*Note, apologies for not actually writing the specific languages spoken from this point on in the fic. We will be visiting many locations throughout Europe, but I'm gonna be writing the dialogue in English, with the spoken language italicised. Sorry, it'd just take me too long to learn each language properly to be able to write coherent stories with them. I've only just started learning Spanish, so hopefully, we can implement that at some point.

This chapter's italicised language will be Portuguese.

Enjoy!*

Baixa district, the heart of Lisbon.

The man scooped a large chunk of ice cream and gently but skillfully placed it on a large cone, ready to serve it to the eager child that requested it.

"Here you are, little one!"

An older woman accompanying the child happily paid and exited the shop with the child. They exchanged a couple of innocent and silly conversations, just like most kids would do with their guardians.

"Is it time to visit daddy today?"

"Yes, dear, we'll be on our way to him now, sit down at that bench and I'll give him a call."

The mother walked a few metres away but maintained eye contact with the child. She suddenly got a phone call, so she clumsily answered it after taking her vibrating phone out of her large bag.

"Hello?"

"Make sure you have the goods, ma'am. My boys will be there any minute now. Remember, toss the goods away in the nearest trash can. We can do this without any issues, as long as you do everything we ask of you, understood?" A man's distorted voice was firm and incredibly serious.

"Yes." After a long pause, the woman answered with shakiness in her voice.

The call ended.

The waiting felt incredibly long and dragged out, but after only a few minutes the woman noticed three men walking in her general direction. One of them raised his hand so that she could see it. She carefully turned around and tossed a black bag into a large trash can before backing away as quickly as she could. The men began walking up to the can as the woman sat down beside her child and hugged her.

One of the figures began slowly rummaging through the trash while the others kept a lookout.

Only mere moments passed before the two men noticed a particular pair of men approaching them. They weren't incredibly close, but they maintained a steady pace while moving up to them.

"Excuse me, gents!" An average-sized man shouted at them. The three men directed their attention at him, with the two bigger men keeping their hands out while the man that was still rummaging through the garbage subtly gripped his handgun located on his right hip.

"I'm terribly sorry, I might be lost. Could you perhaps point us in the direction of the Alfama district?"

A long pause followed while the men looked at each other with confusing expressions.

"Come on, I know you understood the man." The taller man that was accompanying the English-speaking man spoke fluent Portuguese, much to the surprise of everyone there.

They patiently waited for a reply, but the silence was filled with sounds of moving plastic behind the big bodies of the men in front of the trash can.

The man who was rummaging through the garbage suddenly began stepping away after signalling to his men that it was time to leave.

"Dre, move." The short Croatian spoke.

Andre stepped in front of the others.

"Don't think you wanna leave just yet, fellas."

A second even taller man appeared beside them all.

"Did I miss something?" The tallest man spoke English.

"Only them ignoring me," Luka replied. "You wanna handle this one, Aleks?"

"It looks like Andre is ready to go." Aleks nodded his head forward while placing his hands on his hips.

Andre was gripping his hands into fists incredibly tightly until he suddenly spread his fingers and cracked them despite barely moving them.

One of the two men in front of him tried swinging a very wide punch at him, but Andre swiftly dodged it, shoved the man using his own hand against him and stabbed him through the liver.

The shorter man who was rummaging through the garbage pulled out a gun and aimed it at Andre.

Luka's expression tensed up as he was about to shout the word 'gun', but Andre noticed the weapon instantly and reached for it with blinding speed. The gun managed to fire, but the shots went straight up in the air, potentially only scaring some birds off.

Without missing a beat or saying a word, Aleks stepped in after a stance change and landed a compact punch on the other man's face which stunned him for a moment or two. Aleks followed up with a solid one-two, but the man attempted to hit him in the middle of it. After swaying out of the way just in time to dodge right in the middle of his combination, Aleks finished his opponent by grabbing his hand which restrained the man, kicked his knee to force him to the ground and stabbed him through the upper area of his throat which instantly silenced him.

Luka's contribution in these quick couple of seconds was grabbing the man that Andre originally attacked and gently placing him on the ground before dashing to Andre who was in the middle of a struggle with the armed man. Luka carefully avoided the gun's barrel and placed both of his hands around the armed man's throat from behind.

"LET GO, DRE!" Andre let go of the man but continued to hold the gun. The man's grip on the gun loosened almost immediately as Luka viciously flung his entire body backwards with ease, throwing the man on the ground in the most violent way possible.

Aleks shook his head once diagonally. "That was rough."

Luka paused for a moment to process this comment. "Thank you."

