Sing With One Voice (I am, you are, we are...)

In a hurricane of admonishment, icy re-closed and locked the door with a key he promptly swallowed, and swept about the room. "This!" he pointed to 'broken' contraption, "is a sawhorse and youse were meant to examine it to foind this." From under the crossbar, he pulled a piece of paper, which he brandished. "This is the code to decode this. C'mon, mates, really?"

Alex gave a small "Hah!" of smugness when icy sifted through the sawdust to show them the paper, the white thing Alex had seen.

Snake read the paper, decoded by icy. "Peep at the maiden to find the answer. Well, that's not very chivalrous, is it?"

"We already did that, though," pointed out Fox. "We found the saw."

icy scowled. "Yes, but youse didn't foind this, neow, did ya?" He pointed at a spot on the maiden's dress.

Alex peered closely. The spot looked strangely contrived, like it wasn't just a random spot. He peered even closer. "It's… it's a number. Four."

"Yes!" huffed icy, "now keep lookin'."

"That's not fair," Fox pouted. "The voice told us we'd ruin our eyesight."

icy regarded him coolly. "That's what the loight was for."

Alex coughed loudly to interrupt the staring contest between the two gamers. There were numbers all over the painting, like a paint-by-numbers activity. "Four, one, three, two. What's that meant to mean?"

Fox smacked his forehead. "Of course! The barcode colours: three is indigo –" ("Violet!" yowled icy.) "– one is blue, four is yellow, two is red, and…" he wandered around the room. "Where do we use it…?"

"Here," pointed icy, slouching. "Oi told youse it was a combination lock, and everything."

All eyes turned to the metal cupboard Wolf had tried to open earlier. Fox marched over to it, muttering the order of the colours. "Blue, red, indigo, yellow. Blue, red, indigo, yellow. That makes it… one, two, three, four."

There was an awkward pause.

"Really? You couldn't be bothered coming up with a creative code?" Eagle was scathing.

icy hunched his shoulders. "Oi didn't know heow to change the code. And anyways, the real creativity is insoide."

The cupboard was empty, but painted on the back was a riddle:

You are blind from me, numb to me, deaf to me.
Your nose cannot sense me.
I am beyond the sky and below the ground.
I am at the end of life and the start of life.
What am I?

"Right," said Wolf. He turned to Eagle. "You're the literary one – work out the riddle."

Eagle raised his eyebrows sardonically. "Literary. That's a long word for you to use, Wolfy. How about we all work out the riddle? Just because I read doesn't mean I'm an expert in written things."

Ever the doctor, Snake was drawn to the physical senses. "Well, if you can't see, feel, hear or smell it, you must be able to taste it."

"That's no help," Fox pointed out, "There's a lot you can taste in the world."

"Yes, but what if its taste is part of its distinguishing features—"

"It isn't," butted in icy, who was really not very good at giving riddles, Alex thought. Not mysterious enough by far.

Wolf went for the cliché answer. "Nothingness?"

"No," mused Alex, who could remember his Physics lessons all too clearly – he would never look at a string the same way ever again – "The riddle says 'at the end of life' and there's always something at the end; stones, dead cells, anything. You can't destroy matter, except with antimatter..."

Fox curled his lip. "Besides, the riddle also says 'below the ground' and there is definitely stuff underground. The underground, for example."

"Well, that depends," hummed Snake, "on how you define 'below the ground'. It could mean off the face of the Earth – assuming the Earth is flat and, if this is a particularly old riddle, might have been thought so – and that would fit 'beyond the sky', since space – we didn't even know it existed – so it was nothing."

Alex smiled triumphantly at Fox. "My reasoning for why Wolf's answer was wrong was better than yours," he taunted mildly.

"Yes, yes, let's get on with the riddle."

Eagle groaned theatrically and clasped his hands to icy in silent imploration. "I give up, give us a clue, why don't you?"

icy frowned.

"Please?"

