Royal and General Bank 8:50 AM Sunday November 17th

"Alan we can not just sit here when he could be in danger," Mrs. Jones sighed exasperated. She was sucking on another peppermint, her worry was starting to crack her normally stiff and expressionless mask. She and the head of MI6, Alan Blunt, had just received some information from an undercover agent, that the terrorist organization Scorpia might be planning another attempt on the agency's best operative. Seventeen year old Alex Rider,

"Yes we can, Scorpia does not have enough power to do something large scale, as long as we just keep the 24/7 protections on Alex and he will be fine. Plus he can hold his own ground," Blunt responded coldly. Mrs. Jones shook her head and turned to look out the window of the office, into the city bustling with life.

"I know that, but what if that's not enough?" She murmured softly voicing the concern that was mirrored in her co-works mind.

Alex Riders home in Chelsea London 5:30 AM Monday November 18th

Alex Riders deep brown eyes clicked open just as the clocks changed to 7:30. The seventeen year old spy lay there in his bed for a moment before throwing back the covers and walking to his bathroom. It was his first day of going back to Brooklyn Comprehensive School after his last mission for MI6, his latest mission has been to find out what was going on in a group of abandoned factories.

But of course just like with all his other missions that his employers had labeled as "just surveillance" he had ended up in the hospital with a massive cut running over the top of his three broken ribs, and another bullet hole in his body. This time he had been shot just below his right shoulder, he had lost a lot of blood before Fox and his team of MI6 agents had found him so he had been considerably weakened.

Alex paused as he pulled off his shirt looking at the fresh scar that ripped across his ribs, he shifted so that he could see the wound on his shoulder, they both hurt like hell if he moved too fast but where healing nicely. As Alex stepped under the scalding hot water poured down over his well built body, he might have only been seventeen for a week or two, his birthday had passed while he was on duty so he was really the only one who really knew about this, but he already stood at a good 6'2 and was rather muscular. Not in a distracting was but it was still noticeable, he had thick platinum blonde hair that was always hanging in his eyes, everything about this teenager screamed athlete, but one thing singled him out from everyone else.

This was his eyes, they where deep brown in color, however they held something else that very few people understood. They where the cold emotionless eyes of a killer, they where eyes that had seen things and experienced things that would make war hardened veterans look like over excited teenagers. Alex paused as he ran his hands through his hair thinking back to what lame excuse MI6 had told him to tell his school as to the reason he had vanished for two and a half weeks. Apparently an old family friends had just passed away and Alex had flown over to Germany to be there for the funeral, it was up to him to explain the injuries and new scar that ran down the side of his face from his eye to the bottom of his neck. Turning off the water and wrapping a towel around him as he went to get ready for school, it was 8:10 by now and Alex was starting to hurry so that he was not late to school which started at 9:00.

The young spy quickly dug out the bulletproof school uniform that Smithers had given him a while back, pulling open the top drawer on his nightstand Alex pulled out a Browning Hi-Power and strapped it to his uninjured rib cage while also removing three knifes. The first being a, boot knife which he expertly slid into the hidden sheath on the inside of his black combat boots, the other two knifes where identical Gerber Mark ll dagger, the first one he hid on the inside of his arm, the other he slid into the sheath on the lower part of his back. MI6 had allowed him to become a full time agent despite the fact that he was four years under the limit, and after all it was not like he could just turn and walk away from everything that had happened when ever he wanted.

As much as Alex hated to admit it being a spy was a bit like a drug once you started there was no way out, plus it was nice to get to carry a weapon 24/7 to keep himself and his friends safe, and he got payed now so that was a bonus. Alex pulled his jacket on over that and headed downstairs, which was empty, Jack was visiting her family back in America for the next three weeks so he was alone. Alex quickly found something to eat for breakfast as he got his school things together, he sat down in the silence of the large house and finished the apple he had grabbed.

Glancing at the time Alex winced he had wasted all his time struggling to get all of his textbooks into his bag and not rip his stitches, it was now 8:30 and if he did not hurry he would again be late. Alex walked out the front door and just as he was locking up the door he felt it, a feeling that something was off.

To an ordinary passerby nothing about him changed, however to a professional the change was immediate his shoulders tensed up preparing to fight if need be and his eyes sharpened and Alex slid his emotionless mask into place. He slipped the key to his bulletproof Chevrolet Camaro and unlocked the door, Alex threw his bag into the opposite seat and took off down the street towards Brookland. Upon arriving Alex checked his watch and smirked it was 8:45 he managed to get here with time to spare, he hurried up to the wooden doors and walked inside.