Ah, yes! More reviews! Thank you! I'm really sorry it took me so long to update, it's just so much has been going on at school and everything and also my computer stubbornly refused to turn on... ah well, it's turning on now.

The chair was very uncomfortable. Although it would be, Jack thought, considering he was tied to it very tightly with a blindfold. He had no idea where he was, except that he was in a council house somewhere. As for where, he didn't have a clue. He could be anywhere in Boston, or anywhere in the USA for that matter. They'd drugged him before they came so he didn't know how long they'd travelled for. The rope was cutting into his wrists which were tied together behind the chair, and even his ankles were bound. He didn't think he'd be going anywhere in a hurry. Some men, two he thought, were standing near him, one pressing a gun to his temple and the other in front of him, asking him questions.

They'd let him pay Amber a quick call. A last connection with the outside world, they said. Why had he called Amber, of all people? He didn't know. She just seemed like she knew what she was doing, the type of person who wouldn't ignore someone if they were in trouble. And after her show at the cafe with her friends, he could hardly say she was irresponsible.

The man in front of him was saying something. He was called Brody, Jack knew. He knew, all right. He'd recieved countless emails from that man for months, had his house robbed and his car crashed because of this man. And now he'd destroyed his shop and got Jack himself. Why? Because two years ago he'd won the lottery - over a million US dollars. And when his boiler had broken down he'd called on Brody and Son for help. Somehow they knew he was a millionaire, they probably read the news or something.

So they demanded higher payment. Crazy, of course. Jack had refused, but they hadn't let it go. They'd kept persisting and tried to force him to give them more, and had probably caused more money's worth of damage than they wanted in the first place. But Jack wasn't the giving in type.

"Hey, man, are you listening? I'm talking to you!" The man standing behind him pressed harder with the gun at Jack's temple. Jack winced.

"What? Sorry, I wasn't listening." Jack said simply. Best to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Then there was a female voice that Jack recognised. He hadn't realised there was another person in the room. Where he knew the voice, he couldn't tell. He couldn't place it, but he knew it was familiar.

"Sir, please - you don't have to..." She was silenced by a curse from Brody. Jack wondered who she was.

"I said, now we have you, we're not intending to set you free until you kindly let us know where the money is?" The man's voice was almost polite and Jack felt sick. He spat as hard as he could and prayed it reached Brody. Who swore under his breath and sighed. "Well, if that's your attitude..." he said. Jack didn't like the sound of that. He heard soft footsteps as the man approached him and felt a cold pinpoint of metal press against his arm. A moment later he jerked and yelled out as an electric shock coursed through his body. "Tell me where it is!"

Jack shook his head, breathing hard. "Never," he said, pictures coming into his head once more of endless wealth and comfort. He couldn't let that go. He heard Brody pull up a chair near him and sit down.

"I can wait," he said, and gave Jack another electric shock. Let him wait, Jack thought. As long as Jack knew how much he wanted that money, he could put up with whatever Brody did to him.

Amber sighed, still restlessly pacing the room. The other members of Alpha Force were scattered around on the sofas, but Amber was unsettled, disturbed. Almost as if the weather knew how she felt, the sun had disappeared behind a solid wall of grey clouds and the brightness seemed to have been sucked out from the day. The ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece was really beginning to irritate her and she had the sudden urge to smash it on the floor. Who knew what they could be doing to Jack right now?

"Amber, that's really not going to help, you know." Alex seemed to read her thoughts. She glared at him and put her hands on her hips.

"Have you got any more ideas, smartass?" She said, and continued pacing the length of her living room. Alex shrugged and threw a hopeless look to Hex, on his right.

"For heaven's sake, we haven't even got a lead. Nothing. We - are - useless." She said the last three words slowly, almost as if Alex, Li, Paulo and Hex were too stupid to understand.

"Hey, wait a minute, what else did he say? On the phone?" Hex suddenly sat up. Amber stopped, a glimmer of hope beginning to appear in her eyes.

"I can't quote it word for word. Although he didn't say much, he was being watched by whoever got him. He just said he was held in a small council house somewhere, and it was cold." After a pause, Amber sighed again. "That isn't really much help, though. Wish he'd given us - "

"Wait!" She was interrupted by Hex. "We might be able to trace the call. Why the hell didn't anyone think of that?" he said suddenly. Before anyone could say anything else, he had whipped out his palmtop and lost to the world around him.

Amber finally sat down. This time it was not in defeat, but because she could see no more point in pacing the room as if the very walls of her house would throw answers at her. She even smiled at Li, who turned around to see what was behind her.

"Didn't I say we weren't useless?" She said. Alex grinned.

"Can't imagine you ever saying that, Amber." he replied, "But don't get your hopes up. Or you'll be pretty depressed if it doesn't work." Amber shrugged and turned on the TV.

Ten minutes later, a slow grin spread over Hex's features.

"What've you got?" Amber yelped and snatched the palmtop out of Hex's hands before he could protest. "What is this stuff? I don't understand." She muttered.

