Quick update eh?

Li sat at the table in the small diner, waiting for Paulo to come back with their drinks. It was twenty minutes past sunrise but neither of them felt like sleeping; they were both too excited about their looming task. Neither of them admitted it but it was the same adrenaline rush they got when starting a mission with Alpha force all those years ago. She jumped as Paulo slammed a drink in front of her, a bottle of cool green liquid that she drank quickly, relishing the cold sensation that went through her. He smiled at her sweetly as he took his seat opposite. Neither of them said anything to each other as they drank, the documents of their friends whereabouts were laid out on the table in front of them but they were lost to know who to go after first.

"you know what that means though right?" Paulo said and Li looked at him wearily.

"What does it mean?" She asked him and he smiled at her again.

"You chose to find me first." She smiled too.

"I chose to find you because you were the most difficult." She snapped, "roaming around the Arizona desert, fixing things for money, it's a pretty lost existence." He nodded, it was true; he was lost to the world. "But because you lead such a mysterious life you were, in a way, the most publicised. I came here, asked around for someone like you and of course, everyone knew the famous Rico; even if they didn't talk about him. Managed to…persuade someone to give me the name of your favourite tavern." She finished her speech and took a deep breath. Paulo smirked; he'd always been there for Li, always protected her in a way that made her seem dependent. But she wasn't anymore, she was by herself and doing fine.

"Well now what-" Paulo stopped talking as Li took out her mobile, she picked it up as it rang.

"Hello?" Paulo saw she looked confused, that must mean she didn't recognise the number.

"This is Brian Adams." A man's voice came on the other end of the line. "I was ringing to find out how you are getting on." He said and Li sighed.

"I've found Paulo." She said, "I'm debating who to go after next."

"Well I also have to tell you that were need you together in the next three days-"

"Three days?!" Li shouted, "that's nuts, if the government has no idea where they are how're we-"

"We have recently gained the exact location of Amber Middleton." He paused, waiting for her reaction.

"Amber?" She whispered, trying to recollect her friends face.

"Hmmm…try Boston University." He said slowly, "I'm sure she's there. That leaves you with about two days to find the other two; once you've met up, give me a ring and your mission brief shall be delivered to you." The phone line went dead.

"Well?" Paulo asked as Li put the phone back into her pocket. "What did he say?"

"We have to catch a flight to Boston." Was all she said before getting up to leave the diner.

"Impersonal verbs have only one conjugation: the third person singular indefinite, or il. Some of these verbs also have personal versions with different meanings, so it's important to learn to recognize impersonal verbs." Amber spoke the words as though perfectly memorised, well they were; this was her third lecture on French grammar that morning.

"So the passive impersonal is commonly used in place of the passive voice?" One of her keenest students, Emma Greenly spoke out from the mass of students in front of her. Amber found that she hadn't really been listening but Greenly annoyed her anyway; one of those girls that always tried to be top of the class, but not in a nice, quiet way, in a loud way that made her show off. Amber rubbed her forehead and walked around her stand with her microphone on it.

"Miss Greenly, don't interrupt me when I'm talking." Amber said in a bored voice, that didn't stop her students from smirking at the fact she was annoyed. "Unless you'd rather teach my lectures?" Emma said nothing, just stared open mouthed at her professor. "Well alright then." Amber said and was about to walk back to her post when she saw, outside the lecture theatre doors, the Dean of Students beckoning her frantically to the doors. Amber sighed; what could she possibly want? "OK, everyone I'm cutting this lecture short so I'm setting an essay," there was a general outcry from her audience which she waited to subside. "On Albert Camus' "The Stranger" and Existentialism : An 8 page research paper on the novel and details of the existential themes of the novel, relate them to the story and the text. Highlight the use of impersonal verbs." She finished and heard her students groan, "oh and for God's sake; cite your primary resource." She shouted at them; only one student had managed to do it last time, out of about two hundred. She picked her briefcase up from her table, grabbed her laptop and walked away from her students. As she did so she noticed many young boys below her, for she was stood on a stage, their eyes skimming over the dark, flawless skin of her bare legs. She didn't smile, she didn't grimace, she was just too used to it to care by now.

