Yinde stared at me as he waited for the response to his question, and I gave him a second to scan. I couldn't read his pupil-less eyes; there wasn't enough for me to drag off his face. Was it the same for him? Did he look at me like I was a blank slate? Did my emotions come across? "I'm hoping you don't have to find anything for us. Not asking for anything fancy."

"What is fancy to you and I is pretty different, Friend Kingston," Yinde stood up from his chair and reached out one of his flipper hands, "but I'm sure we can reach a deal."

I didn't move to accept the hand.

"Is this not a human greeting?" Yinde asked, watching me wait for several steps away from him.

"Usually to seal a deal," I pointed out. That was an excuse; I just wasn't interested in getting too friendly or stepping away from Victoria. She didn't need to hear about it, but being surrounded put me on edge; for a good reason, mind you.

"In that case," Yinde flopped back into the chair, metal groaning as he did, "what can I do ya for?"

"Well," I went to take a step toward the desk and heard the shifting weight behind me. Alright then. "Looking for a better personal shield and a Human Built Basking."

Yinde opened his maw for a moment, letting his wide tongue fall out of his mouth before pulling it back in with a soft pair of 'clicks.' He didn't bother looking at the wall behind him before responding. "That's a quality gun there. Askin' about a lot of firepower for the first meeting."

"I'm a human," I shrugged, "'just looking to buy a human gun."

Yinde waited.

"Call me sentimental."

Yinde hummed a deep rumble that echoed in my chest and got drowned by the rug-covered walls. "Ain't a lot of human guns out here so far," Yinde mused, "that's expensive stuff."

"We're good for it."

"I haven't said a price yet, Friend Kingston."

"We're good for any reasonable price."

Yinde growled again, and my translator added a small cadence to try to explain that it was laughter; that said, based on his lack of expression, I wasn't sure it was right. "I can never be sure what you Aliens think 'reasonable' is. After all, no matter what you think the gun is worth, it's worth more in Ottinio hands."

Victoria opened her mouth to speak, but I put my hand in front of her chest, telling her to stay down. She understood.

"The first time I saw one of your Alien weapons, I knew what I needed to do," Yinde explained, "how much do you know about me, Kingston?"

"About as much as you know about me," I suggested.

"So a name then," Yinde confirmed, "before I ran my little operation here, I was one of the security guards on this base. We were an arctic research center focused on enacting climate change to get more land for our people." Yinde reached under the table and pulled out an Ovishir weapon I didn't recognize. "When I saw a lady fire this, I knew nothing here on Mythellion mattered."

"Bold," I suggested.

"Friend Kingston," Yinde rested his hand on the gun for a second before letting go, "are you old enough to remember what humans were like before you were galactic?"

I shook my head.

"See, so you won't get it. You're wearing a gun that could collapse a submarine on your hip. Everything you have makes our existence on our little ice rock look like shit." There was vitriol in those last words. "So I'm here trying to find a place in things that matter."

"You're providing an important service," I added without bothering to ensure it sounded sincere. Every species had their hang-ups about joining the community, but as a Mercenary talking to an arms dealer, neither of us had a degree in philosophy to fall back on.

"I have the gun you need," Yinde pointed out, "but I don't think you can afford it."

"Try a price," Victoria suggested.

I heard shifting weight behind me, and I snapped the Hammerhead off my hip, pointing it back toward the noise without looking at it. Yinde tracked my gun and then hummed the same deep rumble again. I heard shifting cloth again, this time stepping away. I kept the gun in place.

Yinde had a scar over the bottom of his jaw, an extended rough cut that had healed over, mostly pink contrasted against the primary gray of his blubber-like skin. The scar pulled tight as his jaw locked, then relaxed before he looked away from my Hammerhead. "Don't be stupid," he said to everyone in the room. "Your shield ain't gonna do shit against that thing, Loras."

There was a soft growl from behind me. Victoria looked back. I lowered my gun a breath later.

"Appreciate the patience, Kingston," Yinde added, "firing that thing under the ice like this would be bad for everyone in here."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Then let's make sure it stays down here," I agreed as I slotted it back into its holster. Victoria had not returned to paying attention to the conversation, still staring at the group of Ottinio behind us.

"Sounds like a deal for everyone involved."

"Want to send them away? Keep this between us, so nobody fucks it up?"

"Are you going to send the girl away?" Yinde asked. Victoria tuned back in to hear that. I glanced at her; she was already looking at me, and for half a second, our eyelines crossed.

"No, she's with me."

"Then," Yinde stood up, rising two feet taller than me and half a foot taller than Vicotira behind his desk, "they stay too." The Ottinio took lumbering steps to the back wall covered with shipping carriers and repeated the same deep rumble. "You said a Basking?"

"That's the one," I confirmed. For half a second, I turned to look at the group behind us. All of them had their hands on weapons, half of them I could discount straight away as local firepower. "You got one?" The Ottinio at the front with darker skin was carrying a Lasher. If anything went down, he had to drop first.

Victoria turned and tried to match my sight lines. The front Ottinio didn't take his attention off me, scanning my gun as I took stock of his. I couldn't see a shield on his hip either. After a moment, he shifted his weight again, pulling his hands away from the Lasher. I nodded in response, though I didn't know if that would translate.

"Here," Yinde announced as I turned back. He was putting a scarred Basking that looked like it was from the First Contact Wars on the desk in front of him. He must have understood my skeptical squint because he continued, "I did say it was a rare gun out here."

