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CHAPTER 4:
Alex, like any sane person would have guessed it was cranky and strict Sargent Dane, cold Agent Coleman or even Joe Byrne who may have been coming there for a 'visit' or just to see Alex. But no, the person who was standing there, arms crossed with his eyes glaring at Alex was...
Mutt.
Yes, Alex was as surprised as you probably are right now.
"MUTT?" he exclaimed. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE SO LATE?"
"What were you doing on the CIA webpage at midnight Mr. Sneaky Rider?" Mutt snapped back. "They're lucky they assigned me for patrol duty tonight or else you would have continued your crime or whatever you've been doing!"
"I was NOT hacking it!" exclaimed Alex.
"Yeah, yeah, now log off immediately!" Mutt snapped at Alex ignoring him.
Alex logged off of the CIA webpage, turned off the monitor and returned it quietly to Aaron's bag. Then he followed Mutt out of the room where Mutt continued scolding him like a little boy.
"AND YOU STOLE IT! From that wispy and weak boy...how could you Rider? I am going to contact your superiors IMMEDIATELY-"
"MY SUPERIORS?" Alex was now the one enraged. "I don't have any superiors because I DON'T WORK FOR ANYONE!"
"Oh, haven't you heard?" said Mutt. "MI6 has claimed themselves as your superior to all the world because well, after all the bragging MI6 has done because of you...all the agencies want you."
"And how do you know about MI6? You're simply an American soldier," said Alex while Mutt snorted.
"I THINK, you've met my older brother, yes?"
"Your older brother..."
Alex thought about it, the name. Mutt, mutt, mutt, mutt...
"WOLF IS YOUR BROTHER?!" he shouted. "You look NOTHING alike."
And Alex was right, while Wolf had chocolate skin, dark brown hair and eyes, Mutt was red-haired with bright blue eyes and alabaster skin.
"Yes, that's what they ALWAYS say," said Mutt rolling his eyes, "I was always a male replica of my mother, Wolf and my little brother, Pup resembled my father."
They reached Mutt's office and he opened the door. It was neat, yellowish office like any decent office at all. Alex sat down on a chair and Mutt behind his desk typing a few things in his gigantic flat desktop computer.
After the SKYPE sound Alex asked:
"You use Skype?"
"Do you ask so many questions?" answered Mutt back at him angrily.
He left the room while turning the flat monitor around so that Alex could be face-to-face with one of the few people who he was most scared to talk to.
Mrs. Jones.
She was the same as always, serious and cold with those narrow eyes piercing you like sharp daggers. Her chocolate complexion, having brown skin and dark brown features. She looked at him.
"Alex."
"Mrs. Jones," he muttered.
"Alex," she said, "Mutt here said that you were on the official webpage of the CIA on JOE BYRNE'S ACCOUNT and that you were searching Agent Coleman, am I correct?"
"Yes," he mumbled.
"And why is that? What made him so special to you, Alex?"
So, without any option, Alex told her everything, Scorpion's and Mutt's public talk in the assembly, coming to camp, training, Agent Dawn falling from the window, his suspicions, eavesdropping in the hospital wing and finally, searching up Coleman's name.
"CALL AGENT COLEMAN HERE IMMEDIATELY," she shouted, Alex told Mutt her message and he ran off quickly.
A few moments later, cool Coleman entered the room.
"Good evenin' ma'am," he said to Mrs. Jones sitting next to Alex eyeing him suspiciously.
"Agent Coleman," she said coldly, "we discussed that you would not tell Alex about his mission, and what did you do? Or does the CIA lie about your abbilities?"
Coleman looked at her and replied in the same cold manner, "Of course I knew he was there, his fingers are longer than he thinks. I thought he ought to know after all the trouble you put into him, I think he should be tired of your lies so far, AND your broken promises."
Hallelujah! thought Alex. Finally, somebody has enough sense to understand me. Thank you!
Coleman and Mrs. Jones put themselves on an epic stare battle, with Mrs. Jones' cold and harsh looks with Coleman's suave, determined, cold and angry look.
After awhile Mrs. Jones said, "It was all neccessary."
It was all neccessary, thought Alex. So it was all neccessary? My parents dying? My uncle dying? The near death situations? Jack? The lies. The pain.
