Back to Work

It was early July 1996 and it had been four years that March since the dreadful events that had caused Alex Rider to leave England for what he had thought was good. But life in America hadn't been what he had thought it would be so now he was back. Part of it was Alex, part of it was the Pleasures and part of it was situational. But Alex had struggled in America and found himself longing for the adrenaline rush that was MI6.

Alex Rider – or Agent Rider as most people now knew the teenager as – had returned to the world that he had long ago foresworn. Alex at barely fifteen had sworn to whatever gods existed that he would never again return to MI6; to the danger, the death, the lies, the betrayal, and the manipulations that had dodged his life for over a year when he was just a kid. The world that had left Alex Rider all but alone in this world taking his family in blood and life from him for reasons at the time he didn't quite understand. Now there were only four or five people that Alex could honestly say he cared about and they cared about him; Tom Harris, James Hale and the Pleasures. It would be the Pleasures that would give the final push to send him back to England and MI6.

Alex had fled across the ocean to America after his guardian, best friend and sister had been murdered to make Alex suffer. In America Alex attempted to put the past behind him but reconstructing a life that has been torn to pieces is impossible as Alex was soon to find out.

But the past couldn't stay buried when Alex craved a return to those times that he had once hated so much. Maybe it was because Alex had very little left to loose unlike those times when he clung to the normalcy of school and Jack like a lifeline.

An ocean away and MI6 still very much dominated his thoughts. Not that he would dream about saying as much to the Pleasures who had been only too kind to him when he needed his friends around him the most. Jack's death had broken him in a way that nothing else he had seen or done had. How could he explain that he needed to go back? So no more would suffer? He couldn't tell them that all their help and work to allow him to live a life away from MI6 was to no avail.

He couldn't tell them that there was a dark part to him born of blood and pain, of violence and despair that no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't change. It was that dark part which allowed him to kill Grief in cold blood out of revenge when he looked like Alex himself.

Alex feared that it would be there until the day he died. The Pleasures preferred not to look at this with the hopes that would go away. If they had been smart they would have realised Alex needed help if he was ever to escape the claws of espionage. But they did not.

Alex did too but the events in the bank when he was sixteen that forever changed the course of Alex's life. Or maybe it would have happened anyway but it certainly pushed Alex onto the path of his life.

At sixteen years old Alex had managed to get his first job; a part time job where he could work on the evenings and at the weekends at a sports store that one of his new friends' parents owned. They had been more than happy to help out the quiet, kind, intelligent English orphan that their daughter had told them all about.

At this time Alex decided that he should open a bank account of his own rather than the one he would inherit from his parents and uncle when he turned eighteen. He wanted to be more self-sufficient.

Going into a bank was always a strange even to Alex after all the time he had spent in a so called bank office when really it was anything but. The thing that hit Alex the most was how friendly and welcoming most banks were. In comparison MI6 was designed to keep stray people from wandering off the street.

He was in a banker's office talking about the various options for accounts open to Alex as a sixteen year old school child. It was all going well until the Rider luck reared it's ugly head. It hadn't reared it's head in over a year but when it did it did in full force.

A man wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun came in placed a gun to the head of the banker obviously the one they needed more as the bank manager. As well as the fact that the adult was obviously the bigger threat than an unarmed teenager.

Or so they thought.

Nobody who knew the truth about Alex Rider would describe him as the lesser threat. There was a reason why Joe Bryne had described to the CIA agents that Alex was a lethal weapon. It was because it was nothing less than true.

Alex let himself be shepparded out by the five men in ski masks. At the moment it would be better to wait and see, to judge the situation before acting rashly. Acting rashly was what would get spies everywhere killed.

Not that he was a spy!

Anymore!

He could practically feel the fear in the air from his fellow hostages. Not that he blamed them. This was probably the most terrifying situation any of them had ever been in. He caught eyes with Adam one of his new school friends who Alex had come in with. The brown eyed boy was as terrified as the rest of them Alex could tell.

He was probably the only one who wasn't scared. Maybe it was be because he had been in far worse situations than this. Maybe it was because Alex had reverted to cold, quiet calm that he had learnt to use on his missions; panicking in situations like this would only give your enemy an advantage. Or maybe it was because Alex could tell by the gunman's stances that they were nowhere as near as qualified as the SCORPIA agents that Alex had fought with on so many times.

