Thanks again for your reviews. Joanna will be in this chapter but don't expect much out of her since she is still in school.

Natasha and Jonathan arrive back at the Institute. Carrington and Elvis greet them.

"Good work Jonathan. Foster check this weapon over for us" Carrington said, and Jonathan handed the CMP100 to Foster with the notebook.

"Will do" Foster headed off to the firing range

"I'm sure you are a bit tired so we'll leave the chat until tomorrow" Carrington said and Jonathan nodded

"Thank you sir" Jonathan replied and Carrington walked off

"Got a ride?" Natasha asked

"No, but I'll be fine" Jonathan replied and Natasha too left.

"I think she likes you" Elvis said

"I'm not sure" Jonathan replied

"It's obvious, even to me" Elvis laughed

"Well, I don't want to go too fast" Jonathan said. He did like Natasha, she was fun but had a serious side to her and she was very intelligent and also very beautiful. "What are you doing for the night?" Jonathan asked changing the subject

"I'm staying here" Elvis said and Jonathan nodded

"Don't you get tired of it?" Jonathan asked

"Oh no, Carrington showed me the simulation areas and all around the Institute it's so big" Elvis said, Jonathan reminded himself that almost anything he thought was normal was fascinating to Elvis.

"Okay, see you tomorrow then" Jonathan said and Elvis waved.

Jonathan didn't live far from the Institute so it was within walking distance, he moved nearby ever since he started his training. He lived alone and had done so for a number of years. The Carrington Institute looked like any other office building in the moderately large city although Carrington had been planning a move to a more deserted area for some time. Jonathan entered his house and got changed and headed for bed. Exhausted he quickly fell asleep.

The next morning when he woke up, he had his shower, changed, ate breakfast and headed out to the Institute once again. He reported to Carrington's office, and knocked on the door.

"Come in" Carrington said and Jonathan opened the door.

"Okay, I've gone over the data and Foster has looked at the weapon it has the strangest lock on feature. It is able to lock onto 2 targets and then your gun is basically aimed at the first target and once it's dead or destroyed it moves on to the second, meaning you could be exceedingly accurate with this weapon once you locked onto a target." Carrington explained

"I see" Jonathan replied

"Well we've already thought up of a counter, Foster is designing it now it should be ready soon with Elvis's and Natasha's help" Carrington said and Jonathan nodded again

"What kind of weapon is it?" Jonathan asked

"Oh you'll like it, it's a laptop computer that also folds into a gun, and the computer actually works but the memory is drastically reduced" Carrington said

"Sounds nasty, but surely the mag mustn't be too big either" Jonathan said

"30 rounds is the plan, just as big as your standard assault rifle with a 3x magnification again like an assault rifle but it won't be as powerful as one of course more like your standard SMG" Carrington replied

"Not bad, not bad at all" Jonathan commented

"Not only that, if you run out of ammo you can either set it and throw it away and it will explode like a grenade in 5 seconds or you can use a weak laser function but this will drain the Laptop's energy supply, although some of this is wishful thinking I don't think we'll be able to do all that but one of those things I told you is certainly going to be on the final product" Carrington said

"And what about that meeting I recorded?" Jonathan asked

"Ah yes, obviously the former leaders part must refer to more than one person. Around Cassandra's time Trent Easton was mysteriously promoted in the NSA as well. Cassandra and Trent have worked together on numerous occasions before and after their promotion so it wouldn't surprise me if he was the other person involved, but how deeply I'm not certain. Although this must stay certain if anybody outside the Institute even remotely suspects we are thinking Trent Easton is involved in some kind of conspiracy we could get into a bit of trouble" Carrington said

"So what exactly is my mission?" Jonathan asked

"I want you to go to Italy. Trent is having a meeting with dataDyne executives to supposedly talk about weapons that will be supplied to the NSA but I'm thinking other things will be discussed. I want you to go around to where the NSA has guards posted. They are clearly guarding where the meeting is to take place" Carrington said

"Understood, when do I leave?" Jonathan asked

"In about an hour, not that I need to say it but go into the area as a civilian and just so you know, it's a moderately large city so you will need to find way around that doesn't involve blasting the guards, although you probably wouldn't try that anyway" Carrington said and Jonathan got up to leave. "Oh Jonathan, I would like you to meet these people we are looking into for future agents, give me your thoughts" Carrington got up from his chair

"Why do you want my opinion I'm just new?" Jonathan asked

"Ha, maybe but already you've been through some tough situations, also you understand better what it is like to go through the training" Carrington said and Jonathan nodded

"Fair enough" Jonathan replied and they headed to a waiting room.

