Chapter 1: An explanation

Ring! James awoke to the sound of his mobile phone. He rolled over and checked the clock on the side table next to him: it was 2:03 AM. Who could be calling him this early?

"Hello?" he grunted

"James, it's Ewart. I'm almost at the flat; I'm coming to pick you up. It's not safe. You have to get out now and without anyone seeing you." Ewart sounded worried.

"What's going-"

Ewart cut him off, "I'll explain later, just get out and meet me at the corner store down the street. I'll be there in 10 minutes."

With that Ewart hung up, leaving James in the dark and silent flat. He moved quickly and quietly, dressing and grabbing his money and mobile phone. Then he slipped out the door and crept down the hall careful to make no sound. When he reached the front door he smiled to himself, why had Ewart sounded so worried? There was no one around at this time of night to see him; he didn't need to sneak around. James opened the door and stepped outside and suddenly, thwack, something cold and hard hit him in the head. He heard a sickening crack and everything went black.

Ewart had waited in the Range Rover for 20 minutes. Still no James. Frustrated he decided to call the teenager one more time. He had probably fallen back to sleep. He punched in James' number and waited, but the only response was a voicemail. He began to feel a little anxious and started to drive up the road, hoping to spot James leaving the compound. He drove up and down the street 3 times before accepting that James wasn't there. Once again he tried calling him, and once again Ewart only got to voicemail. Now, Ewart was really worried. What if their worst fears came true? What if they were too late? But, it had been an hour and he hadn't received any form of communication from James. He had to call Zara and tell her, tell her that James Adams was missing in action.

Lauren had just finished her 2-hour training session in the dojo. And was heading out of the locker room after a long shower when she saw her handler Meryl.

"Lauren." Meryl said solemnly "Please come with me, Zara needs to talk to you."

Lauren didn't reply. She new that since Zara was the chairwoman she would only handle big issues and she was trying to think of what she had done wrong.

Meryl walked her to Zara's office.

"Go on in Lauren, Zara's waiting inside." Said Meryl as she turned down the hall and walked away.

Lauren took a deep breath and opened the door stepping into Zara's messy office.

"Oh hello Lauren" said Zara. "Please sit down."

Lauren sat.

"Zara-" she started

Zara forced a small smile, "no Lauren this isn't about you. It's about James."

Lauren felt her heart rate quicken. She hadn't seen James for a month. She had come back from the summer retreat only to find that he had just left on a mission in the small Russian city of Vorkuta. And that was it. Lauren put her head in her hands. Just last year she had been in the same room, talking to the same person and she had a feeling that she was going to hear the same thing.

"Lauren," Zara said slowly, "James is missing."

3 words confirmed her worst fears and Lauren couldn't stop the tears from pouring down her face. Yes, James had been found and he had been ok, but what were the odds of him surviving again?

Through her tears Lauren whispered, "what happened?"

"Well," Zara started "I suppose James didn't tell you about his mission did he?"

Lauren shook her head.

"Ok, so we pulled James from the summer vacation early because he was perfectly suited for a certain mission. In northern Russia there is a city called Vorkuta, and Vorkuta has recently had some issues with gang wars between the Scarskins and the Machetes. So we sent James to an old boarding school were we knew that the kids were poorly looked after and let to do almost as they please, since those kinds of kids are perfect targets for gang recruits. It was James' job to be invited into the Scarskins gang and to be able to warn police when and what the gang was planning. He was also in charge of bugging Vladimir Kozlovax's house (he is the head of the gang) so that we could have audio and visual proof that he was orchestrating the gang. You see, he has tried very hard to look clean and there isn't any solid evidence against him. Anyway, things were going pretty well, and James had all the bugs in place and we started to accumulate evidence enough evidence for the mission to be complete and for James to come home. But, 2 nights ago all of the visual bugs failed. However, the audio bugs remained functional. We found out from listening that Vladimir new about some of the video bugs and was aware that he was being spied on. He is very paranoid so he had the bugs checked for fingerprints, and guess whose finger came up? James'. So last night, we got a call from the team listening in on the bugs. They told us that Vladimir knew James was a spy and was sending men out to capture him. We sent Ewart who was his mission controller to get him before the Scarskins did. Ewart talked to James on the phone and arranged a meeting place, but James never showed. We fear that, um, well, we think they got him before we did."

Lauren let out a sob. This was far worse than Aero City, and far worse than anything she could ever imagine. She couldn't think straight, and it was hard to breath because she was crying so hard. All she wanted was James.

"But, you're going to find him right?" Lauren asked

"We are doing everything we can. Ewart is out there permanently with a MI5 team until they find James or his body." Lauren winced at "body" but Zara continued.

"We are trying our best Lauren. I'm sorry."

"The last time I saw him, I told him he was a pig and a complete arse, and now I might never see him again." Lauren said to no one in particular

Zara stepped forwards and hugged Lauren letting the young girls tears stain her new BCBG blazer. James was Lauren's only family and she knew that despite there fights they loved each other very much. Zara vowed to herself that she would do what ever it takes to get James back.