"What kind of dogs?" Tino asked as they walked through the deserted park toward the picnic tables.
"I don't know. They're Ludwig's dogs." Mathias said and flashed Emil a smile. "You used to want a dog, you begged and begged, and got a puffin." Emil glowered at him, "What? Why do you look so mad?"
"Who is Gilbert?" Emil asked slowly, "Is he that guy who hired us for the art museum? That job paid too little."
"Yep, that's him." Mathias said, pocketing his phone, "Gilbert and Ludwig, or should I say, East and West, run a black market line and they had found some good buyers for those paintings we took."
"They paid too little." Tino agreed with a nod, "But I've worked with them before."
"When?" Emil asked, annoyed that Tino was agreeing with him and being on Mathias's side at the same time.
Tino smiled, "As Santa, I work closely with the black market. Don't forget that I'm only Finland half the time."
Emil shook his head, he had forgotten. Since Tino was unknown to the criminal network as Finland, he kept up his work as Santa. The solo thief who would and could get anything for the right prince. It was funny that Tino said that he "could get any to anywhere Santa Clause delivered presents to" and that his original allyous in the crime world before joining the North was "Santa."It was ironically funny, but funny none the less. Before he join the North, he was Santa, and was still Santa, just less often.
"East is a friend," Mathias said, "Besides they gave us a lot of free publicity and got the word of the North spread a little further through the crime networks."
"We don't really need publicity, the police do enough of that." Emil said sullenly. Every part of this felt wrong to him. Being friends with detectives who were really part of the black market was just wrong. If this guy was East, but really a detective, but ran a black market line, whose side was he on? Was he with the enemy? He lead Arthur to Vlad, then again, he called Mathias and told him that police had found the North's latest crime early. Mathias trusted him, but that wasn't enough for Emil. Tino didn't seem concerned, but then again, Tino had worked with East and West before. Emil trusted Tino, but that was a bit shaky now that he saw Tino trusted Mathias. Emil supposed he might trust Mathias more if he wasn't trying to get free drinks off of people half the time and being obnoxious the other half. Mathias was very good at what he did, he survived. but that didn't mean he had good taste in friends. Emil mentally took that back, Mathias did have good taste in friends. He was friends with Lukas, Tino, and Berwald, after all. Maybe this East guy was a friend. Was this guy East, the black market trader, or was he Gilbert, the detective?
The East guy looked like a normal guy. The most striking thing about him was that he was albino, but apart from that he looked painfully ordinary.
"Think fast!" Gilbert threw something at Mathias as they approached and Mathias caught it easily, "You can start thanking me now." The guys said with a smirk.
"What's this?" Mathias looked at the plastic bag and it's continence.
"The camera chip with the footage of your guys's cars." Gilbert smirked again and looked to Emil and Tino, "You guys totally owe me! Oh! Hey is Santa part of the North?"
Tino smiled and shrugged, "I'm the dog guy?"
Gilbert shrugged.
Mathias stared at the little chip for a moment and started laughing, lunging forward to hug Gilbert. They hugged and laughed and broke apart.
"Jeez Gil! I really do owe you!" Mathias laughed, and shook his head in disbelief, "How'd you do it?"
"Alfred and I were supposed to go around to all of the street cameras and pick up the chips to be copied, I managed to check most of them before Alfred copied them and I found this one pretty quickly, the rest were too out of the way to bother with." He said with a shrug, "There is one other camera that caught the cars, but it's the wrong angle to see the plate, so I left it be."
Mathias grinned like a mad man and shoved the chip into his pocket, "I'll get it back to you tomorrow, we'll edit it tonight and they'll never know it was gone!"
Gilbert nodded glanced at Emil again, "Sorry about showing them to Vlad."
Emil sneered and looked away, as if an apology helped.
"I didn't realize he knew so much, but I knew he wouldn't blow my cover, so I thought he was safest." Gilbert said apologetically, "I thought this might make up for it."
"It does!" Mathias said, "Don't worry about the Vampire, we'll deal with him, and we might even end up using him to our advantage. What about that Arthur guy?"
"He's sharp, his team is good, not as good as mine, but good." Gilbert said, "I plan on sitting back for a while and watching them dance, my team really wants the North case and if I help Arthur out too much, we'll never get it."
Mathias frowned, "What are you going to do if you get the case?"
Gilbert grinned evilly, "Catch you, of course."
Emil watched the color drain out of Mathias's face, while his own face heated up with anger. Who did this guy think he was? Was he threatening them? Tino's eyes were wide and Gilbert just stood there looking smug.
