Disclaimer: I do not own, and did not create the Alex Rider series. It all legally belongs to Anthony Horowitz. I do wish I owned Alex Rider however. He kicks major ass.
Information: Set between book four and book five, as I have only recently found out there's a fifth book, and am very, very mad. Because I want to read it. And it better come out in the US soon. Grrrr!
Carnelian Rhapsody
by Frazee
Chapter 1
A Mission Not Accepted
"No. No. I refuse!" Alex screamed. Not another assignment. Never again would MI6 control him. NEVER!
"Alex, you really have no choice." Alan Blunt replied, his face impassive. That was what he was best at it seemed. Being impassive.
"I WON'T GO!" Alex shouted. He had just started going back to school after the incident with Sarov. He had just gotten back to his real life. He couldn't leave so soon!
"Are you shouting at me Alex?" Blunt asked. Alex began to hyperventilate in an attempt to control his anger. He had never been the type of guy to freak out and murder someone, but he was getting there. Boy, was he getting there.
"I. Won't. Go." Alex said flatly. Never again. He didn't even want to be a spy. Why should he? He had almost been killed several times. One time he had nearly been dissected. Everything having to do with the line of business was fatal. And Alex had never once been given a way to defend himself. Martial arts were all well and good, but they didn't stop bullets. He turned around and stormed out of the room. Alan Blunt stared after him. He had expected as much. He always did. But this mission he was needed for, this wouldn't turn out well.
Sabina Pleasure was the type of girl who stood out in crowd. Not because she was ugly, or weird, or even beautiful. Sabina Pleasure was the type of girl who did what she wanted because she wanted to. Of course, it probably didn't help that she was rather pretty. But no, Sabina was the type of girl who stood out in a crowd because she had spirit and a sweet personality. That was how Alex knew her.
"ALEX!" Sabina shouted happily, waving at him from across the beach. Alex waved back.
Alex had met her while posing as a ball boy at Wimbledon. She had been a ball girl. The two seemed to hit it off fairly well and had become slightly... more than friends, you could say. Alex walked across the beach to where Sabina stood, her legs half in the water.
"Where've you been?" she asked. "I've been waiting for over an hour!"
"Sorry. I got stuck doing some extra assignment." Alex lied, referring a school assignment that didn't really exist. (wow... is it just me, or do most of my sentences seem redundant?)
"Ugh. That awful teacher." Sabina groaned. She sighed and then smiled. "Well, would you like to go for a swim with me now that you're here?" she asked. Alex smiled. He actually felt happy, which he hadn't expected, given the fact that just a little while ago he had blown up at the head of MI6.
"I'd love to." he replied. After Alex had changed into his swimming trunks, he walked to the water and dived in, enjoying the cool feeling against his skin, which seemed so often about to killed as of late. It was nice to just relax. Relaxing was really a very good thing. Too bad he didn't get to do it more often.
He surfaced and looked around. The beach was crowded with people. But then, it was a beach. Beaches were always crowded with people. What worried him the most was the fact that he didn't see Sabina. He floated around in the water for a few moments, looking this way and that. Still, he saw no sign of Sabina Pleasure. That wasn't good. Either he was getting paranoid, or something had actually happened to her. Just then he felt a large amount of water splash against the back of his head, and he heard a familiar laugh when he flinched at the force. He turned around to face her with a glare that was meant to be more comical than anything else. Which, it turned out, it was.
"Very funny." he told her. "You realize I'm going to have to get you back for that, don't you?"
"Boohoo. What are you going to do?" she asked, pretending to be afraid. Alex grinned. He swam over and dunked her head under the water for a second. Sabina came back up and gasped, brushing her hair out of her eyes. She reached over to dunk Alex's head, only to have him swim out of reach.
"Alex! Stop!" she laughed, trying to get a hold on him.
"What?" he replied, continually moving before she could get a firm grip on him. The two continued to laugh with Sabina trying to dunk Alex's head under the water, until something actually did hit Alex's head. Sabina burst out in laughter. "Where did that come from?" he asked.
"I don't know." Sabina replied. While Alex turned to look at whatever had hit him, Sabina snuck up behind him and pushed him straight down into the water. Alex came back up a few seconds later, laughing. "Gotcha." Sabina grinned. Alex just grinned back. He looked around; trying to find what had hit him in the head.
There it was, just floating along the surface of the water, one of those ugly beach balls. Alex sighed and swam over, grabbing a hold of it, and looked around for a sign of who it belonged to.
"That'd be mine!" a voice shouted. Alex looked toward the person. It looked to be a slightly overweight man with a very large, very ugly, had on his head. He didn't seem to be very tall, but then Alex was a good distance out. He looked towards Sabina.
"Oh, go return it. I don't mind." she laughed. Alex began to swim away. "AND COMEND HIM ON HIS EXCELLENT AIM FOR ME!" she shouted. Alex laughed. The man, it turned out, happened to be a man Alex knew. No, not extremely well. But he still knew him!
"Smithers?" the boy asked.
