When the secretary had explained some of the finer details of the job to Jirou it sounded quite simple really; Find some snitch that was ratting out the client's illicit drug shipments to the police, make him talk, and then summarily ensure he keeps his silence. It was clear cut and dry, and normally Jirou had little trouble with jobs like this. They were relatively easy, fairly low risk, and were typically a one man job... but not this one, which is what puzzled him.

Jirou wondered why his new employer would want to bring in another person into the picture. Did his new client not trust him? It was certainly plausible. After all, they did hand him a blank check to take care of this job, so from a financial stand point they were taking quite a substantial risk on him, so from that perspective it made sense. But what would make this client pay so much to have such a simple job taken care of? He'd handled snitches before, and while occasionally some put up a considerable struggle, he always came out on top in the end. Furthermore they weren't exactly the biggest source of income when compared to other jobs he'd worked. The most he'd ever made off of a job like this was only a couple grand, but this one... this one was more than any job he'd ever opted to take. Heck, it was more than most of his jobs combined! The price tag on this job, which was huge, and in addition to him having a partner to work with meant this job was a VERY big deal to the client, which meant he'd have to play it extra cool and save his trump cards until the end.

He'd worked with partners on big jobs in the past before, and it never hurt to have an extra set of eyes to look out, but he'd learned that it also never hurt to keep at least one eye on them as well, especially when it was somebody you had never worked with or even met before.

The secretary had filled him in on the location for the rendezvous, which was an underground public parking complex nearby. There he would wait for his partner to arrive with the rest of their instructions and from there they would search for their target, together. On his way out the door he had made certain he grabbed a few pieces of vital equipment: A .45 model 1911 pistol, a second magazine, and a few decks of cards.

He hailed a cab and had the cabbie drop him off a couple blocks away from his destination, where he walked the rest of the way. The secretary had refused to divulge what his partner's name was, what they looked like, and what to expect. She simply told him to wait at the northeastern corner of the garage, and lean against the pillar and wait. She also instructed him to remember the answer to the pass phrase upon the second party's arrival.

As he came to the parking garage and hopped over the black and yellow barricade and made his way through the garage until he arrived at the predesignated location. He shoved his hands in his leather jacket pockets and leaned against the support pillar. His narrow eyes glancing from car to car and around every pillar as he waited. He reached up and adjusted his plain black fedora and waited, wondering when his partner would show, and what sort of person they would be.

He pulled out a black and red poker chip from his pocket. The professional grade ones used in high stakes poker tournaments and casinos. He began flipping it like a coin before snatching it out of the air and rolling it with his fingers across the back of his hand, going back and forth from pinky to pointer finger.

"Hopefully this mystery partner gets here soon..."

Security systems, no matter how well thought out, are inherently flawed. Someone has to man a post or watch a screen or worse people can hold sensitive company knowledge in their heads. And it's up to them whether they keep that knowledge secret or not.

People. The fatal flaw in any security system was people and in this case, people had failed.

Someone leaked company information.

While that wasn't exactly Noel's fault, it was her special skill set that put her on this job. The ability to taste lies would help her locate the sneak and her ability to take memories away would forever put the lid on this secret. Whatever it was.

To help her, she had several safeguards. One was a set of envelopes tucked into an inner pocket, each one labeled and ready for when they reached a certain point in this investigation. The second was a partner. Noel did not always function the best alone.

Other than that, she took her comfort in a matte black Taurus set in an innerpants holster and the blade her swordmaster told her to keep on her person at all times. Both weapons she kept sufficiently hidden. People didn't exactly panic at the sight of a sword attached to a hip, but it did draw attention. With her brown hair long enough to sweep the floor when it wasn't braided, Noel wasn't about to go entirely unnoticed, but without advertising her weaponry, she hoped instead to be underestimated.

Jeans, tennis shoes, red tee shirt and olive green canvas military jacket made her look more like a grad student than a threat. Then again, when she saw who her back up was, she didn't put a whole lot of stock in him either.

Leaning against the agreed upon pillar was... a swindler. Yep. He had sneaky liar written all over his face and Noel thought she might even beat him if they had to arm wrestle. Not that she expected to arm wrestle tonight. He looked more like the nimble type. As in, when the poop hit the fan, he would run and be fast enough that the bad guys would catch Noel first.

She walked right up to him with a severe frown on her face.

