The Golden Throne

All or nothing Pt. 2

The emergency siren had been blaring for the past ten minutes. Hilda winced as her ears began to hurt. Ripley looked uncomfortable as well. There seemed to be some sort of commotion happening somewhere inside the cave. Every now and then Hilda would see troops of armed men running past their doorway to deal with the matter. Besides that, the whole place would shake occasionally, causing dust from the ceiling to fall down. Whatever was happening, it was big.

Amidst the chaos, the guard who was posted to keep an eye on Hilda and Ripley hadn't flinched. He had his back to them and stood at the doorway. With his rifle held firmly in his hand, he was ready to fire at any hostiles who came running to his direction.

Hilda turned to Ripley and mouthed "I have a plan..." Ripley squinted at her and raised her chin, not sure as to what Hilda had up her sleeve.

"If the Zaff are gonna ransom me and Ripley, what's gonna happen to the money I delivered earlier?" Hilda chirped.

The guard turned his head towards her for a moment--

Yes! I have his attention! Hilda thought excitedly to herself. Her heart began thumping hard. She had only one chance for her plan to work.

--and he turned back.

"Shut up," he said dismissively.

Hilda wasn't about to give up yet. "But seriously, what's gonna happen to that 600 million?"

"It will be used to fund our operations," the guard finally responded.

"Who receives the money eventually? I mean, I'm sure I won't wanna accept dirty money such as this. So who's low enough to have deals with scum like you guys?"

He ignored Hilda's insult. "None of your business."

"Okay... fine," Hilda pursed her lips. "I wonder, do you guys get paid?"

"Huh?" The guard mumbled in surprise at her question.

"C'mon! Don't tell me you guys don't ever eat,"

The guard raised an eyebrow at her in amusement.

"Unless of course, everything in the Zaff is provided to you if you're a member. Then wouldn't all of you be no different than schoolboys in a boarding school?" Hilda giggled.

"What are you even saying?" The guard muttered in amusement. "You have a big mouth, little girl."

"Okay, okay, I'll shut it. Just don't put a bag over my head again," Hilda pleaded.

The guard flashed Hilda a toothy grin and he looked around for the nearest bag. He caught sight of the backpack on the table that contained the ransom money. He grabbed it and lifted it up. He noticed that the bag was pretty darn heavy. Well what do you expect? He thought to himself. 600 million, he mused. He was going to dump all the money out and cover Hilda's head with the bag to shut her up. This was exactly what Hilda wanted him to do.

"C'mon... just open it," Hilda whispered to herself. He reached for the zipper and pulled it slowly. And then he stopped.

"This isn't right," he muttered. "Zultan would have my head if I opened this without his permission."

As he was about to return the backpack to its place, Hilda yelled at him in desperation, "I would take a little bit of the money if I were you, you know!"

The guard stopped in his tracks and turned to Hilda.

"600 million is a lot. Do you seriously think anyone will notice if you took a pinch? Especially after the empire pays one more billion for our release. Put in your pocket, say, five million dollars. You'll have enough money to escape from the rest of the world and live out your life the way you want to. No more Zaff, no more Empire, no more nonsense," Hilda let out a small sigh, "I know that's what I would do."