"Alex! How delightful to see you again!" Smithers greeted him. "How've you been?" Alex sighed. He should've expected this.
"I already told Blunt, I'm not going on this mission." he said.
"You realize that he can still have Jack sent out of the country?" Smithers told the boy. Alex glared at the man. "I'm just saying, now's an interesting time to back out!"
"Is there something I can help you with?" Alex asked. "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm kind of busy." As a matter of fact, Smithers had noticed.
"Who's that girl out there? Charming isn't she?" Smithers said.
"Smithers, the point?" Alex asked, cutting to the chase.
"Well, I was kind of sent to..."
"Recruit me?" Alex finished the sentence for him. Smithers grinned. Smart boy.
"Yes."
"I already told them no." Alex replied.
"Wait, Alex, just listen." Smithers pleaded.
"I don't want to listen." Alex snapped.
"Is everything okay?" Sabina asked. She swam to Alex's side. Alex sighed.
"Of course. Why?" he asked.
"I thought you were taking a while, so I swam over and I heard you arguing." Sabina said. Alex continued to glare at Smithers. For a few moments that seemed to last an eternity, Alex glared at Smithers.
"Sabina, I'm afraid I have to go." Alex said. He looked over at Sabina apologetically.
"What? Now?" Sabina asked. "Why?"
"It's an emergency. I'm really sorry." Alex said. Before Sabina could protest, Alex rose out of the water and followed Smithers as he walked away. He looked back to see a disappointed Sabina staring after him, walking out of the water. "This better be good." he mumbled.
"A drug bust? You brought me in, for a drug bust?" Alex asked in disbelief. "Why didn't you just get the cops for this?"
"It's a little more complicated than you might think Alex." Smithers replied. "They sell everything. Guns, bombs. Drugs are only a small part of their market. They run everything. Prostitution. Hired killers."
"Why are they sending me?" Alex asked. "Something like this should have an adult on the case! NOT A TEENAGE BOY!"
"You see, that's the problem. All the others we've sent in have been killed. We thought this time, we'd try a different method." Smithers told him.
"A different method? WHAT DIFFERENT METHOD? YOU'RE STILL SENDING A PERSON IN THERE!" Alex replied.
"Our theory is this, all we've been sending in are adult men. Who's going to suspect a teenage boy?" Smithers told him. Alex's jaw dropped at the stupidity of what Smithers had just told him.
"I'm sorry, but isn't that always your theory?" Alex replied. Smithers grinned. He had a point. "I don't want to do it."
"Alex-"
"I don't want to do it. The deal was I listen. I never accepted the mission." Alex snapped. He stood up and began to leave, before stopping suddenly, a few feet from the door. "Why did they send you? Why didn't they send Crawley?" He heard Smithers gasp. Or maybe he was wheezing?
"Suffice it to say, Crawley is... unavailable." Smithers replied. Alex sighed. He didn't like it. Not one bit. "Alex, this is a very important mission."
"So were all the others." Alex snapped. "And I almost died how many times, only to be sent back to school and called away again, against my will."
"This is different." Smithers told him.
"How is this any different?" Alex asked angrily.
"Because this time, someone from MI6 is involved." Smithers said in a tone of voice that Alex couldn't discern.
"What do you mean, involved?" he asked, turning to face Smithers.
"I mean, someone in MI6 has been linked to this operation." Smithers told him.
"Who?" Alex asked. Smithers shook his head.
"We don't know. All we know is, these people run everything underground in all England, and some one from MI6 has been helping them." Smithers told him. Alex struggled to keep his breathing normal.
"How do you know they won't have found out that I've been put on this mission?" Alex asked. Smithers stared at him. Quite seriously, which was unusual for Smithers.
"We don't." Smithers said. That settled it. Alex knew what he would say before he even said it. In fact, Smithers knew it. He could tell by the look of horror on Alex's face. He even joined in when Alex shouted it at him.
"NO WAY!"
Sabina was just heading home the next day after school when something very strange happened.
"Hi um.. Could you help me? I'm trying to find the library." a girl asked. Sabina stared at her. She had an American accent, which meant none at all. It wasn't often you saw someone like that at her school. If fact, she doubted it had ever happened.
"Uh, yeah. It's that way." Sabina said, pointing off to the side.
"Where?" the girl asked. Sabina turned around and pointed towards the library, when she felt a sharp pain just to the right side of her spine. Sabina gasped in shock. She heard the girl mumble something, before she felt a jerk and slowly fell to the ground. The world grew black as Sabina slowly passed out.
A/N: Okie... info and stuffs... uhhh... The story's set after book... You know, I actually forgot the number? Book four, I believe. Eagle strike. Yeah... that's it! Anyway... This is just a teaser. I'm planning on writing the fic no what people review, but I just want to get an idea of what people think so far, even it's barely (if at all) six pages long. I'll have chapter two posted soon. I was reading all the other Alex Rider fanfics and when I went to to get some new images, I thought "hey, what if..." anyway... I shall be quiet now! REMEMBER TO REVIEW!