The man attempted to get up, but Luka walked up to the man, crouched to firmly grab his jacket, flung him directly into a nearby stone wall back first, probably breaking it, and finished the man off by slicing his throat with extraordinary speed.

This time Andre's eyes widened as he turned to Aleks who was in complete disbelief. Luka noticed this after standing up and dusting himself off.

"What?"

"Was that personal?" Andre simply questioned. "That felt personal."

Aleks crossed his arms and nodded a couple of times in support of Andre's straightforward question. "You've been getting more brutal lately, comrade."

"Somebody has to be brutal in our little group."

"I thought that was Andre's job." Aleks almost immediately regretted his statement after Andre slowly turned around and harshly stared through him. "Come on, you can't disagree."

Andre nodded his head from side to side. "Debatable, but at least I don't break people's backs for doing a drug deal."

"I can hear you, jackass!" Luka shouted at his senior. The two men began to lightly argue.

Aleks chuckled before he turned around to notice the woman and her child were gone.

It took him a few moments to get the attention of his two allies.

"When have you ever seen me breaking someone's back?"

"Do you not remember that man in Spain who robbed orphanages and cemeteries?"

Andre paused for a moment before sudden realisation kicked in. "Yes, I do. He was one oddly specific robber, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, he was more on the deranged side, to be fair." Luka's voice became more relaxed as he swiped his hand across his face quickly.

"This is one of the more peaceful arguments you two have had, which is amazing, but we have a slight problem." Luka and Andre stood still patiently waiting for Aleks to announce the problem. "Lady Matilde and her daughter ran off during the scuffle."

Luka and Andre both took a second to analyse the bench that the two of them sat in before the fight.

"Fuck's sake." Luka sounded almost defeated.

"Question is now, how do we locate a woman involved in drug dealing without getting our hands dirty?" Aleks proposed a difficult question.

"Unfortunately, Aleks." Andre began talking. "We're going to need to get our hands dirty."

...

Lisbon and London both operate within the same time zone, making this early afternoon quite an interesting one at the London sanctuary.

"Paul!" One of the senior assassins present at the sanctuary shouted for him to come downstairs. Paul resided in the main meeting area, which he accommodated as his personal headquarters as the Interim Master.

"Talk to me, George."

"Urgent visitor downstairs, sir."

"How urgent?"

"Incredibly."

Paul paused for a moment. "Is the King here or something?"

This got a chuckle out of George. "I wish, sir. Just come, you need a break from your work either way."

Paul attempted to say something, but George had already walked out of the room. The two of them descended the numerous stairs.

"I was just about to check with our trio in Lisbon. Harris told me to let him know at once about any progress."

The two men made it to the ground floor. George replied. "Why don't you tell him yourself?"

"Paul Barton, the goddamn Interim Master." His Welsh accent was unmatchable and recognised instantly. "Stealing my righteous spot at the top of the Creed wasn't nice of you, lad."

Paul instantly caught on that Harris was being sarcastic. His face ranged from shock to pure joy as he saw his mentor. "Harris, you old prick!"

The two men exchanged a hug and a sturdy handshake.

It had been a while since Harrison stayed in London, so this was quite a warm and welcoming surprise for Paul.

"What the hell are you doing here, mate?"

"Did you not listen to what I just said, boy?" Harris began walking toward the stairs that'd lead them back to the main meeting area.

"Stealing your top spot in the Creed?" Paul followed Harris upstairs and answered after a couple of moments. "I don't understand, Harris."

Neither of them said another word until they made it to the meeting area. Harris walked up to the large table they used like a computer. It had touch sensory and allowed him to browse through their databases and perform various tasks using the holographic keyboard at his disposal. After a few seconds of typing, a voice began to speak to the two of them.

"Paul, there you are..." Luka's voice emitted through the screen. "We've been meaning to contact Harris, but he ain't answering. There have been complications with the mission..."

"I'm right here, junior, just been busy."

"Harris? You're in London?"

"In the flesh, baby."

Luka took a moment to turn his camera on so he could see them both properly. Paul turned their camera on, too. "Aleks, Dre, stop for a moment."

Aleks and Andre both turned around as they noticed Luka setting up the video call. They stood near the edge of a rooftop and began to walk backwards.

"Did Paul answer, comrade?" Aleks was the first to walk behind Luka who was now pointing the phone at them.

"You have to tell Barton about Matthews, Luka." Andre walked into the frame as Paul and Harrison both appeared on the phone.

"I'm here, Aakster, been a while." Harris calmly greeted Andre in a friendly way.

