Chapter 4
The bullet tore through the air and buried itself in the tire of a truck.
The truck swerved and rolled onto its side.
Alex heard screams and gunshots from inside the diner.
The FBI liaison pulled out his phone and dialled in a number.
"This is Special Agent Davies. Requesting officers and an ambulance to The Nyack Whale diner. Shots have been fired inside and outside the diner and a truck has rolled over on the road along the Hudson.
The woman on the other end of the phone said something to the agent.
"Thank you." The agent said before hanging up. "Follow me." He said to Alex.
The agent burst through the doors into the diner.
Behind the counter, there was a man holding the waitress at gunpoint.
"Oh shit." The agent said quietly. Davies radioed in for support from other officers and drew his gun.
"Listen." The agent said, "Let her go and we'll let you walk away from here."
The man shook his head. "He said he'd pay me 50K, double that and I'll let her go."
Davies bit his lip and hesitated for a second.
"You know that can never happen." The agent said, "Let's start from the beginning. What's your name?" Davies asked.
The gunman hesitated and gave a slight laugh before speaking. "Aidan. My name's Aidan."
Alex heard sirens blaring outside and looked out of the window to see that the police had arrived outside and were waiting outside of the diner.
"Well, Aidan." The liaison said, "D'you have a wife. Kids?"
The gunman gave a nod. "I'm engaged."
"Congratulations." The agent said, "Let the hostage go and you can walk away from this, with your freedom."
"Give me the money." The gunman replied, "Then I'll let her go."
Davies gave a nod to the gunman and the gunman released the hostage.
He took aim and squeezed the trigger of his handgun.
The gunman crumpled on to the floor, screaming out in pain.
Agent Davies led Alex out of the door and walked back, along the bank of the Hudson to the FBI safehouse with him.
He turned the key and unlocked the door, stepping into the hallway.
The agent led Alex into the basement of the safehouse and walked into a room into the side, slamming the door behind him, sitting down and gesturing for Alex to do the same.
"What the hell happened back there?!" The agent said to Alex.
"Listen, in a few days we'll be flying you and Simon back across the pond for Blunt's funeral."
Alex gave a nod to the liaison.
"The funeral will be the morning after you arrive back in London, we're booking the two of you into the Ritz, at 7, head down to the front desk and someone from MI5 will be there to escort you Our Lady Of Lourdes, where the funeral will take place."
Alex gave another nod of acknowledgement.
"This is high security, anything dodgy happens, you get evacuated to an MI5 safe house in the centre of London. Listen Alex; don't get distracted out there, focus on the operation, as soon as you get back here, focus on bringing Holloway down, don't blow it."
Alex got up to leave and then Davies' phone rang.
A look of shock flickered across Agent Davies' face and he gestured for Alex to sit back down.
The agent gave a nod and bit his lip before slamming his phone down onto his desk.
"Alex; someone's broken into your house in London, MI5 are flying you back out in the morning, go back to the estate, get your stuff together."
Alex walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him in anger.
He walked upstairs and exited the house, walking along the bank of the Hudson until he reached the Holloway Estate.
Alex used the key he had been given and let himself back in, he walked upstairs and knocked on the door of Mr Holloway's office.
"Come in!" Holloway shouted.
"Mr Holloway," Alex said, "Something has come up and I need to urgently fly back out to England tomorrow morning, is that alright with you?"
Without looking up from his desk, Holloway gave a nod and gestured for Alex to leave the office. "We'll find postpone the Fed job for now. Doesn't matter much to me, as long as it gets done."
Alex left the room, shutting the door behind him.
He walked along the corridor until he reached his room, he fell onto his bed and checked his phone.
10 Missed Calls from Chloe.
He gave a sigh and shut his eyes to sleep.
Alex's head still hurt.
He pushed Sabina down the stairs and heard her let out a scream as she hit the ground.
She crawled away from him as he walked towards the kitchen.
He grabbed a knife out of the kitchen drawer and walked over to Sabina.
Alex picked her up and squeezed her throat.
