Center of attention

Noah could be seen entering the facility, with Alyona close by.

As usual, Alyona had a stoic expression on her face, simply observing the surroundings.

Leo got chills from the expression, especially knowing that she was an android.

"I know, I know Valentina. Just leave the poor lads alone would you? They ain't used to this yet."

"Fair enough, shall we talk business?" asked Valentina.

"Ofcourse, but first show me that you have the funds."

Valentina looked toward Leo before nodding.

Leo already knew what she meant.

He walked up to a nearby crate before grabbing a six dufflebags filled to the brim with cash and tossing them toward Noah.

Noah didn't recognize Leo yet because he took on a different physical form after the containment breach, and he didn't reveal his cards yet since he first wanted the deal to be closed safely.

Noah opened up all six of the bags before grabbing a random bank note out of one of the bags and handing it to Alyona.

She took a look at it for a few seconds before nodding.

"Does everything check out?" asked Valentina.

Noah nodded before walking over to the small truck.

"All anomalies you requested are in the back of it, item C3S81 and item M6RV0 are marked with a red dot so you can easily identify them, considering these were the items you were most excited for. All of the skeleton key anomalies are also in there, do note they are only single use, hence why they were cheaper." said Noah as he opened up the back of the truck.

Noah took a few steps back, gesturing toward Valentina to take a look.

Valentina obliged and got closer to the truck, taking a look at all the boxes inside of it.

She opened the box marked M6RV0 and saw that all the skeleton keys that were ordered were indeed inside of it.

She closed off the box before ordering some guards to start unloading.

Noah was a bit surprised.

"Do you not want to take a look at the other boxes?"

Valentina laughed.

"Noah, I know your ass doesn't have the balls to pull any stunts in front of me, the fact that we're in a heavily armed warehouse only supports me in that."

Noah shrugged.

"You're right on that one."

All of the sudden, Valentina pulls out a handgun and aims it at Noah's head.

Before the two guards that were with Noah could react they were incapacitated by a shot to the arm and leg each respectively.

Leo quickly lowered his weapon after firing and moved in to properly disarm the guards.

He kicked away their guns, and made sure they had no other weapons on them before backing off a bit more.

Both the guards were bleeding, but they would make it if Leo didn't decide to finish them off.

"Say Noah, tell me, why should I not just put a bullet in your brain right now? I'd save the insurgency quite some trouble if I do so considering the little asshat you've been the past few years when it came down to anomaly shipments from MC&D."

Noah couldn't help but laugh.

"Could've guessed as much. Valentina to start off with you don't particularly like MC&D to start with, then there is the fact you didn't already outright kill me to start with so I doubt you would actually do so now, and lastly, do you think I really don't have something planned in case you decided to actually take the shot? I'll keep it very simple, but if you decide to take the shot I can guarantee you a good amount of fireworks will go off if you know what I mean."

Valentina put away her gun and ordered Leo to stand down.

Leo nodded and took a step back from the guards.

"Do know you're paying for the hospital expenses of those two guards." mumbled Noah.

"Yeah yeah, in any case I really don't care all too much, one small thing though. Before you leave I want you to have a little chat with me and the fella that actually put your guards in this situation."

The entire warehouse looked toward Leo.

"Alright then, let's go."