The nervous merchant

"Excuse me, but, I was wondering...... are you for hire?"

It's the chubby merchant. He must be truly **** to approach you directly like this, which means that he's given you the upper hand from the very beginning. Not a very good merchant at all. You begin to wonder if he really is as rich as he looks.

"Huh?" you say. If this man is really as incompetent as you think he is, he'll start explaining himself and he'll give away some key details before anything has even been agreed on.

He stammers, "Well, uh, pardon me for saying, but you look to be a freelancer sort. Independent, tough, good in a fight?" You raise an eyebrow. Ass-kissing is truly the mark of the novice. The nervous man continues, "Look, I know what you're thinking. 'What's a fool like this doing in a place like this, offering jobs to random strangers?'"

Well, he got that right, that's for sure.

"Well, I'm here because I'm supposed to meet someone. A hired gun. A merc. Whatever you want to call it, someone who was going to be paid to protect me. I've been waiting a long time, and I don't think he's coming."

Although your face betrays no emotion, you inwardly chuckle to yourself at how this guy is laying it all out for you without so much as a handshake.

"If you have a ship, we can make a deal. I need safe transport for my goods and I'm prepared to offer a generous amount. I've been hoping that the person I'm waiting for would show up, but at this point, I know he won't. And you're the only person in this place who looks like he can take care of himself."

You put on a disinterested look and say, "Okay, let's pretend that I have a ship and I'm interested. Where to, what would I be hauling, and what's the pay?" Time to see what the man is about.

The merchant gets a determined look in his eye. "New Avor in the Deltor System. I can't tell you what the cargo is just yet, but I'm prepared to pay you 100,000 credits upon arrival."

Now you're interested. A hundred thousand? What the hell is this guy trying to move off-world? You're guessing that not only is it contraband, but it's contraband that someone else is looking for. If he wasn't offering such a ridiculous amount, you'd laugh in his face. Does he even have that much?

You give the man a serious look. "I guess you'd have to offer that much, you must be **** to get out of here, and fast, aren't you? You're on the run from somebody, right? Someone powerful."

The man gets a look on his face like he's about to cry.

"How do I know you even have that much money?" you say. "I'll need an advance before I can even consider this."

You see hope light up in his eyes as he jumps at the opportunity. "I can give you half up front, and the rest when we get there." You ask him how he knows you won't just take the fifty grand and ditch him. "Can you throw away another 50,000 so easily?" he says.

You pause. Did you just hear him right? Fifty thousand up front? He definitely hasn't been in the business for long, and whoever is after him is more than some local ganger. He's liable to get you killed. Still, a hundred thousand is a lot of money. And half of it up front; that's unheard of. And you are more than a little curious as to just what kind of "goods" this man is trying to move.