Lou's Towing Company

A few miles south of Chelsea, Alex was beginning to wonder if coming along with Blunt and Mrs. Jones had been such a good idea after all. Alex was sitting the backseat next to Mrs. Jones, with Blunt in the passenger seat. Neither one of them had said anything to Alex, which he was grateful for. All he wanted to do right now was relax, but that was impossible. Despite the advanced technology for this particular vehicle, nothing could prevent the sudden jolting and bouncing motions that the car encountered from the various potholes in the road. Alex glanced out of his window, and realized that they were nearing the slums.

Alex hated this part of London. It was probably one of the worst places he had ever traveled through, on foot or in car. Along with druggies, drug dealers, and murderers who infested the streets, crime in this part of town was also on the rise. Drugs were harder becoming more expensive. Every now and again, Alex would hear about a murder revolving around a bad drug deal, or gangs shooting each other in plain sight of onlookers and pedestrians. Prostitution was another problem in this part of town, as well. As the car continued rolling down the near-empty streets, Alex saw many young-looking women in their twenties, either standing near an empty street corner or leaning against the sides of various buildings. Alex was very glad that the windows of the car were tinted completely black from the outside.

The car started to drive along more slowly now. Alex looked over at Mrs. Jones, who was just unwrapping another peppermint from a small plastic wrap.

"Where are we going?" Alex asked.

Mrs. Jones looked up from her peppermint at him and smiled to him reassuringly. "You'll see, Alex."

Alex nodded and felt the car gently lurch to the side as the chauffer pulled the car into a narrow alley, going about ten miles per hour now. Alex looked ahead, through the windshield to get a better view of where they were heading. He could see nothing.

The driver then turned the corner of the alley and started driving down it. He pulled up as close as the car would go to the wall, and stopped. Alex looked out of his window. There was no room for him to get out, due to the sides of the building being so close together.

Puzzled, he looked at Mrs. Jones, who said nothing and seemed completely relaxed.

Before he could say anything, the brick wall blocking the way of the car suddenly started sliding to the side. Alex was slightly startled by this, but soon realized that this was some sort of hidden-away location for MI6. The bank on Liverpool Street, after all, was rather obvious to Scorpia, Alex decided. The slid into the opposite wall on it's right completely, and the car drove through it, quickly but carefully.

The car was now driving through a dark tunnel. Alex could barely see anything out of his window, but all that he could see was brick wall. The chauffer turned the car left, and then braked to a complete stop.

Blunt unfastened his seatbelt and checked his watch, just as the chauffer got out of the car.

"We're here, but we have only a few minutes to spare."

The chauffer opened Alex's door first, and Alex got out. He thanked the chauffer, who then nodded and went to open Mrs. Jones door, then Blunt's. As the two others got out, Alex looked around him. He was in some sort of parking structure. There were other cars around the area, many of them similar to the car that had brought them here. The light was brighter here, and Alex saw that there was only one door, which was an elevator door.

Blunt and Mrs. Jones started walking towards the elevator, and Alex quickly followed them. He looked over to his side and saw a sign hanging from the wall. It showed a black and white outline of a tow truck with a car attached to the tow. Alex read the label under it.

"Lou's Towing Company?" He asked.

Mrs. Jones nodded. "It's the perfect disguise for our headquarters. Not even Scorpia could guess that a run-down building could be the headquarters of a top secret government agency."

Alex nodded. He agreed that it would not have even crossed Scorpia's mind to look around the slums for any other trace of MI6.

The elevator doors opened, and Alex followed Mrs. Jones and Blunt inside. Alex saw, as soon as he stepped into the elevator, that there was no control panel or button near the side of the compartment.

Alex turned to Blunt. "How do you control this elevator?" He asked.

Blunt grunted then muttered out two words: "Floor twenty-two."

Alex was thrown into shock as the elevator started to rise. It was voice-activated! MI6 sure had gone into dramatics, in Alex's opinion.

Alex looked to his left, and saw that there was some sort of logo on the wall. It was some sort of ring surrounding the name 'MI6'. Alex looked at Mrs. Jones, who was standing comfortably next to Blunt in front of the elevator doors.

"You have a logo, too?" Alex asked, half jokingly and half serious.

Alex saw for a brief moment, a half smile on her face, but it quickly disappeared. Blunt, as always, didn't smile. He remained silent as the elevator continued to rise.

