Chapter 82: Caught a Rat
— Night – The Fringe —
Within the VIP room of the most luxurious club in the Fringe, Euphoria Club, a lanky man with an arrogant smile, like he owned the world! Sat on a couch surrounded by food and expensive wine.
Beautiful women catered to him. His clothes were discarded, and several women in skimpy outfits clung to him as they made love. With a lustful grin, the man touched and groped here and there, feeling like the king of the world. The women obeyed his every command as he paid them like there was no tomorrow.
That man was Doc, the one who had run away from the expedition, leaving Maximilian and the others to die.
Doc had just been paid that morning. As the expedition’s sole survivor, he received a whopping five million dollars for doing nothing more than driving and avoiding danger. This was the most profitable job he’d ever taken. He owed it all to those fools... especially Honiahaka.
That guy was the biggest fool of all, staying in place waiting for the client. If he had just returned to the APC, Doc wouldn’t have had the chance to escape with the money!
And then there was that idiot Radio. She suddenly told him she had some business to attend to, then walked off alone into a mutant-infested zone. By now, they must’ve all become mutant food!
Doc congratulated himself on his brilliance. Escaping at just the right time had saved his life. If he had waited around, he might’ve been a corpse too. He felt a bit guilty... but the weight of five million dollars instantly made all that guilt vanish.
In his mind, this was proof that money really could wash away guilt. No wonder so many crooks existed in the world.
That said, the five million wasn’t all for him. He had to spend one million to bribe an officer at the Expedition Center to fake the inspection report, since he was the sole survivor and couldn’t afford for the inspection to actually happen.
Otherwise, the money would be withheld because he had escaped early and didn’t wait the required three days as stated in the contract. Without that bribe, he wouldn’t have gotten the money at all!