The meeting room door closed. Bai Zhu unwrapped a mint and popped it into his mouth.
Piyu sat at the other end of the long table, with three documents laid out before her.
Bai Zhu looked over the visitation agreement, flipped to the last page, and stared at Unma's seal for a long while before letting out a snort of laughter.
"She really put some force into that stamp."
Piyu did not even look up.
"If you had to pay 49.5 billion, you could punch two holes through the paper yourself."
Morel sat off to the side with an unlit cigar between his fingers.
Bai Zhu looked up at him.
"Morel, tell us. You went out and came back with a one-handed little thief. You must have found something."
Morel set the cigar down on the table.
"Under the black market, there was a one-eyed man selling information on old equipment. I spent ten million to buy half a modification list for a Deep-Sea Incubation Chamber."
Piyu stopped writing.
"Ten million for half a page?"
"The right half had been burned."
"I can't decide whether you're rich or stupid."
"The list was still useful."
Morel pulled out the photocopy and spread it across the table.
The paper's edges were charred black, and several model numbers had been burned away. Only the equipment specifications and construction batches remained.
Bai Zhu leaned closer.
"Twelve-channel circulatory blood supply, a Nen isolation layer, fuel flooding and incineration if the limits are exceeded... This thing doesn't look like it was meant for any normal organism."
"It wasn't."
Morel tapped one line with his pen.
"The incubation chambers wouldn't enter the port through normal channels. They'd come straight in from the sea through the flood discharge tunnels into the Old City, then finally reach the Royal