Bing Bong Sing Song! Guess who? It's Agent Striker here, bearing the next leg of Cam's journey!

Alex's POV:

I pulled the door to the observation car open, wincing as it made a high squeak. I took a step forward inside of the car, just about to call out for Cammie, when I heard a hiss of air as someone's foot connected with my stomach. I gasped out loud as the air was forced out of my lungs. My attacker karate-chopped my back but I rushed at his waist, pushing him backwards. We both hit the ground with a resounding thump. Wrestling to be on top,I felt something soft under my hand. I grabbed it and it took only a moment to realize that my attacker was a girl…"Cammie?" I managed to get out.

"Alex? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Get off of me so we can talk," she grunted as she gave me a hard shove.

I landed with a thump on my rear end, looking at Cammie as she stood up, "So, are you going to answer my question?" I knew the answer, I had read the note she had left on her bunk, but I wanted to hear it from her.

"You read the note."

"You just said that you were here, not why."

"Not that it's any of your business, but I couldn't sleep so I went for a little walk." She was lying to me, I could tell.

"That's it?"

"Okay, so I wanted to see the morning of Christmas Eve in Russia before everyone else was up."

"Liar."

She pushed past me and toward the hallway, "You'll never know."

I rolled my eyes and followed her back down the hallway, girls.

Cammie, Zach, and I were all hunched over the corner booth in the cold dining car. There was something wrong with the heat (our compartment was so cold we could see out breath) and the dining room was by far the warmest place on the train. The train itself was pretty empty; everyone was in the dining car. There was a young Hungarian couple who were on their honeymoon (they were talking really loudly and Cammie was translating), an old Mongolian (who knows why he was there), an old American couple (visiting their family), and two teenagers a little older than us. The first teen was a tall, blond haired, blued girl who moved like a dancer. The second one was a short pink haired (oh yeah, pink), unnaturally bright blue eyes, and a very high squeaky voiced guy. They were speaking in Russian and the blonde chick kept glancing at me…and it was making me nervous. She had this vaguely familiar air about her and she kept looking at me like she knew me as well.

I turned back to Cammie and Zach, coming into the middle of their conversation. "That isn't true," Cammie said, twisting the coffee cup she was holding around in her hands, "it was a dagger not a sword."

"We heard sword," Zach replied.

"Trust me, it was a dagger. I'm the one who woke up with it on my pillow covered in stage blood."

"What?" I interjected.

"April Fool's Day at Gallagher with three roommates where one of those roommates is a super genius that can make stag blood in eight minutes flat is always interesting," Cammie explained to me. Turning back to Zach she said, "How did you hear about that?"

He smirked, "I have my ways."

"So not an answer."

I rolled my eyes and glanced to where the teenagers had been sitting just moments before…but they were gone.

I gave a mental shrug and turned back to the conversation I had nothing to do with.

We had just past Chita, no one got on or off, when we returned to our compartment. I went first, and as I was reaching for the light switch I felt someone grab my wrist and twisted it back, "What the-" I cried out in surprise.

In an instant, Zach was right next to me with Cammie right be behind him, "What's going on?"

The person on the other end of my wrist yanked me forward; I tripped and fell into something very cold and very circular.

"Do not move or your Alex Rider will be dead," a female voice hissed.

Cammie flicked on the light switch and I looked toward the person with the gun. It was that girl from the dining car, the one that had seemed so familiar. I tried to pull free but she had an iron grip on me, "Do I know you?" I growled.

"No, my name is Natalya Ivanova, but if my parents had been wed, I would be known as Natalya Gregorovich. You are a close friend of my father's, no?" She grinned at me in a way that was anything but kind and I saw her father in her eyes.

"Alex?" I heard Cammie ask.

I could see Zach sliding behind the girl; her blue eyes were trained on me, "Well," I swallowed, "I guess I knew Natalya's father," I didn't have a chance to say anything else because Zach reached up and yanked the gun away from Natalya. She yelped in surprise, letting go of my wrist just enough I could pull it free and help Cammie push Natalya to the floor.

She was screeching something in Russian, probably cursing a blue streak, and Cammie quickly shoved the door closed so we wouldn't attract any more attention then was necessary. "You know her?" Cammie grunted as Natalya lashed out and tried to get up.

"No, but I knew her father," I said, glancing at Zach, wondering why he was just standing there watching us.

"Gregorovich?" Zach asked. I looked at him and at that moment it all came together for him, he knew who Yassen was.

"Get up," I said to Natalya.

She snarled at me but complied. She did that whole stare-at-me-like-she-knew-me thing again, "The famous Alex Rider, ha."

"How did you know who I was?"

"I have my ways."

"That is not an answer."

"Wait, can we have a little conference here?" Cammie asked.

I nodded toward Cam and pushed Natalya on to the seat across from us, "That gun with the handy silencer you brought can be easily used on you, so just sit there quietly," she gave me a sullen glare and crossed her arms.

"Who is that?" Cammie hissed once we were 'in conference'.

"You heard her," I answered, "Natalya Ivanova."

"Gregorovich?" she asked.

"Yassen Gregorovich, her father. I met him when I was working with," I lowered my voice, "MI6. He is…well he was an assassin that worked with my father."

Cammie cocked a delicate russet eyebrow, but her spy family background kept her from asking any questions…well most of them, "Was?"

"Dead," I answered.

Apparently the discussion was over because Zach turned back to the girl, "How did you find us here?"

A grin cracked her stony face and again I saw her father, "That is for me to know and you never to find out."

I started to say something but there was the crash of the door being thrown back and Cam let out a little screech as Zach pushed her behind him. We both spun to see the doorway now filled with three guys plus the pink haired guy that I had seen Natalya with earlier. The best part of all of this was the sawed off shotguns the guys were carrying. What is it about traveling with Americans that draws so many people with such large guns?

The end…of this chapter! Thanks to:

LivieLi

ReillyScarecrowRocks

foesizzle13

untitledwings11

You guys are so kind and the reviews definitely make me want to write more! Please review folks!

~Striker