40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 780 1. How to smuggle water legally

015.M40, near the Ultrium star field, A-310-7 trading station.

"Sir, your offer is really too low. I'm sorry I can't accept it."

The 102-year-old businessman Jaco stepped down from his floating chair with great embarrassment, and the two bodyguards around him immediately raised their hands to support him.

The reason was simple: their boss suffered a severe postoperative reaction after his fourth life-extending surgery.

Ever since that damn operation, every day, as soon as he woke up from the sleep brought on by the anesthetic, the terrible pain would immediately come back.

How much pain does it have? Jaco can't even describe it, he just knows that unless he injects various drugs, he will scream all the time.
He thought that the situation would gradually improve over time. However, after a full month, the situation had not improved at all.

Now, he feels very regretful, and often thinks that if he had not been greedy for cheapness and found that underground quack doctor, but actually spent some money to get in touch with the people of the Mechanicus.

It's like a dream.

"Please think about it again." His guest responded standing at the counter.

His voice was low, but it did not have the harsh tone of the people Jaco often dealt with. Instead, it contained a kind of calm and steady voice - as if he did not care whether Jaco really did not want to accept his offer or just wanted to lower the price.

This incident immediately made the businessman feel uneasy. He subconsciously grabbed the bodyguards' hands, then tried to stand up straight, walked closer to the counter, and forced out a wrinkled smile.

"That's right, sir. Please allow me to explain it to you."

Jaco opened his mouth slowly, trying to persuade the guest with emotion and reason. He had already seen that lies would not work on this guest.

"You want to buy five standard units of fresh water, which is not a problem, after all, that's what we sell here. But you also want a cargo ship, and here's the problem - anything related to the ship is not cheap in the entire trade station that begins with '3'."

"You can go around and ask around to see if this is the case. And, my good sir, you want this ship to go to Nuceria. God-Emperor, this is a bit troublesome."

"Why?" his guest asked calmly, still without any sign of wavering in his tone.

The smile on Jaco's face grew wider, but he secretly became ruthless in his heart.

Well, you're still pretending to be nice to me? You want to pretend to be a newbie and bargain for a bit, right? I won't let you do that! And I'll make you pay a lot of money willingly!
"Because Nukeria does not allow any private vendors to sell water - in any form." Jaco said with a very respectful face. "Also, since we have come to this point, I may have to take a look at your legal merchant certificate. We are a legal institution here."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two bodyguards standing behind him walked out of the counter silently and surrounded the customer.

This strange guest was considered very tall among ordinary people, but the two bodyguards that Jaco had hired at a high price were not ordinary people.

They were a pair of twin brothers, strong and brave since childhood. As soon as they reached adulthood, they were immediately picked up by the local military camp that had long had its eyes on them. Logically, such talents would either die in battle or be promoted.

Jaco thought that he would never see the two of them in this small place A-310-7 again in his life, but he did not expect that the two of them would come back quietly three years ago, still wearing private uniforms, without even a medal on their chests.

Although the retirement documents clearly stated that the brothers had indeed retired with honor, what about their honors? They didn't even have a medal!

In this case, many rumors spread like wildfire in the local area.
Some said they had committed a crime, some said they had offended someone, in short there were all kinds of theories, it was a mess, but the two brothers never explained, they just quietly looked for jobs.

Of course, no one dared to take them in. In the end, Jaco softened his heart and didn't want to watch two good young men who were still in the best years of their lives run off to hang out with gangs, so he stepped forward to take them in, and not only did he treat them well, but he even gave them quite preferential treatment.

For this reason, the two brothers are very loyal to Jaco - for example, now they are staring at the guest with eager eyes, and the older brother with a more aggressive temper has even clenched his fists.

"Identification." He said hoarsely. "Otherwise, get out. We don't want your business anymore."

The customer looked up at him, then turned to look at Jaco who was leaning against the counter, and said, "The ID is with my bodyguard, but he is outside the store. Can you wait for me for a moment while I go out to find him?"

"Of course, sir, of course." The businessman said with a smile.

Of course, that wasn't what he really thought.

The man nodded, turned and left the store.

