Yassen Gregorovich woke to find himself laying on quite a comfortable bed in a bare, brick walled, cell-like room, relieved to find that the effects of whatever gas they had used on him had worn off. He thought back to what had been happening and suddenly he remembered everything; the men in the garden centre café had pulled guns on him and Alex and then released gas that had knocked him out. Alex! What had happened to him? Had they brought him here too? It had been a bold move to fire guns in the middle of London and then kidnap at least one person. It must have been a well-timed operation for them to succeed before the police arrived.

Slowly sitting up and looking around him (he didn't know where he was or who had taken him and it would be better to refrain from showing any emotion until he knew more), he saw through a window that connected the two rooms that Alex was lying, presumably unconscious by the lack of movement on the teen's part, on a bed in the adjacent room. Yassen thought from the look of the glass that it was a two-way mirror; he could see Alex but, when he woke up, Alex would only be able to see the reflection of himself. He would think that he was alone.

Getting up off the bed, he began to look around the room but didn't find anything that would be useful. All of his belongings had been removed from him while he was unconscious, so he was weaponless and there was nothingin the room that he could use to help them escape; the bed was bolted to the floor, and the room was otherwise empty so he would be unable to break the reinforced mirrored glass. All he could do was wait for an opportunity to present itself, so he laid back down on the bed and meditated while he waited for their kidnappers to come in and talk to him. And he knew something that they didn't; Alex had been wearing his Omega watch which had been a present from Ian Rider for his thirteenth birthday and Yassen had activated the hidden SOS beacon and audio link that it contained. MI6 would have received the alert and would know the location that they had been brought to as well as being able to hear everything that was being said in the watch's vicinity. If Alex and Yassen couldn't escape by themselves, they would be rescued.

He had been meditating for about half an hour when Alex groaned and sat up. Yassen sat up too, forcing himself to not look too interested in Alex's condition and moved to the glass to see if he looked unharmed; thankfully, he did. A moment later, the door to Alex's room opened.

"Hello," the man who had entered the room said. Alex said nothing. "Don't want to talk? That's okay. It's more fun if I have to persuade you to loosen your tongue."

Yassen did not like the sound of that. After a couple of minutes of one sided questioning with Alex not replying, the man held up Alex's watch.

"What is this?" Yassen realised that he wasn't breathing. His gut was telling him that things were about to get worse. The only logical reason for the watch to be brought into the conversation would be if their kidnappers had found out about the emergency beacon.

"My watch," Alex said dryly, speaking for the first time since the man had come into the room.

"So it is yours then. Anything else?" Alex clearly had no idea what the man was talking about; Ian couldn't have told him about the SOS beacon without revealing the fact that he worked for MI6, but Yassen was surprised that no one at MI6 had told him in the two years that they had forced him to work for them. Although he supposed he shouldn't have been; everything that he had gleaned about Alex's missions with MI6 had taught him that they didn't tell him anything unless they had to… and even then that didn't necessarily mean that Alex would get all of the information he needed.

"It works underwater?" Alex suggested.

"And..?" the man asked, now laying it on a table next to the door.

"Look," Alex began, "I don't know what to tell you. The watch is just a watch."

"Maybe some time with my friend here-" the man gestured to the door which opened again and another man came in as he spoke "- will help you to remember."

Yassen knew what was about to happen and was horrified, but took care to remain emotionless on the outside - they were going to torture Alex! If they knew about the watch, then they must have realised that he was associated with an intelligence agency; they would want to find out who he worked for, what he knew about the watch's capabilities and how soon they could expect company, and whether the intelligence agencies knew about them and their plans.

Alex was beaten, waterboarded and finally slashed with a knife. Repeatedly. His torturer seemed to enjoy carving into his skin most of all, grinning maniacally as he ran the blade over Alex's chest and arms. Despite the torture, he didn't give up any information about MI6, perhaps sensing that it would land him in more danger than pleading complete ignorance. If he gave up information about MI6, they would assume that he knew the answers to their other questions. And since he didn't know anything about the watch or whoever had taken them, the questioning and torture continued. Alex's screams rang in Yassen's ears, but the teenager could not give up information which he did not have.

No one had come into Yassen's room yet, but he was sure that they were watching his every move. Only someone who knew him would have seen the anger growing as he watched the man torturing Alex through the window. Unbeknownst to whoever came through his door first, they were going to be met by a very angry assassin who would have no qualms about killing everyone in the compound on his way out with Alex if it came to it. He was helpless to help him right now, but the second that he was free he would act swiftly and without mercy.

After what felt like an eternity had passed, the man finally desisted from his attempts to get information from Alex. The man left the room, and Alex, although he had been strapped down to the bed, visibly collapsed back, exhausted, injured and bloody. And then, Yassen's door opened. He was ready to strike, even from the other side of the room, but restrained himself when he saw the machine gun pointing in his direction. If it had been a pistol, he probably could have avoided the two bullets that the man would have been able to fire before he reached them, but the copious amount of bullets from a machine gun would be unavoidable.