"Alternatively, I have a bit of a grudge against Rodrich and Elizabeta, I thought they would make a pretty good North." Gilbert said, that evil smile still plastered on his face.
Mathias choked, "What?"
"Rodrich. He's been taking customers from me and Lud for the past few months. Setting him up as the North is a pretty nice way of eliminating competition." Gilbert suddenly cracked and started laughing, "You should see your faces right now! It's priceless! You don't seriously think I'd turn you in do you?!"
Mathias let out a sigh of relief, "Don't scare me like that!"
Gilbert wiped his eyes, clutching his stomach, "Priceless! I should have filmed it!" He straightened, shaking his head and chuckling, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself!"
"I could turn you in much easier than you could actually find evidence against us as the North!" Mathias said, "East and West are just as wanted as the North are!"
"No need to threaten me!" Gilbert said smiling, "I'm not going to catch you, but I will catch the North. I just haven't decided if Rodrich should be the North or Jan's groupies."
Mathias shook his head and smiled again, "Don't do that! I thought I was going to have a heart attack!"
"You looked like it too!" Gilbert chuckled.
Tino and Emil exchanged a look. It was clear that Tino was just as nervous about Gilbert now. If Gilbert really was joking, they were fine, but what if he wasn't? Whose side was he on? Emil's head hurt. He wanted to trust Mathias and Gilbert.
"Well, hows Ludwig?" Mathias said with a sigh.
"Fine, up tight as ever." Gilbert said, "Business is booming for us, we're having a hard time keeping up with it all. He'll be mad to here you guys robbed the Vargas, he's friends with them. Don't know why, they're so white collar. How's things on your end?"
"Fine. We're all rather stressed out." Mathias said, "I still can't find a normal job and Berwald just got laid off. The North needs to be hired again soon, or we're all going to have the bank on our doorsteps rather than the police."
"You should try your hand in the black market." Gilbert said, "It's working for us."
"Nah, theft is what we're good at."
"Shame."
A silence followed. Emil glared at Gilbert.
"Well, thanks again, I'll see you tomorrow." Mathias turned and started to turn away, Tino and Emil started to follow.
"Hey! You're not going to just leave me here are you?" That panicked sound seemed to creep back into Gilbert's voice.
"Huh?" They stopped and looked at him.
"The dogs! I've got to find Ludwig's dogs!"
Tino and Emil looked at Mathias who stared at Gilbert. Mathias grinned.
"You seriously lost Ludwig's dogs?" Mathias laughed, "Seriously? I thought you were just trying to set up a place to talk!"
"I was! But I told you to bring friends so we could catch those wretched things!" Gilbert said, his face going red, "West is gonna to kill me!"
"Jeez East! What were you thinking?" It was Mathias turn to laugh so hard he was crying, Tino started to giggle and Emil scowled at them.
"Please! We've got to find those dogs! He's gonna let my bird out or something if he finds out I lost them again!"
"AGAIN?" Mathias was practically rolling on the ground, "You've lost them before?"
"No! Well, maybe. Mathias! We have to find them!"
"Fine! We'll help you find the dogs!"
On Sunday, Emil woke up at two in the morning. Lukas wasn't pacing. The house was strangely quiet.
He got up and went down stairs to see Lukas and Berwald sitting in the kitchen, fully dressed, and drinking coffee.
"Go back to bed." Lukas said, without looking at him, "It's two."
"It's two." Emil said with a yawn, "What are you doing?"
"Preparing to break the law." Lukas said, "Go back to bed."
Emil looked at Berwald pointedly, "What's going on?"
"We're going to break the law." Berwald said, his tone flat and his face emptier than even Lukas's.
"How are you breaking the law?" Emil asked, moving past them to pour himself a cup of orange juice from the fridge, "The North doesn't have anything on right now." Emil turned to look at the two. They sat, looking at their coffee cups in silence. Both with sat tensely with unreadable expressions. Emil took a sip of his juice and looked at them.
The silence stretched for longer than was comfortable and finally Berwald broke. He stood, looking at Emil with cold eyes, "We're going to start fighting back."
Emil looked at him and frowned. What? That made no sense. Emil looked at Lukas. Lukas scowled.
"We've been very lucky so far." Lukas said, "They don't have Berwald behind bars because of East. Being at the mercy of a black market retailer isn't as appealing to the rest of us as it is to Mathias."
Emil remained silent and looked between his brother and Berwald. Berwald's jaw was clenched and his knuckles grew white as he clutched the coffee cup. That licence plate would have been enough evidence for the police to bring him in for questioning. Gilbert had saved him.
