KS46

"Are the charges set?"

Neo nodded, landing gently beside Roman and flashing him a quick smile. The VSS might have been expert spies and informants, but Neo's skills as an assassin were beyond even them. It was why he'd trusted her with so important a task. Neo cocked her head to the side in question, and Roman answered.

"This place has secrets neither I nor the kid can let Cinder get hold of. It's a temporary alliance." Roman grinned when Neo raised an eyebrow in a teasing fashion. "And a little bit of vengeance, yes," he admitted.

In an ideal world, the explosions would kill Cinder, but Roman knew better than to bank on that. He nodded to Neo and held up five fingers twice, nodding after. Neo smiled and played with the device in her hand, holding up with a ten-minute countdown once she was done. Roman's scroll was already ringing.

"Roman."

"Bad news, Cinder," he said, putting on a little sigh for emphasis. "Neo and I just reached the records room. There's not much here."

"Impossible. An agency like this specialises in information."

"I know, but this doesn't look like the real thing. It's written records, and unless they're doing everything by paper nowadays…"

"Then the real cache must be elsewhere. I see. Continue searching."

"We've got other problems, I'm afraid. Neo saw Ozpin in the upper floors."

"Ozpin!? What is he doing here?"

"No idea, but she didn't engage. That's not even the worst of it, Cindy. They noticed when I got into the records rooms. They know what we're after, and they had countermeasures."

"As expected. What is happening?"

"They're bringing the building down on our heads."

"A self-destruct mechanism? In the middle of Vale? You're certain?"

"I'm looking at a timer," Roman drawled, rolling his eyes as Neo held it up helpfully. "Nine minutes remaining. They must have some kind of evacuation plan, maybe the real goods are being transferred, or they're already out. Between this and Ozpin, though…"

[...]

Qrow watched from a fair distance as the building trembled violently. The explosives went off on the lower floors, shattering the supports and causing those higher up to topple precariously. People down below screamed and ran for cover, but by this point there wasn't a person in Vale who hadn't realised something was going on, and the nearby buildings had been evacuated. Even so, the VSS HQ collapsed inwards on itself, floors shattering down on those below in explosions of dust and fire.