Arthur drove with a smile on his face. It wasn't much, the information, but it was better than anything else they had so far. Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. The four code names raced through his head and he had already labeled his cigar smoking criminal in the dark room as Denmark. Of course Denmark as the leader. That made sense. Denmark was the mastermind behind The North's beautiful crimes. Denmark was the enemy.

"That was fun!" Gilbert said as he waved to a kid sitting on the sidewalk, "I wish Alfred could have come to witness my awesomeness!"

"You did good." Arthur admitted, "Although I think sixty dollars for three sentences is a bit expensive."

"Yeah, that was a bit extreme, but I think this was a success!" Gilbert said, "He was holding back though. Must have something that would jeopardize his boss or something. He knew more."

"I thought so too. Do you know what you could do to find out what he wasn't telling us?" Arthur asked.

"Yep, we need to find out who the Vampire is working under and I bet those people are trying to work out some deal or something with The North." Gilbert stretched back and clasped his hands behind his head.

"Put your seat belt on." Arthur said.

"It is."

"What makes you think they would be working with The North?"

Gilbert grinned, "I have a suspicion that The North are mercenaries." He shrugged, "Just a thought, but their irregular jobs says that either they have a very strange set of buyers for what they steal, or they start out stealing for someone else."

Arthur nodded, "I'd thought of that, but it doesn't make sense why they would break into a bank vault and an art gallery all for someone else. What do they get out of it? Mercenary groups tend to do less extreme jobs."

"Hey, I just said it was a suspicion." Gilbert said with a shrug, "You're right that it is a little over kill for a mercenary group, but I still think that's what they are."


"So, are you still mad at Mathias?" Tino asked after a moment of silent driving.

Emil glared at the dashboard, Mathias was that last thing on his mind right now, "No."

"How was last weekend's driving lessons?"

Driving lessons was another thing on the list of things that Emil didn't want to think about, "Fine."

"So, you are mad at him?"

"I don't see why the guy who bikes everywhere should be the one to teach me how to drive!" Emil snapped, "That's beside the point though! I got contacted for another job."

"Oh? What is it?" Tino's tone had gone from gentle concern to a slight dread.

"I don't know, I haven't looked yet." Emil stared out the window and sighed, "So, you haven't heard from Lukas all day?"

"No, sorry." Tino's tone returned to that of concern, "I'm sure he's okay."

"The police were here today." Emil said, "They talked to the guy who contacted me."

"Oh. What did he say?"

"Not much and too much."

Tino drove in silence, then sighed, "Well," He said slowly, "I guess that Mathias will deal with it. It's his call anyway. We will still have tomorrow's job."

Tino turned into the drive. Lukas's car was parked in it's usual spot with Mathias's bike leaning against it.

"I swear, if Lukas is drunk, I will kill Mathias." Emil said.

"Lukas doesn't' get drunk." Tino said and got out of the car, "He doesn't put up with Mathias's-"

"Mathias is a bad influence."

Tino chuckled and ruffled Emil hair lovingly, "You're not his mother. Lukas can take care of himself."

"I hate him."

"No you don't."

They entered the house to see Lukas still pacing. Mathias was sitting at the kitchen counter, a row of empty beer bottles in front of him. He looked up and grinned as Tino and Emil entered.

"Yo! Hows it goin'?" He said, he swayed in his chair and his speech was slurred. "You're late! We were going to have a meeting without you."

"We were going to have a meeting?" Tino asked, unsure, "I thought we were still good to go tomorrow!"

"We are!" Mathias said with a laugh, "Luke is just stressing out and trying to change everything because some camera!"

Lukas continued pacing, ignoring Mathias and the others. Emil scowled at his brother and darted past him into the kitchen.

"We aren't guna get caught!" Mathias said earnestly to Tino, "We're not! We are tu good tu get caught! You know that right? You won't let us get caught! Will you?"

Tino backed up, looking uncomfortable, "Um, that's not my job, right? I just make sure we can get in and out! I don't cover our tracks!" His face turned pink and he looked about to panic, his words almost tumbling over each other, "I get us in and out! I make sure nothing is hurt when we get in and out! I re locked the vault! I control the security systems tomorrow! Right? You aren't going to change me are you? I don't want to do anything else, but I suppose if I must, I'll take Emil's job and clean up after everything and-"

"Take a deep breath, Tino." Lukas said without looking up, "Mathias is just drunk. Ignore him. You're fine."

Tino still looked unsure, he swallowed and looked between Lukas and the reeling form of The North's leader. Emil started to fill a mixing bowl with water.

"Thanks for giving me a ride." Emil said, directed toward Tino, but he glared at Lukas, "I missed the bus, trying to find out what the police wanted with my contact."

Lukas barley changed his pace, but Tino looked nervously between the two brothers now, "No problem!" He said quickly, "Hey, if anything changes, let me know, but I've really got to get Berwald's phone back to him."

"Yeah, thanks again." Emil said coldly, eyes boring into Lukas. Tino nodded quickly.

