Heya people! Ok, so a little longer than I promised last chapter, but it's amazing how what you thought was a finished product, suddenly turns into, um, unfinished? Anyway, I made a few changes due to continuity issues, and I need to inform the people who read the previous chapters some weeks previously to reading this that there has been a slight change in chapter 12 (Alex's and Trista's breakout):

During the short car ride before the UNITI team come to the rescue, the Englishman (Mr Thomas, his name is there in the chapter if you look hard enough) previously just inspects Alex's backpack, but now he takes a liking to Alex's watch also, and Alex has to give it up to him. This is due to the fact that in the last chapter (13), Mrs Jones says that they follow a GPS beacon signal. The one I was thinking of at the time was on the Spanish manservant, but he was unconscious in the cell back at the 'base'. So, instead, they follow the tracker in Alex's watch. I'm sorry for changing things like this, but it was annoying me. I've changed the previous chapter, but it's really not worth going to read it agan just for an extra paragraph. So, just to recap, the Englishman is now wearing Alex's watch.

Glad we got that out the way! Now! On with the story! And please do review! I do answer them, good or bad.

"Alex!"

"Sabina!" Alex was frozen. Never, ever, in a million years, was he expecting to see that face again. Yet here, shimmering in the firelight, was the face that he'd been thinking about only a few minutes ago.

Incidentally, he had been right; her hair was longer, down to the middle of her back almost, and the eyes hadn't changed in the slightest. Her face had lost some of its childlike innocence, to be replaced by a more mature strength that looked, in Alex's opinion, quite frankly amazing on her.

"Oh, so you guys know each other then…" Diego said, not really noticing the total shock and amazement on either face since saving 'sandcastle city' was much more important. Lisa, being the nosy gossip queen that she was, caught on a lot quicker to the tension.

"Guys… breathe…" she said, looking from one face to the other. Eventually, Sabina spoke.

"B-but… you're supposed to be dead!" she whispered, "It was on the news and everything!"

"That's what they told us too…" Diego commented offhandedly, still not paying attention.

"I nearly was, I was in intensive care for a month." Alex said, "The sniper missed by millimetres…"

"Yeh! You should see the scar!" Diego said excitedly, earning a face-full of sand from Lisa. He looked up to protest and spotted the look of extreme annoyance and malice on his colleague's face only a few seconds before spotting the look of concern and wonder on the other girl's face, along with a simply amazed look on Alex's face. "Ohh…" he said.

Sabina stood shakily to look Alex in the eye. "But, then… Why didn't you ever call me?" she said. Alex could see tears starting to gather in the corners of her eyes. "How could you just forget me?" she said quietly, her bringing her clenched hand to her chest.

"Sab…" her tears started to fall and he instinctively tried to put a hand up to wipe them away, but she jerked away and hastily wiped them away herself.

"Don't! Just… don't." she said angrily before storming off up towards the other end of the beach. Alex just stood there in shock until a slap on his leg from Lisa brought him round.

"What are you waiting for exactly?" she said, looking up at him expectantly. He just looked back at her blankly. "Go after her you idiot!" she pointed down the beach towards the fast disappearing form that was Sabina.

Alex didn't need telling twice, and started running along the shore towards his one time girlfriend. "Sabina!" he called, "Wait up!"

Of course, she didn't slow down one bit, so Alex just fell into step next to her.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly as they walked, "I was under orders not to contact anybody." She flinched and walked faster. "It could have put you in danger!" Alex said more heatedly. "I couldn't do that to you! Not after everything that had already happened." Sabina stopped suddenly and turned to face him.

"But it was ok to let me mourn your death! You think THAT was fair?"

"No, it wasn't, but neither was making me give up my life and starting over! It hasn't all been daisies and roses for me either!" they were both shouting now, and Alex was sure their voices would carry down the beach with ease, but he didn't really care at this point.

"Believe me, I wanted to contact you, I really did! They had to take all the phones out the ward, and confiscated people's mobiles before coming in to visit me!" He turned away and looked out to sea. "Not that many people did." He added darkly. Sabina didn't say anything, so he continued.

"Almost a year later I was finally allowed out of that hospital, and I started a new life. Away from London, away from all my friends, away from MI6."

