Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Chapter 566 - 566 A Deal with a Witch (3)

Avery waited for what felt like far longer than it actually was.Cerise got back to him in less than an hour and told him the verdict handed down by the Chief of the Alliance Police himself.

"You're to work with this woman named Delia. If she proves herself useful in stopping the Odium Syndicate, then the Alliance Police are willing to give her amnesty for all crimes she has committed. Not that we truly have anything on her. No records of a Delia exist in any of our data bases, and no recognition program we put her face or other features through got any hits." Cerise said, clearly being annoyed and upset by not having anything on the woman claiming to be an executive of the Odium Syndicate.

"She's probably wearing a disguise mask similar to what I've been using, and I doubt Delia is her real name. I could take a DNA sample from her and send that over to you. Maybe you'll get something from that."

Cerise agreed to Avery's suggestion, though she still doubted that it would do any good.

"This is not an easy situation that you've been put in, and I truly wish that it was unnecessary. But with things as they are, the Odium Syndicate needs to be taken down. Sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it's going to mean war. The Dramid Alliance cannot overlook the potential of its citizens being mutated into monsters." Cerise said, a steely resolve in her eyes.

She was no stranger to fighting, and she knew just how destructive a true war could be.

It would not be like the little border skirmishes they currently had going on.

Most of the time those ended with both sides backing off and not willing to commit to losing their ships and troops.

In a war, that would not be the case.

They would fight with huge armadas that would ultimately cost millions of lives and tens of thousands of destroyed vessels. The fighting would be on a completely different scale.

That was something to be avoided if at all possible.

"I suppose that I'll leave you to it for now. I get that this woman will be less forthcoming with us, otherwise she would not have approached you to begin with. Still, if she does anything you find suspicious or can't morally agree with, detain her. Kill her if it's the only way to stop her. I'll back up whatever decision that you make."

With the call between the two of them ended, Avery made his way back to the officers' lounge where he had left Delia.

He could feel a headache already coming on the closer he got, and small part of him was hoping she had already attempted some sort of sabotage and Ezra, Olivia, and Kaiden had killed her.

Yet, when the door to the lounge opened, he found her leisurely sipping on some tea and eating a pastry of some kind.

"Oh, you're back. I assume that your Alliance Police handler gave you permission to work with me." Delia said, a smug, victorious smile on her face.

Avery did not immediately respond to her, and instead turned towards Ezra and asked, "Did she do anything while I was gone?"

"Nothing worth killing her over. But we should limit her contact with the rest of the crew. She knows how to use her words to get under people's skin well, and I can tell it's in her nature to enjoy doing so. She'll subtly try to push people in the direction she wants until they break if given the chance." Ezra replied, wearing a deep scowl.

When Avery asked him to elaborate, he told him about how she started out by complementing Kaiden for his skills, even bringing up that she knew about him from his days when it was only him and his sister working together and they had gained the moniker Twin Fangs.

Yet, as the conversation went on, she steered it towards his insecurities.

Like whether Avery had stolen his sister away from him, or if he would be better off leading a mercenary company of his own.

She had not worded it this way and had been subtle about it though.

Enough so that it was not until Olivia noticed Kaiden's compromised mental state that she put an end to it.

Up until that point, it had all just seemed like harmless conversation.

'I see, so that's why Kaiden's not here. To think she could cause this much damage just by yapping for around an hour.'

Except, that was not the end of it.

Once Kaiden was gone, she had turned Ezra and Olivia into a target.

Somehow, she knew that the two of them were in a romantic relationship together.

They both had ignored her at first, but she eventually broached a topic that unnerved them. Which as it turned out was kids.

Neither of them wanted them any time soon, but for a lot of couples, it was not something that they wanted to talk about.

Still, Delia had made it more awkward by bringing up Ezra's uncle Urs.

He was half human, half Baccigan, and it had seen him subject to some prejudice.

Delia had framed it as worry for any future children between Ezra and Olivia, but really, she just wanted to fan the flames of their insecurities and make them feel uncomfortable.

It had worked too, as while Ezra and Olivia had maintained their posts and kept an eye on Delia, there was a hint of tension between them that had not been there before.

'We know nothing about her, but she must have conducted a very thorough investigation into all of us. How she did that in just a couple weeks at most, I don't know.' Avery thought, feeling frustrated by how easily the woman was manipulating them.

What he was in the dark about though was that Delia, whose real name was Delilah, had been digging up information on them for months now due to separate schemes she had been working on.

'I wish that we could just get rid of her. But I can't let my feelings cloud my judgment here.'

Delilah knew that she had valuable information that they needed and connections that would be undeniably useful.

That's why she had no problems pushing their buttons and seeing what she could get away with.

Already she knew where the line was, and while she would not cross it, she would get as close as possible to it to get some amusement out of the current circumstances.

"If you're all done chatting. Could we get down to business? I would like to know if my entirely selfless desire to help you all brining down the Odium Syndicate has been accepted."

Avery had to cut off all of his emotions when he turned to Delia and explained his discussion with Cerise.

"Yes, I suppose that's good enough. I figured I'd receive some tangible reward for my services but knowing that I stopped the Odium Syndicate will have to be enough."

She was acting like helping would come at a great personal cost to her. Yet Avery knew better than to believe that.

There was something in this for her. He just did not know exactly what it was yet.

"Oh, before we begin though, I would like to inform you that betraying me will not end well. We might have started off on the wrong foot, but I hope we can at least get along going forward. If something does happen to em though, I'm certain my wronged spirit will come back to haunt you." Delia said, her tone high pitched and cutesy in a joking manner.

However, Avery could tell that her words were not said in jest.

He did not truly believe that she had the ability to haunt him like some sort of ghost, but the subtext was there.

She had contingencies in place for if things did not go the way that she wanted.

Avery almost wanted to push her, see if she was just bluffing.

He did not though. Instead, he escorted her to a secure room where they would get to work.

She had information, and a lot of it.

Everything she knew, Avery wanted to get out of her.

Already he was expecting her to play games and make requests that pushed him in return for certain pieces of important intel.

Except, in complete contrast to her earlier actions and demeanor, she was immensely helpful without trying to get on his nerves or asking for things that would be difficult or impossible to accomplish.

The first thing she did was start by listing all of the prominent members of the Odium Syndicate.

She had knowledge of their aliases, what positions they held in the organization, places of residence, and their most valuable assets. Often focusing on the ones in the Dramid Alliance that could be frozen by the Alliance Police.

It was such a turnaround that Avery wondered if she had multiple personalities or something.

There were a couple of species that actually did and maybe she was a hybrid even if she looked entirely human.

Yet, at a certain point, he realized that this was all still just a part of her game.

He had been wary and prepared for her to continue as she had, but the longer she acted against her nature, the more confused Avery became.

His own wild thoughts and the strain he was putting on himself trying to figure her out was amusement enough for her.