"There's a sucker born every minute."

Noel was pretty sure that today, she was that sucker.

Jirou continued to lean against the pillar, his fedora pulled down slightly in front of his narrow eyes. He stared at his feet while deep in thought, the poker chip still rolling back and forth across the backs of his fingers. The barren concrete walls echoed with the sound of foot steps, which grew louder and more clear as they approached before stopping right in front of him. As if on cue, the poker chip stopped. Through his peripheral vision he could make out a pair of tennis shoes, and he could hear his partner's feminine voice cut the sudden silence like a knife.

"There's a sucker born every minute." he could hear the irritation in her voice clear as daylight. Definitely frowning. He stood up straight, pocketing the poker chip before crossing both of his arms across his chest. He reached up with his left hand, resting it on the top of his fedora.

"And there's a beggar on every corner." he replied. His tone sharp and crisp. He lifted his hat off of his head slightly and bowed his head respectfully before placing his fedora back in it's rightful place. It was only then that he actually looked directly at his new partner, and he couldn't help but smirk as he saw the frown upon her face. He called it.

"You must be my partner on this job." He recrossed his arms before continuing "And judging by the way you're staring at me you don't seem exactly impressed, now are you?"

He took everything in about her. Her style, her hair, the way she stood, anything that could give him a better picture of who this gal was. He was surprised to be working with a woman for once. That was definitely a first for him. He wasn't quite sure if that would be a good thing or not.

He extended his hand to her "The name's Jirou, Himura Jirou."

He started off blandly and then got right to the point. At least he was straightforward. Maybe this could work after all. "I am not impressed." She confirmed his assessment baldly and without any indication that she understood that her words or actions might be an insult to him. Noel might technically be a woman, but she didn't usually act like one.

> "The name's Jirou, Himura Jirou."

Noel looked at his hand as if he'd offered her a snake. She could take it and then taste for herself what kind of person this Himura Jirou was but... some mutations only worked after personal contact. She wasn't ready to take that risk. He hadn't earned the right.

As if he hadn't just introduced himself, Noel continued. "You don't look like the reliable type, but it's not my opinion that matters. It's the job. Come on." Noel inclined her head back toward the direction she had walked in. She walked with a military air. Noel had training, official and non. She also assumed that he would follow.

The name was his, or at least it tasted like it fit him. Noel just wasn't sure with foreign languages if the last name came first or if he was being cute. She didn't like to assume things, Noel needed to hear it straight."So is that 'Jirou, Himura Jirou' like 'Bond, James Bond'?" Noel wasn't wholly un-personable, she just wasn't wasting any effort on plesantries.

"Noel." That was her best introduction and the name was the best she had. She had to fight off the urge to double check her wrist for a tattoo. She used to have a tattoo of her name there... at least, she thought she used to have a tattoo. Sometimes Noel got confused. "Do you drive?" Because Noel had keys to an unmarked company van stocked with equipment, but no license. All the same, she walked them toward the vehicle. Noel knew how to drive second hand, but a policeman wouldn't understand that if they got pulled over.

>”I am not impressed. You don’t look like the reliable type, but it’s not my opinion that matters. It’s the job. Come on.”

The statement came as little surprise to him. As cruel as it sounded, he was more than used to it and it was typically everybody’s first impression upon meeting him. Truth be told, he preferred people to have an initially negative impression, both while doing business and at the card table. It made the moment he actually revealed his hand all that much sweeter. The fact that his partner was also a woman would also add to the level enjoyment.

He was a bit surprised at her refusal to shake his hand though. He looked down at his palm to make sure there was nothing on it before shrugging it off and began to follow. He noticed how she carried herself, and her gait certainly held an air of both superiority and structure. She was definitely all business at the moment, which meant her expectations were probably quite high.

>”So is that ‘Jirou, Himura Jirou’ like ‘Bond, James Bond’?”

Jirou wasn’t expecting the question and initially didn’t get the reference. He grinned as it finally dawned on him. Maybe she wasn’t all business after all.


“Not quite. My family emigrated here from Japan before I was born, but they were quite old fashioned in their ways. In Japanese culture, the family name comes first, followed by the individual’s name. “ he placed his hands behind his head, his fingers laced together as he walked next to her.

>”Noel…Do you drive?”

