“I want to see your leader.” Early the next morning, Ethan stood by the entrance and demanded to meet the leader of the Atala organization.
The terrorists had already been instructed to satisfy his reasonable requests whenever possible, so it didn’t take long before he was once again brought before the bald Atala leader.
By now, Ethan had more or less figured out why the man had suddenly stopped mentioning their previous agreement to have Ethan assist Atala in containing the anomaly.
He had simply shown off too much.
After repeatedly demonstrating how much the Foundation supposedly knew and how terrifying its capabilities appeared to be, Ethan had frightened the Atala leader into becoming deeply wary of the organization.
As a result, the man had practically given up on getting involved with anomalies altogether.
At this point, the Atala leader only wanted to squeeze the technology for the Jericho missile out of Tony Stark, then secretly execute Tony afterward to eliminate any future problems.
As for Ethan?
He could just knock him unconscious later and have him respectfully dumped somewhere outside the base.
But Ethan couldn’t allow that.
If Atala stopped interacting with anomalies, how was he supposed to continue harvesting Rumor Points— No.
How was he supposed to continue spreading the noble ideals of the Foundation?
There was an old saying: As long as the profit was high enough, a capitalist would even sell you the rope used to hang him.
Since the Atala leader had lost his nerve, Ethan naturally needed to find a way to motivate him into committing the organization’s manpower and resources toward actively containing anomalies.
When he saw Ethan again, the bald leader was visibly surprised.
Why had this Foundation agent come looking for him voluntarily?
As far as the leader was concerned, he had already stopped bringing up the matter of having Ethan assist Atala with anomaly containment.
He had assumed both sides had silently agreed to let the matter disappear.
Ethan got straight to the point.
“Have your men take me back to the site where you ambushed our convoy.” “I hid something there.” “Once I retrieve it, we can talk.” “You can have your men watch me the entire time.” “As you can see, I don’t have any communication equipment capable of contacting the outside world, and I won’t attempt to escape.” “I think you should be able to agree to that.” The Atala leader thought about it for roughly five minutes.
Soon afterward, Ethan was blindfolded and placed inside a transport vehicle.
When the blindfold was finally removed, he had already arrived at the site of the original ambush.
Under the close surveillance of six armed militants, Ethan walked toward the wreckage of one of the vehicles and pretended to search around before digging into a patch of loose sand.
System, spend 1,000 Rumor Points to exchange for a medical item—one set of Basic Foundation Healing Injections.
[Basic Foundation Healing Injection: Auxiliary medical item capable of rapidly healing a wide range of traumatic injuries.] [1,000 Rumor Points consumed.] [One set of Basic Foundation Healing Injections successfully exchanged.] From the militants’ perspective, Ethan soon pulled a white metal briefcase from beneath the sand.
He was then blindfolded once again and transported back to the Atala base.
After meeting the bald leader again, Ethan opened the case without hesitation.
Inside were twelve red injectable doses, neatly arranged in individual slots.
The Atala leader looked at them in confusion.
Ethan smiled faintly.
“I assume you have no shortage of seriously wounded men?” “One injection is enough to rapidly stabilize and heal traumatic injuries.” “I don’t think I need to explain how valuable something like this would be in either military or medical applications.” The bald leader immediately picked up one of the injections and left the room.
The moment he stepped outside the interrogation chamber, he called over one of his subordinates.
“Bring me a critically wounded man.
Immediately.” It didn’t take long before the militants brought over a fighter who had suffered severe injuries in battle.
They administered a single dose.
The results were astonishing.
His bleeding stopped almost immediately.
The wounds visibly began to close.
In less than five minutes, some of them had already started forming scabs.
The Atala leader’s breathing grew heavier.
His eyes lit up with barely concealed excitement.
The value of a miraculous medicine like this might even exceed that of the Jericho missile.
Even if it were merely sold to wealthy individuals or pharmaceutical companies, it could generate an enormous fortune.
And that was without even considering its military value.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Ethan saw the Atala leader return with undisguised delight on his face.
“Mr.
Ethan.” “Tell me—what exactly is this medicine?” “Are you offering it in exchange for your freedom?” Ethan smiled calmly.
“Some of the materials extracted from SCP-939 are among the ingredients used to manufacture it.” The moment Ethan delivered that fabricated piece of information, he saw the man’s pupils contract.
The Atala leader tried to hide his reaction.
But Ethan clearly caught the greed in his eyes.
Got you.
“Leader, as the head of the Atala organization, I’m sure you understand that every organization assigns its personnel regular missions and performance quotas.” “After all, no organization keeps people around just to feed them for free.” The Atala leader nodded in agreement.
“Of course.” “Exactly.” Ethan continued, “As a Foundation agent, I also have performance requirements.” “I can’t exactly survive on the Foundation’s base salary alone.” “So…” “We could make a little business arrangement.” “For example, involving these healing injections.” “You help me contain a portion of SCP-939.” “I turn in what I need to fulfill my mission requirements.” “After that, you keep a share.” “We split it seven-three.” The leader’s eyes narrowed.
“You only want thirty percent?” “No.” Ethan looked at him.
“You get thirty percent.” The leader slammed his palm against the table.
“Impossible!” “Only thirty percent?
You might as well treat us like beggars!” Ethan let out a mocking laugh.
“Without me, you wouldn’t even have the qualifications to bargain for that thirty percent.” “And don’t assume your backer, Obadiah Stane, has the connections necessary to handle something like this.” “If I didn’t need some extra income myself, do you really think you’d ever have the chance to touch profits like these?” “Thirty percent is already generous.” “There are plenty of people who would gladly crawl at the Foundation’s feet for an opportunity like this—and still wouldn’t qualify.” He leaned back slightly.
“Do you have any idea how much it costs me just to grease the right palms and get materials like this moved through the logistics chain?” “The expenses alone are astronomical.” The Atala leader fell silent.
For a long moment, he clenched his fists tightly.
Then, through gritted teeth, he finally said, “Deal.”