"In 1948, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, chief of the Colombian Liberal Party, was assassinated. The country erupted, and the result was the Bogotazo, an urban riot that led to over 4,000 deaths. This, in turn, led to La Violencia, a ten year conflict between the Colombian Liberal Party and the Colombian Conservative Party that resulted in over 200,000 deaths.

The Colombian Conservative Party won, but not really. Though they were technically in power, there were so many people who had supported the Liberal Party, and still remembered the atrocities committed during La Violencia, that the conflict never actually ended.

These groups of angry and beaten liberals formed guerilla units, most famously the "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia" (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), or FARC. These guerillas hid in the mountains, causing as much damage as they could on limited financial and political support.

In the 1960s, the guerilla units were inspired and encouraged by news of the Cuban revolution. At this time, the liberal and communist guerillas united and regrouped, forming a complete communist insurgency. The main groups were the re-born FARC, and the newly created ELN.

At this point, the government began to actively oppose the guerillas, aided by CIA. The US government sent the soon-to-be infamous hunter-killer groups, which had just returned from the Philippine campaign against the Huks, and would later participte in the Pheonix Program in Vietnam

At the same time, civic action programs, based on John F Kennedy's "Alliance for Progress" worked to develop some of the areas hardest hit by La Violencia in an attempt to destroy public support of the guerilla units.

The results of these campaigns were mixed. In some areas, guerilla action died down due to the improved economy. In others, the psychological traumas induced by the violence committed by the US hunter-killer groups overshadowed any civic action groups.

In the 1970s, the FARC and ELN died down, and were quickly replaced by the M-19, a mostly urban guerilla group that had quickly gained the fame and sympathy that had so often eluded the FARC and the ELN. Of course, this meant that all of the governments anti-insurgency efforts were fixed on the M-19, leaving the FARC and the ELN to regroup in peace.

In 1984, truces and cease-fires were made with the FARC and M-19. The ELN refused to enter negotiations, and continued to recover through threatening and extorting US and European oil companies.

It was at this time that the illegal drug trade in Colombia boomed, and guerilla leaders started moonlighting as drug lords. Although the Muerte a Secuestradores (MAS) death squad ("Death to Kidnappers") was formed in 1981, the government didn't actively oppose the drug lords until the American Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla was assassinated in 1984.

The M-19 broke their truce in 1985.

The 1990s began with a chaotic campaign of terrorism and murder, led by the drug lords, in response to the government's movement to extradite them overseas. The truce with the FARC eventually collapsed, and the conflict continued.

The next decade bore witness to a conflict so complicated, and so unheard of, that hardly anybody is able to keep it straight. Countless murders were committed on both sides, and Colombians that were "disappeared" made up for two thirds of the entire planet's kidnappings.

Today the conflict is still going on. Recently, the FARC kidnapped 56 hostages, including one French politician, and three American contractors. In an attempt to convince the guerillas to release the hostages, the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, released 150 guerilla prisoners.

The FARC are ignoring them."

Seven hours after Alan Blunt's midnight briefing, the five British operatives found themselves on Flight 304 (British Airways) out of Heathrow, to El Dorodo International, Bogota, via Miami.

The plane was scheduled to depart at 7:25, a.m., and to arrive twelve hourse and fifty-five minutes later, at 2:20 p.m.

The operation was as simple as the problem that created the need for it. The five operatives were to arrive in Colombia, posing as tourists. They were to travel to a popular tourist site, the Cidudad Perdida, a centuries-old ruin in the middle of the jungles surrounding the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (the mountains that housed the FARC headquarters). They were to mysteriously disappear when they reached the ruins.

Their murders were to be faked.

Then they were to continue on the six day hike to the FARC base, and give the military its coordinates so that the hostages could be successfully rescued.

Four of the operatives were fully trained members of the SAS.

The fifth was a fifteen year old spy who should have been in school.

But, you know, Geometry test…. Colombian hostage situation….

Alex Rider knew which one came first.

A/N So, I really did my research for this one. For the record, all the stuff in Blunt's briefing about the Colombian Armed Conflict are true (thanks to wikipedia and google news). Also, flight 304 is real, as are the arrival and departure times. And the Ciudad Perdida is a real place, although I haven't heard that it was anything in common with the conflict. Oh, and nobody (except the guerillas themselves) know where the FARC headquarters are. All we know is that it's they're in the mountains of Colombia.

And I know that the whole briefing thing was pretty boring, but I strongly feel that you have to at least try to understand a conflict before you can try to resolve it. Plus, it will all come back later in the story, so you have to know it now to get it later.

Disclaimer: If I owned Alex Rider, would I be posting this story here? I think not.