He rolled his eyes when the leader; a black, burly man who was more tattoos and fat than proper muscle that showed through his black wife beater. Alex knew from the man's accent that one of the local tattoo shops would be able to identify him from the tattoos he had bought that the man had stupidly not bothered to cover up. This was just another piece of evidence of the lack of professionalism in these bank robbers.

The leader had only left one guard with around fifty hostages. They hadn't bothered to check for weapons – this was America the five would be robbers had just proved how easy it was to obtain a weapon.

Alex kept to the shadows as he had long ago learned to. The man was too busy trying to keep the panicking, shivering mob of hostages to stay still but it was a cattle market. There were small children with their parents, angsty teenagers and frail elderly. It was almost too easy for Alex to get behind the man and knock the man out with one blow to the head.

'Alex!' Adam said in shock never having seen the dark look his friend was wearing.

'Stay here,' Alex growled to the hostages not in the mood for listening to panicking friends. 'Contact the police!'

'What are you going to do?' asked Adam nervously.

'Have a nice chat with our gunmen,' Alex said with a cold grin on his face that caused the hostages to shudder.

Alex picked up the weapon that lay in the loose grip of the unconscious man's hand. The man would be out for another few hours which if everything went okay he would wake up chained to a hospital bed.

He was left handed Alex noted distractedly. Alex's eyes were hard and cold as he picked up the weapon. It had been over a year since he had killed Julius Grief in revenge and anger and Alex still couldn't feel anything for the boy's death. This was why he found it hard to pretend to be normal at school. Nobody could understand that in these situations. There's not enough time to think. Only time to do. It is literally kill or be killed. Julius may have been more about revenge than survival.

Sabina had reacted as worse than she had with Cray when she learnt that Alex felt nothing for the fifteen year old clone's death due to the fact he was a child. She didn't understand that the boy was no more a child than Alex was. Alex didn't help himself by quoting Blunt 'you're never too young to die'.

Alex knew that reacting like that was probably amoral. But if he felt guilty for every psychopath's death that he had caused directly or indirectly Alex would never be able to sleep at night. It was easier just to say they were justified or accidents and move on from there.

Sabina didn't seem to be able to understand this. She was just too innocent to understand the world that Alex belonged to. Neither did her parents. Alex had been used to understanding from Jack but the Pleasures gave him no such acceptance. Alex was feeling more and more isolated as time went on.

Alex was lucky the leader was leaning on one the leaning, twizzling chairs whilst the other three men unloaded all the money they could get their hands on. Alex rolled his eyes again at the man. The chair was backed to the door containing the hostages.

Either the man was incredibly stupid or he had a lot of misplaced trust in this one guard. Alex suspected it was the former. If any of today's events had proved anything it was Tattoo was not the brightest button in the box probably a Mugger trying to move up in the world.

Alex looked around he wouldn't be able to knock the man without the other three men noticing which would be bad for the rest of the hostage. He shuddered to think what would happen to the hostages if he was caught before saving them with a weapon and their friend, accomplice or whatever the unconscious man was to them.

What he needed to do was scare all four of them into surrender considering what idiots they were and what experience Alex had it shouldn't be too hard. Or so Alex hoped. After all he was SAS and SCORPIA trained whilst this lot were just simple street thugs.

Alex looked down at the metallic instrument of death in his hand. A plan that a few years ago Alex would have dismissed as not being able to pull it off. But now Alex was harder, colder and a lot bitterer. In short murder no longer bothered him.

Alex smirked holding the gun to the leader's head. It was impossible not to notice a gun at your head. There was something about the way that it felt that made it unique. Alex had learnt that the hard way in Sayle Enterprises.

'Let the hostages go,' Alex said coldly. 'Or I'll shoot!'

The man laughed, 'playing the hero kiddo. You don't have the guts.'

'Trust me I'm no hero,' Alex said coldly.

'Boss,' tried one man who had seen the look in Alex's eyes.

'Shut it, Steve,' snapped Boss.

'I will say it once more surrender and let the hostages leave or I'll shoot,' Alex said coldly.

'Shoot me and my boys will kill you,' Boss said.

'Not with you as my shield,' Alex said.

