The team traveled in the comfortable jet that Isako had procured for them. They flew over the Atlantic in the direction of Rome. There they were to look for an old acquaintance of theirs, Massimo Russo aka Max. He had built the BRAVE-BOX gym chain from nothing and had become a millionaire by following his dream: to turn his passion for boxing into a job.                                  They knew that the BRAVE-BOX headquarters was in Rome and that was where they would find the boxes shipped from the Seattle gym. It was a matter of life and death, finding the serum was necessary to prevent a global catastrophe.

The team arrived at the Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in Fiumicino, the main airport of the Italian capital. Isako had called the BRAVE-BOX manager to find out the location of the boxes in advance.

"What did they tell you?" asked Lucas to her friend

"The boxes are not there" Isako announced regretfully

"Then where are they?" asked Kenny

"They don't know, they say only Max can know" the woman revealed.

Their plan had changed drastically, now they had to go to Max's house to find out where the serum was. Isako took Alex aside and said: "I don't think you should come", "you know he hates you" she added

 "I know but I have to be there, it's my mission too" Alex said with conviction, "and then we decided together to tell him I did it" he concluded. 

The woman nodded and they rejoined the group, ready to go to the Eur area of Rome where Russo's villa stood.                                                          To get to the villa, they passed through the Eur district, the largest in Rome. Full of greenery and imposing buildings, and also one of the newest. They passed a building that the Fendi family had bought a few years earlier, also known as the "Square Colosseum," before arriving at Max Russo's huge villa. Getting out of the car, they could do nothing but admire the luxurious dwelling. It was built on three levels and had a huge garden with a swimming pool where a party was being held. The four knocked on the door and a man in his 50s, who was probably Max's butler, opened it.

"Are you guests at the party?" the man asked the motley group

"We have an appointment with Mr. Russo" Isako announced

"You must be Miss Kynaya" the man said politely, and she nodded and invited them in.

He seated their in a studio on the second floor that overlooked the pool party. After a few minutes, a rather tall man with a neatly trimmed beard, wearing a white linen shirt and quite muscular: it was Max. The group was surprised to see the old friend, although he did not look so happy to see Alex.

"You have a lot of nerve coming to my house" Max said menacingly

"I know we all have bad history, but I contacted you about something important" Isako admitted, the Italian exchanged glances with those present and then said: "What is it?".

Lucas, after greeting Max, handed him some files containing some research he had done on Siero-X during the flight, Max read the file in passing, lingering on the page about the effects of the serum.

"You're telling me there's a chemical weapon in my camps" Max said

"In my defense, I didn't know what it was when I put it in your gym under construction" Kenny defended as he sipped a glass of champagne

 "All right, I can tell you where it is, but nothing else" the Italian said firmly

"Too bad, we could use some muscle" Lucas admitted

"Just like old times" Kenny suggested

"I can't work with him" Max revealed, pointing at Alex

 "You know I'm sorry and I didn't want it to end this way" McClaine said regretfully, Max squared him up, then picked up a frame from the windowsill of his bookcase, depicting him and a woman, and gave it to Alex

"But she's dead," Max concluded.

Max led them to the basement of his mansion. It was large and located near the garage where the four noticed the luxury cars Max owned. In the basement were Kenny's boxes, but on the way they suddenly heard gunshots. Three men with assault rifles had entered the party and with them was Lieutenant Hodkins, Lucas noticed them through the window.

"It's Hodkins and three other men" Lucas announced

"But you didn't shoot him" Kenny said, referring to Alex

"I thought so" Alex said

"Max, you have to get us to the Vial before it's too late" Lucas asked hurriedly.

"Follow me" Max announced as he entered his room near the garage, grabbed a gun from the studio safe, and led the way for the four of them. The mercenaries had taken the partygoers hostage while scouting the second floor of the mansion. Hodkins was coordinating operations when he saw Lucas emerge from the bushes, pointing a gun at him

"I thought you were dead," Lucas told the lieutenant.

"I'm not easy to kill" Hodkins said boastfully

"How about surrendering?" Jackson suggested, the woman pulling out her gun and pointing it at a hostage beside her.

"If you don't want him to die, you better put the gun down" Hodkins announced

"All right" Lucas said, slowly lowering the gun, but behind the woman appeared McClaine, who lunged at the woman and took the gun from her.

Meanwhile, Max, Kenny, and Isako went to the dungeon and went down some outside stairs to a door with a magnetic lock. Max took his magnetic card and opened it, then the three of them stood in front of the two crates. Kenny opened the crates and in one of them he found the Vial.    It was in a cylindrical container and the liquid inside was blood red. The three took the guns that were in the crates and went back upstairs ready to fight.                                                                                Alex tried to stop Hodkins while Lucas evacuated the hostages, suddenly the mercenaries started firing volleys at Lucas trying to stop the hostages from getting out. After a few bursts the firing stopped, Lucas looked out to see what had happened and saw Max, Isako and Kenny who had just stopped the three mercenaries.

"Did you find it?" asked Lucas of the three, referring to the Vial

"Here it is" Kenny said, showing the glass cylinder, then Lucas noticed McClaine lying on the ground in pain

"What happened?" Lucas asked of Alex

"She got away" McClaine said sadly

"It doesn't matter, the important thing is she didn't get what she wanted" Isako comforted him.

"Look what they did to my house" Max said, looking devastated at the state of the house after the shooting

"Surely you have the money to fix it" Isako said jokingly.

"It's a matter of principle" Max revealed

"You Italians and your principle" said Kenny ironically, Max entered his house and began to look at the state of the house, hurriedly rushed to his bedroom where he found his butler, lying on the floor and bleeding.

"Michele, are you all right?" asked Max worriedly

"I defended it with all my might" replied the man in a low tone of voice

"What?" aked Max

"The safe" he replied

"Why, it's just money" Max replied as he held the dying man's head

"I didn't do it for the money" he cried "I did it for the locket..." he said as he took his last breath. Max opened the safe and took the locket that had belonged to his mother before she died.

"We're sorry we got you involved" Isako said on behalf of the group

"They would have come anyway" Max admitted regretfully

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Lucas asked one last time, Max wiped away a tear and said: "All right, I'll come, it's become personal."

Now there was only one thing left to do, find out who was looking for the serum and stop them so they could each go back to their own lives. Lucas and Alex would clear their names and return to the police force, Kenny would no longer be under fire from mercenaries, Isako wanted to help old friends, she had hope that they could all be friends again, and finally Max wanted revenge for how they had trashed his home and gyms while searching for the Vial.                                                    There was only one person in the world who could help them, and he was in London.

 They placed the Vial in its cryogenic container, which would protect it from the pressure of altitude, but they could not use a jet because the container required a high number of watts. Isako managed to get hold of a cargo plane at the last minute, and they used it to get to the British capital, where they were to meet another old friend, the last of the old group: his name was Mason Philippe. Programmer by profession, hacker in his spare time. He had always been able to do anything with his trusty computer, and was the card that would allow the team to get the answers they were looking for.                                                                                                                              Mason was quite paranoid, so it was difficult to approach him without worrying him.

So the plan was to calm him down by having Isako approach him with her reassuring presence. He lived in a penthouse apartment in the Covent Garden area, bought with money earned as a video game programmer, and was equipped with a state-of-the-art burglar alarm, so the only way to approach him was on his way from home to work.