Meeting Begins

Leonard was led down an unfamiliar hallway, travelling deeper into the warehouse than he had been before. John made his way towards a heavily guarded door, besides the armed guards the door itself required a series of authentications in order to open. Form a key card and password to an iris scanner and dna authentication. 

Various bolts and locks clicked into place as two large blast doors swung inward, revealing a large open area beyond. John walked through with no issues, however the moment Leonard stepped in and saw what was inside his steps faltered for a moment. 

"Mechs.." the large warehouse room held a full squad of towering mechs, while the particular model eluded Leonard their quality did not. Their armour was sleek and black, perfectly conforming to a human figure, something that cheaper mechs lacked. The smother the armour the more expensive was a good rule of thumb, cheap mass produced mechs came out blocky, good for easy repairs and numbers but not much more. Higher ticket mechs had a much more smooth frame, the cream of the crop having no discernable gaps in its armour as it perfectly conformed a human shape. "And high grade ones at that… how on earth did they get these onto the planet?" 

"Ohh im sorry, forgot about those," John turned around, and Leoanrd could tell by the tiniest raising of the corner of his mouth that he hadn't. It seemed the man had brought him through this way on purpose. "Pretend you didn't see them." 

"What are they for?" 

"What are what for?" John played dumb as he began the stringent procedure to open another door on the other side of the warehouse, or more fittingly, hanger. Leonard took the time to study the mechs in further detail, however all he could piece together was that they were incredibly expensive. Their armaments must have been stored elsewhere, he could find no indication as to what kind of loadout such mechs would carry. 

"Workhorses then?" Leonard thought. Workhorses were like jacks of all trades, able to pick up any kind of weapon and fight with relative ease. Though they were a rarity nowadays, being good at everything didn't mean much when a military could have a series of different mechs great at one specific thing. Still they found their uses, and if used as an elite force nothing could top their versatility. 

"There we are," John dusted off his hands as the two blast doors swung open. "If you'd follow me." 

It took some amount of will for Leonard to pry his eyes away from the mechs, their sleek dark frames pulling in all his attention. They were beautiful mechs he couldn't help but admit, even if he was apprehensive about their presence in the middle of Citadel. 

The corridor on the other side of the hangar was much like the one they had just come through, a cramped and damp space lined with many doors leading into either storage, office space or something else, but with all the doors closed Leonard couldn't tell. 

"Just through here," John led him through a pair of double doors, and while sufficiently guarded, it was a far cry from the security measures around the hanger they had just crossed through. Inside was a fairly sizable room, a large wooden desk sat right in the middle. A few people had already taken a seat around it, one Leonard recognising as Salvador who he had already met outside. 

The three other people already seated he did not however, giving them a quick inspection as he followed John down to a pair of seats towards the rear of the table. The seat at the very rear of the table, opposite to the head was already filled, John moving to introduce him. 

"Jared this is Kyle, soon to be our newest member, and Kyle this is Jared, he will be assisting you with your future operations." 

Leonard reached out and shook the man's hand. He looked young, even younger than him. Dressed in what Leonard could only assume was his best suit, the young Kyle looked nervous sitting at the table, his eyes darting back and forth as if he felt out of place. 

"Pleasure to meet you," Leonard said, the young man returning the pleasantries. 

"Nice to meet you too.." His voice was shaky and uneven. Leonard couldn't help but look towards John for an explanation, however the man in question seemed to have more interest staring into the roof, eyes refusing to meet with Leonards. 

"This Kyle clearly is too young and inexperienced for such a position.." Leonard thought, watching the man squirm around in his seat. "Is that the idea then? Put some random kid in charge that they can easily cut and throw away if exposed? Sure it would work in that regard, but if they wanted results of any kind such an arrangement wouldn't work." 

"Going to introduce us as well John?" Leonard was pulled out of his thinking, one of the other members already seated speaking out. Leonard traced the voice to the speaker, a decrepit and older looking woman that seemed to have one foot already in the grave. 

"I was getting to that," John turned his idle gaze away from the roof and began introducing Leonard. "This is Jared, he will be assisting young Kyle here with our newest cell." 

"The one we have yet to be told is being created for?" The last member in the room spoke up, an older man that sat next to Salvador. While he was dressed in a more caring manner than the brute at his side, his animalistic aura couldn't be so easily hidden. 

"That's on a need to know basis Conrad. And if the boss has yet to fill you in then you don't need to know." The man, Conrad, grumbled at the response, however chose not to speak out again. It seemed that there was no love lost between the two of them. Leonard didn't miss the political posturing, nor the fact that this Conrad and Salvador sat on one side of the table while John Leonard and the older woman sat on the other. 

"Names Camilia deary," the older woman, sat much closer to the head of the table, introduced herself to him. "Do make sure to help out young Kyle with our newest cell. He is much too young for this position, however the boss has spoken and so here he is." 

"I'll do my best," Leonard responded to the older woman before more people began filing into the room. He couldn't help but notice all the more brutish and stereotypical gangsters taking seats on the opposite side of the table while more well dressed people took a seat on his. 

"Are they locals then?" Leonard began to speculate. "Gang leaders brought into the larger Bloodhound organisation? Then wouldn't that mean that those on my side are all foreigners then? Or rather agents working in the Condor Kingdom's interests?" 

The thick tension in the air seemed to validate his musings. Those on the other side of the table looked at them with a not so thinly veiled anger and resentment, while those on his looked at the other side with an air of mockery, as if they were above them in some way. 

"Do they know they're working for a foreign kingdom?" Leonard wondered. In the case of Salvador he could say he felt pretty confident that he didn't. The brutish man did not seem like the kind that could keep his mouth shut about such a secret. "Some of the older ones maybe.. But not all of them." 

Before he could think much more into it a large man walked into the room, the now full table all standing to their feet, John to his side giving him a nudge as he stood, Leonard following close behind. 

The large man strode to the head of the table, casting a harsh gaze towards those up and down its length. His gaze briefly stopping on Leonard, the aura of a senior mech pilot crashing down on him. Leonard held his gaze, even if he was disguised in expensive and high class tech, the fact was still true, a pilot could recognize a pilot. The man's gaze lingered on him for a while before continuing on to scan the rest of the room's occupants. 

"Let's get started." The man took a seat, his deep voice echoing through the room. Everyone else followed in taking their seats, save one who began giving his report. 

"Shipments continuing on schedul-" the contents of his report meant little to Leonard, any real details of what and where the goods were being shipped to obfuscated with lingo and abbreviations. Instead he turned to whisper in John's ear. 

"Does your boss not know me?" He questioned in a low whisper. "It certainly seemed like he didn't expect a pilot like me to be here." 

"He knows I was bringing someone, but not some of the more specific details." John responded, only adding to his confusion. 

"I thought your boss knew? Did I not meet her last night?" 

"That's a little different." John responded, his voice dropping an octave lower. "Our boss here has yet to be.. Introduced to you. And it would be best if you kept your meeting last night to yourself." 

Leonard nodded to the man as he pulled back, not wanting to whisper in Leonards ear for too long and draw unwanted attention. Leonard for his part thought through what he had just heard, not entirely making sense in his own head. "Boss here? Then this is the boss of the Bloodhounds and Nightingale is something different? I thought the Royal Family and the Condorians were one in the same, but are they not?"

It seemed that John's relationship with the deposed Royal Family wasn't known to the rest of the Bloodhounds. The reasons as to why Leoanrd did not know, but it painted a picture that they weren't as harmonious as they had once seemed.