Noel… so was that her name, or her code name? He assumed it was the latter, though there was no way to be sure. In this line of work, handing out your own name right off the bat to somebody you never met before could prove problematic, but for him that had never really been an issue. As for him being able to drive, he did hold a license, though with New York’s traffic as it was, it was usually easier to just take the bus or hop onto the subway than it was to actually drive anywhere.


“Um, yeah I can drive if I have to. I mean, I have a license… though it’s been a while. I took a cab to get here, but if you’ve got a vehicle I suppose I can be the chauffeur for this mission.” He looked at his watch. It wasn’t rush hour yet, which meant that traffic would be marginally better depending on where they had to go.
“Where are you parked and where are we going?”

So his name was... Jirou. Or was it Himura? Blah. People should just introduce themselves simply and as American as possible. Then Noel would be able to avoid situations such as these. She preferred to call her colleagues by their last name, but in the absence of knowing which was which Noel decided Jirou was the name to call this stranger. It had fewer syllables. Fewer syllables could save lives.

> “Where are you parked and where are we going?”

"We are parked out and around the corner." Noel fished out a ring that had only two keys, a remote to unlock the vehicle and a miniature pair of fuzzy dice on it. She hit the remote and a black van not too far off flashed its tail lights to signal its unlocking. She tossed the mess to Jirou without further preamble. He was driving.

"We're going to a club to ask some questions. How much do you know about what's going on?" And how good was he at asking questions?

She opened her own passenger door and climbed in. The brunette had to take care in the way she sat down to avoid jostling the sword and drawing attention to it. The interior of the van was clean. Not fresh from the factory or car wash clean, but well maintained and recently vacuumed at least.

In Noel's opinion, nothing could suck the ick out of red velour seats and a gold beaded curtain that sectioned off the front two pilot seats from a world of unsavory goodies. Ropes, ammunition, chains, tech gear, knives... it was a toss up between helpful items and items that looked like they belonged in a... well, in a movie Noel did not want to be in.

"Club's called The Box and it's over on 5th." She flicked a hula girl on the dashboard to make it wobble. Bleh.

Jirou snatched the keys out of the air and gave the black van a quick glance over. It was the stereotypical reconnaissance van you saw in nearly every single spy movie, which Jirou found amusing. He glanced down at the set of keys. The fuzzy dice were an interesting touch.

He opened up his door and climbed into the driver’s seat. He looked around, familiarizing himself with the vehicle. Thank Jeebus it was an automatic. He hated to drive stick in the city. He didn’t need to look behind the curtain to know what he would find. If the interior was as stereotypical as the exterior, it would be chalk full of goodies they would probably never need. The hula girl was a nice touch as well.

“I was paid to assist you in finding a snitch and getting them to talk. Beyond that, the client wouldn’t say.” He turned the key and started the van. He checked his mirrors and adjusted his seat as best he could. He seriously wished they were taking a car.

“The Box on 5th?” He pulled out on to the street. There was only one place in all of New York City that he had heard of called The Box. It wasn’t far from Lombardi’s Pizzeria. The place was incredibly expensive, and the service was utterly terrible. Not the first place he would think to go to find information, much less a snitch. The price tag for this job was beginning to make a little more sense.

So he didn't even know who had hired him. That was good. She was hoping to avoid loosing any memories that might be important to her tonight and where she worked was certainly one of them.

Noel nodded and strapped herself into the front seat before Jirou started them off toward their destination: The Box. They had no idea who or what they were looking for. The snitch could be male or female, working at The Box or just a regular old customer... but at least they had this as a starting location.

"We're after an informant who hasn't left us much to go on, unfortunately. The best guess we have is this place. Of the area, police have raided several storage points, but not this one." And this one was one of the few left in this arm of the carefully crafted distribution ring.

Also, it was probably the nicest one.

Jirou drove them past the front of the club slowly and found a parking spot not terribly far away. It was early, the scene was just starting up with those that got off of work and went straight to visit their favorite bar tenders. "The process will go smoother if we avoid blatant lies. A little massaging of the truth is okay, but you'll throw off my psychic mojo with too many lies." She wanted to reserve her pallet for rooting out the liars they were after instead of getting things jumbled.

Once out of the car, Noel handed Jirou an envelope so thin it couldn't hold much of anything at all. "If I ever look really confused, I need you to open this and do what it says. Ready to go in?" Because she was.

