Surprise Kidnapping [5]

"...so? How was it?"

There was a moment of silence after the last bit as Raymond considered everything he'd heard.

He made plans in his head that naturally couldn't be said out loud in front of an outsider, and as he thought about how to go about the investigation, he was snapped out of his thoughts by an eager teenager.

'Why does he look so giddy?'

Raymond almost felt like he had to express his confusion. Was there another situation where someone so young would be this excited about getting their hands on a deadly poison?

He thought like that, sure, but he was still going to hold up his end of the bargain.

"We'll take the time to check the veracity of your words before I promise you anything, but if anything, you have certainly hit the baseline. At the very least, you'll receive River Blood Serpent Poison within the month."

"And if everything turns out to be true?"

"If 'everything' is true, then you deserve something far more than just a Tier 5 poison. If everything except that last bit is true, I can guarantee something around 100,000 Credits or so."

"If it's 100,000 Credits, I'll take Whitefang Blood Poison please."

"That's worth around 120,000 at its cheapest, though?"

"I figured you could round up a little."

How many times had Raymond sighed since they met? He figured he'd add one more to the tally. 

"As I said, we'll see. Stop asking about poisons already."

Gio grinned.

"Alright, alright. I can't help but be excited, though. I didn't expect to get my hands on anything like that without finding some shitty replacement in the black market. You're a good guy, Raymond."

"It's as if every time you talk, you do so with the intention of annoying me."

Did he drop his filter because they'd already made their deal? Gio shrugged and accepted it, standing up when the other man did the same.

"Is there anything else you need from us?" 

It was a question that had to be asked at some point. Raymond wasn't planning to keep the two of them on the ship forever, was he?

Thankfully, he didn't have any such thoughts.

"Don't worry. Just tell me where and I'll drop you off. There's already a privacy clause in the contract, so I don't need to worry about you talking about what happened, either," he said. 

"You didn't have to worry about that to begin with," Gio responded.

"I think your main concern should be my friend over in the clinic."

"Ah. There were two of you, weren't there."

"Yeah, and that guy's mouth is a lot bigger than mine."

"Understood." 

The two of them approached the door, preparing to leave. Both of them got what they wanted, so was there more to do?

As Raymond led him through the halls of the ship leading back to the clinic, Gio suddenly had a thought. 

A ship like this had a lot of functions... 

'There's no harm in asking, right?'

He tried to think of a way to casually mention it, but there really wasn't a way to phrase it that didn't make him sound greedy.

So, he decided to be greedy openly. 

"Oh, by the way," he said, getting Raymond's attention.

"Could you check some vaults for me? I want to see how many Credits we got before we escaped that hellhole."

Raymond turned around with his brow raised.

Did that child just admit to stealing vaults? 

Did that child want him to scan those vaults so he could find out how much money he stole? 

'If he stole them from that mine site, then the people who owned them are…hmm, well, I guess I can do him one more favor.'

He held his hand out without a word, taking the four cards Gio presented him. Ricky had the other six cards, but the two of them were already on their way to see him, so it wasn't a problem. 

For the sake of maintaining a good relationship with a child who showed potential, Raymond Pierce put aside his morals as an officer and agreed to his request. 

Though he didn't know it, in the future, that decision would benefit him far more than he could ever imagine. 

He would find out soon enough that his intuition hadn't let him wrong. 

***

When they reached the clinical ward, Ricky was already awake. He was confused about the situation, but Raymond didn't see any reason to inform him about it. 

Rather, he took out a non-disclosure agreement and made Ricky sign it. 

Only after Gio told him to do the same did he let the pen touch the paper. 

After confirming that the contract was working properly, Raymond then took the six vaults Ricky had and left the room with a succinct farewell.

"The crew has already been informed about your destination. We've set a course for Gastle and should reach in a few hours. You can stay here together until then."

From there, Gio and Ricky were left alone. 

There was a silence between them for only a moment before Ricky shattered it to pieces. 

"Dammit!"

He shouted it loud enough for Gio to jump a little. He looked over with a strange expression as he listened to what came next. 

"I've been holding it in for so long! I wanted to complain when I woke up, but you were gone so I just had to sit here and think about complaining which isn't as satisfying." 

"And? What are you so excited to yap about?" Gio questioned. 

"Isn't it obvious? I was just about to hypertrain the truck and this happened! Now the truck is more broke than me before we robbed that bank and I'm stuck in here! I've always wanted to hypertrain a car, you know? When am I ever going to get another chance like that?!"

Gio's expression went blank.

That's what he was worried about? 

"You know if you hypertrained in the middle of the desert like that, we'd end up plummeting from a thousand feet in the sky." 

"It's worth. Have you seen the videos?" 

"Of people shooting off like rockets and then crashing and turning into balls of flame? No, I'm not really a fan of that stuff." 

"No, dumbo, I'm talking about the videos of people actually hypertraining."

Gio had done more than just see the videos, but he didn't need to mention that.

Hypertraining wasn't common on consumer-level vehicles but it was a functionality present on almost every military and luxury vehicle. Essentially, it allowed land vehicles to accelerate to extreme speeds that even surpassed jets and planes. 

It was obvious that anyone who got into a car that could hypertrain would want to hypertrain it, but Gio suddenly became thankful to Raymond for picking them up at that exact moment.

After all, his life was too valuable to be lost that stupidly. 

"Haha…"

Right, this life was too valuable to ever be lost. 

And this was only its beginning.

Looking into the ceiling, Gio embraced his thoughts and conversed with Ricky about any random topic he decided to bring up.

They had a few hours to pass before they were free, but they could confidently say they were in the clear now.

When they reached Gastle and left the zephyr behind, they'd be leaving the events of the mine site in the past as well. 

That was the moment Gio was waiting for.

He was so eager that he almost couldn't contain it.

There was nothing more important to him than his desire to move forward, to keep pushing until he had built the foundation of his strength. 

The first steps towards that goal would be taken starting tomorrow. 

The first real step, though…

That one would only be taken after the zephyr returned to Gastle.