I have to give thanks to Elledreamer and SuperTD for being my constant reviewers... thank you guys for your support! Also to chop4tess, black oblivion, Torikins and cattycat92! Thank you guys!! And enjoy chapter eight...

It was about six o'clock when Hex and Amber returned to the hotel for tea. Even though it was around tea time, the place was empty except for a few people down by the far window and a large family seated near Alex, Li and Paulo. The man at the counter was leaning against the wall, eyeing his cumtomers skeptically and drumming his fingers on the counter. Hex and Amber joined the others at the round table they'd found, with grime on the tabletop and a few pasta shells scattered across the floor.

"You saw your mum, then?" said Li, budging up along the bench-seat to make room for Amber, while Hex drew up another chair. She aimed the question at Hex, but Amber nodded anyway and picked up the menu.

"I'm starved," she muttered, "Is there anything cheap?" Li pointed out the dish of the day and told Amber that was what she, Alex and Paulo were having. After Hex agreed to that too, she went up to the bar to order their meals.

"Did she tell you anything you didn't know already?" Paulo probed for answers. Hex shrugged.

"Just that she woke up in the morning and he wasn't there. The window was open and the drainpipe leading down from it was broken."

"Not much, then." Sighed Alex, resting his head against the back of his chair. Hex shot him a look.

"Information wasn't the only reason I went to see her, you know.She is kind of depressed at the moment." Alex looked shifty and looked down at his hands.

"I'm sorry," he began, "I didn't mean - " but Hex cut him off with a dismissive shrug.

Li returned two minutes later with a plastic number card and set it down on the table. "Five glasses of water and five dishes of the day on the way!" She said cheerfully, in an attempt to brighten the mood of the table, but it didn't work. "Jeez, what is it with you guys? Being depressed isn't going to solve any problems, you know." She plonked herself down by Amber and beamed at the others. Amber attempted a small smile and Paulo grinned widely at Li.

"So," said Amber, "Li's right. We need to start thinking about what to do next."

Hex was kicking himself inside. He knew he needed to concentrate to be able to help at all, but with other missions it had been so much easier when it was less personal. He racked his brains to think of what they could do. They could always try to locate the phone, but they would have probably changed it by now, especially when they found out that Jack's call had been traced.

Unless -

"Amber? Did Jack have a mobile phone?" He looked up suddenly. Amber looked surprised. This was the first contribution Hex had given towards their mission for nearly twenty-four hours.

"Yeah, I have his number in my phonebook."

"Can I have it?" Without a word, Amber passed her own phone into Hex's outstretched hand. His face reminded her of her own when they'd found a clue to Jack's whereabouts. Hex busied himself with his palmtop, suddenly lost to the world once again, and it occurred to Amber that he hadn't even looked at his palmtop either since he found out his little brother was missing. It must be a world record.

Hex swore. "It's turned off. There's no way we can trace it while it's off. They might have consfiscated it, anyway."

"What about your brother? Did he have a phone?" Hex stared at Paulo for a moment, taking in what he had just said.

"That's a great idea. I'm not thinking straight." Hex began typing away furiously again, only to be interrupted by Amber, quickly shutting the palmtop's lid and hiding it under the table. He looked at her for an explanation, but Amber just muttered out of the corner of her mouth,

"Food's coming. You never know who you can trust."

Ben and Jack were locked in the hotel room with no one but each other for company. It was beginning to get dark, and the room was gradually getting more chilly. They didn't notice until Ben gave a particularly violent shiver. Nobody was in sight; so they guessed Brody had gone out somewhere with the other people he was with. The light was mid-dark, which was hard on their eyes, and they could see the lightswitch by the door. But they couldn't reach it.

"Do you think there are cleaners here? They might find us." Said Ben, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Jack shrugged as best as he could with the ropes binding his shoulders.

"I wouldn't think so. Looking at this place, it probably hasn't seen a broom since the seventies." Ben stared at Jack for a moment, then let a wry grin flicker across his face at his attempt at humour. He appreciated it a lot. It helped to lighten his heavy heart.

"I wonder if anyone's trying to find us right now," he sighed.

"Course they are. You've got a family, haven't you? They'll have noticed you're not there by now." Ben smiled inwardly, picturing Hex searching the earth to its four corners to find him. He nodded in satisfaction. And Hex would know about his disappearance, wouldn't he? And his father would too? Surely his mum told them both?

He was about to voice his thoughts when a key turned in the lock, startling them both. He looked up to see Brody's massive frame filling the doorway, and a hand reached out and switched on the light. That was when they saw the look on his face: greed mixed with eagerness and cruelty. He grinned at them both, and held up the electric device he'd shocked Jack with earlier.

