~If you're lost, just look for me,

You'll find me in the region of the summer stars~

AUGUST 1ST

Despite Simon Cowell's house arrest, the group had went to get coffee and enjoy the fact that they were all back together again. For a couple of hours, the five of them caught up on everything until all the drinks were gone and Louis was convinced that Hailee was going to be tired of dealing with Infinity.

Louis Tomlinson, despite not being the designated "driver" of the group, was in the driver's seat, letting Zayn Malik pick the music that they would listen to. Unfortunately for anyone who hated Smash Mouth, that's all they were getting. All Star was on repeat for the next twenty minute drive, and they were all screaming the lyrics.

In the backseat, Harry Styles was texting his mum pictures of his new hair color, which she was bound to disapprove of. However, taking a selfie was made hard by the fact that his arm was broken and he had to keep the cast out of the picture so that she didn't worry. That meant that Liam Payne was taking the photo and forcing Harry to show multiple angles of his red hair and smile. His own hair was a deep black that left him looking very similar to the way he always looked. Personally, he thought he looked a lot more like Zayn, who had objected to the hair dying process.

Niall Horan was bouncing up and done due to the iced coffee in his system, along with the fact that it had all run through him. He was desperate to get back to the house so that he could pee. His own hair was electric orange, which wasn't unusual for the serial hair dy-er. Meanwhile, Louis' hair was purple and no one was getting used to that anytime soon.

The guards at the gate let the car in, and Zayn finally stopped the music. Perrie Edwards was sitting on the front steps, appearing to be waiting for them. "What's up?" Niall questioned as he hopped out. Her bomb-building kit was spread out on the pavement in front of her.

"It's time for the meeting. Not that you guys would care about being on time," She chastised them.

Liam rolled his eyes and hit the back of her head lightly as he passed by. "Simon never said what time the meeting was, so how can you blame us? We needed a gab session."

She looked up at the rest of the group as they kept walking inside. "I can see Harry using that phrase, but never you, Liam. Straight to the conference room with you lot!"

By the time Louis had his infant daughter, Infinity, back in his arms, and had settled himself in the chair, Zayn had their boss pulled up on the large computer screen in the office. He had arrived in New York late the prior night to conduct business, but this was very important and needed a FaceTime call. The camera showed him sitting in his office, in a suit as he always was.

"Alright, so we have a month to prepare for the biggest job ever," He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

Palmer Scott immediately rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. The action did not go unnoticed, and Simon looked at him. "I'm having a prostethician come in to you today, so don't worry." Two days prior to this meeting, Harry and Palmer had been broken out of a hospital, where they were under police watch. In the scuffle to leave, Palmer's prosthetic leg had been left behind and he was very bitter about it.

No one except Perrie and Luke Davies knew much about Palmer, but Louis knew enough to remember that his leg had been amputated after a bad car crash and that he was very good at moving on the prosthetic. Simon had found him in dire need of money to pay for his medical bills, and that's how he was where he was - sitting at the table with the best of the best.

"Anyways," Simon began again. "To backtrack for everyone who missed this discussion the first time, my brother Nicholas and I have a "game" to see who can collect the most money illegally in a year."

"Seems legit," Niall laughed, then leaned back and crossed his arms. Eyebrows knit together, it was clear he was going to absorb every word of what Simon was going to tell him. Sure, the others had given him the spiel this morning, but this was straight from the source.

Perrie, Palmer, and Luke sat silently. Luke was the only one who showed mild contempt - he didn't understand what was going on, and Simon keeping him out of the loop was his pet peeve. "This game only ends when one of us gets caught, or dies. But we can't turn each other in - if Nicholas turns me in, all I have to do is call someone who will spread all the dirt on him. And vice versa."

"Are you implying that you want this game to end?" Palmer questioned, leaning forward slightly. One of his crutches fell against Liam, who propped it back up again.

Simon licked his lips and fixed the camera. "I'm getting there. But yes. With this plan, everything ends. I'm getting out of this cycle. And then you guys will be free of me too. After getting a massive payout. And you four owe me for breaking you out of prison."

"We're wanted criminals. Yay," Perrie rolled her eyes. "And where's Hailee? She's never at any of these meetings." She was referring to Hailee Steinfeld, the group's expert sniper, although Palmer did have some serious skills.

