In the cab to the hotel, Al received a series of messages. A few from John with updates on the girl. But it wasn’t until he was stripped and drying off in the cheap room that he got the confirmation from Torrent. He turned down the ork’s offer of mediation – he still figured these mercs were smarter than their own dear Lieutenant Freund and would avoid queering the deal.

He worked fast, then, forwarding the payment confirmation to John (<<My guy’s got the money. We get it when they’s happy, but they don’t git it back less’n we give a thumbs up, so trust’s out of it an’ no one with any incentive ta cheat.>>). A few minutes later he had the delivery details from John and called the Ubermerc’s number. He saw Jan’s message while he was pulling up their commcode and texted the South African their new location. Then when his ‘link made the connection with the mercs, he spoke without waiting: <<Maple Valley General ER. Make yer confirmations an’ release our funds.>>