"You know, I'm not sure I like dis…" Mercy said.
Emil swiveled around to look at his friends. "Why not? Dey'll be okay, we'll keep an eye on dem from here, an' dey're always careful."
"I know…I jus' have a weird feelin'." Mercy replied.
"Oh don' get started wit' dose feelings of yours, Merce. Last time you got a weird feelin, de Assassins tried to blow up Tante Mattie's house." Genard laughed.
"Oui, but I really do have a bad feelin'." Mercy told them. "I don' like it at all. Emil, keep an eye on dose screens."
"Yes, Ma'am!" Emil said sarcastically, turning back around to face the monitors again. Mercy didn't catch the fact that he rolled his eyes, but Genard did, and he laughed even harder.
Three members of the Guild, Jean-Luc, Pierre and Theoren were attempting to get crucial Assassin information from the Boudreaux mansion while the Assassins were holding a meeting elsewhere. Emil had hacked into the security system at the mansion and had one monitor of his computer keeping an eye on the outside of the mansion, while the other one was scanning the inside, keeping an eye on what the three thieves were doing.
Things were quiet for five minutes. Then Emil noticed some movement outside the mansion. He hit a few keys on the keyboard and a close-up showed that it was Marius Boudreaux and two members of the Assassins Guild coming back after the meeting.
"Uh-oh…" he muttered, switching on his headset again. "Heads up guys, Marius, Gris-Gris and Fifolet are comin' in t'rough de front door. Get de hell out of dere!"
Genard peered over his best friend's shoulder at the screens. "Looks like you might've been right, Merce. Much as I hate to say it."
"Sorry…but I had the feelin' an' had to say somet'ing…" she apologized. "Are de guys armed?"
"Don' know. Didn' ask." Emil replied, shortly, hitting keys like his life depended on it and screaming into the headset. "What are you doin' Jean-Luc…? I don' care if you're sittin' on top of de damned information, get out of dere, now!"
"You want me to talk to him?" Genard offered. Emil shook his head.
"Non, but if dey don' get dere butts out of dat mansion now I'll kill dem myself when dey get back."
"No you won'." Genard laughed.
"Well, okay, no I won', but I feel like it right now." Like many redheads, Emil had a bit of a temper, and the fact that their partners weren't listening to him was about to put him over the edge. He felt they were putting themselves in an unnecessary risk by staying at the Boudreaux mansion when they were very close to getting caught.
"Um…Emil?" Mercy said, pointing at the screen.
"What?" Emil demanded, looking at where she was pointing. "Oh no…damn."
The three Assassins had figured out somehow that someone other than them was in the mansion. They were standing outside the library and had pulled out guns. The library was where the thieves were. And unless Jean-Luc, Pierre and Theoren had guns in their outfits, they were in big trouble.
"Hey! Dey're…dey've got guns!" Genard exclaimed, eyes wide. He suddenly had a very bad feeling of his own in the pit of his stomach, and started silently praying that nothing would happen to his father. "Emil, do somet'ing!"
Emil threw up his hands. "Like what?! Dey've been warned! I told dem! I can'…I mean…dere's not'ing…GAH! Listen. All we can do right now is sit here, watch an' hope dat not'ing goes wrong."
"An' if it does go wrong…" Genard questioned.
"Den it goes wrong. Dere's not'ing we can do…we'd never get dere in time to stop anyt'ing from happenin'." Emil replied. "Now shhhh…de Assassins are goin' in…please dear Lord…"
For the next ten minutes, the three young thieves sat in Emil's room and watched the scene at the Boudreaux mansion in horror. Jean-Luc, Pierre and Theoren were armed, but they only had knives. And knives don't hold up against guns very well in any kind of situation.
Genard's eyes were glued to his father. Praying like mad, he watched every move Pierre made. He was seriously worried about what was taking place at the mansion and felt helpless because he couldn't do a thing about it.
Mercy noticed that he was nervous and put a hand on his arm. "Are you okay, Genard?"
Genard shook his head, causing his glasses to slide down his nose. Shoving them back up, he replied, " Non. I won' be okay until dis is over an' my father is safely away from dat house."
Unfortunately, Genard did not get what he wanted. He watched in silent horror as Fifolet, one of the Assassins, tossed his gun aside when he ran out of bullets, and pulled out a knife. Up until that point, the thieves had been lucky, able to dodge bullets with ease. However, Fifolet was good with a knife, and within minutes, he had stabbed Pierre in the chest.
When Genard saw that scene unfold, he gasped and closed his eyes in despair. He turned away, clenching his eyes shut as tightly as he could and trying to breathe properly. "Is he…?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Jean-Luc?" Emil said into the headset. "Is Pierre…?" When he heard Jean-Luc's answer, he sighed and took the headset off. Then he got up and went over to where his best friend was standing.