The bouncer was just setting out his velvet ropes. "ID and cover charge." He grunted the words at them, more concerned with getting the heavy concrete posts into place than really being threatening.

"Sure." Noel put her hand out to stop Jirou from doing any such thing and waited for the man to look up. "Get ready to move."

Her pupils jiggled from side to side in her their sockets as soon as he made eye contact. For a long moment he looked dazed. Noel too looked a bit dazed, but took confident strides inside. Bouncer? What bouncer? She'd already forgotten that she had ever seen him.

Psychic Mojo? So his partner was a mutant. Jirou couldn't help but wonder if she new he was a mutant as well. She obviously knew more about this mission than he did, and for her to be in possession of a van outfitted with as much hardware as this one was, it wouldn't surprise him if she was actually a full time employee of his current client, but that there would be time to question her later. Right now, he had a job to do.

He parked the van in a nearby parking lot, hopped out of the vehicle, and pocketed the keys. He hated having to go into a situation almost completely blind, but he really didn't have a choice in the matter. He'd just have to trust Noel, she knew more than he did at the moment.

He took the envelope and placed it inside his jacket, in an inner pocket. He wondered what the instructions read. Was it a back up plan or something? He hoped he wouldn't have to find out just yet.

As they approached the bouncer, he reached for his wallet to pay the man but Noel's hand told him otherwise. He looked from Noel to the bouncer, and then back to Noel. The bouncer's pupil's dilated and a stupid groggy expression covered his face. Whatever she had done to him, Jirou hoped he wouldn't have to be on the receiving end.

He brushed past the bouncer, quickly catching up with Noel. They made their way to a table from which the majority of the bar and most of the entrances were visible and sat down with their backs to the wall. It wasn't very busy at the moment, which made it easier to spot people as they came and went. A few of the after work regulars had already trickled in. He leaned over to Noel, and carefully murmured through clenched teeth, The music over the sound system would conceal their conversation well.

"You could have told me about that little trick on the way here. I don't appreciate being surprised like that, especially when I the surprise is you being able to stupefy somebody just by looking at them, and don't even think of pulling that little stunt on me. I'm not too keen on becoming a vegetable anytime soon." He relaxed and looked around the bar a bit more, checking to see if anybody was watching them. They weren't. He turned back to Noel, being sure to keep his emotions and temper under complete control.

"Look, you know more about this situation than I do, and I'm sure there's a reason for that. That's fine, but if you expect me to be of any help here, especially when it comes to asking questions, I'm going to need a little more to go on besides 'The cops busted a few of our locations and this is our only lead.' Otherwise I'm going to have to bluff my way through everything, and that'll only cause problems."

He paused to take another glance around. Nobody knew who he was and he didn't know anybody here, but that didn't mean they wouldn't know Noel. After a minute he continued, his voice soft and calm, so as not to attract attention "The big thing I need to know is, what sort of stuff are we talking about here? I can't go around asking questions if I don't even know what product I'm looking for."

Little trick? Hm. She must have done something already. Something that wigged Jirou out enough for him to rant a little bit at her. At least it was an honest rant. He was honestly a little freaked out. "Didn't I warn you in the van?" Psychic mojo. She was pretty sure she'd mentioned psychic mojo. Who was forgetting now, jerk?

He did have a good question, though. What was it that they were after? "We're not looking for product. We're looking for information. Someone's selling information. To the police." Plenty of people saw chatting with the police as less than savory. And the less they both knew about that information the better, really.

Noel took a seat at Jirou's table and tried to keep her voice low and even so that it wasn't obvious that they were having a little conversation. "Look. We're the clean up crew. You don't give the clean up crew knowledge that you're just going to have to clean up again afterward. I don't know a lot of what's going on either but we are working together on this. I'm on your side and I can pick out a liar from across the room. That should be enough to do this job." Right? Suddenly she was feeling insecure about that. Stupid informational jobs were harder than defense or face smashing. Why couldn't the world be as simple as a face smash?

A waitress came by to take their drink orders.

Jirou sighed "If you're worried about me selling what I might find out, forget it. With the kind of money I'm getting paid to do this job, your boss has already guaranteed my silence. It's bad for business, and one's health, to go around betraying your clientele, and I'm pretty sure whoever your boss is they have the resources to get rid of me if I do." He paused for a moment to let that all sink in before continuing "I like my neck the way it is; not dressed up in the Colombian fashion." he wondered if she knew what a Colombian neck tie was.

