“Why haven’t you brought any product with you?” Russel asks. I ended up texting with Marcella about him and she says he’s a toady and as far as she knows, not an officer.

“I delivered 100 kilos to my Warram contact days ago. Why don’t I have my reimbursement for the equipment yet?”

“You handed off the delivery!? What part of I’m your liaison don’t you fucking understand?”

“The part where you left me out to dry with no money to buy supplies. I had to take a loan out and so I owe your cut to the people that gave me that loan until you reimburse me for the equipment and I can pay them off.”

“You what!? You took my money to pay someone else?” That’s when Russel lost control of the meeting by laying into me. If he doesn’t let up, I’ll burn some mana and take him down with me, however, a person that loses their minds when they apparently haven’t invested any money in the project is super fishy and I want to see where it goes.

I spit blood on the fancy prick’s shoes.

He grabs me by the hair and screams in my face. I can’t tell what he’s saying because I’m too engrossed in the idea of what would happen if I bit his nose off.

“Fuck this and fuck you, I’m taking you in front of the Boss. He’ll put you in your fucking place.”

This is when Russel revealed he has enough personal flaws to not do his homework on me. He does decide to cuff me, which is a point in his column—I don’t have very many good ways to break these. He tripped me repeatedly down the hall, chuckling as my face impacted the ground. The first time he looked to find misery on my face, but when he saw a bloody smile he kept doing it to change my response.

I’m smiling because the first run in the new facility I did go through him. He took his cut and when I asked about the reimbursement he promised, he kicked it down the road. The second run a few weeks later, I only gave him half a shipment with a note in half of the bricks that the buyers were being cheated, and to contact me. The third run, I put half through Russel and half direct to buyer and continued to complain about the lack of funds and needing that reimbursement. He hadn’t even paid for my supplies yet, so there was a lot going on. The fourth run, completed a few days ago, I went direct to buyer, got paid on time and in full, all I had to do was pay some thugs and Haley’s team to protect me from ‘ideas’ the drug dealers on the other side of the bargain might have about dealing with kids.

After we got out of the elevator, he punched me in the gut, so I hammed it up and made him drag me. He did it backwards by the cuffs, which is a unique kind of pain. By the time he knocks on the door, I’m ready to kill him despite the maneuvering I’m about to reveal. After five minutes of waiting, a deep, yet calm voice tells us to come in.

Russel drags me in and deposits me on the floor, to bleed on the fine rug that Medvedev’s rug sits on.

“Now this is an arrangement I never thought I’d see.”

“I know it’s improper, but . . .” Russel stops talking, I assume a gesture from the big man.

“Kimber, stop pretending and stop bleeding on my rug.” I sigh heavily, roll to my knees and stand up proper. And because I’m dramatic and have gorilla arms, I jump through my cuffed arms and roll my wrists in front of me with a grin.

“You have to have a skill or something for that. I’m not faking getting beaten up if I actually get beat up!”

“It’s the tension in your limbs. You should be tired from the beating. You weren’t.” he nods and continues to write in a large folio.

“Boss, I . . .” Medvedev raises his hand to silence him.

“Our cocaine sales are almost as profitable as before Carlos was mutated. So imagine my surprise when you walk in with my Alchemist in cuffs. She may be difficult to work with, and her ego could use some tempering, but I have never met a soul that would call her a cheat or a thief.”

“Well, she certainly went behind my back to sell to the buyers and cheated me out of my cut of the last shipment. That and the constant whining about the work, her compensation, and other new member complaints.” Slid in a jab to discredit my position by age. Might have worked if my Track wasn’t a hard counter to thieving bullshit.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Oh, I thought he’d have more to say. I did actually go behind his back, but since his effort and monetary investment in the last shipment was exactly zero, he was not owed.”

“You little shit, you know you have a contract with me and . . .”

“Show me the contract Russel.” The boss demands.

Russel squirms, “It was verbal and not exactly written down.”

Medvedev sighs, “as much as I would normally side with a long-standing member of the Organization, it has been as yet impossible for Kimber Novarro to agree to something and not form a binding contract.” He looks at me with a tired glare over his bifocals and a motion to move forward with his hand.

