166 Notice, Taken

There were three men all wearing the same exact outfit... Old fashioned black suits with bowler hats, Afton wasn't sure what to make of them, but was instantly on alert when he spotted Karl and Boone getting ready for combat in his Peripheral.

The man notices the tense atmosphere and stops a good distance away from the group, all making sure not to make any sudden movements.

"Do we know you?" Afton asks suspiciously, not wishing to leave anything to chance. He knew he could draw his pistols and begin firing faster than the three men could think.

A man with pale, almost sickly skin steps forwards. Any features that he could be identified by were covered by his outfit, all Afton could tell was the colour of his skin and hair. "We know you, but you do not know us. We've been sent to acquire your services. You are mercenaries after all."

...

The group glance to each other after hearing this, "Who's services?" Afton asks for them to clarify.

The man gives a small smile and takes a single step closer before whispering, "The Legion's of course."

Boone's finger twitches as he's about to pull out his rifle and start firing, but Karl manages to stop him with a look. The sniper seemed reluctant but Karl knew they could take advantage of this situation.

Afton decides to take charge, his Speech skill would be most useful here, plus he needed Boone to control himself if they were going to make use of this. "The Legion? I thought you guys would hate us after what we did to Nelson?"

The spy shakes their head, "Some of us do want your heads, but our leader has decided you would be more helpful alive than dead. Of course, this only matter if your apparent loyalties to the NCR are superficial... Otherwise, we may have problems." he states maliciously.

Afton crosses his arms and begins contemplating, he uses VATS just so he has time to think without the spies getting suspicious... Clearly the spies hadn't been in Westside when he declared that 'all slavers would be punished', otherwise they might've been a little more hesitant to approach them.

There were a number of things Afton could potentially do with this... The first and most obvious would be to just execute the three spies here and now. Then again, he doubted that'd do anything other than aggravate the Legion, they'd definitely send assassins if he did that.

The other obvious answer would be to accept the group's offer and start making use of the Legions resources... He doubted they'd allow him to continue working for the NCR at the same time though, not in the same way the group had been doing it thus far. They'd probably want them to act as spies using the reputation they'd gathered.

Thinking on it further, they might actually be able to use this opening to secure Karl's daughter without having to kill every Legionary in the Mojave. Actually, wouldn't now be the best time to make use of his new perk [Living Anatomy]?

He focuses on the men while using VATS, instantly receiving information he hadn't expected.

[Legion spy]

Health : 99%

Stamina : 70%

DT : 8

Strength : 4

Perception : 7

Endurance : 4

Charisma : 7

Intelligence : 6

Agility : 5

Luck : 3

Ailments :

[Athletes foot] : Rash caused by fungus, decreases chance of foot rubs by 80%, increases risk of infection by 50%.

[Tinnitus] : Irritated by silence, less likely to notice high pitched sounds.

[Gonorrhea} : Sex life in peril, bad decision making. Gross penis.

...

Afton shakes his head after reading the last one, yeah, he didn't need to know that... Though, he might be able to use this sort of information as blackmail in the future? He'd need to make it subtle though, revealing that he could see someone's ailments just by looking at them would probably cause him trouble.

Back to the topic at hand, Afton needed to come to a decision on how to act towards the Legionaries. A few more minutes of thinking eventually allow Afton to find an answer that'd allow them to continue working as they had, while having the Legion's resources at hand.

Stopping VATS he slowly nods his head, "Our loyalties are to ourselves, so ditching the NCR would be easy. They're just the highest paying customers in the Mojave, I do have a couple problems though." Afton states with an air of confidence.

"And what might that be?" the spy asks.

"I'm looking for a man, a former-NCR ranger who's missing their right arm. I cannot stop working with the NCR until I've located him, I'm not all that particular to money, so find him for me and I'd be willing to work with you." he states.

The spy slowly nods, "An interesting proposal, you should know that the Legion's database on NCR rangers might be larger than the NCR's own." he sends a glance towards Boone and Karl before returning it to Afton, "Is there perhaps a way for us to gain your services immediately without having to find this person first?"

Afton shakes his head, "No. I'll continue looking for them myself, I won't count on you to do it, but once I've found them my loyalties will be more... Pliable."

"I see. We will return to our leader to discuss this proposal. For now take this, it will shield you from the Legion's wrath should you find yourselves in such a situation... Though, I do warn you, any action taken against the Legion from here onwards will not be forgiven. Do you understand?"

Afton nods, "I thought that was a given, but whatever." he says as he's handed a coin, unlike the usual Legion Denarius though instead of a face on each side it contains a jagged cross. If it were painted onto a wall he wouldn't think much of it, each line seemed deliberate as if the symbol was important.

"We bid thee farewell then, until next time." the spy says before leaving with his underlings.