Summary: This fanfiction replaced the chapter in Snakehead when the SAS infiltrate Dragon Nine. After landing, Alex was separated from the SAS and Ben by a grenade. On his own, he went to search for the control room. The story left off with Alex standing in front of the control room.

-------

Ben got up immediately after the grenade went off. He had seen Alex fly off the roof of the passageway and onto the deck. Having been the closest to Alex- and thus second closest to the grenade- Ben was grateful for Alex's quick thinking; he would have been in serious trouble if the grenade had exploded beside him.

The other SAS men were shooting now. Ben glanced at his watch- 11:42. Well, there was some time.

Eventually, the guards seemed to weaken in forces, as did the SAS. Ben recalled which of the men he knew- Texas was nicked on the calf, and Sparks didn't look too good. Sparks had a small hole in the right side of his chest and was obviously unconscious. Ben himself had been lucky- he had no injuries. About 3 other Australian SAS men had been hit, and 2 of them didn't seem to be coming around- ever.

Most of the guards were out, though, and the rest seemed to be regrouping. That was good- only 5 of the original 11 SAS task force adults were coming, and fewer guards meant there was less chance of the remaining men being shot. The SAS helped their own medic and guard move the injured to a safer location inside an empty room. In there, X-Ray took over.

"So, what should we do? I'm open to input."

Texas answered, "I think we should split up. The guards have been mostly taken care of on this side, provided backup doesn't arrive from the small platform. One group should look for Alex, Yu, and the control room, and the other should look for the deployment system. The other medic that's coming should go with the group looking for Alex."

Ben spoke up. "I think we should stick together. We're are short on numbers, and the bomb's deployment system is a chance- not a definite." Several heads nodded in agreement.

Ben took one last look at Sparks. The first medic was bent over him, studiously treating the chest wound as best he could, and the second one was assisting as best he could, although he'd soon be leaving.

Ben hoped Alex didn't look like Sparks.

-------

Alex was betting that there were people inside of the control room. He also hoped the door wasn't squeaky, so Alex slowly opened the door and slid into the room.

Inside the room was Major Yu, expectedly, in front of the control panel Alex had registered his hand into. The other person was a guard. Alex was stunned- the hair looked like...

"Ash?" The man whipped around, and sure enough, it was Ash. Ash pointed the pistol in his hand at Alex, trigger finger at the ready, but uncertainty written across his face. Yu turned more slowly.

Yu started to speak. "What in the name of-?" He couldn't even form a coherent sentence in his shock. No one spoke for a good while. Alex was scared.

Ash decided to break the silence. "I'm sorry, Alex. I didn't want you to find out. Especially not like this."