Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Chapter 565 - 565 A Deal with a Witch (2)

Avery narrowed his eyes and glared at Delia.He was trying to determine how truthful she was being, but he could not get a read on her.

She seemed to be the type that could conceal her true thoughts and feelings as easily as she breathed.

Avery glanced towards Kaiden, but his brother-in-law just shook his head.

He was not anywhere near as adept as telling when people were lying as his sister, but he could pick up signs if they were obvious.

Delia clearly an impeccable liar even if everything she had just said was the truth. Of that Avery was certain.

'Damn, I wish Kasandra was here right now. I should never have let her go. It might be necessary for what we do next, but still.' Avery thought, regretting that his first partner was not here with him right now.

It was entirely possible that she would not have been able to get a read on Delia either, but Avery would have felt comforted just to have her by his side to give her opinion on what to do.

Delia took Avery's silence for indecision, so she upped the charm and tried to convince him.

"Surely you must realize that I come in good faith? I made sure that I was alone and did not begin discussing the true nature of my objective until we were on your ship. Obviously, I'm powerless and at your mercy right now.

"All I can give you at the moment is my word that I want to cooperate with you to bring down the Odium Syndicate. But as soon as we do begin working together, I'm certain that my information and connections will prove invaluable."

There was a long pause before Olivia was the first one to speak up.

"If that was your goal all along then what was with you asking to go see different places all over the ship you knew we would never let you visit? And why try making a pass at Avery? You've given off a feeling of untruthfulness since we first met. It reminds of a man named Iniquus."

For just a fraction of a second, Avery saw Delia's mask slip and there was a hint of disgust when she heard the name Iniquus.

It was for such a short amount of time that no one else noticed, and even Avery could not be certain what he had seen was not just in his head.

Still, whether it was or not, he would make sure to remember this moment. At the very least, it confirmed to him that he did not, and never would trust Delia.

Nevertheless, trust and usefulness did not always go hand in hand.

What Delia said about her being powerless right now was completely accurate.

If Avery wanted to throw her in the brig and leave her there to rot, he could.

Should he point his laser pistol at her head and shoot a blast right between her eyes, no one was going to stop him.

That meant that even if she was not a true ally, she likely did have some reason to take out the Odium Syndicate.

Avery figured that it was for purely selfish reasons, but her position as an executive of the criminal organization and the information she possessed were both assuredly very valuable.

So, even though she showed no signs of answering Olivia's questions and just stood there with a smile plastered on her face, Avery spoke up to give his verdict.

"Fine, I'll hear you out. But first I want you to send a message to the station and tell the man in charge there that you're coming with us. I'd rather not have my cover blown. Unless you've already done so. In which, the potential for a deal is off, and I'll just take you to the Alliance Police and you can become their problem." Avery said, an edge to his voice.

"I've told no one about what I uncovered about you. Though, my ship is set to send out a transmission revealing your true identity if I do not send a stop code within the next two hours. I needed at least a hint of insurance in case you did something untoward to me."

Avery had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at Delia's last statement and the way she covered her chest. Suggesting that Avery might have tried to assault her.

She had practically been throwing herself at him, and he was fairly sure that had he accepted her advances at all, she would been perfectly fine with the situation.

'Maybe its not too late to just toss her out of an airlock.' Avery thought, really not wanting to deal with the woman any longer.

However, he pushed his feelings aside and thought about things from a logical perspective.

He had very little to lose from just hearing her out, but a lot to potentially gain.

So, after having her craft a message to the manager of the outpost, whose name turned out to be Gaspar, and sending a code to her ship to stop it from transmitting his real identity to the entire Odium Syndicate, Avery agreed to listen to what Delia had to offer.

Except, there was one thing he needed to do first.

"I may be in charge of this ship, but I'm still only a hired mercenary. The true boss of this operation is Cerise Gunvald. Before I go any further on forming a potential partnership with you, I need to contact her and get her permission. Until then, I did promise you a tour of the brig, so you can wait in a cell until I'm done." Avery said, an expression of undisguised malice on his face.

He figured that this would serve as some payback for what Delia had already put him through with her antics.

This elicited perhaps her first halfway genuine reactions, and she started to protest.

"That is unacceptable. I refuse to be put into a cell. I'm here to help you, at no small risk to myself. Not only could you have potentially killed me, but the Odium Syndicate could easily come after me. I'm sure you know well how persistent that they can be when they want to eliminate someone. I'm not asking for full access to the ship, just put me somewhere decently nice. I promise not to cause any trouble."

Avery sighed before glancing between Ezra, Olivia, and Kaiden.

They all got the silent message he was giving him and nodded.

"Fine, you can wait in the officers' lounge instead. Just know that if you do anything even slightly suspicious, Ezra, Olivia, and Kaiden here have permission to kill you. No warnings, no questions asked. So, I very much hope that you can behave yourself. Consider this the first test to see if we can trust you." Avery said in a threatening tone of voice.

The frown that Delia had put on vanished in an instant like it had never been there, and she responded with a bright smile on her face.

"Of course. I'll be on me best behavior."

Avery practically glared at her the entire way to the officers' lounge.

He could have left escorting her to his trusted companions, but his instincts told him to keep his eyes on Delia as often as he could. And not for any perverse reasons.

She certainly may have been attractive, but the only thing Avery felt towards her was suspicion.

Just from the few conversations he had had with her, he knew that she was not the type of person to care about morals or ethics.

Her wanting to take down the Odium Syndicate had nothing to do with stopping their reprehensible drug trade and genetic experiments. Of that Avery was sure.

Delia was someone that was only out for herself. She only did things if they benefited or amused her.

With those thoughts in mind, eh left her in the officer lounge to be watched by Ezra, Olivia, and Kaiden.

He was certain that if he had any people up to the task of catching the woman if she did try something, it was three of them.

After that, he headed to his office and sent out a priority call to Cerise.

It was encoded as usual and using a frequency that most others would not have been able to pick up on.

Since he had already told her about the meeting, she responded within a couple minutes once the connection was established.

"Did it go that bad?" Cerise asked, having noticed the frown on Avery's face.

Only once she brought it up did he realize how hard his expression still was.

"Yes and no. There have been some complications, but an opportunity as well."

Avery explained to her about what had happened with Delia and the woman's proposal of an alliance.

He could tell that the more he revealed, the closer Cerise became to feeling like he did.

"You always seem to find a new way to give me a new headache. Still good work. This might just be the advantage that we need. Stay on standby for a little while. I need to contact my superiors before going forward. All of this has gotten too big for even me to make a decision." Cerise said, a tired look on her face.

She then silenced the call and minimized it so that they were still connected but neither side could see or hear each other.

"I guess I just wait now. A large part of me hopes that the Alliance Police just want me to hand Delia over. But I have the distinct feeling I'm not going to be that lucky."