Ok, so, yet again that took me forever, so I guess all of you who read this have realised just how awful my timing is. I'll try and get the next one done soon, but I won't make any promises, because you all know what's happened every other time. So- at some point there'll be anothere chapter, and probably fairly soon, because the next bit is actually really quite exciting (I hope!!!!!) I'm listening to Meatloaf at the moment, so I'm in an optimistic mood, which means that I might actually get some more writing done!!!!!!!!! On the bright side, I think that I must have cut down my updating time by about half a year!!!!!!!!!!! Time to celebrate. Please ignore my overuse of exclamation marks today, I appear to be quite happy.

Random Fact#3:- Bananas aren't actually fruit, they are a type of herbs.

That morning they were all up early, looking around the hills they were camped out on. It was still pouring down with rain. Hex looked at the others.

"We COULD have stayed in America, where the weather was nice."

"Yes, but then there would have been the whole downside of no adventure holiday."

"Shut up,"

They were all soaking wet now, the rain at that point where the water was dripping off their noses, and their hair so wet that it felt it wasn't going to dry.

"Well," said Li, brightly, "I guess we're so wet that we can't get wetter. Might as well go abseil." Everyone looked at her, then Hex shrugged,

"Fine, but afterwards, we get to go and get fish and chips,"

"What?" asked Amber. "Why?" Alex, Hex, Li and Alex's dad all looked at her and laughed.

"Because," said Alex, slowly, "We're in Yorkshire, and it's raining. Fish and chips are the main attraction." Amber gave them a look, and muttered,

"British people," in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Right, you go find the ropes Li, Dad, you get the land rover started up," said Alex. The land rover had been left at the site for them to use, and they were prepared to enjoy their first day, before anyone else coming to the adventure holiday they were on turned up. The plan seemed to be to abseil in the morning, then to go and get fish and chips, then the afternoon was completely empty. Alex was hoping they might get a chance to look into the disappearings, but with his dad with them, it would be harder than if they had been on their own.

They didn't even have the news to help them on this one.

ALPHA

"These are the best fish and chips I have ever had," Hex happily proclaimed as he sat there, wolfing down chips.

"They are pretty good," admitted Amber, who was eating her first ever plate of fish and chips, which Hex had taken off her before she ate, and covered in salt, vinegar and ketchup, then handed them back.

They had found a small fish and chips café after they had driven over to Whitby.

"You know," Hex said, with his mouth full, "Dracula came here," everyone looked at him.

"I didn't know that Dracula was a huge fan of fish and chips," said Li, smiling,

"Well, actually he came to do some deadly work, but I'm sure that he loved fish and chips too." Hex grinned, "And the fudge here's supposed to be good."

"I'd quite like to go up the abbey steps," admitted Alex's dad.

"Great!" said Amber quickly, "I'll come with you."

"And," said Hex, I'm going on a fudge tour, anyone else want to come?"

Alex immediately saw what his friends were doing. They were trying to get a few hours without his dad, to try and find stuff out.

"I'll come," said Alex, and Li and Paulo nodded, and said that they'd join, which was why they were now trudging round Whitby in the pouring rain. They'd gone into the first shop that they'd seen and bought a massive bag of fudge, so as to support their story. Now they were desperately trying to remember where it was they had put the land rover.

"I can't believe that we've gone and lost our massive four by four!" said Paulo.

"Yep," nodded Alex, "It sucks."

"Wait, wait, wait!!!" yelped Hex. "I see it!" It was right next to the fish and chip shop.

"Oh yeah," nodded Paulo, "I'd forgotten we left it there. We must have come out of the back exit.

"Great," said Li, and they all clambered into the land rover. Paulo took the wheel, because so far, he was the only one of them with a driving license. Alex and Li hadn't yet taken the tests, and Hex had almost killed the instructor, so been, obviously, failed.

"Where are we headed?" asked Alex.

"I guess to round where this Becca girl lived. Amber's keeping your dad distracted for a while. You know, if you'd told him, we might have all been able to go!" said Li,

"But we wouldn't have had this massive bag of fudge," pointed out Alex. Hex hit him round the back of the head, "Oh, thanks,"

"Hey, we COULD have had Amber and your dad helping us out with all this, but NO!"

"Come on, he wouldn't have let us do all this stuff."

"Alex, he wanted you to join the SAS, I think that he knows you can deal with danger. I mean, he'd understand better than my mum." Hex said.

"Just get in the car and stop arguing you two," said Paulo, "you're even worse than Hex and Amber when they get together and begin to argue,"

"Whatever," shrugged Hex, "Just let me see if I can find out where all these missing kids lived."

"Ok, find out about that Becca girl first if you can. She's the most recent, so she's probably the one with the traces nearer." Hex nodded, and pulled out his palm top, beginning to type something very quickly onto it.

"So," said Li, "What does your dad know about disappearances then, Alex?"

"Nothing, for god's sake, and you're being just as bad as Hex." Alex groaned, "It's not a good idea to tell my dad just yet,"

"Whatever, Alex, it's your choice, not ours," sighed Li, Hex let out a long groan.

"Something tells me that Hex may have just found something." Paulo smiled, and Hex just sent back a glare.