"Best you've got?" I asked, stepping forward to grab the weapon off the desk so I could inspect it.

Yinde leaned forward, keeping me from grabbing the weapon. "I have opinions on other species' weapons, but you asked for the human one," after a moment, he got out of the way of me, picking up the weapon, "You don't want anything Fotuan for her?" he continued.

"Not like they'd be easier to get," Victoria pointed out.

"You'd be surprised how much they're willing to get a big fish in a small pond like me," Yinde explained, "I don't think they were too happy about the Anteraxi getting ownership of the Commerce Port."

"Pardon?" Victoria asked.

"See," Yinda undid the latch on one of the containers and pulled rolled up the shutter lid, revealing dozens of Fotuan firearms, "shipment just came in this week if you want some."

Victoria stared at the weapons but didn't comment.

"Do you want a displacer?" I asked Victoria. I was going to bill her for everything here either way, so I might as well ensure she was armed.

She responded with silence, still staring at the weapons.

"Just the shitty Basking then," I shrugged. "Does this thing even still fire?"

"Good question, but you should know how to fix it, right?" Yinde pointed out.

"Not quite."

"Pardon me then, I just assumed all of you Aliens were good with this sort of thing considerin' the technology you have access to…" he trailed off, reaching out for the Basking. I let him take it.

"How much is that going to run us?"

"22,000," Yinde suggested. We were getting fleeced, which was-

"Done," Victoria said. She nodded toward me, and I tried to hide my sigh as I pulled out an anonymous chip and started to load it up.

"Now, about ammunition," Yinde began.

"I can use the Hammerhead ammo, but we did ask about a shield."

"I'm not sure about the shie-" Yinde cut himself off as one of the Ottinio behind us stepped forward. I kept a hand on my Hammerhead but didn't pull it out yet. The assistant approached Yinde, I slid the Hammerhead towards myself. The assistant spoke into Yinde's ear for a moment, just quiet enough to dodge getting caught by my translator. "Alright," Yinde said after a second.

I picked the Basking up off the desk and left the chip on the table for Yinde. The Ottinio was staring at Victoria, pulling his jaw tight in a way that stretched his scar. "Pleasure doing business with you," I said to cut in.

"Yeah," Yinde trailed off, "now, what did you say your name was, young lady?"

I pulled the Hammerhead off my hip in a way that made a tell-tale 'click.'

"Victoria, wasn't it?"

We had never said her name, but Victoria blinked, and that was enough for Yinde, "That's unfortunate," he mused.

"For who?" I asked.

"Me," Yinde suggested sitting down on the massive chair behind his desk and staring up at her, "see, I just learned that a good contact of mine asked if I could put out feelers on the planet about a girl the Meritocracy wants," he took a deep breath and tapped his tail against the back of the chair. "What are the chances they're talking about you?" he asked Vicotria.

"None at all," I cut in.

"That's not my name," Victoria confirmed in a way that almost made it sound like the truth.

"And I should take your word for that, Friend Kingston?" he asked.

"Yessir."

"And what's that?"

"Because," I handed the empty, beat-up Basking to Victoria, who looked at it like it had several heads instead of two barrels, "right now there is a chip with 22,000 sitting on your desk, and two people in your office about to leave and fly off the planet. Seems like free money," I took half a step toward the door. Yinde's eyes didn't leave my side and the Hammerhead.

"They're an excellent contact," Yinde said, slow and deliberate, "as a mercenary, you understand that sort of relationship, don't you, Kingston."

"We're not friends anymore?" I asked.

"Why shouldn't I ask you to stay until they come to confirm that this girl isn't the one they're looking for?"

"I'm not staying," Victoria pointed out.

"You can't make us stay."

"What makes you think that?" Yinde stood up from their chair, rising from full height and starting to come around the desk; he had to look pointedly down at me. His broad chest was almost twice as large as mine, even if you included my armour.

"Letting us leave is free," I said, taking a half step towards Yinde to meet him as he approached, "Trying to keep us here might really cost you. High risk on investment."

Yinde half smiled, revealing a row of fangs that were usually tucked behind the folks of his mouth, "Quite the businessman then," he began, moving a hand to push away my Hammerhead; I turned my hips to keep him from touching it.

"I get by."

"Are we going?" Victoria asked; having kept the Basking at the ready the entire time, I almost didn't have the heart to tell her it was empty.

"Think so," I answered, staring into Yinde's black eyes as I did.

"You can go," Yinde announced, nodding toward the door, "but we'll be calling them back soon to tell them what we saw," the Ottinio took a step back, moving out of my personal space and toward the door that all of his attendants had come through, "need to bet on both sides. You understand."

"N-"

"Of course," I cut Victoria off and stepped toward the door. The last time I'd tried to avoid a fight with this girl, it'd failed. If I could be at 50% I'd call it a win. I kicked my boot into Victoria's ankle to tell her to move. "Nice doing business."

"Take care," Yinde added, walking toward the door; his guard fell in line with him and began to follow him out.

"That was too-" I started to whisper to Victoria, but then someone in the doorway said something too quiet to translate.

When the Ottinio had half turned around, my Hammerhead was already up, and I was pulling the trigger. There wasn't truly time to see if he was raising a gun.

Blood. Rug. Ice. Water.