It was easy to spot Hale. He was dressed in a button-down shirt and jeans. Why did I ever bother to change? He was having his own fun at a blackjack table. And he was winning. This guy was incredibly lucky.

"He's counting the cards." Adrian said.

Or maybe he was incredibly smart. I walked towards him.

"Counting cards is illegal, you know." I said.

He looked up. He had messy brown-blonde hair and sea green eyes, he looked like a surfer, except for the body. He was lanky, lankier than Adrian.

"Are you one of his enforcers? You don't looks like one." He said, stumbling on his words. Except he wasn't scared. His eyes were cool and calm, like the Atlantic.

"No." I smiled.

"I've seen you. At LAIST. You were the topper of your class at computer science." His eyes widened with recognition.

"Yep," I said, my smile widening with pride.

He smiled back.

"Now, how did a girl like you get involved with bastards like them?" He asked.

"Long story, but the bastards need our help." I sighed.

He laughed. "No!"

"Boss's orders, you have a debt to pay off. And 25 million dollars if you can do it." Damien said, joining us at the table, the other players had left, looking extremely terrified. Antonio and Adrian walked towards us.

I could see dollar signs dancing in his eyes.

"So, are you in?" Adrian asked.

"I'm in." He replied.

Adrian smiled, "Good choice."

✴✴✴

An hour later we were seated at the dining table, with Adrian at the head. Isaac and I were seated next to him. We had spent the last hour talking about LAIST. He was nice. One of the few people from LAIST who weren't in thanks to their daddy's bank accounts.

The dining room was big enough to fit my entire class. The table was glass and mordern-looking. On the wall was a painting of the DeLucas. Well, two of them anyways. Adrian and Carelia. He didn't have any pictures of his father. Carelia's eyes shone with compassion. She truly was beautiful. Her eyes were blue though. Adrian looked like the cute kid from a horror movie. His face was delicate and cute, you could tell he was going to be handsome. But his eyes looked so much older, so much smarter. He was holding Carelia's hand.

Damien was seated next to me, while Antonio was next to Isaac.

I pulled out the printout and dumped it on the desk.

Adrian gestured for me to start talking.

"So I found this on Roy's computer." I started.

"Was it easy to find?" Adrian asked.

"It was in the same place I found the blueprints." I replied.

"Weird." Isaac mused.

"Why would that be weird?" Antonio asked.

"Because where she found the prints she had to have opened the entire file. He added it after the prints were stolen. If they were present before, Chevron would have seen it." Isaac replied.

"Like he was leaving a trailer of breadcrumbs." Damien mused.

"Exactly."

"So he definitely ran." I added looking at Adrian for confirmation.

"Yes." He said. "The first few numbers are dates, my birthday, to be exact. Followed by the four zeroes. Looks like a time?"

"Okay, so we have got that much sorted." I clarified. "But the rest?"

Even Isaac, Damien and Antonio got the 'WTF!?' expression.

"Well...Bank account number?" Antonio mused.

"Don't have decimals." Adrian pointed out.

"Times?" I asked.

"35.11 and 35.7. Don't look like times." Isaac said. But 13 00 and 00 22 can be. In a 24 hour system."

"They could be coordinates." Antonio said.

"Well, North, South, East or West aren't specified. And coordinates are never written like that." Damien answered.

"Still."

"Possibly. But I doubt it." Damien said.

"Radec. Mean anything?" I asked in desperation.

"Nope, maybe an anagram?" Isaac mused.

"Can't be that easy. He's a professor. He's intellectually..."

"Challenged?" I supplied out of frustration.

"I was going to say superior." Isaac said.

Ugh.

"Chevron, losing your temper isn't really helping either of us." Adrian said.

"Why can't you get inside his head and figure out what he was thinking? You've met him, haven't you?" I asked acidly.

"His head is a mess, pretty much like yours. And the reason you're here is because I promised to protect you. But you need to uphold your end of the deal and try to figure it out. So solve it." He said getting up from the table and walking out. Antonio and Damien followed him, leaving me and Isaac alone at the table.

"So...Radec?" He asked nervously.

I realised that I'd been glaring at him. Oops.

"Sorry, I'm just frustrated."

"It's okay, it happens."

"How did you end up in the Mafia anyways?" I asked.

"Ran into trouble with the cops for some hacking. Adrian helped me out."

"Nothing like being indebted to the Devil for the rest of your life." I said in a sarcastic tone.

"He's not that bad. He doesn't particularly like you though, so be careful."

"But he's actually been quite nice to me." I said, surprised, thinking back to the time he stitched up my knee. But actually, it wasn't that surprising. Even I didn't particularly like him.

"He's a chameleon. He'll change his colors to manipulate people. But he's a man of his word. So he'll uphold whatever deal he made with you."

In the end that's all that counts right? Although, logically, I knew Isaac was right. He wanted to keep me loyal to him. Of course he'll act weird.

"He doesn't really hate you, per se, he just doesn't trust you. You also have that connection to the Abandonatos."

Isaac added.

"Whatever, let's figure out this clue."

"Tried googling it?" I asked.

"Google said 'fuck this'."

"That's nice." I said.

Within an hour we had a bunch of 'words'.

RADEC

CADER

DERAC

DAREC

CEDAR

RECAD

There were 120 'words' in total and the only one in English was Cedar. Which made no sense.

Isaac was also getting irritated. So far coordinates and times were the only feasible answers. And even they made abso-fucking-lutely no sense.

"What was that professor thinking!?" He yelled.

"I know right!?" I mumbled.

Then it clicked and I could imagine a lightbulb lighting above my head. My eyes glazed over as my brain took off.

What he was thinking. Coordinates.

All the pieces fell in place. This was so obscure to us but obvious to him. Shit.

I did a quick Google search. My hunch was right.

I ran up to Adrian's room and knocked on his door. He opened it, looking irritated as hell. Even Damien and Antonio came to the room and Isaac had followed me up the stairs.

"They're coordinates." I said, my voice shaking with revelation.

"They can't be. We talked over this and dismissed the idea. There are no latitudes or longitudes. Sorry, boss." Isaac said.

"Shh, let her speak." Adrian said, staring at me, with a mixture of awe and annoyance.

Antonio and Damien were staring at me.

"Antonio was right."

"Impossible. We tried! They lead nowhere!" Damien muttered.

"That is because they are not geographical coordinates."

There was an anxious pause.

"They're celestial coordinates."