"Mr Gregorovich, I was under the impression that you were dead. Evidently, you managed to deceive everyone in both the intelligence and criminal circles alike." Like Alex earlier, Yassen did not respond. "You might be wondering why we have brought you here; I hope you enjoyed the show that your associate provided."

That was a mistake. Yassen may have looked stoic on the outside, but inside he was seething. He didn't recognise the two men in combat clothes who stood before him, one of them still aiming the machine gun at his chest, but that didn't mean that they hadn't crossed paths in the past. And still being unaware of their intentions, it was better to avoid displaying any sign of emotion or weakness until he knew more.

"You are here, because we would like to work with you," the man continued excitedly, unaware of the danger that he was in. "I'm glad to finally meet you. My business partner and I have heard a lot about you. But before we can talk business, we need to discuss your young companion's work situation. We have reason to believe that he is working for an intelligence agency, and has compromised our location."

"If you believe that he has compromised the location, why are we still here?" Yassen asked, speaking for the first time since the man had come into the room.

"We thought that it would be nice to send a message to the intelligence agency who comes to collect him."

Yassen understood what the man was implying. Leave Alex, presumably dead but if not then at least seriously injured, in the compound for MI6 to find.

"And if you want to talk business with me, why are you threatening me with a gun?" he asked pointedly, deciding not to acknowledge the man's last statement in order to keep himself under control. "Most of my clients have subtler ways of getting my attention and garnering an understanding of my interest."

"You have a reputation, Mr Gregorovich. We did not expect you to have somebody with you when we picked you up, and needed to see whether he was anybody important, seeing as how he valiantly tried to pull you to safety when the gas was released." That surprised Yassen. He didn't know anything that had happened after he had been hit with the knock-out gas, as he had passed out almost instantly, but apparently Alex had had time before the gas reached him, and had used it to try and get them both out.

"As I'm sure you gathered from the interrogation that you witnessed, the boy had a secret locator beacon built into his watch, which was activated when my men acted. But you were not bothered by the interrogation of the teenager, so I can assume that he is, at most, merely an acquaintance from your brushes with the intelligence community, who somehow found out that you are still alive." Once again, Yassen said nothing. It seemed as though this man was erring on the side of trusting him, and that would only give more openings to escape and get his revenge. As he expected, the man indicated to his minion to put the gun down. It was the opportunity that he had been waiting for and Yassen made his move; he crossed the remaining space between himself and the two men in three strides, jerked the machine gun out of the man's hand before he had a chance to react, and then aimed it at the two of them, backing quickly out of their reach.

"Hands up, stand in opposite corners by the glass, with your backs facing the room," he said, with as little emotion in his voice as he could muster. The self-control that he was exhibiting right now was extraordinary in the circumstances.

"What are you doing, Mr Gregorovich? I thought we were going into a partnership."

"Move!" he ordered, not deigning to provide a response. "And be quiet."

The men complied and moved to the corners, standing with their backs facing him, sensing that resisting would only bring about a cruel and painful death. They clearly knew Yassen's reputation for dealing with people who crossed him, and it was not a fate that they wanted for themselves. He quickly searched them and took their other weapons (the haul included three knives, a couple of pistols with extra clips and a Taser), as well as their security cards which allowed them to open the doors. The man in charge also had a bunch of keys, which Yassen took too. Next, he ordered the man who had been holding the machine gun to rip the bed sheet into strips, and used the material to tie the two men up. He took the spare strips to bandage any of Alex's wounds that needed attention or in case he needed to make a make-shift sling, and locked the two men in the room which had been his. The only reason he left them alive was so that they could be interrogated for any useful information at a later date. Right now, his priority was getting Alex out of here.

With the machine gun raised, ready to take down any more people who were in the compound, Yassen made his way through the maze of corridors, trusting his intuition to lead him in the correct direction. He found Alex's room on his first guess, and quickly made his way in. The teenager was in a bad way. His rattling breaths punctuated the silence of the room.

"Alex?" he asked seriously, getting a groan in response. At least he was vaguely responsive and not fully unconscious. "I'm going to check you over, okay. Tell me if anything I do makes your pain worse." His brown eyes flickered open and Yassen could see the fear and pain in them.

"'m sorry," he managed to whisper.

"Hush, little Alex," Yassen said softly, stroking his head. "Don't try to talk. Save your strength." He didn't know what Alex was sorry for, but it didn't matter right now. What mattered was dealing with his wounds and then getting him to safety. None of his bones were broken, which was a relief, but Yassen thought he had a couple of cracked ribs and the waterboarding meant that he was at risk of secondary drowning if any of the water had entered his lungs. The beating that he had taken probably meant that he had some bad bruising as well as the numerous slash wounds, which Yassen quickly but gently bandaged with the strips of bedding he had brought with him.

