Louise watched her for a minute, her expression resentful, and then she opened her mouth.

"She's in Brighton. I wanted Alice to live with me. She's my niece just the same as she's Lucas niece. I have just as much right to her as he does," she added truculently. Jo schooled her expression to remain carefully neutral as Louise continued, "So I arranged for her to be taken from her childcare centre. I was going to go back to Newcastle, and then after a week or so they would bring her up to me and meet up there."

"Who's they?" Jo asked sharply.

"Nikolai. He had another man with him. Vitaly. I don't know their surnames. They were to take Alice and then when they returned her to me I would pay them 10,000 pounds."

Jo's expression gave nothing away. She leaned forward, a pen in her hand.

"And where exactly is Alice? Right now."

"All I know is that they were taking her back to Brighton. I don't know the exact address."

"What do you know about the Russians who have Alice?," Jo questioning, writing as she talked.

"They can be hired to perform services. I don't think they're supposed to be in Britain," she added, shrugging.

"And it didn't occur to you that it might be dangerous to hand a four year old girl into the custody of criminals for hire?", Jo questioned looking up as her eyes narrowed with irritation at Louise's lack of concern for Alice's welfare.

Louise batted away the question carelessly. "They're a bit rough, but I don't think they would hurt her. They've no reason to."

Jo watched her for a moment, then nodded slightly. If Louise's conduct over the past few days was any indication about how she would behave as a parent then Alice was much safer with Lucas. But she was beginning to be hopeful that perhaps Alice might be found alive and well in Brighton, thank God.

She stood up and walked quickly towards the door to exit the room. "Don't let her go anywhere," she instructed the officers outside, as she extracted her mobile from her pocket and dialled Lucas' number.

"Lucas," she began, "we've got Louise. She paid the Russians to take Alice and she says she's in Brighton-"

"We have her," he interrupted, "safe and well."

"Oh," Jo exclaimed, letting out a breath, "I'm so glad. Is she really ok?"

"Well, given that she's waiting in the Police van quite happily chatting to the Police officer and playing 'I spy' I'm fairly confident that she's emerged from this drama unscathed."

"Will you give her a hug from me then?," Jo asked, the relief making the words come out in a sudden rush. "I'm so looking forward to seeing her," she added.

"Of course I'll give her a hug," Lucas replied, sounding amused, then swiftly switching the conversation back to more mundane topics. "We have the Russians. We're taking them in for questioning at the local Police station," he added.

"Oh good," Jo replied.

She imagined Lucas would be quite ruthless with them and would quickly get to the bottom of the situation.

"I'll be here staying here for a couple of hours while we do that. But keep Louise there. I have some questions for her too," he added, his voice taking on a rather dangerous tone.

Lucas finished the conversation abruptly, "I have to go now."

Jo put down the phone as the line went dead.

...

She returned to the meeting room and extracted all the information from Louise she could. None of which really amounted to much. Louise swore that she didn't know anything about the Russians' attempt to extract 50,000 pounds from Lucas, and she knew very little about the Russians she had employed.

After half an hour Jo pushed back her chair, and exited the room to return to the Grid. Louise could stay locked inside the meeting room until Lucas returned.

Jo returned to her desk and surveyed the grid, noting the time. 6.34am.

So here she was, back at her old haunt once again, exhausted, but not allowed to sleep. Nothing to occupy her time but waiting. Perhaps once someone from Section D arrived on the Grid she could slip away into one of the rooms and get a little sleep until Lucas returned.

She stood up and wandered towards the balcony, opening the door to a blast of icy wind. She moved to rest against the balustrade, hugging her coat around her to protect her from the cold. Beneath her the city was in darkness, lights dotted across its expanse.

She watched the scene silently, her thoughts starting to whirl. Soon she would have to find somewhere else to live. It was ironic in a way that now that they had Alice back, and she realised how much the little girl meant to her, she would have to move on, to separate herself from Alice because of Lucas.

She had only ever intended to stay with Lucas for a little while, while she found somewhere to live. It had been an odd arrangement, she had to admit, but on the whole it had worked out reasonably well. Well, except for Louise. She wondered how Lucas felt about her now that she had been exposed as a criminal. Possibly a little burnt, maybe angry and almost certainly hurt.

And it didn't help that they had slept together, because now things would probably become almost unbearably awkward between them.

She gripped the railing tightly as she shook her head. She wouldn't think about that. She wouldn't allow herself to think about tomorrow or what the future might hold. That would only make her miserable.

Instead she imagined another time, long ago and far away.

In the back of her mind what would happen next to Marianna had been imprinted so firmly on her mind ever since she had woken to find the Police calling to say they had found Louise. She hadn't had time to write it down but it was there. Marianna would always be there with her.

If she shut her eyes tightly enough the scene would come to her.

The wind was bitter, biting at her cheeks and a misty fog hung in the air as dusk began to settle. She was running. In the half light she could see the Mediterranean stretching below her and the hills looming in front of her. In her hand she clutched a piece of paper which no one could ever see and her lips moved silently as she ran, memorising the locations to herself over and over again so that soon she wouldn't need the paper anymore. There were twelve separate bays on the list, the pick up points scattered along the shores of the island.

Soon she reached the woods, and skirted round their edges until the she came to the path that led deeper inside. She stayed on it for a hundred metres then broke away to follow the course of the stream as it wound its way into the woods. Eventually she came to a large boulder, as Marcus had said she would, and not far from that she could see a fallen log. That was the location of the wireless.

She scrambled towards the log, bracing herself as she attempted to lift it. It was heavy and at first wouldn't budge. On her third attempt she managed to shift it a metre to the side to uncover a black case in the hole underneath.

Her fingers moved quickly to remove the soil from the casing. She stood up, turning in a circle as she scanned the woods looking for an area where the signal would be strongest.

She spied a break in the canopy where light filtered through the gloom, perhaps 20 metres from her, and hurried towards it, the weight of the wireless slowing her progress to a brisk walk.

She placed the box on ground, her fingers wrestling with the locks as her hands shook. 463 lives depended on her actions. She couldn't fail them now.