Change of plan. There will be another two chapters after this one; the next one will be more on their mission and the last one will be back to the funeral. I think...

Amber smiled at the girl in front of her. She wouldn't have been more than six or seven years old, yet her face had a serious, anxious expression. 'Here you go, sweetie,' Amber said, placing a small bundle of books and pens in her arms. Although she didn't understand English, the little girl smiled and clutched the books protectively.

As she wandered off, eyes shining with excitement, Amber smiled again. Alpha Force were together again for the holidays, in a small village in southern Africa helping one of the aid agencies. A small school had been built and books, pens, other resources and a teacher had finally arrived, allowing the school to open for the first time. After Alpha Force had travelled to India two years before, their name had been put on a list for helping with future aid work. Two other jobs had come up but one had been in term time and the second had been offered when Alpha Force were in Belize, training. Now they were available and had been in the village for the past week, helping put the finishing touches to the school and getting to know the villagers.

A shrill whistle made Amber's head whip around. Li was standing about fifty metres away, outside the building they were staying in. She saw Amber and gestured to her to come. Amber nodded and apologised to Karen and Greg, two other aid workers helping dispense the school supplies, before jogging across to Li.

Li's face was unreadable as she and Amber walked inside the little house. As her eyes adjusted from the brilliant sunlight outside, to the slightly gloomier indoors, Amber noticed her three other friends, and the final members of Alpha Force, huddled in the corner, peering at a palmtop screen. Hex, his green eyes narrowed, raised his head as he heard the two girls' footsteps.

'Check it out,' he said, motioning to a spot beside him.

Amber plonked down next to him but Li remained standing. 'Is it some nerdish thing I'll find extremely boring?'

Hex gave her a withering look. 'It's a possible mission for us.' He turned the palmtop away from Amber as she tried to see what was on the screen.

'Hey...' she whined.

'No, no, no.' Hex shook his head, his face poker straight. 'I don't want to bore you.'

'Let her see,' Alex sighed, knowing that if he didn't intervene they would be here for the rest of the afternoon, listening to Amber and Hex annoy each other. Sometimes it was hard to remember that they were the closest of friends.

'Do I have too?' Hex was still shielding the palmtop with his body.

'Yes.' Paulo's face peered out from behind Alex. 'Show her.'

'Fine.' Hex reluctantly moved the palmtop to where everyone could see. 'Shall I read aloud?'

'Knock yourself out,' Amber said.

'Okey dokey. First of all, it's from your uncle, Amber.' Hex scrolled down the page a bit. 'He hopes we're all having a great time, helping everyone, staying out of trouble, etc... Um... Here we go! "I know you are all helping out with the aid program, but since you're in the area I thought you might like to have a look at something. There's a little village about 100 kilometres away from you that has recently had a very high amount of miscarriages, unexplained deaths, children born with both physical and mental disabilities and sickness. Sounds a bit similar to the situation in Alaska that you guys resolved. You don't have to look into it but if you feel like it you can. Hex; email me if you guys need anything for this mission or otherwise."' Hex looked up from the screen and glanced at his friends' faces. 'Well? Are we going to "look into it"?'

'I'm in,' Alex said.

Paulo nodded. 'Me too.'

'Yep,' Li and Amber piped up.

Hex sighed and opened up a blank email page, reading to type his reply to John Middleton. 'We can't just kick back, can we?'

The village was even smaller and more neglected than the one they had left. A mangy group of chickens pecked in vain at the baked earth while a brown goat blinked suspiciously at them. Alpha Force had hitched a ride out with Harry, an aid worker who was also a doctor. Harry had also heard about the mysterious deaths and illnesses that had began to plague the village and he had travelled out there to see what he could do. In just a few days, ten more aid workers and two more doctors would be joining him to try and put an end to it.

Alpha Force jumped from the 4x4 as soon as it pulled up. Harry stuck his head out the window and called, 'See you this evening' before driving up the dirt track to the far end of the village.

Li looked at her friends and tilted her head. 'Any one got a plan?' she demanded.

'Hex?' Amber turned her head and peered at Hex. 'Plan?'

Hex, who had been staring blankly at the chickens, snapped his head back and blinked at Amber. 'Huh?'

'What do we do now?' Amber tapped her foot and raised her eyebrows.

'Um...' Hex scratched his head. 'I spose we could go and ask around, see if any of the villagers has an idea what might have caused this.'

'Good plan,' Alex said. He tugged at Li's arm. 'Come on. We'll go talk to the people over there. You guys can scout around and find others.' Alex and Li walked off, leaving Paulo, Hex and Amber to search the other side of the village.

'You heard the boss,' Amber said with mock seriousness. 'Onwards!'

An hour and a half later, Alpha Force were sitting underneath a sprawling acacia tree, glad of its plentiful shade. Hex had his palmtop open and had been staring at it for the past five minutes, clicking every now and then.

With an impatient sigh, Li stood up. 'Come on, Hex. What have you found?' Without raising his head, Hex held up one finger before turning his attention back to the little computer.

'This is torture,' Amber groaned. 'Tell us!'

'Wait.' Hex frowned and clicked a few more times. 'Patience is a virtue.'

'I don't give a crap!' Amber scowled. She stalked over to Hex and pulled the palmtop from his grasp.

'Hey!' Hex glared at her, but his face broke into a grin as Amber stared at the screen in confusion.

'What the heck?' she mumbled, before passing the palmtop back to Hex.

'Shall I explain?' Hex continued without waiting for an answer. 'From what we found out from the villagers and some interesting test results by a few agencies- don't ask how I got the results- I'd say that our problem lies with the water.'

'Just like in Alaska,' Alex said.

Amber shuddered at the memory of Daniel Usher before blocking it from her mind. The only problem with a job like this, apart from the life-threatening danger, was the flashbacks. 'Do we know why the water had suddenly become toxic?'

Hex shrugged. 'There's a huge lake about 15, 20 kilometres from here. It spills out into little rivers and creeks, some of which flow down here. The village gets all of its water from these creeks. That's the only thing which could be affected from an outside source.' He paused and brought up a page on his palmtop. 'We need to go have a look at the lake.'

'Why would the lake suddenly become toxic?' Paulo asked.

'Sabotage? Someone doesn't want the village here?' Hex was only half concentrating as he clicked through various web pages. 'I'll see what I can find.'

Amber pulled out her mobile. 'While you do that, I'll call Harry. Can you drive us there, Paulo?'