"Well at least I know I wasn't the only one you decided to leave high and dry!" Sabina said sarcastically.

"Look!" Alex said, his anger rising once more. "Having to try and forget you was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do!" He looked back at her angrily. "You can snipe all you want, but I did what I did to protect not only myself, but you and everyone else I care about." He sighed, managing to calm himself enough to tear his eyes away from her and back out to sea. "If they'd found out that they failed to kill me, they might have gone after my friends and family. And you might not have been so lucky…" he said the last sentence extremely quietly, and the two teenagers stood quietly together, Alex looking out to sea, Sabina staring into the back of his head with enough intensity that it really should have burnt a hole.

Eventually, Sabina's gaze broke, and she moved to stand beside Alex as he looked out to the quickly diminishing light on the horizon. "It was the first day of school in San Francisco when I found out…" she said quietly, "Half way through lunch break. They had TVs in the lunch hall you see, but they only put it on the News channels…" She sniffed and gave a small chuckle. "The teachers thought it was the stress of the first day nerves, coz, of course, I wasn't allowed to tell them about you…"

"I really am sorry Sab, I never wanted to put you through all that." Alex said, looking across to see his friend's cheeks covered in tears.

"I know." She said simply, "I was just angry before…" she looked at him sharply, "I still am by the way!" Her eyes softened, "But I know you didn't have much choice, otherwise you could have come and lived with me, rather than wherever you did go…" she trailed off and looked at him hopefully, Alex couldn't help but smile.

"Sorry, you know I can't tell you that…" she pouted and he laughed, "but I would have liked to come and live my life with you." He screwed up his nose, "As long as I wasn't your brother… I don't know much about the Americans, but I don't think they're too hot on inter-sibling relationships."

Sabina scoffed before laughing. "And what makes you think I would want a relationship with you!" Alex smiled in response.

"I believe the exact line was 'Much cuter than James Bond'…" he said, giving a fake look of deep thought, "but I'll have to check my sources to be sure…"

"Oh, and what sources might they be!" Sabina said, her hands on her hips.

"Well, for one, I don't think you noticed your mother standing just outside the door." Alex lied, very convincingly if he did say so himself. Sabina's mouth fell open.

"You mean to say that when I snuck into your room to kiss you, which was extremely romantic for a 14 year old thank-you-very-much, you were more interested in my eavesdropper of a mother?"

Alex couldn't help himself, his cheeky smile broke into a full-scale belly laugh, and it wasn't long before Sabina joined him. Had anyone walked past the two just then, they couldn't have guessed that only a couple of minutes before, they'd been having an extremely heated argument. In fact, most the UNITI team, at the other end of the beach, were starting to ask themselves if they'd imagined the raised voices.

"So anyway…" Alex said after they'd calmed down, "what brings you to the beautiful island of Curacao anyway?" Sabina raised an eyebrow.

"Well, if you hadn't noticed, it's the summer holiday…" she looked at him rather harshly, "Why? What brings you to Curacao?" Alex inwardly flinched, he knew she wouldn't be pleased if she found out he was working for MI6 again. Then again, didn't he agree that both she and Maddie deserved to know everything?

"Well, I s'pose you've already signed the Official Secrets Act…" It proved to be the wrong thing to say as Sabina exploded once more.

"WHAT! After what happened last time? What are you? Stupid?"

"Sab, please! You don't understand!"

"What? What don't I understand? That this is what ruined your life last time? That you gave up your old life to get away from this!" she was starting to shout again.

"Your right!" Alex agreed quickly, "it was what ruined my life, my entire family's life in fact, but MI6 needed my help."

"Hmm, now, where have I heard that before?" Sabina said angrily, "Oh yeh! Four years ago when they duped a 14 year old boy into doing their dirty work for them!" the UNITI members were listening in again (not that it was very hard to do), and were looking around at one another, but Alex was trying to ignore them.

"Not this time!" Alex replied and Sabina's mouth stopped mid-response as he held up his hand to stop her. "This time I did it out of choice! Ok, so they're not too hot on giving you choices, but they came to me because they mucked up."

"And I suppose they told you that you were the only one who could fix it!" Sabina said, crossing her arms against her chest.