"We are going to set up cameras at Arthur's house and his team's offices." Lukas said. He let his words hang in the air a moment. Any drowsiness Emil still had, was gone. Spy on Arthur and his team? "We are going on the offensive now. We need to know exactly what they know about us. We need to get them off our trail."
Lukas didn't talk much. Him talking this much, this early in the morning was just as unnerving as him pacing. Emil started at him. The North setting up cameras was crossing a line. They were thieves. Somehow, this felt more wrong to Emil than breaking into the bank had. This felt more wrong than anything they had ever done before. Of course, stealing was wrong, but this was another level of wrong.
It was wrong, but Emil didn't argue. He didn't say anything as Berwald and and Lukas finished their coffee and left.
"I'll be back around noon." Lukas said, before he closed the door, "Go back to bed, there is breakfast in the fridge. Practice your violin and finish your homework before you go out anywhere. I'll talk to Mathias and get you out of driving lessons today."
Emil just nodded and watched through the front window as the car pulled away. They were going out to battle the enemy. This was the offensive. This felt wrong.
Emil went back to bed. He didn't sleep, just stared at his white ceiling.
When he got up he heated up his breakfast and ate it.
Upstairs, he laid out his sheet music and started organizing it into piles. He tuned his violin and started to play. He felt like a robot, just going through the motions. He felt numb. Not thinking. Spying was wrong. Stealing was also wrong, but what else were they supposed to do? Berwald was just laid off and his other job of making websites for people was only an occasional income. Mathias seemed incapable of getting hired and lived mostly off of the other four of them. Tino did a lot of solo theft work to keep his cover as "Santa." Being both Finland and Santa didn't seem to put any strain on him, and it certainly kept him financially stable. Lukas worked as a guard at the mall and his meager income kept him and Emil going, but they would be stretched pretty thin without the North's work.
Tino was the best off of the five of them, but only because he was stealing twice as much. Lukas had to support himself and Emil and Mathias ended up eating with them more often than not. Tino loaned money to the others when they needed it, but it was an unspoken agreement to take as little as possible from him.
Emil didn't actually know when Lukas started stealing to get by. He knew that eventually Lukas teamed up with Mathias. They never attempted anything big, just house break ins, but they were able to make a pretty penny and started going for more ambitious goals.
They had been doing a break in and met Berwald waiting for them. Emil hadn't been with them, but from the way Mathias described it, Berwald was sitting quietly in the living room with a gun, reading a book. The moment Lukas and Mathias had realized that he was there, he had calmly put the book down and had the gun to Lukas's back. Mathias said it had been pretty tense there for a few minutes. They had apologized for trying to rob him and stayed for a late dinner. Berwald's security system had let him know that they were on the property, and he had been expecting them since the other break ins around the neighborhood.
Berwald was a tech guy, he had the best security system ever and knew all there was to know about other people's systems. For the weeks after they had tried to rob him, Mathias broke in again and again without bringing Lukas. Mathias tried to find a loophole in Berwald's system and couldn't. Berwald was, naturally, unamused by the nightly visits and even called the police on Mathias. They had a rocky relationship and it had taken a while, but eventually Mathias convinced Berwald that crime paid. Berwald's expertise opened the door for robbing better defended houses and the trio made a pretty good team.
That was the "Viking days," as Mathias jokingly put it. Emil had been aware of Lukas's hobby by then, and had even helped on a few break ins. He wasn't allowed to help with anything major, but he had always felt good about it. There wasn't a house that they wouldn't try to get into, but they didn't always succeed. There were lots of nights when Lukas came back early, saying only that it had been too dangerous to go through with the job.
Mathias always managed to sell the stuff they stole for a good price, probably thanks to Gilbert. At that point, they had been on the outskirts of the crime network. That was when Mathias heard rumor of a guy who could break into anywhere. Santa was a professional thief. Mathias got it in his head, that with Santa on their side, they would be unstoppable. For Lukas and Berwald, the rumor only stirred up some mild curiosity, but for Mathias, it was a huge incentive to getting into the loop of the crime network.
Emil was helping with a break in for a summer home when he first met Tino. He had been with Berwald, turning off the power to the security system when they heard a soft, polite cough from behind them.
They had turned to see Tino smile politely, "Um, hi. You don't live here do you?" Tino had asked, sounding almost apologetic.
"No." Berwald had said, "Neither do you."
"Right, listen, I was here first, I'd appreciate it if you guys went to rob the house next door."
Emil and Berwald had just looked at Tino. Tino had smiled at them. He had grown nervous as the silence stretched.
