Well, the sixth chapter! Enjoy.
"Did we get the wrong house?" whispered Li cautiously in the silence, seeing the downcast look on Amber's face. Hex shook his head.
"This is definately where he called from. I checked twice." He said. Nobody knew what to say, until Paulo sat down on the bottom step to think. Li shuffled uncomfortably by the door, and Alex moved back into the front room to have a look around. There was a computer at the far end and a random wooden chair in the middle. He suddenly held his breath when he saw something underneath it - ropes. He called the others and ran forwards excitedly, picking up the ropes which had been cut through. Hex went to the computer at the back
"It's still warm," he called, "so it was only used recently." As he powered it up, Amber spotted something near the door, hardly visible amongst the dirt and dust on the floor. She bent down to pick it up, and, with a jolt of recognition, saw the badge Jack always wore at his cafe. It said 'Manager'.
"Guys, look at this," she said, holding the badge into the dim light filtered into the room by the grimy window. Alex took it from Amber and turned it around in his hands.
"The pin's broken," he said, "so it obviously fell off." Amber gave him an 'I-know-that-don't-be-stupid' look and then grinned.
"So he was definately here. Can anyone tell how long ago they left? And - why?" She peered into the blank faces of Alex, Li and Paulo and then turned to Hex, still sat at the computer.
"I think I know why." Something in his tone of voice made everyone turn around and look at him. He indicated the computer with a wave of his hand. "They found out we tracked his call and must have fled."
Amber sighed. After all that, and he wasn't even here.
"Hey, man, at least we know he was here." Ventured Alex, and Amber nodded slowly.
"They probably left within half an hour ago. The computer had only just been turned off recently." Said Hex, in the vain hope of trying to rise Amber's spirits. She didn't say anything, but walked out the door. Just as the others began to follow, she stopped suddenly, and Li walked straight into her.
"What the - " began Li, but stopped when she saw Amber stoop down and pick something up. Peering over her shoulder, Li saw it was a scrap of material, perhaps from a t-shirt, with writing on it. Amber studied it for a second.
"It's Jack's writing. Definately." She turned it around for the others to see. In black marker, one word was written: 'London'.
Fifteen minutes later found them back in a taxi, buzzing with excitement. The taxi driver was more friendly than the previous one, and began humming absent mindedly to himself. Paulo was leaning out of the window, trying to catch a glimpse of the people inside the cars.
"Paulo, they left half an hour ago. You're not going to see them." Alex muttered, after Paulo craned his neck to catch a better view of the people in a passing bus. Paulo sighed and shrugged.
Amber was sitting opposite Hex, finally pulling out of her sullen mood. Hex was sat with his knees drawn up to his chest and Li was fidgeting in her seat.
"So, this is what I think," Amber said in a matter-of-fact voice, "Do you remember Jack was wearing a red shirt the day he disappeared? Same colour as the note we found. So when he found out where they were going, he somehow got hold of a marker pen and scribbled it down on his shirt, ripped it off and dropped it, hoping that we, or someone else, would find it. Clever, huh?" She smiled at the blank faces around her.
"Amber, we all figured that out ten minutes ago." Paulo said. Amber shrugged happily and resumed staring out of the window.
"Why London?" asked Alex, after a few minutes. Automatically, everyone turned to look at Hex.
"What are you looking at me for? I don't know why they're going to London." he said. Amber sighed.
"I haven't got a clue. Maybe - maybe they just wanted to get away from here, 'cos they knew they were being followed? And London was the first place they thought of?" Amber suggested, but Paulo shook his head.
"That still doesn't explain why London. I mean, why not Greece? Or Norway?" Amber slumped back in her seat.
"Hey, don't give up, Amber. Just because we don't know why they're in London, we still know that they are in London. Well, on their way to London, at any rate." Li said, frowning slightly at Amber's reaction.
"I know, I'm sorry. I'm just a bit restless." Amber sighed and turned back to the window.
