Ok… So err… We're relatively well off in the monetary department now.

I have to admit… If Linc was doing all this just to get me to be on his side, it's fucking working…

Still, I would say it was thanks to Amber and Lea pulling me away that I managed to leave the place without letting my hesitation land me in a position that I might regret later.

I guess it was a good thing that they came along with me after all.

Although… Amber got distracted by the Battle Royale on the way and wanted to make a bet on it which we managed to drag her away from. Then once more when she wanted to get me to use our newly earned Credits at the casino.

We ended up playing a few rounds at the roulette table and I'm a little ashamed to say that we actually won another two million Credits from the table.

And yes… I had a hundred percent win rate again while the others lost a number of rounds…

I could feel the others at the table glaring at us so I quickly cashed out of there and took everyone back to the ship.

As I approached the entrance hatch to my ship, my Codex let out another beep, notifying me of a new message.

I paused in my steps to tap on my Codex, opening up a screen that showed it was a call from Linc.

What does he want this time?

Wait, I shouldn't think like that… This guy is our money making machine. So maybe he had more jobs for us to do?

No, no, no… That's a dangerous line of thought I have there… That would just make it no different than accepting him as our patron, except we don't even get the patron benefits…

I hope this wasn't what he was aiming for where we keep doing all these jobs for him and then get taken advantage of where we get ourselves in a position where we have no choice but to accept him as our patron…

Whatever, at least it doesn't hurt to hear him out first.

I answered the call and the screen changed to see Linc smiling at me.

"Oh hello my current favourite Mercenary! I see you're still at the station?"

I managed to stop myself from sighing, "What do you need? You're not going to tell us something like you have another box from another station that you need us to retrieve from you, are you?"

He chuckled, "Ahahaha! Look, Midori! I think they're scared of boxes now!"

A grunt came from the side, which I felt was infinitely more preferable from the previous time where it was the form of a moan coming from below him.

He turned back to grin at me, "Anyway, I do have a new job for you though~"

"If it's to retrieve something again, I would have to decline. There's somewhere that we have to be."

"Ahahaha~ Well in that case, this job would be perfect for you! To be honest, it's pretty lucky for me that you are still in the station! I think it should be there now~"

I was just about to ask him what he was talking about when I heard footsteps coming from behind us.

I turned back to see the same group of security guards walking towards us and pushing their own anti-grav trolley with… Is that the same black box that I delivered here on top?

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What the heck?

I turned back to the screen and realised that Linc was smirking at me, most likely already seeing the irony in this situation.

"Ok, what's this?" I asked.

His smirk widened, "Ok, I know what you're thinking and it's not what it looks like. I need this box dumped somewhere outside the station."

"Ok? Shoot it out of the airlock then?"

"Ahahaha! Not like that. I need this to be dumped somewhere on another station. Somewhere that it's hidden but can still be found so no need to try too hard. You can just take it to whichever station you are going to and then drop it in a back alley somewhere. Doesn't matter where."

The security guards stopped in front of me and lifted the box up from the trolley to place it on the ground before taking a step back.

I raised an eyebrow at Linc, "I'm going to guess that it's filled with the 'stuff' you mentioned earlier?"

"Ahahaha! Look, Midori! She was paying attention to me!" He chuckled before turning back to me. "Well yes. It is filled with some of my stuff~ Anyway! I'll even pay you up front, fifteen million Credits just to take this box and put it somewhere far away from here."

I frowned slightly. That's a lot of money for taking out a box of this guy's trash…

"What's in the box?" I asked.

"Heh heh~ Do you want to know?"

"I'm not taking this job unless I know what's inside it. For all I know, you might be setting me up to take a fall for you."

"Oh wow~ That's some daring words Tera! Did you forget where you are? Are you sure you want to say something like that to me?"

The guards in front of me made a show of hefting their guns as a silent threat.

At this point, I know him well enough to see through the empty threat, "Aren't I supposed to be your favourite Merc? I know you like the banter."

"Ahahaha! Look, look, Midori! Didn't I say that she has balls? And really big ones too!"

"Oh yes~ Tera has really nice balls~" Amber whispered behind me.

Godamnit Amber… Also, I saw you nodding along in agreement too, Lea… Don't encourage her…

Thankfully, Linc didn't hear what the both of them said and turned back to me with a big grin, "Alright~ I can tell you what it is but that would mean you accept this quest of mine. How about that?"

I scowled at him, "That's not how this works… I'll decide if I want to do it after I--"

"Alright, alright~ You've twisted my arm! Twenty million Credits!"

I sighed, "This won't get me into trouble transporting it… Will it?"

"Not if you get caught dumping it~ And of course, this conversation never happened~"

"Fine, fine… Open it."

"Password is the same as the one you saw earlier~ Go on~"

I turned to my crew and all of them nodded at me to go ahead.

Alright then… Twenty million Credits is indeed quite a lot of money… And he's promising to pay us up front as well so if we really want to… We could also just spacewalk outside a random station to dump it there if it's really troublesome…

I knelt down in front of the box to tap the four digit code that would unlock it, the locks letting out a hiss as it unlatched itself, allowing me to push the box open.

When I saw what was inside, I couldn't help but jump up to my feet and take a step back.

"What the fuck?!" I cursed.

"Ahahaha! That was so worth the extra five million Credits!" He laughed before wagging a finger at me. "Remember, just drop the box somewhere in another station, ok?"

I pointed at the box, "What the fuck is this?!"

In case you were wondering… There was a dead guy inside the box. And he wasn't just dead either… His body was chopped up into pieces and stuffed into the box…

His decapitated head was resting on top of his chopped up limbs and his eyes were still open while they were half buried in ice. I I could also see the top part of his torso and dismembered legs stuffed below the ice too.

Linc made a face at me, "I can't be bothered to explain so I'll leave it to those guys to do it instead. Anyway, don't be a stranger! Come back and have fun sometimes, yeah? You're still one of the champions of the Battle Royale after all!"

He didn't even wait for me to respond before he shut off the call.

I turned to the guards and the leader gave me an apologetic smile, "This guy's the winner of this week's Battle Royale."

I blinked at him.

He raised his hands in a placating gesture, "Ah… It's not what you think… He's actually an assassin someone else hired and he made use of the Battle Royale to get close to Mister Linc… So well… You're looking at what happens when Miss Midori gets serious…"

Oh shit… Ok…

"But he ordered this box ahead of time… And why can't he just shoot his box out of the airlock?"

"We caught wind of the assassination plan beforehand and this isn't the first time an attempt like this happened. It's to send a message to this guy's employers so Mister Linc does want it to be found somewhere… So that it would be reported and the employer would know that the assassin failed."

I'm guessing the fact that the body is also chopped up is also part of the message…

Ah… Whatever… Twenty million Credits to transport a dead body to dump somewhere on a station… Ok, fine.

It's not like we don't already have drugs on board anyway…