Mal was lying on his bed with his hands under his head, contemplating nothing in particular. It was hard to imagine that it was only a week ago he thought he had lost everything, and now he was back in his quarters which, apart from being ransacked, had not changed a bit. The whole event still worried him some though, particularly when he contemplated how easy it had been. There was a knock at the hatch to his quarters and he shouted for whoever it was to enter. Bane climbed down the ladder. She tended to wear big heavy boots and was inclined to make a noise going about the place, unless she was doing that gymnastic stuff, he presumed.

“Morning Cap’n. I wanted to ask if I’ve time to go on a little shopping spree while you pick up that job from Badger?”

“Don’t have time for you girls to be picking up dresses,” he said, walking over to his desk.

“Not that kinda spree,” answered Bane, nose twitching a little in annoyance. “Was goin’ to start on a batch of EMP grenades an’ some other tricks – need to buy some raw materials.”

“Oh, right. Yes. I’ve had two waves from Monty – been meanin’ to say.”

“How much does he want?” asked Bane.

“Two crates of those grenades and,” Mal chuckled, “One crate of tricks of whatever you choose.” Bane was confused.

“I don’t understand.” Mal smiled, remembering Monty’s latest wave.

“He wants to be surprised. He’ll give us a hundred per box of grenades and then another hundred and fifty for the unknown crate. Seems he has a lot of faith in you.” Bane’s eyebrows raised and then she smiled.

“I’m sure I can come up with something to make the old goat smile,” said Bane, earning a laugh from Mal. The platinum was lower than she had received before, but at least she knew the source was reliable and she trusted Mal to make a good bargain.

“Good. Well, you can have three hours – an’ take Jayne with you – keep him out of trouble.”

“Thanks, Mal,” she said, not entirely sure Jayne would be of any use. Before turning to go, she needed to ask another question of Mal.