Andre grunted positively as he grinned. "Pleasure, Matthews. Master." Andre greeted Paul, as well. Paul chuckled and nodded upwards.

"Harris, Paul, good to hear from you again." Aleks finished the friendly exchange by starting his own.

"Aleks." Paul nodded and smiled.

Harris waved and firmly nodded, as well. "Listen, boys, I have an important announcement that can't exactly wait any longer."

The four men who were listening to Harris focused on what was being said. Luka positioned the phone on a sturdy pipe that was nearby. It held the phone up beautifully as the camera angle exposed most of their bodies now.

"You greeting Paul as the Master technically isn't allowed anymore, Aakster. Paul's Interim Master position has been revoked as of this morning."

Aleks and Andre stood still with genuinely shocked expressions, in their own ways. Andre's eyes widened as he lowered his face slightly while Aleks uncrossed his arms and looked at Andre who returned the gaze for a moment before looking back at the phone.

Luka stood absolutely still in a relaxed stance. "That means a new Master's been chosen, right?"

Paul seemed the most shocked about this than anyone. His speech could almost be considered aggressive and upset. "Now hang on, the council said they'd give me a notice ahead of time. This has to be done properly, Harris, you know this!"

Harris calmly turned to his pupil and put his hand on his shoulder.

"I am your notice, Paul." He briefly paused. "Gentlemen, you're looking at your new official Master of the Creed."

Everyone took a moment to react, but they all began celebrating in different ways. A wave of clapping occurred on the other side of the line from the trio in Lisbon.

"You finally got it, then?" Andre spoke after a couple of seconds.

"After all those years, yeah," Harris replied with pride in his voice. "It hurt quite a bit when Brian was chosen instead of me."

Luka seemed surprised. "Kingston? You were supposed to be Master back then?"

"Aye, but he had a biological connection to the previous Master, therefore he received the right before anyone else. Now, lads..." Harris's expression and demeanour changed as he prepared for business by cracking his knuckles. "What's this 'complication' that you've encountered?"

"Right down to business, I see." Paul couldn't help but speak up.

"We can discuss it later, Paul."

"No worries, I'm eager to hear all about it. Plus, I was getting tired of all the paperwork that the position required." The men all let out chuckles or smiles at this sentence.

"Good news is we located Lady Matilde, the bad news is she was in the middle of some kind of drug operation." Luka was the first to speak.

"Three white men, most likely European, took a black bag containing mostly cocaine, maybe around 500 grams." Aleks continued the story.

"We engaged the men and eliminated them safely, but Matilde ran off with her child." Andre finished. "We have no clue where she might have gone."

"Do you have a contact in Lisbon that might know something?" Luka asked Harris. "You told us that Matilde is the only person alive who knows where Rafael Costa was hiding, Harris. I think it's about time you told us more about him, seeing as how you swept it under the rug and now we're in deep shit."

Harris hesitated to answer, but he eventually spoke. "Lady Matilde is the only person in Lisbon who truly knows where Rafael is, yes. I know many people, but nobody knows where Rafael disappeared to. I don't know if he's even alive. His intel is one of the most valuable that we need. He knows the direct locations of seven fragments of Eden and had one on him the last time I spoke to him, which was two weeks ago. He's been missing ever since. To track him down I sent multiple scouts all across Portugal, including Scott Richardson, who managed to find out that Lady Matilde had some kind of relation to Rafael. She's the best chance we have of ever locating Rafael and I thought she was truly the only one who knew anything, but..." Harris paused and began pacing back and forth while doing hand gestures. "You said she was involved in a drug deal?"

"Yeah, we witnessed it ourselves an hour or so ago. We've been trying to track her in the Baixa district since then, but no luck," Luka replied with a slightly annoyed tone in his voice. "The cops almost caught us, but we got away safely."

"There is a man I know that could help, then." Harris stopped speaking after this sentence.

Aleks lifted an eyebrow before he realised what was happening. "You can't be serious, Harris. Not him, for God's sake."

"We don't have a choice, Aleks, he might be a scumbag criminal, but we've helped him before and he owes us a favour." Harris regrettably finished his sentence.

"Tiago Quintela," Aleks spoke before Harris could. "He's a notorious leader of a drug gang operating in Lisbon, but he had been serving his time in Madrid for quite a while."

"Why did he serve time in Madrid if he operated here?" Luka asked a valid question.

"He was caught there, but never for his drug dealing schemes. Tiago grew up in Madrid, so he had some old local crimes that they locked him up for. He was only hauled away for around 18 months before returning to Lisbon." Aleks took a deep breath. "That was a couple of years ago."