"Right," he drawled, noting Ben's terrified face, "Let's get started then, shall we?"

Paulo watched as the others busied themselves with various activities. It had been a long day, and the jetlag was beginning to get to him. Earlier this morning, he remembered, he'd been somewhere completely different to this. He just needed some rest, and maybe he'd be able to think straight. Just needed a bit of sleep...

"Paulo!" Alex's voice rang loudly in his ear, "Paulo, wake up, you moron! Look out the window!" Paulo automatically turned to the window. Like the others, he'd trained himself to wake up quickly to any call. He couldn't see anything distinct, just cars passing by with their bright headlights on in the dark.

"What?" He muttered. Then he saw it. Two headlights were moving faster than the others, weaving in and out of the other cars as if it was in a hurry. He strained his eyes to see better and saw it was a small red hatchback. Something in his mind bugged him: he'd seen it before somewhere, but he couldn't remember where.

"That car - I remember seeing it near that Kindle Road place in Boston - do you? And it seemed like it was in a hur - " But Alex never got to finish his sentence. As soon as he'd started speaking, Paulo had remembered seeing the car before, too. And he'd remembered part of the license plate automatically, which he'd caught a glimpse of as it passed the hotel. Alex stared after him for a moment, then turned back to Hex and Amber.

"Where's Li?" He said, noticing her absence.

"Er... she just followed Paulo somewhere. I think they saw an ice cream van." Hex replied absent-mindedly, still focussed on his palmtop. Alex shook his head and explained to them the events of the last two minutes.

"Gosh, are they going to follow it?" Asked Amber. Alex shrugged and nodded. He sat down next to Hex and peered at the screen of the palmtop.

"Found anything?" He asked.

"Nearly," said Hex, "give me a minute and I'll be there." A minute later, a big smile spread across Hex's features and he looked up and Alex and Amber, beaming. "It's another hotel - about half an hour away from here. That's where Ben is."

"You know, I've been thinking. What if their disappearances were connected somehow?" Alex thought aloud, staring at the lightbulb on the ceiling. "I mean, it's a bit of a coincidence, isn't it? Two people go missing in the same week, and they're both somehow connected to Hex. Maybe they're together."

"So that would mean that wherever Ben is, Jack is." said Amber.

"If I'm right." Alex concluded with a grim look on his face.

Paulo knew he had to catch up with the red hatchback if they were going to get any closer to finding Ben and Jack. He reached the car park and glanced around desperately for someone who mind lend them a car for a few minutes. He felt Li run up behind him and stop too. Then he caught sight of a man climbing out of a Land Rover by the entrance, turning around to lock the doors -

"Hey!" Paulo yelled, running frantically towards the man, who turned and started at the big Argentinan incredulously, "Hey - can we borrow your car? I promise I'll give it back -" Paulo reached the man, breathing hard and grabbed the keys from his hand. The man was in his fifties or sixties, and too shocked to object. Paulo jumped in the front seat and Li ran around to the passenger side.

"You didn't have to come, you know." He muttered, turning the keys. Although he was secrectly glad that she was, he thought to himself. Li shrugged.

"You looked like you were up to something exciting."

Paulo swung out of the car park, narrowly avoiding the man who owned the car, and skidded out onto the street. The car was nowhere in sight, but he had a vague idea where it went. The roads were busy, and he had a good idea why the red hatchback had led them down this way; it was almost impossible to keep any car in sight. He decided to carry on going straight, and hopefully the traffic would thin. After about ten minutes of staying on the same road with impatient blaring of horns, they reached a crossroad. Paulo cursed and banged his fist on the dashboard.

"He could have gone any of these ways! They are all busy!" he said, scanning the cars for any sight of the car. It was almost useless now it was getting dark, but Paulo could remember that one of the backlights was a bit dimmed.

"There!" Li screamed, pointing to the left. Paulo leaned forwards and craned his neck to see the two uneven backlights swerving crazily through the traffic. At the last moment he swung the steering wheel left and the Land Rover screeched as it made the tight corner, leaving dark skidmarks on the ground and earning a lot of horns from other angry drivers. He ignored them and focussed his attention on the car ahead.

Thankfully the traffic was thinning out so he could see the car more clearly. He saw a sign pointing towards the motorway.

"It's going on the motorway!" called Li, as the other car swung left towards the sign. Paulo smiled grimly and followed. The car most probably knew that Paulo was following them now, so there was no point in hanging behind anymore.

