The Mech Touch

Finlay offered Ves a means to contact him or the faction standing behind him. Of course, he didn’t exchange comm addresses or anything else that could be traced back to his real identity.

Instead, Finlay passed a so-called Shadow Address to Ves. This was a unique identifying code that Ves could use to send a message to Finlay via the Shadow Courier network.

People made use of Shadow Addresses in case they didn’t want their real identities to be associated with their shady dealings.

For example, if a Sentinel noble requested the shipment of a batch of nuclear missiles, then he wouldn’t tell the seller to ship the batch to ’Lady Miralix of House Laterna at Felixia I’ or something!

Instead, Lady Miralix would pass on her anonymous Shadow Address, which only signified specific locations of delivery and such. The point of a Shadow Address was to provide a form of identity protection that was so thorough that not even the Shadow Couriers themselves knew the real names of the people hiding behind the addresses!

While Finlay possessed a Shadow Address, Ves did not. His dealings with the Shadow Couriers only dealt with his real identity so far, which was a vulnerability that Ves had to remedy as soon as possible!

"Is there a way to acquire a Shadow Address here?"

"Certainly! The Shadow Couriers operate an entire branch in the marketplace. I can give you directions if you require. Let me accompany you so that I can add your Shadow Address to our list."

They all moved out of the warehouse, but not before Ves arranged his new possessions. He moved his P-stones, the sample of Synthra Umbra, Item #613 and Item #1255 to a different warehouse lot. He’d arrange their shipment out of the marketplace later.

After that, they moved to the Shadow Courier branch where Ves registered a new Shadow Address for his ’Rho-Sigma’ persona.

Registering a Shadow Address was a lot more complicated than Ves thought, but for now he only registered virtual means of getting in touch with him. If anyone wanted to ship physical goods to his Shadow Address, then the Shadow Couriers would have to contact him first through virtual means in order to set a specific drop-off location.

Once Finlay registered Rho-Sigma’s new Shadow Address, he quickly bid Ves farewell.

"I’d love to stick around, but we are quickly moving into action now that you have delivered the most crucial piece of the puzzle. It’s a pleasure working with you. If we ever need comparable services, we know where to go now. Don’t hesitate to contact us as well if you require anything comparable to what you’ve obtained today."

"I will."

Now that they knew how to contact each other, Finlay departed the Shadow Courier branch. Ves watched the disguised noble go, a bit surprised at how well everything went.

He always expected something to go wrong along the way. The deal he concluded with Finlay not only involved an incredible amount of money, but also dealt with something that would surely attract the ire of the MTA if abused!

If Ves was in Finlay’s shoes, he would find some way to silence anyone involved if possible.

However, the reality was much different. Finlay and his superiors never attempted to screw Ves over. Perhaps the value of an unscrupulous but competent Journeyman was higher than expected!

Though Ves only came up with his Rho-Sigma identity recently, it held a lot of promise. So long as no one, including the Shadow Couriers, knew the true person behind this cover identity, Ves might be able to profit from it further in the future!

It was a lot more secure and anonymous than his faked Rabant Clearwater identity he crudely forged in the past.

"A Shadow Address is a lot more secure."

He still had to be careful, though. Ves figured it was best to get back to Calabast to flesh out this idea further. If he attempted to go at it alone, he was liable to leak his true identity along the way.

Ves could help but cast some more suspicions towards the Shadow Couriers. Their network encompassed the entire Komodo Star Sector and beyond.

They provided reliable and discreet courier services underneath the noses of the authorities. Ves could hardly fathom how the Shadow Couriers managed to survive without getting uprooted.

Did they manage to bribe an MTA councilor or something? Or did the Big Two have a more direct hand in their running? What if the Five Scrolls Compact were behind the Shadow Couriers?

More unanswered questions plagued his mind. Due to his increasing doubts over the Shadow Couriers, his enthusiasm of working with them deflated a bit. While he acknowledged that he could benefit a lot from making use of them, he should never grow too dependent on their services!

He was sure that Calabast would agree with this sentiment!

"Let’s go." He told Nitaa.

Both of them exited the branch soon after and diverted back to the warehouse where they stored their goods.

"We’re done here. I got what I came for. Now, we need to leave with our goods."

"That’s not as simple as it sounds." Nitaa spoke. "Smuggling these goods out of the marketplace and off-planet will require a lot of effort."

"That’s what smugglers are here for, right? We just have to make sure our cargo doesn’t get stolen."

Though his mother had already left, Ves still harbored a lot of fears that someone might steal his exceedingly expensive goods from his possession. Perhaps the Circle of Mota might not pull off anything by themselves, but the same wasn’t necessarily true for the guests!

People from all walks of life visited the temporary marketplace. Numerous pirate leaders and unscrupulous mercenary leaders frequented the site. Who knew if any of them tried to figure out where the goods auctioned for incredible sums had gone and when they would be shipped to other locations.