"How do we contact him?" Andre spoke.

"I can set you up a meeting with one of his underlings, but that's about as far as I can get you," Harris mentioned. "You'd have to do the rest on your own if you wanted to locate him."

"Send me the contact details, Harris. I probably know who he is." Aleks interjected respectfully.

Harris took a second to find the details and he immediately sent them while reading them out. "Looks like it's Rodrigo Quintela, I believe he's a nephew or a younger cousin of his."

Aleks raised an eyebrow and tried to remember whether or not he knew Rodrigo. "Rodrigo, Rodrigo, Rodrigo...why is that so familiar?" He took a couple more seconds as he paced around, too. It almost looked like a lightbulb lit up above his head when he finally came to an answer. He snapped his fingers and raised his voice. "Right, I remember! I met him when the Spanish police originally arrested Tiago. Rodrigo was the only one that visited him frequently in prison, he must be a young adult by now."

"How come you met him, Aleks?" Paul curiously asked.

"I was just passing through Madrid at the time, had a contract near there. I needed to speak to a comrade in the police force, which was where Rodrigo was waiting for Tiago's trial." Aleks took a deep breath and smiled. "He seemed like a bright one as if he didn't belong amongst criminals. Hopefully, when we speak to him now he'll be as tolerable as he was back then."

"Right, how quickly can you get his attention? I don't wanna keep you any longer." Harris honestly remarked.

"I'll message him and we'll set up a meeting, it shouldn't take longer than an hour or two," Aleks replied. "If we're lucky, we'll be speaking to Tiago in a few short hours."

Harris grinned and nodded a few times before crossing his arms. "Keep me posted the entire time, Luka, we need live updates as much as possible."

"Will do, lad, congrats again, Lisbon trio's out for now." Luka hung up as he finished his sentence. "Right, Aleks, do your thing."

Aleks directed his attention to Luka while he finished sending a text to Rodrigo. "All we have to do is wait."

Somewhat uncomfortable silence took over for a moment or two.

"Are you two hungry?" Luka broke the silence.

"Oh, I'm starving, let's take a lunch break, comrades." Aleks chuckled in the middle of his sentence.

Andre grunted and nodded twice. "Follow. I know a spot."

He put his hood on and began observing his surroundings. After a moment of walking, he began a brief light jog before fully sprinting off of the rooftop to the nearby building.

Both Aleks and Luka put their hoods on, preparing for a parkouring session. Luka deeply sighed while Aleks laughed, patted him on the back and ran off the rooftop in a similar, but slower and safer fashion. Luka cracked his neck, inhaled and sprinted as fast as he could in the same direction. He leapt off the edge of the rooftop and landed on the opposite building with a beautiful forward roll which he finished with an instant recovery and sprint off.

...

A few short hours later, the Lisbon trio carefully snuck in between some narrow streets and alleyways to get to where they were going.

They seemed to be walking for a while.

Andre was starting to become less and less patient as the distance they covered increased.

"Just two blocks down, Dre, you'll be fine." Luka attempted to snap him out of his funk.

Andre loudly sighed. "Sometimes I hate being quiet."

"Oh, I do too, brother." Luka sympathized with him.

Aleks was leading the group rather skillfully, as he navigated the streets with little effort.

He inspected every rooftop they walked past that was low enough to be visible. Luka and Andre attempted to follow as best as they could.

Aleks's eyes suddenly lit up as he noticed a chicken coop on a rooftop not too far away from them.

"Comrades, two o'clock, chicken coop on a rooftop." Aleks looked both ways while walking across a narrow street and picked up the pace as he ran towards the mentioned building.

"Is it common for chicken coops to be on rooftops these days?" Luka curiously asked.

"Not in industrial or modern cities," Andre responded and continued. "Lisbon just happens to have more rural areas than...let's say Brussels."

Luka nodded in agreement before Aleks began speaking. "Yes, it's less of a modern neighbourhood for sure. My family used to visit farms a lot, chicken coops were all around."

"I second that." Luka chuckled as he had a little flashback of his childhood.

The three men climbed with ease without alerting anyone around them. It was a fairly big rooftop, so much so that it was connected to another rooftop via a ventilation system. Aleks walked up to the chicken coop and opened it. Surprisingly, no chickens were in the coop, only a small note lying in the middle of it. Aleks picked it up and showed it to the others, the paper still folded in his hand.

"This isn't suspicious at all." Aleks opened the note as he said this.

Andre turned around, almost like he heard something. He gripped his gun. "This is bad."

"Weren't they supposed to meet us here?" Luka managed to get this sentence out before he was abruptly cut off.