Hex punched his brother's mobile phone number into his, and pressed call. Frantically he waited for Ben to pick up and say something like, "Why were you so worried? I'm fine," but it continued ringing. Hex was about to hang up when he heard the familiar beeps that said the person on the other end of the line had hung up. He looked at his phone, confused.

"What? Did he answer?" said Amber, taking Hex's phone from him and peering at the screen.

"No. He hung up. Or someone did. Someone who doesn't want -"

"Try again." Amber thrust Hex's phone back at him. He tried once more, but Ben's had been switched off. Hex bit his lower lip. Obviously someone had taken Ben's phone when they'd heard it ringing and not wanted anyone to find out anything from Ben.

"Well, at least we know where he is." Amber muttered, scowling.

"Hey, don't you go and get all upset. We'll find Jack too, you know." Alex put a hand on Amber's shoulder, who shrugged and closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

"Yeah. hopefully you're right, Alex. Hopefully they are together."

It was taking all of Paulo's road skill to follow the hatchback. Whoever was driving it was an expert at this sort of stuff. Maybe they'd had a few years in the criminal career, Li thought, as she knew Paulo was an expert driver himself and was struggling to keep up. With all the other cars surrounding them it was a lot harder to keep sight of the hatchback, but every now and then they'd catch sight of a dimmed back light.

Thank God that the owner of the Land Rover hadn't put up a fight. They'd have to find a way to repay him. Hopefully they wouldn't do it any damage, except for using up a bit of petrol.

They lost sight of the hatchback for a bit, as it went in front of a large lorry painted like a cow, but they soon caught sight of it again when the lorry turned off the motorway.

"He definately knows the best places to lose someone." Paulo said, craning his neck to see the hatchback more clearly.

"Well, we definately know we've got one expert driver who do anything, given he's got a couple of wheels." Li said, in an attempt to encourage Paulo. Glancing sideways, she saw him grin slightly.

"Who do you think was in the car?"

Amber, Alex and Hex had retreated to Alex's hotel room to talk more privately. Amber sat on the floor, looking at Alex, who was lounging on the bed. Hex was curled up in an armchair with his palmtop resting on his knees.

"I don't know." Alex admitted, "But I saw it down Kindle Road too. Probably a friend of Brody's or something."

"Maybe." Amber continued, "I wonder how Paulo and Li are getting on. Do you think they've caught them by now?"

"No," Hex interrupted, "He said he'd text me if anything interesting happened."

"And he hasn't?"

"No." Amber sighed.

"Shall I call them?"

"Nah. Best to let them get on with it. If they're not back for a while, then we can call them." Alex replied.

Amber stood up and stretched, then glanced at her watch. "Anyway, I'm going to go to bed. We might have a big day tomorrow. Wake me up if you get any news." Alex waved at her, but Hex just nodded, not even looking up from the screen. He hadn't been too happy since he found out Ben was missing, but that was understandable. Maybe she should talk to him tomorrow, she thought, and went to get dressed and ready for bed.

Paulo glanced at the dashboard of the Land Rover. He just prayed that the tank was full. It would be gutting if they ran out of petrol halfway through. He focussed once again at the car in front, which had accelerated and gained a bit more distance between the two. Paulo was about to press down harder when he hesitated. They were already going at near 90mph, well over the speed limit, and if they had an accident he knew the consequences would be dangerous.

"Paulo, he's getting out of sight! Go faster!" Li yelled, leaning forwards to catch sight of the red hatchback. Paulo bit his lower lip and went faster, until they rounded the corner and -

"Where's it gone?" Paulo said out loud. The car was nowhere in sight, and it wasn't as if the motorway was very busy anyway. A few cars passed them as Paulo dropped his speed again. "There's nowhere it could have gone! It's just disappeared!"

Li frowned, thinking hard. There weren't any junctions for another three miles, and the hard shoulder was empty. She looked at the side of the road, where beyond the fence and the hedges was a steep hill. The car couldn't have gone down there at the speed they'd been going at and come out alive. She sighed frustratedly. Just when the action was beginning, it had gone. Vanished into thin air.

As soon as she heard Paulo yell, she knew she'd been naive. Two headlights, one slightly dimmed, appeared suddenly in front of them, literally ten metres from the rapicly approaching Land Rover. The hatchback must have been there all the time, with it's lights turned off, waiting for them to get closer. And when they had turned back on, it had the desired effect. Paulo swerved violently to the left, unaware of the drop beyond the hedge, everything becoming blurred as the fence crumpled and Li's screams filled the car...

Dun dun duunnn... oh the evil cliffhangers!!! Please review! Updations will come soon :)