"So, what does this mean exactly?" Jack asked.

Jack, Wolf and Alex were sitting around the dinner table, the leftovers pushed aside. Alex just explained what Jones had told him in her office.

Wolf was one step ahead of Jack. He noticed the implications of what Alex was saying.

"It means MI6 has lost control over Alex. Right?" he asks, looking at Alex for confirmation. The teenager nodded his head.

Wolf put his hand over Jack's hands on the table. She looked scared.

"Yes," Alex said. "I'm getting a handler, who works directly for parliament. I'm not sure yet how severe their influence will be. I guess it all depends on this handler."

"When will you meet the guy?" Wolf asked.

Alex shrugged.

"Jones will call when she knows who it is."

Wolf sat back.

"Wait, Jones doesn't even know?"

Alex shook his head.

"She was pretty pissed off, to be honest."

"I can imagine. She must've been completely blindsided. I knew there was some trouble surrounding that video, but I never saw this type of backlash coming. Honestly, I thought she'd be fired," Wolf said honestly.

"Wait, you knew?" Alex asked.

"Come on, Alex. The world sees a teenager being tortured and is told he's part of British Intelligence. And you thought there wouldn't be any backlash? Truth is, she's lucky you've done some work for foreign intelligence services as well. Because otherwise they would've all been calling for your head, and hers."

Alex had to admit that he'd expected some backlash. But it had been months since that video, so he hadn't seen it coming now.

"I still don't get it. What does this concretely mean for Alex?" Jack interrupted.

Wolf looked at Alex and nodded his head.

Alex sighed. "The ministry gets full control of what assignments I do. Of course, it's still a limited number of people since most of these assignments are top secret. But they'll have the authority to make me do anything. They've also curbed my freedom to say no. They call, I go in."

The three of them let it sink in for a bit.

"Fuck!" Jack yelled, letting the frustrations out.

"Yeah," Wolf replied, looking sullen. He was torn between the side of him that was a soldier and would always follow orders, and the side that had started to love the life he'd created here with Jack and Alex.

"Alright." Alex stood up. "I've got homework so… better get started."

Before he left the kitchen, he took a quick glance back. He shouldn't have done that. Jack was suddenly crying, clenching Wolf's hands in hers. He was shuffling closer to her. His eyes met Alex's. They were full of worry and sorrow, like Jack's. It's like they both understood that this could be Alex' death sentence. The sixteen-year-old swallowed whatever he still wanted to say and went up to his room.

He opened a textbook on his desk but couldn't seem to focus on the task at hand. There were too many thoughts rolling around in his head. He ended up simply slipping under the covers in his bed, listening to the soft sounds of rain on his window.

The next few days, Alex tried to pay attention to class. He knew that at any given moment, he could be pulled away and sent overseas, for who knows how long. His main focus was to learn as much as possible, so he wouldn't have too much to catch up on. Tom knew something was going on, but Alex refused to say anything. He didn't want to talk about it. Partly because that made it less real. Jack was looking up laws that could protect Alex, but she'd soon realized that Alex's situation was beyond the law. Their hands were tied.

Alex played the perfect teenager. He made sure to be no trouble for Jack and Wolf, he made his teachers happy by handing in almost perfect assignments. He showed up for every training session of football and MMA. His week was filled with activities and studies. He didn't allow himself to stop for a second and think. He didn't want to. As soon as he stopped doing things, he would start thinking about his future. And that one was bleak.

A little over a week after his conversation with Jones, on a Thursday afternoon, he got a phone call.

"Jones?"

"Alex. You've been given a handler. He's at HQ right now, so I suggest you come over as soon as possible."

"With as soon as possible, do you mean immediately after school, or right now?" Alex was being sarcastic. He knew exactly what she meant. He just couldn't shake the old habit of going in against orders.

He heard Jones sigh.

"Now, please, Alex. It's important."

She hung up on him. In five minutes, class would start again. Alex looked over at Tom, who was standing a bit further away.

"Tom," Alex called. Tom walked over to his best mate.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"It's '6. I uhm… I have to go."

Tom eyed him suspiciously.

"I thought they didn't call during school hours? Wasn't that part of the agreement?"

Alex couldn't look his best friend in the eyes and lie to him.

"The agreement has been terminated. There's a new one in place. Look, I don't have time to explain it now. But I have to go. I don't know when I'll be back."

Tom looked concerned. Alex had trouble looking at him at all.

"Alright. Just… be safe, okay?" Tom hugged Alex. He'd seen the dread in Alex's eyes. Whatever it was that was happening, he would wait until his friend wanted to tell him what was going on.

Alex felt he had a nervous tick as he waited in the same place he'd sat a week ago. His fingers were drumming on his knees. Leila gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Are you okay, Alex?"

She'd seen him come into this office with injuries, with anger, with annoyance… She'd never seen him be nervous before. It almost frightened her. Her level of clearance was high, but not high enough to know everything about him. She just knew that he occasionally wore a school uniform when he showed up, like now. That told her enough.

