The whole room gave off a markedly more refined feeling than the rest of the gambling house, from the dark wood floor to the walls and furniture. It was… Still nothing much compared to a church safehouse.
There was only one man at the table, whom Casus presumed to be his contact. He appraised him, and it stuck without an iota of resistance. The man was a Lv. 17 Occultist. His attribute scores were nothing special, and he didn’t bother trying to dig further. What grabbed his attention were not the man’s system readouts, but his appearance; more specifically, it was his head. A heavy-duty optical apparatus was affixed to it, a type that had been neither made nor sold in this region in the last twenty years at least. Its design was emblematic of certain Samstani manufacturers aligned with strongly synthetic-leaning grafters. Even more eye-catching was the swelling and scabbing, both proof of recent installation and subpar-at-best aftercare.
“Ah, Mister…”
“Ahmed.”
“Mister Ahmed, thank you for coming on such short notice regarding my inquiry into that Samstani one-armed bandit you offered for sale. I am Cassius, as of recently also known as Seer, for a reason I am sure is eh... Plain to see. I am the proprietor of this humble establishment. As you can surely understand from seeing the front of the house, the machine’s self-adjusting mechanism would do wonders for my busines.”
The visored man went on and on with an undeniably sleazy smoothness of speech. As his words shifted over to the contract of sale, he brought out a paper, but curiously went out of his way to not look at it. It was typed, and had quite a number of mistakes. Considering its contents, Casus assumed the man had typed it quickly and without looking at neither the paper nor the keyboard:
DO NTO SHOW THIS TEXT TO ME. MY OCULAR GRAFT MAY BE COPMROMISED.
I can find Semzar Hashem for you. I’ll make this same claim befoer an Inquisitro if I have to.
The terms of my coopreatoin:
Firstly: Protection until Sezmar is gone.
Secondly: A total wipe of my bounty record.
Thirdyl: Full legal permit to operate my estabilshment as-is. It’s alreafy nine-tenths of the way above-boar, I jsut need the papers.
LAST: I demnad that an orthrodonx grafter examins this thing onmy head and removes any and all malicious modificatnios, icnluding trakcers, kill switches, etc.
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answer as if you are answernig to my offer for the slto mahcine
After looking over the paper and folding it away inside his coat, Casus answered: “Yes, I do believe we could work out something along your suggested terms of purchase. The matter comes down to the manner, time, and method of delivery, as well as any potential issues you believe may arise. I am not familiar with this region, you see; how much danger, do you think, would such a delivery face? Additional insurance is, as always, available. I would hate to see the machine meet an untimely end, far too often we have seen them stolen before they could reach their destination and dismantled for parts when the thieves realized the machine wouldn’t open for anyone not designated by the rightful owner…”
“It er… Would be best to see it delivered as soon as possible, and as securely as possible. Such is life in the Free Cities, the cost of true freedom is caution, as they say…” he trailed off, clearing his throat. With a joking tone that would’ve convinced any normal person, he added: “Why, if you had it right here, I would take it on the spot!”
They sat in tense silence for a few seconds.
“Are you certain?” Casus asked.
“Of course. My employees already know to look out for a courier and not cause them any trouble. You know how security personnel can be, and they have been even more on edge these past months, first with the evoy moving in and then that Blackhand woman coming around…”
“Alright. Regarding the first stipulation of the contract - the additional security equipment - would you prefer to have the delivery made here, or pick it up in person?”
“In-person pickup would be preferable…”
Seer went on talking in circles for a short time, and Casus played along until he managed to steer things in the right direction in a way that wouldn’t sound suspicious to any possible listeners-in. He wasn’t worried about Seer’s graft - it was a purely ocular piece, and he hadn’t noticed any signs of auditory grafts. It was a matter of possible unwelcome ears in the immediate vicinity; too often did people assume a room having outside-in sound insulation also meant the opposite.
The two men made their way out of the back room, and exited through the front to keep up the facade of a friendly business relationship, talking about a whole lot of nothing as they went. If they did it so openly, then there was no reason to be suspicious. Unfortunately, someone took suspicion all the same. Casus realized this quite quickly, as, being a Banisher, he did have an eye on his back, and could thus easily see the large evoy following them.
At this point in the story, Krahe mentioned that she had encountered the large evoy, naming him “Tsetse” after a kind of giant stinging fly from her world. The name took root in Casus’ mind, because he hadn’t had a particular name for that man until now.
Tsetse’s gaze, despite being ever-pointed in their direction, never focused on them, and he turned into a different street quite quickly. At this point, Casus wasn’t too worried about the evoy, he was merely paying attention to his surroundings. However, before they could get anywhere close to the nearest branch temple, Tsetse just so happened to be there right past a bend, waiting for them. He was leaning on a wall, his giant form making even this otherwise casual stance seem aggressive.
This up close, Casus was sure there was something off about his body. He couldn’t quite place it, but an alarm went off in his mind that even an evoy this built shouldn’t look like this. Only war-morphs were ever this bulky, but they were bulky in ways different to Tsetse.