Alex lifted the gun and fired once into Steve's head. Steve fell with a thud blood leaking from his head and most likely brains from the back of his head. Alex returned the gun to the leader's head using his body so that it would be impossible for one of the other two to shoot Alex without the Boss going down with him which he doubted they would as they seemed pathetically loyal to one another.

'Put the guns down,' Alex repeated, 'or I'll shoot you next.'

The two men looked at each other. They nodded put their guns down looking at Alex with fear and something akin to respect. Alex rolled his eyes once more. They had probably seen nothing like this apart from in movies.

'Chuck them outside,' Alex said.

Alex watched as they did so. He had heard the cops arrive whilst approaching the leader and knew they would be wondering what had happened to make the robbers give away their weapons. Alex was conscious of the fact that the Boss refused to give up his weapon.

'Now walk out of the door hands in the air and hand yourself over to the cops,' Alex ordered. 'Tell them that the hostages are alive and well and you are surrendering.'

Not long after the place was surrounded with cops. Alex found himself clamped with handcuffs. Alex had expected this to happen. After all, he had been found with a murder weapon to the head of another man even if it was the crook. But Alex wasn't frightened. Soon as his name popped up the CIA would remove him from police custody.

Adam saw Alex being clamped with handcuffs as he gave up the weapon. He looked to the dead body of one of the masked robbers to the other man on the stretcher. He gaped and Alex just knew that this would be all over school by Monday.

Alex found himself in a police interrogation – err interview he reminded himself hurriedly that this wasn't SCORPIA – room. Alex refused to say anything but his name. He knew that the Pleasures would have been informed but hoped that the CIA would stop them from interfering. He knew the Pleasures were becoming frustrated with Alex's refusal to let go of MI6. Half an hour later the familiar figure of Joe Bryne turned up at the door.

'Sir,' a regular cop said, 'this is Joe Bryne he's CIA.'

'CIA?' the detective said in shock. 'What do you want with the boy?'

'He's with us,' Bryne said quietly.

'He's sixteen,' the detective said shocked.

'He's with us,' Bryne repeated, 'I would suggest you drop all the charges before Mister Brown,' gets promoted.

After this Alex was quickly released by the police. Joe asked him to try and stay out of trouble before dropping him off at the Pleasures. The papers were forbidden from writing about Alex so Alex was kept out of the story.

However, the Pleasures were well aware of what had happened and they could no longer ignore Alex's past or the fact that you could take the teenage spy across the pond but you couldn't take the training and life experiences out of the spy.

Things became tenser and tenser with the Pleasures over that weekend. Not helped by Sabina trying to comfort him. Alex told her he was tired and didn't want to sleep with her. This wasn't the first time this had happened nor would it be the last. Alex wasn't sure why the idea of sleeping with Sabina terrified Alex so much but it did.

Then there was Alex and Sabina's school knew from Adam's tale that something more had happened. That Alex Rider was willing to kill when he needed to. Adam had flinched when Alex had glowered at him when he realised that Alex had worked out who had spilled the beans. Alex and Adam's friendship ended that day. Alex didn't appreciate betrayal.

However, much to Sabina and Alex's disgust his infamous celebrity status didn't diminish for months even if the teachers were more than a little skittish around him. Alex supposed that's what happened when you were found to have murdered someone and got away with it. Once again Alex was the source of many rumours. The most common one was that Alex was part of a gang.

This was the time that Alex first accepted the truth that Alan Blunt had seen two years ago when Alex hung by a flag pole in London. Alex was a spy through and through. He never really had a chance to be anything different.

Maybe it was the easiness of slipping back into his old role when he needed to in order to protect untrained innocents that day. Maybe it was his deep seated need to protect that Alex had no idea where it came from. Maybe just like all the other times that Alex had been forced to take a life Alex still felt nothing for his most recent victim. Maybe it was the fact that Alex often felt lethargic like all excitement had gone out of life. It was something that made living with the Pleasures even more unbearable.

He tried to keep it showing but the teachers often asked if they were boring him so Alex guessed he hadn't been too successful. The fact that at the bank robbery with a gun in his hand and an object Alex once more felt the rush, the thrill that Alex could only guess was comparable to a drug addict's initial rush. It was the most alive Alex had felt since Jack's death and SCORPIA's breakup.

Alex began to hit the gym far more than he had done so before. His physical condition peaking. He wasn't sure if it was out of anger or some half hidden idea that he might become a spy after all. He still didn't want to but that was mainly because Alex hated being manipulated.