"Hands in the goddamn air before we blow your brains out!" Three seemingly Portuguese men suddenly appeared behind them, much to Andre's suspicion. Aleks raised his hands while still holding the note. Andre pulled both of his guns out and aimed them at the men, Luka drew his guns in the same way almost instantly.

"I understood brains," Luka remarked and paused before realising what they meant a few moments later. "Why does everyone always threaten to blow brains out?"

Andre let out a grunt and replied. "You do it too, you aren't special."

"Lucky me."

The man in the middle of the small crowd was shorter and noticeably younger than the two other men beside him. He spoke after a few seconds.

"You wanna tell us why you contacted us to meet up? Usually, men ask for drugs or information, but you didn't specify so we needed to be more careful."

Aleks waved the note from side to side and was the first to speak.

"We just need to speak to Rodrigo, comrade, nothing more."

The man smirked and spoke more freely. "You're looking at him, big man. What do you want?"

Aleks's eyes widened as he realised who he was speaking to. "Do you not remember me, Rodrigo? Aleksander Gorski." Rodrigo's smirk eased up as he slowly lowered his gun aimed directly at Aleks. "Can we talk somewhere more comfortable?"

The four men sat in a cafe.

"Four coffees, please, good sir, table over by the window. Thanks a lot." Aleks walked over to the table after ordering from the counter and sat down.

Luka lit a cigarette and asked Rodrigo a question. "Mind if we speak English, lad?"

"No, if that makes it easier for you." Rodrigo was understanding. His English was good enough, so keeping up a conversation wasn't a problem. "Aleksander, uncle Tiago sends his regards, he never forgot the kindness you wished upon him and the service you provided."

"I'm thankful, friend. I hate asking favours, but unfortunately, we need some help." Aleks seemed genuine, he did not want to resort to this option.

"I'm all ears."

Aleks stared at the floor for a moment before looking at Andre who returned the gaze. Andre spoke. "Are we sure our information's safe here?"

"I have no reason to say no to the Creed. We both fight the government in a way, and Aleks helped my uncle and me out, so I need to return the favour." Rodrigo pulled out a cigarette as he finished his sentence. He looked at Luka who gave him a lighter without Rodrigo even asking for it. "Thanks."

Luka nodded as Rodrigo attempted to return the lighter, but Luka politely stopped him. "I have too many, keep it."

Rodrigo smiled and nodded with respect.

"Lady Matilde," Aleks spoke as Rodrigo looked at him. "She was involved in a drug deal this morning with three white men. They didn't show any signs of knowing Portuguese, they continued looking for the drugs while we were talking to them."

"Does Matilde have a full name?" Rodrigo questioned.

The coffee arrived. The waiter calmly handed them out and put the receipt on the table. Andre pulled his wallet out and paid for it. "Keep the change, friend."

The waiter seemed grateful and walked off.

"We don't know her full name, unfortunately."

"Description?" Rodrigo asked another simple question.

"Brown medium-length hair, tanned skin, about 165-170 cm tall, she has a daughter, about five years old maybe." Luka gave a somewhat detailed description. "She wore glasses and had jewellery around her neck and each of her hands. Her clothes were casual, a long dress, sandals and a light green coat with a large golden bag that she carries on her left arm."

Rodrigo held up a hand, indicating that Luka didn't need to speak any further. "She matches the description of a woman we encountered a couple of weeks ago. One of my men managed to get a tracking device inside her bag. I can get that information for you by the end of the day, I just have a few things that I must attend to today."

"If you could find the time, that'd be great." Aleks seemed grateful as he calmly replied. "We need the information as soon as possible in case she decides to flee the city or country."

"Not to worry, friend." Rodrigo finished his coffee and stood up. "Once I obtain the information I'll contact you immediately on the number you texted me on, sound good?"

"Great, thank you, my friend." Aleks stood up and strongly shook his hand.

"Thanks for the coffee, stay safe out there." Rodrigo waved the group off and left with haste. Aleks sat back down.

Luka finished his cigarette. "Are we done with the coffee? I need to do a number two."

"I'm still finishing mine, go ahead." Andre gripped his coffee cup and nodded in response, confirming that they had time.

"Alright." Luka got up and walked to the toilet. As he passed by the counter he quickly greeted the waiter who returned the greeting with a smile and nod.

Andre directed his attention at the TV positioned in the middle of the cafe. The news channel was on, but nothing interesting caught Andre's eye. After about a minute, Aleks spoke.

"Andre, did you look at the rankings this month?"

