I'm sorry, did she say my food?

Like… My food got stolen? What even is she talking about? Isn't my food with me right now?

Well, not exactly… Amber is the one carrying it just so that Lea and her could hold my hands but that's beside the point.

The police officer who had been blocking us seemed to hesitate a little when he saw our interaction with the doctor.

"Sorry but who are you girls? You're not civilians?"

Mara gave the officer a look, "They're Mercs… You can let them in, she's the original owner of the stolen property."

The dude got the message and quickly stepped aside.

I guess he wasn't intentionally being a dick but he just didn't want random people messing up the crime scene?

Anyway, that's not important now… The more important thing I want to know is what the hell is going on.

I got Mara's attention again, "Hold on… What did you say was stolen?"

Mara looked at me seriously, "Your food, Tera… The one that you made and had it delivered to me. It was stolen this morning."

I blinked at her, "The same one that I sent over to you more than a week ago? Why was it still there? You should have finished eating it within a few days of receiving it already!"

The doctor gave me an incredulous look, "How could anyone be expected to eat something like that all in one sitting? Especially when they don't even know when would be the next time they could taste something like that again?"

"Please don't keep food and eat them past the expiry date, Mara. You'll give yourself a bad stomach…"

"I'd be willing to go through that if that meant eating your food, Tera~" Amber added.

Don't add fuel to the fire, Amber… I know for a fact you would already but no need to encourage someone else to do it as well…

I decided not to comment on her words and continued, "But it's just some leftovers, right? Why would the police be involved in this?"

Mara frowned, "You made those using organic food, didn't you, Tera?"

"Err… Yes? Why?"

"Then that's every reason to get the police involved. Did you forget how expensive an organic meal costs around here? This is still theft."

Oh… I guess this would be similar to someone stealing several tens of thousands of Credits or something? But… I dunno? To me it's just food so I don't really see this as a big deal?

Maybe I would understand if they stole like an entire warehouse full of black caviar but come on… Just for one box of leftover ratatouille? That's a bit much, isn't it?

As if reading my thoughts, Mara continued, "This isn't the first case. There's a string of thefts all revolving around organic food and ingredients being stolen on this station."

I blinked at her, "Wait… A food thief?"

The officer who had prevented us from entering earlier spoke up, "It's been going on for at least two weeks now. At first we thought that it might just be a coincidence but they have been specifically targeting and raiding places that had organic food. We believe it's someone trying to make a profit from selling them off to places where the cost of organic ingredients are higher."

"Aren't there better things to steal than that?" I asked.

Mara answered instead, "For some reason, there was a sudden increase in demand for organic ingredients around the Denibi system. Most likely it's smugglers trying to make a quick profit from this and since most transports that deliver these goods come from the inner colonies and are thus well defended, they target places like this instead."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Huh… Last I remembered, that place doesn't even trade in organic foods right? Why would there be a sudden increase in demand for them? Perhaps someone decided to start an organic restaurant or something?

I gave Mara a look, "But… Leftover ratatouille… They broke into your clinic, which last I remembered even had an automated turret defence system, just to steal that?"

Mara turned to point at two body bags that I didn't notice at first laying outside the door of her clinic.

"There were at least six of them. Two of them got shot before the other four managed to disable my security turret," She explained.

"By hacking it?"

"No, by destroying it. Good thing I have insurance coverage on that. The irritating part is that they don't cover foodstuffs so I can't get them to pay for that to reimburse you."

No, no, no… I need to reiterate again, this is goddamn leftover ratatouille for god's sake. This really isn't that serious at all.

I would be more worried about the fact that these guys actually broke into your clinic in the first place.

"Were you hurt?" I asked.

Mara shook her head, "No. I was not in the clinic at that time. Otherwise they would not have been able to steal these. My security warned me of the break in when they already broke into the clinic itself and by the time I rushed back here, they were already trying to leave. That was when I started shooting at them which forced them to abandon their dead comrades to escape."

Ok… I'm not sure if I should be worried about her decision to fight them since… You know… I don't think it's worth endangering yourself just to protect some leftover ratatouille… But ok.

So I guess we're dealing with some serial thieves who are also packing some heat since they managed to destroy that turret. And while breaking into the place, they lost two of their members and decided to leave their corpses behind, serving as possible leads to who they were.

I guess I can understand why the police are involved in this now.

"So is everything alright now? Did they steal anything else? Surely they didn't break in just to steal some ratatouille, did they?"

"Oh, nope. That's all they took. Didn't even touch any of my drugs or gene mods."

"Aren't those gene mods even more expensive than that?" I pointed out.

My gene mod cost six hundred thousand Credits by itself and I doubt my leftover ratatouille would even reach that amount in value.

Mara shrugged, "If you were to ask me, I would say that your food was much more valuable than those gene mods."

I waved my hand at her, "No way. I know the value of the gene mods you have. There's no way some leftover food could be worth more than all that."

"I would rather they steal the gene mods than your food. At least those are easily replaceable and would be insured."

…

Ok, I guess that makes sense.

I then looked at the others, "So what happens now? Do you need help capturing those guys or something? Actually, what am I talking about? This isn't any of our business, is it?"

The officer spoke up again, "It indeed isn't. If we require help from Mercs we would put in a request for it. But for now, it's just some stupid smugglers breaking in and stealing stuff which is no different from some criminals."

I turned to Mara, "What about you, Mara? Do you still need to be here? Doesn't seem like you could continue your business for the day either. Or do you need to give them a statement?"

She sighed, "Already done that. I'm just upset that those guys actually managed to steal it from me. I was even saving that for dinner tonight…"

Seriously, that thing is already more than a week old, you should have finished it days ago instead of saving it until now.

I gestured at the box Amber was holding, "It's alright. I made something else for you so why don't we--"

Mara immediately rushed towards Amber and tried to grab the box off her hands, only for the blonde haired Merc to lift the box above her head to keep it out of her reach.

The doctor growled at Amber, "What are you doing?"

"Oh what's this~ Does Mara want this? Maybe if Mara tells me that I'm the best thing that has ever come into her life, I might even consider giving this to you~"

"Please, you can't even claim that with a straight face when Tera is standing right there."

"Ok fine, second best."

"No."

"Oh come on! Why do you always bully me?!"

"Because you still make stupid decisions despite everything you stupid girl. Now give me that."

"Nuh uh~ Not until you say it! Oh! And also say that I'm better than you were in your prime!"

"Not happening."

"Then I guess I'll just have to--"

"Amber… Stop bullying Mara," I interrupted.

Amber pouted at me but gave the box of food I made to Mara obediently.

Mara visibly shuddered when she received the box from her.

She then opened up the box, revealing the contents of it which were steak and potatoes that I made using the last of our organic ingredients.

She was just about to reach into it to grab one of the roasted potatoes when I suddenly had a weird feeling coming from above, almost like what I would feel dealing with those people that can move at blinding speeds.

I was about to shout a warning when both Mara and Amber moved their hands upwards at the same time, grabbing a hand that appeared out of thin air and stopping a guy from reaching the box of food in Mara's hands.

Woah wait a minute… Where did this guy come from?!