Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 47 Drawing a pie

A young woman of average build but not short stature, with slightly messy, shoulder-length gray-white hair and an overall capable demeanor, walked to the table, sat down, and extended her right hand to Milton.

"Flora".

Very decisive and efficient...

Milton shook her hand: "Hello."

Flora was clearly eager to begin. After a brief handshake, she started to introduce herself: "Good afternoon, we are retired soldiers from NATO countries..."

Milton shook his head and interrupted her, looking up: "Wait. More than that, I have a question about you first."

Flora respected her client's opinion, and she immediately nodded: "Yes, go ahead and ask."

“M4A1.” Milton enunciated the gun's name clearly. “As far as I know, this gun has only just been named. How…did you get your hands on it?”

If we have connections with these people, we should try our best to hire them, provided that the risks are eliminated first.

Flora was clearly stunned for a long time: "You, how do you know this gun is called M4A1? I only just got it recently... Well, okay, I'll answer your question. As you can see, this is a selection test gun."

Milton suppressed his excitement and continued calmly, "Without a powerful background, it would be impossible to obtain this gun... Why would someone who could obtain this gun need to come to such a poor place and fight to the death?"

The meaning of this statement is quite clear—Flora needs to explain why they are in this place.

If there were any problems, if they really had direct ties to the Pentagon, the CIA, or Brussels, Milton would never have hired these three people.

Flora clearly sensed the immense wariness in Milton's words. Her eyes widened in disbelief, completely surprised that her prospective employer would be so knowledgeable and cautious.

No employer has ever looked at the problem from this angle before!

“Wait…you must have misunderstood something,” Flora quickly explained. “First of all, all our weapons are obtained through legal channels, and you can verify my statement in any way you like. Secondly, the reason I was able to obtain this gun is not because I have any powerful connections.”

"You should be able to tell that we are a legitimate PMC (private military contractor). I took over the company because of the previous owner's poor management. This former owner once saved the life of a bigwig from a European country during a mission, and that bigwig used his connections to get an M4A1 and gave it to the former owner."

“The former boss has retired and doesn’t need this kind of weapon. In gratitude for my acquisition solving his funding problems, he gave me this gun. It’s that simple. I can even show you the gun’s registration records to guarantee there’s not a single lie.”

"You know, the guns submitted for testing are nominally randomly selected from the production line, but in reality... this gun is of very high quality and can greatly improve my combat capabilities, so I can't possibly refuse it."

Milton listened to this explanation without hesitation and with strong logic, and believed most of it. While he breathed a sigh of relief, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

The good news is that these three people really don't have any connections; the bad news is that they don't have any connections at all, so Milton can't rely on them to curry favor.

However, their channels have simply been shut down; restarting them is much easier than finding channels from scratch.

Milton nodded: "Alright... I have another question. Since you are a legitimate PMC registered in a NATO country, why have you ended up here with only three team members left?"

Flora looked slightly embarrassed, but quickly recovered: "Because the former boss left behind a lot of debt, and there's a civil war going on here. Where there's war, there's money to be spent, and there's a need for security."

After hesitating for a moment, she added, "We are a legally registered company, so we must follow proper procedures in everything we do... such as compensation for those killed in action."

Milton understood: "You've lost a teammate?"

“We ultimately completed the contract successfully,” Flora emphasized. “It’s just that the high medical expenses and the final death benefits wiped out all the money we had earned.”

"I see, that makes sense then." Milton nodded. "Very good, tell me your terms."

They're the ones!

Milton was very satisfied with Flora's team.

As for the issue of loyalty, and whether they might be CIA or USAID agents, Milton has a system panel that can make real-time assessments of "teammates." If anyone betrays them, Milton will know immediately, so he's not particularly worried.

“Since you can recognize the M4A1, you must be an expert.” Flora tapped the table. “Then let’s go with the default rules. The three of us will each earn $250,000 a year, which is $750,000 in total. That’s $62500 a month.”

“This is just the salary the company pays to its employees. We also need to buy insurance for them, provide combat allowances, high-temperature subsidies, operating costs, and so on. So even if we break even, it would cost at least $120,000 a month to hire the three of us.”

“We need each person to have one day of fixed leave per month. There will be 3 days each month when only 2 people are available, but if there is an emergency, the person on leave will immediately return to their post.”

“Our team members are skilled in a wide range of small arms, including the use of mortars.”

"We'll cover all the weapons, ammunition, and armor ourselves, without any extra costs. You'll only need to pay $12 a month, which is a great deal. What do you think?"

Looking at Flora's expectant eyes, Milton's first thought was, "So expensive!"

But in fact, this price is really reasonable... It's clear that these three people are really short of cash flow.

Milton wanted to agree, but he couldn't come up with that much money all at once.

But he can offer something other than money.

That's just empty promises!

“$12 a month, that’s a great deal, of course I can sign the contract right away.” Milton first put on an air of not being short of money, “But Flora, have you ever thought about this question, why is your company always in a state of not making money? You are clearly a very professional team, aren’t you?”

Flora paused for a moment, then gave a bitter smile: "Because I was just too unlucky... What else could I do? I was wearing heavy body armor and a helmet, but I still got blown in the head by a stray bullet."

The biggest impact on the funds was that the player did not die on the spot, but died in the hospital after all efforts to save him failed.

Flora also paid an exorbitant medical bill for her "loyalty".

“No,” Milton calmly denied, “because you are clearly a ‘private military contractor’ but you are doing the work of mercenaries, which means you can’t keep up with costs. Your soldiers are far too expensive.”

The infamous Blackwater company of later generations had not yet been established. At that time, PMCs were subject to fewer restrictions, and the relevant legal provisions were chaotic and not yet effectively regulated. Therefore, it was quite normal for legitimate companies to do some "mercenary"-like shady work.

Flora listened, somewhat dazed. She seemed to grasp something, yet she didn't fully understand it.

Milton’s voice held a hint of enticement: “What you should really be doing is taking on various military or security projects, getting a budget to maintain a defense facility, provide logistical support, or protect a factory.”

You can never get rich by working yourself to the bone; the only solution is to take advantage of the budgets allocated by parliamentarians!
“You make it sound so simple…” Flora gave a wry smile. “We are nominally qualified to bid, but in reality, we never get a chance to participate in government or semi-official projects.”

At this point, Flora suddenly looked up and stared at Milton in astonishment.

Wait, could it be?!

“This is the second option I’m offering you,” Milton said slowly. “$4 a month, but from then on, your company will be eligible to bid on projects I’m in charge of and become a true ‘military contractor.’”

(End of this chapter)