Looking at the tall and thin figure, Jaco sighed with contentment, then fell back and returned to his floating chair, quickly grabbing a soft handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his face.

After just a few words, his back was already soaked with sweat. The harm caused by the operation was more terrible than he thought. What if there was no improvement?
"Is he gone, Yorkland?" the merchant inquired, breathlessly, calling to the younger of the brothers.

The latter walked to the door of the store, squinted his eyes and looked for a while, and gave a completely opposite answer: "No, the boss is standing across the street."

"Do you want me to chase him away? He doesn't look like a decent man, boss. I don't believe he is really a legitimate businessman."

The elder brother among brothers, Chulanko asked, his voice growing hoarse.

"That's not necessary." Jaco was still panting, sweat still pouring out. "He must have evidence, Chulanko, I'm willing to bet you twenty imperial coins."

Two minutes later, he won the bet—the man came back, and beside him there was a being who looked nothing like a human. This thing was at least two and a half meters tall, wearing a long robe, but his muscles made the loose black robe bulge.

The two brothers immediately became alert, but Jaco was different. He was very surprised.

"A modified robot servant?" The merchant's voice became a little shrill.

The man smiled, but the meaning of this smile was very complicated, and no one present could understand it. Instead, his robot servant lowered its head, looking a little strange.

Then the man raised his right hand and placed a brown briefcase on the counter.

With two light clicks, he opened it, took out a complete set of businessman identification documents, and gently handed it to Jaco.

The latter did not dare to delay and immediately raised his hand to signal the two brothers to help him, but only the younger brother came back, while the older brother still stood vigilantly beside the man and his bodyguards, as if facing a great enemy.

Jaco spent ten minutes carefully reading all the certificates presented by the man, then he let out a long sigh and his smile became respectful again.

However, when he spoke again, there was inevitably a hint of grievance in his voice.

"Why didn't you bring these treasures out earlier?" The merchant wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. "I almost hit the blacksmith with my hammer, but it's my fault that I didn't realize you were a big shot who had permission to sell water in Nuceria!"

The man still smiled without saying anything. He just reached into his pocket, took out a handful of very new gold coins and placed them on the counter.

Jaco was not excited at all at this time. He asked his brother to go to the communication room on the fourth floor of the store to contact the ship owners and discuss the price. He then bent down and took out an agreement from under the counter and began to fill in the blanks on it.

His younger brother had to come back to support him at this time, after all, his condition was getting worse and worse.

You don't even need to watch it, you can understand it just by listening to his increasingly heavy breathing.
Jaco was writing seriously, but for some reason his vision went dark. He stopped writing and wanted to raise his hand to wipe the sweat off his face, but a strange, sweet and fishy feeling suddenly rose in his throat.

The next second, there was a "puff" sound, and black, smelly blood gushed out of the mouth of the short businessman.

However, at the critical moment, Jaco chose to lower his head, not letting any blood splash onto the counter and stain the customer's ID and agreement. "Boss?!" his younger brother Yorkland screamed.

Jaco wanted to say something, but the darkness in front of him became thicker and thicker. He almost didn't have the strength to open his eyes, let alone speak.
However, in this darkness, a powerful and steady voice suddenly rang out.

The voice said, "Bring him here."

Yorkland turned his head in doubt and looked at the suspicious man, who looked at him calmly and made a gesture.

That was the military's way of communicating, meaning 'do as I say'. Yorkland's doubts grew even stronger, but his body moved involuntarily, and he carried the old merchant who had done them a favor to the counter on the other side.

However, in just a few seconds, Jaco's condition worsened again. He was no longer vomiting blood, but bleeding. Dark dirty blood continued to flow out from his seven orifices, the stench was overwhelming, and the scene was horrifying.

Seeing this, the man did not seem to panic at all. He just raised his hand and pressed the old businessman's chest, then took out a silver cylinder from his arms.

He pressed the tail end, and a long needle suddenly popped out from its head.

"What is this?" Yorkland asked quickly.

"Medicine." The man said, then stabbed it into the old merchant's neck and pressed the tail again.
There was a very obvious sound of pneumatic squeezing, and Jaco's body straightened up, and then he began to struggle violently.

