Quick update eh?

Lily and Alex stood for a few minutes in shock; the silence in the room was deafening in comparison to the rain thundering down outside. They looked at each other and saw they were completely drenched, Lily was thankful she wore a dark coloured dress; anything else would've gone see through. Alex only realised a few moments later how cold he was, Lily saw him shivering. Suddenly the lights went out, Lily gasped and Alex was hoping they wouldn't have to spend the evening in the dark; but then they turned back on, dimmer than before but at least they were back on.

"What happened?" Alex asked.

"Hmmm…I dunno," Lily looked equally as confused. "Maybe the storm has something to do with it. C'mon," she began to walk across the room to a door on the other side. She reached it and pushed; it didn't open. "Wha…?" She walked to a cupboard that was a little further away and opened it. Inside was nothing except a small keypad on the door, she entered a code and tried the door again. It didn't budge. Alex came to help, thinking perhaps the door was just stiff; it wasn't. "I guess it's locked from upstairs." She said thoughtfully but that made no sense to Alex.

"Locked from upstairs?" He asked and she nodded.

"Security must've locked it automatically, that's why I can't open it from down here; I have to get to the controls." She pointed up and Alex understood. His face reddened; they were stuck in here together. Lily seemed to notice this as well and walked to a window, she tried to open it. "They've locked everything!" She walked to the door they entered and pushed. "How…?" But she realised she was defeated and slid down the door and sat in a little puddle they'd made when they'd entered. Alex noticed she was shivering.

"I'd offer you my jacket but…" he gestured to it and took it off, even his t-shirt underneath was wet. Lily laughed in exasperation. She stood up and walked down the length of the long table in the room. At the end of the room was one of the biggest fireplaces Alex had ever seen; it's golden mantle was huge as well. At home he had pictures of his family there; glancing around the room he could see that there were no pictures anywhere. In fact the place looked like no one lived here. Lily turned it on and the room was engulfed by the welcomed heat.

"Well, we may as well get comfortable, there's no getting out of here till someone finds us." She sat in front of the fire and gestured for Alex to do the same. As he went to sit he took his mobile out of his pocket.

"We could phone someone," he said and dialled Hex's number.

"No!" Amber shouted and was helped by Paulo to restrain Hex as Li tried to pry his phone from his hand.

"What the heck is wrong with you all?" Hex's muffled shout could be heard from beneath Amber. Li finally managed to get the phone from him.

"Aha!" she whooped in triumph. "Alright, just reject the call…" She pushed a button and smiled evilly. Everyone went back to the screen; they could see Alex's face as he saw the call was rejected.

"You're all nuts." Hex muttered as Amber and Paulo eased themselves off him.

"No," Amber said in a warning tone, "we're just being good friends-"

"Good friends?" hex genuinely laughed, "Alex doesn't know where we are, he could think we're lost." Hex said adamantly but Paulo frowned.

"It's just a storm; he'll think we can't get signal because of it or something; this is hardly the middle of the rainforest!" Everyone nodded solemnly but Hex still couldn't understand it.

"Whatever," he shrugged under Amber's stare. "Just tell him I had nothing to do with it." Everyone nodded; evidently Hex had forgotten Alex would know he was the only one capable of understanding the security system. Everyone jumped as Amber's phone rang. She took it out of her pocket and pressed the reject button.

"It's all good," she said and Li high fived her. They looked back at the screen.

"Ok guys, rejecting the calls are one thing but do you seriously want to watch?!" Hex exclaimed, they thought about this for a few moments before they realised what Hex was thinking.

"Ewww!" Li said and turned the screen off.

"Thank you," hex said grudgingly. Paulo's phone rang; he glanced at the screen and rejected the call.

"Anything?" Lily asked.

"No," Alex couldn't understand why he couldn't get through to anyone.

"Maybe the storms interfering with your reception?" She pondered. "Ask Hex next time you see him." She said nonchalantly.

"Hex…?" Alex whispered. He glanced at the lights, the doors and down to his phone; a sudden realisation came to him of what his friends must be doing. Or perhaps he was just being paranoid. Then again, they did have Amber with them.

"What the heck is happening outside at three o'clock in the morning?" Amber said and pointed to another screen that showed several vans arriving at the house. Everyone peered closer and they could see one man get out of a van and open the doors.

"It's just Lily's father's business," Paulo said.

"At three in the morning?" Li said and peered closer; the man had begun to unpack boxes from the van and was taking them down to a cellar.

"Do any of you remember Lily saying what her dad does?" Amber asked and the group shrugged but Paulo looked up.

"Something about exports and imports…?" Paulo recalled Lily saying when they first met her.

"I have a question," Hex looked at them all. "What kind of business goes ahead in such freak weather? That guy could get killed- it's getting pretty rough out there." Everyone contemplated this.

