Private Riches to Riches

[Malcoma Hesse]

Yes, but was his avarice going to get paid in kind for that hustle?

Malcoma would say no, at least not quite yet, but maybe not quite ever.

She stood up and switched off the hologram, then turned to him. She stepped back too, a little out of his grasp. "I'm far greedier," she promised. He just may or may not known it. "Whatever you want, you can have only after I realize my dreams."

Wynter Rackham

 

[Wynter Rackham]

Malcoma Hesse

Wynter looked at her with obvious skepticism.

"I am... very greedy, darling." Bemusement coloring his tone as he let her go and yawned, putting his hands behind his head. "But if I can extrapolate your dreams... that's gonna take quite a while. Unless yar not striving to free every single sad slave out there in the Galaxy." A little bit of a tease as he reached out with one hand to his glass of whiskey.

Giving it a slow careful sip and enjoying the taste.

Did it taste somehow better?

Or was that just his mood.

"Not that I am gonna stand between yarself and ya dreams... but, a boy needs to see some benefits to stay motivated, dig?"

 

[Malcoma Hesse]

She just laughed, undeterred as ever by his arrogance.

It wasn't that she didn't believe him, she did, but perhaps that he'd never believe her, and that was alright by her.

She shrugged at his question. "I wasn't, but now I seem to have expanded means, don't I?" Then a small smile, though one that expressed a modicum of warning rather that warmness. "That's wise, since this is the one game I'll beat you at any day of the week, captain. But yes," she nodded, "I do...dig." Now her smile warmed a bit. "A very large hole in fact."

She migrated towards the door. "I'm going to the galley. A snack?"

That was, she was going for one, and did he want one too?

Wynter Rackham

 

[Wynter Rackham]

Malcoma Hesse

A chuckle himself.

"Dig deep, darling, my hunger has no bounds." Then he began to roll a cigarette for himself while nodding. "Yeah, a snack would be appreciated. Something sweet? It been a long day."

By the time she returned he was already smoking his cigarette.

Looking out the window and watching the hyperlight streams pass them by.

"I was born in a hole, you know that?" Quietly as Wynter smoked. "I had to dig my way out. Nal Hutta... somehow worse than Nar Shaddaa. You can hide in the alleys of 'Shaddaa. But no such luck in the swamps of Hutta." He looked up towards Malcoma. "I have been on the run from it since I was old enough to hijack a departing ship."

Then a shrug as he passed the cigarette to her... if she hadn't stolen it yet, if she had? He'd take it back instead.

"I want wealth beyond compare so I never have to be concerned about returning to the hole again."

 

[Malcoma Hesse]

No, she waited for her turn with his cigarette this time, exchanging it for half a sliced pear in a napkin that she had brought for him. She began nibbling on the other half, which she had portioned herself, after she gave back the smoke.

She looked down on him in return, head slightly canted, listening deeply to the beginnings of his story. As it then drew to a close, she stepped in closer a slid a hand to cradling one side of his face. "Don't worry," she cooed, beginning to gently massage her fingernails into the portion of scalp right above and behind his ear. "You're not going back to that place, Wynter. I imagine there's just enough space in that strange star system for the both of us."

Wynter Rackham

 

[Wynter Rackham]

Malcoma Hesse

His dark eyes looked at her and seemed inscrutable.

It was difficult to gauge what was going through his head at the best of days. So quick to kill and little to worry. What did Wynter think now, when he seemingly offered up something so private to her for nothing in return?

"We will see, Hesse." Murmuring as he reaches out to stroke her wrist. "Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. We still have a Duch'a to dethrone first..." And yet? It didn't leave his mind. The possibilities. Wealth beyond compare that would fuel generations to come. This was something out of a fairy tale, was it not?

"But if we do... I hope our cross-purposes will be able to co-exist."

Something told Wynter they'd both have to pay up for that.

Nothing in this world came for free.

 

[Malcoma Hesse]

Nothing about her confusion showed on her face.

But she didn't understand how in the world their cross-purposes couldn't co-exist. Of course, she wouldn't think of him as one of her girls, he was different—a man, namely, whom was very capable at taking care of himself—but still her desire make the job easier was almost overpowering. She wanted to tell him of her past, why she was this way, but something told her that the time for that wasn't now. Sometimes it was much better to listen than to speak in this line of work: as an unexpected maternal figure.

As Damris said, a truly moral criminal, that rare breed.

"Yes, well," she agreed. "Kordolph's friends may have some ideas about that. We ought hear what suggestions they have before we start conspiring.

"Let me know when we arrive." She withdrew her hand to her side, then herself from the cockpit to check on Entani and Nonor.

Wynter Rackham