"Bye!" Tino said and darted toward the door.

"Bring Berwald back here, will you?" Lukas said in his usual monotone.

"Will!" Tino escaped the tension into the driveway and his car could be heard driving away moments later.

"It's cruel to stress him out like that." Lukas said, "It's not fair to him."

"It's not fair to make me call him because someone wasn't there to pick me up and I missed the bus because the police were at the school talking to a guy who knows about us!" Emil snapped. He heft the mixing bowl of water up and turned quickly, splashing it over Mathias.

Mathias jumped up yelping. He slipped and sprawled on the floor, "EMIL!" He yelped and staggered to his feet dripping wet, "What the hell was that for?"

"You stink." Emil said and started refilling the mixing bowl again, "I was helping you rid yourself of that stench."

"Screw you too!" Mathias said and started walking unsteadily toward the guest room, "I'm taking some of the extra cloths. You owe me a whole night of free beer, Emil!"

"I'm not legal to buy, sorry." Emil said icily, "My legal guardian can take care of it though." Emil looked pointedly at Lukas, who ignored him.

Lukas didn't change his pacing as Mathias swaggered by him and disappeared into the guest room.

"Jeez! I'm sorry I was trying to save our butts and find out what the police knew!" Emil snapped and started out of the kitchen and toward the stairs.

"Say that again." Lukas said slowly, his tone dangerous.

Emil stopped and glared at the ground. He didn't know why he was so mad. Lukas wasn't drunk, he wasn't even humoring Mathias, but Lukas's uncaring, anxious pacing terrified Emil. He didn't know how to handle his level headed brother being stressed. Lukas was the mind behind The North. Mathias was, without a doubt, in charge, but Lukas orchestrated the actual crimes. Berwald was the tech guy, he kept them connected and helped Tino with the security systems. Emil was the back up, he cleaned everything moments after it was touched or changed, he and Lukas ensured that no evidence was ever avalibe to the police. Tino, was the secret weapon though. Tino was the one who actually broke them in, he was a genius about it, not even the rest of the criminal world knew how the North got in and out of their places, and it was all Tino.

Emil had once asked Tino how he managed it, and he had just laughed and said, "If Santa can get into every house to deliver presents on Christmas, then I should be able to get into any house too."

Emil forced his mind from it's wandering and looked up at Lukas.

Step, Step, Step, Step, Pause, Turn, Step, Step.

Emil didn't want to admit it, but he was scared. Seeing Lukas like this, and Mathias that slobbering drunk, was scary. Mathias had a wonderful head for liquor, he rarely got wasted. Lukas wasn't emotional, but this over welling show of anxiety was unsettling. The two together scared Emil. They must have talked and they must have not liked the solution they had come to. Something really must have gone wrong with the last job.

"The police know we are going to be doing something soon." Emil said slowly. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Being mad didn't help anything, "And that there are four of us, and have our code names."

"They don't know about Finland?"

"No."

"Who told them?"

"Same guy who contacted me with this." Emil took Vladimir's crumpled paper out of his pocket and smoothed it out on the table. "Two detectives got to him and his brother after school."

Lukas leaned over and looked over the building blueprint. There was a red X on one room. There was a note at the bottom.

We want the child. We will pay 300,000.

Lukas and Emil looked over the crumpled paper and Lukas sighed, "We don't do kidnappings."

"That's a lot of money."

Lukas straightened and started to pace again. Emil watched him go back and forth. A cold dread filling him with each step.

Mathias entered, he took one look at the paper and crumpled it up again with a dark laugh, "Who do they think we are? We don't do kidnappings."

"It's a lot."

"We don't do kidnappings." Mathias said again, he walked carefully to the fridge and got himself another beer, "That's final."

"What do we want to do about the information leak?" Lukas asked.

"Nothing." Mathias said, he rubbed his temples and sat down again, he glanced blearily over the empty beer bottles and sighed, "There is nothing we can do right now. Just do the job tomorrow."

"Maybe we can use the informant to our advantage?"

Mathias looked thoughtful for a split second before grinning like an idiot. "Good idea Nor! You come up with something!"

Lukas winced at the use of his alias, and nodded mutely.

"Are you staying for dinner then?" Emil asked, moving past them into the kitchen again. The water from when he drenched Mathias still covered the floor.

"Yeah, and you totally invited Berwald and Tino over!" Mathias said with a laugh, "What's for dinner?"

Lukas stopped pacing and glanced at Mathias with distaste then looked over to Emil. Lukas stood frozen for a moment the nodded and followed Emil.

"Emil, make a salad, I'll make soup." Lukas said.

Emil nodded and started mopping up the water from the floor. Mathias watched them, drinking. His usual chipper, arrogance was gone and even when Tino and Berwald arrived, dinner that night was unusually sullen.

I don't like how this chapter turned out, but here you go. I will try to do better on the next chapter. I will promise that the next chapter is going to have more action. Arthur's team is going to try and make a move and the North have a crime to commit XD