Chapter One - The Last Chance
Alan Blunt was actually a very loving man. He loved everything and everyone although he found these loving skills very difficult to apply in his job. Not everyone wants to be serenaded during a mission briefing.
Yet, occasionally, he allowed himself to demonstrate a little more affection than his usual pursed-lipped attitude. He was just telling Mrs Jones that he liked the design of the retaining brace she was wearing when Alex Rider burst into the office.
Blunt couldn't decide whether he actually liked Alex. The suaveness that seemed to emit from the fourteen year old sometimes became unbearable and he had to stick his head out of the 17th story window and inhale some good old car fumes to escape the stench. It wasn't that Alex was a bad person, it was more that he wasn't. Alex Rider was a good at everything and he knew it.
Blunt swivelled in his chair and face Alex over the Ikea office desk.
"Yes, Alex?" He said, raising an eyebrow.
"This!!!" Alex burst out, waving the letter he was holding in Blunt's face. "I'm going WHERE?"
"Fornley, Glouctershire." Blunt replied, as cool as non-defrosted bread.
"Fornley WHERE?"
"Glouctershire." Alex stared at him, outrage doing the conga in his brain.
"Glouctershire..." Alex repeated, dangerously quiet.
"Yes... it's an SAS camp based near the small village of Fornley." Blunt narrowed his eyes. "Well if that was all Alex..."
"NO IT WAS NOT ALL!!!" Alex yelled. "You can't just summon me off somewhere! I have studies, GCSEs!!!"
"Whatty?" Asked Blunt. "GCSEs...is that some kind of disease?"
"Tests, Examinations." Alex explained. "I can't miss them...any chance of a normal life..jobs." Blunt looked less than sympathetic.
"You have a career with us, Alex." He said. "Anyway, you have to do this or something very bad will happen to you and that Jack woman."
"What?"
"I don't know yet...I'm thinking it through."
"You can't do this!"
"Oh yes he can." It was the first time Mrs Jones had spoken. "Mr Blunt has the power to make your life hell, Alex. I suggest you do as he says." Alex was quiet, finally. Mrs Jones did have a point.
"Alright..." He said, flopping into a chair. "I'll do what you want. But only if you give me fake GCSE grades, good ones too. I don't want any Fs."
"We can take care of that..." Blunt smiled at Alex. "You know what you have to do of course?"
"Yes." Alex said, reluctantly. "It was all in the letter. Train a section of the SAS. Like Wolf and Eagle."
"Well..." Blunt stalled. "Not exactly like Wolf and Eagle...these men have already been trained, but they failed. We've tried countless methods, instructors but none of them worked. You are our last chance Alex. You have to train these men to pass their test."
"Ok." Said Alex, glumly. "I'll give it a go..."