4 people were sitting around a table as Carrington and Jonathan entered the room. 2 were male, 2 were female.

"Hello everybody, I'm glad you could make it out of your busy schedules, with study and stuff" Carrington greeted them "Now you are all here because you have shown interest in becoming part of the team here at the Carrington Institute, I'd like you to meet our Top Agent Jonathan Dark" Carrington looked towards Jonathan. Top Agent? Jonathan thought to himself, wow.

"Hi everybody" Jonathan waved and they all waved back some of them were nervous but one of the women was as calm as could be.

"Now let's introduce everybody" Carrington sat down, "let's start from this side of the table and go round just your first name is fine so you all know each other"

"I'm Ryan" one of the men said

"Julie" One of the women said

"Mark" another of the men added

"Joanna" she said, all the others didn't seem to be in the room. Joanna's calm but friendly nature stuck out to Jonathan, Carrington too seemed to be impressed by her.

"Excellent, now you'll all be given a quick test, don't panic just try to think clearly and you'll do fine" Carrington instructed them and handed them pens.

Jonathan and Carrington stepped outside the room.

"What do you think?" Carrington asked Jonathan as they looked through a computer screen which showed the room they were just in.

"Joanna, she was so relaxed but also serious, the others looked like they were going to well…" Jonathan started

"Piss themselves?" Carrington said slightly out of character for a moment.

"Exactly, what do you have on Joanna?" Jonathan asked

"Let's see, well she's doing very well in school, highly fit and she's already travelled a bit, exchange student in Australia for one year, Japan for another, by far the most impressive record out of this lot, it doesn't seem fair to compare her to them, I'm going to pull her aside" Carrington said and he entered the room. Jonathan watched through the camera.

"Okay time's up" Carrington said and he took everybody's test and gave a quick scan of them, again Joanna was on top easily.

"Joanna, come outside for a moment would you?" Carrington asked and Joanna stood up and walked outside with Carrington. "Ill be back in a minute" he called out to the others in the room and they nodded as he closed the door.

"Right Joanna, we are already impressed with your records and current test results. So would you come back in 48 hours so we can test you a little more?" Carrington asked

"Of course, thank you" Joanna said

"Right see you tomorrow, oh and feel free to get something from the cafeteria before you leave, Jonathan show her there would you?" Carrington asked and Jonathan nodded

Jonathan and Joanna walked to the cafeteria.

"So what's it like working here?" Joanna asked

"It's okay, but some of the weirdest stuff can happen, even during the training" Jonathan said

"Such as?" Joanna asked

"I can't tell you that, but you should do fine" Jonathan said as they headed into the cafeteria.

"What are the people like here?" Joanna asked still keeping a serious manner

"Let me show you" Jonathan smiled and he winked to Foster who was sitting down who pressed a button and a hose came out and sprayed Joanna in the face for a second.

"Oh no, you failed part of your training" Jonathan laughed

"Oh…" Joanna frowned

"I'm only kidding, Joanna relax" Jonathan handed her a towel and Jo dried her face. Then however she saw her chance to get even, as Foster winked at Joanna she ducked and the same hose sprayed Jonathan. Joanna cracked and laughed a little bit, but then regained her serious nature.

"I think you've made your point" Joanna said

"Yes haven't I? It's a wonderful place" Jonathan said with a bit of sarcasm "Do your friends call you Jo? Jonathan asked

"Yes, you can I guess… but I thought everybody would be so serious" Joanna said

"When working whether it be here or on mission it is serious, but we need to be occasionally a little more relaxed otherwise you go insane" Jonathan explained and Joanna nodded understanding what he meant.

"Anyway Jo, I've got to go on mission now. I hope I'll see you later, good luck if I don't" Jonathan waved to Joanna and she waved in return.

