THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Mrs. Jones tapped her finger on the edge of her desk. She looked irritated, almost frustrated, which was uncharacteristic of her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a peppermint, unwrapping it and popping it into her mouth. She glanced at the file on the desk. It was stamped with a confidentiality seal and embossed with the coat of arms of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Mrs. Jones was the new head of Special Operations of the MI6, Britain's intelligence service. She had been the deputy head to Mr. Alan Blunt for many years before, and she finally had the opportunity to step up after Blunt's retirement. They had parted on friendly terms, ending their partnership with the ordeal of the terrorist organization Scorpia and the child spy Alex Rider. Mrs. Jones was terribly glad that the Alex Rider situation was all over now. She knew she had made the right choice by sending him off to San Francisco to live with the Pleasures and their daughter Sabina. Mrs. Jones, unlike Mr. Blunt, had understood what Jack Starbright had meant to Alex when she was still alive. Hopefully he'd be happy now with a family to be a part of. Mr. Blunt would be having a jolly time too. Mrs. Jones knew that he had gone off on a 6-week long tour of Europe immediately after his retirement, and she wondered what he was up to now. Probably prying his unwanted knightly nose in some foreign intelligence agency's business.
Mrs. Jones had been the head of Special Operations for three months now, and she had been given a relatively easy start. The few cases that had cropped up were rather simple and had been taken care of quickly enough, without much fuss or scandal. That she was thankful for. So it came as a slight disappointment, but certainly not a surprise, when the intriguing file showed up on her desk that morning. However, it wasn't in her place to feel disappointed, or to feel anything at all for that matter. There was a national crisis to be solved, and it was in the file on her desk. That was the end of the story. With a deep breath, she refocused her thoughts on the file that lay in front of her.
It was from the CIA. That was odd, they didn't consult with the MI6 often. The first thing in the file was a photograph of a teenage girl. She had wavy copper brown hair, with olive skin and brown eyes. Her eyes conveyed a sense of intelligence and curiosity. Gently placing the photograph aside, Mrs. Jones continued to read what was written on the printed page. The girl's name was Lexie Blackwood. She was a 15 year old British girl living in Washington, D.C with her caretaker, Annabelle Bryant. As Mrs. Jones continued reading, her eyes widened in shock. She could not believe what she was seeing.