Joseph

The bar dimly lit musky smoke filled affair. Dubbed a gentlemen's club, its interior was clad in dark and polished wood, while various deep leather arm chairs were scattered about. It was in a pair of these chairs that Leonard and Kyle sat, glass of whisky in their hands as they waited for their target. 

"He should be here by now." Kyle started to get a little anxious as the hours ticked by. It was 7pm now, and still no sight of Joseph. 

"We still have time." Leonard spoke out. "Besides, if he doesn't come today we can always come back tomorrow. Don't worry so much." 

"I just don't want to mess it up." Kyle said worried, eyes constantly looking around. "It's my first proper job." 

"Ah." Leonard could understand that. He was much the same on his first assignment, checking over the plan multiple times, and micromanaging every little movement of his squad. It took a while for him to realise that being right up in his men's face didn't make them work any harder, rather simply made them dislike him. 

"Constantly worrying won't make things run smoother." Leonard tried to calm him down, though from his own experience knew his words wouldn't get through. These things simply took time. He waved down a server, the man walking over to them, dressed in a neatly pressed suit. 

"Sir?" 

"Another drink for my friend here." 

"One moment sir." The bartender gave a curt nod, before briskly walking off to prepare another drink. 

"Relax." Leonard sighed. Kyle was very much on edge. Enough so that it was drawing attention, other patrons eye's drifting to him on occasion. He couldn't sit still in his seat, constantly playing with the collar of his shirt as his eyes kept darting over to the entrance. "People are looking." 

"Sorry, I can't help it." He sat back into his chair as the server returned with another drink for Kyle. 

"Drink, you need to settle your nerves." Kyle quickly downed the cup, Leonard handing him over his own which he also knocked back in record time. "Better?" 

"Somewhat." He admitted. Four drinks deep wasn't much for him, but there was still a light buzz at the corners of his mind. 

"Good." Leonard nodded, his eyes tracking a man who just walked into the bar. "Because he's here." 

"What?" Kyle went to sit up in his chair, however Leonard pushed him back down. 

"Calm." He pushed him back into the chair. Leonard tracked the man's movements with the side of his eye. "There is no need to rush things. Wait for an opportunity." 

Kyle looked none too happy as he fell back into his seat, watching their target sit at the bar and socialise with the bartender. "What are we waiting for?" 

"Not sure." Leonard admitted. This kind of stakeout was new to him. "But it's probably not best just to walk up while he's chatting with the bartender and say, 'hey, we have video's of you cheating on your wife'. Let's just wait until he goes to the bathroom or something." 

They didn't have to wait too long for such an occasion to arise, as Joseph excused himself to the restroom. Kyle made to stand however Leonard held him back. "Wait a few seconds." The rose soon after, walking down a small corridor before turning through a door into the bathroom. "Watch the door."

Leonard whispered to Kyle as they stepped in, Joseph inside at the basin, fixing up his hair as he looked at himself in the mirror. Leonard didn't waste any time, roughly grabbing hold of the man's shoulder, his hand closing like a vice as he forcefully dragged the man into one of the stalls, pushing up against the wall.

"Argh! Who-" Leonard clamped his hand over the man's mouth, his screams muffled as eyes widening with terror as Leonard placed the cold hard barrel of his gun against the man's cheek. 

"Quite, or I'll paint the walls with the insides of your fuckin skull." It felt strange to threaten the man like this, even after setting aside the fact they shared the same surname. But then again he was more than a little pissed off that someone like him shared his name considering what they had done. He waited for a moment before slowly removing his hand, ready to press back down the moment he tried to call for help. Joseph didn't, however, his eyes only locked onto the barrel of the gun pressed against his head, thick beads of sweat slowly rolling down his face. 

"L-look man… I don't have much money, but you can take it all…" His voice was shaky as he slowly moved his hands down to his pocket to remove his wallet. Leonard didn't need it, but still took all his credits out before throwing the wallet to the floor. 120 credits. Not much, but then again not many people carried physical cash these days. "You'll let me go right..?" 

"Not so quickly." Leonard peaked out the stall, and motioned for Kyle to pass him the data pad. "I have a few more things I need from you." 

"Are you sure about this uncle Joseph?" A quiet voice rang out from the datapad, Joseph's eyes widening beyond belief as he looked at the video playing. There was a young girl in the picture, dressed in a way someone that young should have never been. Leonard had to pause it before he saw something that he would really prefer not to, but the message itself was clear. 

"What do you want?" 

"You work in mech maintenance at the Vallum estate, is that correct?" Joseph wasn't too surprised that he knew that, considering that he managed to get his hands on these videos after all. "I want to know everything. How many mechs, what kinds of mechs, their maintenance patterns." 

"T-they'll kill me if they found out I did that!" Joseph protested, but Leonard simply pressed the gun barrel down harder into his head. "I.. I-I'm just a mechanic! I don't know much!" 

Leonard jabbed him in the gut. It was tempting to whip the side of his gun across his face, but the damage then would be visible, and might draw unwanted questions. It still proved effective as the man doubled over, hacking out spittle as he clutched his stomach. 

"Don't fuck around. You will figure this out, or your wife will get some files in the mail." 

Joseph looked like he wanted to protest, however he held back. He was scared out of his mind. This was not the situation he thought he'd end up in after finishing a long day's work. "Please.. I'll tell you what I know.. Just don't hurt me." 

The man looked so pathetic that Leonard almost wanted to hit him again, for no other reason than disgust. The fact that he shared even the smallest amount of blood with this man made him sick. 

"I want everything you can find. Pictures, documents, anything." He chucked a small piece of paper at the man with Kyle's contact details written on. He wasn't going to use his own for this, lest someone put two and two together. "Send them here. We want results, quickly, or we will leak these videos to everyone you've talked to for the last 20 years." 

The man had broken out into tears, an awful stench coming from his lower region. Leonard scowled at him as he watched him soil himself. Leonard stepped out of the stall before the growing puddle of piss could reach his shoes, walking over to the sink and grabbing a handful of paper towels before returning to Joseph and throwing them at him. 

"Clean yourself up." He tucked his gun back into his waistband, glancing at Kyle to see if there was anyone outside. The man shook his head after taking a quick peek out the door. "Anything to add?" 

"No, that should do it." Kyle said with a nod. 

"Then let's get out of here." There was no need to stay around for longer than needed. It would only lead to a higher chance they might get caught if someone walked in, or the police were called. 

They quickly made their way back out into the bar proper, Leonard having no trouble acting normal, considering his face was already covered by a faceplate that concealed a vast majority of his emotions. Kyle on the other hand was very nervous, though there really wasn't anything Leonard could do right now to help, other than getting as far away as soon as possible. 

Whether or not Joseph would be fine, Leonard didn't particularly care. Besides the fact that he still had gripes about spying on his own family, something that he might intervene in a little, whether Joseph was okay or not was none of his concern. He would be in a rough state for a while, Leonard was a fully trained mech pilot, a punch from him would have lingering effects for a while on a civilian like Joseph. 

"I'll have to intercept the information we receive." Leonard thought. "Although I doubt a single mechanic knows everything that's going on within the compound, it still would be best to limit what information leaks out." 

It still went against his better instinct to let such an information breach happen right before his eyes, but if he was to gain the trust of the Bloodhounds, and by extension the Condor kingdom he would have to swallow some of his misgivings.