22 reviews for a first chapter?! You guys rock.

Good luck to any freshers who are starting university now! Have an awesome time! And a shout out to any younger siblings who are feeling down that they've been left behind and/or jumping for joy that they've inherited an Xbox. I'm currently doing both.

Disclaimer: I make no claim to Alex Rider.

Chapter 2

The second phase was a field. The second of five phases, according to the instructor. Five phases. The four misfits must work together and put aside their differences to complete the mysterious five-part quest.

Wolf was a soldier. He did not appreciate the feeling that he had been sucked into a bad action movie. All they needed now was a love interest and some ancient cursed treasure.

He was at the head of the group as they moved briskly from floodlight to floodlight. The field was dark and surprisingly springy underfoot. After mentally measuring the distance, they'd decided to walk instead of run on the basis that they had no idea what the next "phase" might be. If Wolf was honest, what he'd seen on the tripwire course so far had been pretty pathetic. A wall and now a field? Jeez. If he'd have wanted endless boredom, he'd have stayed in college.

Behind him, Eagle was voicing the same thoughts.

"...sucks, right? I mean, at least on survival they let us sleep."

"Yeah," Snake agreed. "I don't get this. It's like someone mixed the assault course with the killing house, survival and some haunted house movie."

"Maybe it's supposed to test our reactions," Cub said quietly. Wolf was surprised. He usually kept to himself on courses like this. So much for teamwork.

"Why do you say that?" Snake queried. Wolf could hear the curiosity.

"To make it more realistic. If this was a war zone, it would be more intense than any normal assault course."

His words were met with uncomfortable silence and the acutest of reactions. Eagle coughed into his sleeve, his step quickening slightly, and Snake's face tightened. Wolf looked down. Of course. Cub didn't know, did he? Less than five months ago, three quarters of K Unit had been in a war zone – not that any of them were talking about it. And four months ago, when Cub has arrived at Brecon with his life on his back, it had been Wolf that had asked the fateful question: next time there were deployed, would he go with them?

"I still don't like it," said Snake.

A thought occurred to Wolf and he half-turned towards his teammates, but before he could speak it was wiped cleanly from his head.

"WATCH OUT!"

The yell was shockingly loud, and followed immediately by a shout of alarm that was cut short by a thump.

"Snake!"

Heart skipping, Wolf's hand sprang automatically to his gun – which was, of course, not there. Shit! Who the fuck thought that an unarmed night exercise would be a good idea?!

Wolf whipped around. Snake was lying on the ground, a hand pressed against his forehead. Eagle was kneeling next to him, and a few feet away was Cub. Unmoving. A flash of fear shot through Wolf, spurring him into action.

He dropped to the kid's side and picked up his wrist, listening carefully and double checking at his neck when he got a pulse. Leaning over him, there was a brush of breath against his cheek too. So he was alive – but was he hurt? His lip was split, Wolf noticed distantly; the blood looked very dark, almost black, on his skin. But apart from that there was no obvious injury - no red staining Cub's dusty green combats - not even when Wolf awkwardly rolled him over, half expecting to see a pool of blood spreading on his back. But there was nothing.

A logical part of Wolf's brain was already slowing down, telling him that there had been no explosion, no gunshots…

But what is there was a silencer?

A rope constricted around his chest, and a sudden, horrible feeling of vulnerability washed over Wolf. Swallowing, he glanced up at the perimeter wall that enclosed the field like a prison yard. The lights were too strong to look against for more than a second, not unless he wanted to kill his retina, so they were blind as well as exposed. If Wolf was up there with a gun, he could have picked them off in less than a minute…

"Uh... what happened?"

Wolf's head snapped down. Cub was awake. His brown eyes blinked unsteadily, taking a few seconds longer than they should have to focus on Wolf.

"I was just going to ask you that myself. What do you remember?" Wolf asked clearly. Safe, standard questions for now.

Cub frowned, a dazed look clouding his face. He opened his mouth but suddenly he flexed his arms instead, as if realising that he had them for the first time. Wolf watched cautiously as he tried to push himself up.

"Steady," he warned, catching the kid's arm. Temporary memory loss; slow reactions. There was definitely a head injury there. "Just take it easy, Cub. I need to know if you're hurt."

Cub started to shake his head, but stopped abruptly with a hiss of pain. Carefully, he brought his hand up and touched the back of his head.

"Blood?" Wolf asked sharply, not taking his hand off his arm. If Cub had cut his head open, they would forfeit the exercise. No question about it.

"No," Cub replied shortly. More steadily this time, and more slowly, he raised himself into a sitting position and brushed his hands off on his combats. The pain must have helped to clear his head. "There's just a lump. I – I fell. Knocked myself out."