The Pleasures never confronted him about his new extreme fitness work out. Again they were looking the other way. It was something of a relief to Alex really. He was free to learn to hack and apply to MIT without anyone asking why.

Actually he was sure that Edward had breathed a sigh of relief thinking this was evidence that Alex was going to do his degree and leave school and get a high paying job at some technology business. Not live and die for the country.

Alex still wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He knew he'd never be happy with a dull nine to five job. But he didn't want to repay the Pleasures for taking him in and have Sabina end up like his mother, a casualty of his life – even if their relationship was going nowhere – by becoming a spy.

It wasn't until Freshers week at MIT that it became clear why Alex's relationship with Sabina was going nowhere. This was the day that Alex's relationship with Sabina ended once and for all. Then the Pleasures cut all ties with Alex. Alex knew they would choose Sabina's side over this but he now wondered if they ever cared about him at all or if it was just for their daughter's happiness that they had taken in a dark and danger ex-spy teetering on the edge of the underground world of terrorism and intelligence.

Alex had been convinced by his dorm mates – he had decided if he was going to do the whole College thing he was going to do it properly – to go out to the local nightlife. This was the first time Alex had ever got drunk. Alex had always refrained fearing what secrets that he might spill if he got drunk.

Naturally it hadn't taken much for Alex to get drunk that first night as he had only had something to drink when out at meals with the Pleasures. The next morning was a morning full of regret for Alex. Not only did he have a killer hangover and spent most of the morning with his head over the toilet bowl he had also spent a night with his inhibitions seriously lowered. Alex was just luck that he had been too distracted to think about telling anyone about his past which was so full of secrets that to tell a single soul could get them or Alex killed.

Instead Alex's lowered inhibitions caused him to wake with a stranger in his bed, a very handsome stranger in his bed. It had suddenly become clear why Alex and Sabina had such relationship problems. Alex Rider was gay.

Alex had been making excuses to avoid sleeping with Sabina for two years now. He didn't even get turned on by kissing her. He had always told her and himself that it was because of his past he felt it difficult to feel things and connect to people. But he had no problem connecting to the unknown man beside him.

The next weekend Alex visited Sabina in her college. It was the most incredibly awkward conversation that Alex had ever had with her – and that was saying something considering all the "I won't sleep with you" conversations they had had. Alex wondered if Sabina had ever suspected Alex's orientation.

The argument that followed was legendary. Alex was accused by Sabina's many friends and her parents of stringing Sabina along. Alex tried to explain that he hadn't worked it out until he had a drunken one night stand with a random stranger. Really Alex should have kept his mouth shut. The fact he had cheated on his girlfriend made it even worse.

Edward and Elizabeth made it clear that Alex was no longer welcome in their house. Depressed and alone Alex dropped out of college before Christmas had even come around. Tom and James knew and understood. They didn't resent him for being gay. Apparently Tom had suspected it when he had admitted that he was frightened of having sex with Sabina but didn't like to say anything.

Tom had a flat of his own in London where he was now working in a bank of all things although he was quick to reassure Alex that it was not the Royal and General. Alex had never had to worry about that. Tom Harris was many things but a spy he wasn't.

It wasn't long after he had returned to London living off the money that Ian, Jack and his parents had left him in Tom's flat was Alex walking. Alex to this day didn't know what had lead him to the Royal and General. But something had.

Mrs Jones had been more than a little surprised that Alex had returned. She knew of course he was back in the country and Alex was sure she knew the reasons why. But she didn't say anything about it.

She was happy to offer him a job because Alex had always been spectacular. But she made it clear that he was now on a contract that he couldn't just join because he got cold feet about what he was being asked to do. Alex accepted it although he asked a lawyer to look at the contract before signing anything. After he and MI6 were both happy he signed.

Mrs Jones decided to have him tested with those who would be qualifying as junior spies that year as she knew how good he was. Alex passed with flying colours naturally. Alex couldn't help but feel that SCORPIA's tests were far harder but felt that it would be better not to tell his instructors that he had trained with a terrorist organisation. All he needed was to be arrested for being a mole.

Alex qualified as a MI6 agent in March of 1996 just after turning nineteen. He wasn't a junior as he had already proved himself on the field on countless occasions. Obviously he hadn't been there long enough to be a senior agent.