Amber, standing outside of Lilia's flat, half-turned and gave Hex, settled in the driver's seat of his car parked across the road, a nervous smile. He waved and mimed knocking at the door. Amber, curbing her sudden desire to role her eyes and say something sarcastic, raised her fist and banged on the door. There was a sudden silence, followed by quick footsteps before the door opened a crack and one of Lilia's emerald eyes peered out. She gave a slight squeak at the sight of Amber, fidgeting anxiously outside the door, before she opened the door up the entire way and jerked Amber inside.

'I got the box,' Amber said in a rush as Lilia dragged her down the hallway into the kitchen. Lilia merely nodded Amber felt a split second of relief before becoming worried. Surely Lilia should have asked why she and not Paulo and Alex were delivering the box.

Amber's slight uneasiness blossomed into utter terror when Lilia grabbed Amber's arm roughly and pulled her into the lounge room. After pushing Amber onto the couch, Lilia cleared her throat and one of the curtains moved aside slightly as a figure stepped into view.

'Tanya!' Amber gasped. She fell silent just seconds later as Tanya casually brought her hands out from behind her back, a gun held in one.

'Are you going to kill me?' Amber asked, surprised by how brave and nonchalant her voice sounded.

'Not right now,' Lilia answered, smiling brightly at Amber from across the room. 'Soon though.'

'So I guess you're a traitor then, Tanya. Sold us out, hey? How much did she pay you?'

Once again, Lilia answered instead of Tanya. 'I happen to be a good friend of Tanya's. We've helped each other out a lot.' Lilia frowned as though her mouth was separate from her brain and had just done something she hadn't wanted it to do.

'You do know that my "disappearance" isn't going to be easy to explain. Everyone knows I was with you this afternoon. You'll be the prime suspect, especially since you were under suspicion for the One Way Forward bombings.' Amber wasn't sure if she should be telling Lilia all this but she was trying to distract her. Her mobile phone had been in her jeans pocket and she'd managed to pull it out without arousing suspicion. Turning slightly, Amber raised her eyebrows and gave a humourless laugh while her thumbs worked like lightning to write and send the text. 'But Tanya can fix all that can't she?' Amber jabbed the send button and casually pushed the phone down into the couch cushions. Lilia's eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn't come forward. Instead, she walked across the room to Tanya, took her gun and gave her a coil of rope.

'Tie her up. Just her hands, though; we need her to walk to the car. Oh, and gag her as well.' Lilia reached around behind her a pulled a curtain tie of a hook on the wall.

Tanya quickly obeyed, tying Amber's hands in front of her and knotting the fabric around her mouth, all the while keeping her eyes averted. Amber glared at Tanya, but the ex-MI5 officer kept her head down and roughly pulled Amber to her feet.

'Down the back way,' Lilia called behind her as she walked out of the room. 'I think we'd better put her where she won't be any bother.'

Hex's phone beeped happily. He opened the message without realising it; his attention was directed solely towards Lilia's flat. Glancing down at the phone, Hex read the message and groaned.

Help. Tanya + Lilia. Traitor.

The meaning was much clearer than the actual message. Tanya was in cahoots Lilia and had most likely told her that they were all with MI5. Amber had walked into a trap.

Hex quickly dialled Harry's office number and waited through the ringing. A dozen or so rings later, he got a recorded message. Cursing, Hex hung up and tried Harry's mobile, getting an answer almost straight away.

'Hi, Hex!' Harry sounded very cheerful. 'Where are you? I'm-'

'No time,' Hex said hurriedly. 'Tanya's working with Lilia. Amber just went into Lilia's flat to deliver a parcel and she just sent me a text asking for help.'

'WHAT?!' Harry sounded outraged, sceptical and worried. 'Repeat that,' he said. 'But slower and with more detail.'

Hex recounted what had happened and waited while Harry swore and rustled some paper.

'Well,' he eventually said,' I'm actually in your apartment right now.'

'In Bournemouth?'

'Yep.' There was a sigh and more rustling. 'There's nothing you can do. Come back to your apartment and we'll go from there.'

'But Harry,' Hex started, 'Amber could be in serious danger.'

'I know, but you can't do anything. Yes you're outside Lilia's flat but she'd have gone by now. And before you even think about going inside,' he added as Hex began to speak again, 'remember that she'll be armed and ready for trouble. As a matter of fact, she'll be expecting trouble.' Yet another sigh. 'Don't worry, Hex. She'll be fine. I'll get police out looking straight away, but you need to come back immediately. You could well be next on her hit list.' With that ominous warning, Harry hung up. Hex kept the phone to his ear for a few seconds after, hearing the dial tone. With a heavy heart, Hex started the car and pulled out of the parking space, heading back towards his apartment.

'...yes. Amber Middleton... Lilia Silva and Tanya Henderson... Very dangerous. We believe that Lilia is directly involved in the bomb attacks... Thank you so much Inspector... Will do.' Harry's voice echoed down the hallway as Hex let himself into the flat.

'Hello?' he called out.

'Hex!' Li exploded from the lounge room, cannoning into Hex and hugging him hard. 'Thank God.' She sneezed a few times and quickly wiped her nose with a tissue. 'Harry's in here.' Hex followed Li into the lounge room, where Harry was pacing the room while Alex and Paulo sat on the edge of two of the chairs.

'Look who's here,' Li sniffed.

All three heads turned, mirroring each other's tight smiles. Outside, sirens wailed.

'They're sending out some people to look at Lilia's flat, see if they can find anything there that might let us know where they've taken Amber,' Harry said by way of explanation. Hex merely nodded and perched on the arm of the sofa. Li sat next to him and squeezed his hand. The five of them sat in silence, listening to the sirens grow louder and louder.

As the lid of the boot slammed shut, Amber fought down her panic and tried to concentrate on keeping her breathing even. The boot was fairly large, but she was still squished. Her bound hands were rubbing on the coarse rope and the friction was painful. The darkness was absolute; not a chink of light filtered through and Amber's eyes hadn't yet adjusted.

For a few minutes the car was still until suddenly it exploded into life. The vibrations startled Amber and she whimpered with fear, huddling into an even tighter ball. Now she could understand why Hex was claustrophobic. It felt as if there was a huge weight pressing down on her chest and she could do nothing to get rid of it. Every time she moved, the weight was there, getting steadily heavier.

Tears came to Amber's eyes as she thought of Hex, Li, Alex and Paulo. If Lilia carried out her threat, which was very likely, she'd never see her friends again. For some reason that prospect was even more terrifying than her unknown fate, than being locked in the darkness. Despite her promises not to cry, Amber felt warm tears trickle down her cheeks. She didn't make a sound or any movement, but the tears flowed down her face, dripping onto the floor of the boot.

I've been in bad situations before, Amber told herself. This one is no worse. I'll be fine. The little pep talk made a little difference, but deep in her heart, Amber felt nothing but complete terror.