When the car stopped, Jack's blindfold was finally removed and he blinked in the bright sunlight. The journey had been about half an hour and he'd spent it lain across the back seats of a car, handcuffed and blinded. He was dragged roughly to his feet and finally came face to face with the man called Brody again. He had changed a lot since he had changed Jack's boiler. He'd cut of his beard and got a few extra peircings.
He watched as the passenger door opened, and suddenly he knew where he'd recognised the voice he'd heard earlier from. It was that woman in his cafe just before it blew up. So this was the one who must have been behind part of it - somehow? She looked scared, however.
Jack looked around. They were in an airport, and the fact that they were going to London was confirmed. The sign said that a flight to Heathrow was leaving in three hours. Before he could do anything else, however, Brody fell into step behind him and subtly pressed a gun to the small of his back, so no one could see it. He pressed, forcing Jack to move, and the woman from the cafe followed behind.
"Why are we going to London?" Jack asked suddenly, turning to face Brody. A flash of anger crossed Brody's face, but then he remembered he was in the middle of an airport and had to act naturally.
"Because it's a family vacation!" Brody said loudly, causing a few passing people to turn their heads. He grinned happily at them and turned back to Jack, muttering, "We need to get as far away as possible, dork. And there was a particular person in London we were thinking of taking hostage to get you to tell us where your money is."
Brody looked Jack in the eye, who flinched and turned away.
Amber pressed the button by the gates of her house. Immediately they were greeted by the voice of, Hex and Alex now knew, Amber's maid, Gwen.
"Good afternoon, Middleton household!"
"Hey, it's me! Amber!" Amber replied, and they waited impatiently as the wide gates opened. Once inside, they shut again, and Amber led them across the lawn towards the house.
"Gosh, it's a beautiful day, why don't we sit outside?" She suggested, and almost skipped towards the patio.
"It's not beautiful, it's like an oven," Alex muttered to Hex, who nodded in grim agreement. Amber found a shady spot under a tree with two benches and two deck chairs. She settled down on one of the deck chairs and motioned for the others to sit down.
"I'm starving. Are you guys ready for lunch?" She said, already standing up and heading back towards the house, "You guys stay here. I'll get Gwen to bring us something." She disappeared into the house.
A couple minutes later, Amber returned and resumed her earlier seat in the deck chair.
"Right," she said, rubbing her hands together, "so now we know they're going to London. I reckon, from here, they'll be there by about - how long was yuor flight, Hex?"
"Er - eight hours?" Hex guessed. Amber nodded.
"So they'll be in London by about - " She looked at her watch - "eight o'clock tonight. But that's over here, so what's the time difference?"
"Does it matter?" said Li.
"No," said Amber, "I'm just interested."
"Time difference is five hours ahead of here." Hex cut in.
"OK, that means that when they get there, it'll be one o'clock in the morning." Amber stated, and sat back in her chair. A bee flew around her head and she waved it away irritably, before continuing. "Shall we follow them?"
"Whoa - slow down. Amber, you're not coming to London. If people saw me with you they'd think I've gone soft," Hex interrupted, suddenly sitting up in his seat. Amber glared at him with her most withering look, but Hex was so used to this now that he didn't even flinch.
"I don't see why not," ventured Paulo, grinning at Hex's face. Alex and Li agreed.
"Hey, Hex, lighten up. I'm letting you stay at my house, so it's only fair Can you book us a flight? Otherwise my uncle could take me in his private - "
"No, wait, I'll book a flight." Hex said hastily and brought out his palmtop. Returning to his home city with this bunch was bad enough, but returning with this bunch in a private jet was just out of the question. "We're not staying at my house, OK? It's way too small. We can find a bed and breakfast." Amber grinned sadistically and they went to have a quick dip in the pool.
"I got us a flight at seven, tomorrow night." said Hex, closing his palmtop and turning to face the others.
"That's good," said Alex, glancing at his watch..
"Come to think of it, I really should tell Uncle - " Amber dashed out of the room to find John. She found him in his study on the phone, talking urgently to someone. She didn't worry - he was always having long conversations like this. She waited patiently until she heard him hang up, then knocked and entered his study. It was huge and had a good view of the grounds from the window stretched across the full length of one wall.