Now that image was completely wasted on a training exercise. Any other time, Wolf would have laughed his head off. But somehow he didn't buy it.

"I don't think so, Cub. You shouted at Snake right before you two hit the ground, so stop pissing around and tell the truth. Were you attacked? How did your lip get split?"

Cub stared at him. "Attacked? How could I be attacked here? No, I was walking behind you and I saw - wait, Snake? Oh, shit! Is he okay?"

Cub started scrambling to his feet, head injury seemingly forgotten, but before Wolf could reply Snake materialised at his shoulder.

"I'm fucking fine Cub," he snarled, "no thanks to you. Now do you mind telling me why the hell you did that?!"

"Did what?" Wolf asked, very aware of the fact that Cub had been unconscious with a head injury a few minutes ago.

"He floored him," Eagle provided, looking almost as murderous as Snake. "He pulled him onto the ground, and Snake punched him as he went down." Eagle's fist was clenched, as if he would like to punch Cub right now too.

"Why?"

"Why don't you ask Cub?"

Three sets of eyes turned to their youngest teammate. Slowly, he climbed to his feet. No arm was extended to help him. He frowned, looking at the ground as if trying to compose himself, then took a deep breath.

"You were about to step on a mine," he said quietly.

Snake's face drained of all colour.

"What? Where?" Eagle swivelled around and immediately went bounding in the direction of Cub's outstretched arm. He didn't have to look far. "Shit!" he swore, coming to a dead halt a few metres away. Carefully, he climbed around the little bump in the earth and crouched down to inspect it.

"How did you know that was there?" Wolf demanded, unnerved.

"I was looking at the ground while I was walking."

"Why?"

Cub glared at him suddenly. It wasn't intimidating - not for Wolf - but he had to hold the surprise off his face.

"This isn't grass. It's too springy. It's Astro-turf, made of rubber. I thought it might have been for a reason and it looks like I was right, doesn't it?"

Wolf could have kicked himself. This was exactly what they were trained to recognise! What the hell was he thinking? Special forces training - walking through a fucking field?!

"Why didn't you say anything?" he snarled.

"I didn't think it was important until I saw that thing."

"No? What did you expect to see - a golden ticket? Any of us could have been blown up because you're too exclusive to work in a team!"

Cub froze. His expression looked as if Wolf had punched him in the gut. Snake put a hand on Wolf's shoulder, but he jerked it away.

"What's the matter, Cub? Truth hurt? Admit it: you don't want to be here. We've got a leader, a medic and a sniper; we need a weapons expert. But he jumped ship. We don't need a kid, we definitely don't need some kid sp-"

"That's enough!" Snake stepped between them swiftly, making Wolf stumble back a step. "What the hell d'you think you're doing? Cub just stopped me from stepping on a mine!"

"If he'd told us about the turf-"

"You wouldn't have believed him!"

Wolf opened his mouth to snap back, but Eagle chose that moment to re-join them and almost unconsciously stepped between Wolf and Snake, doubling the distance between him and Cub.

"It's definitely a mine," Eagle informed them, then hesitated. "The wiring looks like the grenades they use in the killing house."

"So you think it's a stunner?" asked Cub, relief thick in his voice.

Eagle rubbed his forehead. "Must be," he said at length. "I mean, they're trying to train us, not kill us."

"You're not a weapons expert though, are you, Eagle?"

"That's enough, Wolf!" Snake hissed. "This is supposed to be about teamwork! We're supposed to be a team, with equal responsibility and equal amounts of blame. Turning everything on Cub is not helping."

"He's right, Wolf," Eagle chipped in. "R Unit are way ahead of us."

R Unit. Wolf had forgotten about them.

"Do you think they found the mines?" he asked.

"They must have. Or they somehow managed to avoid them. Maybe R Unit had the sense to check where they were putting their feet." Snake slapped Cub on the shoulder, but pulled any real punch out of the blow. "Well done, kid."

"We're really behind. We need to be back by four, remember?" Eagle reminded them. Outwardly he was as focused as ever, squinting down the field as if he could see the end of it. Wolf knew better, though; Eagle's fingers were twisting the material of his pockets into scrunched knots, a trademark of stress that few knew about. He wanted to get out of here, and he wasn't the only one.

And then, for a split second, the floodlight above them blinked. But Snake had chosen that moment to rub his eye, Eagle had his back to the light and Wolf's eyes were on Cub's back, casting them in shadow.

Alex was the only one who noticed. He sensed more than saw the flash of darkness, but before he could react, the lights around them were glaring again with full intensity and he was already wondering if he'd imagined it. Alex hesitated, torn – should he tell K Unit? – and then remembered: head injury.

