Alex Rider lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. He could feel the warm sand beneath him, he looked around and saw a four girls walking down the beach, three had blonde hair but the fourth had dark curly hair that fell halfway down her back. She wore a pink cover up and when they stopped and set down their stuff, she pulled it off to reveal a bright pink bikini, her skin was a light cream, and she wore an oversized pair of sunglasses that covered most of her face. When she slid her sunglasses off and placed them in her Louis Vuitton bag it revealed bright green eyes that had a deadly look to them, as though they had seen much more then any teenage girl ought to. Alex watched as her three friends rushed into the water without a second glance, however the brunette girl bent down and pulled a large beach towel out of her bag, unrolled it onto the sand and laid down. After a few minutes she sat up and after a couple moments of rummaging in her bag she pulled out what appeared to be an ipod. The girl once again lay back on her towel, held her ipod up and searched for a song, or so it appeared to Alex.
Somewhere in the distance a loud bang resounded, Alex glanced up and saw, off to the west, smoke rising and a fire furling into the clear blue sky, before he knew what had happened the girl was gone, she had scooped up her bag and towel and had taken off into the busy streets.
He pulled himself off the warm sand and began to gather his things. M16 had given him a one week vacation in Porto Vecchio before he was set to return to London, and he intended to enjoy every minute of it. Alex Walked up to the road, slung his bag across his shoulder, and began the half mile trek back to the hotel where he would be staying for the coming week.
The road was lined with charming little shops and houses, but Alex found it hard to appreciate them, he kept thinking about that blast off in the distance, what had happened? He shook his head to clear it of thoughts of looking into it, after all he was on vacation, and it was most likely caused by some accidental thing, there was nothing to cause him to believe it had been done on purpose. Every time he got curious about something that he shouldn't it always turned out sour, he had vowed not to meddle anymore, and he planned to keep that vow, at least for the time being. After all every time he had, M16 had shown up and shipped him somewhere, and he had no tiny desire to do anything for those people. All Alex really wanted to do was finish his holiday in Porto Vecchio and then return to London and have some time to be normal for a change. He wanted a chance to be a normal teen for a change, one who went to the cinema with his friends, one who complained loudly about homework at times, and one who had no worry of M16.
On his left was a row of shops, a clothing boutique, a small shop that sold porcelain, a shop with a giant helicopter above the door and a sign that read Corsica International Aviation, and to finish the short block there was a quaint café with people outside chatting mindlessly.
Suddenly the brunette girl he had seen earlier walked out of Corsica International Aviation, she held her head down and she was looking at her ipod intently, the same one she had earlier. Alex looked to his left, toward the strikingly blue Tyrrhenian Sea and in that brief span if time when he took his eyes off of where he was going he collided head on with the brunette girl had seen earlier.
The contents of her bag went flying and she fell to the ground on her side, her dress slid up her thigh slightly and Alex caught a view of what seemed to be a black band as he fell to the ground himself. "Shit! I am so sorry!" the girl exclaimed.
"No, no, it's ok, really, it was my fault." Alex said as he pulled himself to his feet and helped the girl to hers, before gathering his possessions as she gathered hers. She shoved everything in her bag and hurried off pulling her dress down as she went, before Alex managed to get a look at the band around her thigh or even to ask her name.
Glancing down at the ground Alex noticed that she had forgotten something; he bent down to pick it up and saw that it was her Ipod. He looked at it and flipped it over, hoping for some clue as to who the girl was so he could return it to her. Turning it on he saw that the screen was not what was to be expected on an Ipod, it was asking for both a name and a password, something that Ipods were not usually meant to do. He experimentally entered a name, Ann, and a password, 123, the screen now read, Access denied, three tries remaining. Sighing Alex slipped the Ipod into his pocket and set off once again for the hotel.