Yes, this has been done before and much better. However, this idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I decided to share it with everyone. Sorry about that.
Retribution
"Excuse me! Can you help me?"
Alex looked over at the girl, distracted from his Ipod by her distressed voice. She looked at him, at least two inches shorter and with large, frightened eyes. She had long black hair and Asian features. Alex put his Ipod away and moved out of the way of the crowds to where she stood.
"Yeah?" He was supposed to be meeting up for lunch with Jack, but the girl looked like she really needed something. He didn't think his conscience would let him just leave her here, begging strangers to stop and help her.
"Can you help me?" The girl looked on the verge of tears, "I did something bad, I cheated on my boyfriend and he said he's going to kill the other guy! I want to go warn my friend he's coming, but I'm really scared of my boyfriend! Will y-you come with me, just to his house?"
Alex tried not to gape. The girl couldn't be serious, she must be joking! Alex looked at her again. Her fear looked completely genuine; he could see she was trembling. She was dressed in a bright green hooded jacket with a kitten on it and was wearing dark jeans with high top sneakers. Somehow, Alex couldn't picture her joking about something like this.
"Um, wouldn't it be better to ask a policeman to help you?" Alex asked weakly, "There's a kiosk just down the road…"
The girl shook her head vehemently and looked terrified.
"N-no! My b-boyfriend…He's Snakehead, you understand what that means? If I send my boyfriend to jail, all his friends will come after me!" She beseeched him, hugging herself out of fright and worry.
Alex's eyes widened in shock and horror. He'd never been told that there was a Snakehead operating in London. Knowing there was, Alex was now sorely tempted to get the hell out of there, but the girl kept looking at him desperately. Alex groaned, he would never forgive himself if he left this frightened girl, no older then him, to the mercies of a Snakehead.
"Alright," he said slowly, "Where's this guy live?"
The girl looked around nervously and pointed in the general direction.
"It's just down there, ten minutes maybe. I don't know the street name, I only went there once! So will you help me?"
Alex nodded.
"Yes, but please, let's be quick."
The girl nodded empathetically, and then, to Alex's surprise, grabbed his hand like a toddler.
"Yes, quickly. This way!"
Due to the thick, bustling crowds, it was taking considerably more then ten minutes. Alex had lost track of the times that he and the girl had been jostled, pushed, shoved and sworn at as a result of their fast passage. The only reassuring thing about the whole situation was that the girl seemed to know where she was going at least.
After awhile, something occurred to Alex. He didn't even know this girl's name.
"Um, what's your name?" He asked, sidestepping a woman pushing a stroller aggressively, "Mine's Alex."
The girl looked at him gratefully.
"I'm Selene," She said earnestly, "Thank you so much for doing this! I was so scared that I'd have to go on my own and that I'd find something terrible…"
Alex smiled at her and was about to give a reassuring reply when Selene stopped dead in her tracks. Alex stopped too, suddenly panicking at her horrified, frozen expression.
"Selene, what-"
Selene was trembling harder then ever, she raised her finger, pointing.
"Th-that's m-my b-boyfriend!"
Alex looked up and felt his heart sink. A lithe, snarling teenager with a shaved head, maybe four years older then Alex, was pushing his way through the crowds towards them whilst his friend sat nearby watching the proceedings. He was Chinese and Alex saw a Snakehead tattoo curling its way up his right forearm. Then, more importantly, he saw the large knife.
"Selene, we need to run!" Alex hissed, pulling on her hand. She didn't move, watching her boyfriend approach in a frozen terror, reminiscent of a deer in the headlights, "Selene!"
It was too late though; the Asian skinhead had reached them and had grabbed Selene by the front of her jacket. She started crying and whimpering; her boyfriend shook her, howling at in Chinese.
Disgusted, Alex swung into action. Before Selene's boyfriend could react, Alex shoulder rammed him away from Selene. Then, without hesitation, he punched the teenager in the face.
