Chapter 12

Alex sighed in boredom, his head resting against the cool window pane as the countryside rushed by in a blur of colours.

Twenty odd people from their camp were sitting with Alex on the train, as they set off on their field trip. Turns out, they were investigating caves – their history, their formation, and who knows what else.

Sitting opposite Alex, Robert was fast asleep. Out of all of Alex's friends, Robert had been the only one assigned to this time. With about a hundred or so children attending the Bayswater camp, the directors had split the children up into groups of twenty or so, and sent them all to different locations on their field trip.

Each group was allocated two adult chaperones. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you looked at it, Professor Brad Willard was one of their chaperones. The other was some maths professor who was apparently one of the teachers at Bayswater (according to Robert).

Ben Daniels had been allocated to some other group, and nothing he'd done could change it. Olsen too, had been sorted to some other group.

In a stroke of luck, Alex had been assigned to the same group as Desiree and Matthew. He was happier about the former as compared to the latter. Ever since they'd been introduced, Matthew had taken to ignoring Alex, and trying to make him look bad whenever Dessi was around. Alex wasn't sure why that was, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the other boy was jealous.

Dessi, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice the affection being shown to her at all.

They'd been travelling for at least five hours now, since eight in the morning. Everyone on the train (in their carriage) was asleep – everyone but Alex. Which meant that the boy was extremely bored. Professor Willard and the other professor were in a different carriage. It was closer to the front of the train, and apparently it served alcohol. Damn adults.

Alex sighed again, shifting slightly in his seat and trying to get comfortable. His eyes fell on Desiree. He seemed to be taking note of her an awful lot, of the way her short hair fell across her face, the smooth curve of her lips, the...

Alex mentally shook himself. He could not afford to be thinking like that, not when he didn't know whether she still felt the same way.

Almost as if feeling someone staring at her, Desiree stirred slightly, before opening sleepy brown eyes. She looked around a little before her eyes connected with Alex's. The girl cocked her head, before slowly getting up so as not to disturb her partner, who was still asleep beside her.

"What's up?" She asked, taking the spare seat next to Alex.

"Nothing much," Alex shrugged.

"Then why aren't you asleep?"

"Why aren't you?" Alex shot back, a smile tugging at his lips.

Desiree rolled her eyes. "I was up all last night sorting through the twenty-three different distributors of BZ gas. I don't know why Olsen couldn't do that himself, being Mossad and all. And Matthew..." Dessi broke off with a groan.

"And...?"

"And, it's not good. Olsen got in contact with the NCIS. I must say, they weren't too happy about giving us any information – some guy, Agent Gibbs I think, didn't trust us. But one of the members of his team is from the Mossad, and she apparently knows Olsen," Dessi said, looking slightly confused at the chain of relations.

"Well, she told us about the case they had solved last year. Apparently some guy had enough BZ gas to knock out an entire city. They've managed to track down most of it, but apparently there's still some missing," Desiree said grimly. "I guess we know where it is."

Alex bit his lip. "Are you sure he has it?"

"Yes."

The answer was so simple. Just one word. Yet the way she said it, Alex couldn't help but agree with her. Nodding, he decided to change the topic onto one he'd been dying to find out.

"So, how did Matthew become your new partner?" Alex asked, trying not to show how interested he was. Apparently it worked, for he didn't receive the suspicious look that he'd been expecting.

"He was slowly working his way up the "ladder", so to speak," Dessi began, leaning back into the seat and trying to get comfortable, "When...when the director regrouped unit one, he shuffled around the other units too. Matthew was chosen to be in unit one, along with two other men who're making up our back-up group."

"And...do you get along with Matthew?" Alex asked, curious.

Dessi shrugged. "He's alright. I mean, he's got the right mindset and instincts, and he's very fit and everything but..." Dessi hesitated, "But...well...I think he has a crush on me."

Alex froze. Okay, maybe she wasn't that ignorant.

"How...how do you feel about that?" He asked cautiously.

"Well...I mean, it certainly is flattering but," Dessi paused, biting her lip, "But, I, well...I already like someone else," She said, turning her head away slightly to hide the blush.

Before Alex could say anything else, Robert started to stir. Knowing that it would be highly suspicious if she was caught talking to someone, Dessi swiftly left. As she sat back down, Alex saw her shake Matthew slightly to wake the boy up. She was determinately avoiding eye contact with him.