Yes, he'd definitely imagined it. He wasn't thinking straight. Alex shook himself and hurried to catch up with Snake, who had started out again down the stretch of pseudo-grass; this time, all four pairs of eyes were scanning the ground in front of them as they walked. The throb at the back of Alex's head wasn't getting any better. If one of the lights went off again, he'd say something. Maybe he'd tell Snake. He couldn't deal with hallucinations or whatever on top of SAS training.

Alex didn't bother looking up at the perimeter wall where the light had flashed. So he didn't see the shadow that darted across it as K Unit made their way across phase 2, a machine gun slung across its lithe shoulder.

The agent was waiting. His back was pressed against the thick metal post, attached to it one of the beacons that cast light upon the SAS course. Rigidly straight and unnaturally still, he was dark-haired and Caucasian, with a face that would have had plenty of potential. His name had been left behind with his fingerprints, and these days (the only days that mattered in his opinion) he went by a string of codenames, a new one for every assignment.

This time it was Red. He was still deciding whether he liked it or not.

The man that Red was supposed to be meeting was late. Every minute added another wave of pressure that stifled the air and ignited agitation inside him like an old wound. Fortunately, however, patience was mandatory in his profession; sometimes he would spend entire days lying flat on a roof, waiting for the target to appear in his crosshairs.

It was the squeaking of shoes that finally informed him that he had company. Sure enough, when he looked he saw a younger man striding across the wall, hands tucked in his pockets.

"Chilly tonight, isn't it?"

"Where have you been?" Red snapped. He might be accustomed to lateness, but that didn't mean that it was something their organisation could afford.

"Chill your beans. One of the soldiers nearly saw me up on the wall. They know about the mines."

Red narrowed his eyes. Behind his back, his hand curled around the handle of a sharp, curved knife. "I'm assuming that they didn't blow themselves up, then. So first two phases have failed. What did you do?"

"Nothing. The brat saw a mine in the grass and pulled one of the others out of the way. The idiot leader got jumpy and looked up, but he didn't see anything. Don't worry – they think they're stun grenades." There was an unmistakable sneer there.

Red just glared. "Too close. Why wasn't it concealed properly?"

The other man – Yellow – held up his hands. "Hey, don't look at me. I wasn't one of the guys who planted them." Casually, he leant against the post and drew a packet of cigarettes from his breast pocket. "Do you mind?"

"The smoke will carry."

But the younger man threw back his head and laughed aloud. He was still grinning as he tossed his hair off his face and lit the tip.

"That's good one, Red. Jesus. You're a criminal – act like it sometimes, yeah?"

Red didn't like working with this man. He was reckless. He could be terrifying, too – Red had seen him in action, and it was enough to give the hardiest of agents nightmares – but he took too many risks to secure any sort of future, and Red suspected that he was slightly mad. He'd be dead in ten years at the most.

"We can't afford any more mistakes, Yellow. Is everything ready?"

"Yeah. Tell Green that they're pretty much falling apart. Tell her to keep an eye on Wolf – he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he made it into the SAS, and he's pretty quick to react when shit goes down. He doesn't trust Rider. He'll be alert."

"And the others?"

"Neither of them are issues. Snake seems to be the closest to Rider - so if anyone will go out on a limb for Rider, it'll be Snake. Eagle doesn't trust him much more than Wolf, but his loyalty's with Snake. He won't be watching out for Rider. He's not going to be a problem for us."

Red nodded, remembering why – despite the attitude, the over-confidence, the time-wasting rebellion – they employed this man. He was good.

"Be at the next rendezvous before they are," Red ordered. "Trail them, hand over to Brown when they're reaching phase 5—"

"—and then meet you at the lake for the finale. Yeah, I know." Yellow had finished his cigarette. He blew one long stream of smoke into the air. It trailed away into wisps of cloud.

"I saw you walk in front of the light back there. One of them could have seen. Don't do anything stupid, Yellow." It was not a suggestion. Red fixed him with a hard look, and when Yellow met his eyes there was no humour there.

"As if I would." He bared his teeth in a bloody grin, a feral animal warning off its predator. Deliberately, he took the dying remains of the cigarette from between his lips and balanced it lightly between his thumb and index finger. "I wouldn't miss this for the world."

The fingers snapped. The cigarette crumpled to ashes and the assassin tossed them to the wind.

I really don't like this chapter, but that's nothing new. Stuff will happen in the next one!

And hey! Look! Wild plot appeared! Please review and tell me what you thought of enemy!POV?

Ally xoxo