Okay, this didn't turn out exactly as I predicted but whatever. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own ALex Rider or Cherub
"You know what to do?"
"Yes, Cub, we got it," Snake said sounding a little annoyed. Alex couldn't really blame him; he'd asked that same question about four times now.
"Sorry, but it's kinda important," he said.
"We know," Wolf growled, his tone telling the teenage spy to drop it. So far Alex's plan was going well. He'd gotten up extra early that morning with K-Unit to finalize everything, which included a teleconference with Jones and Blunt, as well as the Director of Cherub. Alex hadn't expected any major glitches in his plan (the Cherubs were being kept out of the loop) but the possibility of anything going wrong had him on edge.
The five of them were sitting in Fox's car across the street from the school waiting for eleven-thirty to roll around. Alex had, had Jack call him in that morning so wouldn't have to worry about classes.
"It's time," Eagle said suddenly, getting out of the back to let Alex out of the car. The boy quickly crossed the street and made his way into the main building, ducking under the main office's window to avoid being noticed, and went straight to the basement door. He opened it quietly then slipped onto the staircase, closing the door behind him. Alex dug into his pocket to retrieve one of the miniaturized cameras he'd gotten from Eagle that morning. He placed one at the top of the stairs and turned it on.
"It's good," he heard Fox tell him through the small, almost invisible earpiece he was wearing. Getting conformation Alex made his way back towards the storage room the terrorists had been in the day before, placing various cameras on his way. Hearing voices, Alex placed his last camera just around the corner of the corridor leading to the storage room before leaving as quietly and as quickly as he'd come.
When he got out of the basement he went straight across to the door opposite the basement door and slipped inside, turning on the lights. It didn't matter that they were on, nobody would notice and if they did they wouldn't think anything of it. Alex was in the control room for all of the school's systems. Everything had been computerized during the renovations making his job all the more easier.
He sat down at the computer console and easily gained access to the files he needed. After he was done he made sure everything was in the exact place he'd found it before he exited and made his way back outside.
"We're good," he told K-Unit through the wire he was wearing.
"Good, everything's almost ready," Wolf replied and Alex couldn't help but give a small smile. Once again, he wished all his missions were this easy.
As Alex was making his way to the obscure side door on the south side of the main building he, literally, bumped into Lauren. She jumped back immediately, body tense, before recognizing him and exclaiming, "Alex! We've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Oh?" he said lifting an eyebrow at her.
"Yeah, come with me," she instructed and he followed her to the door he'd been headed for in the first place. They entered the short corridor on the other side and Alex was surprised to find James there. The corridor was rarely used, as the door they'd just come through was the only thing down there. Most students never knew it was there, which was way Alex had chosen to wait there for the next stage of the plan to take affect. It was close to the auditorium and there were no security cameras, which meant no questions.
Alex gazed curiously at James who appeared rather tense.
"Found him," Lauren said and James's head snapped up at them.
"Where have you been?" James asked sounding highly exasperated.
"With K-Unit," Alex replied.
"All morning?" Lauren asked.
"What's going on?" Alex asked wondering why the two Cherubs seemed so tense.
"Evans has been walking around the school," Lauren said. "Going back and forth between the basement and the auditorium."
"Yeah, so?" Alex replied. "That's to be expected."
"Well, there's a slight problem with that," Lauren said and James shifted from foot to foot.
"Like what?" Alex asked.
"Evans kinda knows me," James said. "We met on my last mission."
"The cult terrorist one?" Alex asked. James nodded his head. "Does he know about your job?" James shook his head. "Then just stay out of sight."
"It's not that simple," Lauren said.
"And why not?"
"The attack," James said simply.
"It supposed to go down in forty-five minutes," Lauren continued.
"I'm aware," Alex said. "What's the problem?" The two siblings glanced at each other before Lauren answered, her words spilling out of her mouth incredibly fast.
"Well, we reported what we knew to Cherub last night but the Director wasn't able to get back to us until this morning after you'd already left," she started. "Apparently, MI5 has transferred the case over to MI6 on the request of the heads of Special Ops. Since Cherub is no longer the organization on point, all of our orders come from Blunt."
