The two black cars arrived at the scene at the same time. From the first car, Harry stepped out and rushed towards the twisted remains of the black Lexus wrapped around the light pole.

"Sweet Jesus," he whispered, his eyes frantically scanning the area now filled with emergency personnel and field operatives from both MI5 and MI6. This was going to be a bloody mess, he thought, turning around to see Jools emerging from the other car, scowling.

But before Jools could join Harry, one of the men guarding the area approached him and said something.

"You've picked up the signal then?" Jools asked.

His field officer nodded. "Yes, sir. It's about ten miles from here."

"Good," Jools said. "Get the team out there and get me on the phone as soon as the team is in place. Await my signal."

As the officer left, Jools walked over towards Harry.

"We missed them by minutes," Harry said, frustration growing in his voice. "He's always been one step ahead of us, Jools."

"It must be someone on the inside, Harry," Jools said. "That's the only explanation."

"I trust everyone on my team with my life, Jools," Harry said, suddenly defensive.

"Including Lucas North?" Jools asked.

Harry looked at Jools, anger flashing in his eyes. "Especially him," he replied. "He's proven his worth to me, and I do not doubt his loyalty."

Jools shrugged. "Then we need to start from the beginning and suspect everyone to be a mole. It's the only thing I can honestly think of. This was exactly the information Six has been after for the last twenty years, since we planted our deep covers in Russia."

Harry's face colored. "You're the one who agreed to trade a high-ranking British official knowledgeable in nuclear energy affairs to the Russians, Jools," Harry said angrily. "I can't even begin to see the logic in that kind of thinking, so don't get me started -"

"For the record, I did not mastermind that trade, Harry," Jools countered. "I merely gave my blessing as I had no choice. It was either that or Alexa was dead, plain and simple. And you know how our wonderful government really doesn't give a fig about anyone, Harry, so consider that a royal favor that she and Liam lived."

Suddenly Ros stood between both men, her face hard and looking a bit annoyed. "Excuse me, Harry, I need to talk to you," she said, ignoring Jools and guiding Harry away from him as calmly as she could. She'd had enough of Jools Siviter for one night, she thought. It was time to get to work.

"Malcolm just called," Ros said, keeping her voice low. "He's tracked the signal from Lucas' phone to a warehouse about ten miles away. We should get going, Harry, before we lose it."

Harry turned to look at Jools, wanting to say more to the man but he stopped, feeling Ros' hand on his elbow.

"It's not the time or the place, Harry," she said, her grip on his elbow tightening. "You can burn your bridges after this is all over. We just lost Adam and we can't afford to lose anyone else."

Harry nodded and together they hurried to the car. Ros was right, he thought, glad that there was someone who was still able to see things objectively for Harry knew he'd lost that ability the moment he walked into Alexa's flat that morning.

He felt like he'd been thrown into a game whose rules he had not yet been informed of. For the first time in a very long time, Harry felt lost, not knowing what to do next. This was all too personal, he thought to himself as Ros started the car and they drove away.

But as Harry looked outside the window, the remains of the Lexus vivid in his mind's eye, he knew he could not lie to himself or anyone else any longer. Of course it was personal, he thought.

It always had been.

>>><<<

Lucas was working his wrists back and forth against the rope that bound them together when the door burst open and three men walked in. He'd forced himself to ignore the pain, for he knew that he was running out of time.

In the next room, he could hear Liam talking, coaxing Alexa to wake, and for a brief moment, Lucas thought he heard her groan and say something back. Please, be alright, Lucas thought out loud, his wrists still working back and forth, pulling his hand slightly through one loop just as two of the men, both FSB operatives, stood on either side of Lucas while the third one remained standing a few feet away.

As Lucas looked up at the third man, he recognized him immediately. Sergei, the man who had watched his final interrogation at Lushanka a few weeks earlier.

Sergei Fenix, the man formerly known as Nathaniel George, smiled at him. The Oxford-educated man pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Lucas, leaning his elbows on his knees. He had sharp aquiline features, his thick gray hair perfectly combed on his head and his suit, as always, was expertly tailored. Lucas smelled the faint hint of cologne.

"We had an agreement, Lucas," Nathaniel said softly in Russian. "I trusted you to fulfill your part of it."

"And I have," Lucas replied, his eyes steadily holding Nathaniel's gaze. "I have what you want."

"Really now?" Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "Pray tell, where is it?"

His men had searched Lucas and Alexa when they pulled them out of the car but claimed they didn't find the thumb drive. But then, Nathaniel thought, a thumb drive was quite small, and such things could easily be hidden.

And the men had been pressed for time, having had to work within a small window of opportunity before emergency personnel would have arrived at the scene of the accident.

They had pulled Lucas and Alexa out of the wreckage and while Lucas regained consciousness minutes later in the Range Rover, only to be knocked right out with a hit to the head, Alexa had not awoken.

"Where are Alexa and Liam?" Lucas demanded.

"They're in the next room," Nathaniel replied. "They are both safe, I promise you. But before I let you see them, I need a few answers, Lucas."

