"Well we managed to solve that pretty quickly." Vincent said as he approached our table in the cafe. He pulled a chair over to sit next to Lindsey and threw his arm around her shoulders. Lindsey visibly relaxed and she returned to her normal state. Hmm... so it was because Vincent wasn't around.

"Where's Hugh?" Vanessa asked.

"Somewhere. Probably an arcade. Oh, but Kyle's with the police helping with the interrogation." Vincent replied as he stole a bite from Lindsey's sundae, which resulted in Lindsey whacking the backside of Vincent's head.

"So," He started, "Amelia, would you like to join the syndicate?" Huh?

I stared back at Vincent blankly. Me? He wants me to join the syndicate? What?

"I think you should join. You don't really have anywhere to be right? Plus you'd fit right in with us." Max added in after gulping down the rest of his milkshake.

"I agree." Lindsey said with a smile, "You can join our family."

"A weird family, but still a family." Vanessa added on with a laugh. "Besides, someone needs to watch over you to make sure you don't injure yourself any further." She gave me a pointed look and I was reminded of the close accident with the axe in the weaponry room.

Do I want to join? Sure, being with them is pretty fun and I'm never bored. They treat me well and they are starting to grow on me. "Will I be allowed to leave anytime I want?" I asked, looking at Vincent for confirmation.

"Anytime you want." He said with a nod. Hmm... I guess there's no harm in joining and I can leave when I want to. But am I joining just because they asked me to and I can't say no? Or is it because I, myself, want to join?

"So?" Lindsey asked with a smile, "How 'bout it?"

Oh why not. "Okay."

Vincent jumped onto his chair, cheering. "Alright, alright, calm down you chimp." Lindsey said as she pulled him back down, a wide smile on her face.

"Okay, so we gotta send in the paperwork. And set up a time for the test." Lindsey started listing things they needed to do on her fingers. Test? The double doors to the cafe opened with a dramatic thud.

A shadowed figure stood at the entrance, the sunlight not allowing us to see who it was. As the person walked further in, we recognized who it was.

"Hugh! You're late!" Vincent yelled at him.

"Quiet down!" Lindsey said poking Vincent in his side.

"But my entrance was spectacular so my tardiness doesn't matter." Hugh said dignantly as he walked over. "And late for what?"

"Celebration for Amelia joining the syndicate." Vanessa said, standing up to order another dessert.

"Oh! Then we need to party tonight! And also, that's perfect timing 'cause we have that meeting tomorrow with the Syndicate Management team." Hugh said, claiming Vanessa's seat the moment she left to order.

"And they are going to be there too." Lindsey hissed. Who's they? If it's a meeting with the Syndicate Management team, then there are two possibilities. The team they'll be meeting with or the other Syndicate assigned to Astrea.

"Huey! Get your own chair!" Vanessa kicked Hugh's leg as she came back to the table.

"Why don't you just sit on my lap then?" Hugh replied, humor laced in his tone. Vanessa scowled.

"Get. Your. Own. Chair." Vanessa ended with a glare. Absolute authority was shown on her face and she stood tall and firm. As if an adult scolding a little child. She really is like a mother.

"Yes ma'am! Please don't kill me." Hugh said as he pulled up another chair and sat on it. I blinked, was he that scared of Vanessa?

I looked at the others at saw that Max was on the phone with someone. "He's making an appointment for your test with the Syndicate examiners." Lindsey told me after seeing my quizzical look.

"Test?"

"It's just a test to see your skills at fighting and crime solving to make sure that you can actually be beneficial to Syndicates and Society." Vincent said, taking a bite out of a chocolate cake in the center of the table. Whose cake is that?

"They said that she didn't need to take the test." Max said as she walked back. Huh? I blinked at Max in shock. What? "They said that we'll have to take the responsibility for training her and that they trust our judgement." He continued.

"Is that one of the privileges top ranking Syndicates get?" I heard Vanessa whisper to Hugh who just shrugged in response.

