AN 1: I know, I know… "Dude you had two months of summer vacation and its only a week after school reopens that you finally get off your arse to put up a new chapter." Despicable. Oh and little heads-up, don't mix up the time thing. Its very confusing (I know, it's like Inception ;D)When I say one week ago, I mean one week before the events in the first chapter.

Chapter 5

"Okay, you gotta find me an, um, hold on, MG Road," said Joe Hardy from Bangalore over the phone to Noel Callahan, who was in New York.

"M-G-Road," mumbled Noel as he typed it in. While his computer searched, Noel spoke to Joe. "Um, Kerry's here."

"Good. Ask her why she didn't warn us that Frank was onto us." Kerry Malone was a 'wall-hanging' as Joe liked to say. She was everywhere, not paid great attention to, yet at the core of everything. For the last six months she had been working with the FBI, as well as helping Joe and his team. She was a 'consultant'. She was, however, really inconspicuous. No one really noticed her presence or absence. This was, in fact, her advantage. It was only the previous night that Joe, Noel and Tania realized that she had been, in fact, working alongside Frank for a while.

"She says it slipped her mind."

"Really? It slipped her mind that the person she's helping investigate with one team, is the person she's working with on the other team?"

Noel got the feeling that Joe wasn't exactly in a good mood right now. He didn't want to leave Kerry in the way of Joe's temper. She had come as fast as she could when she realized that Frank was on their tail. Just then his search results popped up on his screen. Noel's eyes widened as he took in what he saw.

"Um, Joe does it say MG Road in which town?" asked Noel, referring to a text message Joe found on Sayeed's phone. As soon as he found the phone in the abandoned hotel room, Joe had sent Armand, who had come with him to Bangalore, to find Sayeed and get rid of him.

"Nope, it just says MG Road. Why what's wrong?" asked Joe.

"See, here's the thing. Every city in India has an MG Road."

"You're kidding."

"No. You'll have to take a leap of faith and try the one in Bangalore."

Joe grunted and hung up.

24 hours later

The trip to MG Road had proved useful, though not in the way that Joe had expected. The man who had bought the bomb from Sayeed had planned to smuggle it China. The fool, however, went around carrying the suitcase with him, and got caught, of all places, at a McDonald's. What happened was that an important politician was passing, and the police were securing the area, when Joe shouted "Bomb!" and pointed at the man, seated inside the McDonald's, enjoying his Happy Meal. The local authorities had taken care of him. Just as they had arrested him and were unceremoniously dumping him to the back of their police jeep, one of the authorities caught sight of Joe.

If he got caught, it would be an international incident. So Joe went forward to talk to the guy. The man introduced himself as Ranvir Mehra, an operative of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the Indian intelligence. He said he had been tailing Sayeed and was, actually, glad to find him dead that afternoon. Joe explained that he too had come for the Sayeed and the bomb. He told Mehra how he worked undercover for David Belov.

After some paperwork and a whole lot of phone calls to all the Indian Authorities, Joe was now in his hotel room, trying to come with a story to tell Belov and his people how he had lost the bomb.

Little did Joe know that Armand had seen him at MG Road and that he had been jealous of Joseph Gordon all along. Now he had caught Gordon, if that even was his name, red handed. Armand wasn't loyal to Belov either. He also had plans to turn on Belov, cheat him off all his money and build himself a 'cozy little castle' in some remote location in Serbia.

Joe had hardly stepped out of his room when he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head, and the next thing he knew, the ground was flying at him as the blackness closed in.

One week ago, FBI Office, New York City

Every time Frank thought about it, he felt as if invisible claws were ripping at his chest. About two months ago his agents had found out that Joseph Gordon had disappeared. One month ago, Lt. Callahan from Defense Intelligence, who was now desperate, came to meet him. He explained to Frank how Joe was picked up because of his experienced background and because nobody would suspect him. He told him that Joe was sent to work under Belov and knowing how dangerous it could get, didn't want Frank or his father involved; and so he had intentionally lost contact with them. After going to Bangalore about two months earlier, Lt. Cdr. Joe Hardy had just disappeared. So had the man called 'Armand', another one of Belov's men, who was also last seen in Bangalore.

They say if a missing person is not found within 48 hours, chances are he's dead. It had been two months since Joe had disappeared. Frank didn't even want to think about. He had been spending every waking hour in his office, trying to find clues as to what may have happened to his brother and Joe's teammates at "Brent and Gardner" had been doing the same. So far, all they got was nothing. At least, the bomb hadn't blown. The Indian authorities had caught it. Something told Frank that his brother definitely had something to do with that.

One week ago, David Belov's "mansion", New York

"Bloody traitor. That-" followed by a list of expletives than even Blackbeard and his mates would find shocking, "traitor," said Belov as if he was complementing Armand. When news came from the guys he sent to Bangalore to look for Gordon and Armand that the two of them had lost the "filthy terrorist scum", the bomb, the money he could have gotten and were now missing, no amount of water on the planet could have put out the flames of anger that consumed him. He strongly believed that Armand, 'that bottom feeding mutation' * (refer AN2) of the figurative underground weapons trade, had tricked his man Gordon. It did occur to him that Gordon could be the traitor here. Yet what human part of him remained after years of corruption and immorality, believed otherwise. Such was the skill of Joe Hardy in deceiving David Belov.

Now, two months later, they were still trying to find Gordon and Armand. Presently, he was seated in his huge revolving chair, smoking cigar in his hand, facing Elena. The only thing missing was probably a fluffy white cat to pet.

"Traitors indeed." Elena agreed. She never liked that stupid blond. She believed it was all part of his plan.

"And, my dear," began Belov in a syrupy sweet voice, "have you done to find them?"

"I-"

"I DON'T CARE!" bellowed Belov. "I if I don't have Armand's head on a stake within the next seven days, I'm afraid my patience will run out and it will be your head, dear Elena, that will be on the stake," he said, calm again. His sudden mood swings scared Elena. She knew she had to do something. Or else she might as well just put a gun in her mouth and finish it. Anything was better than what Belov would do if his "patience ran out".

One week ago, unknown location

"They will come," gasped Joe Hardy more as a re-assurance to himself than a threat to Armand and his two mammoth henchmen.

"Who will come?" asked Armand mockingly. "You're friends from Defense Intelligence? Big brother Frankie? No one is coming for you, you piece of shit!" said Armand as he landed his fist square on Joe's nose. As his mouth filled with blood, his vision blurred and all the bruises on his face from old kicks and punches burned with white hot pain, in a move completely expected from the likes of Joe Hardy, he looked up and spat at Armand. It landed right on his chest. Not bad aim for someone with a swollen black eye, thought Joe. Infuriated by Joe's daring act, Armand aimed for his ribs and kicked. Joe Hardy lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath, as each short gust of air brought with it the fire of agony into his chest.

AN2: * thank you Crowley (Supernatural) for the bottom feeding mutation quote. And, awesome cliffhanger or what? Meera, don't say "or what". And other readers, would it kill you to review?

AN3: Sorry.. i had made a typo in the original chapter... fixed it now! Belov needed to pet a 'cat' not a 'car' ;p