"Oh and Alex," she said, "before you say anything too touche (accent in e) for my liking, I would like you to see this."
Her face vanished and in return was a small video clip, no more than 30 or 40 seconds but had a stunning effect on Alex. He had to watch it 3 times and he was stunned. He couldn't talk, he couldn't move...he couldn't do anything.
Mrs. Jones looked at him once again.
"No," said Alex, "no, no, no...it's impossible."
The video was about a laughing woman sitting in a silver throne in what looks like to be an extremely posh and elegant castle. And that woman was none other than...
Jack Starbright.
"It's the cold truth Alex," Mrs. Jones said, "she is not dead."
"She exploded," said Alex through pain and gritted teeth. "She died in the bomb, exploded to bits...nothing more."
"But that's not all Alex," said Mrs. Jones, "there is more to the story, but that's unless you join and accept the mission Alex, which I will explain. Deal or no deal?"
"Are you blackmailing me?" asked Alex. He remembered his first meeting with MI6, they had blackmailed him with Jack too...about her visa.
"Maybe."
Coleman snorted at Alex's side and then caught his attention at a painting.
And Alex said something he IMMEDIATELY regretted:
"Deal."
Mrs. Jones smiled at him. "Excellent Alex, now off with the explanation of the mission. You see, you've been looking at the news lately? Of course you do, well you must have heard of the mall killings in Macy's?"
"All of Macy's killed," muttered Alex.
"AND, missiles flying over British homes and our very own Headquarters...we already know the suspects of course. There is this new organization, a brother organization with Scorpia...only a lot worse. Scorpia looks like Mother Teresa compared to this new organization."
Alex shuddered. THAT bad?
"It's called the Black Pride, it's a group of the world's darkest assasins, murderers, drug dealers, weapon creators (or any dangerous thing at all) and cold, evil, and harsh men AND WOMEN. The founders call themselves: 'Order Eight.'"
"I see," said Alex. "So what did they do?"
"Well Alex, remember those myths about that lost underwater city...Atlantis?"
"Yes."
"They're true."
"But I thought they perished when-"
"That was a lie Alex, to protect Atlantis. You see, Atlantis is a lush and rich city. The very streets are made of gold, precious gold. The architecture is made from the finest mosaics and material. Atlantis is hiding something Alex. It's made of 7 nuclear spears around it and in the middle of Atlantis...a gigantic energy ball that can activate those nuclear spears to a level of ultimate destruction...it can power anything to blast ENTIRE continents! Or even...Earth."
Alex was silent. A gigantic energy ball that could explode entire continents or the entire world? This was BAD, very bad.
"And...why is Jack in this?" he asked.
Mrs. Jones coughed, "It seems Alex, that she IS part of the Black Pride."
"WHAT?" exclaimed Alex. "I KNOW JACK! SHE WOULDN'T DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT!"
"She was an extremely trained spy Alex," she said, "a spy within a spy, the Black Pride knew you were one of the big chances to destroy their plans, so they sent Jack to spy on you and they made the fake Egyptian bomb where she 'exploded' but just disappeared to the Black Pride headquarters."
"But why would Jack do that?" asked Alex. "She's a good person."
"Well Alex," said Mrs. Jones gravely, "when your brother is the HEAD of the Black Pride, there's nothing you can do about it."
Alex was silent, Coleman, who he had forgotten, shifted uncomfortably.
"What do I do?" asked Alex.
"All right, first you have to know more about Atlantis, we'll send you as a high school student doing a report on ancient civilizations or something similar, you'll be with a German scientist, Albritch Gurten for a few weeks to study, then you'll go and find out the Black Pride headquarters, spy them and disguise yourself as an assasin too. Then you will one night investigate their files, steal a few to us, investigate their weapons and THEN turn them off while escaping one night. Yes, then you come back and we'll tell you what you have to do NEXT."
"All that and more alone?" asked Alex. He liked working alone but wasn't that too much? Maybe a partner would lighten up the work.
"Agent Dawn will be aiding-"
"HOLD DOWN A SECOND!" bellowed Coleman getting to his feet. "YOU CAN'T DO THAT! NOT IN HER STATE! PLUS, YOU DON'T-"
"Joe Byrne gave us the permission Agent Coleman," said Mrs. Jones coldly.
