Chapter 1

Alex dropped his bag in the corridor. It had been a long day. First a maths test, and then that horrible lunch time with Ryan Adams. "Alex, don't leave your bag there." Alex sighed and picked his bag up once more.

"Put it in your room. You can't just leave it in the hallway," Jack Starbright reasoned in her strong American accent.

"Sorry Jack," Alex trudged his way upstairs. Bag over shoulder.

***AR***

Ian heard the front door open. He looked down from the classified document in his hand. Jack and Alex were back. "Alex, don't leave your bag there," he heard Jack tell his nephew. Alex huffed in annoyance. Bad day, thought Ian.

Alex soon made his way upstairs. Ian put the document away in the top draw of his desk, locking it as he did so. He then left his office. "Hey Alex," Ian said, meeting his Nephew in the corridor.

Alex grunted something in reply, which sounded like a "hi Ian."

Ian hoped that Alex wasn't turning into a teenager early. He was only ten! "Good day at school?" Ian followed Alex into his room. He could kind of guess the answer though.

"It was alright." At least he'd managed words this time.

Ian lent against the doorframe to Alex's room. "That bad huh," he said whilst raising an eyebrow.

Alex dumped his bag on his bed and took his school jumper off. "I think it was the maths test that made it so bad," he said, gathering that his Uncle wasn't going anywhere without an answer of some sort. And he wasn't too keen on telling him about Ryan.

"I thought you were good at maths?"

"Doesn't mean I like it."

Ian smiled, "fair point." Alex left his room. Ian trailed behind. "Look, Alex. I've got some work to do, but once it's finished we have the whole evening to ourselves. Well, ourselves and Jack."

Alex smiled for the first time that day, "Sounds great."

Ian smiled back. "See you in a bit then," and he disappeared back into his office.

Alex made his way downstairs. "Why are you so happy?" Jack questioned as he bounced into the front room. He shrugged in reply and jumped onto the front room sofa. Alex flicked the remote, turning the telly on. It was the usual CBBC programmes.

"Budge up," said Jack, carrying a bowl of Coco Pops. Alex moved his legs so that Jack could sit down next to him. "What's on today?" She asked. Alex smiled. Jack was the only adult Alex knew who enjoyed kid's programmes; even Alex thought they were boring at some point. He smiled when remembering how Ian had once described her, "a big kid." That, thought Alex, was the best description of Jack. It summed her up in one.

"It's Ooglies at the moment," said Alex, pointing at the screen and the toothbrushes currently dancing. "Later M.I High is on." Alex watched as Jack's face filled up with excitement. It was definitely one of their favourite shows. Not because it was particularly good. In fact, it was terrible. That was what made it so enjoyable. Alex and Jack would laugh hysterically throughout the entire show at the shear ridiculousness of it.

"Great!" Jack exclaimed, pulling her feet up on to the sofa.

***AR***

Ian went over the document in front of him again in his head. He was a scientist, married with two children. He was American, so he had to have an accent. He was born in Texas and grew up there. There were lots of insignificant details he had to memorise, down to his favourite colour. Everything and everything was important in order for him to not blow his cover.

He still hadn't told Alex about the next assignment, he found it hard every time. It broke his heart every time when he saw Alex's face fall after telling him he was leaving for another 'meeting'.

Ian ran his hand down his face. He was tired. He picked the document up again, going over it once more. He was going to have to go over the science. He sighed again. He was going to have to convince people he was a scientist, and he knew nothing about - Ian looked down at the document in front of him…that? Nano technology.

He had a book on Nano tech downstairs. MI6 had sent it in the post. It had arrived in an Amazon package (so like MI6). Ian sometimes wondered if they got kicks out of doing stuff like that. He'd once been down the park with Alex playing football and a dog walker had left a message for him on the park bench. Hadn't these people ever heard of phones? They obviously had, Ian just got the impression that they thought phones were too out of their league. Who uses phones when you can get a random dog walker to leave a message for you on a park bench? In Morse code as well.

