Fabiano Rizza entered Lounge Rouge with a big smile on his face. He had spent his youth and most of his adult life doing business on the social scene, so he felt at home. He looked immaculate even though he had been trapped in the tiny confines of his ceremonial Sabre to get to Ames without drawing too much attention. He had left Luigi Rizza, his nephew and second-in-command, in charge of his Ranseur and they were in a holding pattern in Kepler should things go awry.
Fabiano quickly spotted Lancehead's scarred face. That man and his wild pack of hooligans had taken down more Outcast warships than Fabiano would like to think of, but he was not the kind of man to let a business opportunity slip by. He sat down in the empty chair next to the notorious Xeno Alliance leader, and the strong scent of Fabiano's spiced cologne quickly spread. He looked at the mirror behind the bar, smiled smugly at his own reflection while thinking to himself "beauty and the beast".
Without taking his eyes off his own reflection he muttered "I am Don Rizza, an Outcast entrepreneur. Let's skip further formalities, signore, I know who you are. My sources tell me that your group has a strong network planetside. That you have the ability to disperse goods on the Liberty black market. There are rumours of a healthy Xeno interest in the Cardamine industry circulating on Malta. You see where this is going?"
He paused for a second, trying to read Lancehead's rugged face through the reflection in the bar mirror. It was time for some incentives. "Times are changing, and perhaps it's wise for men like me to not put all my eggs in one basket. Perhaps it is not wise to put all trust in the Rogues, perhaps they have been growing too rich and too strong under the protective auspice of the benevolent Maltese Empire."
When he finished talking, Fabiano turned towards Lancehead and looked at him directly for the first time. He knew that under usual circumstances the Xeno would have taken a stab at him, and most likely enjoyed doing so. He just had to find out if the rumours were true, and if the Xenos would be able to set aside differences to do some business.
For a second, Lancehead considered pulling out his gun and shooting this shameless death seller right here, right now. But last time he did something like this on Ames, there was a lot of problems with Malrone, the chief brainiac here...
His second thought was that this bold outcast has to have balls of steel to come here. Or he must be extremely greedy... "You just made an offer to the worst possible man you could choose" he said to Rizza. "You're right about two things though. First: we do have a strong network planetside. And second: we have some interest in the cardamine industry."
He took a shot of the booze and continued. "What you apparently do not know, is that our interest in cardamine industry focuses on removing it from the market."
Ronnie leaned back, searching his pockets for something. His hand touched one of his guns under the worn leather of his jacket. He resisted the temptation once again and pulled out a cigar. Pointing with it at Fabiano's forehead, he continued: "You see, our main goal is to keep Liberty healthy and prosperous. For that, we need healthy people. Not some junkies." He lighted the cigar with his old-style zippo replica, poofed a few times and pointed the cigar at Rizza again. "You surely understand the basics of the market. The more cardamine there is, the lower the price goes. We, xenos, don't want that. As long as your drug is expensive enough so that the workers of Liberty can't afford it, they just won't get addicted. On the other hand, we have the wealthy, greedy pigs on Manhattan. They can afford the cardamine no matter how much the bloody junkers will take for it. Yeah, junkers. You think that rogues can dock on Manhattan that easily? Anyway. This is where our interest in controlling the market kicks in - controlling the cardamine means controlling the bloody leeches - so called 'upper class'. The only thing you misunderstood here is that the only thing we have to do to keep them addicts in our control is killing enough cardamine smugglers."
Finishing the sentence, Ronnie leaned back again watching Rizzas face. Suddenly, he got an idea. Trying to make it look like an accident, he dropped his cigar on the floor. He bowed down to pick it up, but in the same time, he attached a small voice recorder under the table with his other hand. "but allright... you took quite a trip to get here and you're bold or stupid enough to talk to me about this. So I'll give you a chance to convince me to reconsider the whole thing. Why do you think that we would want to deal the cardamine?"
"what a nice place to have a drink" though dexter while scanning the faces around with his eyes. by the neuralnet transmission he saw lancehead face, so it should not be difficult to find him there... sudently he found him in a table near the bar with streched eyes, like he hasnt noticed dexter. Dexter feels the power of the influence of that man, he feels like his blood is cold, his muscles are frozing.
"luckly i'm not his enemy" though dexter... and stepped in direction of lancehead his words came with a nervous tone:
- Hello lancehead: i am dexter navarre, we had a brief introduction trough neuralnet earlier.
"Ahh, yes, Dexter..." Lancehead replied. "As you can see, I have a business I must finish before we can talk. Find yourself a table and order a drink. It's on me." He nodded at the bartender and made a few gestures with his hand. The bartender nodded back. "I'll join you in a few moments"
Seeing Fabiano sunk in his thoughts, Ronnie decided that he has better things to do than watching this Outcast trying to force his cardamine addicted brain to work. "You think about what I said and I'll take care of some other business" he said as he stood up and took his glass from the table.
He then rushed through the bar to the table he'd sent Dexter to a few moments earlier.
As he sat down in one of the armchairs and filled his glass, he glanced at Dexter and asked him: "So... I've heard about you. I've seen you flying that transport of yours. And now you tell me you wanna join us... Why don't you tell me a bit more about yourself and your motivations?"
well my motivations are clear: i cant take it anymore to see the peoplre being slaved economically by that foreign entities.. we are liberty, we are rich, we need changes.
we must make them pay attention. and i think the xenos are the better way
"Look at you" Lancehead said. "You put no effort in what you say, you put no effort in how you say that."
He extinguished his cigar in his own drink. "Why would I trust you with my life, eh? Will you die for the same idea you can't even put enough effort to describe correctly?"
He stood up and turned his head towards the bar where some pilot yelled at the bartender. After a short while, Ronnie turned back to Dexter. "Tell you what: fly with us in Colorado. Hang around Ouray. Watch and learn. Then we'll talk about you joining the Xeno Alliance."
Ronnie rushed towards the bar. As he was passing the loudmouthed pilot, he patted his shoulder and said "And you need to learn some patience, buddy. Fly with us and we'll see."
Saying that, Ronnie nodded to the bartender and walked out of the bar.
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