"He was!" Someone called from the towelled area; Alex quickly identified the person as Trista. She was attempting to get up, and with the help of Dan slowly made her way over to the pair.

"I don't know exactly how much you know, but you obviously know about Alex." Sabina snorted a laugh and shot him an angry glance. Trista continued as if Sabina hadn't even reacted, "But you won't know me. I went on a mission and managed to get captured." She was about to go on, but Dan coughed and she seemed to rethink what she was about to say.

"Look," she continued, "It's complicated, but he really was the only one who could mount a rescue mission. And if he hadn't chosen to do it, I would probably be dead, or worse, still being held."

Sabina didn't comment back, but neither did her angry expression fade. She just stood there, staring at Trista, as if trying to decide if she could trust her or not. After a few minutes of this Alex spoke up.

"Sab?" he said uncertainly, and she snapped her head round to look at him.

"What am I s'posed to say?" she exclaimed, "Sorry?"

"It would be a start…" Dan mumbled, receiving a glare from all others who heard it (and with the entire UNITI team listening in, that was a lot of people).

"Well you're not going to get one! I still stand by my argument. MI6 didn't have to send you in, as a last resort they could have sent any of you… I'm guessing you're all agents of some type or another."

"True," said Dan, who seemed to be trying to make up for the earlier comment, "but we have nobody with as much experience as Alex in the field. If any of us went in, there was no guarantee that we'd come back out."

"There was no guarantee that Alex would come back out!" Sabina countered angrily.

"Sab, please! I can fight my own battles."

"Really? Well how come its me doing all the fighting here!"

"Because I've already been though this with both Bunt and Jones." She looked at him blankly, "the head and deputy head of MI6."

"Well it looks like they won the battle then." She said simply. Alex rounded on her.

"Look, Sabina, no offence but you really don't know enough to be arguing about this. The fact is that I did agree to do it, and I'm glad I did. If I had to do it again, I would, in an instant." Sabina looked slightly taken aback and Alex was spurred on by the fact.

"Being a spy is in my blood. At the age of one my dad was killed because he was a British spy who was found out. My uncle, also a British spy, raised me from then on, giving me the skills I'd need as a spy until four years ago when he was killed in action. Then MI6 took me on, using me to complete my uncle's mission."

The entire UNITI team was listening in now, this was part of the story they were never told, and they were interested. Sabina was also listening, but it was with more of a sad, pitying expression that was crossing her face.

"I am a spy, Sab. Whether you, me, or anyone else likes it." He paused, taking a deep breath. "Over the past few days I've been wrestling with the decision of whether or not to continue with this 'spy game'," He looked back up at Sabina, "you might like to know that you've just helped me make up my mind on one point. There is no way I'm going to go back to that 'life' that I've been living these past few years just to leave all this behind. This; spying, MI6, is what I do best, and its what I want to do for the rest of my life, even if that means I don't live that long…"

With that he turned and walked away, towards the bar. He wasn't going to drown his sorrows or anything, but there really wasn't anywhere else he could go on the tiny beach.

"A coke please, Jose." He said to the barman, who'd been listening the entire time. Luckily, he was an MI6 familiar, and knew all about Alex and UNITI, or at least, he did now.

"Señor…" Jose said simply, handing the sugary drink over quickly as if Alex was just about to explode on him too. He quickly rushed off to add it to the tab in the back room, as far away from Alex as possible.

It was only a few minutes before someone sat on the stool next to Alex, but it was quite a few more before anything was said.

"I'm sorry…" Sabina said softly, looking down at her hands. "I had no right to go off like that." Alex just stared into his untouched drink as if it held all the secrets of the universe.

"You're probably right, I don't know enough to comment." There was more silence.

"If it makes you feel any better," Alex said, lifting his gaze from the coke, "even though I had all the information, I used almost the exact same argument when MI6 tracked me down about a week ago."

"So you can see where I'm coming from?" Sabina said hopefully.

"Yes," Alex sighed, "I can see exactly where you're coming from, and that's partly why it effected me so much." There was another pause.

"Did you know that MI6 were thinking of asking you to join the team behind you on the beach?" Alex said. He saw Sabina turn in her seat to look at the group of kids behind her.