Jirou looked up at the waitress as she arrived "You wouldn't happen to have a drink menu would you?" the waitress smiled and nodded as she handed a small black menu to him. Jirou wasn't particularly a fan of drinking while on the job, but in lieu of their objective it would help to keep up some sort of appearance as simply just a customer for now.

"Glenlivet, on ice." A straight scotch on ice would last him a bit longer than a beer or mixer, which also meant he wouldn't even keep a buzz going, but it would at least calm him down a bit. He was still a bit weirded out by Noel's powers. He found himself continually avoiding eye contact with her, like he was playing a game of Hold 'em and didn't want to let slip a tell to the other players. Except here he wasn't hiding anything. He just didn't want to be turned into a vegetable.

Jirou pulled out his wallet and slipped a hundred dollar bill into the drink menu before closing it and handing it back to the waitress "Have you guys hired anybody new recently? Anybody that's been particularly friendly with any off duty boys in blue?"

He seemed a little offended that Noel —and by extension her employer— did not trust a man for hire. Money could buy a man's knowledge as easily as it could buy his silence. "Yeah, yeah bad for business." But even Jirou admitted that he might be viewed as expendable. There was nothing holding either side back from using threats. She didn't have to know the specifics about whatever a Columbian necktie was to understand that it was a threat and it was bad.

"I would rather you operate half blind and in the end never know enough to get yourself in trouble. As honorable as you are, you'll change your tune when it's your neck." There was no judgement in her tone, just a simple state of fact. She wouldn't expect him to go out of his way to keep company secrets when he had nothing tying him to the company. No matter what Jirou thought, in Noel's experience money could not buy loyalty.

The waitress took down a note on Jirou's order with what looked like too few strokes of the pencil to be the whole name of the drink. When she looked to Noel, the brunette shook her head slightly. She had to keep her taste buds clean. Plus, she didn't drink alcohol anyway.

> "Have you guys hired anybody new recently? Anybody that's been particularly friendly with any off duty boys in blue?"

Well. Jirou wasted no time. Noel hadn't even thought to ask the girl.

The waitress took the black booklet of a drink menu back from Jirou without so much as a widened eye. "The waitstaff cycles through people just like any part-time job. We've got a core that's been here for years, though. Plenty of us chummy with a guy who can you out of a parking ticket." She pocketed the menu with a chipper air as if she had been congratulating them on their choice of drink or commenting on the weather. She was good. Good enough to make Noel shift in her seat.

"Who's the most chummy?"

The girl looked around. The staff looked pretty sparse, but the night was young. Apparently she didn't see who she was looking for. "Girl with a tattoo on her chest. Can't miss her once she comes in. You sure you don't want a drink?"

Noel shook her head again. "If I change my mind, I'll let you know."

She waited until the girl had moved away enough to make her comments to Jirou. "Truth. But she didn't talk about anyone that isn't a waiter." Maybe that was as far as her expertise extended? There were plenty of other employees. The bouncer at the door (who seemed entirely normal now that they had passed), the bar tenders, janitorial staff... there had to be accountants and managers too.

"Maybe ask about a repeat cop customer?" Noel muttered to herself as much as to Jirou. There were plenty of ways to figure this out... which one was the best, she still hadn't decided.

As the waitress left to grab his drink, He watched her for a moment to see if she spoke to anybody other than the bartender, but she didn't. She simply ordered his scotch, and brought it straight back to him. He could tell she wanted to be helpful. Money tended to have that affect on people.

"Is there anything else you two need?"

But Jirou shook his head "If we need anything we'll let you know. You've been most helpful." The waitress smiled and Jirou flashed her a wink, which immediately caused her to blush. If things didn't go completely south here, he'd probably come back just for her. Some ladies just couldn't resist the Asian sensation. He turned his attention back to Noel as the waitress went back to her normal routine.

"Questioning repeat customers won't get us anywhere. They may catch the occasional slip, but they are few and far between from my experience. Sadly, I don't think we are going to get anywhere with the rest of the wait staff. You said this place was operated by your employer right? Which means there's gotta be somebody here on your boss's payroll that is actually going to know what is going on. You've gotta have a name at least, right?"

