Chapter 1

The man stood across the street from the familiar white building, with its ornate wooden doors and carved stone structure. So much time had passed since he had last been here, and he didn't know why he thought that he would still be allowed back, but some sort of reckless optimism made him willing to give it a go anyway. He crossed the street, hitching his satchel higher up on his shoulder as he went, but he barely made it through the doors before he was grabbed from behind and manhandled away to the security area. How did they know he wasn't just an innocent visitor? Looking down at his tattered and torn clothing provided him with his answer.

"Get off me!" He shouted, trying to wrestle his way out of the security officers' grip. "I work here!"

"Got any identification?"

He faltered. "Oh, I meant I used to work here…"

"Sorry mate, you can't fool us." The security officer grinned at his colleague: who did this guy think he was? Probably another idiot desperate to become a 'super-spy'.

He continued to struggle against them as they dragged him away, and back towards the doors. By now, he was attracting a lot of attention from the other people inside the building. Suddenly he saw a familiar figure making her way across the entrance hall and his breath caught in his throat. She was still here! She could help him.

"Ros!" He shouted, desperately trying to get her attention. "Ros!"

She turned, finally hearing her name being called, and met his gaze with shock. She walked dazedly towards him. She looked him up and down, her cold, brown eyes taking in every aspect of his disheveled appearance.

"Zaf," Ros said, in almost a whisper. She then turned to the security officers and said, "Release him, he's with me." Her voice was level, and controlled as she spoke. Zaf guessed that she was trying to put on a calm front. He knew that inside she would be screaming.

Ros flashed her identification at them before towing him away. She didn't say a word to him as she walked up to the Grid; she was too shocked. Understandable; he was supposed to be dead after all.

Zaf didn't know what he expected to happen when he emerged on the other side of the pods, but he did expect things to have changed drastically. As it was, the Grid still looked practically the same as it had when he had left, if not possessing a few more gadgets. As he and Ros stepped out of the pods, no one looked up from their stations. He was thrilled that he noticed that Adam was still there, along with Malcolm, although he was surprised to see that Ruth was back. Where the Grid had hardly changed, the people working on it had. There were people here who Zaf had never seen before: a tall man with jet black hair standing talking to Adam; an older woman with wiry grey hair busy working on something with Ruth; a young woman with wavy copper hair sat giggling with another young woman who had short, chocolate brown hair; a young man, barely in his twenties sat fiddling with a laptop…so many people that he didn't recognise. And where was Jo?

Ros cleared her throat and everyone stopped what they were doing to look up at her. Adam, Ruth and Malcolm's jaws all dropped.

"Zaf?" Adam stepped forward, seemingly numb. "But…you died."

"Nah, you know me… I was just working on sorting out my identity crisis…"

Adam grinned at the joke, but his eyes still showed confusion. Ros had disappeared to fetch Harry, and he too stared at Zaf in shock.

"I know. I have a lot of explaining to do," said Zaf.

"Damn right you do," Harry replied. "But we should wait until Jo and Ben get here."

"Jo? She's still..?" Zaf trailed off, wanting desperately to add the word 'alive' to the end of the sentence.

"Yeah, she's still here," Adam said, clapping him on the shoulder.

Zaf grinned.

Roughly ten minutes later, and Jo and Ben arrived separately on the Grid. Evidently everyone else turned up for work early, whereas they both made it in on just on time. Jo had almost collapsed in shock at seeing Zaf alive when she had first arrived. She was now sat in her seat around the conference table, sipping a glass of water while the colour slowly returned to her cheeks. Harry had quickly ushered everyone into the conference room, where now they sat, waiting for Zaf to begin.

"I suppose I'd better explain myself then…" he said heavily.

No one said a word.

"I faked my own death," he continued bluntly.

"How?" asked Harry sharply.

"What's the story that you all know?" Zaf sighed.

"You were infected…then you were taken hostage by the Redbacks and tortured for information. They were going to sell you on but you were killed. We had to identify your body using dental records."

"Right. Well, I was infected, yes, but when they captured me I was given a cure so that I wouldn't die from it. They obviously had contacts somewhere because I didn't think there was a cure. Anyway, they didn't want me to die so they could sell me on. But I escaped." Zaf looked up at everyone's expectant faces. "There was another guy that was killed before me. It was his body that was delivered. I should know: I delivered it."

"But the dental records-?" Jo began.

Zaf cut her off. "I switched them so that the ones that matched the body were names as mine. I never spoke to the other guy. I just used him."

There was silence for a while, and then Adam spoke.

"Why did you decide to stay dead?"

"I thought I could do more good that way. I went deep undercover, working my way into Iranian terrorist sympathy circles. I was looking out for any information that might have surpassed British Intelligence." Zaf looked directly at Harry. "And I found some."

"What?" Harry said.

"Russia is helping Iran go nuclear."