"Me?" She said as she turned back to face Alex. "But I'm no spy…" Alex laughed softly and turned in his seat to fact the beach, coke in hand and back against the bar.

"It seems they thought you were well up to the challenge. If they had had their way, there was even a chance you'd be leading this rabble." He chuckled, indicating the group with a wave of his free hand. He took a sip of the drink before steadying his voice.

"If they had asked you, what would you have said?" he said quietly, once more studying his drink rather than the girl next to him. Sabina took a long while to answer.

"A few years ago, I would have probably said yes…" she sighed, "I was unhappy at my new school, and it would have meant a chance for revenge of your death."

"But now?" Alex asked.

"Now… I'm not sure." She looked out at the group of agents playing in the moonlight. "For one I've got friends and family that I know I couldn't leave."

"I know the feeling," Alex murmured.

"Then there's the fact that you're not actually dead, so the revenge theory goes out the window…" Alex snorted into his drink.

"Yeah, I think I like that reason best so far."

"And then there's the whole argument I just spewed at you back there." She looked at Alex. "If I didn't follow my own advice it would kinda make me a hypocrite."

Alex laughed and looked at her. "You know, you're much more mature as an adult!" she smiled back at him. "You're not still grading boys on that scale of 20 are you!"

Sabina laughed and, although in the low light it was hard to tell, Alex was sure he could see her blushing. "Now it's marks out of 100…"

A few hours and an assortment of barbecued chicken pieces later, the party started to break up. Dan and Trista had left ages ago since she had felt tired. Dan said he'd take her back to the hotel, and then return to the beach to pick everyone else up later. Mya was currently sleeping on one of the towels, and the rest were just finishing off their third, and in Conner's case, fifth helping of chicken. It wasn't the fact that Conner had a large stomach, but hardly anybody wanted to touch his food, so there was a simply lot of chicken left over, and Conner didn't like leaving leftover food!

"Isn't somebody going to help me finish this lot off?" he said with a mouthful of chicken breast.

"Argh, Conner!" Lisa cried as a piece of the chicken that was in Conner's mouth a second ago missed her by inches, "Were you in the sickbay during those etiquette lessons!" Conner just shrugged and turned to Sabina, looking for her to help him finish.

"Sorry…" she said quickly, "I need to get going!" Conner turned to Alex and he jumped to his feet like he'd been stung.

"And I'm walking her home!" He gave her a pleading look and it seemed she caved in.

"Yeh, sorry Conner…" she said, grabbing Alex's hand and starting to lead him away from the group. "It was nice to meet all of you!" she called out as they walked slowly away. A few people shouted back, and there were a few waves, but soon Alex found himself walking down a rough dirt track with only moonlight to guide the way.

Ok, so he had something else too. Sabina hadn't let go of his hand yet, and he wasn't complaining. Her hand was comfortably warm, and for some reason he couldn't stop marvelling at the way it seemed to fit so perfectly into his.

"So…" he said, for once glad of the darkness for hiding the goofy smile that he was sure was playing on his lips. "Where are you staying? And of all the beaches on this island, why exactly were you on 'this' beach this evening?"

"Yeh, you're right, spying is in your nature." Sabina laughed, "You're instinctively nosey!" Alex allowed himself a laugh and found that it felt good to joke about it at last.

"I'm staying with my parents in the landhouse up here." She said, pointing at the yellow painted walls of the two story 'landhuis' that would have been home to a family of slave traders during the 1600s. It wasn't surprising to see it there, out in the middle of nowhere. The houses were usually built in close proximity to the remote beaches; it would have been like owning their own huge swimming pool.

"And as to why I was at the beach, I might ask you why you were there, considering it was meant to be for the exclusive usage of the residents and guests of the landhouse." Sabina said, and even in the low light, Alex could see her raising her eyebrows in question.

"We chose it because we thought it would be quiet…" Alex said, lying through his teeth. There was no way he was going to admit that it was chosen because they'd gotten lost while he was driving, and this was just the beach they'd turned up on. The fact that it was the beach they had been aiming for in the first place, because they knew Jose (the barman) was an MI6 familiar, was just luck.

