Disclaimer: The Alex Rider and Percy Jackson and the Olympians series are not mine, and never will be.
Constructive criticism is accepted.
The Chase
Chapter 1
Seventeen year-old Alex Rider left Blunt's office, portraying no sign of his anger. He appeared calm and collected, and didn't even slam the door as he exited. Instead, he left it open, a bit smug that Blunt or Jones would undergo the small humiliation of having to get up and close it themselves.
Though he appeared cool and detached on the outside, he was nowhere close to calm inside. Inside, he was burning, roiling with anger. It was just like Blunt to not care-not care that SCORPIA had killed everyone Alex loved: his parents, his uncle, Sabina's family, Jack, and most recently, his best friend Tom, who had been shot in the chest as he walked to school with Alex. Alex felt sick knowing that anyone he loved, any friends he made, even acquaintances, had the risk of being brutally murdered at the hands of SCORPIA. And Blunt wouldn't let him go after them.
"It's simple," Blunt had told him as Jones looked on, seemingly sympathetic as she sucked on a peppermint. "We can't run the risk of one of our most effective agents being captured and tortured, possibly giving out classified information, or dying, just because he wants revenge."
But Blunt didn't understand. Neither of them did. Because of their agreement, SCORPIA couldn't harm Alex personally. However, they could harm anyone he had any sort of connection with-anyone he loved. That is what would break him, make him useless as an agent and too emotionally occupied to be anything but a liability in the field. It was a miracle that he hadn't become such already, but he alone knew how close he was to breaking, to shattering into so many pieces he was impossible to repair, because of all the lives that were no more because of SCORPIA. And because of him.
Alex knew that he had to get rid of SCORPIA's remaining executive board members. Without them, the organization would probably fall apart. And if it did reform, they would know to never mess with Alex Rider. Hopefully. But Blunt wouldn't let him take on SCORPIA, even though there were only seven of the original board members left alive, two of which were incarcerated in America and South Africa*, and on death row for all the crimes they had committed, ordered, and abetted. If he were allowed to deal with them and was able to deal with them, he would be able to have normal relationships again, maybe even have friends, without fearing for their lives every day.
Alex sighed as he rounded a corner, ignoring the waiting elevator and going down the stairs instead. All Blunt has done in the way of protecting the people Alex knew was to allow him a tutor instead of having Alex endanger the teachers and students at school. Alex would go along with it, but he felt that by doing that he would be giving up. And he couldn't give up.
SCORPIA never forgave. SCORPIA never forgot. SCORPIA also didn't let on to the world how badly it had been damaged, crippled. How it was now in disarray, with more than half of its original board members dead or incarcerated. It was commissioned for fewer jobs now that people were losing faith in it-losing faith because of Alex Rider. People working for SCORPIA were losing faith in it as well, and the organization was facing deserters from its ranks of assassins, as well as those who sowed discord, spreading rumors that SCORPIA was not strong enough, was falling apart-rumors that were partially true.
And Brendan Chase had no idea what to do about it. As one of the most senior executive board members, he had been encouraging the others to agree to designate another board member, without much luck. They had so far not been able to select anyone they saw as smart enough, trustworthy enough, or powerful enough for the position. This was mostly because when the board was whole, it had been fast to eliminate any in SCORPIA that they saw as potential usurpers. But now the most important thing was to reunite SCORPIA, and restore faith in the organization. The problem was how to do this. There were many plausible ways, including joining another organization if they were desperate enough, since they had received many offers. However, SCORPIA's pride would stand in the way of that and many of the other offers, and the other way he had in mind would require the agreement and cooperation of the others, which, for that plan, was extremely unlikely to happen, no matter what he said. For there were some secrets that could not be revealed.
*I totally made that whole sentence up, so sorry if the facts are wrong. These numbers and/or places are important for the story, so even if they are wrong, they will not be changed.