"You're really not going to believe this, but everyone who's disappeared is at the same children's home." Hex said,

"What do you mean?" asked Alex, puzzled.

"Every one of them was an orphan, and they were all at the same children's home. They're also all around 8 years old," Hex frowned, "So it looks like it's an inside job."

"Why would someone be interested in a few kids from one children's home?" asked Li,

"Do you remember the Scorpion, and what he did?" asked Hex, and Li nodded slowly. "It's a lot like that, I reckon, apart from people who'd want slaves would quite like a little Western kid to add to their collection, so these kids, these "unwanted" kids are being taken away and sold to the highest bidder," Everyone's face paled dramatically. Li was the first to speak again.

"That is just sick," her face scrunched up in disgust, "How are we going to bring these guys down?"

"I don't know," said Alex, shaking his head. "I actually don't think that we can."

"What the hell do you mean, Alex?" asked Li, angrily. "We have to stop these guys, they're sick, and- how can we not be shutting down this organisation?"

"Because this is one of those really big ones, Li. Surely a group like this will have to have transport, money, and they've presumably got their contacts inside all of the major media stations, which is why all information about their activities has disappeared somehow. Plus, I bet they've done it before. If they can cover their footsteps as well as they can, then they could have taken hundreds of children out of England. We actually can't know the size of this thing, which is why we can't do much."

"We can do a hell of a lot," said Hex, "We can save those kids from this orphanage place."

"Yeah," nodded Paulo, "Sorry Li, but I'm with those guys, we are not going up against people smugglers without a massive SAS team at our backs," Alex felt Li's eyes boring into his back, but he said nothing. "So where is this orphanage place?" asked Paulo, and Hex looked through his palm top.

"It's in Sheffield. There's no way we can get there without your dad noticing." He shook his head, "Crap,"

"Maybe a couple of us could try and sneak out tonight," Alex said hesitantly.

"Yeah," nodded Paulo, "Who would go?"

"I can't," said Alex, I'm sharing a tent with him, so it's probably better if I'm one of them who stays, and helps to distract him."

"Ok," said Li, "I'll go, I want to get these scumbags any way that I can."

"I'll go too," said Hex, "Anything to get out of Paulo's snoring." He smiled feebly. "And anyway, I'm just loving every minute of this charming weather."

"That's just great, Hex," laughed Alex, "So you won't mind a nice hike before we get back to camp."

"What do you mean?" asked Hex, looking suspiciously back at them.

"Because you've just been nominated as the one who goes up the hundred steps to the abbey to fetch Amber and my dad back, and then back down again to the land rover."

"I second that nomination," grinned Li, "And I propose that the rest of us break out the fudge,"

"What!" Hex exclaimed, before a mischievous look appeared on his face, and he darted out of the car, and began running up the steps.

"Why does he look so happy?" asked Li, "He has to run up a hundred steps in the pouring rain."

"Maybe he likes the rain more than he lets on."

"Actually," said Alex, "I think he may be smiling because that is the bag of fudge in his hands." He Li and Paulo all jumped out of the car, and began chasing up the steps towards Hex.

ALPHA

"Ahh, my leg muscles hurt so much," groaned Hex, "Maybe running up stairs that fast isn't as good an idea as it seemed in my head." He was stretched out in front of the camp fire, and his legs didn't really hurt, he was just rubbing it in the other's face that he'd beaten them to the top of the steps, and claimed himself a victory slab of nice looking fudge.

"I'd like to point out he had a head start," said Li to Amber and Alex's dad, as they all sat there eating bits of very nice looking fudge.

"So," said Alex's dad, "do you guys feel up to a nice trip out sailing tomorrow?"

"You have to be kidding me," said Hex, "In the North Sea? We'll die!"

"It'll be a challenge grinned Alex's dad, "I bet you'll never have done anything as scary as it though, so if you don't want to..." Everyone laughed, and assured him that it wouldn't be that scary, Amber even throwing in that she thought she might have sailed in even scarier places before. Alex's dad shook his head, "Ok, I cannot keep up with you lot, I'm going to head off to sleep. Don't stay up too late. We want to be up early so we can catch a good tide tomorrow."

"Yeah, cool," nodded Alex, we'll all head back in about half an hour."

"Night,"

As soon as Alex's dad was out of earshot, they all leant in.

"Hex, you and Amber ought to get off around now, otherwise it'll be way too late. Just don't be gone too long, right?"

"Yeah," nodded Hex and Amber,

"Have you got mobiles?"

"What do you think?" said Hex, "You could fax me with my new palm top and you'd still get it."

"And I have an ordinary mobile once you've realised that Hex's new palm top is never going to work," smiled Amber, "Just pass me the car keys."

"Why you?" asked Hex,

"Because, Hex, unlike you I have a drivers license." Amber smiled gleefully, Hex shook his head, and let her head forwards, before whispering to Alex,

"Americans," Alex laughed, and watched as the two headed off into the distance.

Ok, I have a confession, that fact from earlier came from www. nicefacts .com , because my usual store of knowldge has deserted me for the day.

Sorry again about how long it took. Please still review!!! It really does remind me that I have a story going, cos I keep forgetting!