"Why all this if Oi was going to tell youse the answer?"

"He's right, you know," Snake muttered.

"Oi know Oi'm roight," icy smiled smugly. "For the first toime in moi loife."

"Ngh," replied Eagle, and, exasperated, collapsed onto the ground and lay back, spreading his arms as though to create a dust-angel.

icy looked at him in concern. "Don't give up, mate, there is loight at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel of thought, that is…" he trailed off.

"Death?" offered Snake.

"Close, but no cigah. Oi praise the first letter that comes, but there must be three more than given." icy seemed to have gone mad with impatience. At least he was being more mysterious now.

"I'm waiting for a lightbulb moment, but it isn't coming," drawled Fox.

Wolf snorted. "Of course it isn't. It's too darking dark in here to light it up."

There was a sound, like wind rushing through a very small tunnel. Five heads turned to look at icy, who clutched a hand to his heart and leaned towards Wolf pointedly.

"Light it up?" queried Snake.

One shake for no.

"Lightbulb?"

"In here?"

"Darkness?"

The answers were given in quick succession from Fox, Alex and Eagle, in turn. Two shakes were given, before a wonderful, miraculous nod. Eagle raised his fist. "Yes! I got it!"

Wolf smiled in satisfaction. "Told you you'd get it."

The bookworm spluttered. "Yes, but – but – not because I read books!"

"Sure, sure."

Alex, however, had his mind on other things. The original puzzle, namely. "So what do we do with darkness?"

As if on cue, icy held his hand, palm facing outwards, to his eyes. "Crikey, mates, the loight! It burns!"

"What are you, a vampire?" grimaced Fox.

Wolf, always a good soldier, followed the unspoken command and pulled the string, which turned the light off.

For a moment, the men – and one boy – blinked as their eyes adjusted to the light, or lack thereof. Then, very faintly, came a glowing from inside the cabinet. They crowded around, Alex being the first to get there. "It's an X," he said. "What do we do with that?"

"Press it, press it…" muttered icy, leering towards his creation.

Upon the press, the back of the cupboard seemed to melt, leaving behind another back, with a hook on it. And on that hook was a key.

And with that key, they unlocked the green door.

xxx

"Now, don't think about escaping from 'ere," icy lectured them. "Oi've locked all the other doors, and all the windows. Youse can't escape this toime!"

Alex shared a bemused glance with Fox.

icy led them to a small room upstairs and seated the five of them around a coffee table. Fussing happily, he placed a mug of tea in each of their hands. The soldiers couldn't help but notice a seventh man in the room, a man chained to a chair facing the corner, who was also sipping a mug of tea.

"Who's that?" Wolf whispered hoarsely to Snake, indicating with his head.

Snake favoured him with a withering glare and pointedly said nothing. Wolf retreated into his mug of tea with a slight hunching of his shoulders. He cleared his throat. "Look— icy, is it?" he began soothingly, placing his mug on the coffee table.

icy raised an eyebrow. "Now, you've changed," he remarked, "and jumbled the pieces. You've changed. You're better before you talked."

Insulted, Wolf stopped. Snake patted his shoulder consolingly. "That wasn't a very nice thing to say," he frowned.

"Love children of the new age," icy sneered, clasping his hands to his heart. "Here come the handmaidens of end toime."

"What is he saying?" questioned Fox in a low voice. Alex shrugged.

icy finished his tea with a loud 'ahhhh' and clunked his mug onto the table. "Oi'm still here."

"What do you want?" Eagle asked petulantly.

"Oi'm still here, mates," repeated icy. "Oi've come ta rain on your parade."

"Why do you want to rain on our parade?" Wolf was abrupt.

icy ignored him. "You can tell a man from what he has ta say."

"What do you want?" Eagle said again. "Did you organise the thing with his—" he pointed to Wolf, "girlfriend? In the yum cha restaurant?"

("Ex-girlfriend," muttered Wolf.)

