Shoot first ask questions later, it sounds like a line from a bad movie. Blunt usually tries to get all of the facts first, but one day he manages to overlook something major, and he suddenly seems like a character from that bad movie.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider. If I did do you think I would be posting this?


Alex walked slowly toward the clearing. He could not see it but he knew it was up ahead. Light from the moon poured down through the canopy of trees above. The night did little to lessen the extreme heat and humidity of the forest which he now found himself in. He could feel the dirt beneath his feet; his shoes had long ago been lost to a vicious pool of mud. Dirt coated and exhausted he sat down on a nearby rock to rest.

For almost four hours he had been trudging through this retched place, searching for the place he was to make the drop. He could understand why they had picked such a remote location, but why, oh why did they have to pick the middle of a forest? Looking back on why he was here it didn't seem to matter much. All that mattered was getting her and getting out of here alive.

Looking back along the path he had cut through the thick underbrush he stood up with a sense of dread, thinking about the long journey back.

Stopping only occasionally to shove a branch out of his way, it took only thirty minutes to reach the spot marked with a large red dot on the map he had carried with him. Taking out the brown manila envelope from his black backpack he searched the ground for the rock he had been told to place the disc under. Finally, after ten minutes of searching he found it. It was a large black rock with a small indentation on the bottom.

He set the disc under it with a sense of relief. It was so small yet so heavy to carry. The trouble he had gone to in order to lay hands on it had been outrageous! Besides shooting three people (non-fatally) he had been forced to betray so many people, all for one person.

As he turned his back to the rock and began to set off down the path he had cut, bright lights flared in his eyes. A helicopter suddenly appeared overhead, armed with machine guns. There was a grey-suited man inside. Alex could feel the air shifted around by the helicopter's rotating blades. His first instinct was to run but he seemed to be rooted to the spot by some invisible force.

A bullhorn sounded; "Put your hands up in the air!" he knew he had heard that cold, emotionless voice somewhere before, but where?

That was it, Alex had been caught, and there was no way around it.

"I said put your hands up, or we will not hesitate to shoot you!" Alex finally was able to pinpoint where he had heard that cold ruthless tone, Alan Blunt.

Hesitantly he raised his hands in the air. There was no way out of this, already two SAS teams had poured into the clearing. Someone was forcing Alex to the ground even as this thought flew through his mind. He could barely turn his head but when he did he wished he hadn't. It was Wolf pinning him the ground.

Alan Blunt climbed out of the helicopter, his normally emotionless face held obvious anger. Walking swiftly over to the black rock he lifted it up and grabbed hold of the envelope. He opened it with so much force it tore right down the center and the disk inside fell to the dirt. Blunt snatched it up and walked toward Alex.

He looked down at Alex's sweat and dirt streaked face with obvious disgust.

"What the hell do you mean by this?"

Alex remained silent, but his gaze lowered to the ground.

"You steal classified information from MI6 and have nothing to say about it!"

Still Alex said nothing.

"Or what about the fact that you were going to give it to terrorists!" his voice grew louder with every syllable until he was shouting.

"I-" his voice faltered. How could he explain to a man completely void of emotions why he had done it?

"You know what; if you're not going to talk we might as well just shoot you now." He turned to Wolf, who was still pinning Alex down, "Kill him."

Wolf gave Blunt a nod to show he understood and with an almost apologetic look on his face he raised his gun to Alex's temple.

"Wait!" Alex burst out, tears now streaming down his face, not just for his life, but for her life as well. "I needed the disk to get Jack back. The terrorists had kidnapped her and said that if I didn't bring them that they would kill her." The tears flowed even faster down his mud soaked cheeks.

"Nice try Alex, but we have it from one of our agents who was sent to watch your house that Jack is fine there." Blunt almost had a smirk on his face when he said this.

"That agent is dead." he said through gritted teeth, Wolf was pressing his gun into Alex's temple with much more force then necessary.

"No he isn't, we received a message from him just hours ago."

"No you didn't!" Alex screamed he was becoming hysterical, "He didn't send it! It wasn't him, you have to believe me! Other wise Jack is going to die!" He fought against Wolf to break free but it was pointless, he was too strong.

"I doubt that Alex." Blunts voice was cold and void of emotion once again. With a curt nod to Wolf he turned and marched back toward the waiting helicopter.

Wolf gave Alex a sad smile, and fired. The bullet pierced Alex's skull, killing him. He was engulfed in the darkness that was death. His last thoughts were of Jack. He wished he could have saved her, she would never know that he had tried; he really had, to save her. Two words managed to escape his lips, "I'm sorry," before the last shreds of life left his body.

Blunt looked back at the dead boy on the ground. Blood poured sickeningly from his temple, and the man that had been pinning him down only moments ago was already preparing to leave the clearing with his SAS unit. Blunt could hear the familiar ring of his cell phone.

"Blunt," he said curtly into the phone.

"Don't kill Alex!" Alan Blunt could detect the urgency in the woman's voice.

"What are you talking about, he is a traitor, and if he had succeeded countless people would have been slaughtered?"

"He did it to save Jack, a terrorist cell kidnapped her. I sent agents over to Alex's house and we found agent Carson dead in the kitchen with a knife in his back, along with a ransom note, they took Jack and wanted Alex to give them the disk in order to get her back."

Blunt's mouth went dry and his heartbeat quickened, "Jack?"

"His guardian."

Blunt could feel his heart sinking, something it hadn't done for quite a long time. He had just had one of his best agent's killed for no reason. What made it all worse was that the agent was a fourteen year old boy.

"Tulip," he said softly, "He's already dead."

He could hear a sharp intake of breath on the other side, "Come into the office as soon as you get back."

A click signaled the end of the call and Blunt slipped the phone into his jacket pocket. Climbing into the helicopter he thought of what everyone back at MI6 would say. He remembered the incident with Cray; he had barely clung to his position then; what would happen now? There was almost no chance Blunt's career could weather this blow. With a sad sigh Blunt felt the helicopter rise into the air.


Hundreds of miles away a woman with matted red hair sat in a cold metal chair with her hands bound and a scarf covering her tear filled eyes. Every muscle in her body trembled with fear. How could Alex have ever gotten involved with MI6? That was who it all came back to, MI6. If it wasn't for them Jack wouldn't be sitting here, she would be at home, safely in bed.

A man with a gun in his hand stood over her. His eyes were cold and ruthless, but his lips were curled into a slight smile. Killing did that to him. With every new victim he grew happier, more elated. Maybe it was the rush that came from snatching another's life away, he didn't know, much less care. All that mattered was that he kept doing it. This woman was just another one of his countless victims. He knew her name and why she was here, but that didn't matter to him.

He leaned over her, pressing the gun to her heart, whispering in her ear, "We were never going to let you go." A shot rang out in the concrete cell.


There it is! I hope you like it. I know it is really sad, that was the point. It was just something that came to me, from where I don't know. I hope you like it and if you do or if you don't REVIEW. It doesn't take that much time and it makes me smile!

-Marissa

Read and REVIEW my other story, Secrets Kept!