"Hmm?" Alex had been a bit stuck in his own world. "Er.. yes, I'm fine. Thanks", he said. He gave her a quick smile to put her more at ease. She seemed instantly more relaxed. It was insane how much he could influence people's moods around him. Too bad it didn't always work.

It was a few more minutes before Leila gave the signal that he could go inside.

"Alex, take a seat, please," Mrs Jones said as he entered. A man was sitting in one of the chairs in front of her desk. He didn't turn around as Alex entered the room. Alex' eyes slid over the man, taking in his stiff posture, polished suit and neat haircut. This man was not military. He could've been Intelligence, but Alex knew he wasn't. This was his handler. Someone parliament had sent to take control over his life. He instantly disliked him. It was not just the fact that this man would decide so many things about his life, there was more to it. The way he was dressed, the way he sat. The fact that he didn't even turn to look at Alex and introduce himself, as if Alex was so far beneath him. He had a bad feeling about this handler.

"Alex, this is Mr. Pemberton. He will be your liaison from parliament. Mr. Pemberton, meet Alex Rider."

The disdain in her voice was clear to Alex, though he wasn't sure whether Mr. Pemberton could distinguish it as well. Pemberton finally turned to Alex. He had these piercing blue eyes. His dark brown hair was slicked back neatly. Everything about him screamed posh. He shot Alex a venomous look, telling Alex that this man would not put his best interest first.

"Mr. Rider," he said, with a nod of his head. Nothing else. Just Alex's name. Once again, no handshake or any kind of introduction. So Alex didn't reply. He simply stared at him for a second before turning back to Jones. From the corner of his vision, he could see that Pemberton's jaw clenched. It almost made Alex smile, knowing he'd pissed the man of straight away.

"Right," Jones said. "Mr. Pemberton will from now on always be present when we meet, Alex."

'Ah,' Alex thought, 'this is what annoyed her so much. Not his handler, but the fact that he will spy on her private conversations.'

"As I have explained to you previously, he also has the authority to assign you new missions. As is my understanding, he already has one ready for you. Mr Pemberton?"

The slick government official retrieved a file from his briefcase and handed it over to Alex, who grudgingly took it. The letters TOP SECRET where sprawled on top of it. That was nothing new, pretty much every file he'd ever gotten had those letters on top.

He opened the file, quickly scanning the details of the job.

"What is this?" he asked incredulously.

"Your mission," Mr. Pemberton said.

"This is… what the fuck?" Alex looked at Mrs Jones, who signalled for him to hand over the file. It was obvious that she hadn't been consulted on this mission, and had no idea what the mission was.

She took the file and quickly read through the mission. Her eyes flitted to Alex for a second, before she continued reading.

"What seems to be the problem?" Mr Pemberton asked.

"You can't be serious?" Alex asked. "This mission, as you call it, involves using people I know. People who already know that I'm a spy. Civilians!" Alex spat out, as Mr Pemberton remained impassive.

Mrs. Jones turned to Mr. Pemberton.

"Alex is right. This mission involves the possible endangerment of minors. We cannot allow that."

Mr. Pemberton's mouth ticked up in a smile before returning to his stoic expression. Alex knew that he was taking pleasure in the fact that he had the authority to overrule Jones. And he also realized that this man would take every opportunity to do so. He had a feeling this was personal.

"Actually, we can. We have evaluated the situation and realized the benefits far outweighed the possible detriments."

Alex had not yet liked one word that came out of this man's mouth.

"Possible detriments?" Alex exclaimed. "What, like one of my classmates dying?"

"Mr. Rider, competent as you are, I am certain that nothing of the like will happen. You should be happy. Your first assignment under this new ruling is quite easy. You get to stay in school, you get to keep your name and appearance. And it's not like you've never done anything like this before. As I recall, this wouldn't be the first class trip where you disappeared to investigate something for your employers."

Alex knew exactly what he was referring to. He glanced quickly at the scar on his hand, the one he obtained all those years ago in the greenhouse.

"Exactly. It was supposed to be an in and out job, but it turned out completely different. Things never go as planned when I'm on missions. This mission already deliberately puts my classmates at risk. The chances of the mission going south are high. I can't focus on a mission if I'm concerned about other people's wellbeing!" Alex spat out.

Mrs. Jones was still reading over the mission file.

"This says that Alex is mainly supposed to observe and retrieve data from the building next door to the waterpark. While I have no doubts that Alex will be able to slip away from the supervision of his teachers, I don't understand why you would choose him to do this? This is something any agent could do."

Mr. Pemberton shifted his gaze from the seething teenager to Mrs. Jones.

"For the same reason that you have continued to employ Mr. Rider. We don't want them to know that we were there. A lost schoolboy won't attract as much attention as an adult walking around in a restricted area. We believe that this laboratory hides something else. MI5 has sent in more than one agent, but none of them were able to get close enough to find out what. This is why we needed to change strategies. MI5 was unable to complete the mission."

