Disclaimer: Guess who doesn't own Alex Rider

Author's notes: First, I know Alex is going on missions that seem standard, but I don't have Anthony Horowitz's imagination. All I have is my experiences, a large collection of movies, and my own much lacking in comparison imagination.

Second, I've been asked to provide information on the various vehicles and equipment Alex uses, because some of you aren't familiar with them. I'll slap a URL with an explanation at the bottom of the page that you can hit up at your own choosing. I might go back and fill these in for the other earlier chapters if someone asks me to. If anything else needs explanation mention it in a review.

Alan Blunt and Tulip Jones were sitting in their shared office. Ms. Jones was fiddling with a file that she wasn't looking forward to turning to her boss. It was a behavioral report filed because of their youngest agent. She'd read the report and other than Alex not avoiding the situation and being a little over zealous there wasn't anything wrong with his behavior.

She was not looking forward to handing the file over to her boss because he rarely acted rationally when it came to his youngest agent. True to form, when she handed over the file and her boss read it his face flushed with anger.

Mr. Blunt may not have shown any emotion when there were agents around, but when it was just the two of them, he occasionally let something slip. Today was different.

Instead of letting a small sign of anger slip he started yelling, "What the hell does he think he's doing? He just decides to put four teenagers in the hospital. Does he forget he's not supposed to be drawing attention to himself?"

Trying to be the voice of reason she said, "The report does say that they attacked him. He didn't just snap and start beating people. If he did there would be a lot more than four victims."

Mr. Blunt wasn't in the mood to hear it, "I don't care. We didn't train him to fight kids. We trained him to fight the enemies of our country. Using that against kids is irresponsible."

She coughed in embarrassment, "Uhm, Scorpia did most of his training, them or his Uncle Ian, I can't imagine Scorpia giving the standard don't use this on other kid's disclaimer."

Mr. Blunt was of the opinion that reason was for other people at the moment, and was still ranting and raving, "What does he think he's doing? He should no better."

"Alan, we trained a dog to guard the junkyard. Can we really get mad at it for using that training when other dogs attack it? Just because the dogs that attacked it didn't know how to deal with it doesn't change the fact that he did what we've trained him to do." She said interrupting his raving.

A hundred miles away Alex, several police officers, and the middle aged principle, Mr. Griffin were sitting in an office having a similar conversation.

Mr. Griffin had never seen anything like this before. Sure there'd been fights, Alex had even been in a couple, but there was never a fight that ended up with four students in the hospital, three in critical condition.

He coughed uncomfortably before saying, "Alex we need to know what happened. No one is making any judgments until we know the complete story."

Alex sighed waiting for MI-6 to come and clean up the mess he'd made. "I already told you, I was walking out of class with Mary and they didn't like me. Seeing me with the girl that Brad liked, was the straw that broke the camel's back. They attacked me and I defended myself."

One of the police men laughed disbelievingly, "You defended yourself? We have a broken nose, a broken elbow, a busted knee, and just so everyone knew you were serious, an almost lethally crushed windpipe. If this is you defending yourself what does you attacking look like?"

"Two hundred and seventy four dead enemy agents, not including those killed in bombings only possible because Agent Rider was able to recon the target area." Came the answer from the doorway.

Ms. Jones was standing just inside the doorway looking every bit the severe second in command of MI-6 she was.

Obviously the two officers didn't recognize because one very arrogantly asked, "and who are you? The kid's solicitor?"

Ms. Jones pulled out an official looking badge and said, "Agent Jones, second in command at MI-6, and also the one responsible for Agent Rider here."

The two officers got real respectful, real fast. Ms. Jones brushed them off like they didn't matter, "Agent Rider, why are you in custody?"

Alex was slightly confused when he answered, "The police wanted to ask me some questions about the fight I was in."

Ms. Jones brushed off his answer, "And why did you not simply inform them of your status as a 00 agent?"

All around the necks whipped around in shock. 00 agents were something that was made up by Ian Flemming for James Bond books. They didn't exist, and even if they did they wouldn't be handing that sort of power to a kid.

Alex was confused but smart enough to answer, "I figured you wouldn't want that kind of information in the hands of a school principal and two local police officers."

Ms. Jones nodded appreciatively for him catching on so fast. To the others it looked like she was acknowledging he'd been correct. She then said, "I know you're used to using with Russian defectors but these are British officers. In the future just inform them of your status and we at MI-6 will take care of the Order of Secrecy that everyone will have to sign at the end of the meeting."

At this point Mr. Griffin and the officers were staring with wide eyes at the two of them. They could have been pushed over with a feather.

Alex nodded before deciding to go for broke, "I'm sorry about this, Tulip. I've been an agent for close to five years now. I should know better."

