"Gone, what do you mean gone?" Wolf demanded.

"That he's not here. He's left along with all his stuff," Ben replied looking at Wolf as if he were stupid.

"Why would he do that?" Eagle asked, biting his lip.

"Oh let me think, maybe because Wolf made him think that we don't want him here anymore," Ben responded angrily, his worry making him react with irritation. At the look on Wolf's face his shoulder's sagged and apologised. "I'm sorry, I don't mean that. It's just that I can't believe he would actually leave."

"Do we have any idea where he would go?" Snake questioned. There was no telling where Alex would go and he was putting himself in great danger by exposing himself alone. For all they knew he could already have been kidnapped once again.

"Not a clue. Do you think we should call MI6?" Ben asked and Wolf immediately shook his head.

"No way. If we call them and they find Alex then I doubt they'll let him come back with us. We need to call them as a last resort," Wolf said.

"I agree," Eagle said. "If he hates us now, imagine what he'd do if we forced MI6 on him. He'd never forgive us."

Ben sighed. "I understand what you mean but seriously, we need to think of where he might have gone. I have no clue where to start."

No one said anything as they were all deep in thought. They didn't know much of Alex's life beforehand and so couldn't say where he might have gone. Going to school would draw too much attention, he had no home left to go to, and they didn't know where he used to hang out. They had nothing to go on.

"Wait a minute, what about his friends? Maybe one of them would know where he's gone?" Eagle suggested.

Wolf looked at him curiously. "Unless you actually happen to know who his friends are and a way of contacting them I don't see how your plan has any way of actually working."

Eagle looked a bit sheepish. "I may have looked at his phone one time, just out of curiosity…it was when he was asleep and it kind of fell out of his pocket," he hastened to justify themselves with the exasperated looks he was receiving. "I checked if it was bugged if that's any consolation! Anyway, I got a bit curious and looked at his texts. A lot of them were from this person called Tom and I may have memorised the number…you know, in case of emergencies such as these?"

Wolf rubbed his forehead wearily. "Only you Eagle, only you. Someone get a phone and let's call this Tom person. Hopefully he won't just ignore the call. Thankfully its Sunday so he won't be in school."

Wolf dialled the number Eagle recited to him and they waited for the call to be picked up. It never was.

"Are you sure this is the right number?" Wolf asked dubiously.

"That's it," Eagle confirmed.

They called the number again, and once more it was declined. Growing frustrated, Wolf called it two more times and finally on the fifth, it was picked up.

"Leave me the hell alone, I don't whatever you're selling!" An irritated voice spoke to them through the speaker. Anticipating that the boy was about to cut them off, Wolf hurriedly spoke.

"Wait, stop. We're not trying to sell you anything. We're friends of Alex, Alex Rider."

It was quiet and Wolf really did think they had the wrong number. Then a few seconds later Tom spoke.

"Alex? What's happened to him? Is he alright? I haven't heard from him in ages! Wait, who're you?" The words came out so quickly it was a miracle Wolf understood him.

"My name's Wolf…"

"Wait, Wolf as in Brecon Beacons, Point Blanc Wolf?"

Wolf was surprised. "He's told you about that?"

"Well yeah, Alex tells me most stuff…unless he isn't supposed to in that case I know nothing and I just guessed."

Wolf huffed out a small laugh at the backtrack. "Your fine, I was just surprised as Alex isn't really the sharing type."

"You got that right," Tom agreed. "You still haven't answered my questions. Is he alright? I haven't seen him in ages, I have no idea what happened to him."

Wolf was a bit unsure how to answer that. "Alex is…injured but the last we saw him he was ok. We're looking after him while he recovers. The problem is he kind of ran away last night and we have no idea where he might go."

"Alex is missing?"

"Yeah, we were wondering if you would have any idea where he would go. It's really important that we find him as quickly as possible."

"You're asking me where a teenage spy who doesn't want to be found would go?"

Wolf huffed. "Listen kid, if you don't know just tell me and I can stop wasting time."

"No, no," Tom hurriedly amended. "I don't know for sure where he would be, but I have a couple of ideas. I'm guessing you live nearby his old house?"

"We do, about a twenty minutedrive or so."

"Ok, well, there's this park nearby where we used to hang out. It has an old skate ramp which we would chill by; it's a pretty good hiding spot. Then there's also the chance he's just hanging around town, some of our favourite places are the comic book store or the game store. If he has money he may have gone to get food. Costa's a good bet there."

"So you're saying it's either town or that park?"

"Uh..yeah, sorry I can't be more specific, but if he doesn't want to be found there's a chance he isn't at either."

Wolf sighed. "Don't be sorry kid. You've given us a better chance than if we hadn't called you."

"Oh, that's good. Hey, would you mind calling back when you find Alex? It's just, I haven't spoken to him at all in ages and I want to know how he's been."

"Will do, in fact, if we find him you can even come over." It didn't escape his notice that whilst he had said if, Tom had said when. It looked like the kid was an optimist.

"Really? That's awesome. Thanks, um, I'll let you go find Alex then. Bye."

Before Wolf could respond Tom hung up.

"You guys hear all that?" He asked the others and they nodded.

"So, my plan is we split up. Three of us into town, the other one going to that park. Hopefully google maps will be able to give us directions."

They spent the next few minutes getting up directions on their phones and it was decided that Wolf would be the one to go to the park. He had a feeling that if they were going to find Alex anywhere, it would be there and honestly, he wanted to be the one to find him. He knew it was more likely that Alex would spy him and run away, but he also wanted the chance to explain himself without the others there.

