Chapter 47: Smoking men
Alexandre thought carefully about what the suited man had said about this counterfeit Pip-Boy functioning identically to a real one... except, of course, for the missing data collection features which were almost the entire reason counterfeits were made to begin with.
Alexandre was very attached to his anonymity. If he had a real Pip-Boy, higher-ups might be able to collect more data from him than he wanted simply through him using the device. Looking back on his actions during the Hunter Exam, Alexandre realized that he'd made a mistake by showing Omega that he had power far beyond what any candidate should have.
Therefore, Omega and others would be taking extra measures to learn what they could about Alexandre. Getting this counterfeit would be even more important now for the sake of staying under the radar than it would've been before Alexandre revealed his hand.
Alexandre opened his bag of cash. "You quoted me 40K, right?"
The man in the suit gave a greasy smile. "Sixty, actually."
Alexandre jerked his head up in shock. "What the hell do you mean 60K!? We agreed on forty!"
The man examined his perfectly manicured nails as he replied absently, "Yes, of course! But that quote was for a second-hand Pip-Boy. This one's brand new from the assembly line and carefully modified by our programmers to be free of any little thing a discerning gentleman such as yourself wouldn't want."
Alexandre snapped, "But that's not what I asked for! What the hell are you trying to pull here!? Sell me the one I wanted!"
The man in the suit shook his head, adding some false apology to his tone. "Unfortunately, that's not possible. These are terribly hard to come by, you see. There were simply no second-hand Pip-Boys available for us to cannibalize and turn into what you wanted. It was necessary for us to purchase a brand-new model and rip out its pretty guts to create what you needed. I suppose if you want to wait a few days we may be able to acquire a Pip-Boy from the corpse of a dead Hunter."
A mocking glint came into the suited man's eye. "Of course, Pip-Boys are personalized far more than with a simple serial number. The nanobots paired with the Aurora system and the original owner are quite unique indeed, and, as I said before, they're attached to equipment you'll need to get separately. That is, if you use a stolen Pip-Boy, the goons at Hunter Academy will surely find you out eventually. The donor device simply must come from a legitimate source, and right now that means we had to buy it outright. $60,000 is what you'll have to pay, I'm afraid."
Alexandre was astonished. This businessman was much craftier than he looked. Alexandre hadn't ever mentioned that he was enrolling in Hunter Academy. "And what makes you think I'm going to be a Hunter?" Alexandre asked carefully. "There's all sorts of bounty hunter work in the world where a scavenged Pip-Boy would work just fine."
The man in the suit rolled his eyes. "My good sir, may I remind you that we're in the Underground? Information is merely a commodity to be traded like any other. As a gesture of good faith, I'll be blunt: You were investigated to ensure you weren't one of Terra Corp's paralegal goons ready to serve me papers for violating IP law."