Hi, again! :) Thanks for reading my story and -if you reviewed- reviewing! Haha, and also deciding you wanna give chapter two a try. ;) So, I've decided to make this story sort of set directly after Crocodile tears, so Jack's still alive, everyone's happy -kind of- and yeah. Just that for you, in case you were wondering.
Mazken: I decided to make him speak Filipino simply because it was the first language I could think that might possibly be spoken even a little bit in Sri Lanka. Tamil and Sinhala -thanks for the correction :) - are more... made up of symbols, and I didn't want to just copy and past that into here, so I just went with Filipino. I figured it wouldnt be too random if Alex the teenage Superspy decided to learn Filipino, haha. Sorry if it is! : ) I'm not Sri Lankan- you are? :0 Because that's so cool, like seriously. Thank you for the offer! :) Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter!
mariahxcarter: You're Filipino? :O That's so cool! A Sri Lankan and a Filipino girl reading my story. Haha! That's really exciting! Yeah, I don't know how I accidentially started writing in present-tense, but by the time I realized it and was reading back through, it was too late. :') I'm glad they were correct, though! Lol, I'm not sure how reliable Google Translate is, so I was a little nervous copying and pasting those in. But no need to worry, I guess! :) Thank you very much! I'm happy you enjoyed it.
Thanks to all of you who reviewed and liked it! :)
Alex had been sent on this mission... quite spontaneously.
Well, when he saw Jack's little European automobile after school one Friday, black SUV's chilling in front and in back of her car, it was hard to call it anything but spontaneous. And don't even get Alex started on Jack's outburst the moment he got in the car. ("How dare they pull this? This is unacceptable!" "You just got finished with a mission, Alex, they can't make you do this again." "I can't even believe this is happening." "Let's just run off to Cancun, Alex. Come on, who'll look for us in Cancun?")
Long story short, they were escorted to Royal and General Bank, and Alex was informed of the details of his -inevitable- mission. Jack shouted a bit, and Alex slouched in his chair, hating his life, and Blunt -as always- didn't bat an eyelash. Mrs. Jones wasn't present, but Alex didn't that that was of much concern. In a matter of thirty six hours, Alex was on a 4 am flight to Nagercoil, India. From there, he took a boat to Colombo.
Alex's general understanding of the mission was that, in an underground cohort, hazardous items were being illegally sold. This wasn't exactly a new concept, especially in the southern hemisphere of the world, but MI6 had been keeping an eye on Klaus Hardy, an infamous drug dealer. According to Blunt, he was notorious for selling drugs widely banned. And after he was nearly jailed in his last near-drug-bust, he'd migrated down to India and -eventually- Sri Lanka. He was a big contributor -and creator- of the underground cohort (Blunt had said that whether or not this illegal cult had named themselves was unknown, but Alex had taken to calling it the Underground, for now.)
Blunt had sent him to Sri Lanka to simply track Hardy down, and to contact MI6. "We'll handle the rest," Blunt had said.
Somehow, Alex wasn't entirely convinced.
So far, the task of finding Hardy had proven much more difficult than previously thought. Alex had yet to see the man outside of the profile he'd been given. From the picture, Alex had observed a cleanly shaven, blonde, grey-eyed man with a slant to his smile and a pair of eyebrows drawn in a challenging fashion. Picture perfect douche bag. That picture was a mug-shot, and all the other pictures were blurred, and it wasn't uncommon for Hardy to be wearing a hat, or a hoodie to shadow most of his face. So not much to go off of there.
Alex had managed to track what city he was currently inhabiting, but he couldn't seem to find the man himself. People became suspiciously jittery whenever his name came up, and nobody saw fit to inform a child of such a veiled cohort. Alex had sifted through the case file, hoping to find aliases, or partners of any sort, but it amounted to nothing. It was almost as if the man had no previous relations whatsoever.
