Poker Face
29 Nov 2020Oak7603
Staring your opponent in the face when they have no idea of your intentions for them has always been a strange feeling for me. Looking into the eyes of Client Lucio Duke across the desk as he pours some of the locally produced brandy into a chromug I can't help but picture myself sat in that exact seat in what will hopefully be a matter of days, a few weeks at best. I've glazed over and zoned out as he tells me something about weapons, narcotics and slaves being illegal and how its made Jangman a safer system. In my opinion, the more you stamp out things, the more people want it. That's why the system has issued almost 2.6M bounties in the past 24 hours. At KI we see stamped out trade as profit lost, even if some of it goes through the black markets, something else restricted here. What a waste of potential profit and it's not as if the trades aren't going on, the government just isn't getting any of it.But that's all going to change. I'm nodding and smiling at the fool as he talks to me. As the official face of KI I have to. What he doesn't know is that I've already set in motion his demise. I've been undertaking missions since I got here. When I first pulled into the dock, I wasn't sleeping and turning the ship round like he thinks, I was already meeting with those looking to overthrow him. My VP had already set up missions for me. Assassinations. Planetary scans in 3 different local systems. I've been on it all day. He has no idea. Stuck behind his desk, shuffling his paperwork. Work gets the work done. Its the only way. But he will learn the hard way.
I've been here before though. I'll slowly increase the KI influence, push him out and then when its too late for him to do anything about it, he'll have war ships shooting his supporters out of the sky, as he looks around and wonders just how he lost everything from under his own nose. Then victory and he'll wish he'd stayed off the brandy.
".... certainly Mr Duke. It's been a pleasure talking to you."
I pull the door shut and walk back towards my ship. Comlink open and I pass the update to the VP. All missions completed. No one noticed. Key contacts met. Supplies and munitions on the way. No, he has no idea.
As an aside to all of this and prior to me turning up at the Clients office. I'd been out to Kuk to visit Selene Jean to sort out my ships armour and then I'd spent a good time out in the SRV. Two reasons really, one for the Mat collecting and two to get a good feel for the SRV ready for the Planetary missions I previously mentioned. Flying into a surface location, searching for an outpost, jacking the data and getting out quick will probably be my thing for a few days so time to get some practice in.
Time to get some actual sleep. I've got some busy days and nights coming up and I don't know when I'll next get to sleep.
o7