"Professor Middleton!" Said a high pitched, overly happy voice.

"Hey, Martha!" Amber said with equal joy even though Martha could not tell she was being sarcastic. "Can I ask why you interrupted my lecture?" Martha's face fell; Amber couldn't help treating most people like her students, her bossy nature meant she was made for a job where she was in charge. Martha began to stutter something, "sorry?" Amber said clearly and Martha started again.

"Well, we have a bit of a situation; it wasn't really me who interrupted your lecture!" The old, immaculate woman said slightly hysterically. Amber fought down the desire to just shout at her for wasting her time, Martha was pretty nice just incredibly eccentric at the worst of times.

"Well then who is?" Amber snapped; finally losing her temper. Martha pointed to someone down the hall and Amber turned slowly, expecting to find an over excited student, she was met with quite a different sight. Her briefcase fell from her hand as she gasped. "Oh my God." Was all she said. Li and Paulo were stood a little way off, Paulo leaning lazily against the wall outside the lecture theatre and li was sat next to him. The girl stood up and walked towards Amber. Li almost laughed; the fact that Amber stood before her in a beige jacket and pencil skirt, a white shirt underneath with the first few buttons undone to reveal more skin than a Professor should, was just a great reminder that she was an adult now.

"Hey," was all Li said.

"Oh my God." Amber repeated before shouting out some form of greeting and embracing Li with such force the other girl couldn't breathe for a few moments.

"Watch it Amber, you'll suffocate her." Paulo said as he put a hand on her shoulder. "it's good to see you." He said and once Li had moved away he embraced Amber.

"Yeah but seeing you again could only mean one thing." Amber said with a smile.

"Trouble." They all said before laughing.

"So how have you two been?" Amber asked as they walked from the university across the street to her apartment. The busy sounds of a city deafening in comparison to the quiet desert they had, a few hours ago, been a part of. The flashing traffic lights slightly blinding in comparison to the starlight that was in the desert too.

"Good," Paulo answered for himself and Li. Amber smiled to herself as they crossed a busy street, the taxis of Boston hooting at them as they prevented traffic from moving on. "What about you though!" Paulo said, obviously impressed, "a professor at Boston university?"

"Yeah, that's an accomplishment." Li said to Amber who shrugged.

"It's really all there was left for me." She said nonchalantly, "languages was all I could teach and Hex was posted to Boston a year ago so I thought I might as well work in the university here rather than keep my job in…" her voice trailed away and she turned around; Li and Paulo had stopped walking and were staring at her in disbelief. "What?" She asked them and they looked at each other. Li raised an eyebrow.

"Hex?" She started to smile, "you mean you and him…." She burst out laughing when Amber blushed and nodded. Paulo too couldn't help himself.

"Why is that funny?" Amber asked the hysterical pair.

"It's not," Li said through short laughs, "it's really not." Even though she said it she kept laughing.

"Didn't you two ever…?" Amber asked and as she did the laughter subsided, both Li and Paulo shook their heads solemnly, "oh- the train station thing?" She asked Li who nodded. Amber looked at them both for a moment, genuine sadness crept onto her face before turning around to the block of apartments in front of her. She used her key to get in and it took them a good ten minutes to walk up the stairs to her apartment. "Here we are," she said as they reached a beige door, the number 17A in gold glittering letters. She opened the door and led Li and Paulo into the living room.

"Whoa," Paulo said glancing around the room, "well you can tell Hex lives here." Li nodded as she looked around too; small computer parts littered the floor, blue prints of machines were scattered on the couch and there were about six computers in the room all their screens a mixture of numbers and letters, moving, changing places. Amber threw her briefcase onto the table and put her laptop down more carefully on the coffee table. Li knew what was coming when Amber put her hands on her hips so she put her hands on her ears.

