Remix - Little Boy Lost.
Author: schwartsrose
Summary: A re-mix of Crowlows19's story. This is a one-shot answer to Crowlows19's challenge of filling in the blanks. I would recommend reading that first. These are my own thoughts and impressions of the story and this work is posted with permission sort for and granted by Crowlows19.
Beta:Crowlows19 and my thanks for having done so.
The story id for Crowlows19's story is 4967769.
Warnings: Character death.
First Published on ffnet: September 15, 2009.
Disclaimer. I do not own the Alex Rider series. Anthony Horrowitz created it.
It started as a normal Friday with Alex returning back to his street from the train station. On the way though, he spotted Wolf getting off the Tube and he'd started following him before he'd even begun to think about why.
Alex was on a mission in London. The first one that was only taking place only in his home city. It felt odd. Blunt had once again blackmailed him by threatening Jack's visa and so he'd agreed to join a gang as a street child and work up to infiltrating their higher ranks as a mule. Blunt ignored the fact that in a couple of months Alex would be 18 and legally of age and thus wouldn't require a guardian. Alex ignored the fact that Blunt had been holding this threat over his head for over 3 years now, and that if he'd really been worried about it, there was a lot Alex could do now. He wasn't 14 and helpless anymore. The reason Blunt was interested in such a small gang was the fact that not only did they run drugs and guns (which would usually be left to the police to sort out) but they had now begun to trade information. State secrets they shouldn't actually be able to access. Blunt wanted to know where they were getting it from and who it was going to. So Alex had agreed to be a kid who'd run away from his last foster home and was now on the street. He was to infiltrate the gang and work his way up. Alex had pointed out it might take months. Blunt had looked at him, and said nothing. Alex had fussed about missing the last few months of school, but eventually they'd come to a compromise. If Alex could get away with it, MI6, courtesy of Smithers, would leave work packets where he could find them and complete them and then return them. It wasn't the best solution, and it still left Alex far behind the rest of his age mates, and possibly redoing his last year again, but it was better than nothing, and he knew it. He stopped by once a week to check on Jack, but he didn't let her know he was there. Still, it was nice to be able to see for himself she was safe, and doing well. Alex hadn't even let her know he'd returned from his last mission yet. As far as she knew, he was still far away in Pakistan.
So, Alex was living off the streets. It had only been two weeks, but he looked like he'd been there longer. Pakistan had been hard on him, and he'd been quite sick there. He'd also been tortured and locked away for a month and starved for most of it. He looked desperate, and he played the part too. Back home now, he'd already he'd been tentively approached by a member of the gang he needed to infiltrate. He was acting skittish for now, but Alex knew he'd get in soon. Actually, he was pretty confident he'd have a job with them within the week. But today he had nothing to do and Wolf was there. So he followed him home. It was really easy too. Wolf had no idea he was even being tailed. While a little disturbed by how unobservant his errant SAS team member was being, when Alex saw him enter his third floor apartment he knew exactly why he'd followed the man home. It was tiring always on his guard and in the role. During his snakehead mission he hadn't had to stay in character every second, and there had also been someone with him who knew who he was. Well, more like, knew he was just pretending to be a poor kid desperate to get to Australia, and had tried to kill him anyway, but still. He was alone now. Wolf's place was somewhere he could gain comfort, even if they hadn't ever been entirely on good terms. But maybe that was what he needed; someone who hadn't entirely known him or liked him, someone who wouldn't really know how far from normal he really was, and still wished he could be. So the next day he went back and picked the lock. That was easy too. Really, he was beginning to wonder how good the SAS were if you could get into their homes this easily. He'd expected a bit more of a challenge.
He hung out, turned on the TV to some awful music station with terrible music that was currently popular, and did his work packet. He hadn't had a decent meal in a week, and figured what Wolf didn't know wouldn't hurt him, so he helped himself to his fridge, and the last beverage Wolf had. It tasted awful, and he noted with bemused surprise, had to have been imported from America. Huh. He'd never have figured Wolf would go for something like that. He decided to make sure that Wolf was aware that someone had been able to break in, so he left the dishes in the sink, and just in case that wasn't blatant enough, opened a couple of closed doors. If Wolf couldn't figure it out, then there was no hope for the man. Feeling more stable in himself, Alex let himself out (careful to leave the door locked behind him) and went back to his job.
