, Marcus wanted to buy Erich. Slavery wasn't exactly legal and had been outlawed for centuries. But that didn't mean that it was nonexistent. In fact, slavery was quite common in the Confederacy, depending on how loose you wanted to be with the definition.

In the confederacy, Humans were a commodity, just like everything else, and for the right price, a person could be trafficked. Sex slavery was the most common form of slavery, but the colonies themselves basically operated on slave labor in a fashion that was similar to sharecropping. 

Naturally, there was no way that Ghost could agree to this second demand. Erich was a national war hero, and a special forces operative. Words could not express the amount of resources that had gone into Erich's training, or how valuable he was to the Empire.

Information about a so called "super weapon" that was being developed by a fourth rate power was not even close to being worth the price that the Empire had paid to turn Erich into a killer of the highest order. And because of this Ghost was quick to deny Marcus' request. 

"Rafael isn't for sale, period.... As for the money, while the price isn't a problem, the fact that you have tried to extort us so brazenly has made me insistent that we stick to the original price. If not, I can always take that data file off of your fucking corpse." 

The grin which revealed Marcus' golden teeth suddenly turned into a frown, as he and his men quickly reached into their waistbands and pulled out their pistols. A hostile action that nobody in the nightclub even noticed, because they were all too busy dancing and doing drugs. 

However, Erich spotted this and quickly withdrew his sidearm. For the sake of this operation he had been equipped with a ballistic pistol, rather than a plasma-based weapon. After all, if he were to use such advanced technology within the borders of the Confederacy, it would not take long before people started associating it with alien technology. 

And as it currently stood, the Confederacy had limited contact with alien civilizations, most of which were at a similar level of power and technology of themselves. They couldn't even classify as Minor Powers on the galactic scale.

Erich aimed his weapon at Marcus's skull and warned the man to order his henchmen to stand down. 

"Tell your men to stand down, or I swear to god I will put a fucking bullet in your brain, you fat fuck!"

Marcus did not immediately do as commanded and instead voiced his thoughts to Erich.

"If you kill me, my men will light up your boys here. And I highly doubt you can kill the three of them, and myself, before they are able to retaliate." 

By now, the entire dance floor had come to a stop as people looked on at the drama with curiosity. Crime was a particularly common part of human society, to the point where most people would either watch on with interest, or simply ignore a murder if it were to happen in front of them. 

Contrary to what Marcus was expecting, Erich smiled rather sadistically and posed a simple question with a chilling tone in his voice. 

"Wanna bet?" 

Marcus's smug smile immediately faded. He did not know why, but there was a certain look in Erich's eyes that told him that he might very well be able to pull this off. After all, cybernetic augmentation was all the rage these days, and the men sitting in front of him were all representatives of a major arms corporation.

It was not impossible that they had been upgraded to an extent that would allow for such a thing, even if such technology didn't officially exist yet.  Thus, Marcus was forced to admit defeat as he raised his hands in the air and called off his goons. 

"Alright, fine, you win.... Stand down guys, we've lost this one." 

Immediately, Marcus's henchman holstered their weapons, albeit with grim looks on their faces. Which caused Erich to do the same. The onlookers sighed in disappointment. Many of them had gotten excited, and had begun recording the incident, hoping to post it to the internet for some vain since of clout. 

Once the hostile situation had ended, the partying restarted, and Erich stood by and maintained a constant vigil over Marcus and his men, making sure they did not try anything. With this sense of normalcy restored, Ghost now had the upper hand in the negotiations, and was quick to apply this pressure. 

"Alright, now that this little dick measuring contest is over, how about we get real here? You will accept the previously agreed upon payment, and you will give me the data file. There will be no additional payment, and I will not be selling Rafael. Or we can simply go back to where we were just moments ago and see how that ends. What will it be, Marcus?"

Marcus scratched his chin with his golden fingers for a few seconds while he thought about his options. He had hoped to extort these Corpos out of a few additional bucks, but that was no longer an option. It would appear that they had come prepared, and because of this, he could not take advantage of them.  Thus, he was forced to admit defeat. But oddly enough, he did so with a satisfied grin on his face. 

"You drive a hard bargain, you know, for a group of fucking suits. You guys sure know how to play the game. Very well, send the payment, and I will hand over the data file...."

Ghost did not hesitate to turn on his primitive mobile device, which was so common in the Confederacy, where he quickly transferred the agreed payment. Once this was over, Marcus did as he said he would, and opened the briefcase, where he then handed Ghost the data file. He seemed relatively pleased with this outcome, even if it had not gone like he had planned. 

Once the transaction was complete, and Ghost confirmed the contents of the data file, Marcus got up from his seat, and left the nightclub, but not before leaving behind one last farewell. 

"Well played, I look forward to doing business with you again in the future."

After saying this, Marcus departed from the scene, where Ghost immediately sighed in relief. There were a million ways that this could have gone south, and luckily Erich did not shoot first and ask questions later, like he was trained to do as a soldier. Instead, he kept a calm mind, and intimidated Marcus and his men into backing down.  Even JT had to admit that Erich did a good job, even if he had a rather irritated face when he said it. 

"You did good kid, maybe you're not such dead weight after all..." 

Having ingratiated himself into the good graces of his new unit, and completed the first part of their mission. Erich felt a lot better about his current role as an agent of Military Intelligence than he ever did as a starfighter pilot. 

But the mission was not complete. Now the men needed to get back to their hotel, and transfer the information to the agents of the IIS and Military Intelligence who were currently embedded long term within the Confederation of Human Worlds. It was only after they received orders from their higher ups, would they continue on with the rest of the mission.