Mr. Griffin had decided that he was going to just drop this. If he got hit with one more surprise he was going to quit. Apparently one of his most problem students had been working for MI-6 for several years, had a license to kill, had spent time dealing with Russian defectors, and was on first name basis with the second command of MI-6. This information made him want to crawl under his bed and hide.

Ms. Jones let the silence stretch on until she was sure that Alex's principle knew exactly what he was dealing with, then said, "Gentleman here's the Order of Secrecy that you are required to sign. If you don't, you will be considered a loose end. MI-6 does not leave loose ends."

The men signed so fast she was surprised they didn't rip through the paper. She smiled at them and then pulled out a photograph for Alex.

It showed a large crater in the desert. Alex looked at it and then looked at her curiously.

"This is what is left of the base you liberated Mary and the others from. MOAB's make such lovely craters. I know you like to see the end result of your missions, and I figured it might give Mary some closure. That was a very impressive extraction 009." She said and left the room.

As soon as they were sure the scary MI-6 lady was gone the officers left the room in a hurry. Alex was left alone in the office with Mr. Griffin who was sweating bullets and looked like he was going to be violently ill.

Alex smiled at him trying to make him relax. Mr. Griffin made an attempt at a smile that looked more like an attempt at passing a kidney stone.

Alex decided to try and strike while the iron was hot and said, "Mr. Griffin now that you know what my absences are for, is there any chance I could be excused for the work that I miss?

Mr. Griffin nearly choked on his tongue agreeing, "Oh yes sir, right away sir, anything for you sir, completely reasonable request sir, I'll send out the notice right now, do you want to read it sir."

"That's okay, Mr. Griffin, I trust you." Alex said before leaving

Mr. Griffin looked so relieved Alex busted up laughing as he left the room.

As he made his way to lunch the looks he was getting made him want to go home and hide under a rock. The angry ones were still there, but fearful, awed, and respectful were sprinkled in liberally.

He sat down next to Tom and the other kids on the soccer/football team. Many of the kids he'd played ball with since he was little got up to find another table. The other kids who wanted to hear Alex's account of the fight tried to slide into the vacant spot's but Alex's pissed off glare was enough to keep them at bay.

Mary slid next to him. Alex noticed with a small bit of guilt and a large bit of satisfaction that Mary's table was much emptier than it normally was. He pulled out the picture and showed it to her.

Mary looked at it for a while, before shrugging and saying, "I give up. What is it?"

Alex smiled and said, "We were calling it Aleppo four. You were probably calling it hell. It's where you and your friends were being held before we rescued you. As you can see MOAB's don't leave anything left standing."

"This is where they were holding us?" she asked surprised

"Yeah, we bombed it back to the stone age, not an hour after we left."

She threw her arms around him in a hug and said, "You have no idea how much this means to me. Can I send this to some of my friends?"

"Of course you can, Ms. Jones gave it to me, to give to you. You can do whatever you want with it." He said

"Thank you so much, Everyone will appreciate this a lot." She said extremely happily.

Three days later Matt returned to school. He apologized for his involvement in the fight, and Alex apologized for hurting him so bad he needed to go to the hospital. Matt just shrugged it off, and said he'd deserved a lot worse for trying to jump someone younger than him.

They were going to be good friends, and between Matt and Mary liking him, his popularity was skyrocketing. His life was awesome for the first time in as long as he could remember.

Then his phone went off. Not his normal phone, but the phone that Smithers had given him, that only Mr. Blunt had the number for.

Mr. Pierre looked up angrily to yell at which ever of his students was looking guilty. He was surprised when he saw Alex Rider pick up the phone with his face a mask of intensity.

Alex nodded twice and then began picking up his books. He was on his way out when he said, "Mr. Pierre, I've got to go. You can ask Mr. Griffin but I need to leave now."

Mary watched him go and couldn't help but be slightly scared. She knew what he was going to do and she was scared for him.

Alex was ready as he walked down to the office with clear eyes and a full heart. He was going to do what he was made to do. He waved to the MI-6 agent who had come to pick him up, and moved out to his car. When Alex clicked the button the lights of the car lit up like a tiger's eyes upon waking. He inserted the key into the ignition and the car gave a loud growl.

The drive to head quarters was quick and easy, and Alex made the long walk to the elevator with his head held high.

Alan Blunt watched the video screen as Alex rode the elevator up to the top floor of the bank. He looked stunningly like his father except the eyes. They were the same color and shape, but Alex's had darker shadows from witnessed horrors, and the colder eyes of someone who had looked death in the eye, and then punched it in the face.

