Carl led them into an office, situated at the end of the ghostly corridor and round a slight corner. It was an average sized room, filled with a work desk, a drinks cabinet and a glass display filled with wonderful antique weapons such as daggers, an axe, a Katana, guns and a Hunga Munga; Jonathan was particularly captivated by them, and more probably their wealth.

"I wouldn't touch anything if I were you," Carl told him as he walked over to the desk, "Armand is quite anal."

Jonathan heard him, but his sparkling eyes remained on the display; his pupils may as well have transformed into Pound symbols. Femi stood by the open door, rubbing her forearms stressfully, while her blank eyes stared at the floor in a trance. All she could think about was the Russian Roulette, and the man who had just given away his life for the sake of money. Alex noticed her agitated behaviour but granted her privacy as he moved over to Carl to guard him warily as he rummaged through some drawers.

"What'll they do to her brother?" Alex asked him in a quiet voice, but a serious one.

Carl didn't look up as he continued his search, "Once they discover he doesn't have the ring... they'll probably kill him."

Alex glanced over his shoulder at Femi as the dire truth washed through his mind. He couldn't allow that to happen… It would destroy her.

"Probably. So there's still a chance they might not." Alex stated hopefully but descreetly, for Femi's sake.

Carl gave a quick shrug, "Armand is a man of negotiation when it suits him. He can't resist a juicy deal or gamble. If he thinks about Carter's value to you, he could turn to the option of a trade. He loves a good trade."

Alex nodded softly, "They'll be following us, then."

"You can bet on it," Carl then pulled out a folded, thick piece of paper, "ah, got it."

Carl flapped the parchment in the air until it unfolded itself, to then lay it flat on the desk for both of them to clearly see. Alex moved round beside him to reach a better angle and followed Carl's finger as he trailed their journey.

"It should take us about three days to make it here," Carl stabbed his fingertip at a strange name on the map, "then we have to head through the jungle to reach the tribe. I have a friend who can guide us through."

Alex just nodded, in deep thought, his narrow eyes scanning the area of the map where Carl's finger was. The journey itself wouldn't be so difficult, but now that Alex had to think about Armand following them, Carter's safety and actually reaching this ancient 'tribe', he was a little distressed again.

"Can we go soon?" Femi timidly chirped.

Alex and Carl both looked up at her and found her standing back against the concrete wall, beside the door, with her arms folded. She was nibbling anxiously on her fingernail, which she never did unless she was very distraught about something, and her pale face was ridden with fear and upset. Both men realised how upset she was and decided it was best not to hang around, for her sake.

"I would very much like to go soon." She added politely, in her state of shock.

Leaning up, Carl folded up the map with a sigh, "We should go out the back way. I have another car. It should buy us some time if Armand should show up."

Carl stuffed the map into the inside pocket of his jacket before briskly walking around the table, Alex following, to the doorway. He stopped to look over at Femi, who nervously lifted her gaze. Their eyes met, just for a moment, before Alex interrupted them by taking up both of her hands into his.

"Let's get you out of here, doll'." He told her protectively.

Nodding, Femi forgot Carl was there and allowed Alex to pull her away from the wall and out through the doorway past him. Carl led them out the back door, positioned just beside the office, where the walked down a set of iron steps into a small car park; it was more like a large alley, with bins lining the walls of buildings which had closed off windows. It was definitely a secluded area that no one would have much interest in. Alex opened the back door for Femi who heaved an apprehensive sigh at the sight of yet another vehicle; she hated these long, anxious journeys.

"Carter's gonna' be fine," Alex told her, pulling her towards him a little, "he's tough. You know that. Armand'll try to trade him. He wouldn't waste an opportunity."

Femi almost snickered at him, "I'm glad you think so. He's a fine tool."

Her voice oozed with bitter sarcasm, with which Alex knew she was still furious with all of them for abandoning him. Femi pulled her hands free of Alex's grip and helped herself into the back seat; Alex wanted to say something, but Jonathan brushed past him and climbed into the seat next to her before he could think of what exactly. He stood, for a moment, with his hand on the car door as he stared down into the shade of the car and at Femi's sulking face. She knew he was looking at her but refused to pay him any attention. This annoyed him, greatly, and with a wriggle of his lips he finally decided to spare his pride and slammed the door shut, making Femi flinch a little. Her sad eyes lingered on the back of the seat before her as she thought over his anger, his guilt, and her own guilt. Should she really be treating him so? Was he really to be blamed?

Alex got into the front passenger seat at the same time as Carl sunk into the drivers' seat. Everyone was just strapping themselves in when a bewildering, golden light blasted intrusively into the car from behind them. Surprised, everyone looked over their shoulders with a hand in the air to try and block the light and see past it at the source. All they heard was a car engine revving threateningly.

"What is that?" Femi gasped, struggling to see.

