Hiya! I know it's been a while since I updated but I've written a nice long chapter and you no longer have to wait in suspense wondering what the heck and A3 is. All your questions will be answered here an now, so get ready peeps!

"Oh," I said simply, as if this was the most normal thing in the world. "An A3. Is that all?" I sat down, leaning back against the side of the car. "Quick question, what exactly is an A3?" Ethan looked a little hesitant to answer the question, but he did.

"Assassin, third class. A3 for short," he replied. I bolted upright, scooching away from him a little.

"You're a WHAT?" I exclaimed.

"An assassin," he repeated, chuckling uncomfortably. "It's no big deal really. It's not like I'm first class. Zeke is. But nope, one stupid mistake and I'm dropped to the lowest class," he continued bitterly. "But don't worry. You're not in any danger, from me anyway. I'm not a murderer exactly, the guys I assassinate are usually bad guys."

"Usually?"

"It's not exactly easy on the wallet having to travel all the time and wait around for one agency or another to need somebody dead who they can't nab themselves. There have been a few occasions where I've had to compromise my moral values."

"That's despicable," I told him, glaring at him. He hung his head back.

"I know! And I'm getting the karma for it, because I got myself stuck in Elm Springs, in hiding from just about every enemy I've got, which is every agency, organization, free lance spy and assassin out there except my sister! And you know what, it really sucks having to work with your sister!" He rambled. "They've all wanted me out of the picture for a while, I've traded sides too often and I'm too dangerous, and now they all know who I am and how to find me."

"How do they know how to find you?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"Zeke Mitchell, the guy we saw back there. He's had it out for me since we were kids. You see, they start training assassins early so our consciences don't get in the way too often, and Zeke never liked me. We were always competitive, and that's pretty dangerous all things considered. He's been after me since he achieved A1 ranking."

"What's the difference between the classes?" I asked, trying to be calm.

"A3 is basically the lowest of the low. We're used for easy missions that they don't want to hire A2s and A1s for because they charge more. A2s are kind of in between, pretty good at what they do, but not always the most reliable suckers. The last are the A1s, the most ruthless killers in the business. They usually stick to one side or the other, but they're unpredictable, and often they work for both just for the extra cash. The benefit of making A1 is that you don't just need assignments to take people down. You can get any one of your enemies and you can't be punished for it as long as they're an agent or an assassin. I've been A1 since I was 13, making me the youngest person ever to achieve that ranking by two months. Of course, I blew it a few months back and now I'm pretty much screwed."

"Why?" I asked. "What'd you do?"

"I got sloppy!" He yelled in exhasperation. "I was too cocky and I wasn't careful enough. Someone saw me doing a job, and did a pretty impressive job of describing me to the agency they worked for. Soon enough, they all knew who I was, I dropped two ranks, and they all sent their best men after me. My sister Ella sent me off to our cousins spewing some story about witness protection. She messed around with my birth certificate, changed some details on my records, and got me into your high school. Gotta say though, I liked this time through better than the first," he admitted, smiling a little for the first time in hours.

"You've already been through high school?" I said in shock. Sure, he looked a little older, seventeen maybe, but not much more. He nodded.

"I'm turning nineteen in a few months." I let out an impressed whistle in spite of myself. "It wasn't hard to make myself pass for your age, just had to shave a little more often, add a few fake zits every once in a while. Not a big deal, I've had worse."

"So, let me get a few facts straight. You're name is Ethan Carter, my sister's so called boyfriend is really named Zeke Mitchell, and you're a nineteen year old pretending to be sixteen-"

"And a half," he added. I barely kept from rolling my eyes.

"And a half. Have I got it all right so far?" He nodded. "In addition to that, you're an assassin, formerly one of the best in the world, but you had a major screw up and now every bad guy on the planet wants your head on a plate?" He nodded again. "And somehow I got dragged into all this because for a highly trained assassin, you are god awful at keeping your identity a secret?"

"I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but you've got the idea." We sat silently for a while after that, Ethan looking incredibly uncomfortable. "Look Audrey, I'm really sorry that you got dragged into the middle of this. I swear I didn't-"

"You know what, I really don't care. I don't want to talk right now," I said, taking out some of my bitterness at the situation out on him. "Please, if you don't mind, I'd like to just get my thoughts together." He nodded.

"I understand." Once again, there wasn't a single sound but the ones coming from the wheels on the track. It would've be comfortable silence I guess, if it hadn't been for the fact that I knew I was in the presence of a criminal, an assassin, a murderer. Someone who had probably killed dozens of people, people with family and friends. A killer who I had trusted, and even liked enough to date. Brief moments of anger filled my head, but for the most part it was fear. His job was to get rid of people who knew too much. How much was too much? How long until I became a problem? It would be so easy for him, there was no one around, it was night, by now the train was most likely in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't anywhere near strong enough to be able to protect myself. It would've been so easy...too easy. Just one more life. I shivered at the thought.

Despite my fear, I worked up the courage to look up at Ethan. He was slouched against the wall, his arms resting on his knees, staring out the narrow opening in the door. For a moment, he looked innocent, like someone incapable of hurting another person, like Andy. For a moment, I wondered if maybe any part of him was like the boy he pretended to be. But then he looked up, and I noticed something in his eyes that before I'd taken as just mischeviousness. It didn't have a name, but I knew now that it wasn't anywhere near the look of a troublemaker I'd thought it was. I looked away.

"Sorry, I have to make a call," he said, disrupting the eerie quiet. "You can try and sleep if you want. We might be here for a while." I curled up on the ground with my back to him, but I couldn't close my eyes. Too easy. Just one more life. Those same thoughts had bounced around in my head since he told me what he was. As I pretended to sleep, I could hear him talking quietly into his phone. Paying close attention, I could pick up a few words, phrases, every now and then a sentence, just enough to figure out who he was calling and what he was calling about. "Ella? Hey it's me...Zeke, he found me...no Ell, I'm fine, but we've got a problem." A problem. Me. My fate rested on the decision of Ethan's older sister. I hoped desperately that, as a spy, she would find a more favorable solution than the one I feared Ethan would think of. "I don't know what to do. This just keeps getting worse!" At that moment, he doesn't sound as much like he did when he was talking to Zeke, or when he was explaining things to me. He'd sounded harsh, even when he was trying to be nice, because he wasn't Andy anymore. In the hour or so that I'd really known him, I learned quickly that Ethan is quite unfamiliar with nice. But now he sounded like an actual teenager in a bad situation, scared and wanting desperately for his sister to bail him out. I never got to hear the rest of the conversation, because at that moment, I somehow managed to sleep.

So, what'd you think? Audrey has good reason to be scared right? What do you think Ethan and Ella will decide to do with her? How do you think she'll handle all these problems coming her way? Tell me, review people, I needs reviews!