"Why don't you untie me so we can converse like real men? What are you afraid of?"

Nathaniel gave an order in Russian to the two men, who immediately left the room, leaving them both alone. He studied Lucas' face before him, gaunt and pale, remnants of his years in Lushanka where his time outside had been limited to less than an hour each day - if the day was fair.

But in his eyes, Nathaniel saw something he hadn't seen when he had last looked upon Lucas' face. Rage, Nathaniel thought. It burned. And it burned brightly.

"I used to be afraid of everything," Nathaniel began, leaning back against the chair. This time he spoke in perfect English, his accent catching Lucas by surprise. "I used to think my intellect was big enough for any challenge thrown at me, I really did. But one day, I realized that my intellect was no match for certain things - like betrayal and the games people play with one another. Deception among friends and the ones you love the most."

Lucas stared at him, trying to comprehend the meaning behind the words he had just spoken. There was something familiar about him, Lucas thought.

"You don't remember me, do you?" Nathaniel asked. "Even in Russia, you never did recognize me and I'm quite disappointed, Lucas, although with Arkady in the same room with us, I have to admit, I was grateful for your ignorance. But you, of all people, should have remembered me." Nathaniel got up from the chair and began to pace the room. He stopped and faced Lucas. "After all, it's not everyday that someone thanks you for risking your life to save his daughter."

This time, Lucas looked at him with narrowed eyes, as he worked hard to remember where he may have seen the man's face. And as the man paced before him, the realization came slowly, the memory of a meeting so brief it was over in the blink of an eye.

"I don't normally do this, Lucas," Harry said, his voice a mere whisper against his ear as he leaned towards Lucas who had just arrived from the airport and was merely coming into Section D to file his report, a report that had nothing to do with the real reason of his trip. Besides, as chief operative at the time, Lucas needed to be briefed about what his team had been doing since he'd been away.

"But he insisted," Harry said stiffly as he steered Lucas towards a tall blonde man with streaks of gray that framed his face, his eyes hollow and making him look older than his years, his shoulders hunched forward. But as he saw Lucas approaching, his face broke into a smile, his eyes twinkling.

"Lucas, this is Nathaniel George, governor of the Commission of Nuclear Energy," Harry said. "Nathaniel, this is Lucas North."

Nathaniel gripped Lucas' hand firmly before pulling him into a deep embrace. "Thank you," Nathaniel whispered. "Thank you."

I was only doing my duty, Lucas wanted to say but as he pulled away to gaze at the older man, whose eyes glistened with tears, Lucas felt himself steered away again. Harry, his face forcing a smile, said, "Your team is waiting for you at the Grid, Lucas."

This was, after all, against protocol, Lucas thought as he understood what Harry was trying to tell him. They could not linger too long, standing there in the lobby of Thames House, for everyone to see, and make the possible conclusions as to the mysterious arrival of the frail, broken girl a week earlier.

"I don't understand," Lucas said almost to himself as the realization hit him hard.

How could the man who had expressed such gratitude in his eyes nine years ago, the torture of not knowing where his daughter was all that time, his body betraying his despair, be the very same person who had watched him being tortured just a few weeks earlier?

Most of all, how could a dead man come back to life?

When Lucas had returned from Russia, after he spotted Alexa on the street, he'd read up on her file. Nathaniel George had died of cancer a year or so later, he thought. It had been documented. He'd seen the photographs of the funeral. Harry had been there, Alexa standing next to him with a baby in her arms. Liam.

As if reading his mind, Nathaniel continued talking. "Oh, my gratitude to you was real, Lucas. I wanted nothing more than to thank you for getting my daughter back - that I want you to remember most of all - for she was the most precious thing to me."

"Was?" Lucas asked. "What are you trying to say? Is she--?"

"Oh, she's alive, Lucas. She's hurt, but unless you work with me and give me what I want, she won't survive the night."

"How can you do this to your own daughter? Alexa loves you."

"Like I said, Lucas," Nathaniel said wistfully. "She was the most precious thing to me, even when she decided to have that bastard - your bastard - she was still precious to me. So when Arkady came to me and said that unless I worked for the Russians in exchange for her life, I agreed."

"You faked your death? Did Alexa know that?"

"Of course not," Nathaniel snapped. "That would mean she was complicit with every thing that's happened since. But no. She has no idea that I loved her so much that I gave my life for her and Liam. Arkady said if I worked for the Russians, he'd make sure nothing would happen to her."

Suddenly Nathaniel laughed bitterly. "But do you know what happened, Lucas, when I approached good friends in the government who could have helped me and save my family?"

"Instead of helping me, they said it was a splendid idea. Like my wife, I could spy for the Russians, pretend to help them work towards their nuclear aspirations, and maybe give them information back, or even better, work in sabotaging Russia's plans."

"They turned you," Lucas whispered.

"Yes, just like they turned my wife and Alexa. A family of spies, Lucas," Nathaniel chuckled but there was no humor in his voice. "Isn't that the most incredulous thing you've ever heard?"