Ian stood up, wincing slightly as his leg screamed in protest. It still hadn't quite gotten over the bullet ricochet from that mission in Cairo. He left his office and made his way down the stairs. Ian smiled as he heard his nephews and Jack's laughter coming from the front room. He paused in the doorway and watched them.

They appeared to be watching some CBBC programme on the telly. There were some kids in a school running down a corridor; they appeared to be chasing someone.

Ian went over to the front door where the package had been left, he picked it up. On his way back to the stairs he heard Jack and Alex laugh again. He paused in the doorway of the front room once more, leaning on the doorframe.

"It's so stupid!" Alex exclaimed. Jack was still laughing.

Alex then noticed Ian. "What are you watching?" Ian asked, staring at jack who was still laughing like a maniac.

"M.I High." Alex replied. "It's about these school kids who are spies. It's just so unrealistic it's hilarious." Ian looked at the screen. There was a kid – who he supposed was one of the spies having a fight with a bad guy in a kitchen. It looked like he was fending him off with a bowl of cabbage. A smile broke out on Ian's face. It was pretty funny.

Jack had managed to gain control of herself now. "Ian," she said, "If you were a spy would you use a carrot to fend off a bad guy?"

Ian laughed slightly, at the thought of him fighting someone with a carrot or at the fact he was actually a spy, he didn't know. "No I don't think I would." Although, now he thought about it, Smithers had made some weird stuff in the past. Ian could imagine him making a carrot with a hidden razor blade. Or something along those lines at least.

"The whole programme is unrealistic Jack," said Alex. "I mean it's not like MI6 would ever hire children as spies, would they?"

Ian then thought of Alan Blunt; the man who had signed an order for many people's deaths all from the confines of his office, and without even batting an eye lid. Ian was sure that if he ever had good reason to, or ever found a child good enough for the job, he would. Without batting an eye lid. His eyes then fell on Alex and a sickening feeling appeared in his stomach. Blunt had expressed interest in him before, he'd tried to pass it off as being friendly, but seeming as Blunt was never friendly, it had been very obvious. Then again, who wouldn't be interested in the son of John Rider?

But Ian knew he would never let Blunt get Alex. The life of a spy was lonely; he didn't want that for his nephew. He'd sworn to himself that he would protect Alex whatever.

He did know that he was also probably part of the cause of Blunt's interest in Alex. Hell, he had practically been training him. But it was all Ian knew. He'd been landed with the responsibility of a baby at the age of 19. He knew nothing about child care but could tell you the twelve best ways to break inside a heavily fortified building and take out the guards. He could tell you how to pick someone's pocket without them even noticing. But he didn't know anything about child raising.

So Ian taking Alex on rock climbing holidays had seemed like a good idea because it was what he knew. And it wasn't like Alex didn't enjoy doing those things. When Ian had asked him if he wanted Karate lessons he'd practically skipped around the house, imitating Jackie chan.

He had also enlisted Alex in Karate lessons for protection. Alex was Ian's weak spot. And Ian had a lot of enemy's. Alex didn't know how many times he'd nearly been kidnapped. The burglary last year hadn't just been a simple break in. Thank god Alex had been at football practice.

"They wouldn't hire kids." Jack said. Ian wished he could be as certain as Jack sounded.

Alex laughed as the kid on telly squirted ketchup at the bag guy. "If they really wanted to hurt each other, they wouldn't be fighting like that!" He pointed at the telly.

Ian smiled, "You've obviously never seen any old batman programmes." Ian said.

"Oh yea," said Jack. "They are funny. I'm going to youtube them after this."

"I best get back to work," Ian said whilst gesturing to the package in his hands. Ian turned to leave and then paused. "Oh, and Jack."

Jack turned to face him. "I think you should lay of the Coco Pops for a bit."

Alex laughed whilst Ian made his way back up stairs to his office and the document waiting for him.