The Underground in general hadn't been exactly difficult to find. It was deep in in the forest, somewhere between forest reserves -there were many of those, Alex had noted quickly. The compound was a low building, one story, made completely of thick wood. It was hidden in a low part of the ground, with high, arched fences covered in camouflage protecting it from curious, wandering animals, or people. The fence's door was located somewhere in the back, and once you were in, before you sat the small building. Alex had skillfully ascended one of the thick trees surrounding the compound -he guessed they used the trees in this area to make the compound, seeing as they were thick, with thin branches, and close to no animals living in them- and had made a mental map.
However, finding the location where these dealings happened wasn't the mission. It was finding the main man himself, the man who started the entire business. Alex thought that Blunt might have just assumed that Alex would shut down the entire operation instead of just finding the head operator, but really, there wasn't much difference, was there? Blunt was certainly tricky that way.
Alex hadn't taken down the operation right then and there, and he'd made quick work of it to get out before he was seen. He was weaponless. Not even supplied from Smithers. He'd been left completely to his own devices, which was almost as frustrating as the fact that he'd been bothered to go on this mission at all.
Alex had also been in need of money. Blunt had failed to give him much more than what he could use for food and water, what he could use for survival, so Alex had resorted to pick-pocketing. And, so far, he hadn't been caught.
Well, Alex thought dryly, not until now.
Fox was still looking at him with glee, with an old-friend-glow to his smile. He shook his wrist out of Fox's grasp, and Fox smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry, mate," he said, "it's just- we've been trying to find you for at least a week now. It's quite the victory for us to have finally found you." Alex must've looked confused, because Fox quickly added, "We were sent to assist you with your mission."
"Assist me?" Alex almost sneered, and he paused. His eyes narrowed dangerously. "We?"
"Uh- the K-Unit. And I. We've been... reunited, for now." Fox nodded, trying to hold Alex's eyes. He couldn't afford to lose him again- not when it took Fox and the team this bloody long to find the kid. "We're backup, or something like it. If you'd just come back to the apartment we're all staying in, we can explain in better detail."
Alex shook his head. "No, you guys come here." He knew Fox, but that didn't stop the suspicion -or worry that they'd be spotted by someone and grouped together(Alex had already made people suspicious, you know)- from rising.
"Well, that's not..." Fox's lips thinned into a line, and he seemed to realize what the situation is here. Fox wasn't the one making the decisions here, Alex was. And both of them know damn well that when Alex doesn't wish to be caught and/or to cooperate, he doesn't get caught and/or cooperate. "Alright. We'll be here, in about one, two hours?"
Alex nodded. "Okay."
Fox turned to go, but whirled around at the last minute, catching Alex's arm. Alex, startled, twisted their positions so Fox was bent forward, Alex behind him holding Fox's arm at an odd angle. Realizing the situation, Alex immediately let go, looking around with an almost sheepish curve to his grimace. "I- didn't mean to do that."
Fox was already nodding, understanding. "S'all right, mate. Happens to everyone." No, no, it really doesn't. "We'll be here, but uh- what room are you in?"
Alex, looking around, flashed the small key at Fox. Engraved in the side of the key is 147. Fox nodded. He couldn't place why Alex was so secretive already, but he supposed Alex would explain once the current situation was completely understood.
"Alright," Fox smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring fashion. "We'll be there."
Alex returned the smile with an exasperated quirk of the lips.
As if the awkwardness with Alex before hadn't been enough, the moment Fox stepped through the door to his own hotel room, he was bombarded with not only a curious Eagle's questions, but a fuming Wolf.
"Where's the brat? Where's my money? Dammit, Fox!"
"What's happening, Fox? Was he surprised? I bet he was, huh?"
Fox held his hand up, silencing them both. "Yes, Eagle, he seemed surprised. I didn't ask about your money, Wolf." Walking further into the room, Fox sat down on the couch, sighing as his limps loosened up gratefully. He hadn't noticed how tense he was until that moment. Huh. "We're meeting Alex at his hotel in a few hours."
"We're going there?" Snake, coming out of the kitchen with a pile of sandwiches atop a chipped plate, asked.