He'd been caught out. He hadn't been good enough undercover. Or maybe they were just ready to initiate him. So he'd been given a test. Alex didn't know whether to laugh or cry or scream in frustration. He didn't do any of these things. He looked at the guy who towered over him, trying to menace Alex with his body. It wasn't all that threatening for him, but as he was playing a role, Alex cringed and ducked his head and stuttered a lot. However, once again luck was on his side. The thug decided he had to prove he could be of use to the gang. So Alex had done what he did best and come up with an idea. He decided to break into Wolf's again (although the thug didn't know it wasn't his first time there), and increased his petty thief crimes to the level of larceny. They'd come back the next day, and Alex had demonstrated his lock picking abilities. Once inside, the thug had wandered around while Alex went straight to the kitchen. In an effort to impress and intimidate Alex when he'd found him, the thug had thrown the phone on the floor and shattered it. Alex whimpered and cringed, and together they stole all the food and dishes and silverware. While he felt a bit bad for Wolf, Alex knew he could get Blunt to give him a bonus that would make up for it, and it didn't make him feel as bad as it would if it had been some random stranger either. Alex thought that was the end of it.
Once again though, his luck was all twisted up. Apparently he'd been too knowledgeable about breaking and entering. Or hadn't whimpered enough. Or something. The gang had taken him in and interrogated him on why he was really there. Alex hadn't given them anything, but they were too suspicious. Unfortunately for them, they were stupid too. They hadn't locked him up very well, and Alex was easily able to escape. Not only that, but the guy who'd been selling the British Government out was there then too. Alex identified him, hung around on top of one of the huge beams supporting the roof of the gang's warehouse, and was able to learn, simply by eavesdropping, how it had all been done, and that it was going to some guy in France called Marquis DeVonte. Mission accomplished. Unfortunately, by the time he'd discovered everything he needed to know, it had been discovered he had escaped. Alex managed to get away, but not before he'd received a bad knife wound to the stomach. Knowing the gang was after him, and that they had enough clout to check the hospitals, he'd headed to the last place they'd figure to look for him. At Wolf's he bandaged his stomach and borrowed a grey shirt and a black hoodie from Wolf for his trip to the Bank. He had no weapons, and he might still run across members of the gang out searching for him. Alex didn't want Wolf involved with the Bank, which ruled out calling from his place, he'd already nicked all the cutlery that could be used as a weapon, and he needed to arm himself with something, so he also borrowed a gold necklace that looked like it was strong enough to help him do some damage if he got into a situation desperate enough to use it. Still bleeding, even though it wasn't a serious injury any more, he made his way to the Bank to report the end of another successful mission.
He spent a couple of hours at the bank debriefing and having his stomach looked at by an on-staff doctor. The doctor told him not to move for a couple of hours to let the stitches he'd needed to give settle, so Alex used the time to draw pictures of K Unit. By the time he'd finished, it was really late. Alex decided to give Wolf the pictures as a thank you, and then leave him alone. He'd probably, Alex thought with a flash of amusement, been pretty spooked by what had been going on with his flat. So he snuck back and hung the pictures on the wall in the living room. Then he went home.
It had all gone to hell. From the first moment the buyer's name had crossed his lips in MI6 a squad had been sent out to deal with him. In retaliation the guy had contacted SCORPIA, of whom he was an associate, and they had discovered Alex was the infiltrating agent. All in a matter of hours. So while Alex had snuck back to Wolf's and hung up drawings, SCORPIA agents had gone to his house and killed Jack. They'd also hit Tom's place too. When he got back to Chelsea Jack was gone, her body left on the living room floor in a puddle of blood. Alex had run. He grabbed the bag he always kept packed for emergencies and headed out. He'd figured out that either Blunt had it done for as of yet unknown reasons, or some enemy had done it, and it was only luck he hadn't been caught in it. He hid out all day, desperately checking on Tom and feeling hollow at the discovery that he was gone too, along with his home which was a smoking ruin with fire engines and police still hovering about the place, and hoping Sabina still had enough protection in the US to avoid the same fate. It would take him quite a while to discover that she had survived. Still not knowing quite what was happening, he went back to Wolf's again, this time more desperate than ever, with a bag of stolen things he'd need. Although he felt dead inside, he raided the kitchen again and ate as much as he could. It was important to keep his strength up. Somebody was going to pay.
He hung around for the afternoon, turned the T.V on and everything, although he had no concentration to spare for what was actually on the screen, instead thinking desperately and trying to figure out what was going on. When he'd decided on his course of action he felt steadier. He raided Wolf's draw for money, seeing as he had none in his flight bag, and nothing on him either. In fact, all he physically owned was now in the backpack he had with him.