He raised the knife in his hand and plunged it into her stomach.
She screamed out in pain as the knife cut into her.
Sabina fell back onto the floor, clutching her stomach.
He heard sirens at the front of the house.
Alex opened the back door to the house and ran.
Alex stepped out of the lift and rung the doorbell to Chloe's flat.
Chloe answered the door and gestured for Alex to step inside.
"Welcome to my crib." She said jokingly.
Alex gave a laugh and sat down on the sofa.
Chloe threw herself onto the other sofa and reached for the TV remote.
"Where you been?" She asked Alex.
"New York," Alex said.
"Woah," Chloe said. "Step back Mr Cool Kid's in the room."
Alex let out a laugh and then a sigh.
"Someone broke into the house, Tom and every else got pretty hurt, going to go see them once I leave," Alex said.
"Seems like all the bad shit happens to you don't it," Chloe said.
Alex walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of coke and walked back into the sitting room.
"Bit rude not to ask me if I'm thirsty init." She said jokingly.
Alex downed the glass and stood back up.
"I'll be back in a few hours, going to go see Tom and that now."
Chloe gave a nod. "Not going to lie Mr Mad-lad, I missed you."
Alex threw his arms around her and let himself out of the flat.
He took the lift back to the ground floor and walked out of the block of flats and stepped into the minicab he called.
Alex drove through the city until he reached the Royal London Hospital.
"Cheers mate," Alex said as he stepped out of the cab.
He walked through the sliding doors and into the hospital.
Alex walked over to the receptionist. "My name's Alex Rider, I'm here to see Tom Harris, Joshua Plent and Matthew Hopkins."
The receptionist smiled at Alex. "We've been waiting for you, right this way." She said, gesturing for Alex to follow.
"Thomas was put in intensive care, the suspect stabbed him seven times in the stomach and the hand. He's lucky to be alive."
Alex bit his lip.
"Joshua has been discharged already, he sustained the least injuries out of everyone and Matthew is in Orthopedics, with a broken leg and wrist."
The receptionist led Alex to intensive care to see Tom first.
Alex paused in front of the door and gulped.
He walked into intensive care and sat down next to Tom's bed.
Tom looked at Alex and sighed
"I've already been through surgery twice. The docs say there's bad internal bleeding and that I should've bled out. Everyone's saying I'm lucky to be alive. Now I guess I know how you feel."
Tom gave a hoarse laugh.
"What happened?" Alex asked.
"We were all having a laugh in the kitchen, Josh was piss drunk. Someone smashed in one of the windows and jumped in, me and Matt went to check out what happened and he came at us. Matt ran upstairs to try and grab a knife from his room and the guy stabbed for the first time" Tom said.
"He ran upstairs to go after mat and Matt hurt him a bit, I didn't see much but there was a scrap and he pushed Matt down the stairs, I tried to get up to go at the guy and then he stabbed the other six times. Josh realized what was happening, called the police and got in a scrap with the guy and broke his nose, as soon as Josh fell down, I blacked out, I don't remember much after that."
Alex sighed and bit his lip.
"What happened once you got here?" Alex asked Tom.
"I woke up in the back of an ambulance, I don't remember much but I remember going through the hospital on a gurney and waking up in here."
Alex got up to leave the room and go see Matt but Tom grabbed his arm.
"Alex." He hesitated, "Never mind."
Tom let go of Alex's arm and Alex came out of the hospital room and followed the receptionist to Matt's room.
Matt was laying upright in the hospital bed with his arm in a sling and his leg in a cast.
"How you holding up?" Alex asked
'Well, I feel a lot better than I did after he threw me down the stairs." Matt said jokingly.
Alex laughed. "What happened with the guy, what was he after?" Alex asked.
"Dunno." Matt said, "I went up to my room to grab a knife after me and Tom found him and he threw me down the stairs and stabbed Tom, he got in a scrap with Josh, and went upstairs into your room and came out with a bag of stuff."