Mrs. Jones looked at the file one more time. Truth was, Alex had indeed done a mission similar to this one. His classmates hadn't suffered for it. With this mission, they'd be safe playing in a pool, while Alex could slip away and investigate the lab. It sounded exactly like the type of mission she'd sign off on. She just didn't like that she was forced to sign off on it.

Alex didn't have the same opinion.

"I wasn't planning on going on this trip," he said.

"Well," Mr. Pemberton replied, "now you are. Most teenagers would love to go to a pool with their schoolmates. Why wouldn't you want to go?"

Alex shut his mouth. No way was he going to express his insecurities over his scars to this man. Jones looked at him with understanding, but her mind was also made up.

"Alex, please go to Smithers. He will help you with the recording devices and break-in materials you might need."

With that, the discussion was over. Alex knew he lost the fight. Without acknowledging his handler, he walked out the door, straight to Smithers' office.

"Alex, my boy! It's good to see you!" he said. Smithers had resumed wearing the fat suit. It was a little strange for Alex now that he knew what was under the suit. Smithers winked at him. Their relationship hadn't changed. Smithers still saved Alex' life on regular basis with his gadgets.

"Hey Smithers. What do you have for me?" he asked.

"Well, it's only things I had lying around, I'm afraid. I didn't get much of a head's up on the mission. Luckily for you, some of these standard gadgets will do. You know how much I love designing for you!"

He took out a briefcase and unlocked it. The briefcase held a few gadgets that Alex had seen before.

"This is your regular explosive chewing gum. You know how it works, chew for 5 seconds, and then stick it to whatever you want to blow up. I've got two flavours. The mint one is a minor explosion, like blowing hinges of a door. The strawberry one is a bigger explosion, especially if you combine two of them. You could blow a serious hole in walls."

Alex smiled at that. He loved his explosive toys. What teenager wouldn't?

"As you know, the phone I gave you is encrypted. Hand it to me, please?"

Alex took out his phone. It had been a gift from Smithers for his birthday last year. The phone had quite a few neat tricks, as well as being a regular phone. Smithers downloaded two new apps.

"This one, I called it 'I Spy', is a listening and recording app. It streams directly to our systems here as soon as you connect to the internet. Otherwise, it stores the data on your phone and sends it later. I disguised it as a game. The other app is called 'Genius', simply because it's absolutely genius. It has the ability to decode and encode messages. You can scan documents, notes, drawings… immediately. The app will help you uncover any hidden messages. It's not 100% fool proof, but it can help you out quite a bit. Everything you scan will automatically be stored on our server. In case you don't have a lot of time, you know?"

Alex nodded.

"Thanks!"

He took his phone back from Smithers.

"Anything else?" he asked.

Smithers shook his head. "I'm still working on some things, but they're not up to point yet. Next mission I might have them ready."

"Alright", Alex replied. He took the candy and waved goodbye at Smithers as he left.

He peddled his bike home, easily swerving between the cars on the busy London streets. As much as he disliked the idea of this mission, and the fact that he'd have to go on the school trip, he was glad it wasn't worse. He could've easily been sent to some third world country doing god knows what. At least this way he wouldn't miss any classes… hopefully.

He locked his bike when he arrived home, quickly heading inside before the clouds of rain that were hanging overhead would burst. Wolf wasn't home. He'd been called away for a few days. Alex wondered whether it was deliberate.

Jack was still at work. Alex looked at her schedule that she'd taped to the fridge. It showed the dates that she would work late, where he'd have to fetch his own dinner. Today was one of those days. Luckily, she'd stored some leftovers in the fridge. Alex took them out and heated up his dinner. While he was waiting, he perused the file once again. This time, he paid more attention to detail.

It looked like he was going to be dealing with more terrorists. He'd already encountered some on his last mission and was not looking forward to more. Domestic terrorism had become a serious issue. Countries like France, Belgium and Germany have been victim to terrorists. The UK has had its fair shares of brushes with terrorism, but nothing as big as a bomb in the airport or trucks driving into crowds on Christmas markets.

The laboratory Alex was supposed to investigate was located right next to the swimming pool. It was a strange location for a lab, but it had been there since before the swimming pool opened. Authorities were suspicious that the lab was a cover for something else. It was Alex' job to find out what exactly was going on in the lab, and report back. The file also mentioned that Alex was not allowed to do anything. Only report. Ha! He'd heard that one before.

The small letters of the file mentioned that if he were captured, under no circumstances was he allowed to tell them that he was an agent. Even if police got involved, he was supposed to keep his cover as a schoolboy who'd gotten lost or who entered the property on a dare, or something similar.

Alex scoffed.

So they were allowed to use him as they pleased, but he'd receive no protection in return? He already hated this new deal.