Cecil's POV
I looked ahead to see who was speaking and found the little girl I was so afraid before. She didn't seem so dangerous now - in fact, she never seemed like a threat to me. I guess I was just anxious that she would give up our hiding spots and we'd be caught. I had a gut feeling that this was more serious that what I'd first thought. And I didn't want to fail this mission before it even started.

I glanced down at her knee to see whether the graze had worsened but was surprised to see that she had a bandage wrapped around her leg instead. "Hello!" Miles beamed, grinning brightly at the girl.
"Thank you for helping me," she smiled shyly. "What's your name?"
"You're very welcome. My name is Miles and this is my friend, Cecil. What about you?"

"My name is Astra."
I gave Miles an uneasy look. He returned the same expression and tried to seem more excited for Astra. "That's a beautiful name, Astra. How old are you?"
"I'm seven!"
"Wow, you're a big girl!" Astra giggled and Miles returned the smile but when he looked at me, he grimaced as if to say 'I'm gonna kill that guy'. I can't believe he was forcing such young children to do his work. 'What was in those crates anyway?'

"How old are you?" Astra asked.
"We're both sixteen," I answered. I waited a few moments to say, "Hey Astra, who bandaged your knee?"
"Sabrina did!"
"Who's that?" I said in a curious tone.

"That would be me," I heard another voice say, watching as a figure emerged from the shadows. Her strawberry blonde hair curled at the bottom, falling off her shoulders, and her eyes twinkled brightly behind her black-rimmed glasses.
"Whoa," I uttered under my breath. A sudden shock of realisation flooded over me when I immediately gasped, "Did I just say that out loud?"

'Please tell me she didn't hear that!' I watched Miles as he grinned at me and then at Sabrina, wiggling his eyebrows like he did whenever he was teasing me. Kicking his leg, I gave him a look that clearly said, 'knock it off!' Sabrina walked over and stood beside Astra, holding her shoulder protectively, but she was smiling.

Once I got a closer look at her, I realised she was the girl who managed to escape with those two boys. Her name tag read E023. She wore a cyan bracelet on her left hand that fell loosely off her wrist. It had a pendant with the image of the sun in the shape of an eye and eyelashes, and a silhouette of a fist in the centre. 'Why the heck have I been seeing eyes all day?' The image was wearing off as if it had been rubbed a lot. She also wore a matching necklace.

I noticed that I was probably staring, so I looked back up at her.
"Thanks for creating a distraction so the boys and I could escape," she said to us, and beckoned the two boys to approach from the tunnel. They hid behind her, probably too shy to speak, unlike Astra. She chuckled and explained, "These two are Dylan and Isaac, ten year old twins since birth and still inseparable."

"Hello," Miles said softly to the boys. They peeked around Sabrina and smiled back in return. The slightly taller one, who I assumed was Dylan, was E019 according to his name tag and Isaac was E020.

"And thank you for getting Astra to safety... was it Miles?"
"Yep," he replied, nodding.
"And...Cecil, right?" she inquired, staring at me, still smiling.
It took me a while to find the right words. "Uh, yeah. Cecil...that's me!" I stammered. 'Wow, I'm such an idiot!' I thought, mentally kicking myself.

Sabrina didn't seem to notice my embarrassment. She continued, "I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to help her, with Brooks keeping such a close eye on us."
I mustered to courage to ask, "Who's Brooks?"
"Mr Alfred J. Brooks. The guy you saw back there. The one who drove off with the other kids. Brooks will probably move Group E to a new location by tonight at the latest. Once he leaves, it will be harder for us to find them again."

'We? They?' I wondered. She continued, "He's a real pain in the..." she glanced at the three kids, "...you-know-what." Miles and I both suppressed a laugh.
"What does the J stand for?" I said jokingly.
She laughed and answered, "You know, he's never really told us. It's probably something really embarrassing, like Jenny."
"Hey! My middle name is Jenny!" I gasped, pretending to sound offended. Her expression became dead serious.
"It is?"

We were all silent for a few second before I said, "No, don't worry. I was joking." She sighed silently but didn't say anything. We looked at each other for what seemed like ages. Maybe it was just the light reflecting off her glasses, but her eyes seemed to twinkle again. I had to say something to break the silence. "Um, nice bracelet," I complimented.
She instinctively brought her hand up to her other wrist and fiddled with the pendant. She smiled and said, "Thanks," The silence continued.

I could see Miles staring at both of us out of the corner of my eye. Suddenly he doubled over in laughter, almost falling off his crate. Sabrina and I couldn't help but laugh too. Dylan, Isaac and Astra were staring at us in confusion, probably wondering, 'What the heck are they laughing about?' But most likely using more child-friendly words.

After we calmed down, Sabrina said, "I should get these kids to The Iris." Miles and I looked at each other quizzically.
"I'm sorry, the what?" he said.
"You mean, you're not new recruits for the organisation?"
"What organisation?" I asked. The tension in the atmosphere seemed to increase.

"Sorry, I've said too much. I, um, I have to take the children back home. I'll, er, see you around. Maybe." She turned to the kids. "Let's go, okay?" They nodded, blissfully oblivious to what was happening.
"Wait! Where are you going?" I exclaimed, not wanting her to leave.
"I'm sorry, Cecil," she whispered softly. She turned to both of us. "Bye guys."

The kids raced ahead of her and she jogged close behind, leaving me and Miles alone.  As Sabrina ran out, her pendant glistened as it fell to the floor. She didn't seem to notice it was gone. I went over to collect it and decided to keep it - just as a reminder. I tucked it into my trouser pocket and sat back down beside Miles. No one spoke.

I decided to break the silence and said, "Well, I definitely didn't see that coming." Miles snickered half-heartedly.
"Yep. So much for saving those kids. But hey, at least you got your hat back." he commented. 'My hat!'

"Yeah, about that...I think I lost it again." I admitted, embarrassed about forgetting the reason why we came here in the first place. He told me to check near the crates we were hiding behind earlier. I found my cap lying against one of the boxes and my instincts told me to check its contents. Much to my dismay, the lid was screwed shut and I didn't have anything to break the nails. I gazed at the symbol on the crate and had a stupidly amazing idea.

Running back to Miles, I told him my idea.

"That's crazy! We can't do this by ourselves. And you heard Sabrina - she's working with some organisation who deals with this kind of stuff. We should just let the professionals handle this," he argued.
"No way, Miles. We can do this! And besides we're practically professionals anyway. We delivered the deadly venom today - that's gotta count for something. And remember all the other cases before that?"

"Completing a few cases does not make us professionals. They were nowhere near as serious as this."
"But we still worked it out together!" I countered. He wasn't budging.

There was one more thing I could do. "Jacob's still missing. And now we have an idea of where he could be. Think of Jacob - think of how frightened he must be. He needs us to save him. He needs his big brother. And your parents, imagine how anxious they must be!"

"Alright, we'll do it," he agreed. I took out my phone from my pocket and texted my mum, saying that we'd be home soon."But first I have to see my parents. They must be worried sick,"
"To 221B Baker Street, we go! And then onwards to Business Wings!"