Chapter 514: Chapter 514 Joining a Criminal Organization (3)

With the meeting having gone well, a formal contract was presented to Avery after receiving the approval of his new Odium Syndicate contact.

Of course, there was naturally no mention of smuggling Paradise across the border between the Zatis Consortium and the Dramid Alliance.

On paper his job would be hauling industrial machine parts for construction of a new mining operation.

Naturally, this was just a front for his actual cargo.

"I see, so I’ll be paid in Krenin for the legitimate work, and Zatis Credits for the more ’sensitive’ items." Avery said once he had read things over.

"That is correct. Paying the entire amount in Krenin would be bound to raise red flags. It would not take long for the tyrannical government of the Dramid Alliance to notice that you were making more than the cargo you were transporting is worth. Fortunately, there won’t be such a problem with an account opened in the Zatis Consortium. They understand the ways of business better there."

Avery nodded in a show of acceptance and understanding. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

In the Zatis Consortium, money reigned supreme.

Even crimes like mass murder or kidnapping could be wiped away with enough compensation to the corporation in charge of the sector of space where the crime had been committed.

When Avery had first started doing in-depth reading about the inner workings of the Zatis Consortium, he had wondered how everything had not devolved into anarchy already.

Each of the corporations in charge had their own styles of ruling, and their influence could grow or wane depending on how much capital they had at any one moment. With several of the major companies in charge rising and falling every decade or so.

The only thing that had remained stable were the original fourteen corporations that had banded together to found the Zatis Consortium. Something that they had only done to protect their assets from hostile powers that were trying to steal their accumulated wealth.

It seemed that all of them had an iron grip on the markets that they controlled, and this had not changed even after centuries had passed.

’And it’s highly like that of those fourteen, Phorvellum is the one that is back the Odium Syndicate.’ Avery thought, remembering the intelligence that Cerise had gathered and given to him.

As the leading corporation that developed pharmaceuticals within the Zatis Consortium, Phorvellum was the obvious most likely culprit to have created the highly addictive drug that had been given the epithet, Paradise.

Although Cerise had not been able to confirm this yet even if a lot of the evidence she had collected pointed towards this conclusion being correct.

Avery unconsciously scrunched up his face in contemplation, but the member of the Odium Syndicate seemed to take it to mean that he was unsatisfied with the conditions presented.

"I understand that you have some debts that you owe that are in Krenin, and it’s not easy to convert Zatis Credits to Krenin at the moment. At least directly. But you can simply buy some high value goods in the Consortium and then resell in the Alliance. We already have experience doing so and allied business that will make the process easier." The man said with a reassuring smile.

"Ah, that was a slight worry of mine." Avery said, recovering quickly. "As long as that is worked out, then I see no issue. When do I start?"

The meeting went on as details of the jobs Avery was going to be taken over the next two weeks were discussed.

It seemed that he had only earned the barest amount of trust, as he was only going to be tasked with delivering a relatively small quantity of the Odium Syndicate’s main product.

Instead of picking it up at a production facility or even a secondary storage within the Zatis Consortium, what he would be carrying during this trial period would be brought over by another ship.

After that, he would return to a specified location in the Dramid Alliance and a different vessel would pick up the product and bring it to its true destination.

’They must want to make sure that their losses aren’t too great just in case I get myself caught, or I’m some sort of informant for a competitor or the Alliance Police.’

Cerise rounding up a large percentage of the Odium Syndicate’s smugglers might have forced them to ramp up recruiting to make up for the loss, but it was clear that they were not being too hasty.

Judging by how there was an attack squad waiting far outside of a typical Ontembaar Cargo ship’s sensor range, Avery did not doubt that his vessel would be under constant monitoring during the next two weeks.

The Odium Syndicate was almost certain to keep an eye on him until there was at least some degree of certain he would not betray them.

Once everything was finalized, Avery, Ezra, and Kasandra got up from their seats.

Avery had ben the only one to talk, but the other two had played their own roles as tough security officers well.

"Ah, and I don’t think that this needs mentioning, but I should say so anyway. Keep the knowledge of exactly what your transporting for me a secret as best you can. We don’t want anyone on your ship with loose lips leaking anything that might get you in trouble." The man said, glancing between Ezra and Kasandra.

"I’ll keep that in mind. Only myself, my two trusted guards, and the head cargo manager will know."

"Good. We don’t want someone, like say, a chatty prostitute to go spilling things."

With the nod of his head, Avery acknowledged the obvious warning.

There were many layers to the man’s words, and had he actually been who was pretending to be, it might have actually unnerved him.

On the other hand, this simply helped him know that the Odium Syndicate had looked into his crew’s fake identities, and that they had likely not been discovered as false.

Not that he thought there would be any problems considering how much work Cerise had put into preparing everything.