Ciao everybody!

...Again, another update after a day!? What the hell?! ...wow.

Either way, here's the chapter!

Oh, and look at the title!

...

Confused?

Good! That was precisely my intention XD

Okay, enough of this nonsense! Please sit back, und ENJOY

Antonio frowned, looking at the file of Italy Vargas in his hand, while with the other he knocked on Ludwig's hotel room's door.

"Ja?"

"It's me, Antonio."

He heard a chair being moved, and then a couple of heavy steps coming from inside. Then, after being unlocked, the door opened. Hell, the German was so big Antonio actually wondered how he could even fit through the doorframe.

The Spaniard held up the file. "I wanted to talk with you about these…"

Ludwig nodded, let him in and then locked the door again. Antonio noticed Ludwig's room had a window, but that the wooden panels had been closed shut, as were the curtains. Two yellow lights illuminated the room, even if it was two o'clock. So there was plenty of sun, in theory.

"Why did you close your window?" he asked, as he plopped down on the bed, while Ludwig seated himself at the only chair and desk of the room.

"It's too hot. And like this, no indiscreet people will listen to our conversations." Was the short explanation.

Antonio's eyebrows shot up. Too hot? Oh yeah. Where he lived, it probably was much, much colder. He himself was used to the heat, being Spanish and all…

He shrugged. "Suit yourself. Do you want to switch with my room? I don't even have a window."

The German shook his head. "No. It's alright like this. You wanted to talk about the files?"

The Spaniard almost rolled his eyes. He had heard of the famous Ludwig Beilschmidt, he was one of the best - like him, he mentally added - but really, the blond apparently never stopped thinking about work! He probably never relaxed! Work, work, work… Antonio liked his job, but the word 'work' was so sleep-inducing… work, work, work… he already felt his eyelids droop…

"Ah-hem." Ludwig cleared his throat..

"Yeah, the files!" the Spaniard promptly said, immediately awake again.

Now it was Ludwig's turn to almost roll his eyes.

Antonio tried to regain his dignity again. "So. Right. There's this one thing I don't understand…"

"What thing?" Ludwig asked, curious.

The Spaniard went through the pages of the file, trying to find the paragraph again. "Eh… this part."

He cleared his throat, and read aloud. "Italy Vargas often shows an innocent, friendly and apparently harmless attitude."

Ludwig cocked an eyebrow. "So?"

Antonio blinked. "You said you met him, right? Like I did? But he hadn't a… an 'innocent, friendly and apparently harmless attitude', right?"

The German frowned. "What do you mean?"

Now it was Antonio's turn to frown. "I mean… you met him barely an hour later than I did… and when I saw him he was scowling and cursing, looking fairly irritated. Not exactly what I would call 'friendly'."

Ludwig sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Did you even read the whole page, or at least the whole paragraph?"

"Er…not yet… I saw this and I stopped reading to ask this to you." Antonio admitted.

"Go on reading."

Antonio looked down at the file and started reading aloud the next paragraph "Alternating to the innocent attitude, an aggressive and rude attitude appears as well. Italy's dangerousness and instability of mind is clearly more present in these moments, during which he is much more irritable, swearing and threatening anything that moves. Our theory is that he most probably has a personality disorder; this concludes that this man is a crazy criminal, dangerous in both attitudes. But Italy's madness is an organized one, which isn't immediately recognizable during the 'innocent' moments and thus makes him much more dangerous than he already is."

Antonio paused. "Yes, that sounds more like it. But mentally ill, psychic instability? This stuff is new to me…" he remembered the man in the bar. He hadn't looked mentally unstable. Sure, he had been rude, swearing and snarling, but… "If he really is mentally unstable, how can he lead a criminal organisation? I mean, don't his henchmen clearly see he's mental? I wouldn't want to be serving a lunatic, even if he paid well…" The Spaniard flipped through the pages until he saw the list of Italy's henchmen. They were so many, not even counting the suspects.

Ludwig took his copy of the file and shrugged. "I have no idea. Criminals will always remain strange. Anyway, Vargas apparently never makes a mistake. He leaves no evidence, no proof, no witnesses… nothing. And as cherry on top, he always has an alibi." The German read quickly a couple of paragraphs.

"Why don't we try and get one of his men?" Antonio suggested, looking at the long list.

"Not possible. They are incorruptible, and extremely loyal."
"All of them?!" Antonio gaped at the list.

