Copyrights: I don't own the Secret Saturdays. I don't own Doyle, Drew, or their parents. I don't own the weapon that shows up later this chapter. I don't own the particular group of unnamed individuals that shows up this chapter.
I do own Solés...though I really wish I didn't. Though I don't own the group of unnamed individuals, I do own the individuals. Make sense?

Uh, this history is not meant to be an "alternate universe," though readers decide what it is. Contradictions between this and official canon will occur, despite my best efforts—and sometime because I'm too stubborn to change a story....
Proceeds in episodic fashion, etc., etc.

And finally...the next chapter.

Timing: roughly the same time as chapter 7. Maybe about ten, fifteen minutes after that one started.

Avalanche!

"—ake?—ness—ing up?—awake? ....Are you awake?"

Anna opened her eyes a crack, groaned, and squeezed them shut again. The light and sound conspired to pierce her brain, turning her throbbing skull into blinding pain.

The voice turned away. "Sir, I mean, ma'am, I mean...." The man's voice was met with a wordless growl. "She seems to be awake."

Anna realized that the pounding was footsteps. She opened her eyes again, but all she could see was grey texture.

"How good of you to join us." It was a woman's voice. Then the voice faded, as though the woman turned away. "If you please?"

Anna didn't have time to wonder who the woman was talking to. Someone, or a couple of someones, yanked her into a sitting position and twisted her arms behind her.

The throbbing in her skull intensified at the sudden change in position. Anna felt the bile rise in her throat. She tried not to gasp at the pain.

A figure crouched directly in front of her. At first, she could only see a blur of grey with a line of black somewhere near the top. She blinked a few times, and the image resolved itself into a woman in a grey trench coat and dark glasses.

The pain eventually subsided enough for Anna to speak. "Who...who are you?" she whispered. She opened her eyes a fraction more, all that she could manage through the pain.

"Agent Solés," the woman replied, followed by a long string of syllables, addressing Anna by her full name.

Anna was impressed in spite of herself. She hadn't known anyone outside her country could pronounce it; even Jonathon had given up after the third try. "How...how do you...know my name?"

"Your father told us," the woman, Solés, answered. "He was quite eager to give us any information that could lead us to you."

"My...my father?" Anna sat up a little straighter, suddenly afraid. "My father...sent you to find me?" The man had never liked Jonathon, and his rage could not have cooled, even though a decade and more had passed. If he'd learned of their relationship....

Solés shook her head. "No, but he did ask us to look out for you, once he learned we were seeking...how did he put it? Oh, yes. 'The vermin that stole his daughter.'" The woman smiled. "Speaking of the vermin, where is Jonathon Blackwell?"

Anna cringed. "Where's my son?"

"The boy is fine," Solés replied. "Frightened, but unhurt...for the moment. Where is your husband? And the girl?"

Anna shook her head. "I don't...I don't know. This monster...and the storm...."

Solés made a gesture to one of her people.

Within seconds, Doyle started to shriek. "Doyle!" Anna tried to rise to her feet. The person or persons behind her pinned her to the ground. She couldn't even turn to see Doyle. "Give me my son!" Anna screamed at them.

Solés grabbed Anna by the hair and jerked her head up, forcing her to look at the agent. Try as she might, Anna could not look away.

Anna whimpered.

"You are not among your people, princess," Solés whispered. "You are not among your husband's people. You do not give orders here. You answer to me and to me only."

"Please," Anna sobbed. "Please, stop. They're hurting him...!"

"And they will continue to hurt him, if you do not tell me what I want," Solés replied. "Oh, don't look at me like that. They won't do anything permanent. That would be a waste. But the pain will stop when I say it does, is that understood?" Anna nodded. "Now, I'll ask you again. Where are your husband and daughter?"

Anna sobbed. "The storm...swept Drew away. Jonathon's looking for her."

"Where?"

"I don't know," Anna whispered. Solés gestured, and Anna heard Doyle screaming again. "Please, I swear I don't know! I couldn't even have found Doyle, had Jonathon not told me where to look!"

"So. Why are you here?"

Anna stared at her. Why was the agent asking all of these questions? "Jon...Jonathon said the...he said the children needed training. Some clan he remembered from...from his childhood."

"Training for what?"

"I don't know! Some tradition, probably. How should I know?" Doyle's screams got louder, and Anna cringed. "They're Romani...Gypsy...I'm an outsider! Though I'm his wife, I'm still an outsider. They don't tell their secrets to outsiders!"

Solés appeared to think about that. Then the agent smiled. "You're lying." Anna shook her head and tried to shrink away. "Yes, you are. Something happened, you know what happened. You know what training your husband has in mind. You're lying to me, and that is not wise. People get hurt when they lie." The agent released Anna for the moment, and started digging around out of Anna's sight.

"I don't care what you do to me," Anna cried. "Kill me, send me back to my father, sacrifice me to the gods, I don't care. Just, please, leave my family alone!"

Solés laughed. "See, that's kind of the problem. Your children are what we really want. Your husband would have been valuable as a child; he may still be useful. But you...."

Solés came back out where Anna could see her, brandishing the spear she'd retrieved.

Anna cringed. She recognized that spear. She remembered the people that had hired Jonathon and Leonidas to retrieve it.

"You, highness, are completely irrelevant." The agent tossed the spear to one of her people. "Kill her. Make it look like an accident. Make it look like the storm."

The man who'd caught the spear stared at her. "But...but...but sir, uh, ma'am, uh, sir—"

Solés made a disgusted noise. "'Sir' or 'ma'am.' Not both. Now pick one and stick with it!"

"Yes, uh...um...sir." The man still didn't seem to be eager to follow his orders.

"Your objections?"

"Sir...the...that is...." The man cleared his throat. "Our orders are specifically not to jeopardize the research. We aren't supposed to kill the parents until we've got the kids."

"True, true." Solés nodded. "But part of our research is to learn the limits of that thing. We know it can whip up these storms in an environment already conducive to such weather. We know it can make ice cubes in a desert. What I would like to know is, just how controlled can that thing be?" Solés shrugged. "If our superiors complain, you can tell them I told you exactly that. Other than that, the woman will have no influence on our research."

"Ah. That's all right, then. Yes, uh, sir."

The man reached out with the spear and just scratched Anna on the neck. She tried to pull away as the spear's power flowed into her, but it was too late. Her blood turned to ice, and she froze from the inside out.

Solés whistled. She stared at the men behind Anna. They hadn't released the woman in time and had frozen just as quickly.

I hope you didn't actually think he was objecting to killing Anna, did you? Nope; just objecting to the risk to their research.