All of a sudden, the car was attacked by a sequence of bullets which could clearly be distinguished as they cracked into its metal body and smashed all of the windows around them. Femi released a sharp yelp as she followed Jonathan in squeezing down onto the floor between their back seats and the chairs in front, and Alex and Carl sunk down as far as they could go in them. After about ten second (which is a reasonably long time for guns to be fired), silence arrived like a blanket of silk and the group were able to digest what had just happened. Femi gave a groan of discomfort and Carl bravely lifted his head to peer past his chair and out of the back window.

"You ok Femi?" Alex called back worriedly.

"Yes…" She exhaled, shaken up.

"Very clever." Carl whispered, at realising who their attackers were.

At once, Carl leant up, still half-perching his seat, and turned the key in the ignition. With a fiddle of the gear stick and a command on the clutch, he stomped his foot down upon the accelerator and sent the car flying forwards towards the opening between two buildings. This took everyone by surprise as glass shook to the floor and the sudden inertia forced them to grab onto something.

"Hang on!" Carl shouted out to everyone.

"Ooh, not again!" Jonathan cooed fretfully, "why do we always have to end up in a bloody car chase?"

The car zoomed through the alleyway and grazed its sides against their concrete faces, causing silver sparks to ignite and an awful groaning sound to rumble against everyone's ears. It bashed from side to side, sparkling and hissing, until it dived out into the openness of the busy, main road where civilians and other drivers had to dive out of the way and swerve the cars away to avert a collision. Drivers beeped their horns, people shouted and shook their fists, but Carl took no noticed and continued to steer full-speed up the road - on the opposite side!

"Look out!" Femi screamed, upon spotting a red bus verging towards them, as she clutched the shoulders of Alex's seat.

Carl's eyes popped open in fright and he abruptly yanked on the steering wheel and caused the car to swerve left, sending everyone tumbling onto the right; Alex would have fallen into Carl's lap if he hadn't grabbed into the dashboard. The car bumped up onto the sidewalk where people were forced to literally leap out of the way as the black car zoomed down the pedestrian walkway, knocking newspapers stalls, hot chestnuts stalls and flowers stalls up into the air and into explosions of celebrative terror. Nuts and petals decorated the front window and Carl used the wipers to clear his view; they flew down the side of the speeding car and in through the windows to hit Alex, Femi and Jonathan in the faces.

"Hey Carl! Here's a tip!" Alex called over to him, "try not hitting stuff!"

Carl didn't response as he was concentrating too much on avoiding killing any innocent people. It was madness! Femi heard a screech from the street beside them and, looking out of the back window and through her hair flapping about in the wind, she saw two large, red jeeps advancing on the other side of the road. The only thing in between them was the traffic.

"They've caught up to us!" Femi shouted up to Carl.

Glancing in his mirror, he cursed at the sight of the two jeeps. Relentless bastards. Femi then gave an emotional gasp upon vaguely recognising the shadowed profile of her dear brother who was sitting in the back seat beside two armed men.

Femi sat upright in alarm, "They have Carter!"

Alex looked over at the jeeps and Jonathan remained squished down on the floor, out the range of any bullets. Carl then spotted a rather big issue sitting across their path up ahead - a wagon was reversing out of a small road, and it wasn't moving fast! He knew he had to make a quick decision and convinced himself to take the risk and impulsively swerve off of the pavement and back into the road, throwing Femi and Alex against the car doors beside them. Cars were sent into a frenzy as they wavered along the road, skidding and honking madly, managing to manoeuvre out of their way. Carl managed to arrive onto the correct side of the road again and continued to overtake any slow drivers to avoid closing the distance between them and their enemies.

Gunfire battered the back of their car as Armand's men relentlessly attacked with waves of more bullets; people in the streets dropped to the ground or hid behind posts and in the doorways of shops and restaurants. It was absolute mayhem.

"Alex!" Femi cried from the back, as she hid behind the height of the back seats.

Alex, also ducking behind his chair, gritted his teeth in frustration; he wanted so badly to protect her, but what could he do? Carl was still occupied with his skilful driving to be able to take more action.

"Lift the floor up!" He shouted to Alex.

Alex just looked at him like he was mad.

Carl sent him an impatient look, "Under your feet - lift it up!"

At once, Alex pulled back the foot mat to find a small hole in the plastic flooring beneath it; he curled his finger into it and dislodged the lid, tossing it out the window, to find a beautiful submachine gun waiting for him. Alex almost smiled in delight. He quickly lifted it from underneath him and cocked it, ensuring it was loaded. It definitely was. Femi, however, heard the noise and moved off of poor old Jonathan to look up and see the weapon.

"No, Alex!" She clutched his shoulder, "you might hit Carter!"

Alex looked over at her, "I gotta' do somethin'! If they kill us, we'll never be able to save him!"