"It says which house he's in, Amber." Hex smiled as he would to a young child. Amber scowled but didn't hold it for long; soon she was smiling enthusiastically again.

"31 Kindle Road. Know where that is?" Paulo peered over Hex's shoulder, looking at the screen. He looked up at Amber enquiringly.

"No, but I've heard of it. I could ask Uncle," she said, dashing out of the room. Li stared after her and shook her head. There was silence for a while. The clock continued to tick, but it was no longer intimidating. It almost seemed as if the room had brightened again. A couple minutes later Amber re-entered, almost hopping on the spot. Hex grimaced. She was turning into Li.

"I remember now. Uncle says its a few miles from here - I'm not exactly sure where but we could always just catch a taxi and tell them to take us there." Paulo nodded.

"It sounds like a good plan to me," he said, looking around at the others, who nodded obligingly.

"Brilliant!" cried Li, clapping her hands together, "When can we leave?"

Amber woke the others up at seven o'clock precisely the next morning, using the whole-house alarm which could be heard from the bottom of the back garden. After a considerable amount of grumbling, however, they were all up and ready by quarter to eight.

"The taxi's coming at eight," Amber informed the others, picking up her bag in the front hall and checking its contents.

"Why so early?" Hex called from the doorway, still stretching and rubbing his eyes. Amber shot him a look.

"Do you want to find Jack or not? You never know. They could be torturing him right now, or maybe we're already too late - "

"Amber," Paulo warned, cutting her off, after Li gave a violent shudder. Amber muttered something under her breath and hoisted her bag over her shoulder. She checked her inculin kit was in her belt and looked up at the others.

"All set?"

"We were set about ten minutes ago. We were just waiting for you," said Alex, grinning hastily when Amber glared at him. They made their way out to the front and out the big gates that Alex and Hex had first seen on coming to Amber's house. It was ten minutes to, so they sat down on the grass lining the pavement and watched the deserted road.

"I have a question," Paulo broke the silence. Amber mumbled something about going ahead, and Paulo continued, "What are we going to do when we get there?" Li stopped fiddling with the grass and Amber looked up, startled.

"Er... well - we haven't really thought about that - "

"Why don't we hire a couple guns, jump in holding them at gunpoint, and take Jack? It might..." her voice trailed away when she saw the strange looks the others were giving her.

"We'll have to see the house first, then come up with a plan." suggested Alex. Paulo grinned.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Jack cursed the men silently under his breath. He could still fell the electricity as it pounded through his body, and he wasn't likely to forget it in a hurry. They'd given up on the electric shocks half an hour ago, when they realised he wasn't going to co-operate, and he'd been sat in uncomfortable silence ever since. The man behind him had dropped his post of holding a gun to his temple, and he could now hear a faint tapping form behind him. Someone was at a computer. The man who'd spoken before was now silent, although Jack knew he was still in the room. He could feel him sat a few feet away from him, staring at him.

Suddenly the man on the computer behind him swore violently.

"What?" came the voice from across the room, the same voice of the man who'd tortured him - Brody. He heard him stand up and move behind him to see thec omputer. If Jack wasn't tied up the door wasn't locked, he would have taken this chance to run for it, but this was seemingly impossible.

"Someone's traced the call that he made," said the man at the computer. The word he was slightly clearer than the rest of the sentence, so Jack knew that he'd turned around to emphasize that point.

Brody swore. "How accurate can they make it?"

"Right down to this very house," replied the man at the computer, and Brody swore again.

"We need to move." He spat on the floor. Nobody moved. "Dammit, you!" Jack knew he was talking to him, and this was confirmed as the chair shuddered from the impact of the kick Brody gave it. "We need to move, now!" he yelled, and Jack felt his ropes being untied.

The taxi pulled up into a street of run-down houses, most of which were uninhabitable. The sign at the edge of the road, which was cracked and yellowing, read 'KI L OAD'.

"Which number did you say?" said the taxi driver in a gruff voice, looking over at Amber.

"Thirty-one," replied Amber. The driver took them further down the road, craning his neck to read the numbers on the houses. He chuckled maliciously.

"You got friends livin' down 'ere, or what?" He said.

"Yes," said Amber curtly, "do you have a problem with that?" The taxi driver looked at her and seemed to shrink a bit. He paused and shook his head. Finally they stopped outside one of the smaller houses. It wasn't as rundown as some of the others, and the sign '31' was clearly visible on the door, which might have once been painted green. They all climbed out of the taxi and Amber stopped to pay the driver. He quickly turned and drove off, giving Alpha Force the impression that he didn't want to stay here for too long.

Li crept up to the front door and tried the handle, expecting it to be locked. To her ultimate surprise, however, it swung open easily and revealed a damp hallway with a broken staircase. She beckoned to the others and moved inside. Once they were all in, Hex shut the door behind them and peered into the dark interior.

A quick search of the house told them that, despite the tracing of the call, the house was quite clearly deserted.

Five chapters! Yay! Please tell me what you think :D