After some quality time with Larissa, I was off to the address Tyrian Octo had given me. The location wasn’t that far but I took a cab so I could get the whole thing over with as soon as possible. Manuk O was a shithole that could have used some intervention, but maybe the Liagro just passed by, preferring to let them be. Rotting shacks lined the streets and various animals dashed across the road in front of the taxi. Everything was covered in moss and a rotting stench permeated the air. The cab dropped me off in front of what looked like a fortress, situated proudly in the middle of the surrounding misery.

‘How the hell is this guy a big shot trader?’ I mumbled to myself and made my way towards one of the guards at the front gate.

‘What do you want?’ He pulled out some sort of weapon to look more threatening.

‘I’m here to see Manuk Kai.’

‘What’s your name?’ I was so sick of having to deal with these fuckers all the time. For once, I would love for someone to just be polite.

‘Aia. We have a mutual friend, Jase den Ammet.’ He turned around and spoke into his wrist. He turned back to face me while we waited and I slit my eyes at him. He turned away and we stood there in silence until I heard a beep.

‘Go through the door, to the right and talk to the guard there.’ Great, another one.

I walked in and stared at the tacky furniture and greenish lawn space that was covered in mushrooms. I shook my head and headed towards the other guard who politely opened the door for me and pointed towards a room.

‘Thank you!’ I really appreciated the gesture and smiled at him. The house was not much better than the yard and the smell from outside followed me into the foyer, which was covered in metal sheets. At this point in my life, I had seen some odd shit from a multitude of traders, dealers and merchants, but this was by far the worst. There was some sort of slime on the walls and piles of debris stacked in the corners. I walked into the room the gentleman had pointed towards and saw a Manutian sitting behind a large desk.

‘Manuk Kai?’ I wanted to make sure that this was finally the guy.

‘Aia- don’t you recognize me?’

‘Huh?’ I stood there, trying to figure out if we had met before and he motioned for me to take a seat.

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‘You’re alone, right?’ I sat and ran through the past few weeks trying to remember if there was something I had missed. My mind raced back to right before I found Daden. I was in Rem’s bar and he mentioned a name.

‘Manuk Kai.’

‘Yes, we’ve established that, Aia. I’ve been trying to track you down, but you are tough to find.’

‘You got in touch with my friend Rem?’

‘Again, yes. You had contacted me about some Oranium and I was trying to arrange for the sale.’ He seemed genuinely frustrated by my confusion. ‘Can we talk about the Oranium now?’

But that was before I killed Daden. I tried to focus my attention. ‘Yes, I...I have around fifty bars, well, forty nine to be exact.’

‘Jase den Ammet told me. He also said that you came by it under, shall we say, dubious circumstances.’ He tented his fingers.

‘Yes, well…’ Holding up his hands, he continued.

‘I’m not concerned with where it came from, but I do need to know that it cannot be traced to any illicit activity. If there are no molecular markers, which from Ammet’s analysis, it appears there aren’t, we can proceed with the sale.’

I knew he wouldn’t start discussing price until he had a chance to inspect the product himself, so I could be here for a week or more. Now that I was in touch with him, he could deal with any permit issues that came up and I could try to figure out what the hell was going on.

‘I’ll invite you to stay on Manos O for the duration.’ I looked around at the moldy walls. ‘However, I cannot have you stay here, my apologies.’ No worries, my man. ‘I’ll put you in a hotel in the city center that caters to off-world visitors and provide you with guards. During that time, I will run tests on the product and then we can discuss price.’

‘Fabulous.’ I would need to contact Cloe. ‘I’ll need to get in touch with my off site storage.’ That was an understatement. ‘I’ll bring a bar for you to analyze in a day or two.’

‘Good. In the meantime, I’ll take a closer look at Ammet’s findings to learn more about what you have.’ We both stood and I stretched out my hand. He let it hang there and I turned to leave. ‘My men will take care of you. If there’s anything you need, just ask.’

I nodded and left the moldy room. One of the beefier dudes escorted me to a car that drove me to a hotel. I was shown to a nice-ish suite and instructed that anything I ordered would be on the house. After my guard left, I did a quick sweep of the room and found four listening devices scattered around. Rather than destroy them, I jammed the microphones so they would continue to transmit, but with no information.

Even with the bug purge, I was still paranoid so I decided to conduct my business in the tiny bedroom closet. I did a double sweep of the space and set up a portable forcefield that would block out any transmissions but mine, which used a special signal. Now that I was settled, I could get going. I sent a message to Cloe, telling her to contact me ASAP.

Room service didn’t have any Choco-no-nos™, so I got something with mushrooms, fungi appearing to be the main source of sustenance on Manos O. I hadn’t planned on staying so long, but it looked like my plan was finally coming together and I decided to get some sleep. Cloe could wake me when she arrived.

I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep and sat bolt upright when I cracked open my eyes and jumped as I saw a figure perched on the end of my bed.