They walked slowly, taking it in turns to ask questions, but since Alex still refused to tell her anything definite about his new life, it soon turned into a one sided conversation. As Sabina talked, Alex started to notice certain 'Americanisms' in the way she spoke. Ok, so she still said 'mum' instead of 'mom', but her accent had a slight nasally sound that definitely wasn't there before.

(AN: Before I get flames for saying that, I lived last year with an American guy, and he agreed with me that the American accent is much more nasally than the British one. However, he lived in California and Hawaii (lucky bastard!), and I have no idea what the San Francisco accent is like, so I could be totally wrong.)

"…he was a git though, so I dumped him!" she concluded, making Alex laugh. (AN: this is in no way a comment aimed at the guy I lived with lol)

"So…" Alex said, faking concentration and counting on his fingers, "How many of you're male classmates haven't you been out with?" he earned a whack across the stomach for that, although he was laughing as he doubled over.

"I've only had four boyfriends since I've been out there!" she said hotly, "and I was only with Steven for a week! I just told you he was a git!" Alex continued to giggle stupidly, earning himself yet another whack.

"And anyway! You're one to talk! I bet you were netting girls left, right, and centre!" she said irritably, crossing her arms. The statement sobered Alex a little, it brought Maddie to the front of his mind, and although he was in contact with her again, he sill missed her.

"No," he sighed, his giggles having subsided quite abruptly, "Just the one…" Sabina caught on to his sudden change in mood.

"You love her." She said quietly, smiling softly at him. If Alex hadn't been too embarrassed to look at her face, he would have seen a classic 'awww, that's so sweet!' look.

"She's like my best friend…" he snuck a look at Sabina's face, catching sight of the look. "Ohh, no no! Not like that! She's like a sister to me! Eww!" He shook his head to get rid of the image of him and Maddie together like 'that'. They might have been together a few years back, but nowadays… blegh!

"Ahh yes," said Sabina happily, "and we both know your views on inter-sibling relationships!" Alex stuck his tongue out at her.

A few minutes more, and they were standing outside the rather impressive mud-brick building. Now up closer, Alex could see that most the downstairs rooms had lights on, and there was a large covered porch area, probably where the meals were served. In the rather large car park (it was out in the middle of nowhere after all, it was practically all car park!), Alex spotted a rather plush stretched limo.

"Ooh, I see you travel in style!" he said, pointing out the car to Sabina. "I know your dad's book did well, but isn't that a bit over the top?"

"That's not ours!" she replied, laughing a little. "Dad hates flashing his money about," she craned her neck around Alex to look at the car park better, "that's ours!" she said, pointing to a little white 4x4 Suzuki soft-top. On the rear-guard there was a bright orange sticker proclaiming it was from 'Budget rent-a-car'. "I like it!" she said enthusiastically, "We never put the top up, so I can get a tan while we travel!" She giggled and Alex groaned. What was it with girls and tanning at all possible times?

"No, I don't recognise that limo…" Sabina said, turning to stare into the black tinted windows, "I don't think it was out here when I went down to the beach."

"Well, if it just arrived, it would explain all the lights on in the house at…" Alex checked his wrist only to realise that he still hadn't replaced the watch that Mr Thomas, the Englishman, had taken three days ago. Noticing his plight, Sabina answered for him.

"Three in the morning." She looked up at the building, "Actually yeh. As far as I know, we're the only people staying at the moment, and I doubt dad would be waiting up for me!" she said will a small laugh.

The two stood in silence for a few seconds. Normally, this would be the bit where they'd say 'goodbye', and 'see you soon', but they both knew that it wouldn't, couldn't, ever be like that for them.

"So…" said Sabina after a short while, "I don't suppose you have a mobile number you could give me?" she smiled doubtfully, and Alex met her gaze with a sad smile.

"I'm afraid that would count as 'communication', and now that I'm back with MI6 its likely that someone's going to find out I'm still alive. It's just not safe for you to be in contact with me, especially by trans-Atlantic mobile phone calls." He said softly.

"What about email? Tracing where a hotmail message is picked up would be almost impossible." Sabina countered, making Alex smile.

"Yeh, you'd think that, wouldn't you…" Sabina looked at him as if there was something he wasn't telling her. "I can talk to MI6 about it, but I can't promise anything." He continued, trying to put on a hopeful expression.

