The pounding headache was the first thing that he noticed. It felt like someone was repeatedly banging his head into a brick wall. Each throb of pain made him want to cry out. He bit his lip instead and tried to open his eyes.

He was lying uncomfortably on a hard, cold floor. A small groan escaped his lips when he tried to sit up. His head had barely made it off the ground before he had to lower it again from pain and dizziness.

Wolf decided to take it slowly and he opened his eyes the best he could. The man raised a hand to wipe at his sleep caked eyes, when that was done he opened them. The ceiling was made of a maze of wooden beams that crisscrossed one another.

Wolf glanced around him and felt dread land heavily in his stomach. Thick metal bars went around him in a square shape. He was in a cell.

"Morning Sleeping Beauty," said a voice filled with grim humor. The voice was familiar and Wolf turned sharply to look in the direction of where it had come from.

"Eagle?" The confused man asked. Wolf had not seen Eagle since Brecon Beacons and here he was looking rather beat up and tired.

"Aww, he remembered," Eagle said and someone else in the cell snorted.

Wolf was feeling more and more confused by the second and he sat up to get a better look at the people with him.

Eagle was leaning against the brick wall and in the corner Wolf could barely see blond hair. "Snake," he guessed and the Scottish man replied with a, "Hmm."

"What the hell is going on here?" Wolf growled out dangerously as he stood, wobbling.

Another voice which Wolf immediately recognized as Fox's answered him. "We just woke ourselves, Wolf, and we don't know anything either," the man said.

"What is this, some kind of bloody reunion?" Wolf muttered as he rubbed his aching head.

"Like Fox said, we have no idea but this room is probably bugged," Snake said as he rubbed his temples in his corner. Wolf translated Snakes words as, "Shut up," and he looked around the cell again, this time looking for a way out. He walked over to the bars, wrapped his hands around them and pulled backwards.

The bars did not budge from their position and angrily Wolf kicked them. Of course, that only added to his pain and frustration. The door to the cell was just as strong, and the bars were cemented into the floor. There was no way the K Unit was going to escape at the moment. As Wolf realized this his shoulders slumped and he headed over to the wall to sit down.

"No one's come to see us yet?" Wolf asked as he sat down. Fox came over and sat next to him. "No, I was asleep at my house and I woke up here. Eagle and Snake were already here," Fox said.

Wolf did not say anything to that. What could he say? He woke up with a terrible headache in a strange place with three men he had never expected to see again. Why was he here? Did MI6 have something to do with this? Was this a surprise training session or something?

The questions were making the ache in his head worse and Wolf tried to calm his busy mind. Being mentally unorganized could cause him to make mistakes. If the chance came to escape, he had to be prepared.

………………………………...

It was several torturous hours later that the K Unit finally got to see some action.

The door exactly opposite of the cell opened and six men entered the room. Two of the men wore lab coats; one was snapping his gum and appeared to be in his mid twenties. The other three men were older. Two were in there thirties and the other was older than all of them.

Wolf and his teammates stood immediately to face their captors. The men looked calm as they headed over to the cell and looked over the K Unit, who glared back icily.

"Why are there only four?" The older looking man with thin lips and a walking stick asked unemotionally. Wolf shot a glance at all his team and the message was clear: let them talk while we listen.

"They were a unit and we have two others we plan on putting with them," one of the men in lab coats said as he surveyed the K Unit with narrowed eyes.

"Gregorovich is one, I assume, but the other…?" The old mans question hung in the air a minute before someone answered.

One of the middle-aged scientists went across the room to wear a table with chairs sat. The man must have mashed an unseen button because a square portion of the was came away from the rest and slowly turned itself over.

A large blank screen stared down at the men, and the middle-aged man beside the table mashed another unseen button. A rectangle device that looked like a TV remote popped out from the table and stood straight up. It was grabbed and the man mashed a few more buttons.

On the screen appeared a face that made Wolf's fist's clench in anxiousness and surprise at what he saw.

Alex Rider stared out from the screen with more seriousness in his eyes then any teenager should have. "Cub," Wolf heard Fox whisper and he glanced at his unit.

They all looked surprised. Even the solemn Snake had an anxious expression on his face.

Their captors had not heard Eagle and they stared at the teen's face.

"Is this a joke, Miller?" The old man asked as he turned to the now nervous-looking man.

"No, Mr. Taylor," Miller replied. "This is Alex Rider and I think that after I explain you will understand why I brought him up."

Mr. Taylor sighed and pulled out one of chairs before sitting and waving a hand in permission to continue. "M16 recruited the teen less then a year ago. Do you remember that incident with Julia Rothman?"

"Yes, I was surprised Scorpia did not go into a frenzy of killing sprees," Mr. Taylor said dryly.

One of the scientists stood up. "They did not want to make a big deal out of if because of the way Rothman died." The scientist finished his sentence with a chuckle.

"Alex Rider crushed Julia Rothman with a hot air balloon," Miller said leaning slightly forward as he did so. Mr. Taylor laughed which soon turned into a hacking cough; "Scorpia is our accomplice--" the old man started to say but was cut off.

"And they would pay large amounts of money to see Alex Rider brought low. They can't get him themselves because M16 is threatening them," Miller said in a cocky voice.

Wolf clenched his teeth. These men were talking about going after Cub and there was nothing he could do to stop them. He wanted to scream.

And why in the world were they discussing their plans in front of there prisoners?

The answer came to Wolf immediately; they did not expect them to escape.