Andre turned towards him. "Oh, I didn't bother these past two months, actually. Can you pull them up?"

"I'm looking right now, yeah." Aleks casually waved his phone around a little.

"How're we looking?"

"Do you want me to start from the bottom?"

"Go for it."

"Just shy of tenth we have the Cabellos."

"Oh? They rose back up the rankings pretty quickly." Andre took a sip of his coffee.

"For sure. It looks like they've solidified their place there, too. Nicole and Harrison are below them, but they're quite a bit behind," Aleks continued. "Rayna fell to tenth."

Andre grunted and lightly shook his head from side to side briefly. "Makes sense, people around her seem to be putting in more work, according to the stats."

"Mmm." Aleks nodded in agreement before moving on. "Oh, wow." He seemed surprised at the next ranking.

"Something up?" Andre questioned with a raised eyebrow as he finished another sip.

"An unexpected entry, that's all. Scott Richardson is in ninth."

Andre raised both eyebrows this time. "I didn't think he'd be taking things seriously."

A couple of seconds of silence went by. Aleks spoke. "Good for him, though."

"Mmm," Andre grunted. "Who's up next?"

"In eighth, Ashley Richardson. She's just above her brother, and she seems to have a steady pace of medium-tier contracts lined up." Aleks looked through Ashley's recent contracts in the system, as well as her upcoming ones. "She has been taking down a lot of Giovanni's templars, though."

"That might be why she's where she is, especially if she's above her brother and Bjorke." Andre came to a solid conclusion. "Next?"

Aleks's expression dropped as he read the next ranking. "Paul dropped to seventh."

Andre raised his eyebrows once more. "Is that right?"

"According to this, he hasn't done much contract work in the last year. He dropped a couple of months ago, and now he dropped again." Aleks nodded twice while speaking with a dissatisfied expression.

"Do his duties as Interim Master not count in the rankings?" Andre curiously asked.

"According to this, it seems like they do, but his neglection of contracts has cost him more than his time as the Master." Aleks sounded disappointed, but he understood the reasoning behind the decision. "Moving on...oh, would you try to guess the top six?"

Andre gave him a stern look and thought about it for a few moments.

"You, me, Luka, The White brothers, Auditore."

"Right on, but not in that order." Aleks smiled positively as he revealed the next ranking. Andre seemed intrigued about this. "I'm in sixth, actually!" Aleks exclaimed. "I've moved up, apparently."

Andre strongly nodded a few times. "Congrats, congrats. You have been doing well, to be fair."

"Thank you, comrade. It feels deserved." Aleks smiled as he spoke with gratitude. "Up next is Luka."

Andre positively grunted. "Deserved, he took down Abate and the Borgias in one day."

Aleks agreed. "Absolutely. He's done more work than Paul and I recently, as much as we hate to say that."

Andre grunted in agreement.

"Top four are, in this order, Kane, Hugh, you and then Gabriel." Aleks read out the rest of the list in quick succession.

Andre whipped his head back in his chair and grinned. "What the hell does a man have to do to get number one?"

"I think you should be satisfied, comrade, you fell down a couple of spots a few months ago, this just proves you're on top of your game right now." Aleks made a good point. "Plus, Gabriel picked up the pace. He finished twenty contracts in seven weeks. It's going to be tough catching up to him."

"I'll make it happen, Aleks. One day." Andre firmly stated.

Aleks put his hand on Andre's shoulder and proudly smiled. "I believe it, Andre."

Luka walked out of the toilet and walked up to the table. "We ready to leave?"

"Yeah, let's head out." Andre stood up and saluted the waiter.

Aleks waved and shouted. "Thanks a lot, have a good day!"

The waiter did a slight bow as the three men walked out.

...

Several hours went by. The trio stood in front of a coffee shop, waiting for someone. Luka began to pace back and forth.

They found themselves on this empty street, almost devoid of anything living, apart from the occasional vehicle driving by. Not knowing how long they would have to wait, it was clear that the trio became even a slight bit nervous, even if they did not show it.

"Don't get nervous, comrade." Aleks attempted to reassure Luka with a cold expression.

"It's hard not to, we've been waiting for a while," Luka explained his thought process.

"Are we on the right spot, Aleks?" Andre suddenly asked a question.

"Should be good to go." Aleks turned around while holding his phone. "This is the shop Rodrigo mentioned..."

Andre paid close attention to each car that passed by them until he heard a group of several cars pulling up to them.

"There they are." Andre turned towards the stopping cars.

"Six cars, two SUVs." Aleks counted the vehicles. "So, that's around two, maybe three dozen people."