"Well that just means more the reason to celebrate!" Vincent yelled, jumping out of his chair. At this rate I think we might be kicked out of the cafe. I thought as I watched a loud Vincent jumping around as Lindsey tried to quiet him down.

I guess that's just how they are. I hid a small smile as I drank my hot chocolate. I think this'll work out.

~***~

With some encouraging from Kyle, some literal pushing from Vincent, and some dragging from Lindsey and Vanessa, I walked into the sparkling building. It was the Syndicate management building for the Syndicates in Aestrea. The building was made out of of concrete, according to Hugh, but the outside surface was completely window. Apparently it's a one-way window so the people outside the building can't see what's going on inside but the people in the building can see out.

As I walked through the main door, a blue screen scanned us as we passed through. "No threats. Please proceed." A monotone voice came from the speakers placed on the ceiling. A transparent wall split open to allow us to continue in. This place has some intense security. How much money did all this cost?

"Helloo! Syndicate 45 welcome back!" A middle-aged lady approached us. She dressed in a matching grey pencil skirt and jacket with a white blouse. Her slightly greying hair was scrunched up into a bun. A wide smile was plastered onto her face as she waved at us. Someone who works here?

"Hello Mrs. Miller." Max greeted. I glanced over at Lindsey who seemed to be on the verge of hissing at Mrs. Miller, and Vincent who was calming her down and holding her back.

"You must be Amelia! Welcome to the Syndicate management building!" Mrs. Miller walked over to me and grasped my hands with hers. "I look forward to working with you to keep Foscario a safer place." And with a pat on my hands, she let go.

"Anyways, let's go to the conference room. Syndicate 42 is already there." She said, turning on her heels and walking off. I let out a breath that I didn't realize that I was holding. She seems nice. I followed behind the rest of the group.

"Is that a new ring, Mrs. Miller?" Vincent asked.

"This ring?" Mrs. Miller asked, holding up her hand. On her ring finger, she wore a ring with a gold band, which splits and forms a circle. Within the circle boundaries was a giant ruby, and on the circular boundary, there were small stones of diamond, amethyst and sapphire indented in it. Are those gems all real? If so, how much would that one ring cost?

"Are those gems real?" Vanessa asked, leaning forward slightly to get a closer look.

"It sure is! My husband bought it for me." Mrs. Miller replied, admiring the ring herself. "It costed more than a billion FRC! Can you believe it?" More than a billion FRC?! I thought in bewilderment. Something tugged in the back of my mind. I frowned but pushed it away. Hmmm...

"Well it is the most expensive ring in the world." Hugh said, "There's only one out there in existence because it uses so many gemstones. Amethysts are also becoming a rarity so there's that too."

"Alright Mr. Know-it-all, don't start rambling now." Lindsey said, eyebrows twitching slightly. Why is she in such a bad mood? Is it because of the other Syndicate? Syndicate 42?

Mrs. Miller reached a wall with a line down the middle. To the right of the line there was a scanner. Mrs. Miller approached it and leaned forward. Biometric security. They really go to great lengths to make sure everything remains secure. I thought as I watched a blue light scanned Mrs. Miller's eyes. Then below the scanner, a small touch screen board emerged from the wall. "Input password." Came the monotone command.

Mrs. Miller tapped in the password and the board lit up green. "Password accepted. Please Proceed." I looked over to take a look at the board before it disappeared back into the wall. There were no keys at all. Digital keyboard then? There must be something else. They wouldn't have all this security and have that last one be just a password.

"Took you guys long enough to get here." A snide remark with a familiar voice came from inside the room as the wall split open from the line. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I tensed. I took small steps into the room, and saw a male with dirty blonde hair and a cocky expression on his face.