Intercepting valuable cargo shipments was one of the most prevalent activities committed by pirates!

Though it mainly happened out in the middle of deep space, Ves could not discount the possibility that a group of pirates might be plotting to trail behind his cargo shipment and attack them along the way in the middle of an isolated tunnel!

"Let’s find a secure and reliable way to ship my goods from this site." Ves spoke. "Due to Finlay’s favor, I have an excess of firthals. I might as well spend deeply in order to ensure a guaranteed delivery."

Fortunately, Ves wasn’t the only person who worried about this problem. The Circle of Mota operated an expansive in-house smuggling operation that offered absolute assurances, for a price.

Ves didn’t worry about the price. With so much excess firthals left, Ves paid for one of the more extensive delivery services without any hesitation.

Though he had to cough up more than 50 million firthals just to transport some goods, it was worth it due to the effective insurance he gained! When it came to goods with a total value that exceeded 30 billion bright credits, then paying some ’protection’ fees was not a bad idea!

"No pirates will come and hijack my shipment, right?" Ves asked the Circle representative as they signed the shipping contract.

The representative offered a reassuring smile to Ves. "Have no fear, sir. We have never failed to ship any goods out under these terms. Pirates know better than to touch anything that belongs to our Circle. You have made the right decision. If anything happens, we will compensate you for your losses."

"Sounds good."

Ves suspected that the Circle was running a racket in the smuggling business. He wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they were in cahoots with the very pirates who intercepted the shipping runs from the marketplace to the surface!

Once he completed the latest arrangements, Ves was finally free.

"I’ve completed all of the goals I aimed to achieve here except for one. Do you think they sell food here?"

The hulking suit of Nitaa shifted. "They sell everything here. Doubtlessly there must be a venue here where you can

"Even after paying for the expensive shipment, I still have a lot of firthals left. Let’s see if I can spend the remainder on something useful."

The two trawler the outer marketplace for interesting goods and other opportunities. Ves focused mainly on finding geril spice and the source behind this unique product.

Unfortunately, Ves found no trace of geril spice in the marketplace. Only a couple of food stalls and restaurants added spicy Nyx dogs to their menus, but only half of them used authentic geril spice!

As for the chefs who followed the authentic recipe for spicy Nyx dogs, they only held a few bags of geril spice at most!

"Where do you get your geril spice?" Ves interrogated one of the street chefs, applying a bit of spiritual pressure along the way.

"M-My boss! I don’t own this food stall! I’m just a worker!"

Ves grunted in disgust and left.

"I think you will have better luck if you approach the Circle directly." Nitaa spoke as she matched his pace. "They might even be the main distributors of geril spice in civilized space."

"Forget about it. In any case, I have enough to last me a while, and I can always obtain more through my newly-forged connections with Finlay."

The Nyxian Gap hid countless secrets, and Ves only scratched the surface of its depth. From all of the activity he heard so far, he no longer viewed the Nyxian Gap as a large area of anomalous space.

It was actually akin to an entirely different star sector or star region in itself!

"What do you think about this?" Ves swept the calm but busy streets of the underground marketplace.

"It is thriving."

"Strange, don’t you think? The Sentinel Kingdom should have been on top of this site in days. Instead, the Circle of Mota is merrily continuing to bring Sentinels and pirates together."

"The lawful and lawless powers of the galaxy aren’t so much different from each other, sir. Light and shadow are interdependent. I would even argue that this is one of the adaptations of our race that has helped us conquer the galaxy. We abide by the rules when they benefit us, but break them when they become a hindrance."

"That’s remarkably insightful of you. Did you come up with that on your own?"

"No. My.. former organization taught me that. In order to fulfill our missions, we should be prepared to go through any lengths."

"I see. Do you think the Circle adopts the same values as your former organization?"

"Not quite. They were not as.. mercantile. The Circle is more preoccupied with commerce and trade. I can’t ascertain any specific agenda from their activities."

"Just because you can’t see anything does not necessarily mean that the Circle is unmoving. Everyone has an agenda. But let’s not talk about this anymore. It’s not a good idea to cast doubt on the Circle while we’re in the middle of one of their protected sites."

Though Ves spent the remainder of his day trying to find out anything about geril spice, he failed abjectedly.

While it was disappointing for him to miss out his last opportunity to dig out more information about this specialty product from the Nyxian Gap, he didn’t want to linger around forever.

Ves and Nitaa left the marketplace through the same way they had entered. They boarded a shielded shuttle operated by a middleman that presumably entered a maze of tunnels.

After shuffling through several different shuttles, they finally emerged back onto the surface of Cinach VIII.

Once there, the two snuck their way back to their current hotel and ditched their Shadow Attire along the way.

In order to leave no traces behind, Ves rented a dilapidated workshop from a shady organization and personally destroyed their disguise materials by burning them in the hottest oven on hand.

Only then did he feel safe enough to return to his hotel and depart Cinach VIII afterwards in the proper way!