"What did he look like?" Alex asked
"Brown hair, green eyes, bloke wore a hat and a puffer, he knew what he was doing," Matt replied
Alex walked out of the hospital room and through the plain hallways to the exit.
He had always hated hospitals, as a kid, they scared him and he never liked being there, he was there too often.
Alex walked through the sliding glass doors and down into Whitechapel underground station and took the tube to the hotel the FBI had booked him into.
He sat down on one of the seats and threw his bag in front of him on the floor.
Alex put his earphones in his ears and laid back.
After a while, someone tapped him on the shoulder and spoke to him.
"You Alex Rider?" The man asked.
"Who are you?" Alex asked, avoiding the question.
"Depends who you are; now answer my question, are you Alex Rider."
"Yeah," Alex replied with a sigh.
"Good," the man said. "Got a letter for you, straight from my employer. I'd suggest you read it."
Alex slid the envelope into his pocket and got off of his train, walking up the stairs, out of Green Park station and back into the city.
He walked along the street until he reached The Ritz, stopping for a moment outside to look at the beauty of the building.
Alex never went to places like this as a child, the only times he only really went abroad were for MI6 missions. He stepped into the building and walked to the reception desk.
"My name's Alex Rider, I'm here to check in," Alex said.
"Ah, Alex, someone else checked in earlier, he asked if you were here yet. Anyway, your room's on the top floor, number 109, deluxe king room."
The receptionist gave Alex a smile and handed him his room keycard.
"Enjoy your stay." She said with a smile.
Alex walked upstairs and found his way to his room and unlocked the door.
He felt the cool breeze hit him as he entered the room, he dumped his stuff at the door and walked back out, locking the door behind him to find Simon's room.
Alex walked over to the room opposite him, he knocked on the door and Simon answered.
He told Alex to come in and sat down with him in the living room of the suite.
"So. What's the story with Blunt?" Simon asked him.
Alex gave a sigh before he spoke. "When I was 14, my uncle, an MI6 special agent died and MI6 reached out to me, I met, Blunt, Crawley and Mrs Jones during my time at MI6, Blunt tried to reach out to me a few months after I left MI6 and wrote a letter for me and left it with MI6, I was visiting him when he died."
"Damn," Simon said. "Must've been tough with MI6."
"So." Alex said, "What's your story?"
"I served in the army for a few." Simon said, "Filed an AGAI and got past SAS training, after a while the lads back home must've realized that I was good at what I did and they flew me back home to join MI6. I never met Blunt, only heard about him."
"Going to go and unpack my stuff now, see you in a few," Alex said to Simon
Alex got up and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
He let himself back into his room and unpacked his stuff, positioning a photo of him and Jack next to his bed.
Alex got into his bed and shut his eyes.
Alex felt something hit him hard in the head.
He fell back off of his chair, freefalling into a pit and not stopping until he felt the cold winter air wrap itself around him.
Jack walked into his bedroom and shut the window.
"I always tell you not to have that open in the winter, it's too cold for that. There's breakfast downstairs if you want it, pancakes and bacon."
"Thanks, Jack," Alex said to her.
"I'm going out for a bit," Jack said, putting her headphones back onto her head. "I'll be back in about an hour, gonna go for a run and grab some stuff from the shops, if an old bloke knocks at the door and asks you to get in his van, you know what to do."
Alex gave a nod to his guardian and climbed out of his bed, walking downstairs into the kitchen and wolfing down the pancakes Jack had made him.\
He walked back upstairs to get changed and came back downstairs as Jack was leaving the house, he went to say something to Jack but no words came out.
He felt something hit him hard in the head again, he began to freefall back into the pit again, spiralling down off of a cliff and not stopping until he fell to the bottom of a rock face.
Alex pulled himself back up and walked along until he found a road. He walked along the road until he began to see a jeep, with flames coming off of it.
By the time he had got there, the jeep had become charred and only a few small flames were coming off of the charred jeep.
Alex looked beside the jeep and beside the jeep, he could see the charred and battered body of his former guardian. Jack Starbright.