Andre nodded and crossed his arms. All of the men inside the vehicles walked out of them as soon as they stopped. The trio remained cool as a fashionable fella walked up to them with a large friend behind him.

"Got the shit?"

Luka turned to Andre who looked at him at the same time. Luka chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. Andre directed his gaze back to the man speaking and shook his head.

"Got the money?" Aleks firmly responded as he stood his ground.

The man pulled a funny expression before revealing his concealed handgun. Luka rolled his eyes and sighed out of disbelief. "Really?"

He stepped forward.

"Luka..." Andre attempted to stop him, but Luka shook off his hand.

Luka got properly close to the man who attempted to step back.

"Luka, STOP!" Aleks suddenly yelled out to Luka who stopped as soon as he heard the shout.

"Tell this cocksucker to show us the money before I stab him through his throat," Luka spoke before turning around towards Aleks.

Aleks listened and took the situation in. His voice seemed calm and reasonable. "Sure, but step back first, Luka."

Luka sighed once more before stepping back.

"Apologies, he gets cranky when someone doesn't do as they're told."

Before Aleks could speak again, Andre spoke.

"Show us the goddamn money first, you heard the big man."

The man stood still for a couple of seconds. Andre grasped Luka's shoulder, knowing that Luka would jump in any second. Luka took a deep breath.

Another couple of seconds went by. Nothing happened.

"Shit, alright." Andre suddenly let go of Luka's shoulder and waved his hand forward.

Luka slowly took a step forward before quickly dashing in and punching the man in his solar plexus, instantly sending the man to the ground. The bigger man who stood right behind him attempted to grab his gun, but Luka shoved himself into him, preventing his hands from moving.

Despite the height and size difference, Luka kept pushing forward and slowly moving the man back. He dug into his body and repeatedly attacked it with powerful swings while also keeping the man in place to cover him from any gunfire. After only a couple of swings, the big man began to fall to the floor, but Luka held him up by punching his upper chest and face a couple of times every time he'd sink.

During all of this, Andre found good cover behind a large truck that was conveniently parked in front of the store. This gave him time to load and prepare both of the pistols he had. Aleks followed him to the cover zone after unloading the clips of both of his machine guns into the enemy, severely injuring and killing a few of the attackers.

"ALEKS, MOVE!" Andre shouted for Aleks to fall back, indicating how dangerous his position was.

Aleks slid behind the truck, barely managing to make it without taking damage.

"Any damage?!" Andre shouted while periodically shooting back at the attackers behind his cover.

"I'm okay!" Aleks grabbed two of the three large guns he carried underneath his coat on his back. He handed a shotgun to Andre. "We need to fire back, Andre!"

Andre began chuckling as he carefully loaded the gun. "I'm all in!"

Andre's smile remained on his face as he noticed Aleks loading a grenade launcher. Aleks looked down at his feet and put away the two machine guns he had back in their holsters. "I'll fire a grenade towards a car, which will give you plenty of time to set up some free shots!"

"Let's go, then!" Andre was pumped and ready to go.

Aleks noticed a scaffolding across the street which he could climb into for a better shot. He counted to three, deeply exhaled and front rolled out of the cover spot.

As fluidly as he could, he fired a grenade at one of the cars which caused the car to explode, killing several attackers that peeked behind the vehicle for a better shot. This allowed him to safely climb onto the scaffolding. He carefully crouched and readied his main weapon, an assault rifle that functioned as a sniper while looking down the scope of it. After getting into a safe and comfortable position, he shouted. "Go, Andre, Luka is still out there!"

Andre immediately got out of his cover spot, not even giving himself the time to nod back at Aleks for reassurance. He immediately shouted towards Luka. "LUKA!"

Luka turned his head towards Andre who began to run after him, but Luka grabbed the man he was using as cover and sprinted in front of Andre. He slid the man down just enough to cover their bodies while Andre ducked and got into a crouching position.

"GET DOWN!"

As soon as Andre's head and body made it behind cover, a sniper shot went off, grazing the man they were using as cover.

"ALEKS!" Luka shouted with strong intensity. "SNIPER, CLINIC ROOFTOP ACROSS THE STREET!"

Aleks's eyes widened for a moment before he realised the severity of the situation. As quickly as Luka's words reached Aleks's ears, he found the sniper through his scope and eliminated him with one precise shot. Only mere moments passed as the gunfire ceased for a few moments.

Suddenly, one of the attackers began shouting on the battlefield.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE, I'M COMING OUT WITH NO WEAPONS! LET'S MAKE A PLEA DEAL!"