"And look who else is here. Amelia Walker, didn't expect you to join a Syndicate." Dillon said, his face scrunched up in a sneer. I didn't expect to see you here either. Dillon was the source of most of my injuries that I got in school. Including that cut in my back which is almost healed. Now that I think about it, Dillon and Mrs. Miller have the same last name. Family?

"Now, now, Dillon, be nice." Mrs. Miller said as she walked towards the front of the table and sat down. I let Vanessa and Lindsey lead me to the free side of the table and sat me down between them.

"Amelia, you know him?" Vanessa whispered as we sat down. I nodded, eyes trained onto the table in front of me.

"So let's get this meeting started." Mrs. Miller said, tapping on the table twice. I kept my eyes on the table.

"First of all, both your groups completed two missions during the past week. But Syndicate 45 has solved the big case of the bank robberies in two days. So you will be getting paid more this week. Ten points added for you as well, so you are now ranked the second Syndicate in Foscario."

Dillon scowled at that, while the rest of his Syndicate glanced at each other. Beside me, I felt that statement pacify Lindsey's anger slightly. I wonder what they did to make her hate them this much. Hating Dillon I understand but I wonder what they did as a group.

Mrs. Miller continued, "And that is the brief summary for today. This is the case I want both groups to take a look at today." She tapped in what seemed to be a code on the table. Like the meeting room back at the Syndicate's house, the room's lights went out and the table lit up.

"In these meetings, we usually help with missions in other cities." Vanessa whispered to me. I nodded in understanding. A map with 3D buildings showed up on the table and was zoomed in to one of the museums in sector 4 in Lunaris. My original home city.

"There has been a series of deaths in this museum," Mrs. Miller started. I glanced up and observed the digital map. "The deaths all occur in the same place." She said, pulling up another model of inside the museum. There was a massive painting that took up most of one wall.

"The people all died in front of that painting."

"Was the painting so amazing that it killed them?" Hugh muttered under his breath. Vincent stifled a laugh and ended up snorting.

Mrs. Miller didn't let it bother her and kept talking, "We tried going through our surveillance cameras to see what happened but each time someone approached the painting, our cameras would be disabled and by the time it's working again, the person is already dead. The painting is also in a private area of the building so very few people go. The only times that someone has died is when they're alone so we can't ask any eye-witnesses."

"The Syndicates located in Lunaris were given this case last week but still haven't solved it. But they have a few clues. When they get near the painting, they can hear a faint beeping sound but they can't identify the source of it. The close they get to the painting, the louder and faster the beeps are. What do you think?" Mrs. Miller asked the two groups, looking at both sides expectantly.

"There has to be a killer hiding somewhere in the room who only kills when someone is alone." Dillon said, leaning his chin onto his hand. Boredom expressed on his face.

"There were no injuries on the victims and it hasn't been identified how they died yet either."

"Can we see what the painting looks like?" Kyle asked.

Mrs. Miller nodded, tapped something in and each of us got an image of the painting. The painting was of two hands coming in from both sides of the painting, reaching for a circular object in the middle. What's so special about this painting?

"Oh this painting!" Hugh exclaimed. I looked over at him. "This was painted by former billionaire Gerard Finn. He believed that humans would continue a different life afterlife and then get reincarnated when they're bored of that life. He was deemed insane during the last few years of his life and one day he and his money just disappeared. The only thing left behind was this painting. He actually paid the museum owners to set up his painting there and he requested for the private area as well. He set up the entire area by himself, refusing any help from anyone else."

Hmm...

"It's said that he was diagnosed with coronary artery disease, which was the cause of his insanity." Hugh finished off proudly. "Oh, and apparently, that circle that the hands are reaching for is not part of the painting. That part is metal and he crafted it in himself."

"How do you know all this?" Vanessa asked, an eyebrow raised in question.

Hugh just shrugged in reply. "A man's gotta do something while taking a poop."

Vanessa facepalmed, "Oh god."

I tuned them out and I continued to observe the painting. The information from Mrs. Miller and Hugh running through my mind.

I think I've figured it out.