"All of them. I know it doesn't seem possible, but it is. And even if we did manage to find enough proof to throw one of them in jail, the biggest problem would still be there. We have to get the big Boss of it all." Ludwig stated. "But he is as safe as he can be. He has money, power, influence… Maybe he simply pays some people so they say he was at a certain place at a certain hour…"

"Nah, here it says even the Captain and the police saw him multiple times. The guy really was there." Antonio shook his head. Then, he glanced at the ceiling. "A look-alike, perhaps?"

Now it was Ludwig's turn to shake his head, reading the following paragraphs. "No. Here it says that the Captain personally checked it wasn't a look-alike. It really was him."

Antonio let his back rest on the bed, holding up the files above his head. "Hmm… okay, we don't have the faintest idea how he can do that. I read here he has a villa… with servants, I guess? Did they try to get in there? I mean not force their way in, but, I don't know… someone offering to become one of his butlers? Or one of his men? Otherwise we could try it, to gather information…"

The blond shook his head again. He flipped over other pages of the file, eyes darting quickly left and right as they read the tiny words. "They tried it already. And not only the police, but journalists, writers and photographers as well. It always ended the same. The ones who tried to force or sneak their way in were intercepted either by the guards or the dogs. The ones who tried to get hired as butlers, or as new henchmen, or even as cooks or similar got rejected at the first try. Somehow, Vargas always knows who to trust, and who instead wants to infiltrate his home…"

"Well, of course. He probably has eyes and ears everywhere." Antonio muttered. He now was actually kind of glad that the German had closed the window. He dearly hoped there weren't any microphones in the walls. But if the Captain chose this hotel for them, it was probably safe.

They both fell silent. The silence was broken by Antonio, who sat up, making the springs of the bed creak.
"…So, what do we do? How do we get this guy to talk?"

Ludwig cocked an eyebrow. "You already want him to confess? Why don't we ask him tomorrow, then? Or even this evening?"

Antonio smiled awkwardly, looking elsewhere. "No, I didn't mean that… I mean, how do we get proof? His men don't talk, they can't be corrupted with money or something else, because they are extremely loyal. And actually, that is an astounding achievement, I have to admit it. His villa-house apparently is a fortress, guarded by men and dogs. He organizes crimes, murders, thefts, blackmails and black market right under the police's nose, and he always gets away with it." Antonio glanced at the folders. "Well, at least he doesn't deal drugs or have organized prostitution… it seems Italy Vargas likes to save some dignity. Anyway, as I was saying, the guy looks like he's made out of smoke."

"Smoke…?" The German didn't get the analogy.

"Yes, smoke! You know, smoke… you see it, you smell it, it moves, it even stains everything around itself… but if you try to grasp it with your hand, you can't catch it." Antonio mimicked the gesture of trying to catch something in the air.

"…We could use a fan then, and all our problems would be solved. We found his weakness, the case is solved. Quick, call the Captain telling him we need an enormous fan to get the Vargas-smoke out of the city." Ludwig smirked.

Antonio's eyes widened at the German. "Did you just make a joke?" he smiled broadly, and Ludwig already regretted everything.

They returned serious again.

"Anyway, this apparently crazy man is as safe as he could ever be. He walks around the city without any fear - actually, instilling fear in others - and he even strolls around the local market." Antonio continued, a hand cupping his chin.

"…Offering breakfast to tourists." Ludwig added, eyebrow twitching. God, he had sat at the very same table with that man. And he had talked with him. He had helped picking up the damn tomatoes…! He… he had bumped into him. He had made him fall back on his rear. Ludwig's gut constricted, thinking of what could have happened if he had done it during the night in a deserted alley, and not in an overcrowded market… The German swallowed. The Italian would have offered him breakfast alright. A breakfast based on lead and gunpowder. Or based on rope, cement and deep waters. He swallowed again.

Antonio kept rubbing his chin. "That is what I don't understand… why would a mafia Boss offer breakfast to strangers? Even better, two foreign strangers, on the same day!"

Ludwig remembered something. "He smiled broadly to me after he told me his name."

"So?"
"Well, obviously, I didn't recognize it yet. And he was actually… happy that I didn't know him, or his name. Even when I helped him pick up his tomatoes that had fallen… he was surprised." Ludwig muttered, frowning.

Something clicked in the Spaniard's mind. "Wait, that happened to me too! He waited a lot before telling me his name, and I did vaguely notice he was kind of surprised! As if he had expected a specific reaction from me!"

"You think he doesn't like being recognized? I don't think so, if what I read in these files is true." Ludwig stated, looking at a random page of the file.

Antonio remained silent, but his eyes narrowed as he looked at the wall. His lips moved slowly, however no sound came from them.

