Author's Note: Well, there's a bit more action here you'll be glad to hear, I know it's been a bit slow going. Ok, my representation of the Mafia isn't really very realistic. But it's my little representation that I quite like. Right now, it seems even less realistic than it will later on but I hope you'll bear with me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and don't be afraid to R&R (I like hearing what you think) Thank you :)

Robin came back several hours later, I had long finished searching and I hoped my guilty conscience didn't show. I could almost feel it, written in big letters across my forehead but I brushed it aside and turned my attention to Robin. "Well, I haven't spoken to anyone yet...not really anyway. I thought I'd wait for you to be with me to do that. I got you a disguise." She grinned "you'll look like one of us now, Alex. Oh, here," Robin offered me a gun, the weapon lingered in the air between us. I looked at it for a moment. The thing that could take someone's life so easily. So fast. "I don't want it." I said, finally tearing my gaze away from it and making up my mind. "You don't have to use it." Said Robin, as if this was obvious. She snorted "do you think I'm crazy enough to give you a gun with bullets?" She put the gun on the table and I looked at it as if it might bite me. She rolled her eyes, a little exasperated "what do you think you're going to look like walking around without a gun or a knife or something? You're one of the Mafia now, well that's what everyone else has to think anyway." I reached out and took the gun, feeling the weight of it in my hand. It was quite small. A pistol. Good quality. "Carry it around, let people see it." Robin paused and said quietly "I wouldn't ask you to kill someone. You know that, don't you?"

"Would you?" I asked, not really making clear what I was asking. I didn't really want to. She didn't have to answer but... "No." Said Robin "not unless I had to." Her gaze turned distant then and one of her hands balled into a fist. "I try not to kill. I try really hard. It was only a few times..." Her voice was just above a whisper and was that...a tear? But it never ran down her face because she shook herself then and came back to her senses. "Let me see your wound and then...how do you feel about going out?"

A few hours later I stood in front of a mirror and looked at myself. I'd been in a few disguises before and I didn't look that different in this one but...I felt like another person. This time, I wasn't doing it for MI6. The thing that really got me was, I was on the complete other side to them. Another world. Yet too similar for comfort. All the killing, the secrets...the danger. I sighed, red shirt, black leather jacket and trousers...a gun. I looked at the gun for a moment and attached it to my belt. That was the thing that really looked out of place. "Ready?" Said Robin, coming in.

"You could have knocked, what if I hadn't been?"

"Then you wouldn't have been." She shrugged "I gave you enough time, the only thing I would have seen was you staring at yourself in the mirror. Different?"

"Different." I said, turning to face her. There was a look of something like amusement on her face, then she turned serious and said "take this, don't worry, it's not lethal." She handed me a badge, it was in the shape of a ribbon. The red jewels that covered it were set in gold and I couldn't help wonder if they were real or not. "Wear it. Don't lose it whatever you do. Cost a fortune those things do! Why, I had to go and track down a few dead bodies to get them back." I looked at Robin and tried to give the badge back to her "I don't think-" she shook her head and smiled, closing my fist around the badge. "No, keep it. It shows you're under my protection and I was just kidding about the dead bodies. Lose it if you want but it'll be at your own expense."

"But why-"

"It's my symbol. It'll put some people off straight away, most people I hope. They know if they hurt you, they have to deal with me. It'll make some people come after you though, because of me. But that's ok because I don't think they'll kill you. Most likely take you hostage to get information out of me." My eyes widened at this but Robin quickly said "don't worry. Just trust me, I'm not going to let them do anything. I'll give them whatever they want it I can't spring you...illegally. Then again, just about everything around here is illegal."

"Look, Robin. You've been really nice and all but...why should I trust you?" I had to get this over with, I just had to ask. "I know it's all very well you wanting to help and all, but I think I'd feel a little better if you were getting something out of this."

She didn't take it bad, she just shrugged as if she'd been expecting it. "I wouldn't trust me if I were you, either. You don't know who I am. You're just going to have to take my word for it. Go with it now and decide for yourself later, it's a thing only time will tell. You're just going have to be patient."

Later, as we were going to the door, Robin paused before she turned the key and said "Alex, you're not a bad person, I don't want you to get hurt. If something happens and I tell you to go, you go." She turned around and looked me in the eye "are you ready?" She said. I nodded and Robin turned the key and opened the door "good, because this is only the beginning."