"Yes, but let it go," whined icy. "Things ain't cooking in moi kitchen."

The man in the corner spoke up in a clear British accent. "He's completely bonkers, you know."

They turned to face him. icy sighed noisily. "Hey, don't look now," he pouted. "Ya lousy bar stool." He scooped up their mugs, plodding to the kitchen.

"Just minding my own business, wasn't I? Back from – well, you don't need to know about that. But there I was," the man nodded disconsolately, "and he arrested me. Arrested me. Arrested me."

"For what?" Alex prompted him.

"Well, you have to understand," pleaded the man. "I had done nothing wrong, you see. Nothing. And he arrested me – arrested me – for indecent exposure! I mean, can you imagine?"

Wolf snorted. "I don't think I want to, honestly."

"No!" the man rustled his chains adamantly. "The thing is, the thing was, I'd been perfectly dressed. I was wearing my dressing gown and slippers. I'm no plebeian; I'm Arthur Ent," he concluded haughtily.

icy returned, scowling, and handed each of them an orange-brown, sugary oat-biscuit. "Beautiful lie," he refuted. "Terrible truth."

The man only rolled his eyes and slouched into his chains. "See? He's mad."

"If ya know me," icy snapped, "why don't youse tell me what Oi'm thinking?"

Snake gestured for icy to sit. "You… have a nice house," he said lamely.

"Yes." icy seemed suitably distracted. "It's a way of bringing sheltah from the rain," he continued modestly.

Encouraged by his success, Snake went on. "The road, outside, is nice. Er. I think there's a river nearby. Is there a bridge too?"

"See it stretch on forever!" icy waved a tanned hand towards the window, through which they could, indeed, see a long road. "Loife's too short for burning bridges. They abound." He raised his eyebrows significantly.

Fox decided to join in the fun in trying to learn where exactly they were. "I really enjoy getting out of the city, away from all the banks and fast food restaurants. It's good here."

"Still mad at Uncle Sam?" icy responded sympathetically. "Oi hear this town, it never goes to sleep," he acknowledged. "So and by the way, ah, Oi lost my address."

"You don't know where we are?"

"Nope, ain't worried about tamorrah. I've made up my mind."

Eagle narrowed his eyes. "How did you get here if you don't know where here is?"

"Working hard," nodded icy knowingly, "ta make a living. It's a long way to the top."

"I told you he's mad," the man in the corner muttered.

icy scolded him fondly. "Oi'd make wine from your tears, mate."

"Er, so is there a reason we're here, or can we go?" Eagle interrupted.

The man in the corner looked heavenwards and shook his chains meaningfully.

A high-pitched laugh escaped icy. "We all have wings," he proclaimed, "but some of us don't know why."

"What? Would you slow down?" complained Wolf. "Understanding him is worse than Shakespeare."

icy was triumphant. "No stop signs, speed limit. Nobody's gonna slow me down." Noticing that they'd finished their biscuits, he blinked and sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Enough," he announced. "Ready or not, here comes the drop, mates."

"Drop?" Alex asked quietly. His comrades shrugged.

"You!" icy pointed a hairy finger towards the blond spy, voice suddenly loud. "Don't be so reckless!"

Alex was flabbergasted. "Okay?" he tried.

Unamused, icy continued his storming rant. "The inbred smoile," he snarled incoherently, then turned to the others accusingly. "He played the woild scene, ya know. They built him up."

The soldiers could only stare at him, speechless.

"Oi've seen your peers poutin' over beers," icy whispered to Alex. "Oi know what you've done."

"What have I done?"

"You don't know the reason why?"

"…No."

icy's mouth dropped open and his blue eyes opened comically wide. "You've taken my people!" he shouted. "My people! My people! Oi can't afford it," he cried, "Oi can't get no satisfaction!"

"Sorry," Alex offered.

