Honestly, I'm pretty shocked that a Virals/ Alex Rider crossover hasn't been done yet, but whatever. It just means I'm the first, which is cool. I've been on vacation so I had time to write several chapters for this story and another for my story Eyes in the Sky. I'll be updating my story Crossed if I ever get past writer's block.
Also, I said this in the summary, but I'm just going to reiterate myself: This contains MAJOR spoilers for Scorpia Rising and Code.
Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider or the Virals. They belong to Anthony Horowitz and Kathy and Brendan Reichs.
Alex Rider was … not getting better after Jack Starbright's death, but not getting worse. Which is why they decided that he would be perfect for this mission. He likely wouldn't agree to it … not unless he thought he might lose someone else he cared about. Like the Pleasures, who had taken him in after her death.
They didn't need a teenager, of course, but with this particular mission, it would be in the CIA's best interest; especially since the people they were watching were about his age.
Though it had already been decided that they would blackmail Alex into helping them again, Joe Byrne still had doubts. If they told Alex what they wanted before getting him to agree, he may actually say no, no matter what they threatened him with. The kid had been through hell and back more times than a lot of his older agents had combined. Granted, Byrne had too, but he had actual training. And still had morals. He knew using a fifteen year old boy for missions was... was... okay, maybe he didn't, but he still knew right from wrong. He hoped.
That's what it was. Wrong. And the whole mission itself was wrong.
But still, very effective. Especially for this mission. He could get closer to the targets then a "teacher" could. Actually, by sending Alex Rider, they were able to send one less person. The targets were split between two different schools. Sending a teenager who could get close to the leader and, by default, the rest, was the easiest way for the mission to go smoothly. The leader was a girl, too. From the files, not a normal teenage girl who would fall for any normal tricks, but still. Only a few months younger than Rider. And nearly as crazy a story.
Joe Byrne looked over the files. They had only recently been compiled. The first time these kids' stories became much different from any normal kids, when they solved a forty-year-old cold murder case, hadn't gotten the CIA's attention. Neither had the second, when they found a centuries-old pirate treasure.
What caught their attention was how, in the middle of a category-four hurricane, they tracked down and single-handedly caught a terrorist whom the CIA themselves had been chasing for years, without any success.
Of course, they had torn the case apart, gathering every single detail they could about every single person involved.
When they found out just how amazing these kids were, they looked into it, of course.
Because, no matter how wrong it was, they knew they could use a few more Alex Riders.
Byrne only hoped MI6 didn't find out.