"HEX!" Amber shouted and Paulo winced as the piercing sound reached his ears. Li and Paulo waited expectantly for their other old friend to walk into the room. They heard him amble down the hall from his office to the living room. Muttering something about codes and numbers. He entered the room but did not look up; he kept his eyes on the gadget in his hand and tapped it's screen every now and then. Li got a good look of him as he did so; his hair was now a messy mop of brown the flopped down in front of his eyes, he had no ring on his finger and glancing at Amber's hand Li saw there was no ring there either. Hex was wearing a suit which was so strange to Li and Paulo they had to check his face to make sure it was him. Physically he was just taller and slightly more muscular than their days together. Nonetheless it was still Hex. "You're home early." He said, still not looking up at Amber.

"Yeah, I thought we could make out for longer than usual." Paulo said and smirked when Hex stopped what he was doing. He looked up slowly to the three people in front of him. He looked to Amber for confirmation and she nodded with a smile.

"How's it going Hex?" Li asked and moved forwards, he seemed to hesitate, as though working out what was really going on, analysing the situation, trying to make sense of it but no logic came; just an overwhelming sense of happiness that he could see his friends again. She went up to him and, in a slower pace than she had hugged Amber, Li embraced him. Paulo moved forwards too and punched Hex in the arm.

"You got her then." He said quietly and winked at Hex who shook his head.

"I'm guessing you didn't," he whispered back as they hugged, "after you-"

"Yeah, yeah." Paulo said as they broke apart. "You going to work?" He asked as he looked up and down at Hex's suit.

"Oh, no." His accent had changed, Li noticed it was now half americanised, she guessed he must've lived here for quite some time. "I just got back…I was going to tidy up." He said innocently to Amber who shook her head. "What're you guys doing with yourselves these days?" Hex asked with a sly smile as he put the gadget in his hands into his pocket. "You guys want a drink?" He said and was about to walk to the kitchen when Li put a hand on his shoulder.

"No Hex, we need to talk to you two." She said and Hex looked slightly concerned for the fact that Li spoke so seriously, something he was not used to hearing from her. "Sit down for a second." He nodded and looked to Amber, they both sat on the sofa together, Li and Paulo stood in front of them. "I was approached by a guy named Brain Adams," again, like with Paulo she waited for them to work out what that meant. They didn't so-

"Brian Adams?" Hex said suddenly. "He works for the MOD right?" Li nodded.

"How do you know?" Paulo asked, evidently annoyed that Li was laughing; Paulo hadn't known but Hex did. Hex shrugged.

"He's something fancy in Counterintelligence in the British Government; I met him as a kid for creating an infallible security system in a competition." Hex said and everyone nodded, not really impressed at this; Hex was good enough in his field to win a competition like that, no matter what age.

"He's willing to pay just under 750,000." Paulo carried on for Li, "but we have no idea what we're doing for him." He said and Amber raised an eyebrow. "He phones us this morning saying we have just two days left to find everyone else. Li found me and we left this morning to get to you-"

"How did you find us?" Amber asked.

"Wasn't too difficult; you guys are the only two who lead the least hidden lifestyles. They found out where you were Amber; it's not hard to find a university Professor." Li said, "in comparison to Paulo and Alex-"

"Alex…" Hex muttered under his breath and they all looked at him, "I was wondering…what was missing." He said and they all nodded. One left to find. Alpha force was almost complete. "When will he tell us what he wants us to do?"

"When we all get together." Paulo said and crossed his arms. "So are you guys in?" He asked and Hex looked eager enough but Amber looked slightly more concerned.

"What- I'm just going to leave my job for a while? To do something I don't know for however long?" The way she put it did make them all think about the absurdity of this situation. "When I could be doing lectures to kids who think they know all this stuff already?"

"Yeah." Paulo said and Amber stood up.

"When do we leave?"

I know it doesn't seem like they're discussing much, as in they're not like: where the heck have you been/what're you doing career wise? you know all the usual stuff but i want them to meet up with Alex before discussing that stuff or else it'd have to be repeated to each character and then it would get boring...not that this was very exciting :P

reviews appreciated :D