Louis interjected here, having known of Hailee for a while. The two hadn't done a job together until just a couple days prior, but you didn't get to be Simon's number one without knowing about all the other tricks up his sleeve. Not all of them, but most of them. "She does her own thing, but she delivers. We don't need to worry about her."

"So, we're doing the job," Luke stated. "Got it. Continue."

"When we go forth with the plan, my brother and I's arrangement will end. None of you except for Louis need to know anything about that part of the plan." Louis slowly nodded, not understanding the situation quite yet. "On September 2nd, Nicholas is getting married -"

"I have some questions!" Niall said, raising his hand. "Before we move on. Ok, so if this Nicholas fella does crime like you do, does he have a team, like us?"

"Yes. That's part of the reason that I want out so bad. Yes, I'm getting old and want to retire, but my brother ..." He trailed off for a moment and stared above the camera. "He has no regard for human life. His team members die, and he doesn't even try to keep them safe. That's why I have to stop him."

"Thanks," Niall slumped back down and started spinning his chair slightly.

"On September 2nd, my brother is having his third wedding. He's using the event as a front to rob his wedding guests and jack their cars. They have people that they are going to pin the crime on, but none of that really concerns you guys. What all of you are going to be a part of is robbing the robbers."

"We get to jack cars!" Harry exclaimed excitedly. He was the car geek.

"Well, that's actually not a part of the plan, Harry." There was a loud sigh. "We're going to blow all the cars up." Harry scrunched his nose up at the idea. "But we'll get to that, we'll get to that."

Luke then did a small hand raise like Niall, and put his arms on the table, looking up at Simon through the screen. "How do you know what your brother is doing? I don't think that he'd just tell you."

Simon bit his lip and hesitated before answering. "I have a double agent. Extremely reliable. I trust her."

"I bet it's Hailee," Perrie leaned over to say to Palmer.

"This double agent has asked their identity to be kept a secret until they arrive on the 16th to provide last minute blueprints and schematics."

"Can we move onto the first steps?" Zayn finally jumped into the conversation. He seemed nervous, which was very unlike him on the outset of a job.

Simon moved to open some files. "Yes, yes, we can move on. There are detailed day-by-day goals for each of you if you open the job folders. Some things may change as more information comes in however. Zayn and Harry, you have new schedules on the printer."

Harry reached up to grab the two pages and handed Zayn's across the table. Meanwhile, Louis stood and pointed at the screen after slamming his manila folder shut. With all the anger in his body, he yelled at Simon, "You want me to bring my daughter into the heist! Absolutely not!"

"She's not going to be in danger," Simon stated matter-of-factly. "You know that I would never let Fin get hurt." 

"You don't have the right to call her by her nickname." Harry took Louis' folder and began to look at it. "I'm leaving right now. I'm going to New York and working at Adidas, and Harry's coming with me-"

"He's right, Lou. She'll be fine," Harry smiled at him.

The two of them bickered quietly, and then Zayn spoke up from where he was looking at his revised schedule. "This looks good, Simon. I don't see any more issues popping up. Why is Harry going?"

Harry looked down at the paper in his hands. "Why am I going to Boston in the morning?"

Then it was Louis' turn to grab his boyfriend's schedule and look it over. He looked up at Simon and sighed loudly. "Niall, can you go get my phone? I think I left it in the car."

"Go get your own phone," He glared over at his friend.

"Come on, Niall. I've got a million questions for Simon. Just a minute. I bet Eleanor's called a billion times about Fin." His tone had changed to being sugar-sweet, whereas, a moment ago, he was filled with anger.

Niall sighed and stood, leaving the room. Once the door was safely shut, Simon began to nod and speak once again. "Thanks, Louis. Harry and Zayn are going to be taking a short trip to the East Coast of the U.S, but you two aren't allowed to mention any of the details surrounding the second destination of the journey to Niall until you get back. Say you agree to these terms."

"Of course. I agree," Zayn said, curious, but not going to doubt Simon.

Meanwhile, Harry had his lips set in a thin line and he looked down at his schedule with an indescribable emotion. After a moment, he looked back up at Simon. "I agree." Zayn frowned and looked over at Louis. Both of them could tell that keeping Niall out of the loop alarmed Harry, but he must have come to the conclusion that he has to follow Simon's rules.

But Simon's plan only had to not work once for Harry to lose faith in him. And there was Harry, arm in a cast, and Palmer, without a prosthetic. There wasn't a lot of trust to go around.