The briefing was short and efficient like everything else MI-6 did. Alex walked into the room and met the master of stoicism Alan Blunt, who handed him a file and told him to get to RAF Lakenheath and be ready to go.

The mission was pretty simple. An agent had turned traitor and had stolen some military secrets that MI-6 didn't want falling into the wrong hands. According to Smithers the information was locked up as securely as possible but given enough time, any code could be cracked. Alex and K-Unit would be responsible for retrieval of the data and destruction of the facility where it was being stored.

Tehran beckoned to Alex as he drove through the crazy London traffic. RAF Lakenheath was a truly massive airport. One side handled most of the international traffic while the other half dealt with purely military aircraft. Alex nodded to the guard manning the security station. The guard had seen Alex enough to know that he was legitimate, and not paid highly enough to ask for proof. He slapped the button and the get opened. Alex drove through and parked next to Wolf's beaten up Toyota.

The flight was boring in the extreme. They landed several hours later and dismounted. They rode through the narrow streets of Tehran and Alex was thankful that the SAS had provided some real armored transports. He didn't want to get involved in Blackhawk Down: Tehran edition.

The MTTCS (Multipurpose Troop Transportation Carrier System) was parked several blocks from the base. It drew some odd looks but a creative paint job by the technicians made it look like nothing more than a rundown troop carrier from the Cold War, of which the SAVAK had plenty.

MI-6 had covertly rented them a room in one of the hotels near the target facility, and K-Unit and Alex crashed. Tomorrow would be a full day of Recon and then they would move on the building and take back the data. Then it was just a matter of laying the charges, detonation, and extraction.

Alex woke the next day wishing he was never born. As the youngest member of the team he had to sleep on the couch. The couch had been so uncomfortable he almost didn't notice the bed bugs, who had infested the couch so thoroughly he was surprised he hadn't found a small fort.

He groaned as he moved to the shower and began the long process of making himself Iranian. Whenever he went undercover in a Muslim nation, Smithers provided him some incredible skin and hair dye. It wouldn't come out until Smither's gave him the counter stuff.

He turned on the shower and waited for the water to warm up. Five minutes later when the water was still in danger of solidifying, Alex gave up the hope of warm water, and stepped, shivering under the stream of water.

As he washed the sweat from his skin he rubbed the dye onto his body and watched his skin tone change color. Ten minutes later Alex had the skin tone of an Arabian, and was dying his hair. He would have to rub some of the sandy dust, that the entire country was built on, into his hair to make it look real.

He looked at himself in the mirror and other than blue lips from the cold of the shower he looked exactly like a young mujahadeen.

He walked out of the room and got dressed in a slightly torn black T-shirt and some loose cloth pants. He held the AK-47, MI-6 had provided, trying to get the casual grip that Muslim jihadists usually had. His instincts screamed at him for his complete disregard for fire arm safety but he finally got it right.

Wolf woke up and pulled a pistol out from under his pillow before he was truly awake. He woke up to find a Muslim youth fiddling with an AK-47 in his room and he was on the sharp end. He was lucky he didn't just shoot the kid.

"Lay on the ground and put your hands on your head" he said in Persian, exhausting half of his knowledge of the language. (The other half wouldn't have been particularly useful because he already knew where the bathroom was.)

The Muslim teen looked at him funny and then said in perfect English, "Wolf, it's me, Alex."

Wolf exhaled deeply and then collapsed back onto his bed. He said something undecipherable into his pillow and then stood up and began to rummage around the room. Eventually the other members of K-Unit woke up and began getting ready for the day.

Alex promised himself he would never get addicted to caffeine after hearing Wolf insult everything from the countries, race, religion, government, women, family, soldiers and place in the universe for not having coffee. Snake and Eagle didn't seem to be doing much better.

Recon was as boring as always. Alex walked by the facility several times after picking up various things from the market. He bought Mary a real Iranian Chador (colorful Iranian dress/robe), and he even picked up a Burkah (the veil that covers a woman's face.) for Tom.

The guards were lax and the men at the gate house weren't even elevated. A rover crossed to the front at irregular intervals but Alex was heartened to note that they seemed to be the typical Iranian guards, and not particularly interested in guarding anything.

Alex's scan of the security and the satellite images of the building's interior made K-Unit confident enough to go through with the assault on the building.

Tomorrow at dawn, It was show time.

List of things mentioned in this chapter.

The troop transport Alex and K-Unit ride in

.?103274-MTTCS-Multipurpose-Troop-Transport-Carrier-System

The SAVAK (May they burn in Hell)

.org/wiki/SAVAK

MOAB (Massive Ordinance Air Blast Bomb) (more commonly known as the Mother Of All Bombs)

.org/wiki/GBU-43/B_Massive_Ordnance_Air_Blast_bomb