"No!" howled icy. "Oi wander the streets never reaching the hoights that Oi seek. There are cars shooting by with no number plates. Things just, ah, don't seem, ah, to… be goin' roight."

"What did I do?"

"What didn't you do," icy corrected him. "Stole from my rich, gave to my poor. Walked through my hall and out through my door. Broken dreams that never really started."

Fox tapped his nose. "I think he might be saying that you took something of his."

Beaming, icy patted Fox's head and gave him what sounded like a poor attempt at a compliment. "The excess of fat on your American bones will cushion the impact as you sink loike a stone."

"…Thank you. I'm not American. And… Well, never mind."

The man in the corner barked a laugh. "You two are pathetic."

"Oi don't feeeel pathetic," icy countered.

Wolf coughed loudly. "What did he take?"

Sticking out his bottom lip, icy waved his callused fingers in Wolf's direction like an unpractised magician. "You can foight the sleep, but not the dream," he promised ominously. "Anyway," he said, turning back to Alex, "she don't loike that kind of behaviour."

"She?" Snake broke in.

icy nodded. "Oi think that Oi'm beginning to know her. So, throw down your guns."

Tilting his head, Alex faced Fox. "Do you think he's talking about me and …" he glanced at the man in the corner – "the Bank? Maybe he used to be an agent, and I took his place?"

There was a chorus of 'ah' from the assembled soldiers. The man in the corner muttered something about them being just as mad as his arrestor.

"Man in a cage has made his confession now," icy reported smugly. Eagle rolled his eyes.

Alex swallowed. "So, you want me to stop with the Bank? Is that it?"

"That koind of behaviour," nodded icy. "Be-yoo-tiful, people."

"If I promise to never go back to the Bank, will you let all of us go?"

icy twitched. "Some things aren't meant to be. Some things don't come for free."

"I think he wants more than you just quitting the Bank," Fox muttered.

Again, icy beamed at Fox, white teeth gleaming in his broad smile. "A fact's a fact. You feel lucky when you know where you are." He whipped his head back around to stare at Alex. "Nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground."

Wolf choked. "Is he threatening to kill you?"

"Well, that would make sense," replied Alex dryly, "considering all the attempts on my life in the past few weeks." There was no way he was going to get back in time for the football now. The coach had probably given up on him ages ago.

Clearing his throat, Fox planted a hand on icy's broad shoulder. "icy, you feel that Alex took over your job, is that right?"

icy nodded warily.

"To be honest, I think you've been lied to," Fox continued. He ignored the awkward silence that filled the room, broken only by the man in the corner mumbling something about Thursdays. "I want to tell you the truth, okay? You deserve to know," he added.

icy shook Fox's hand off his shoulder. "Don't tell me," he begged. "Oi don't wanna hear about it."

"I think you should, icy," Fox persisted, his voice still soft and low and comforting. "I think it'll be good for you."

"And if we think about it – and if we talk about it – and if the skies go dark with rain? Maaaaate."

Alex could see why MI6 had hired him. Fox's mask of concern mixed with determination and 'honesty' was flawless. Fox gripped icy's shoulder again. "We'll get through it together, I promise you."

Eagle sniggered, happily ignoring Fox's exasperated expression. "Together, eh? Where's your bedroom, icy?"

icy was unfazed, apparently still enthralled by Fox's superb acting. He glared poisonously towards Eagle, his eyes piercing blue. "Are you trying to tempt me?" he sneered, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Because Oi come from the land of plenty."

Eagle shut up.

Fox continued. "Look at him," he coaxed icy, gesturing towards Alex. "How old do you think he is?"

"Oi was only nineteen, when Oi decided this is what Oi want to be," shrugged icy.

"Suddenly I see," exclaimed Snake.

icy gave him a dirty look.

Fox sent Snake a Look. "Don't mention it; wrong country," he muttered.

"What?" said Snake, irritated.

The agent rolled his eyes. "Never mind."