Jonathan headed to the airport, and about an hour later he was on the plane. Carrington put him on first class, Jonathan wondered why but the answer was sitting next to him.

"Hi there" Natasha said

"Natasha what are you doing here?" Jonathan asked

"Me? Haha, Helping you of course" Natasha laughed

"You shouldn't be here" Jonathan replied

"Actually I should be, I got Carrington's permission to help you" Natasha said

"Well, I'm glad you are here" Jonathan sat back

"You are?" Natasha asked

"Yes, I… I…" Jonathan tried to find the words without hurting her

"You what?" Natasha waited for the words she wanted to hear.

"Kinda well… like you" Jonathan said, and regretted it as soon as he had said it that is until…

"I kinda like you too" Natasha replied and Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief to himself

Natasha then looked at Jonathan and Jonathan looked back and then they move in on each other ready to kiss. Jonathan thought no, this was going to fast but Natasha seemed to want to he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Oh go on Johnny do it!" Grimshaw cheered looking through the computer screen again.

"Yes, yes" Elvis said

"Come on just do it already, we've been waiting 6 months" Foster chimed in…

Jonathan and Natasha were about to kiss until Jonathan noticed something.

"Wait what's that?" Jonathan asked

"What's what?" Natasha replied slightly disappointed

"This…" Jonathan pointed to the floor

Jonathan looked a tiny red light from the floor of the plane and then stomped on it.

"DAMN IT!" Foster shouted

"Now we'll never know" Grimshaw moaned

"So you shouldn't either, I wish you three would leave them alone" Carrington grumbled "The next human who I catch spying on them becomes the crash tackle Snowman for the snow simulation, got it?" Carrington finished and Grimshaw and Foster nervously nodded.

Meanwhile back on the plane…

"Silly people, good thing it was an Institute camera though" Natasha said

"Yeah, now where were we" Jonathan asked, he wanted to go ahead with it now even though somebody at the Institute knew what was going on.

"Right here" Natasha pulled Jonathan into a kiss on the lips…

They landed, and they headed to a hotel room that Carrington booked in advance. They checked the room for bugs and other spying devices before Natasha started to give instructions.

"Right Jonathan, I'll keep out of sight but I'll remain in radio contact. This makes a loud explosion like noise, if all goes well the guards will head to the location and the NSA will say they were testing some kind of weapon to everybody else" Natasha said and Jonathan accepted the device and pocketed it. "Here's the camspy again, and take this" Natasha gave Jonathan a strange black band.

"What is it?" Jonathan asked

"Put it on your left wrist, purely by reading your thoughts it will shoot a stun dart at any enemies in the room with great accuracy, however it can only hold 5 darts and they can't be reloaded at the moment, it's a work in progress" Natasha said

"Thanks; see you later" Jonathan left the room

"Bye!" Natasha waved

Jonathan headed into the crowded city it was obvious which building Jonathan needed to get into since the entrance had a doorway with 5 armed guards around it. There was two ways around this Jonathan thought to himself, he could stun the guards with Natasha's wrist band or he could use the sound making device. The latter was safer and he didn't know what was inside. He headed around to the side of the building and attached the strange device in an alleyway. He headed back to where the guards were standing and set off the device. It worked perfectly the guards scattered and headed right to that location along with many civilians. He entered the building and looked once again for cameras.

"Excellent Jonathan, our analysis of the base shows there are only 2 cameras, but their locations we aren't sure of, just be careful" Natasha radioed in

"Received" Jonathan replied

He looked at the map on the walls; it was predictably marked with where everything was.

"Hey hands up!" A guard came behind Jonathan, but Jonathan stepped on his toe and hit him with the back of his first and followed by hitting him with his Magnum, knocking him out. He dragged him into the toilets, closed one of the cubicles and left him there. He headed to where it was marked meeting room but went one more floor up so he could spy on the meeting. Still no cameras as far as he could see, he used the Falcon 2 and attached a silencer and blasted the ventilation open. He placed a tracking device on the wall so he'd get 5 seconds warning before anybody came by. He sent the Camspy in and found the meeting room. Cassandra sitting at the head of the table, that had to be Trent Easton on her left and there were 2 other dataDyne executives and 2 NSA leaders sitting. Terrance was standing behind Cassandra's chair. All of them were dressed in typical business suits and ties, and Cassandra wore a blue dress with her famous necklace, Carrington seemed to think it had links to high security areas.

