Chapter 453 - Day MCMV, Part III

They probably didn't hear me, because there was no reaction, so I knocked once more, this time louder.

- Hello?! Is there anybody here?

I first heard steps behind the door, then an Asian woman with long, tied into a ponytail, hair, and glasses, opened the door.

- Hi. How can I help you? - she asked me in English, although with a heavy accent.

- I'm Peter - I started by introducing myself. - I was in the vicinity so I decided to visit.

She got confused by what I said, since to her this didn't make any sense.

- I have some alien technology for you - I quickly added. - I don't really know what it is. It could possibly be some junk.

She moved a bit to the side, to look behind me, but there was nothing there, which led to her being even more confused.

- Is this some kind of local joke? - she asked.

- No, no, no! Look - I said, and pulled something from my vault, which completely surprised her. - See?

Her eyes got wide at the beginning, but even wider when she noticed the strange mechanism.

- Might I? - she asked reaching for it.

- I would prefer if you started with introducing yourself before reaching for my thing.

Somebody behind her laughed at my words. She ignored it.

- I'm very sorry. I'm Mika Sawamura, the director of this project - she extended a hand, and I shook it.

Then I gave her the strange piece. She smiled widely, as she took it in her hands, with eyes basically glued to it.

- I have more - I informed her.

- Please come inside - She invited me and went back to the room herself.

I followed entering a bright space with four long counters with built-in cabinets, and more storage shelves around the walls. There were no windows, and the lighting was provided by the lamps above.

There were four people inside except her. An older, Asian man with round, cleanly shaved place, and silver hair. He was smiling widely. Another was a slender, European guy in his forties, with thick glasses.

There was also a beautiful Indian woman, with long, black wavy hair. Slender, wearing a green, gauzy dress. And another man, quite young actually. Probably not much older than me. He had perfectly modeled hair, with a bit of hair gel, and a black, short beard.

- Hi - said the Asian guy. - I'm Steven Min, this is Vladimir Fedorov.

He pointed a the younger guy, who rose his hand in a welcoming gesture.

- Those two are Jakub Kowalski and Sudarshana Patel - he butchered both names of the women, and the older fellow.

- Peter - I waved my hand slightly. - I have actually more stuff for you. I have some books too, but not with me. I left them at my house.

I pulled more things from my vault, and slowly put them on the closest counter. They all left what they were doing, and gathered around, to have a look. Even Mika ended putting down the piece and having a look at the new stuff.

- The engineers should have a look at those - said Sudarshana. - We, humanists, should wait for the books.

- I'll bring you some, but I doubt you will be able to figure out anything from them. Most are written using Kashram, which is an alien alphabet, not to mention you don't know the language.

- Do you know it? - asked Vladimir Fedorov, clearly intrigued by my explanation.

- Yeah. I know the language of Bahumdabars and also Uhms.

He smiled at me.

- How about you teach us? We are almost done with setting up everything here. What was your name again?

- Peter.

- Peter? Are you some kind of local researcher? - he kept asking.

- No, he is not. I've been told to watch out for him - explained Sudarshana. - They told me to be careful around him.

- I don't know what they told you about me, but I'm a very nice person - I said to her and smiled. - And I do enjoy the alien literature a bit, so you could call me a fan, rather than a researcher, although I have done my fair bit of sniffing around.

- Well, if he knows the language, we should learn from him. This will definitely be helpful during our journey to the alien settlement - said Jakub Kowalski.

- Where did you find those objects? - asked Steven Min ignoring his fellow scientists.

He already had one of the pieces in his hand and was glancing at it, and at me.

- Let's say I stumbled onto this junk during my travels.

- Where did you travel then? - he continued asking.

I sighed, and he knew everything he needed to know.

- Ok, fine. If you don't want to tell, then don't. It's not like we can force you anyway, but the whole world could benefit if we know where to look for such technology.

- Wherever it was, do you think you could go there by yourself? - I asked him.

- Well... maybe we could go with you? - asked Mika.

- Nah - I shook my head. - I like to travel alone. Anyway... I still have some things to do. I'll drop some books later, and maybe we will talk. So yeah... Bye.

They clearly wanted to keep talking, probably because they thought they can change my mind, but I rushed, out.

- Bye! - shouted Sudarshana.

That was the last thing I heard from them. I headed straight to the gate hall, to find the right office. It took me a moment to ask around and end up in the right line. I had to wait for a bunch of people to put the pathetic few crystals for sale that they had. It was kinda annoying when I had a freaking load of them, but I felt like it was the right thing to do.

When my turn finally came, and I went inside the mood in the room changes, since a couple of people recognized me. They used to be hunters, but judging from the switch of jobs, they weren't very successful ones. There were also some Indians, who were clueless, but the information spread through the whispers.

It was a small place, with few windows where patents could do their business, but behind them, there were several other workers, taking care of the communication, documentation, and crystals.

I quickly did what I needed to do, and dumped the whole pile on the floor, so it had to be picked up. I used my shadows to help, so it would go faster, and then I left. after signing the proper paperwork.

The cash after a purchase was done, would end up on my account.

Then I went to chill at my house since I didn't really want to come back to the researchers with the book, so they could keep asking me about the stuff I didn't want to tell them. I had this feeling that bluntly telling them no, wouldn't end this, and they would still try to guilt me into doing what they wanted.

The day came to an end with 24 360 290 points remaining on my account, and 21 class points.