Soon I am going to need a name for the other last major character in this story. It needs to be a carefully-calculated one; you’ll eventually see why. Especially if this short story collection gets off the ground!
“…no doubt your Governor could send an army of his own to conquer Chillicothe. Of course, the moment either army came into view Kragnor would immediately submit to the Universal Dominion, and then there would be a war. Who wins it?”
“The ravens,” I said.
“Precisely. So instead of an army, we send a specialist. If you fail, alas. If you succeed, well, your fee is much cheaper than an army’s.”
“What fee are you offering?” I was a little curious, but not much. If you don’t know how much it costs to hire me then you aren’t prepared enough, and fifteen grand for just the buy-in showed that Miss Serenity here had done her homework. She didn’t even bother to look at her notes before replying.
“One million dollars, or one and a half million credits,” she said. Miss Serenity seemed just the slightest bit hesitant in making the offer, and I didn’t blame her in the slightest: that was a lot of God-damned money, even for a warlord. “We would normally offer a portion ahead of time as a retainer,” she went on, “but I understand that you insist on payment only upon completion.”
“Yeah,” I said. “If I can’t do the job, I can’t do the job. No harm, no foul. And no inconvenient, maybe lethal obligation over my head, I didn’t say. Miss Serenity looked smart enough to figure it out.