In the meantime, icy had moved on. "Oi hear the sounds of the stranger's voices."

"Alex was considerably younger than nineteen," Fox said earnestly, "and whoever 'she' is, how do you know she was telling the truth about him?"

icy gave Alex a considering look. "You walk alone loike a primitive man..."

"Yes!" Apparently, Fox thought he had made some headway. "Alex hasn't taken anything from you. How could he? He's so young and so… so vulnerable…"

Alex widened his eyes and tried to make his body look smaller and more delicate to icy.

"Stripping back the coats of lies and deception…" icy nodded, seemingly coming around to Fox's persuasion. "Bloody oath."

Fox nodded, pityingly. "So whoever told you about Alex is a liar," he proclaimed dramatically.

icy's icy eyes watered. "Wherever there is comfort, there is pain." His lip quivered. "Streuth. The finger of blame has turned upon itself."

"Now, now, don't castigate yourself," soothed Fox.

Even though Snake clearly couldn't understand what was going on, the medic's eyes seemed to be watering. There was no onion, nor capsicum, so unless he had acute hayfever, it was due to the sheer poignancy of the scene.

"But, mates, my soul was sold with my cigarettes to the black market woman…" icy seemed to be coming to a revelation, and was now muttering to himself. "They're gonna forget you, are you gonna let them take you over this way...?"

K-Unit looked at each other, and at Alex. Was icy talking about them? What was he going to do?

icy sighed. "The toime has come, a fact's a fact, we're gonna give it back." He looked at them steadily and stood up, pushing Fox away. He swallowed. "My choice is hers, Oi must do what Oi promised her."

The soldiers and Alex stiffened. Whatever icy was saying in his odd way, it didn't sound good.

Wolf, in a fit of drama, possibly brought on by icy's strange nature, stood also, and placed himself between Alex and icy. "These men are under my protection. They're my team, and I will not let you harm them."

There was a spluttering cough. Everyone turned to Eagle. "Really, Wolf? 'Harm them'?"

K-Unit's brave leader flushed through his dark skin, but stood his ground.

icy looked at him through his fringe of sun-bleached hair and blinked lazily. "Alroight," he said, and fell back into a stance most commonly used at the start of a race, at 'Set'. "Nah worries. We can settle this the old-fashioned way."

Wolf stared.

"Raaaahh!" icy yelled. He leapt onto the table and launched himself at the soldier.

Moving quickly, Wolf dodged out of the way and inadvertently tripped over the coffee table. He recovered with a roll as the rest of K-Unit hurriedly stood and cleared the space of their chairs, stacking them neatly, before lifting the heavy table and moving it into the corner.

Meanwhile, icy ignored them and once again hurled himself at Wolf in a flurry of kicking, scratching and biting, accompanied by his battle cry, "Raaaahh!"

Wolf blocked his advances with ease, although icy's oddly animalistic attacks did manage to land a few marks.

His flailing attack consisted of moving his limbs at a high velocity around and towards his victim. His hands were shaped into claws, his teeth were bared, nostrils flared and his eyes were wide and crazed. All the while icy emitted his strangled war cry with a mixture of phlegm and spittle. It was as though Wolf was being attacked larger-than-usual housecat.

The portion of K-Unit not currently suffering housecat-attack looked on with interest. icy's fighting style was too wild for them to intervene and be any use. They would only get in Wolf's way.

"Mad," the man in the corner contributed sadly.

Eventually the shock of icy's vehement attacks wore off and Wolf began to retaliate. He jabbed short strikes into icy's ribs, his stomach, his solar plexus. icy fumed. His attacks grew more frantic, more unpredictable. Wolf snarled like his namesake as icy snapped his teeth at his face, neatly missing his nose.

The fight moved into the corner of the room where K-Unit had helpfully moved the table. Wolf shoved icy away and stepped onto the table before icy could resume his attacks.