The park itself was fairly large and split into two sections. One held the usual young children's play equipment and there were a couple of kids playing on the rusting swings. The other section held a skate ramp that looked close to breaking and a lone basketball hoop. It was obvious that there wasn't much money spent on it.

At first glance, Wolf couldn't find Alex and he was immediately disheartened. Then, he saw a shoe poking out from behind the skate ramp. Quickly, Wolf rushed to behind the ramp and he was met with the sight of a sleeping Alex. He was sat back against the grey ramp with his backpack used as a back rest in an attempt to make his position slightly more comfortable. The dark circles under his eyes spoke of a sleepless night and as reluctant as Wolf was to awaken him from the sleep he clearly needed, he couldn't leave Alex out here.

Kneeling down, Wolf gently put a hand on Alex's shoulder. He barely made it past the first syllable of the boy's name before Alex's eyes shot open and he grabbed Wolf's arm in a painful grip. The only reason he managed to prevent himself from getting a sprained wrist was because he was prepared for that sort of reaction.

Clarity slowly returned to Alex, and though he let go of Wolf, he looked prepared to run when he realised who had found him.

"Wait, Alex. I just want to talk. Can we do that?" Wolf asked, noticing the way Alex's eyes darted around, as if looking for the best escape route.

"We can, but whether I want to is another matter," Alex said sullenly.

Wolf supposed he deserved that. "Please, Alex. I know what I said you to was wrong. You've got to know that I didn't mean it."

Alex looked sceptical. "How should I know that when that's what everyone thinks. They just assume that I got myself into this whole mess and yeah, I'm not innocent but I would never have chosen this life for myself."

"I know," Wolf sighed. "I'm sorry, it was just the heat of the moment and I said some stuff I didn't mean, really, I didn't," he emphasised.

"Why should I believe you, from what I've gathered adults aren't the most trustworthy people," Alex argued.

Taking a risk, Wolf sat down next to Alex and to his relief, the boy didn't bolt. "Yeah I wouldn't trust me either if I were in your position. I let my temper get the best of me, and I'm sorry for that."

Alex sighed with obvious frustration. "You say all this stuff; that you understand why I can't trust you but then you still do stuff that proves I shouldn't, like you want me to continue to not trust you! I don't understand."

Wolf wasn't really sure what to say. The way Alex phrased it made everything sound so simple, but the reality was that it wasn't. He knew that he and the others had acted in contradictory ways. Asking Alex to trust them and then going through his files hadn't been one of their brightest ideas, and Wolf's stupid temper hadn't helped matters any more. From now on, Wolf resolved to make sure that Alex knew he could trust them, as long as there were no life or death situations that was.

"Truth is, neither do we. We've never been in this sort of situation before and I get that we're doing a shit job of it, but if there is one thing you can trust Cub, is that everything we do is meant with the best intentions. We just want to help. We may not go about it in the best ways, but that's the truth."

Alex's frustrated expression remained. "But why. We're still practically strangers, and I get that you may feel sympathy for me, but why are you bothering to help? You don't have to and I'm hardly worth it."

Wolf narrowed his eyes at Alex. "Hey, don't sell yourself short. And it's true that we still don't know you very well but you know what, I'd like to. You're one hell of a kid Alex, and you don't deserve half the shit life's thrown at you. I joined the army in order to help people and you need help so I'm damn well going to give it if I can. I may suck at it, as proven, but I'm going to try."

Alex pressed his lips together in a hard line. "I still don't get it," he said after a while.

"Frankly Cub, neither do I," Wolf admitted. "But we have time to figure it all out once this whole mess is over. A mess," Wolf added, "that is not your fault no matter what I said earlier. Now what do you say about coming back with me? It's not safe out here and the others have been worried sick." He didn't say that if Alex chose not to come back then they'd be forced to call MI6. For all that the lot of them were bastards, they were preferable to the enemy getting and killing the kid.

Alex took a moment to think over it before giving a huff. "Fine, but you need to promise that nothing like that ever happens again, or I'm gone."

"I can't promise that," Wolf said, and when Alex looked ready to leave, he quickly carried on. "But I can promise to try. I don't want to make a promise I might be unable to keep. I mean it though that I will try, if that's good enough?" Wolf prayed it was.

"…Ok," Alex said and Wolf couldn't hold back a smile. "How did you know where to find me anyway?" He asked as they began to walk to the car.

Oh shit. If he told Alex that Eagle had been going through his texts, he would run for sure. At the same time, however, he couldn't think of another option. He also didn't feel like lying anymore.

"Eagle had been the one to check your phone out when you were in hospital, to make sure there were no bugs or anything. He saw that a few of your texts were from a guy called Tom and he has a pretty good memory. Good job as he gave us a clue as to where to find you." Ok, so maybe he was bending the truth a bit. That didn't count as lying. Right?

Alex gave him a suspicious look but fortunately let it go at the mention of his friend.

"So you spoke to Tom then?" He aimed for casual, but Wolf could detect the underlying interest. From what Tom had said, he and Alex hadn't spoken in a while. Alex must miss him.

"I did. I also suggested that he might want to come over some time. I know it must be boring hanging out with us adults."

Wolf smiled at how Alex's expression lightened. "Really?"

"Yeah, whenever's fine. You can call him when you get back, he's missed you."

Alex couldn't keep from grinning. "…Thanks Wolf."

"No problem Cub."

Sorry for how late this is, but what with exams approaching and a new addiction, I have found this story getting put on the side. I'm no longer setting a date as to when I'll update, so I don't promise you anything I can't deliver, much like Wolf has done. As always, thank you for all the support this has getting, even if I may not deserve it right now.