James woke up feeling confused and sore. His body ached and he was freezing. He slowly and carefully opened his eyes. He was lying on a thin mat in the corner of a large room. It had high ceilings and large windows. Was it a warehouse? It was hard to tell, James' head felt weird and his thoughts were muddled. He tried to roll over but quickly discovered that his hands, which were ties together, were secured to a pole behind him. He was stuck. His head was pounding now. He felt like he was falling. Falling into the darkness.

Zara Asker was worried. She had spent the entire morning on the phone with the MI5 trying to explain to someone that an agent from a branch of the British Intelligence that wasn't known by most, was on a mission, that should have been for an adult, and had gone missing. The man obviously hadn't heard of CHERUB so it took her a full 47 minutes to finally convince this dimwit to put her on to someone with more authority. Eventually, she managed to speak to Commander Hunter, the leader in hostage negotiations and retrieval. Zara was hoping that Hunter and his team would be able to find James and get him out alive.

"Commander Hunter this is Zara Asker, chair woman of CHERUB." She said.

"Who?"

"CHERUB"

"Oh right. The spy kids. Well Zara what can I do for you?" he asked.

"I have a situation," Zara responded, and she proceeded to explain what had happened.

When she was done talking there was a moment of silence.

"Well," said Hunter, "the first step would be to locate your missing operative. The Scarskins could have taken him any were in the world by now, and unless he is able to get in some kind of contact with us it would be next to impossible to find him. However, gangs are most comfortable on there own turf, so I would bet my money he is still in Vorkuta. I will speak to Lieutenant Sebastian and have him prepare a search team."

Zara thanked him and said, "Please keep me posted, I won't be able to relax until we've got him."

"Don't worry we are the best at what we do" assured Hunter. And with that he hung up.

Zara felt a little bit better, but not even close to at ease. It was very possible that James was already dead. There was she could do now but wait for Hunter's next call.

Lauren was sitting at the dinner table with her friends, a big plate of steak and kidney pie in front of her, but she wasn't hungry. She simply sat there miserably thinking about James and hoping he was all right. It was quiet at her table, which was unusual. On most nights they were the rowdy group, the one that was always being told to shut it, but most nights James was there. None of her friends knew what to say or do so they just sat in silence. The silence however made things worse. She wanted to scream. She wanted someone just to hold her and let her cry instead of treating her like she was made of glass, fragile and could break at a sudden moment. Most of all she wanted her stupid pig of a brother, whom she loved so much, to come home.

"Wake up!"

James awoke to a sharp pain in his side. Someone had kicked him. He opened his eyes and looked up. There was a guard standing over him and he was big, muscular and very mean looking.

"The boss will be hear to interrogate you soon and you better not try anything." He said putting him hands on his hips and emphasizing the fact that he had a gun.

James's CHERUB training buzzed into action and he started to imagine different stories or fake answers to questions that he might be asked. He heard heavy footsteps and watched as a tall man entered the room. James knew who he was of course. It was Vladimir Kozlovaz the leader of the Scarskins gang.

"Well hello James," Vladimir said. His voice was cold and hard. "You have been spying on me haven't you. I found your fingerprints on cameras throughout my house. I only need on thing from you James. One thing and I'll let you go. Can you give me that thing James?"

James remained silent and glared at him.

"Very, well perhaps you need a hint. Who, James, are you working for. Just give me the name and you're free."

"You're lying." James said, trying to keep his voice calm. "You would never let me free."

Vladimir just smiled and said, "James, you may be strong, but I will get to you. There are ways of torture that can make anyone spill their deepest darkest secrets and I plan to use them on you. Just think about that." With that Vladimir got up and started walking to the door. Right before he left he turned to the guard and said "Mark, you may hurt him." And then he walked out.

A smile stretched across Mark's face as he walked over to James.

"Well," he said "we will start with something small. There's no need to do anything to serious tonight, it'll be more fun to hurt you little bits at a time. Killing you slowly."

James just smiled, "have fun with that" he told Mark.

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were kid" said Mark. "It seems as if I have the upper hand." He said placing his foot onto of James' chest. "It seems that I," with every word he was applying more pressure, "am in charge." With the last word he pressed down as hard as he could. James heard the sickening snap of his ribs breaking. He couldn't breath and was overwhelmed by the pain. Everything went black.