"Why the hell are we doing that?" Wolf growled. Fox sent him a knowing look- Wolf never liked to be out of the loop for long, especially when it came to his team.
"We're going there because we can't risk spooking him yet."
"You make him sound like a wild animal," Snake said, amusement laced in his tone. Fox smiled without humor.
"Food!" Eagle chimed as Snake placed the plate on the coffee table. He snatched the first one, nearly swallowing it whole.
"So where is this place?" muttered Wolf, still cross with the turn of events.
"Its not far from here, actually," said Fox thoughtfully. Saying it aloud made him realize how absolutely pathetic it was that they couldn't even figure out what part of the city Alex was in, nonetheless find Alex himself.
"How long do we have until we go meet him?" Snake asked, taking a bite of his own sandwich. Wolf grabbed one for himself, and handed the last one to Fox.
"About an hour and a half. Give or take." Fox sighed. "So eat up, gentlemen."
Wolf, apparently deciding that it was time for the unit leader to actually, you know, lead, announced, "Bring a gun with you, each of you. And pocket knives or whatever weapon will fit into your pockets. We don't know what to expect, but 'expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.'"
Fox smiled at the old Denis Waitley quote. It was nice to know things with his old unit hadn't changed much.
Alex could trust the K-Unit.
Back at Brecon Beacons? He wasn't sure about that.
But here, on a mission? He was almost one hundred percent positive that he could trust them.
In the long run, he really didn't have a choice.
That didn't stop Alex from closing all of the shutters, but loosening and oiling the hinges (apparently the hotel didn't believe in actual windows) for a quick escape, if necessary. He moved all of the furniture to the perimeter of the room, the couch with its back to the door, the chair between two windows, facing the door. Alex figured he couldn't be too cautious. Not really.
After ensuring that the entire room was prepared for any sort of ruckus, Alex sat back, and thought.
That was a pastime of his lately, thinking. All he ever did was think. Before he'd been escorted -towed, forced, herded- to Royal and General, Alex had been having a reasonably good day. Tom was supportive as ever, asking Alex in hushed whispers if "those bastards" had tried to contact him. Alex knew he was lucky to have such a loyal friend. He needed one. Often, he saw Tom laughing with others, and he thought that he'd be fine if Tom decided that being his friend was simply too troublesome, but...
Alex didn't the he would be fine. Not if something like that happened. Alex always told himself that he'd be fine, he'd cope without people in his life. But then he remembers who is in his life. Jack, vibrant and explosive, making him an Italian-esque dinner, taking him to the Art gallery when he's down, adding her unique commentary to the movies they'd watch. And Tom, loyal and glowing, always cracking jokes, always supportive in whatever Alex was going through. Even that one time he'd wanted to start a band, back in seventh grade, even though Alex knew that none of his friends could play an instrument to save their lives. Sabina, too, made herself known as a friend often. Her, with her sweet words of comfort when that familiar sigh of fatigue came over the microphone on Skype.
Thinking about the people he did have usually made the pain of thinking about all the people he didn't have vanish.
And then, there was K-Unit.
Alex wouldn't exactly call them his friends, but... he'd call them acquaintances.
He couldn't easily forget his encounter with Wolf -not many people remember snowboarding down a mountain on a makeshift snowboard and then getting hit by a train- or his brief partnership with Fox. Eagle and Snake? Distant. Fox and Wolf? Familiar. Or, well, familiar enough. And two out of four wasn't that bad, really. Wasn't that worrying.
Of course, he didn't forget Brecon Beacons easily, either. He was reminded of it often, by the littlest things. Even the simple letter B made him grimace. A girl in his class -Becky Briggs- often wrote her own initials on her papers. She sat behind them, so seeing the BB every time she passed her paper up was definitely a reminder.
Yeah, Brecon Beacons could have gone forgotten.
Alex rubbed his eyes. He didn't want to be here. If K-Unit was fine enough to get sent in, why not just have them do it?
A knock at the door broke him out of his reverie, and Alex sighed. "Show time."