"Now Cassandra about that new assault rifle is it finished?" One of the NSA leaders asked, maybe Carrington was wrong, this meeting may have been about weapons that dataDyne will supply to the NSA after all.

"Yes, project Dragon is finished and you will have it by the beginning of next week" Cassandra said

"Fantastic, so it has the proxy mine has promised?" The other leader asked

"Of course, 30 rounds, 2 times zoom, decently accurate as well" Cassandra said and Trent nodded

"You have done well for yourselves" Trent said to Cassandra and the executives sitting on the other side of the table

"Thank you, now that will cost…" the dataDyne executive took out a pen and wrote a figure, Jonathan couldn't see it but it became obvious that the NSA leaders weren't happy.

"What? The US Military paid half that to get their assault rifle" One of the NSA leaders complained

"But it's nowhere near as good as this one" The other executive backed up

"That's ridiculous…" The other NSA leader backed him up

"Come on guys, Cassandra's my friend, she wouldn't rip us off" Trent tried to calm them down

"Maybe she's trying to use that to her advantage" He replied

"Perhaps you'd like a demonstration?" Terrance said with a bit of anger and took the rifle from the back of the room and fired it over the leaders heads with great accuracy taking the papers off the wall. He followed by pulling a switch throwing the rifle into the corner and then blasted it with his Magnum, where it exploded. Terrance folded his arms. "Convinced?" He said and the leaders only nodded.

"Was that really necessary?" Trent asked

"I think so" Terrance calmly adjusted his tie

"Is that all?" Cassandra asked

"Yes, thank you" One of the leaders said and the executives and the leaders got up

"Let Terrance show you out" Cassandra said with a bit of an evil smile.

"Oh no, we can find our own way out" The other leader still seemed frightened

"Come on, I insist" Terrance said as they walked out the room leading the executives and the leaders out.

Jonathan was about to put the camspy away until Trent said.

"Is that man coming?" Trent asked

"Of course, he was waiting for the official meeting to end" Cassandra replied and sure enough Mr. Blonde stepped in through the entrance.

"That boy has temper doesn't he" Mr. Blonde said

"Terrance?" Cassandra asked

"Yes, I was almost impressed" Mr. Blonde laughed a bit

"So what's our plan" Trent asked

"We heard the British Prime Minister is the only person who knows the exact whereabouts of the ship but made to keep it a secret, so we plan to stun him, capture him and make him talk" Mr. Blonde said

"That's easier said than done you know; how do you plan to even get in range?" Cassandra asked

"We use our cloaking device, throw the stun grenade which knocks everybody except the person in the cloak out and capture him, it's simple"

"Maybe, but don't count on holding him too long, Carrington will track you so fast it can make your head spin" Trent said

"Carrington got lucky yesterday, so an agent sneaks in and takes a weapon from you and you basically screwed up on Victoria Island. His luck is bound to run out" Mr. Blonde said "Besides getting that ship back is everything, so we are willing to take risks but are you?" Mr. Blonde asked

"Of course, we want our reward after all" Cassandra smiled and Trent smiled as well as any doubts they had vanished when they imagined themselves on top of the world with more money then it was humanly possible to count

"Excellent, the British PM is doing some kind of celebration speech thing in Sydney, Australia in 5 days. I will need your back up though Cassandra of your troops should anything go wrong, who knows maybe we'll do more then that" Mr. Blonde laughed evilly "Understood?"

"Yes, but how do you know he will definitely know the location of your ship?" Cassandra asked

"Whether he knows or not, his capture will bring fear and confusion. That will be all" Mr. Blonde said and they all left the meeting room. He was calling the Camspy back in but just then he heard somebody, he went for his Magnum but by the time he had it hand there was another already to his head.

"You just don't give up do you?" Terrance said as Jonathan swore in his mind, wondering why his tracking device didn't go off. Terrance then hit Jonathan hard with his Magnum knocking him out.

"You are still weaker than I am" Terrance taunted and laughed even though Jon couldn't hear him.