Alex crouched down low; a large bush hid him from the view of anyone who might walk down the path. Not that he expected anyone to be outside; the bitterly freezing night air would keep even the most hardened SAS man huddled indoors. Smiling slightly at the thought of his old unit members freezing their fingers off on one of their obligatory night time tracks he rubbed his hands together, trying to restore feeling in his fingers. Sighing regretfully as he remembered his warm gloves and coat that sat not far away in the Flynn's coat room, but taking them would have been about as subtle as letting off fireworks in hiding the fact that he was hiding outside.

Rolling up his sleeve he counted in his head as he waited for the guards to change shifts; providing him with an opening to make his way round to the back of the house, further away from the lights of the house. His watch clicked onto 23:30 and he shot into action, the residence's guards were incredibly regimented but this proved a disadvantage as it meant that Alex knew exactly where they were and at what time they would be there. Sprinting from bush to bush, he kept to the cover of the shadows and foliage.

Hearing the door click open, Alex glanced back to see several large dogs come tearing from the house. Swearing inwardly, Alex picked up his speed, heading for the large trees at the back of the garden; if he could reach those before the dogs reached him then he might be able to lose them.

Catching hold of one of the lower branches, Alex hoisted himself into the tree. Staying close to the inner body of the tree where the branches were strongest he made his way higher. Just as he lunged towards the second branch he felt a strong jaw close around his ankle, tugging at his leg. He tried to tear himself free but he quickly lost his grip on the branch and fell to the ground. The snarling jaws of four large dogs surrounded him, snapping their teeth as a dark figure stepped from the shadow.

"Tut, tut, Alex," the figure laughed, "You're losing your touch. A bit dangerous in your line of work, isn't it?"

*

The four large men were all uncomfortably cramped in the small plane seats. Despite the fact that they were supposed to be rescuing one of their top agents, MI6 had refused to pay for anything better than economy, although they had offered to put Eagle in baggage in exchange for business class seat for the rest of them.

Their cover was simple, a football shirt that clearly told all they were heading to watch England Vs. Spain later that day. Something which Eagle had repeatedly hinted that they should go to, in order to prevent suspicions arising.

"Shut up!" Wolf growled, scaring a passing air hostess, "I swear Eagle, if you don't shut up this moment I'm going to...."

Luckily for Eagle, the rest of Wolf's threat was cut short by the seat belt sing flashing on and the Captain's voice informing everyone to prepare for landing.

"So do we have a plan?" muttered Snake, as the men walked out of the terminal building.

Fox rolled his eyes, "Wolf thinks we don't need a plan, he's convinced the whole mission is going to be easy."

"But isn't Cub one of MI6's top agents, so if it were simple he'd have escaped by now, right?" asked Eagle in a rare moment of clarity.

Fox shook his head, "Try telling Wolf that."

Growling softly at their convocation, Wolf turned abruptly to the others, "Shut up and listen you girls. We're going to take a taxi to the address of a hotel two streets away from the target, and then we will break in round the back, grab Cub over power any security. Got it? Good, let's go."

"Wolf, your intelligence amazes me, yet again," mumbled Eagle sarcastically as he and Fox exchanged glances and followed Wolf to the taxi rank, mumbling about the stupidity of the plan all the way.

A/N: A poor excuse for a chapter but hopefully that will have gotten the ball rolling and chapters will be more frequent now.