Business as Usual

[Espio]

[Skip Espio, Whos just nodding at what's going on in the coner.]

[Vector]

"Another military contract huh?" Vector said aloud as he held the file in front of himself with his left hand and stroked his chin with the right. "That certainly explains the budget."

Keeping the file but looking up he seemed to be racking his brain on everything he knew off-hand about F4.

"Has GUN detected any F4 activity since the invasion?"

As a civilian neither of the present detectives knew about the now-abandoned F4 mountain base that was bombed during Sarath's invasion but discovered by Slick and Amy.

"Why make a third-party request for this guy now?"

[Chadin]

"I'm afraid any known F4 activity is classified information. As you can imagine, its best not to let people know just what exactly we do know. In any event, the reason we've brought this investigation to you now is quite simply this is the first time we've had a confirmed sighting of this man in years. He's a mercenary after all. He's always moving and has done a good job keeping a low profile. And since the police have better things to do and are swamped with enough of their own problems, we felt it best to secure outside help before the trail has a chance to grow cold."

[Vector]

[ I'm guessing we keep skipping Espio? ]

"So we have a lead to work with. The Chaotix certainly won't let you down on that one!" Vector affirmed. "How old is this sighting?"

[Chadin]

"Unfortunately about two weeks old now. The original sightings were during the alien invasion. However, there are a number of individuals in that file that might have some idea of his whereabouts. His family might be a prime place to start as we do have intelligence that confirms he has been recently spotted with them. The other would be an old pilot that runs a small bush plane business in Radical City. We also heard some reports of gunfire from a camp ground near Never lake (if its the wrong lake my bad) where some eye-witnesses spotted someone matching Nail's description along with a few others. One of those other individuals matched a description of some bumbling pirate that tried to attack Station Square two weeks ago. According to the testimony that is who Nail and his associate were fighting, but it may be one other thing to look into.

[Vector]

"Trust me. We won't leave a single stone unturned once we take on a case," Vector said proudly. The reptile did softly switch into a thinking expression as his eyes drifted to the upper left though.

How were they to prioritize these two requests now? If the full team was here they could split up, but until Mighty returned with Charmy that wasn't a good idea. He'd have to try and make use of some of his other contacts in the kidnapping case while they tracked this Nail guy down.

"Espio, you have any thoughts on this?" the croc asked as he tossed the file to his partner. It might have surprised the chameleon. The old Vector would have already signed them up back when the 500,000 Rings were mentioned. Now he wanted to get his co-worker's opinion on the known facts before rushing in.

[Espio]

Espio barely caught the file upon hearing those words, and blinked twice. "Um… your asking me?", he said completely stunned. The croc never actually asked him for his opinion when it came to a paying job before, and he didn't know what to say for a few moments. "Well then..." , he said as he trailed off and closed his eyes, deep in thought, as a cartoon-ish simulation of the situation played out in his mind. ” To take both jobs, we'd have to split up, but I can't possibly count on Vector to do it himself easily...", he thought to himself as he looked towards the croc, analyzing him. Vector to his knowledge had little training in tracking in outdoor areas. He continued his internal analysis on the situation. ” Vector did hire a few reserve staff members...but if they took G.U.N.'s job and it gets psyical..."[/i], he cut himself off as he winced, a cartoon simulation of what happens when rookies go against a pro mercenary playing out in his head.

"That only leaves one choice.", he said as he stood up from the corner he was leaning on. "We'll have to let the reserve staffing handle our other case, and we'll handle the harder mission here. Kill two birds with one stone.", he said tossing the case back. "Besides...the idea of tracking down another assassin sounds like a challenge.", he said tightening his gloves with a smirk. Besides...he was sure the reserve staff could handle this. The backups were much more suited to detective work over possible combat anyway.

"One question though.", he said facing the client. "Just what are we going to do once we find him?"

[Chadin]

"Find him, and bring him in; alive. You can contact us at the number on the card within the file. Take him to the location indicated there and you will be payed upon delivery of the target. Also, I should note that time is a factor, so a bonus of 10 000 rings is available, so long as you bring him to us within three days time."

[Vector]

The team leader briefly wondered if it had been wise for Espio to call himself an assassin in front of a government representative... but it didn't seem to bother him. How curious. Perhaps he just assumed Espio meant they'd hunted down assassins in the past as well.

"The Chaotix are on the case!" Vector announced with exuberance. "We'll head down to the site and pick up his trail."

Then the croc leaned forward over his desk, left forearm bearing his weight on it as he followed up.

"Have any other government investigation teams already been over the location?"

[Chadin]

"No, your team has been given this task alone. Now, unless there are any other questions, I shall be going."