It wasn't exactly nice this place we went. I know you always hear about these stories that the Mafia have places they go, where other people don't go, well, they were true. A network of streets and houses and who knows what else, full of people with guns and knives. Most of them in uniform, blood red shirts. "The real blood doesn't show as much." Said Robin. I wasn't sure if she was joking or not. "Right, here's a quick history lesson for you. The Mafia is split into several families and this is my family. Our colour, as you can see, is red and this place here is our territory. Since no one is hiding the fact they're criminals, everyone wears this uniform. I guess we're sticklers for tradition. There are different levels of fights and arguments, so don't get the idea that it's safe here. In any of our big fights, we're all on the same side. Family against family. But, right now, it's every man for himself. Gangs fight. People fight. Right, history lesson over. Let's go."

I was a bit dazed by all of this and I walked through the crowded streets. No one spared me a glance. It felt as if I'd walked straight into some film, well, my life was pretty much a great big spy film. But this, I shook my head. This really took the biscuit. This wasn't anything like what gangs were like...was it? It looked quite quiet, no violence. All dressed up in uniform. It was more some sort of group or organisation who met on a regular basis. Well, this was one side you never saw, it was only later that I discovered that I really wasn't getting the full picture.

"Hey, Robin!" Someone called over the general buzz in the street.

"Keep walking," muttered Robin under her breath, "nothing but trouble that guy." She kept her head down and I did my best to follow her. Despite her attempts to evade the owner of the voice, he caught up anyway. "Hey, Robin." Said a tall man who'd come up next to us. He was slim, athletic looking with a mop of brown curly hair and a hooked nose. He had a scar from one eye to his mouth, slanting across his face.

"Hi." Said Robin, no emotion in her voice.

"Who's your friend?"

"Just a friend." She paused "Alex."

"Alex? Not seen you around before, where've you been?" Thankfully, Robin saved me from embarrassment and said "he's just come back from America. You remember that plane they sent over there?"

"Ah, yes! Well, welcome back." I nodded in thanks "anyway, I was meaning to ask you if you-"

"No. I'm busy. I have business to attend to."

"Come on, there are some guys who want to see you about something."

"Yeah, sure."

"Just you and me again Robin, yeah?" There was something I didn't quite like about this man, there was something about his smile the way he placed his hands.

"Look," Said Robin, her voice low and dangerous "I haven't forgotten so don't act like it never happened. You're a double crossing little cheat and don't think I can't see that knife you have up your sleeve." That was it. That was what was odd about him. The man held his hand strangely, curved up, and I could just about make out the hilt of a dagger. "Not now. I'll come and see you another time and we can sort this out."

"I don't think so." The man had pulled his dagger out now, it glinted in the light. So sharp...

"You can have your money. To be honest, I'm not bothered about the money, Chris. Just let me go now and I'll come and see you first thing tomorrow."

"I don't like to be one to hurt pretty girls," said Chris, running his knife gently over Robin's throat so it didn't leave a mark. She didn't flinch but her eyes flickered. "But sometimes, they leave me no choice. I want more than money." Then she struck. I didn't quite see where the knife went, everything was pretty much a blur. But, in the end, Chris ended up sat on the floor, blood streaming from his nose. Robin turned to me and she opened her mouth to say something, her eyes widened but I had already felt the cold blade against my throat. "What you going to do, now?" Said a gruff voice, the man holding the knife chuckled and I tensed as the blade moved with his laughter. Chris got to his feet and Robin eyed him warily as another man came up behind her. "Want to try again, Robin?" Said Chris, his eyes smiling as he wiped the blood off his face. "You make a move and Alex over there is dead."

"This is between you and me. Let Alex go and I'll come with you."

"I think you'll find you're coming anyway." Robin glanced at me, sizing up the man behind me. He pressed the blade into my throat harder. I could do something, why didn't I- Because I was surrounded by criminals. One move and they'd all be on me...or I'd be dead. So I just stood there and watched Robin as she said "Lead the way." As we walked, me with a knife to my throat and Robin with a gun to her back, I thought you coward, Alex Rider. You coward...