Once you were a big enough criminal, you had to start worrying about secret services as much as the cops. There was two main ways to avoid their prying eyes.

First, don't do it to often, or change your M.O. drastically. Doing the same thing often is pretty suspicious and they are bound to look closely into your case. And they are not going to stop at legal means to catch you.

Second, make sure you are appreciated by the Council. Secret services were on a leach and the best way for them to not chase you is to make sure the Council will never let them.

Roman had chosen the second option, and I had followed.

We didn't bribe them. With Vale being a democracy, bribing every new member would be both incredibly expensive and risky. We did still mingle with the elite to make them amenable, but that was it.

However, the way we built our operation was greatly beneficial to Vale as a whole.

We stole tech as it was being researched, destroyed anything in order to slow down the original company's research and finished the technology on our own.

Then, we would buy a bunch of stock from a small to medium sized company, sell them the tech, and sell the stock once they profited from using our product.

And we weren't even scamming the businesses we sold our tech to. Most of our earnings came from insider trading anyways.

This resulted in Vale companies to be incapable of growing past a certain size, stopped the SDC from gaining any influence outside of the Dust market, and overall ensured that Vale's economy was extremely competitive.

Although we had to steal most of our technology from the other Kingdoms at this point. Nobody wanted to bother making any research in Vale anymore.

In the end, while the police departement kept investigating any break in we did, the Council were willing to ignore us and kept the economic intelligence services from looking into our case.

They were even willing to look away from time to time when we had a run in during our robberies and killed the occasional security guard, or scientist who stayed behind to do some extra time.

A perfect symbiotic relationship between criminals and government.

Ozpin looked up to us again and thanked us.

" Thank you for your help. This information is invaluable. Is there anything else you would want to tell us about ? " he asked.

I saw his and Glynda's head turn to somewhere behind me. On my left, Ruby had done the same so I looked back.

Everyone was looking at Blake. I almost facepalmed. I don't know who started it but it wasn't very smart.

Blake obviously didn't like being put on the spot like that. She was about to talk before I made a sign, making sure it wouldn't be visible to any of the three adults in the room, especially Ironwood.

Knowing a criminal isn't illegal. Just don't explain how you know him.

This seemed to calm Blake down a bit.

" I... had a friend. He's the current leader of the White Fang in Vale... I stopped seeing him a while ago when I realized he didn't fight for equality, but to make the humans go through the same injustices we had. He's just fighting out of spite now." she said.

" And spiteful people are ready to do anything to get their revenge." said Ozpin softly. " Thank you miss Belladonna. I know it can be hard to talk about former friends that went on the wrong path."

That seemed to lift a weight off Blake's chest, especially since Ironwood didn't seem bothered by what she had said.

" Uhm..." started Ruby. " We also learned that they had a new operation in the South-East."

" That wouldn't have anything to do with the little excursion you had in Vale now miss Rose ? " asked Ozpin.

" Maybe ? " she answered tentatively.

We all facepalmed at that. Even Ironwood. At least try to hide it !

Glynda pinched her nose.

" Miss Rose. And this also goes for all of team RWBY. I would appreciate if you didn't try to investigate on your own." she said sternly.

Surprisingly, it was Ironwood that came to our defense.

" Now Glynda, at least that means some of them has their heart in the right place." he said while glaring at me.

Hey now, I helped. Mostly with escaping, sure, but I helped.

" Well. Thank you team RWBY. I'm sure what you've told us will help us stop whatever is going on. You can go back to your dorm and ready yourselves for tomorrow's classes." said Ozpin, dismissing us.

Back in the elevator, Ruby asked me enthusiastically :

" Ironwood said you stole Atlas military research. Does that mean you were a spy ? What was it like ? "

Oh that ? That was three years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.