I proffer the scrolls I’ve been keeping for forty plus days. “Here’s the reimbursement agreement, here’s the agreement where we would work together for mutual profit. Here’s the ledger of incurred expenses after the promise of reimbursement, and here’s the recouped expenses by putting his cut of the last deal toward his debt as by established tradition. By that same tradition, I am empowered to recoup his debt to me as I see fit.”

“This is a sham! There is no way to make a system contract without my express permission!” Russel displayed his complete lack of understanding that he was well and truly fucked.

The boss growls, “you shout at me again and I will pull out your tongue.” He then turns his gaze to me. “You’ll never hear me say it again, Kimber, but I appreciate that you’ve brought this to me before resorting to violent action.” I nod in acknowledgement. “That being said, I hate to admit that the Organization owes you material costs that we were told had already been handled. I would like our debt to be resolved with reimbursement of those costs.” I nod and a new contract forms.

Oh? A hold harmless while damages are assessed? That’s a new one. Magic is quirky.

“But that still leaves,” Medvedev pushes up his bifocals and leans toward the ledger. “over twelve thousand credits of incurred debt?” He looks up at Russel, anger no longer in his eyes, just overwhelming disbelief. “By pre-initialization rules, accumulated debt beyond a million old US dollars is a life debt. She let you double that so that even if you had the money, you could not pay two life debts. She let you lapse your thirty day debt repayment period and cleverly abused the debt accumulation rules. By my own rules, your life is hers, and there’s nothing I can do.”

Russel twitches and I pull on my speed talent to blow holes in both of his feet.

“He looked like a runner. That and the buyers that think he’s been cheating them offered a grand to turn him over. That and I’m claiming his assets as owed to me for his deceit.” He looks at the struggling man and sighs.

“I hate that you’re causing my Crime Business such trouble.” He sighs and pulls a folder out of a drawer in his desk and opens it. “I have an idea that will help cement you in the Organization and also appease my lust for progress. Half of the middleman fee will be paid to the Organization with the transaction tax. The other half of whatever Russel was supposed to take will be put back into the Org in a way that you see fit. Facility upgrade, selectee sponsorship, basically anything that benefits the Org as a whole. If you need a big sum, you can collect it in a holding account for up to a year before applying it.”

“That, I think is an excellent use of a middleman’s fee. Can I ask that future orders come through quests? Even if the reward is two xp one credit? To ensure that the order is official?” The boss nods.

“You see, with Marcella’s efforts with you appearing successful, and Danielle’s experiments with aether and development potential looking promising; It makes sense to me to find a sponsor that has experience in both.” He looks at me waiting for a response.

Even though it’s only a few moments, I’m embarrassed that he was talking about me specifically. “Uh, I’m flattered, sir, but shouldn’t that wait until I’m tier 1?” I worry my hands together, uncomfortable with more responsibility in such a short time.

“That would be Ideal, but our algorithm has suggested a date range for selecting a new class of potential members, and the last date is just before your next birthday. So you’ll have until the last group arrives to come to terms with sponsoring an orphan and training them in the manner that you were trained. We queried our predictive analysts and our newest, Jamie, even suggested three young women that would benefit from . . . you. Not sure what that means, but Marcella seems to think that Bosses collect and trust in their cultivated talent. Yes I have ideas for you. No I’m not ready to tell you. This thing you’ve got going is a good step, but your obvious law magic is . . . too obvious.”

“I appreciate the calm conversation, Boss. Can I convince you to relax at-Warram production?”

“No. You need office hours and Protegees belong in the hotel. I will move your suite to accommodate two occupants when the time comes. I expect you to drive your protegee as Marcella did you. You have the opportunity to cement your version of development with Marcella’s as the Warram standard.”

Old man had to play to my pride for Marcella. Bastard knows people enough to see through me that’s for sure. He dismisses me and I spend the elevator ride to my room thinking about restructuring my life and schedule to accommodate another human that I would be responsible for.

No problem right? Tova joins in on scoffing at myself as I can barely take care of myself now that Marcella is away on a long-term mission.