I arrived home to my wife and our conversation started kind of like this.

"So I was thinking John Junior---"

"We are not naming our son John Junior. I think Alex is an excellent name.

"You're just jealous, dear. I know you would like to have him named after you..."

"Honestly, John! I think Alex is a strong, presentable name. It means---"

"I don't think he's going to care about what it means. Anyway, what do you have against the name 'John'?" I argued.

I loved debating with Helen. I knew I would never win but it was so entertaining to watch her get that upset expression and fold her arms across her chest with that glare of hers that she was doing right now.

She would be a great mother because frankly, that look even scared me.

"Alex Rider," she announced softly.

"Fine,"I bit my tongue to stop the argument.

We stared at each other long and hard before I moved toward her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Her arms fell from her chest and she could no longer conceal her smile.

I moved toward her lips and grabbed her chin but she swatted me away.

"So how as your case?" Helen asked.

"Fine. Australia is really lovely, maybe we can take John Junior---" I paused then laughed, "I meant Alex, there when he's older."

I never told her about my cases with great detail. I couldn't.

I had to return to work before the end of the day. I gathered the floppy disk in my hoodie pocket and left, my heart sinking as I drove farther and farther from my wife.

I went through all the security measures and walked to my office. The door was labeled 'Fred Lawrence' in case anyone inspected my office. No one would know my true identity.

I found Mr. Blunt had managed to get past my fingerprint scanner outside the door but then again, he was the one who had programmed it.

"Hello, Mr. Rider," he said as I entered my office.

Unaware of his presence at first, I jumped about fifteen inches into the air but refrained from screaming. "Hello, Mr. Blunt," I said pleasantly.

"Do you have it?"

I produced the small disk. I dropped my head slightly.

"I got rid of him. I know I should have kept him for questioning. I sort of lost control and he was killed," I answered.

To Scorpia, this would have been excellent news but to MI6, it was a setback.

Downloading the files, Mr. Blunt told me, "It wouldn't have mattered. This information gives us proof that he was working against us. It also proves he was acting alone. We couldn't have gotten anything else out of him."

I nodded. "Do you have any other assignments for me, Mr. Blunt?"

"Just work on figuring out Scorpia's latest attack. You are doing well.

Oh yes! I was doing "well" now. That bring me up to---um...two compliments from Mr. Blunt. It only took me...eight years?

"Yes, sir. I'm going to go back to Scorpia's headquarters. Good-bye, Mr. Blunt."

He didn't reply. He was looking out the window.

I left.

"Stay silent. It's the only way you will get things done. The knife blade goes out in one swift motion if you hold it by the hilt. The other arm comes around the neck and you can make one heck of a painful kill!" I announced, dropping the knife slightly.

Although I was the teacher, I didn't feel safe by completely letting my guard down.

The gunshot sounded, which meant the younger assassins traded classes, like a bell would usually be heard in a normal school.

I was off for the rest of the day do to the new case I was going to do with Yassen Gregorovich.

"Read this!" Julia Rothman passed me some paper. More like a novel, it was so long.

"Can you give me a quick overview?" I asked pushing the packet back to her. I'm a very selective auditory person so I'd prefer to have someone explain this whole packet instead.

"Sure, John. If that's what you need to establish your task..."Julia said. "We were buying drugs to load our latest weapon to launch. Be sure I mention to you the plan of the attack when you get back. As for now, you need to track the dealer with Gregorovich and dispose of him while we begin to execute the plan. He lives in the Amazon. There are plentiful doses of marijuana, which we can obtain after the kill. The only problem is that MI6 has word of our attack."

"When are we departing?" I asked.

"Please be next week, please be next week," I silently begged.

"I was thinking tomorrow, John."

"I guess...that could be possible..." I shrugged.

"Of course it's possible!" Julia blew up at me. "I give you plenty of time for your wife and breaks whenever you wish and your job should come first! This is the one time I really need you...please, John...

"Um...yeah. I'll...be there tomorrow..."

Julia relaxed. "Good."

I swerved through the buildings. I turned to see if Yassen Gregorovich was still with me. It didn't matter. The young assassin was as fast as a fully trained ninja.

I saw Caxero and Ash stepped out from behind the towering house. Ash was my best friend, he worked for MI6 so he had to pretend to be against me. I hated to be apart from him all the time because we had been a great team when we were could both work for MI6 in public.

"Rider! I knew you'd be here, Ash spoke to me in an angered tone. He was good at acting.

"It's a good thing we could meet again! I've always looked forward to any chance I'd have to you kill you." That, there was love to him. Or, at least, as friendly as we could get to each other. MI6 had gotten this mission set up to look like I was going to kill Caxero because I work for Scorpia. MI6 is excellent at illusions.

"Not if I get the chance first," Ash tilted the gun to me. But unlike our plan, he fired. The bullet hurtled at me and I knew I was about to die.

I gasped, sitting up in bed. I glanced over at the clock, which read 03:45 hours. It was a nightmare. I still had two hours before I had to go to the plane. I got up anyway. The weird thing about that dream was that it was so full and vivid. I've only had a dream that vibrant twice before.

Both times, the sequence of events did actually happen, only not in the exact way they had in the dream. I wasn't sure how much of my nightmare this time, would reflect on my future.

A/N: Okay, this totally reminds me of Raven's Gate. Another one of Anthony Horowitz series but I thought it was really cool! Anyway, review!