"Alexa's mother was a spy?" Lucas asked as he slowly pulled his left wrist free, fighting the urge to tackle the older man. There were still the two operatives outside their door, with guns probably aimed at Alexa and Liam.

"But she was more like an asset," Nathaniel replied. "A spy would mean she'd have been like you, but no, she was just an asset. She was an MI5 asset before I met her, working under Harry Pearce, and she became an asset shortly before she died, but this time for the Russians. For they'd turned her when we were living in the Ukraine."

He shrugged. "Maybe they threatened her with killing me or Alexa, I'll never know, but I could never forgive her for her treachery. I even killed her for it."

Nathaniel sighed, shaking his head. "But then look at me now, Lucas. Now I'm no better than she was, working for the Russians. I'm nothing but a traitor now."

"Then redeem yourself, Nathaniel," Lucas said. "Let Alexa and Liam go."

"First tell me where the thumb drive is," Nathaniel ordered. "Let's finish this farce once and for all."

"And then what?" Lucas spat. "So you continue on with your treachery? Did you send the kill squad for us? The bombs on the ship, the sniper? Were you behind it all?"

Just then, Nathaniel's phone beeped from inside his coat pocket. He retrieved it and looked at the display, reading a text message that had just arrived. He sighed and looked at Lucas again. This time there was a sense of urgency in his voice.

"No, Lucas," he replied. "I wasn't behind that. But you could say that I'm here now for revenge. Revenge for the life I had to give up. Revenge for being betrayed by the ones you trusted. You do know how that feels, don't you?"

Before Lucas could answer, Nathaniel walked towards the door, opened it and gave an order. Suddenly Liam was brought in and Lucas drew a sharp intake of breath, his body tensing. The boy looked pale, his eyes wide and as he saw Lucas, he made a move to run towards him but the man behind him held him back.

"You can't do this," Lucas shouted, suddenly speaking in Russian to Nathaniel. He did not want the child to understand what was happening. "He's just a child!"

"Then where is it? Where is the thumb drive that Alexa stole from Russia nine years ago?" Nathaniel demanded, his voice rising. "I don't have enough time, Lucas." As he spoke, the man standing behind Liam pulled out a gun and cocked it.

The sound made Liam begin to turn his head to look back but Lucas called his name sternly.

"Liam, look at me," Lucas ordered and Liam did as he was told, not speaking. "Keep looking at me, alright?" Liam nodded, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he kept his eyes on Lucas. "Do as I say and everything will be alright."

Without turning to look at Nathaniel, Lucas said, "It's in my boot. The left one."

The second man suddenly entered the room, as if he'd been standing outside the door awaiting instructions, and he quickly undid Lucas' boot. Within seconds, he held up a thumb drive between his fingers.

"You better pray it's the one Alexa brought back from Moscow, Lucas," Nathaniel said. "You cannot afford to play games anymore."

"I never play games, Nathaniel," Lucas said coldly, his eyes still holding Liam's own.

Without a word, the man left the room and stepped outside where a gray haired woman waited with a small computer tablet to which she quickly inserted the thumb drive into. She was on a tight schedule and only had a few minutes before she'd be able to drive away unnoticed by a cavalry of security operatives rushing to the warehouse.

The screen powered up, revealing rows of names, locations and codes, yellow print against the gray background. She scrolled through it silently, her brow furrowed in concentration as she scanned the information. Satisfied, she looked up at the FSB operative and nodded, turning off the tablet computer and slipping the thumb drive into her pants pocket.

"Все кончено." It's over, she whispered. Tiresias was safe.

As she turned to walk away, she looked back at the man. "They're on their way. You need to get out as soon as possible."

The man nodded and watched Connie James leave through the back door of the warehouse where her car idled. At the sound of her car driving away, the man went to the other room where Alexa had lain earlier, pulling out a gun from his holster.

Though Nathaniel George appeared to be in charge of this operation, the FSB operative still had his orders. Arkady must have known that he wasn't going to survive the first few weeks of his new appointment as chief operative in London, for he'd set up a few contingencies should anything happen to him.

And just as Arkady had anticipated, something did happen to him, hence the contingencies taking place now.

First had been the bomb and the sniper attack at the Mekanik Rada cargo ship designed to kill Mikhael and Alexa, and then the kill squads, one group sent to the hospital, and the other to Alexa's building. And though most had not returned alive, two more remained to make sure that the order would be completed. That would be him and the other man holding Liam in the next room.

The man felt sorry for the boy, for he had never been part of the plan, but Nathaniel had been foolish enough to grab Liam, thinking he'd need the boy to get to Alexa and Lucas. And now it was too late. They were running out of time and the job had to be completed.

The boy would simply be collateral damage. For such things happened, no matter how careful you plan your moves.

As for Nathaniel George - well, Arkady had ordered his death, too. For the man known as Sergei Fenix, after eight years of serving Russia, had finally outlived his usefulness.

And Arkady Kachimov, always the spy master, never failed to plan his moves way ahead. Even in death.

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