"Urgh...did I miss anything?" Robert asked, shaking himself from unconsciousness.

"No," Alex said, turning back to face his friend. "Nothing."

The train sped through the countryside, the beautiful scenery whipping past in a blur. Around noon, the other students on the train started to stir, lulled back into consciousness by their growling stomachs. Not long after this, Professor Willard and the maths professor came into their carriage, each bearing basket of wrapped sandwiches and spring water.

"Finally! Lunch!" Robert exclaimed, happily accepting his sandwich and water. Alex rolled his eyes, before also accepting his lunch.

Across from him, he noticed Desiree warily examining her own lunch, as if looking for contaminants. As he watched, Matthew leaned in close to whisper something in the girl's ear. She snapped something back softly, before taking a sip of water. Alex saw the slight frown she gave to the bottle after swallowing, although she seemed to shake it off again. Probably paranoia.

It was another hour before the train finally pulled into a station. There was a massive rush as the twenty students on board fought past the rest of the passengers in other carriages, so that they could get onto solid ground first.

Several people bumped into Alex as he tried to fight the flow. By the time he stepped out into the sunshine, he was sure that he'd just received more bruises than he'd ever had in his life, altogether – and that was saying something.

"Children! Gather round, gather round!" The maths professor shouted, waving his arms madly to signal to those who hadn't heard his voice in the chaos of the train station.

"Alright," he said when he finished a head count, "We're going to split you into two groups of ten. One group will be taken by me, the other by Professor Willard over here. So, here I go."

From the corner of his eye, Alex noticed Desiree make a subtle shift so that she stood on Willard's side. Matthew trailed after her like an obedient puppy; as he passed Alex, he threw the boy a glare, warning him to back off. Alex merely rolled his eyes in return.

"Alright, you, you, you, and you, you're also with Professor Willard – they need more males," the maths professor said, pulling Alex and Robert, along with three other guys, to Willard's group while five girls were told to join his.

The two groups separated, each heading off to a different tour bus. Matthew made sure to shove into Alex before boarding the bus. Robert threw Alex a questioning glance, but luckily the boy didn't comment.

As the bus set off, a very familiar-looking woman stood up, waving for their silence before speaking into the microphone.

"Hey guys! My name is Rebecca, and I'll be your tour guide through the caves!"

Alex's eyes narrowed at the very familiar sounding accent. Rebecca smiled at them all nicely, before sitting down. But just a millisecond before she did, she caught Alex's eye and gave him a cheeky wink. At that moment, Alex was supremely happy that he had such complete control over his facial expression. As it was, he only barely stopped his jaw from dropping in shock.

It was Rose.

How the hell had did that woman get herself appointed as their guide? Alex shook his head, once again amazed at the things one could do if they had the right contacts. The fact that Rose was this close also begged the question – was K-unit around as well?

That question was answered almost immediately when Rose got back off her seat to talk to the driver, who glanced into the rear-view mirror, caught Alex's eye, and smirked at his astounded expression.

Snake, K-unit's resident medic, was their current driver.

Alex slumped back in his seat, barely restraining a groan as an overwhelming mixture of emotions welled up inside him. It was undeniably good to see some familiar faces again. But all the same, he didn't know whether to feel relieved, annoyed, or frightened for his life. Of course, it wasn't as bad as if, say, Eagle had been allocated driver. The next half an hour was spent with both Rose and Snake tossing him triumphant, gloating glances, and Alex doing everything he could to avoid their gaze.

Needless to say, the boy was the first one off the bus, with Robert hurrying to catch up.

Desiree came to stand as close to Alex as she could, without raising suspicion. She glanced at Alex with an almost shy smile, before turning away so fast that he wasn't sure if it had happened at all. However, he definitely did catch the annoyed glare Matthew threw at him a second later.

"Alright, everyone here?" Rose asked cheerfully, taking the lead. "Okay, let's go!"

She set off, with eight students and Professor Willard trailing after her. Alex hung back slightly, noticing that Desiree hadn't moved from her position. She kept glancing over her shoulder, a slight frown on her face.

Looking around to make sure no-one was within hearing range, Alex whispered, "Dessi? You okay?"

Desiree started slightly, spinning to face Alex. She glanced one last time over her shoulder before nodding and walking past him, jogging slightly to catch up with the group.

Alex looked over to where she kept glancing, but as far as he could see, there was nothing interesting. With a frown, he set off after her.