"Good!" she said, grabbing him by the arm (their hands had let go along time ago now, probably around the time Alex started to deserve slaps for his cheeky comments) and leading him towards the front door. "Come inside and I can get some paper to write it on for you."

Alex was very tempted to tell her it was ok, and that MI6 would be able to tell him, but then again, this way he got to spend a few more minutes with her. He had to wait for Dan to get back from the hotel anyway!

As they were about to climb the stairs (or dragged in Alex's case), the two heard a heated voice coming from one of the rooms further down the corridor.

"We lost the ENTIRE crop!" Alex froze, much to Sabina's puzzlement as her grip on his arm forced her to stop just as fast.

"Alex?" she said. Alex just put his finger to his mouth, indicating that she be quiet and moved closer to the door, slipping from her grasp.

"How can you be sure?" on the second time of hearing, Alex was certain that he knew whom the voice belonged to. And he was wearing Smithers' watch! Something about his expression must have told Sabina something, because he saw her eyes widen.

"What?" she whispered, and when he didn't respond, "WHAT!"

"Shh!" Alex hissed as the Englishman spoke again.

"Look, we've got a delivery to make in a week, and I can't do that if we have nothing to deliver! … What do I want you to do about it? … Find out where they're taken it! We practically own all the warehouses on the island! … My god! Were you born stupid! … I'll be sure to inform Raven of that.. OUCH! Watch it!"

Alex heard a second, quieter voice apologising profusely. Hadn't Mya set off some explosives right at his feet? Maybe he was having some kind of surgery at the same time? Either way, he wasn't going to let Sabina get involved with it. He grabbed her arm.

"Listen to me!" he said, "I need you to go up to your room and forget what you just heard!" she went to retort, but Alex cut her off. "You're going to go to bed, then get up tomorrow as normal. Tell no one that you've seen me, especially not your parents." Apparently, she didn't agree.

"I want to help!" she said quickly, ignoring his 'order' all together. "It's obvious that your involved with something, and you said yourself that MI6 wanted me."

"They did, and I think the fact that it's past tense makes the word all the more important! Its way too dangerous, and you've had no training." He pulled her back down the corridor and over to the stairs by the arm. "Please! Just go upstairs!" he pleaded, and when she just looked defiantly back at him, her arms crossed, he used the one card he knew had the best chance of working. "For me?" he said, slightly puppy dogging his eyes. She folded almost instantly.

"Alex…" she started to say something, but the door they had just been listening at opened and the Englishman walked through, still talking into his mobile.

"I'm coming over! That way I'll be able to confirm what an imbecile you are!" Alex tried to shove Sabina up the stairs before the man saw, but they had been directly in the man's view, and he saw them almost instantly. "It's YOU!" the man said in disbelief.

"Quickly! Out the front door!" Alex yelled, and the two (who were closer to the door than the man) managed to get outside before the Englishman regained his composure. As they ran back towards the beach, Alex took a look over his shoulder at the man, noticing him hobbling slowly after them. It seemed Mya's gum/flash-bang combination had managed to blow off his entire right foot, and the surgery he'd been having moments before was for the fitting of a small wooden leg. There was even a length of bandage trailing behind it still. Something else caught Alex's eye however as the man pulled out a handgun from his belt.

"Sabina! GET DOWN!" Alex yelled. There was a loud crack and a burst of dirt and gravel went up a few feet from Alex's head as he and Sabina hit the deck. Another series of cracks, and more bits of flying dirt followed directly after.

Alex knew they were too open and vulnerable lying in the middle of the road, so he got up and rushed over to Sabina.

"Into the bush!" he yelled as he hauled her to her feet over the noise of yet more shots. Luckily this guy seemed to have crap aim, the dust around them taking the hot lead, rather than them.

Alex dragged a stumbling Sabina into the dusty arid land at the side of the road. It was still open, but at least there were a few Divi-divi trees and small bushes dotting the ground, instead of the sheer openness of the road. Alex led her downhill, breaking line of sight with the Englishman behind them. Sensing this, Alex dragged her down behind a rather large shrub just as the man hobbled to the ridge of the rise.

