"Will do." responded Leo.
"Now Haitao, we should discuss our business, you can fawn over my guard some other time." said Valentina.
Haitao sighed.
"You never change, do you?"
Valentina shrugged and Haitao changed the subject.
"Anyway, you know the reason I wanted to talk to you, it has grown harder and harder for the insurgency to recruit people, and we need people desperately" said Haitao.
"Honestly I don't have the slightest idea on how we can solve this problem." responded Valentina.
"Well, I've had a couple of ideas but they aren't good enough, in the end, if we do not recruit more people the foundation will be able to properly crack down on us."
"So it is already that serious?"
"Yep, it is."
"Have you informed the other delta command members about the problem?"
"I have, but most of them are ignorant about it, only six showed me support and took this threat seriously."
"Do you at least have some sort of plan?" asked Valentina.
"I do, I will contact some private mercenary companies and some other contacts I have, if all goes well this problem will be solved sooner rather than later."
"That is great to hear." said Valentina in relief.
"Was that all, Haitao?' asked Valentina.
"Pretty much, to be honest."
"So you had me drive over for an hour just to tell me this?"
"Well, I wanted to go out shopping with you if you have time, but it is not needed." said Haitao.
"Depends, who is paying?" asked Valentina.
Haitao sighed.
"Fine, I will pay... You better not spend over two thousand again though."
"Won't promise anything." Said Valentina before following Haitao out of the room.
Leo sighed and followed them.
Valentina went on a shopping spree with Haitao, spending over 4 thousand dollars.
However, this time Leo wasn't really the guard of Valentina, but more like the pack mule.
He was forced to carry all the unnecessary things Valentina bought.
"Man, the insurgency is so much different than Marshall Carter and Dark." thought Leo.
Marshall Carter and Dark was much more strict when it came to rules and combatants, but the insurgency seemed to be more lax.
It could also just be that Leo only had seen the bad examples of the insurgency, since he had only met Haitao and Valentina so far, and both seemed to not really give a shit about a lot.
Haitao already was a lot less worse than Valentina, but was still far from normal.
Leo wondered how the other delta command members were like, he figured that they all were vastly different, it took a lot to reach such a rank, after all.
Then Leo also had the problem of dealing with the O5 that targeted him, but that would also take a lot of time before reaching the point that he could take him down.
Simply put, Leo was lost.
He didn't know what he exactly wanted to do, everything that he wanted was out of reach.
He wanted to start his own group of interest, but lacked the funds and connections.
He wanted to get revenge on Lynn, but he lacked the people to attack the site.
He wanted to kill the overseer that targeted him, but he was simply too weak.
Everything was simply just out of reach, and Leo was at a standstill.
The first thing he would do is reach the point where he could create his own group of interest, but in order to reach that point he would need to continue working with Valentina for a while.
He desperately needed the contacts, after all.
Valentina noticed that Leo was unusually quiet and called out to him.
"Hey lad, you alright?"
Leo snapped out of his thoughts and responded.
"Yeah, I am fine. Just self-reflecting a bit.
"Alright, we will be heading back now, I've drained Haitao enough for today." said Valentina with a smile on her face.
Haitao simply responded with a tired sigh.
"I'm never going shopping with you again..."
Valentina, Haitao and Leo made their way back to the hotel.
Valentina and Leo didn't linger for long and quickly left, since they would have to drive for an hour.
Or at least, that is what Leo assumed.
"Oh, we aren't going back to that stinky cabin, we will be heading to my hideout." responded Valentina.