Once he had bandaged Alex up with the limited resources that he had, Yassen picked up the machine gun from where he had placed it on the bed before helping Alex to his feet. He could barely stand, so Yassen had to support most of his weight and the teenager leaned heavily into him. Just before he opened the door of the room, Yassen picked up the Omega and pocketed it, but not before he glanced at the time as he activated the SOS beacon again. It was almost quarter to eight, presumably in the evening although he had no way of knowing for certain. It had been just before two in the afternoon when they were sitting at the table in the garden centre! He didn't think they would have been taken far outside of London, so it shouldn't have taken this long for a strike team to assemble.

"Are you ready, Alex?"

"Aye, aye, cap'ain," was the mumbled response. Being referred to as 'captain' made no sense to Yassen, but at least Alex was conscious enough to respond, even if it was with nonsense. He took a deep breath before he flung the door open, and winced internally as he saw the group of four people – two men and two women - standing outside. They were in combat outfits, though different to what the first two men from the compound that he had seen had been wearing, and one of them was checking an electronic map with two flashing dots which were almost on top of each other, whilst the others had their guns up ready to defend themselves. Something told Yassen that this was the MI6 strike team, and his suspicions were confirmed when he heard one of the men say "Cub?" in an alarmed whisper. The four people quickly made their way into the room and shut the door behind them, ignoring Yassen for the moment, and seemingly unconcerned that he was pointing a machine gun in their direction.

"What happened?" one of the women asked.

"He's been beaten, waterboarded and has knife wounds," Yassen explained, gently lowering Alex back onto the bed with the help of the woman. "There are two men in the room behind the mirror, and I don't know how many others are in the compound," he said. "We need to move."

"Alex," the man who hadn't spoken yet said, brushing his hair away from his eyes. Yassen saw the brown eyes flicker open again, and saw the flash of recognition before they closed and Alex mumbled a name that he couldn't work out.

"Can we go?" the other man asked impatiently.

"Yes," the woman who was checking Alex over said. "He's bandaged the wounds well enough for now but we need to get him to hospital to get properly checked over, especially if he's been waterboarded."

"Right then, let's move out. Fox, help-" he pointed at Yassen who supplied his name.

"Gregorovich?" he asked.

"The very same."

"Alright then," the man (Yassen found out later that his field name was Wolf) said, suppressing his surprise for the moment. "Fox and Yassen, you're with Cub. Snake on one side, Eagle at the rear and I'll take the front. We'll hug the wall to protect our other side."

"Copy," the three soldiers chorused seriously in affirmation on receiving their orders. Yassen and the man called Fox helped Alex to his feet once more. Fighting their way out of the compound would definitely be easier now that there were five of them to get Alex out.

"How many did you take out on your way in?" he asked.

"Five or six. We didn't see many people to be honest," Fox replied.

"Neither did I when I made my way around. And that concerns me."

"Us too."

The six of them made their way as quietly as they could through the compound. Admittedly, it wasn't very quiet with Alex's rattling breaths punctuating their every move. He wasn't making any effort to walk himself, and was relying on Yassen and Fox completely. It wasn't long before the soldiers led them through a door, and Yassen saw the daylight through the other side; it was getting close to dusk. They hadn't come across a single person on their way out of the compound, which made the five of them uneasy. They were about half way between the compound and the woods which surrounded it when Eagle, who was watching their six, suddenly spoke.

"We've got company."

"Fox, Snake, take Cub back to the cars and get him out of here. The three of us will cover you," Wolf ordered.

Yassen didn't like the idea of leaving Alex, but knew that it was the best chance that all six of them had of making it out of here alive.

"I've still got the beacon, so I'll send another alert if we need backup," he said as Fox picked Alex up, taking care not to agitate his wounds, having clearly decided that carrying him would be the quickest way to get him out. He and Snake nodded, and took off at a run towards where their vehicles must have been. Wolf ran through a quick list of positions for the three of them before they moved off to cover Alex, Fox and Snake as they made their escape.

The gun fight, when it came, didn't last long. The guards in the compound were not well trained and evidently weren't expecting to be going up against one of the world's best assassins (even if he was technically retired) and two soldiers (who Yassen presumed were part of the SAS); it was a one-sided bloodbath and neither Yassen nor the soldiers got injured. After the initial fight, the three of them made their way back around the compound, capturing the rest of the guards, and the two men that Yassen had left tied up. Once the remaining threats had been neutralised, they searched for any information that might be relevant for whatever was being planned, but found nothing other than Yassen and Alex's belongings. Leaving the compound and its prisoners in the capable hands of the MI6 clean up team (who would search the compound more thoroughly and arrange transport for their prisoners) Wolf, Eagle and Yassen headed to the remaining car. All they cared about was Alex.