From there, he used his feet and legs to keep icy at a distance and land a few blows. icy, screeching from below, clawed at Wolf's legs ineffectually. But he was seemingly impervious to the numerous blows landed on his head.

When Wolf kicked out and missed, causing him to lose his balance for a second, icy made his way onto the table and backed Wolf into the corner. Wolf, by now, was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. He growled in frustration and began punching icy in earnest, apparently to no avail.

Nonetheless, icy's weathered skin was beginning to show evidence for the beating he was receiving. Yellow bruises bloomed under his skin as though he was a chameleon changing colour, although he showed no sign of relenting in his relentless housecattack.

Wolf paused his punching (since it was clearly Not Working) and in his annoyance, attempted to shove icy away from him as he had before. But icy was Prepared, and slid out of the way. Wolf, tiring and irritated and not really focussing as icy's attack was so ridiculously terrible, let down his guard. icy sprang.

He clutched at Wolf's throat and bit down hard. Wolf gave a strangled scream. It wasn't every day that someone tried to pull a Dracula. However, unlike Dracula, icy did not have fangs, and so his attack, while painful and obviously going to leave a rather interesting bruise, did not cause any significant damage.

icy stared at Wolf from the sides of his pale blue eyes as he chomped on the soldier's neck and hugged him fiercely to paralyse him.

Reflexively, Wolf reacted to icy's hugging and biting with a knee to the groin.

To the surprise of all those present, icy collapsed, suctioning off Wolf's neck with an odd 'scrwlerp'. Wolf shuddered.

From the floor (which was actually the top of the table), icy lay on his back, panting. "Orright, mate?" he puffed.

Wolf gaped.

icy continued. "Oi've failed, haven't Oi? Oi should die."

"Die?"

"Oi've failed my loife's purpose, mate. Oi've gotta die." icy flopped a hand miserably.

Wolf used his shirt to clean the saliva from his neck. He wasn't going to be charged with murder or manslaughter, oh no. "I'll forgive you, icy," he offered reluctantly, "if you promise to never to attack us or Alex again. Ever."

Grinning, icy shot to his feet. "Anything for youse!" he cried, and flailed happily, catching Wolf on the side of the head and sending him tumbling off the table where he crashed into the stack of chairs and pulled them over onto himself in a failed attempt to regain his balance.

"Ow," the soldier groaned, but he nodded his acceptance of icy's … acceptance.

Alex's eyebrows raised. Wolf wasn't the type to complain of pain. For heaven's sake, he'd even forgiven Alex for driving him into the fence during the chase back in England.

Snake seemed to have come to the same conclusion, and rushed over. "Wolf, are you okay?" he clucked. As Alex watched in non-comprehension, the medic did his medic duties, and eventually proclaimed that Wolf most likely had a fractured clavicle. "We're going to have to take him to the hospital, Alex, back in England," the man said apologetically. "And I doubt we'll see you after that."

Alex shrugged. This thing was probably going to be soon over, anyhow, now that icy was out of the equation. All that was left was icy's mysterious instigator, the 'she' he'd kept referring to.

icy, who they'd mostly forgotten about in the kerfuffle, jumped in with apologies worthy of a soap opera, and insisted he pay for the best medical care for Wolf. "Such a pity," he whimpered, "such a pity if this fiercely brave compatriot of youse were reduced to civilian life forevermore!" To Alex, he said, "Your allies have defeated me, and thus Oi must become your ally, and my allies yours. Oi have a friend in Belfast –" he scribbled an address on a scrap of paper and handed it to Alex – "tell him Neris Veran sent you."

And so K-Unit left with icy, presumably to take him back to justice in England, and Alex freed the dressing-gown-clad man with a meatcleaver to the handcuffs. The man scurried off, muttering about cars, some kind of Ford, leaving Alex, once more, on his lonesome.

AN: So... pretty crazy chapter. I wanted some exposition without making it too much of an information dump, so I chucked in a few references... and I might have gone a little too far :P