"Hey, Amber. You guys up to something?" John grinned, putting the reciever back.
"Yeah. You don't mind if I go to London for a bit, do you?" She tried her most winning smile, but John's face fell.
"London? You're not serious? Why?" Amber avoided the question.
"Hex has already booked us a flight. Can we borrow some of your money for the flight?"
"Of course you can, you know you can. When? And why?" John repeated, searching Amber's face for any giveaways. Amber didn't flinch. She quickly searched for an excuse, anything that would stop him asking questions -
"We'll be leaving tomorrow evening. We'll take a taxi to the airport." Now Amber was just buying time to think of an excuse.
"Amber, stop avoiding the question. Why are you going to London? It's not another mission, is it? You're always trying to do things without telling me. Are you afraid that I'm going to try and stop - "
"Uncle!" Amber interrupted, "It's nothing! We're going to Hex's for a bit! It's not like anything major!" John's eyes narrowed. He didn't seem convinced.
"Why are you going to Hex's, when you agreed that you'd be spending the easter holidays here?" Amber sighed. She'd forgotten it was Easter, with all the action going on. "Wait - is it something to do with the incident at Jack's cafe?" John probed. Amber finally gave in, but to her immense relief, John was OK with them going to London. She didn't tell him all the details, but at least she'd managed to get his approval.
"What are we going to do when we get there?" asked Li, fidgeting around in her seat. It was five o'clock, the next day, and they were waiting in the airport. Amber grinned maliciously.
"Maybe we should give Hex's family a visit, I'm sure they'd appreciate knowing what Hex gets up to in his holidays - " She laughed at Hex's form shrinking down in his seat, a scowl on his face. It was quite obvious he didn't want to go back to his home city for Easter.
"Wait, don't you think we should just check that they are going to London? We could ask one of those guys if someone called Brody caught a flight there. Say he's a relative or something." Alex suggested, looking around at the others.
"Good idea," said Paulo, "I'll come with you."
They made their way through the crowd towards a lone man sitting at a desk, tapping his fingers impatiently on the surface. He looked up when Alex and Paulo approached, looking visibly bored. Alex cleared his throat nervously.
"Er - hey, I was wondering if you could help us."
"That's what I'm here for, buddy." Replied the man in a strong American drawl.
"My uncle, could you tell me if he booked a flight to Heathrow Airport a couple hours ago? I just need to make sure that - er - "
"That we got the right place," finished Paulo, receiving a grateful glance from Alex. The man grunted and looked at his computer.
"And his name was?"
"Brody."
The man was busy at his computer for a few minutes, then he looked up at Alex and Paulo.
"Yup. Dude called Brody left for Heathrow few hours ago with his wife and brother. That OK?" Alex nodded, unsure, then turned with Paulo and headed back to where the others were sitting, waiting for their new. Hex was standing a few metres away, talking on his mobile phone. He looked worried. Alex hastily turned back to Li and Amber and told them what they'd found out.
"Er - yeah, he went, with, apparantly, his wife and brother." Amber frowned.
"Oh, well he probably said Jack was his brother, and then he probably had some woman assistant or something who he said was his wife." Alex nodded and sat down.
"Who's Hex talking to?" said Paulo, glancing over to where the hacker was stood still, listening intently to whoever was on the other end of the line.
"His mum, I think. Dunno why. She called a minute ago." Amber replied and sat back in her seat, hands folded behind her head. After a minute or two, Hex pocketed his phone and walked back to where the others were seated.
"What was that about?" asked Amber, seeing the expression on Hex's face.
"Er - it's kind of good we're going back, now. Remember when I told you about my little brother on the Phoenix?" Amber nearly laughed out loud, but she stopped abruptly when Hex continued, "He's gone missing."
Ooh - by the way, sorry I don't know much about airports and stuff because I've never been on a plane myslef before, so I guessed most of the details. Please review! Thank you!