He took a sip of the scotch the waitress had brought him. It was smooth, and had very little bite too it, but the most important thing about it was that it helped him cool off a little bit. He took a moment to collect his thoughts. He mulled over what he had just said. Who would be the person to talk to? Other than the lady with the tattoo on her chest, who at this point hadn't shown up yet, they had no leads. He thought about the types of people necessary to run an operation like this.

There was the front man and his crew, which was the club in this situation. Then there was the man in charge of overseeing any incoming and outgoing shipments and the people needed to actually move that product. You also had your book keeper as well. Then, last but not least, you had the person who oversaw everything.

He rolled around what little information he had to go on, he muttered to Noel out loud. "You said nearly all of the other storage places have been hit, except this one, which means more product is being pushed through fewer locations, this one being the biggest I'm assuming. It wouldn't surprise me if who ever is in charge of this place is selling some product on the side and skimming the profits." he took another sip of the scotch and looked around. More people were starting to flow in.

"It's entirely plausible you know, and a lot more likely than this being a simple police crack down." He looked her square in the eyes now. "How often did the police hit the other locations? Was it spread out over a period of time?"

Why the hell hadn't he thought to ask her that on the ride here? He was kicking himself for that now. God how he hated blind missions like this. There was never enough information to go off of to actually plan things out properly.

"I hate to say it, but this mission could get really ugly, really quickly depending on who we talk to. For all we know, this snitch could be more than just some simple police plant. It could be whoever is actually running this operation here." He looked up at Noel, his face was dead serious. "We could be dealing with a far greater threat than you or your employer realizes."

She had meant that they should ask about repeat police customers and try to find which cop was being snitched to... then reverse engineer the chain of lies. But whatever. She could still suggest that later after he'd finished spinning his wheels.

"Not operated by my employer, no, but stuff comes through here regularly." They were just full of miscommunications tonight weren't they? That was a risk they had to take when stringing a mercenary along blindly.

A pharmaceutical company had no place running a bar. Of course, a pharmaceutical company had no place with less-than-savory dealings of outgoing or incoming shipments either. Also... she wasn't about to let Jirou know she was the lobby security of a pharmaceutical company either. Man for hire sounded way scarier than lobby security.

"There's still people here on the payroll, but they wouldn't know who either of us are. I've seen pictures and I have their names, though." So she would be able to pick them out of a crowd if needed. Noel watched the waitress and her interaction with Jirou with curiosity. Money could buy a lot of things apparently. People were gross.

And Jirou had a point. The manager here could very well be skimming off the top. More devious minds than Noel's were at work here.

> "How often did the police hit the other locations? Was it spread out over a period of time?"

That seemed a very important fact for Jirou. "No clue. This thing just dropped in my lap." Noel was under the impression that the higher ups had only just figured out some of what was going on.

But he was wrong about them underestimating the level of threat. If it weren't a big deal, Noel wouldn't be here. And she wouldn't be more armed than usual. Jirou seemed wigged out at the gravity of the situation. He seemed to get wigged out a lot.

"Well, if you think it's a lost cause up front, then let's go in back" They could sit here while more and more people filtered in and music got louder and the libations flowed as freely as the lies... or they could just go in the back and see what was happening. A little memory finessing and it was possible that no one would even mind.

She knew the names and faces of people that worked here that were under her boss's payroll? It really shouldn't have come as a surprise to him, but it was just one more thing that would have been nice to know before they had arrived. He was starting to like this mission less and less as Noel revealed how much she actually knew about the mission. He made a mental note; Never accept another mission of this nature again, regardless of how well it pays. It wasn't worth the headache.

At the suggestion that they move on to the back of the club to interview some of the more "in the know" member's, Jirou nodded and took a final sip of his scotch. It was a shame to waste it, but he didn't feel like downing a near full order of scotch on an empty stomach, especially when he had a job to do. He decided to let Noel lead the way. He figured it would be better for her to take the driver's seat, since she was the one who actually knew what the hell was going on and what they were really looking for.

As he stood up, the bouncer they had met outside lumbered past him towards the men's room. They made eye contact, but the bouncer continued on as if he didn't even recognize him. Jirou made a a mental note of that as well, and the mental notes were stacking.

He looked back over at Noel with out skipping a beat. His face and tone revealing nothing, other than it was time to actually get to work.

"After you."