Valentine caught the look of controlled panic on the face of the beauty in gym shorts, and subtly tuned his senses for whatever could have afflicted her so. His ears pricked at the sound of distant gunfire, and his nose rankled with the biting scent of discharged gunpowder. He turned toward the source of the disturbances, a few blocks away, and closed his eyes to focus more of his attention on the sound. He could hear the crackling static of radios, of tires peeling on asphault. The thick, coppery taste of blood permeated the air and screamed of death as plainly as the pealing of church bells. He assumed it was police chasing after a suspect, and his eyes snapped back to the cop in their midst.<br/><br/>'But his radio's on, and no calls came through about a disturbance in that area. Hell, no calls came through at all! So...what, not cops? Geezus, but with that much ordnance...military? Naw, no way, there's not even a base nearby and who the hell could they be fighting that takes that much ammo, gang warfare, but since when do street gangs use radios, maybe they've upgraded, pfft, bullshit, even the most hardcore<em>vatos </em>don't have automatic rifles, that leaves what, a bunch of heavily armed nutjobs, but there's still nothing on the radio from the cops, they should be swarming through by now, what the hell is going on?'<br/><br/>Valentine's mind raced through the possible explanations, generating and discarding ideas at light speed as he caught the cop's gaze. He was about to ask him if he knew what was going on when he noticed the look that passed between the blond and Miss Moneybags. With a few terse words, she turned and climbed into the limo, obviously expecting the rest of them to follow suit. For Valentine, that tore it. 'Alright, fuck this. I have no idea what's going on, and at this point I'm not sure I care. Let 'em have their party; I've got work to do.'<br/><br/>He reached one hand inside one of his jacket pockets and reassuringly stroked the small, powerful digital camera tucked inside, and stepped back from the others. He slowly looked from each one to the next as he spoke, ending with whats-her-name Laurent.<br/><br/>"Well, folks, it's been fascinating meeting you all, but if you don't mind I have other places to be. You ladies have fun with your meeting. Gentlemen, have a pleasant evening. I'll see you around," he said, offering a mock-salute as he backed away from the group. Then he turned on his heel and started walking at a brisk pace toward the sound of the gunfire.