Backing away quickly, Alex grabbed Selene's hand again and began sprinting, dragging her along. Behind them, came a shout from Selene's boyfriend.
"Dé dào tā men!"
Alex swallowed. He didn't know Chinese, but he knew from the teenager's tone and the way all his friends were now chasing them that the shout had basically mean "Get them". He doubled his speed, glad that Selene was at least trying too now.
"Alex! They're gaining on us!" She cried, "We need to hide somewhere! We can't outrun them!"
Alex agreed, but he knew that their options for hiding spots were not especially generous. He noticed a nearby shopping arcade that cut onto a new street.
"Over there!" He yelled, "We can hide in there!"
Selene nodded, too occupied with trying to keep up with Alex's fast running pace. Trying to stay behind other people, Alex made as if to run past the arcade's entrance, but quickly slipped inside at the last moment. Panting, Alex watched from a small window as their pursuers ran by without seeing them. Relieved, he turned to see Selene pulling out her mobile phone.
"What are you doing?" He asked tiredly, wondering if he was late for his meeting with Jack. A quick glance at his watch said that he was. It didn't matter now; he was resigned to helping Selene now. Besides, they'd escaped the homicidal Snakehead recruits. Now all he had to do was drop Selene off at her friend's.
"I'm calling my friend," She said, quickly dialling in a number, "I need to tell him to lock the door and only let me in if I give him a codeword."
Alex shrugged and waited whilst Selene got through to her friend and starting talking in fast, determined sounding Chinese. She nodded a couple of time and then seemed to stress a couple of important points. Then, she hung up and turned to Alex.
"Again, thank you so much," She said breathlessly, "I'm so sorry about all of this. I promise the hard part is over now."
Alex smiled and shrugged. He knew that he wouldn't have been able to leave her, he was just too used to helping people without concern for his own safety.
"It's fine," He said, "Now let's get to your friend's."
Selene nodded and led the way out of the shops. Out in the open, they kept walking for a few more minutes before the dreaded cry of discovery. One of the Snakehead recruits was standing on the other side of the road, screaming at the two of them in angry Chinese. Selene didn't freeze this time, she bolted and this time it was Alex following her.
In the ensuing chase, Alex lost track of where he was going in an effort to keep Selene in his sights whilst staying away from his chaser at the same time. He pushed his way between an elderly couple (ignoring the indignant complaints that followed), narrowly avoided being hit by a car and leapt over a bus stop bench, trying to catch up to Selene. Just when he'd thought he'd lost her, a hand came out of nowhere and fastened onto his wrist. Before he could react, Alex found himself pulled into a narrow side lane.
"Shh!" Selene whispered, pulling him done to crouch behind a pile of milk crates and broken wooden pallets, "Wait here, I'm going to see if they're still following."
"Selene, no!"
It was too late though. Alex could only watch in dismay as Selene crept back onto the main street. As he'd expected, he heard shouts in Chinese as well as pleased laughter. Alex had just stood in order to go help Selene when four people came walking into the alley.
Selene walked up to Alex, flanked by the three teenagers who until a moment ago, had been baying for their blood. Alex's heart sank when he saw the satisfied smirk on Selene's expression. He backed away as she closed the distance between them. He stopped when his back hit a brick wall. Dead end.
"I told you the hard part was over," Selene sounded utterly delighted with herself, "Now all that's left is for you to quietly curl up and die."
Alex was furious, but he managed to keep himself under control.
"Why?"
Serena smirked again and said something to her friends before removing her jacket. Underneath, she was wearing a skimpy black tank top. Alex only realised exactly how doomed he was when he saw the black ink tattoo on Serena's right arm.
A scorpion, pincers open and tail curled aggressively.
"Did you think you were the only teenager in Scorpia?" She laughed, "That you were the only one they'd ever used?"