"No." Berwald had said.
Tino had grown harder somehow. His stance hadn't changed and he still smiled, but he seemed more dangerous. Emil remembered shrinking behind Berwald and wishing Mathias and Lukas would show up.
"I kind of need something inside." Tino said.
"You can have it." Berwald said and turned to continue turning off the power, "Chances are, we need something else."
Tino watched as Emil and Berwald finished and started into the house. Emil glanced back to see Tino checking what the power to the box. If he was impressed by Berwald's handiwork, he didn't show it; just looked it over and started to follow them. Mathias and Lukas had met them inside, already looking for things of value.
"There's a guy here to rob the house!" Emil had told them.
Mathias had laughed, "Apart from us?"
"Yes!"
"Oh."
Tino entered and flashed the four of them a smile before heading upstairs.
Mathias shrugged, "Whatever. Leave him be."
After that first time, they ran into Santa a lot. His target houses tended to line up with theirs' and Mathias decided to be more active in recruiting Tino. He was invited to accompany them on their jobs, but he declined. An invitation to dinner and a challenge at Mario Carts, he accepted. Tino became their friend warily and eventually it was almost as if they had always known each other. Still, he refused to join them in crime. Tino was their friend, but Santa was not.
The North's first big break in, at a office building, was a challenge and Emil hadn't been allowed to go. That was the first time they left their card and it was the first time that they cleaned everything. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway went on to do two more major thefts, leaving their card, before Santa agreed to become Finland. It was a decision based on the challenging jobs that the North accepted and the friendship that had formed between Tino and the North. For the North, Berwald's talents had made better secured houses accessible, but Tino's talents made nothing inaccessible. It had worked beautifully.
Emil remembered stealing the painting from the art museum. It had been an open house, so there were tons of people there. It had been child's play to slip into the area being redecorated and slip out with the crowd. They had left their card in the empty picture frame and had gone ice skating afterwards. As Iceland, he didn't have a big part in the whole scheme of things. It was his job to wipe everything down, moments after someone else had touched it. With Tino breaking them in, Berwald dealing with the security cameras, Lukas and Mathias collecting the goods, and Emil cleaning everything, they were very fast and efficient.
The enemy, Arthur, threatened to take them away. Put them behind bars. It was wrong to spy on Arthur, but they were protecting themselves.
Emil stared at his sheet music. He wasn't as good as Lukas was at violin, but he wasn't bad. The music was cheery and up beat. He felt numb. They were lowering themselves to spying, but what else were they supposed to do?
Emil didn't know how to feel. Mad? Angry? Sad? This was just they way things had to go. They couldn't be caught by the police. They had to know what the police knew about them. They were on the offensive. This was wrong. Stealing was also wrong. They had to eat.
It had been an emotional last few days. The annoyance of going to Peter's house, the fear of Vlad talking with the police, the tension of Lukas's pacing, the anger of going to meet Gilbert, and now this conflicting turmoil on how he ought to feel about watching Arthur. The numbness was better than this. Emil didn't want to feel any more, he wanted some sort of sanity to return to his life.
Emil started at the beginning of the song again, pulling his bow slowly and slurring all of the notes together. It made the cheery tune sound darker and disjointed. He heard the door downstairs open and close. He ignored it and continued to play.
"If you're going to saw away on that poor instrument like that, you might as well stop!"
Emil froze. That wasn't Lukas's voice. Mathias? What was Mathias doing here? Panic raced through his veins. Something had gone wrong again, Berwald and Lukas had been arrested.
Emil raced down stairs, "What happened?"
"Huh?" Mathias turned and looked at Emil in surprise, "What?"
Mathias was totally relaxed. He was making a sandwich. His eyes grew wide as he looked at Emil, "Did something happen?"
"No. Sorry." Emil was embarrassed, but he hid it and sat down at the table, "Make me one too please."
"Okay." Mathias said, "Good news though! Get your skates and we'll eat on the way!"
"What?"
"We're going to meet everyone at the ice ring, I reserved it last week and we're going to play some hockey!" Mathias said, grinning over his shoulder at Emil.
Hockey? Now? While the police were breathing down their necks? Emil smiled, it sounded great.
"Other good news! The North got another job!"
Oh.
Seven! Done! People keep saying they can't wait to see the North and Arthur's team in action, it hasn't really happened yet, but it will within the next two chapters! The North is fighting back! I hope you like it! I was pretty nervous about posting this chapter, but here it is!
Shout out to ListenerofShadows, thanks for your reviews! You're awesome!
