Amber and Mara were holding on to the guy's arm that appeared out of thin air and, judging by the look on his face, he was also surprised that he was actually caught.

The two of them then slammed him onto the ground unceremoniously, knocking the wind out from the guy.

He recovered surprisingly quickly and tried to pry his hand out of their grasp, only to be pulled back by the two women.

The guy then pulled out what looked like an energy blade and I was already in the midst of pulling out my shotgun when he brought the energy blade down in an arc.

Except he was not aiming to cut either of the girls but instead, he severed his arm at the shoulder, cutting his limb loose.

I thought he was mad for doing that until I realised the arm was a prosthetic as sparks flew from the place he had cut instead of blood.

His figure then disappeared again and there was a shout coming from the other police officers which drew our attention.

I turned to look in the direction of the shout and found three of the officers being flung away from where they were standing, all of them crashing onto the ground dazed but still alive.

At where they had been earlier was another guy who had glowing arms and he rushed to pick up the two body bags to heft over his shoulder.

Several of the officers were in the midst of pulling out their weapons from their holsters when the guy who had cut off his arm disappeared and reappeared in front of the body bag guy, right before a smoke cloud exploded out from under his feet and hiding both of them from view.

The officers were not deterred by the smoke and started firing a few rounds into it, stopping after at least a dozen or so shots were first.

When the smoke cleared, all we're left with is an empty spot with no body in sight.

Ok… Err… Did the thieves return to ambush us and also steal their comrades' bodies away? I think that's exactly what happened here…

There was a high pitched whine and we quickly realised that it was coming from the arm that the guy had cut off.

Amber quickly pulled the arm out of Mara's grasp and threw it into the air before tackling me towards the ground.

I was still confused about what was going on before the arm suddenly exploded in the air, leaving nothing behind.

When everything settled down again, one of the police officers was shouting at the others, "They got away! Set up a perimeter immediately! Find them!"

I guess that's the guy in charge around here.

The officer that had barred us from entering didn't even say anything to us and sped off with his other colleagues, following the order that was given.

I'm not sure how they would be able to catch these guys since they managed to break through your guard and escape without any of you being able to do anything about it but what do I know?

The place that had been full of police officers was suddenly emptied out within a few seconds, only leaving a handful of them behind to keep watch on the crime scene.

Amber finally got off from me after making sure the place was safe and helped me back on my feet.

Stolen novel; please report.

Mara and Lea were also fine so honestly, it was a little unnecessary for Amber to do that especially since I also had a shield on me as well.

Mara covered up the box that held the food I made for her, "I think we should go somewhere safer. We may now be targeted for this."

Lea raised her hand slightly, "May I suggest that we stay away from the ship? They might still be tracking us in order to find another opportunity to steal from us."

I was about to agree with Lea's suggestion when Mara turned to her, "And who might you be? An Alv slave?"

Lea nodded, "Captain has saved me from captivity and I am eternally grateful to her."

Mara looked at Amber who quickly pointed at me, prompting her to switch her gaze to me instead.

I answered her unasked question with a nod, indicating that I did indeed purchase an Alv slave.

Mara narrowed her eyes at Lea, "Your homeworlds are literally on the other side of this sector, how did you even get captured to be sold on this side of the galaxy?"

The Alv gave her a small smile, "I'm afraid that is something that I cannot share."

Mara narrowed her eyes even more but Lea maintained that smile that did not reach her eyes.

Eventually, Mara decided to drop the matter in favour of turning to me, "Alright. I agree with what she had suggested though, so we need another place to go."

I turned my gaze to Amber and she immediately shook her head, "Did you forget? My place was a rental. I don't actually live here."

I then looked at Mara, since she's an information broker after all so surely she had some hideouts or something right?

As though reading my mind, she also shook her head, "I'm not like those people who would have secret bases. The information broker thing is just a side job for me, not the main one."

Alright… In that case…

"I suppose… Maybe we can rent a place somewhere?"

"Oh yes! How about one of the nice hotels? Those would be a nice choice!" Amber suggested.

I raised an eyebrow, "Wouldn't those be quite expensive?"

"Oh we could just spend a single night there in one room, that wouldn't be too expensive!"

"Uh huh… One night with all of us in the same room huh. I wonder what might happen?"

She gave me a knowing smirk, "I wonder what~"

Mara turned to me, "Leaving aside her impure goals, I will have to agree that it's the safest place for us right now. A luxury hotel would also come with top class security so the risk is much lower than us staying in a cheaper place."

Well, I'll agree with her that this would be preferable as compared to leading these guys back to my ship where they could potentially try to sneak on board and steal even more of our stuff.

They've already shown that they were quite competent and they even had cybernetic mods so these really weren't just random thugs you could find out there. The only reason they lost two guys was most likely because of their carelessness.

"How much would we be spending for a night?" I asked, a little concerned that this would impact our savings meant for a new ship.

Amber waved her hand, "Oh we can afford it, don't worry. One room at the best hotel here would probably be just a few thousand Credits or so."

Oh, ok. That's less than I thought.

… Wait, no, that's actually pretty expensive for a station like Theeve. That's like a few hundred dollars a night if converted to my old World's currency isn't it? That's pretty expensive…

My sense of value is crumbling a little after earning so many Credits in such a short time…

Amber raised a finger, "Oh, and what's more… They also serve organic food as well~"

Oh~ That definitely sounds enticing. Although I'm a little disappointed by the last time we ate organic food prepared by someone else, maybe this time it would be better?

Ok, ok, I know the likelihood of that happening is pretty low but at least let me dream a bit ok? If worse comes to worse, I'll just ask them for permission to borrow their kitchens.

"Well alright, I suppose I wouldn't mind experiencing some nice hospitality for once," I admitted.

Mara seemed to perk up at that, "That's good, because I know just the place we can go for the night. From my sources, their food and service is actually pretty decent so we shouldn't be too disappointed."

'Too disappointed'? It sounds like she already knew that she would be disappointed already.

Amber turned to frown at Mara, "Hey… You're sharing that, aren't you?"

Mara's expression did not even change when she responded to her question, "Oh? You wish to share the food Tera had made for me? If you admit that I will forever be better than you and that you're just a troublesome little girl, I may consider it."

"You witch!"

"Call me whatever you want, but I'm not giving this up to you."

I felt a tug on my arm and found Lea giving me a look of concern, "Are we fine with them like this?"

"Don't worry about it, they're usually like this."

Lea obviously wasn't too convinced about that especially since Amber started trying to steal the box away from Mara and the doctor was holding her back with one hand pushing against her face without much effort.

This really felt like I was watching an older sister bullying her younger sister but I shall keep such thoughts to myself…

Anyway… I suppose we should go now?