If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, no one would have believed that a short old man could swing his arms so vigorously.

However, this epileptic scene came and went quickly. In just a dozen seconds, the struggle stopped and Jaco opened his eyes in confusion.

Yorkland hurried forward. When the old man saw him, his eyes lit up and he obviously wanted to say something, but suddenly he burst into a violent coughing fit.

Lumps, pieces of meat and some suspicious machinery jumped out of his mouth along with this coughing, and of course, there was also bright red blood that no longer had any odor.

Finally, half a minute later, Jaco spoke weakly.

".What's wrong with me?"

No one answered, Yorkland looked confused, but the man who started it all bent down and picked up the machine lying in a pool of blood from the ground.

He stood up, held it up, looked at it carefully for a moment, and then put it away.

"The doctor you saw a month ago is the one who performed the life-extending surgery on you." He spoke softly. "Where is his clinic?"

Jaco looked at him in astonishment, but still stammered to answer the question: "It's on Sixth Avenue in Sailor Harbor. You can see it as soon as you arrive. It's very conspicuous."

"Where's the name?"

"Balinda Lessorone."

"Very good." The man nodded and said no more. Instead, he went back to the counter, picked up a pen and wrote out the agreement in full.

He handed it to the old businessman for review, and the latter confirmed the legality of the transaction in confusion and bewilderment.

In five Terran days, or 120 hours, a cargo ship would take the official route to Nuceria with the five standard units of fresh water he requested.
“Happy business,” the man said, extending his right hand to shake the old man’s.

However, at this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps sounded from behind the opened wooden door behind the counter.

Next came the voice of his brother Chulanko, which was hoarse at first and then furious.

"Boss, it's done! Captain Roll took over our ship. Damn it!"

"and many more--"

The old man only had time to exclaim this word before he saw his bodyguard leap up from behind the counter and pounce towards the man.

At this moment, perhaps only the Emperor knew how confused his mind was.

However, the bloodshed that the old man had expected did not happen, because Chulanko was stopped in mid-air by a strong arm.

A kind of chill broke out in an instant.

"——Chulanko!" It was only at this moment that Jaco uttered the second half of his sentence.

The person he called out to stood on the floor in confusion, looking back at him with an expression somewhere between anger and fear.

He was shrouded in a shadow. The shadow came from a thing that suddenly became as tall as a mountain. Its skin was as pale as a dead person, and its eyes were like black holes under the hood. It was blocking Chulanko and the mysterious man.
After a moment of silence, the man spoke slowly.

"Forgive me." He clapped his hands to attract attention. "My modified servitor was set to automatic counterattack mode, which almost caused a bloodbath. Could you please not report this little friction to the Legal Department, Mr. Jaco? After all, our transaction should be quite pleasant, right?"

"Of course." The old businessman swallowed and said with cold hands and feet, his eyes still staring straight at the so-called robot servant.

"Thank you so much."

The man smiled slightly, walked to the counter, put the documents into his briefcase, then strode away.

His bodyguard followed closely behind, his steps soundless as a ghost or a shadow.

A minute later, the three people in the store finally came to their senses when the door they had pushed open closed heavily with a loud noise. They looked at each other, not understanding what had just happened.
As for this matter, perhaps only the man who has already walked halfway across the street and his transformed robot bodyguard can understand it.

Facing the crowd that was obviously scattered because of fear of him, the "machine servant" approached his protector and spoke in a low voice.

"Are you going now?"

"Let's go now," the man said. "But don't be impatient, Yago, we can go get something to eat first."

He squinted his eyes and looked at a tall building not far away. The colorful neon signs were shining in the night, reflecting an inhuman coldness in his eyes.

"Why? I'm not hungry. Besides, you don't need to eat, do you?"

"I just want to eat something, is that not okay?" the man said unhappily, and his coldness suddenly disappeared. "Can't I eat some local specialties?"

"It's up to you. But I won't eat it."

The man called Yago muttered something like this, then straightened up and acted like a robot servant again.

(End of this chapter)