"Hex can you zoom in so that we can see what's in or printed on those boxes?" Amber asked and Hex smiled at her request and immediately began to click away. After about ten minutes, Amber was losing patience. Hex had tried everything; he'd even managed to hook his palmtop up to the security system to get a good look at things but-

"It's just not playing ball." He said quietly. Li stood up, she had been about to doze off next to Paulo on the floor.

"Well then I guess there's only one way to find out!" She shouted and put her hands on her hips; they all knew what she was thinking.

"And that was the last I saw of that guy." Lily said as she stared into the small fire in front of them.

"So he just vanished?" Alex found that difficult to understand. Lily turned to him and laughed.

"This is Peru. People vanish all the time."

"That's terrible." He shook his head. She had been recounting her stories as a child here. How when she was 12 and came over for the summer her childhood friend Pedro had just disappeared.

"I asked around but…nothing." Alex looked at her, her coffee coloured skin had dried now, even their clothes were beginning to lose their dampness, but he noticed that she hadn't cried. Which surprised him; she'd been through an awful lot.

"What about his family?" Alex asked, finally realising what kind of a place this was.

"His family?" She was thoughtful for a minute. "They kept their mouths shut-"

"Why?"

"He was probably in trouble with the police; it's difficult to be a kid here and not get involved in crime." She sighed. "It's OK though," she looked over to Alex and for a moment was lost in his grey eyes, she shook herself out of it. "Once you've been shipped off you lose connection to people here; I don't even know where my parents are now." She shivered even though it wasn't cold.

"Lily," Alex went to take her hand but she moved it away. He sighed and began to take the bandage of his hand.

"Is it better now?" She asked quietly and he nodded. There was a pause. "What about you?" She asked indifferently. But Alex shrugged.

"There's nothing really to say." In comparison to her life, his seemed relatively normal. Apart from the work he did with Alpha force of course, but he found that he didn't want her to know about it. Not yet anyway. She looked at him and smiled slightly, there was a hardness in his grey eyes that made it clear he hardly ever spoke of things like this. Alex noticed the same about her, even though he didn't say it.

"This is amazing." Hex whispered. Amber said nothing, she sat behind him, waiting patiently for a response from Li, Paulo sat even further behind her, lying lazily in a chair, he smoothed his hair back.

"Call it amazing one more time Hex and I swear I'll-"

"Ok, ok! Sorry." Hex muttered but even Amber could see the security system here was pretty good. Hex had given Li an ear piece and microphone so they could communicate, they were all surprised to find that Hex kept these things in his bag for emergency use. She decided against taking a torch because a) they didn't have one and b) she didn't want to be seen. They followed her movements on screens by use of an infrared camera; she couldn't see where she was going but the rest of the team could. Hex guided her to take the best path through Lily's garden. The storm had died down slightly but it was still pouring outside.

"Where do I go now?" They heard Li's voice on their speaker, it was muffled though but they could still make her out.

"Erm…" Hex glanced down to blueprints of the building and its grounds that they had found. "Right now she's here," he mumbled to Amber, "so she should-"

"Guys!" Li shouted, "Kind of cold. Can we hurry it up?"

"Follow the wall on your left till it stops," Amber said, better at instructing than Hex was. They saw Li put her left hand out and follow the wall, she stumbled slightly.

"It's pitch black out here…" She grumbled.

"You volunteered for this." Paulo snapped back; still annoyed that Li had said he'd slow her down. Li swore softly. "What was that for?" Paulo looked offended.

"No not you," Li whispered. Everyone peered at the screen, as Li turned the corner she was given some light by lamps at the front of the house, she needed to cross the drive and get to the other side. Right now she was stood underneath a canopy so she was shielded from the rain. The team leant in further and could see three men walking towards the building.

"Who is that?" Amber asked.

"It's Lily's dad!" Paulo said; recognising the suit the man was wearing. "Aren't they walking towards the room we locked Alex and Lily in?" Hex, Amber and Paulo exchanged frightened glances.

"Uh-oh," they heard Li whisper.

"How did you all meet?" lily asked, "You're all from different parts of the world. I can't believe I never asked." Alex smiled and told her that story; of course he left out the fact that they had been stranded. "So you're all just five best friends who get together during the school holidays?" For a moment Alex thought she must know; she talked in such an I-know-something-that-you-don't-know, tone.

"Yeah," Alex gritted his teeth; it was difficult to lie to her, "that's about it."

"What about in Northumbria?" She asked, still her eyes watched the flames as they danced in front of her.

"What about it?" He whispered; he too was captivated by the flames.

"Who've you got there?"

"Just mum, dad and me." He turned to face her and she looked round as she sensed his stare. She looked down shyly and Alex smiled, but the sadness in her eyes still showed as he tilted her face towards him. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment longer and Alex-

BANG. Both looked round as a sound came from outside the door.

DUN DUN DUN!!

well, its not that big a surprise.

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