"But-"
"Leave them Coleman, we have no choice."
Alex and Coleman turned around to see Agent Dawn leaning against the wall, an arm slinged and bandaged and on a wheelchair temporarily. Her burns, scratches, scars and cuts had now almost vanished and she looked almost good if it weren't for all the bandages that wrapped her.
She wheeled herself over.
"I heard it all, I just knew that with all those special medicines you gave me, you wanted me to heal faster and to get in a mission. It's an agent's instinct," she said as she was the closest she could be.
"Agent Coleman," said Mrs. Jones, "you are currently dismissed. Go back to bed."
He muttered something to Dawn who only sighed and he left the room, slamming the door and making the walls slightly tremble.
"Excellent agent," sighed Mrs. Jones, "great abbilities but a very bright temper..."
"So when are we starting?" asked Dawn.
"Alex will need some training from you for about 1 or 2 weeks, then he'll be gone for the last week of his stay in this camp, for some-"
"Medical issues," said Alex rolling his eyes.
"Yes, and then you will start the first phase. Study Atlantis...no, Wikipedia isn't enough."
Alex smirked.
"And so on, you will divide some of the work to speed it up or lighten up between you. At your first week of the mission, you will be transported here, to the new Headquarters-"
"NEW HEADQUARTERS?" asked Alex.
"We had to be careful," said Mrs. Jones, "since Jack has already told the Black Pride that the Royal and General Bank is our headquarters, well, a few days after we moved, it got bombed."
"Oh," said Alex.
"You will change identities, Alex, you will be Felix Rochester and Agent Dawn, you will be Bailey Mellow. Understand?"
"Yes ma'am," said Dawn warily as if to say, I'd rather sleep than talk with you woman.
"Yes Mrs. Jones," muttered Alex.
"Very well, you are now dismissed. Good luck agents and I'll meet you soon after you land here from British Airways."
Alex and Dawn walked down the corridor.
"Are your injuries better?" asked Alex lamely. As we told you in the first chapter, he wasn't much of a chatter, but curiosity swept him over.
Dawn shrugged, "Mostly, the burns and broken bones are supposed to be better in a few days, I'm having surgery tomorrow, something about some organ. The gallbladder, I think it has a little hole, said it could poisoned my blood and stuff."
"It's really dangerous," said Alex, "little but dangerous."
"Kid, how did you get in to this agency?" asked Dawn, Alex sighed.
"My uncle Ian, he died from a car crash which actually turned out-"
"The Ian Rider, yeah...everybody heard. Sorry for you kid."
"And you?"
"Er...I was a hobo if you want to say it in bad terms, I roamed around abandonned buildings and I pickpocketed, I am an excellent pick pocket. So it was raining and I got into the New York City CIA headquarters by accident. And well, I started playing with the you know, practice stuff. Turns out I was being watched and that whole year, I was trained and the next, I started my career."
"Wow, large story," said Alex. "Did you go to a SAS camp or something?"
"Nope," said Dawn, "I went to THIS camp."
"Oh, I see..."
"Well," Dawn said reaching his door, "be quiet and good luck Alex."
Alex nodded. "Thanks."
When Alex entered the lights were turned on and he was facing 3 other boys, Vincent Horan, Gregory Doyle and James Farrow. Lewis and Louis were sleeping like a pair of pigs.
"Right Alex, we need to know," said Gregory to him.
"Where were you just right now?" asked James
"Bathroom," shrugged Alex calmly, "no biggie, now can you turn off the lights off? I want to sleep too you know."
"Who were you talking to in the hall?"
"The nice female soldier that showed me the way to the bathroom."
"FINE ALEX," said Vincent. "But we'll be watching you."
"Yeah, perfect Alex Rider, known to all the camp and the perfect boy that can handle weapons perfectly has memorized the latin name of every plant," said James in an annoying little girl voice.
"We'll be watching you," repeated Gregory, turned off the lights and they all went to sleep. Alex ignored what just what happened with those boys, the mission...the training would start tomorrow, should he tell Coleman about Gregory, Vincent and James? Were they a risk?
His whole body said one answer before falling asleep.
Yes.