Ah yes, the chapter where we hang out with Em's boys instead of Cora's. Plus, there's some unusual news coming from home...

Anyway, I only own the plot, a few mentioned characters, Cora and Emily!

Constructive feedback, as always, is acceptable!

Today's a day where I spend it at Emily's, and as I asked a few days before, she has dragged her ancestors into researching for Eagle's Cross too.

"Ugh, my head hurts from this lame amount of reading..." Eduardo groans, clutching his head.

"Mine too, but trust me on this one," Em admits, "It'll do us a whole lot of good for our brains."

"What, so that zombies will enjoy the taste of our intelligence?" I sarcastically remark, rubbing my eyes before staring at the undead human I've doodled in between notes, alongside the city border and a silhouette of a running man and his dog.

"That too," Em snickers, "D'you have any new ideas for this thing?"

I sit up straight and skim through my notes on Eagle's Cross so far:

· Possible files or whatnot could be found behind the secret door in the basement...once we get the courage to actually go down there.

· Something may have been stolen from dad before, like in Secret of the Unicorn, hence a reason for the name 'Eagle's Cross.'

· Weird receipts were found thanks to Tom. Found in the Tord photo in my bedroom. The ink is mainly faded, but a date is still pinpointed when something was bought: 20th October 2088.

I slide my notebook across to Em before resting my head on the table and sighing in the relief while closing my eyes.

"Cor?" She asks.

"Yeah?" I manage out, muffled.

"Did you draw all of this while notetaking?"

I shrug as I sit up and stretch while yawning.

"I guess. During whenever everything started to blur in and I kept skipping a lot of parts when reading."

"These are amazing! You've improved since three years ago!"

"Wait, wha?"

"Seriously!"

"Hey, let me see!" Jon exclaims before peeking over Em's shoulder, "Wow! That's stunning!"

"All in pen too!" Mark remarks, "Isn't that usually an art challenge on the internet or something?"

Even Eduardo is impressed when his face lights up at the art.

"You self-taught?" He asks curiously.

"She is," Em explains, "A few online tutorials helped her, but I haven't seen stuff like this since back in high school. She always did them whenever she was bored or stressed. Even in exams the teachers let her get away with it for some reason."

"Emily!"

"It's true! Wait till Laurie sees this!" She quickly whips out her phone and the camera shutter sound is heard.

"Em, please."

"Aaaaaaand done!"

I facepalm and sigh as I hear the ping of a new text come up on my phone seconds later before I pull it out and see that it's from Laurie. The neighbours don't hesitate to peek over my shoulder.

'Y u no send 2 galleries?!'

"She has a point, Cora!" Jon exclaims.

My eyes widen when I send the reply:

'Becuz i wud b controversial 4 doin delivery'

'Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiite. Dad's peekin and hes impressed by art 2. he gonna say hi'

Em lets off a low whistle, "Wow. Even your dad's liking this?"

I shrug as I send,

'hey father'

A Darth Vader emoji pops up and the five of us burst out laughing.

I send a palpatine one back.

'You win.'

I smirk as another text pops up.

'K, dad's gone. Nothin much on 4 Eagle. wrks hrd.'

'IKR'

'also mole rumrs tru. who it is, idk gtg. ily!'

'Ily 2'

"Great," Em sighs as I slip my phone back in my pocket, "The police have a mole in our rings and we have no idea who it is."

"It could be Felix," I shrug, "With the way Laurie's put him in that last email..."

"Remember when he was a little snitch when he was a kid?" Em snickers, "We always used to bet that he could win the Tattletale Olympics if they ever existed."

"The only thing he could ever shut up about was his job. But I do see him going back to the old ways if he is the mole."

"What if he doesn't want to be?" Mark pipes up.

"Huh?"

"Was Felix ever a good liar when he was a kid?"

"He sucked." I admit, "But he convinced us on a lot of stuff too."

"Maybe a reason why he's so shifty is because he's trying to hide three things: one, he's the mole, two, he doesn't want to be, and three, Uncle Thor and all this politics stuff is mixing in with both jobs as mole and cola-smuggler. Maybe even a bit too much for his liking."

"Mark's cracked Felix alright," Eduardo laughs.

"But who knows. We'll just have to wait and see." Em shrugs before heading back into research.