The scene was disintergrating, fast, and Sean and Bethan both felt the same about how unhinged Melani was being. It was one pull of a finger away from turning dirty, making their Mexican Standoff look almost ordinary in this situation, watching Hayden nearly get stabbed and impaled on a pound-shop piece of metal. The more Bethan watched the more he watched as Hayden seemed to be falling apart, unafraid of dying, unafraid of letting go. Something she'd seen earlier, that fire in his eyes. Like a lack of control was in there, and it worried her. He was capable, no doubt all the shit he'd done was legitimate. But he'd sold his soul to the devil too long ago, and it was gone. Shit, she was feeling the same in this hellhole, Melani now calming down as Bethan looked only to Yekatarina and following her move, not Sean in that moment, a mutual look.

The gang leader explained the job, and the two Brits stayed quiet, listening throughout. It wasn't a lot of money, hell, it was nothing much compared to their last, but it was an in. But this couldn't continue. Sean made a mental note, and didn't say anything stupid. The girl had hung up bodies in here. He had no intention of joining them, as arrogant as he could be, he knew she was batshit insane and if this was the good person in this situation, she didn't want to learn what it would turn into if they were up against Malkia. Nodding in agreement, Sean made sure he made a mental note to make an exit strategy before they ended up way in over their heads here.

Leaving the building, Sean and Bethan didn't hestiate either to agree with Yekatarina, now out of earshot, the former replying first to Yekatarina's shock.
"Well, we're in the heart of darkness now, girl. More skin on offer in there than a whorehouse. Nuke it from space, yeah?" Sean only said to her, a wry fucked up smirk on his face, trying to almost comparmentalise the situation by not staying in horror, but making what any squaddie would do in that situation - call it for the insanity it was. Bethan sighed in response, not taking that same tack, looking across at the map and quickly figuring out the situation and what they needed to do. The suggestion of pairs rung out to her as well- she knew who she'd rather work with.

"Pairs sounds like a plan, Kat. I checked mine, looks like it's fine for now. I suggest we hide our weapons, me and Kat get headcoverings on, Sean and Hayden find a vehicle in the neighborhood to steal and create a distraction while we get some intel, gives us transport outside of SAMC's provision too so when we need to we can get out of here if the situation goes downhill. We can find out where he's based, what his crews do, and then go back. Should be enough for Melani to act on." Bethan replied, her reasoned approach rebutted quickly by Sean, who had seen something the others hadn't perhaps noticed.

==

"Hold the fuck on. We're getting paid five diamonds. I know it's an intel job, but we just paid 20 to go steal a truck. I'm not saying we're being lowballed, but there's no guarantee we've just been shit up by Victor here, surely?" Sean's comment was horror to Bethan, who was now even further from believing it had any shred of reality left in him after today's incidents.

"What, you've got ideas now? Shit, here we go..."

"We're being paid five fucking diamonds. She's paying us a pittance to go deal with some warlord who would gut us worse than those poor bastards in her house. And if Malkia's a threat, then he can't be alone, I bet you he's got support if he's putting up a fight. No doubt that Victor wants them dead because well....COGS are helping them...and this is the easiest way to get at them. Seems rather fuckin' logical?" 

"What, we try and go our own way...against a guy that just gave us a lead up into SAMC's leadership? Oh fuck, and the guys that shot us earlier, Sean? Some psycho warlord who is paranoid as shit isn't going to kill us on sight, you don't think? Fuck, the price of stupid goes up ten dollars a barrel and I'm going to drill a hole in your fucking head at this rate." She replied, almost flabergasted at the thought, totally in disbelief that he would even think that through- he was suggesting playing with even more fire than they had already.

"They're both gangsters playing each side. Way I see it, law of the jungle, everyone's a fucking psycho and they're hoping we stay on side. There's no loyalty here, and this gets us nowhere but loyal to Victor. Which may I remind you if you didn't so fucking noticed, Victor's doing this outside of SAMC's remit to make a point. If he pisses it up, he's dead meat. Malkia on the other hand, might reward the intel we have and give us an idea of who his contact is in COGS. They don't know us personally after all, and in exchange for a favour, we get closer. Then we can find and whack this Hyena bastard and get out of here. Not sure about you, but this place is hardly five stars." 

"Sean, [i]WE are dead fucking meat[/i] if we do that. You cannot be serious." Bethan looked over in Yekatarina's direction after, hoping she agreed in the least, that her partner was being ridiculous at this point- for her, a veteran medic it just seemed out of order to break from that line of control. Whatever his fucked up mind had in play was clearly willing to play the sides, but with that came the risks involved.

"I'm not saying we do it. I'm saying we think about it. Staying loyal to Victor is going to last us so long, Hayden, you must agree, right? Just remember that when Melani has us hanging by meathooks and Victor is smiling when he realises he could abuse some Westerners for nothing. The guy has plenty of diamonds and clearly wants to be a bigshot, and that road is gonna run out sometime. I've seen fuckers like them. Bigger they are, harder they fall. There's no single way up the chain here, way things work here, you beg, borrow or steal to get somewhere." Sean added, sighing, checking his shitty mobile over, then turning back to Bethan.

"Fine. Let's try your plan. Hayden, I guess we can go find a Hilux or something to go steal. We need wheels, gives us more of a chance later. Yekatarina, Beth, if you find out what you can and call us, we'll go from there. If you need help, we'll join in. Try not to get shot at though, yeah?" Sean relented, knowing that even if he had a point, it was probably best not to go with it yet. But the thought was out there now, and he knew that if there was another job that paid as badly as this, Sean was going to reconsider the arrangement here if they weren't getting anywhere and were being put in harm's way.