"Isn't it them proactively greeting me?" Mercer shrugged, then got straight to the point: "I want to know who commissioned us to steal the biotech last time."
"Then you should go find Wagako," Rogue replied irritably, "She sent you the commission, why do you always come to me?"
"Isn't it because I trust you more?" Mercer grinned, lounging casually on the sofa, "If possible, please give me some advice on who I should contact and eliminate if I want to sabotage the cooperation between Biotech and Military Science."
"Damn, do you think I'm running a charity here?" Rogue cursed, but then said directly, "But you didn't come to the wrong person, I do know a thing or two."
"I knew I couldn't go wrong with you," Mercer smirked.
Rogue rolled her eyes, "Look at you, such a freeloader, sticking to me now?"
"Hey, I already told you, just give me a call if you need anything. This is what we call mutual benefit and reciprocity,"
Mercer said with a smile.
Rogue thought for a moment, organized her thoughts, and then said, "Generally speaking, when it comes to external partnerships and investment, the one responsible for risk assessment is the Director of Investment at the military tech company, Howard.
This time, the person in charge of contacting the middleman is a senior agent named Anthony Gillchrist.
But the final decision-maker has to be the CEO of Military Science."
She lit a cigarette, analyzing for Mercer, "Military Science is a strictly disciplined, semi-militarized management company. If you want to take someone down, what you need is not to find his competitor, but to find the senior agents responsible for company discipline.
Let me think... it's best to find someone from their operations department."
Rogue spread her hands and said, "That group of agents is responsible for espionage and sabotage externally and discipline oversight internally. If something big happens inside the company, they have channels to report directly to the CEO."
"Got it, similar to Arasaka's counterintelligence department, capable of scrutinizing both insiders and outsiders, with the authority to bypass levels when needed and make arrests,"
Mercer concluded, and Rogue nodded, saying, "A pack of dogs who climbed over corpses to get ahead. As long as you can let them catch a scent of blood, I guess there will be some bold ones willing to collaborate with you."
"Recommend someone?" Mercer grinned at her. Even with a mask on, Rogue could guess that his face displayed a mischievous expression.
"Hold on, I need to think about it," Rogue replied irritably, adding, "I've helped you out so many times, shouldn't you also do something for me?"
"Ah, don't tell me you didn't make money from this biotech insider information," Mercer said.
Rogue pouted, "That's a separate matter, didn't I also introduce you to reliable investment managers and institutions?"
"Go on, what do you want," Mercer responded straightforwardly.
"That batch of data you gave me, did Wagako find a buyer?" Rogue asked.
"Wagako liked some of the technical data, I already sold them, made over thirty thousand Euros. The rest she said she hasn't found a buyer for yet," Mercer answered truthfully.
Rogue nodded, "I'll take the rest. One fixed price, two million Euros to buy it all. If you're willing to hand over those insider secrets you're clutching, the ones truly valuable, I might give you a little extra."
Mercer fell into thought, but only contemplated for a short while before nodding, "No problem, but some insider information that could cause Biotech's stock prices to fall, I'm planning to hold onto those for another chance to cash in from the stock market later."
"Just reach out to me in advance when that time comes. Clearly, with such things, I should take a cut, and, to be honest, you really think manipulating a company's stock price can be done just by exposing a few scandals in the media?
To put it bluntly, you still need some powerful allies to help you, in order to reliably manipulate the stock market and make money together,"
Rogue explained.
Mercer simply laughed and said, "No problem, one fixed price, three million Euros to buy it all."
Lots of data were stolen from Biotech, but most of it was useless to Mercer, meaningful only to Biotech's competitors.
After all, it's not Biotech's headquarters, just a regional branch; most data pertained to drug development and experiment records. The most valuable were some hidden intelligence information, but no one knew which piece was the most valuable.
Being able to shift this heavy load onto a buyer was a great thing for Mercer — he was so broke he even sold the Sword in the Stone, and those three million Euros were indeed a big help.
"I'll need some small to medium mechanical synthesis equipment later, can you arrange that?" Mercer suddenly asked.
Rogue glanced at him, "What kind of business do you plan on running here?"
"At least enough to meet the needs of my personal research and development of cybernetic equipment," Mercer replied honestly.
"That could be endless, high-end small equipment is priced in the millions of Euros. Not to mention, all kinds of raw materials are tightly restricted, smuggling them in... I'd think since you're in Dog Town, it'd be more convenient to find local suppliers,"
Rogue said. Mercer nodded and no longer pressed the matter, clearly, acquiring such equipment would take time, and negotiating cooperation with Colonel Hanssen to smuggle large equipment from Dog Town wasn't going to be easy.
"Alright then, should I provide the data on a physical hard drive or send it to you online?" Mercer asked.
"You're a professional hacker, and you're asking me this kind of question?" Rogue chuckled.