"Just don't scream if he shoots!" Alex whispered to Sabina as she led beside him, panting.

"This is fun!" she said, and for the first time in his life, Alex felt the urge to punch her. Getting shot at wasn't his idea of fun!

"This isn't a game Sabina!" he hissed. "Those are real bullets he's shooting at us!" If anything, her eyes shone brighter.

"I know! Isn't it exciting!"

"After all you went through, I would have thought you'd be someone who valued your life more..." Alex said darkly, turning to look up at the man at the top of the hill. He had gotten a torch from somewhere, and was now actively looking for them. Obviously this man hadn't experience in nighttime tracking, and as he shone the light on the bush Alex and Sabina were hiding behind, Alex was silently relieved. Shining the light on the bush would illuminate the front, creating uneven shadows on the people hiding behind it, providing them with very effective camouflage.

"Think about who else is involved here!" Alex hissed at Sabina once the man had focused his attention further down the hill. "Both your parents are back in the landhouse, and since you're the only ones staying there, this guy will know that you're connected with them somehow. By looking in the books, he'd have the names, address and telephone numbers of you're entire family!" Sabina's smile faded somewhat.

"On top of that he saw you with me. He knows exactly who I am, so you're now connected with me and MI6, making you even more of a target!" Alex thumped the ground with frustration. "Great! So it seems four years of trying to forget you was just a waste of time!"

"Alex…" Sabina whispered, Alex was glad to hear a note of panic in her voice, "He's coming!"

Alex's head snapped round to find the Englishman walking directly at them. A glance at his eyes showed that he was still scanning further down the hill, Alex let out a silent breath. Moving extremely quietly and being sure to not disturb the bush in front of him, Alex got to his feet, crouching behind the shrub and picking up a small stone as he rose.

"What're you…" Sabina tried to whisper, but a warning glance from Alex shut her up quickly.

Alex went into a practiced combat-ready position; his feet shoulder width apart, balanced on the balls of his feet, although he was crouched a little further down than he'd like to be. He waited quietly as he watched the man reach the front of the bush he was crouched behind. The Englishman stopped for a moment, looking around with the torch a little more. Alex took the opportunity to throw the rock down the hill a little way, attracting the attention of the man. The torchlight immediately focused on the bush Alex's rock had hit, and the man moved quickly round Alex's side of the bush, his gun raised, just as Alex thought he would.

Alex waited until the optimum moment before unleashing a vicious roundhouse kick into the Englishman's stomach. The gun went off but it only hit dirt, and a second later, Alex kicked it out of the man's grasp, ripping the torch out his other hand in the seconds that followed that.

The Englishman never knew what hit him. One minute he was tracking down the pair of kids that had fled from him, and then he was on his back with his own torch shining in his eyes, blinding him. Then he knew no more as he was knocked unconscious by a ferocious kick to the side of his head.

"What did you have to do that for!" Sabina gasped as Alex delivered the last kick to the man's head.

"Believe me, Trista really wouldn't mind me doing that at all…" Alex grumbled, kicking the man in the side once more for the hell of it.

Suddenly, Alex heard an engine coming up the road they'd just left.

"Here," Alex said, handing Sabina the torch which he'd now turned off, "Stay here while I go check who that is. It could be Dan back from the Hotel."

Without waiting for a response, Alex ran off back up the hill in the direction of the road. At the brow, he ducked behind another conveniently placed shrub, and spotted the familiar tin-can-on-wheels. He stepped out onto the road and waved Dan down, who stopped the van and wound down the passenger window to talk to Alex. However, Alex didn't give him a chance and spoke first.

"We have a slight problem…"

Reviewer's corner:

Honey Nut Loop: Thankee! Glad you liked it! You almost missed the update? Maybe that's what happened to all my other reviewers… sigh, Ohh well… (nice evil laugh by the way!)

kkcnbay5: Hehehe… yes, I'm afraid I did have to do that! Its called suspense! Lol there's gotta be something to keep you coming back to read more! I'm glad you enjoyed it anyway! And lucky for you, there's plenty more suspenseful moments coming soon. Not this chapter though. :(

Any more reviewers out there! (hears an echo) Ahh... well... Reviews would be greatly appreciated! How else are you going to tell me what you think of the story?