He went back to the bank. Jones was there, sucking a peppermint and actually looking a little relieved to see him. Alex demanded to know what had happened, and she broke down and told him what they knew. The buyer had been an associate of SCORPIA. SCORPIA had to have an agent inside of MI6 because they'd found out Alex had been the one to bring down DeVonte, and they'd followed their Revenge oath. For now, Jones told Alex, he had nothing.
Since he would legally be of age soon, another guardian wasn't really a priority, and he didn't want anyone to replace Jack anyway. Mrs. Jones took him home. He hated her place, and never really felt comfortable there. But it would take him quite a few years to persuade her to let him get his own place, seeing as she liked him there, and Blunt of course, was extremely happy to have one of his best spies, who was always troublesome anyway, staying with his second. To keep Alex out of trouble (and possibly from getting out of staying with Jones of the initial weeks it took for things to settle down) Blunt let Alex have free reign to track down those who'd killed Jack and Tom, and to get DeVonte, who had managed to disappear in the initial takedown of this enterprises. Alex channeled his anger and grief and rage into this task, and it didn't take him long to complete it.
When he saw Ben next, Alex asked him if Wolf was alright, and not to mention anything about Alex, even if his old unit did ask. Ben was unhappy about it, but did as Alex had been requesting ever since he'd done his second job with Alex, and pretended that he had no idea how Alex was or what he'd been doing since their first job together. He arranged with Jones to have Wolf bumped up a pay grade, and when he couldn't stand her place any more, he'd go over there, just to hang out and pull himself together. He did so for the next six years, until he managed to find a reason to get his own flat away from Jones. He'd finally told her that he was nearly 23, and it was high time he moved out. Jones let him go, but she often stopped by to check on him.
Ten years later and Alex was still at the top of his game, doing what he did best. His latest undercover role had involved protecting Sabina from some millionaire stalker, which he'd done as her 'new writer' husband. MI6 had put together a book, and Alex suspected Mrs. Jones was the one who'd made it his 'autobiography'. She had a sense of humor like that. Alex had been convinced at 14 that Blunt's humor had been surgically removed as a kid, and years later, nothing had happened to convince him otherwise. On the other hand, Jones was okay. He called her Aunt Tilly now. Whenever she complained about it, he told her it was her own fault for pretending her name was Tulip when he'd first asked. She'd blush and hem and haw, but he rather suspected she liked it. While she'd snuck around and had asked him some questions, he hadn't been aware at the time that she'd been looking for specifics for the book she was putting together. Most of it she'd been able to get from his mission reports and knowing him for years anyway. Of course, a lot of it was made up anyway. He'd found out who'd killed Jack, and retaliated himself. SCORPIA was now dust in the wind, and just as forgotten. The operatives involved with the actual assassinations of Jack and Tom he'd killed himself. He felt it was the least he could do. While having him in an orphanage had been suggested at the time, it had been discarded so quickly by everyone that Alex thought it wouldn't have been worth mentioning, except that apparently in the book it had been a huge deal, practically an entire chapter. Alex never bothered to read the entire thing. Aunt Tilly chatted on about enough that he felt he knew it by heart without ever having picked it up anyway. She spoke of his running away, and yeah, Alex disappeared from time to time to go to Wolf's (which she was tactful enough never to speak of, although he was sure she found out where he went) but he'd never actually run away from his life. Apparently his decent into the street life of London was her portrayal of what MI6 had been doing to him since he was 14, and his 'fight to regain his life' which he'd read on the back of the dust cover of the copy she kept in her living room, was her way of, well, showing how good he was at what he did, and the fact that now he willingly worked for MI6, and chose his own missions. The latest rumor going around had it that if he survived, in ten years he might be the next head of MI6. Alex thought the rumors were a laugh, but when Tilly mentioned them there was a certain light in her eye. When Wolf sent in a letter, Tilly passed it on to him, and he'd had a chuckle over it and cheekily drawn a phone and a place setting, and sent them to him. After all, if Wolf had kept all the drawings he'd ever done for the man carefully placed away, then Alex supposed he liked them well enough. He was happy. He had a job he enjoyed and was good at, Sabina was safe for now, and also married to him for real, even though it was originally supposed to be a cover for her protection.
Recently he'd heard there was a rumor about a new kind of 'growing' technology that had caught his interest. He was due to head out in two days time.
Originally it was supposed to have a lot more angst, and the ending with Alex and Sabina was him leaving her to go somewhere else. Also, anything slightly humorous was not part of the original plan. But this came out instead, and I'm happy enough with it.