Old Money

Maine picks up a gold bar and weighs in his hand, "Anyone know how much these things are actually worth?" he eyes the mintage on the side of the bar, "Shit's as pure as you can get..."

Pilar pauses his massaging of the bullion in his hand and wets his lips, "Well, I checked this shit with Lucy before we started this. A single one of these bars is around a million eddies, maybe more depending on who we sell 'em to."

"A-A million a bar!?" David yelps, almost dropping a bar on his foot.

"You guys forget we have an army comin' for our asses? Grab as much shit as you can and we'll divvy it out later, we still got that blonde bitch to pay anyway!" Falco urges.

"You guys do that, I'll check the deposit boxes, chances that they'll have someone good is pretty high..."

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"I-I don't know if we'll be able to run like this." Rebecca mutters as she strains against the bag. She had almost eighty kilograms of gold in her pack alone, which if Pilar's estimate was correct roughly equalled sixty million Eddies...

To her that number was something outta fantasy land, and she was sure she'd faint if she tried to add up what Maine and Ori were carrying. Both had multiple bags tied to their bodies, all together must've been a couple tons at least.

Billions of Eddies.

Shit, she was getting wet from the thought of it. It was a shame no one would know that they'd done it, their names would go down in history if they did. Who else could steal billions of a Corpo's Eddies in one night?

Not only that, Ori had stashed a pile of data chips he'd found in those safe deposit boxes too. Presumably Corpo secrets which might be worth more than the gold. "C-come on! Let's dip!" she exclaims, shuffling with the crew over to the vault entrance.

She'd rather fucking die than drop a single bar of gold!

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A vein throbs on Ori's forehead as he stomps towards the sewer entrance. Maybe they should've moderated how much they took. Thankfully they could dump some if needed, leave some gold covered in shit for the Corpos to clean up.

*BOOM!*

"Time to go!" Maine exclaims, everyone knowing that the sound was the Lazarus soldiers blowing a hole through the rubble to get to them. They'd check the vault, find gold missing, then scour the place for the hidden exit.

They reached the cave soon enough, finding the Lazarus soldiers dead at the hands of the mole people... They tried to attack the but ended up easily getting annihilated. Having superior numbers was good against grunts, but a specialist crew? No way Jose.

Ori leads them all through the labyrinthian tunnels, taking hidden paths, secret entrances, and other obscure routes to completely lose their pursuers. By the time the Lazarus goons had gotten out of the sewers the crew was long gone.

He took the crew and had them bury the stolen gold under the cracked concrete of an abandoned maintenance tunnel. They'd come back and pick it up once the heat had died, no need to risk taking those incredibly heavy bags out of the underground... Doing so after such a big heist was just asking for trouble.

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"Well done." Aliya smiles as the crew enters her room, freshly cleaned and clothed. "Though, I hadn't expected such a scene..." she admits looking out of her window at the Crystal Tower, which had a section of its foundation collapsed, undoubtedly burying hundreds of people in the process.

Maine shrugs uncaringly, "Can't make an omelette without scrambling a few eggs. We got the job done, that's all that matters."

She nods, "Quite... I don't see the spoils of war with you however?" she queries, obviously expecting them to have brought all the gold along.

"Stashed it." Maine walks over and sits nearby her, "We gotta talk biz though, renegotiate."

"Maine-" David starts but merc shoots him a glare.

"Quiet, kid. I know a bad deal when I see it, what percent were you planning on paying us?" he questions the woman.

Aliya folds her legs, "Five percent, a deserving amount."

"Deserving? What's deserving about that? You sit on your ass in your porcelain tower while we work, and you wanna claim most of the Eddies while you're at it?" Maine angrily asks, "You wanna take billions of Eds worth of gold, and hand us a couple million? And you think we'd sit through that!?"

She sighs, resting a hand on her cheek, "Mercenaries, make a deal but they always want more." she shakes her head, "Fine, you can have half, but you will tell me where you've hidden it and allow my men to confirm the amount, just to make sure you aren't trying to fool me."

Maine snorts, "Fat chance, I can see it in your eye, you wanna run off with it, don't cha?"

Rebecca pulls on Ori's sleeve as the crew watches this with varied expressions, "He ain't serious is he... Sure we're getting the short end, but a couple million Eddies is all we need... Why's he pissing her off...?"

"I don't know... Greed, maybe? I'm not happy with the deal either but we got other things to focus on. Not mentioning the fact we may not even get outta the city without her say so.

"What would you suggest then?" Aliya asks Maine, "What, in your 'wisdom' would you have me do?"

Maine folds his arms, "You pay us upfront, now. And we tell you where the gold's at."

"Do you know how much gold you took?" she queries, sounding cynical.

He furrows his brow behind his specs, "Four billion's worth. Pay up two bill' and we're even. You'll never see our faces again." he says, but Ori was pretty sure Maine was overestimating the amount, three billion was a maybe, four was stretching it.

...

Aliya strolls over to the bar and pours herself a drink, seeming mulling the choice over.