My eyes opened, and I assessed the room before I relaxed.

The dream was an exact replay. Salvage, by far, was one of the most entertaining intellects I'd gone up against. He was a bit deranged, like all the others, but regardless, he was amazing to go up against. A genius still in the making, the danger he presented was astonishing.

"Same old, same old," I mumbled.

He was just a bit more original than the rest; that was what had caught me by surprise. And what had gotten me interested.

First things first.

I'd only come back from the Bermuda triangle less than a fortnight ago. Unbelievably, I'd escaped from Salvage before a new scar could be added to my... collection.

Secrets weren't secrets in an intelligence service, and by the time I'd gotten the okay to go home, agents around the place would stare, whisper, and then stare some more.

Not very professional and aloof as they lead you to believe, was it?

Irritating, if you asked me. I came back from a so-called mystery place, so what? It shouldn't have been a cause for gossip.

Nope. That was what the other missions and life-threatening situations were for.

But then again, when the devil's luck was on you and you entered the Devil's triangle, what did you expect? I wasn't going to let that myth fly and not use it to my advantage.

Pfft. As if.

I don't exactly know how I got out of there; it was all a blur. All I knew was that I had to get out.

I shook my thoughts out of my head – that chapter was over and done with. No need to think about it.

Swinging my legs out, I ran a hand through my already dishevelled hair. The cool air met with my bare chest like a splash of cold water. I yawned, feeling tired, but knowing that I couldn't go back to sleep, I stood up and looked at the alarm clock.

5.15

Staying still for a moment, I thought. Then I mentally shrugged and decided to go for an early morning run. I turned the alarm off so it wouldn't wake the Pleasure family.

My heart contracted almost painfully.

Jack.

I felt tears stinging the back of my eyes and blinked rapidly to dispel them. Bitterness filled my mouth as I thought of the Salvage mission. I was forced into that, but after a week with the Pleasures, I'd been getting restless and itchy. I'd needed to release my pent up emotions and that's when I realised how much I came to expecting missions and the rush that came with it. Besides – it was practically the only thing I knew how to do now.

And I welcomed it with grudging arms when CIA had asked.

I've got about a week left until holidays are over and school would start. Determination spiked through me; nothing was going to stop me from going to school. Not Blunt, not Jones and definitely not Byrne.

Never again.

But I knew it was a lie. Sooner or later, they'd come asking for help or some criminal organization wiould come to me. Maybe even me to one of them.

That bridge would burn when the time came. And it would burn well as far as I was concerned.

Finished changing, I silently crept down the stairs and out the door into the night. It would have been total darkness but for the streetlights. I started a comfortable rhythm, concentrating on the steps and neighbourhood.

I don't know how long I'd been running when I realised the sun was know free from the horizon, but I headed back to the Pleasure's house.

As I walked up the porch steps of the huge house I caved in to the knowledge that the only reason I'd gone jogging, was because I wanted a clear map of the area. Anger rose at what I was doing, but I couldn't really help it could I?

When you've been through no less than 8 missions, gone AWOL at least twice, have had a handful of close friends kidnapped or threatened and most legal guardians dead by way of work, sabotage or revenge – it could only prove how life could, and did, take its toll on you.

Not to mention the betrayals, extortions, secrets and ultimatums.

Or the fact that both my Uncle and Father were in the spy business, or that my Dad's best friend was a world-renowned assassin, or that my godfather was a spy-turned-traitor who was the one to have killed my parents.

Oh, and I can't leave out that my mother was a nurse at St Dominic's – the hospital I'd been treated at several times over now.

I guess things have come full circle now, with me being a spy and all, but that didn't mean I had to like it.