"I'm sorry, mon ami," he said sadly, putting a hand on Genard's shoulder as his friend broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
Mercy put her hand on Genard's other shoulder and looked at Emil helplessly. Neither one of them really knew what to do. They knew how close Genard and his father had been…aside from the Guild, they were all they had.
"Help…" Genard whispered, tears flowing down his cheeks even though his eyes were closed.
Mercy and Emil both squeezed his shoulders. "We're here…an' de others will be too, you know dat." Mercy said.
Genard opened his eyes and turned to his two friends. "I know," he told them with a sad smile. "I jus' don' know if dat's enough…"
"I'm sorry…dere's not'ing I can do," Mattie told them all sadly. Mercy began to cry almost hysterically, and the others divided themselves up between her and Jean-Luc. Emil looked at Genard.
"I'm goin' outside," he said softly.
Genard nodded. "Right b'hind you."
Once the two friends were sitting on the front steps of the mansion, they started talking about the Assassins and what was happening.
"We're being killed off, one by one, did you know dat?" Genard said bitterly. "An' we can' stop it. What if de unification takes place?"
"I know. An' I'm scared it will. Jean-Luc's been goin' over de prophecies lately. I have a bad feelin' 'bout de whole t'ing." Emil agreed.
Genard sighed, shaking his head sadly. It had taken him a long time to get over his father's death, and now he had to deal with the death of one of his best friends, at the hands of the same people. "I shouldn' have let Jean-Luc, Theoren an' Claude stop me from goin' an' killin' Fifolet when I wanted to…at least dere would have been one less Assassin in de world for once…"
"Would you feel better right now if you had been able to do dat?" Emil asked cryptically.
"Non…I s'pose I wouldn'." Genard sighed again. "Okay, so de Three Musketeers now b'comes de Two Musketeers, unless we recruit Mercy. What now?"
Emil looked at Genard. Genard looked at Emil. They chuckled slightly, then said, in unison,
"Be unhappy and den move on!"
"Story of our life, huh, mon ami?" Genard grinned. "You'd t'ink we'd be used to dis crap by now…"
Genard sighed, his brown eyes troubled. He'd known Emil wouldn't like what he'd said, but he couldn't help it any. "I had to do what I t'ought was best for de Guild, Emil. At least I voted for him. I t'ink he should get a proper chance to be de leader. Claude an' Theoren don', in case you didn' notice."
"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I jus' hate dis whole t'ing so much." Emil complained.
"You an' me both, Red. De unification was a big mistake, not dat anyone's figured dat out yet, an' dis whole vote of confidence is jus' stupid." Genard replied. "I don' know why t'ings have gone dis way, but I don' like it."
"Do you t'ink Bel wants de leadership?" Emil asked, looking at Bella Donna Boudreaux, viceroy of the Unified Guild and ex-wife of Remy LeBeau, current patriarch of the Guild.
"If she wanted it, she wouldn' have voted for him," Genard said. "I'm surprised she did, I'm glad she didn't vote 'gainst him, but I'm worried 'bout her motives all de same. Dat girl has always hated us, why would she go dis way?"
"I don' know, but I t'ink we should keep an eye on her."
"Me too. But let's start after we get rid of de Neo, huh?"
The next day, Genard did something he had done every year for the past eight years on that particular day.
Opening the huge iron gates, he entered the cemetery with a slightly heavy heart. Life was so screwed up these days…he wished his father was there.
Sitting down in front of the grave, he looked at the tombstone and sighed.
"Papa…t'ings are changin' so much…I wish you were here to tell me everyt'ing will work out, b'cause I really don' b'lieve dat right now. An' I'm also kinda glad you're not here, 'cause I wouldn' want you to have to live t'rough dis. It sucks. I…I'm scared. De Guild…de Thieves Guild…is my life an' I don' want anyt'ing to happen to anyone else. Too many of us have been killed already. Dis unification t'ing…it's like we all signed our death certificates. I jus' hope Remy can keep everyt'ing in order…oh Papa, I miss you so much…but I know you an' de others are watchin' over us all, so maybe t'ings will work out after all. Anyways, t'anks for bein' here an' listenin'. No one else would listen to me ramble on like dat an' actually keep dere mouths shut de whole time. Love you."
As Genard got up and started to walk away, the spirit of Pierre, which had been sitting on the tombstone the whole time his son was talking, floated over and put a hand on Genard's shoulder. "I will never leave you, mon fils. I'll always be by your side, no matter what happens. And I love you too."