"We are not being blackmailed by MI6 and we can not be traced back to Scorpia," another man said slowly. Miller nodded, "We can get a hold of Rider, do what Scorpia wants and still get what we want from the boy."

The other scientist shook his head. "Rider will have to be captured before our plan can work anyway. I've read his file and I think we are underestimating him."

Miller snorted, "He's not even fifteen yet. How much damage can he do? We only want him for the money."

The scientist who had disagreed shook his head again and sighed but did not speak.

"Get Rider after we have Gregorovich," Mr. Taylor said and he stood from his seat.

"Even if Rider isn't everything everyone says he is, we can still get a good deal of money for assuring his death," the old man said with a chuckle that made Wolf's blood boiled.

The men left and the K Unit exchanged worried glances. "What do we do now?" Eagle asked and Wolf shook his head. The scientists and the other men had acted weird. They had not spoken to Wolf or his teammates once. It was almost like they thought they were animals that were not worth their time. Or like were lab rats, Wolf thought with a shiver that he could not suppress.

"I didn't expect to see Cub on that screen," Snake said with a frown.

Eagle and Fox nodded with agreement, "There's no way to warn him either," Fox said as he buried his head in his hands.

"He can still esca--" Eagle started to say but Wolf cut him off. "He's a kid and he won't stand a chance!"

Eagle glared at him and Wolf glared back until the reddish haired man looked away.

"MI6 will probably get us out of here before too long," Wolf said.

Snake spoke up. "Did you hear what they said about Gregorovich? They plan on capturing him too, but I bet they won't manage."

Fox shook his head, "The man faked his own death and is one of the best assassins in the world. They are suicidal for even trying."

Wolf laid down on the cold floor with his arms behind his head. He wished that he had some water to drink but there was no food or water in the cell. His headache was finally coming to an end and Wolf decided to make the best of it and get some sleep while he could.

He was going to need his strength for when they escaped.

………………………………...

Wolf awoke to the sound of a door opening. He got up from his spot on the floor and stood. Snake was already standing and staring at the door along, with Fox. Eagle, on the other hand, was sitting and he did not stand as five men entered.

These men were guards and Wolf did not recognize any of them. They were all muscular and sturdy looking. In between them they dragged a slim, red-haired man by the arms into the room.

With a jolt Wolf recognized the man at the same time Eagle breathed, "They actually caught him," in a incredulous voice. The man being dragged roughly into the room was Yassen Gregorovich. Any hope that Cub might dodge these people's attempts to capture him diminished. If a world-renowned assassin as good as Gregorovich could get captured, Cub certainly would.

Their cell door was unlocked and before the K Unit could try to escape three of there guards brought out guns. Wolf and his unit froze and one of the guards spoke. "Try anything and we'll shoot," he said in a deep, menacing voice.

Wolf believed him and he could not risk getting shot. He could not escape if he had a gaping wound or if they killed him.

Gregorovich was thrown unceremoniously into the cell and the guards backed out, still aiming the guns at the K Unit until they had locked the cell door. As the guards retreated out the door leading into the room, the K Unit stared at Gregorvitch.

Slowly, Snake went to the man lying face down on the hard floor and felt for a pulse.

"He's just unconscious," the Scottish man said as he pulled back his hand from the man's neck.

"Too bad," Wolf muttered honestly and Fox nodded in agreement. It was bad enough being stuck in a cage like an animal, but now they were stuck in the cell with a known assassin. It was not that they thought the red haired man would jump up and try to kill them. It just made Wolf feel weird and more jumpy, at least Gregorovich would be more on there side in this situation.

The door opened and in came two men, one carried a gun the other a pitcher and a large tray of food. The one with the gun was one of the guards from earlier.

Cautiously, they unlocked the cell door and placed the food and pitcher right inside the door with the gun held on them until the door was locked again.

"Make it last," the man with the gun warned before he left.

Walking in a wide circle around Gregorvitch Eagle headed toward the food and water. He picked up the pitcher warily and sniffed the contents. Still wary, Eagle poured a little of the liquid into his cupped palm. "It doesn't smell," Eagle said.

It was clear and tempting, and Wolf realized how thirsty he was when he saw the water. "You think it's clean?" Fox asked the room in general and Eagle shrugged in anwser.

"It doesn't make sense for them to try and kill us now," Snake said. Eagle brought his hand to his mouth and drank while the rest of the K Unit watched with bated breath.

Suddenly Eagle fell over limply, mouth open and water trickling from it. With a muffled curse Wolf jumped forward toward his fallen teammate with Snake and Fox right behind him.

Snake had just put his hand on the fallen man's neck when Wolf saw a smirk coming across Eagle's face.

Rage made Wolf aim a kick at Eagle's side. Eagle burst out in laughter from trhe floor holding his side where Wolf had kicked him.

"Arse," Fox muttered as he punched the now sitting Eagle. Snake just frowned fiercely at the reddish-haired man.

"Eagle, this is no time for jokes!" Wolf hissed fericly and he threw his arms in the air. "We're in a cell with a dangerous assassin, Cub is probably being captured as we talk and mad scientists have some weird plan that involves us and I promise you that we're not going to like it," Wolf almost yelled at his teammate.

Eagle looked a little embarrassed and annoyed but he did not say anything.

"I thought it was funny," a cool voice said thast made Wolf and him teammates jump around in alarm.

Yassen Gregorvitch stared at them with a bored expression, leaning against the cement wall.