Desperately, Alex lunged at Serena but before he even came close to her, one of her friends pushed Alex back, thrusting his knee into Alex's gut. Winded, Alex collapsed to his knees. Laughing Selena nodded and the same teenager kicked Alex in the face. Determined not to cry out, Alex took the blow with only a groan.
Selena studied Alex, watching him kneel with his hair falling into his face. Alex spat blood and looked up at her miserably without a word. Unimpressed, Selena drew a handgun from the shoulder holster she'd hidden under her juvenile green jacket. She walked forward until she stood less then a metre away from Alex.
Selena's merciless black eyes met Alex's weary and defeated brown ones; a savage she-wolf against the weary deer whose luck had finally run out. She raised the gun and held it level with Alex's head, pointed in his face.
"Remember Alex," She said softly, "Scorpia never forgets, Scorpia never forgives."
Alex continued to meet Serena's eyes, unashamed of the terrified tears that trickled down his face.
Jack was worried. Alex was fifteen minutes late now, he was never late if he could help it. For the fifth time in thirty seconds, she looked at her watch and looked up and down the street. She had an excellent view of the street from her outdoor table, but she couldn't see Alex anywhere. A few metres further down the road, a group of teenage boys followed a petite girl into an alley (Jack wondered if the girl was a prostitute) and closer to her table; a young boy was on his skateboard. No Alex though.
Jack was just going to check her watch again when there was a sound that seemed to freeze her blood and steal the very oxygen from her body. A single gunshot, splitting the air and stopping everyone dead in their tracks. Then, a woman's screaming. More and more people took up the screaming as the group of teenagers Jack had seen enter the alley before emerged again, dragging a body. Jack saw the fair hair. Shakily, she got to her feet and walked over.
The teenage boys were already running away, but the girl waited until Jack had come within earshot.
"Greetings from Scorpia," she said chillingly, before spitting at Jack's feet and following her friends, laughing her head off.
Jack looked down at the body and collapsed to her knees beside it. She began screaming herself, tears flooding from her eyes. Alex's body stayed where it was, lying in front of her, blood seeping from the bullet hole between his mercifully closed eyes.
Ignoring the terrified, surging crowds around her, Jack continued to weep. After awhile, when someone thought to shout for police, she stopped screaming. Jack gently pushed Alex's hair out of his face and kissed him on the cheek before turning her face to the sky and letting her tears and Alex's face become the only things in the world.
Not far away, Mrs. Jones stood in Alan Blunt's office, a worried expression on her face. Blunt studied the single piece of paper his deputy had given him, after receiving it only moments before in an envelope that had also contained Alex's photo. The expensive sheet of paper had a gold embossed scorpion in the corner. There were only six words on the page.
Scorpia never forgets. Scorpia never forgives.
"Put Alex under protective custody!" Blunt snapped, standing behind his desk and looking at Mrs. Jones, "Now! I don't care where he is, get him in here now!"
Mrs. Jones nodded once and turned to leave when a middle aged woman wearing a headset rain into the room, looking frightened and panicky.
"There was just a shooting three streets over," She gasped, "We got it on the police radios. One fatality… It's one of ours!"
Mrs. Jones gasped and her hands flew up to her mouth. She turned to Blunt. The man had never looked so defeated in his life. Slowly, he sunk back to his seat.
"Sir?" The middle aged woman looked at him curiously, "What should I do?"
Alan Blunt didn't look up from the photo of Alex on his desk.
"Send a unit out there. Clean everything up. Then, arrange another unit to take care of Jack Starbright; bring her here. After that, set a technician to delete his school files."
The woman nodded and began delivering rapid fire instructions into her headset. She stopped when Blunt motioned that he wasn't finished.
"Do you understand me?" He asked, "It has to be as if Alex Rider never existed. We can not take the risk of the media getting wind of this."
The next day, an article appeared in the London Daily about a 'gang style execution in broad daylight'. It was detailed that there was one fatality, a young boy. No name was given.