"What are you doing…?" The German asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Antonio didn't answer immediately. "…Think about it, Ludwig. It's okay if I call you Ludwig, right? Try thinking about it. He is a human being, after all, just like us. How would you feel?"

Ludwig blinked. "About what?"

"About everything. I mean, suppose you had an army of loyal men at your command, you had the city on its knees and in your hand, and you could make a fool out of the police force any time. Suppose you had the power, the money, the men, the infamous fame… How would you feel?"

The blond didn't answer immediately. "Powerful?" he suggested.

The Spaniard shook his head. "Have you ever read stories of famous American film actors, or singers?"

"Can't say that I have. But what on earth does it have to do with what we're talking about?"

"Those people are considered the most happy and lucky people on earth. They have money, fame… everything. But not a single one of them is really happy, and most of them die at young age because of drugs or because they kill themselves." Antonio explained to the other. He paused before adding the key phrase. "They are lonely."

At this, Ludwig's eyebrows shot up. "You think Vargas is lonely?!"

"I know it sounds ridiculous!" Antonio immediately exclaimed. "But… but it makes sense! As I said, even if he's mentally unstable, he still is a human being just like us! He's not a soulless killing machine. No one can be that. Even people like him have feelings. For the wrong things, probably, but still. As Aristotle once said, 'Man is by nature a social animal'. And how could you else explain that he offered breakfast to the both of us? What would he gain? Foreign tourist affiliates? Even to me that sounds stupid. And what about his reaction when we didn't recognize his surname?"

Ludwig remained silent.

"Exactly. I think all he needs is someone to talk to, a friend perhaps…" Antonio continued musing.

"I'm not going to socialize with a criminal." Ludwig immediately stated, eyes glacial. "I catch criminals. As do you."

"I'm not saying we actually have to befriend him! Only… act like it. So we actually can catch him, you know?" Antonio quickly explained.

Ludwig slowly nodded, eyes narrowing. "…Continue. I'm listening."

The Spaniard continued his theory, slightly uncomfortable under that piercing blue gaze. "So, ahem, I think we should take advantage of this human loneliness. It's probably the only way to get close to him. Talk to him as if we didn't know him, as if we didn't know what he did. Socializing with him-I mean acting like it!" He quickly added, noticing the icy glare of the other. "Coming close like this. It's a much better plan than trying to infiltrate his house disguising ourselves like cooks, don't you think?"

After a long pause, the German answered. "…It does sound like a plan. Even if I'm not that good with socializing."
Antonio almost rolled his eyes. Really? Not good with socializing? He would have never even guessed, nooo!

"…We could gain his trust a little." Ludwig muttered, persuaded.

Antonio beamed. "Exactly! Okay, now we know what we'll do. But, how will we do it?" he returned serious again.

Ludwig stared at the files yet again. "We will be discovered, sooner or later. That's a fact, even if apparently only the Captain and his Lieutenant know about our identities and the reason of our presence here. So we'll have to be quick. And very, very careful. And not act both at the same time. It would be suspicious. And if he were to find out…" Ludwig remembered the Captain's warnings."…I don't exactly want to end my career at the bottom of a Sicilian harbour, or somewhere in a dark alley."

He quickly glanced towards the last part of the files, where multiple pages described all of Italy's 'confirmed' victims. Many had been executed like criminals, with machineguns or simple guns; with some victims it had all been arranged so that it had looked like a suicide; two had been pushed down from the top of a tall building; others had been beaten or stabbed to death, and sometimes even dog bites had been found on the victims' bodies; many had been shoved in the harbour's waters with a weight tied to their ankles, and others had been run over by cars; one had even been found in the back trunk of a car thanks to an 'anonymous' tip, a bullet hole through his forehead.

And these were the victims and modus operandi they knew of. Vargas also had many boats, and who knew how many bodies had been dumped into the sea, away from the coast? How many more victims they didn't know of?

Ludwig felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

The Spaniard nodded gravely. "We'll do the stuff tourists do, walking around the city! No one will think we are detectives. And by walking around, one of us will eventually run into him again. The first one to meet him will be the one socializing with him."

The blond nodded. "It's not much, but it's a start. We'll begin tomorrow." He stated.

"Operation SSF, 'Socializing Smoke Fan' is now officially active!" Antonio laughed, closing the file with both hands.

Despite himself, the German smirked.

"Tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

Holy flying pasta, I can't wait for the next chapter! Oh wait, I'm supposed to be writing it... dang it.

Anyway, I hope you liked it! It's still far too easy for me to write Antonio... and I still don't know if it's a good thing or not...

:D

See you next chapter!