The man really did come out unarmed with his hands raised. Only a handful of his accomplices remained alive and they all stood up together, throwing their weapons to the ground.

Aleks lowered his weapon just enough so that it wasn't aiming at the man, but he kept it close in case he needed to use it again.

Both Andre and Luka were breathing heavily before Luka whispered something. "Stay behind cover, Dre. I got the Mayan armour."

Andre grunted in response in between his breaths. Luka walked out of his cover calmly, with no weapons at the ready or gripped. Andre peeked behind cover with his pistol aimed directly at the pleading man.

"Well?" Aleks raised his voice so his comrades could hear him. "Andre?"

Andre briefly looked at him before directing his vision back to the battlefield. "Talk, now!"

Luka stopped a few metres away from the man after a couple of slow steps. He crossed his arms and raised his head high, almost as if he was looking down on the man facing him.

"I'll give you any information you want and we can forget about this little scuffle, alright?"

Luka turned around and looked at both Aleks and Andre one after the other. Andre stood up from behind the cover and stepped forward.

"Tell us everything you know about Lady Matilde."

The man wavered, but he spoke after a few moments of silence.

"We know her hiding spot, where she's trying to flee town." He pulled out his phone. "I'll text you the details now."

Aleks received the message after a few moments and checked the address. He looked at both Luka and Andre. "We're good, it's valid."

Andre spoke once more. "When is she leaving? And where to?"

The man immediately replied. "Unfortunately, she leaves tonight. We weren't able to keep her here any longer." The man paused once more before continuing his sentence. "She's fleeing to London."

Andre and Aleks's faces dropped as Luka briefly exhaled, showing all of their disappointments, but Luka calmed down almost instantly. "I guess that's one of the better locations she could have gone to." This caught the assassins' attention. "We have plenty of capable people there to find her."

"Only problem is she's going to London." Andre cut Luka off after his sentence. "There's no telling where she might end up," Andre continued. "London's a dark and shifty place, beneath the tourism attractions it's one major hole capable of protecting many important people, including her. No matter what, we'll have trouble locating her."

Luka sighed harder this time. "Nevertheless, let's check out the address we got. We can't make it to London quicker than her, and we deserve a break from the action."

Aleks hopped down from the scaffolding. "We can maintain the search for Rafael here while everyone in London tries to find Matilde. Luka's right, we have an address, that's where we can start."

"One more thing." Andre turned towards the attackers one last time. "Can you tell us anything about Rafael Costa?"

The men thought about it for a few moments, but they just shooked their heads in denial. Andre exhaled. "I thought as much. Luka, drop some smoke."

"On it, Dre." Luka stepped forward and threw a massive smoke bomb at their feet, giving them ample opportunity to escape the scene. Once the smoke dissipated, they were nowhere to be seen.

The next morning, at the London sanctuary, Harris gathered several capable assassins.

"Listen up, everyone!" His voice was firm and encouraging. "Our trio in Lisbon, Andre, Aleksander and Luka gave it a go at locating Lady Matilde, who likely knows Rafael's location. They risked a lot to get us the information that Lady Matilde is in London as we speak. I'm trusting all of you to put in your best efforts, just like the Lisbon trio have done."

Four assassins stood before him, lined up in terms of their position in this month's ranking.

Ashley's courage and determination showed in her proud and disciplined stance. She smiled and nodded throughout Harris's speech.

Paul seemed as focused and as prepared as any man could be, despite this being his first contract in a long time. He glared through Harris with a vigorous expression.

Kane simply crossed his arms, relaxed his stance and looked at his brother with a big grin on his face. He was clearly composed enough, just as always.

Hugh stood proudly and clenched one of his fists. He firmly nodded at the end of Harris's sentence and loudly exhaled through his nose, showing his willingness to complete what was asked of them.

Hugh turned towards the rest of his team. "It's been a while, everyone." He cracked his neck and each of his knuckles one after the other. His expression was full of energy.

"Andre, Aleks and Luka were unsuccessful in this mission which just proves how difficult this mission could potentially be. Never underestimate the enemy, let's do this the proper way!" Hugh encouraged his team like a properly experienced leader.

His motivation worked as the assassins got noticeably hyped and pumped for the mission ahead of them.

"And remember, kids..." Harris spoke one last time. "Nothing is true, everything is permitted! Go out there and get the job done!"

...

*Thank you for reading! Sorry for the lack of action scenes in the past couple of chapters, it's been tough setting up these chapters and most of these scenes could have been done better, but they're good enough to progress the story, which is what I aim to do the most. See you when I see you.*