The elevator suddenly stopped, and the doors slid open. Blunt and Mrs. Jones walked through it, with Alex right behind them. They were walking down a modern-looking hallway now, the floors carpeted and the walls painted. The fluorescent lights that lined the hallway were all spaced equally, flooding the corridor in light. Alex saw various art pieces hanging on the walls, none of which he was familiar with.

The hallway seemed to stretch on forever. Each door Alex passed was closed, and looked exactly the same as the ones before it. He could see no signs above or next to any door he passed, and wondered how anyone could find their way from one place to another without going into the wrong room.

Soon, they reached the end of the hallway. The door that they had just come up to was different from all the others. It was a double-door doorway, and it was, of course, closed. On the right of it, though, was a small number panel. Mrs. Jones stepped forward from Blunt's side and punched a six digit code into it. Alex watched as the two doors opened in unison. Mrs. Jones and Blunt continued to walk into the room. Alex followed close behind them.

The new room they were in was incredible. The hardwood floor was so clean that Alex could actually see his reflection in it. The walls were made of marble, and were colored a light-tan color. Alex gazed at the walls, which were beautifully made up by dozens of artworks that were hung in various places. One, large window took up one enormous wall of the room, and looked out over the city of London. Alex saw that there was a staircase that lead up to a small balcony looking down over the main area of the room. In the center of the room, there were three couches placed on end next to each other, and Alex saw several people sitting there already. In the middle of the adjoining couches was a beautiful hand-crafted coffee table. Alex gazed up at the ceiling and saw four glass chandeliers, all casting a beautiful glow over the room. There were potted plants placed in different places all around the room, all adding to the already warm feel of the room, as well. Alex looked over at the people sitting around the coffee table, who were all conversing between themselves. As soon as Alex, Mrs. Jones, and Blunt walked in, though, they stopped talking and gave their full attention to them.

Blunt and Mrs. Jones walked to one of the couches, with Alex following along behind them. Alex cast his gaze at the people sitting down opposite him.

There were two people who Alex didn't recognize, but he immediately recognized Eagle.

"How goes it, Cub?"

Alex smiled. It had been at least a year ago when he was training with the SAS, and Eagle was in his group.

Next to Eagle was John Byrne, the director of the CIA. The American nodded his head at Alex. "How are you doing, Alex? It's been a long time."

Alex said, "I could be better."

Byrne nodded his head. Alex had the feeling that they all knew what had happened to his home, which was just two hours ago. The three other people there whom Alex had never met before nodded at him. He returned the greeting.

Suddenly, the door opened, and three other people came into the room. One of them was Scooter, and Alex saw him grin at him as soon as he came into the room. He was wearing a gray short sleeved polo shirt, with a cross on a chain hung around his neck. He was also wearing tan khaki pants, which hung loosely around his waist.

He was followed in by Wolf, one of the other men in Alex's SAS group. He had given Alex a hard time for he first few weeks during their training, but soon, the two had become good friends. He had also been part of the assault team that had liberated Point Blanc, the all-boy's academy in Northern Europe. Wolf was wearing a black shirt underneath his jean jacket, and sunglasses which he removed right after he entered into the room. He grinned at Alex, as well.

"How goes it, Alex?"

Alex was surprised that he hadn't called him Cub. That was the codename that they had given Alex once he had started SAS training. Alex smiled back bleakly, and said, "Not so good at the moment. Yourself?"

Wolf scratched his head. "Well, my wife's expecting, and as soon as I can get my leave, I'm gonna go visit with her and the baby for a while, before I have to come back."

Alex was caught off guard by this. He didn't know that Wolf was married. "Do you know what you're having?"

Wolf shook his head. "She's supposed to find out next week. We'll just have to wait and see."

Wolf sat down, and Alex looked up at the person who had just walked into the room.

It was Tamara Knight.

She was wearing a sleeveless white tank top, faded jeans, and white sneakers. Her hair was longer now, and seemed to shimmer in the light of the chandeliers. She had grown a bit taller since the last time Alex had seen her, and was wearing just a hint of makeup. Alex stared at her as she walked in and smiled, probably wider than the other two had at him.

"Hi Alex," she said.

Alex finally realized that he was staring at her, and blinked twice. He then finally was able to talk.

"Hi, Tamara," he replied lamely. She smiled at him and sat down directly across from him on the other couch. Blunt suddenly coughed into his hand, and Alex was then able to look away from Tamara and over at Blunt.

The head of MI6 looked at all of the people sitting before him before he started to talk.

"Everyone, I have called this meeting to discuss one thing, and one thing only. And that-"

He looked around the room.

"Is how we can stop Scoripa for good."