At that moment, several more bullets racketed around them and they had to duck once again. It was evident that something, indeed, had to be done or else they were going to end up with bullets in their heads. When the gunfire stopped again, Alex took the opportunity to look back at Femi again.

"I won't hit him," He spoke in a passionate way, "I swear."

Femi's eyes shimmered with anguish, yet she knew she trusted him. She had to. With a nod, Femi gave Alex the permission he needed to begin firing without upsetting her and hurriedly moved up towards the window. He used the end of the gun to smash away any jagged shards of glass sticking up in the frame of the window before moving up and sitting on it, so that the top half of his body was outside in the night air. Femi held onto his ankle firmly, praying for his safety. Alex perched the gun over his left shoulder and furiously begun firing bullets at the front window of the first Jeep on their tail. It wasn't easy, however, with the three cars in between them, but the Jeep was much higher than them and gave Alex perfect access to the driver. Carl took his chance to overtake another car, but an approaching vehicle on the other side forced him to promptly swerve back into his lane and if Femi hadn't been holding onto Alex ankle, he would have gone.

"Be careful!" Femi shouted angrily at Carl, "you'll kill him!"

"I'm trying!" He curtly barked back.

It was then that Carl realised they were approaching a bridge. Just great. Alex recomposed himself and brought the gun up onto his shoulder once more, not pulsating with fury and a wild urge for revenge; he was growing tired of being chased. Narrowing his eye, he waited patiently for just the right moment, with the wind against his body and all the distractions of the manic street around him, to fire the gun once again. The bullets shot directly into the front of the Jeep and covered the driver in several bullets, ending him and his time of driving. As the driver slumped in his seat, limp, and his hands fell to his sides, the passenger beside him desperately tried to take over but the Jeep swerved too suddenly and sent the vehicle toppling through the air over towards the pedestrian walkway. People screamed and scattered just in time to miss the upside-down landing of the broken vehicle. Carl smiled at seeing Alex's successful annihilation but Femi was still frowning in concern not only for her brothers' safety but that of the innocents around them.

"Alex!" Carl called over to him as loudly as he could, "heads up!"

Alex looked round, over his shoulder, to see the bridge they were approaching. It was definitely time for him to move back inside. When he plomped down onto his seat, Femi threw herself forwards and wrapped an arm around his chest to snuggle her face onto his shoulder as an expression of relief that he was ok. Alex grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. Suddenly neither of them could remember why they were annoyed with each other earlier.

"They're coming up behind us!" Jonathan suddenly shouted out, blinking wildly, "just thought you ought to know!"

Everyone glanced back while Carl took a glimpse through his mirror; there was now only one car separating them. They were being brave, as they knew Carter was their safety ticket. Carl attempted to over-take the car in front of him but a large cargo truck honked its horn and forced him to fall back into place. It was too tight on the bridge to over-take widely and safely.

"Give me that!" Femi hollered to Alex.

Alex looked back at her, an eyebrow arched, "Doll'?"

Femi held her hand up, "Give me the gun, Alex!"

Her stern tone of voice gave him the encouragement to quickly hand over the long, powerful machine gun. She turned around and up onto her knees so that she could lean, forwards, against the back of her seat and aim her gun properly at the Jeep. Alex, Carl and Jonathan couldn't believe it when Femi suddenly fired several bullets and hit the shoulder of one of the men who was leaning out of the front passenger seat; he dropped his gun in his agony and withdrew into the Jeep where he squirmed and cried with pain.

"That'll teach you for stealing my brother." Femi grumbled, breathless, face still stiff with resolution.

She was trembling both with indignant anger and fear, but she had managed it. Jonathan slapped his hand onto her shoulder and shook it, grinning, to congratulate her.

"Blimey, Femi!" He exclaimed, "I had no idea!"

Femi sunk back round into her seat, "I learnt a thing or two, being with your nephew."

As she held out the gun to him, Alex's impressed eyes met with hers and she almost tweaked a cocky smile as he took it from her. In all honesty, Femi was awfully surprised with herself, but she wasn't going to let him know that. The moment of success was destroyed, however, when gunfire came back at them like snapping jaws of vengeance and collided into Carl's shoulder through the material of his chair. No one had expected it but Jonathan had felt the breeze as the silver bullet whizzed past and into Carl, who was now groaning out in pain. Distracted by his injury and suffering, he subconsciously let go of the steering wheel and grabbed onto his wound; Alex had reached over to grab the wheel just when the car behind them crashed into their backside. Armands' men had sped up, pushing into the innocent car, and forcing it forwards to knock into them. It was at this moment that the Jeep lost control. Alex was just a second too late to take control, and before any of them could understand what had gone wrong, they had crashed through the thick railings of the bridge and felt themselves lift from their seats… They were plummeting downwards, to the water below.