Chapter 4: Armed

-At School-

Tom had walked around the whole school as soon as the bell had rung. He was looking for Alex. He knew Alex had been looking for him and he knew Alex had wanted to apologies to him. Now Tom couldn't find him. It was as though Alex had suddenly disappeared, which was really quite normal for him.

Tom came to the science lab. He saw Mrs. Scott through the window but there was still no sign of Alex. 'Maybe she's done something with him,' he thought. He knew how much she hated Alex. He decided to knock on the door.

"What do you want?" she snapped. She was marking a test they had taken yesterday. Tom had wished he hadn't disturbed her now.

"Have you seen Alex?" He asked when he had opened the door. It had taken all his will power not to stutter.

"I sent him to the principal's office just before lunch," she said angrily, "the rude brat was late again and then he fell asleep in the middle of my lecture," she added to herself. Tom looked down at the paper she was marking. It had 'Alex Rider' clearly written on the front and next to it a big red D.

"Thank you ma'am," he said and quickly left the classroom before she noticed what he was staring at. 'The principal's office,' Tom thought, 'that's solved my mystery.'

Tom went back to eating his lunch. He could talk to Alex when he returned.


-At The Royal &General bank-

Alex was not surprised to be sitting opposite the man that had sent him on so many of the practically suicide missions.

"What do you want?" he asked coldly and stared daggers at both of them

"Scorpia are up to something. They know that you're alive Alex and they'll do whatever it takes to get their hands on you." Mrs. Jones explained. She wasn't happy about that fact that Alan Blunt had decided to get the boy involved again. He had been through too much already and it seemed unfair to get him to go through it all again. All Alan had said was, "Life's not fair." The head of MI6 seemed heartless sometimes. She just kept telling herself that it was to keep him alive and that if they found out where Scorpia were hiding the agent they would be sending in wouldn't be Alex.

"What are they planning?" Alex asked.

"That's the problem, we don't actually know. We don't even know where they're main base is. The only clue was their sign on a few robberies and when Scorpia steal it's usually to construct something. They never actually bother to buy anything normally," she replied.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked. The more words that were exchanged between them the worse he felt about being back in MI6's headquarters.

"We want you to be careful. It's very likely they're going to come after you. They never forgive or forget Alex. So we're going to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't get into any trouble. We'll get Smithers to equip you with a device so you can communicate with us and give you a few gadgets to help keep you alive and hopefully out of trouble," Alan Blunt said. His face was almost emotionless but when Alex looked harder he saw an emotion he couldn't put into words. It almost seemed like it was an obligation to help him stay alive, like he didn't really want to do it but was forced to.

"What makes you think I want your help?" Alex said stubbornly. MI6 wouldn't want to help him for nothing. He would probably end up in the middle of world war three or something. 'Oh joy,' Alex sarcastically thought to himself.

"Alex they will kill you as soon as they get their hands on you," Mrs. Jones said anxiously, "This is a life or death situation. It would be better to have bruised you pride than to be dead."

'She just doesn't get it does she,' Alex thought and then said out loud, "Why do you even care whether I live or die? Even if you did want me to live it would only be so you could use me again in the future," he was getting really annoyed now. He didn't want to be used again and he didn't think he had any room on his body for more scars and bruises.

Alex put his head in his hands. He felt like he was going to be sick and the headache wasn't helping. He didn't want to get involved again. The last thing Alex wanted was to get involved again. He needed rest.

"Alex this is for you not for us. Please just promise us you will take the stuff and stay safe," Mrs. Jones pleaded, "we'll stay out of your way and we promise we won't send you on another mission." 'Yeah right,' Alex thought but looked at her and he saw the honesty in her eyes. He turned to look at Mr. Blunt who was still wearing the same blank expression and saw nothing.

"Whatever," he said. Like everything else at MI6 the knock on the door was timed perfectly.

"Come in," Mr. Blunt said. Smithers waddled into the room. He was a large man, so large he only just managed to make it through the door. He sat heavily on the couch. There was a bag next to him that Alex guessed was full of his latest gadgets that were especially designed for him.

"Hello Mr. Smithers," Alex said happily. He was actually happy to see Mr. Smithers.

"Hello Alex. I hope you recovered alright," he said referring to the bullet wound Alex had received from Scorpia's sniper. "I have some cool gadgets for you. Do you remember just before we sent you off to infiltrate Scorpia I had a few things for you then?" he asked. Alex nodded. He remembered they couldn't give them to him because Scorpia would put two and two together and realize they had been tricked. They would kill him before he could found out how they were planning to kill thousands of school children.

The large man took out a pair of rollerblades. "All you have to do is press the button here," he said and pressed a flat green button on the outside of the rollerblade. Immediately blades shot out of wheels. "There is a lock on the back of the heel if you don't want to be caught out by someone bumping into you or something else like that," he said, "Also to retract them you push the same button. They'll cut through anything"

Next he took out a Rubik's Cube. "It used to be a hand grenade but MI6 didn't like the idea of giving it to you so instead it'll just knock whoever you want out for a couple of hours," he said simply. "You have to solve the puzzle for it to go off. It's not hard and I'm not going to show you for our own sake." Smithers handed Alex the cube.

"I also have a new backpack for you," he said.

"What does this do?" Alex asked.

"Nothing," he said, "it's just got a few hidden compartments to put stuff in." Smithers winked at Alex and he suddenly got what the meaning of 'stuff' was.

"That can be helpful," Alex muttered and took the backpack from Smithers. 'What great timing my old bag's falling apart,' he thought, 'now I won't have to buy another one.'

"And my personal favourite," Smithers said and pulled out a pencil case, "if you push the button on top of the pen three times and it shoots out tranquilizing darts, you know the pen you see in movies. The pencil is a tracking device and a microphone that can be turned on by removing the led. The microphone is in the eraser on the top of the pencil so don't break it. And last but not least the pencil sharpener, it's a video so we can see what's going on." Smithers handed the case to Alex. "They don't actually work as a pencil, pen or sharpener either so don't lend then to anyone," Smithers added.

"No gun?" Alex asked hopefully.

"No gun," Mrs. Jones answered sternly. Who would give a 14 year old schoolboy a gun anyway? Though Alex was no ordinary schoolboy.

"If anything comes up we'll find a way to communicate with you," Mr. Blunt said.

"Don't worry we won't get you involved. We'll just keep you out of their way," Mrs. Jones added quickly.

"Whatever," Alex said, "Bye Mr. Smithers."

"Bye Alex," Smithers answered and with that Alex left the room and headed home. He still wasn't happy about what was going on but it was the only way he was going to stay alive to even sit his GCSE's. He still felt awful. None of them had seemed to notice his constant coughing or any of the other things that practically shouted he was sick. He wasn't going to tell them anyway, they didn't deserve to interfere in his personal life anymore than they already were.

Alex walked slowly down the road towards home. He didn't bother having dinner because he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it down, even if he felt like eating. He just went straight back to his nice warm bed that he had been forced to leave so many times. He snuggled down into the covers and fell asleep.

Alex didn't wake till the next morning. He only felt a little bit better but lying can be useful when one needs to pass his or her GCSE's.


Thank you to Lil Lupin and ShadowSpy for reviewing!

This chapter sounded a bit cheesy but its all part of the plot (yes there is a plot). It is the longest chapter yet though. Well at least it has the most words but it's probably only because I ramble on at the end, look I'm doing it now.

Sorry for any grammar mistakes but being away from school so long is making me forget things. Year 10 this year, yay I have