"Okay, what's your point?" Alex said not showing any reaction to what she'd just said. He'd been the one to request the transfer that morning and Blunt had done the heavy lifting on the deal. The Cherub Director hadn't been pleased with it, but after some heavy persuasion, and a report on James's blunders the day before, the woman had relented.
"Blunt is refusing to give us any kind of backup," Lauren practically whined. "He said events were already in motion and all we had to do was find you."
"Right," Alex said simply. He was waiting for a specific statement and since James couldn't bring himself to say it, Lauren did.
"We don't know what to do," she said. "MI6 won't give us any back up or information. The attack is going to happen really soon and there's no plan to stop it. We can't blow our covers and since Evans knows James from another mission he can't openly do anything. We have no idea where the bomb shelter is or what Help Earth is planning."
"I wouldn't expect you to," Alex said and James's temper flared almost immediately.
"And why is that?" he growled. Alex, being far too used to Wolf's growl, had to stop himself from laughing at the attempt to sound scary.
"We've been keeping you out of the loop," Alex replied and watched the shock pass over both of the Cherubs' faces.
"Why?" Lauren demanded angrily.
"Because I needed you out of the way," Alex said arms crossed. "After last afternoon, I couldn't openly tell you to back down because you wouldn't have listened." The last part was said more to James than to Lauren.
"So you just decided to leave us hanging?" Lauren exclaimed her temper finally flaring as well. Alex could see that while she had more control over her anger, it was just as bad as James's.
"No," Alex said harshly. "We didn't leave you hanging. You didn't have the influence or the skill I needed to get the ball rolling on this. It was easier and quieter to just not tell you."
"So you've been letting us think that nothing was being done?!" James asked hotly.
"I haven't been letting you think anything," Alex replied. "You automatically assumed that since you weren't being told everything, that nothing was being done. Blunt told you to come find me, which should have been enough of a tip off."
"Tip off to what?" Lauren asked.
"That something was being planned," Alex said. "Did you really think the government would knowingly allow a terrorist attack on a school to happen? They get their brownie points with the public for stopping stuff like that."
"Well, nobody was telling us anything," James said with a huff.
"Yes, welcome to the world of politics," Alex said with a small smile.
"What are you talking about?" Lauren asked.
"The government rarely tells the full truth to anyone," Alex said not able to stop his tone taking on a sarcastic sound. "You may be spies, kind of, but that doesn't mean you're entitled to know things."
"But this applies to us," Lauren protested. "We should have been told about the plan."
"Not really," Alex said leaning up against the wall. "Like I said before, I didn't want you in my way."
"Wait a minute," James said finally catching on to something. "You set this up?"
"I did," Alex replied. "I was the one who requested the case be transferred to MI6 and it was my decision to shut you out of it."
"Why?" Lauren asked again.
"After yesterday I couldn't trust your ability to do it right," Alex said but it came out much meaner than he'd expected it to.
"See, there you go again," James said hotly, jabbing a finger in Alex's direction. "You think you're such hot shit, don't you Alex? We aren't invalids!"
"James, stop it," Lauren snapped and both boys looked at her with surprise. "Alex has a point."
"What do you mean?" James asked sounding a little hurt. Lauren rolled her eyes at him.
"Please, James," she sighed. "Like you could ever pull something like that off. Alex is right; we don't have that kind of influence."
"I had you shut out for a reason," Alex continued. "You guys are fairly decent at your job but not at mine. This wasn't the toughest mission but it did require more experience than you have. You two came here completely unprepared and whatever briefing you had, you obviously didn't retain. Cherub has gone up against Help Earth a few times but so far your organization has been unable to shut them down or even cripple them. I was given the details of your last mission; you saved the lives of four innocent children and yourselves. While that's all very good, you didn't even try to diffuse the situation you'd found yourselves in."
"You shut us out because some crazies blew themselves up?" James asked missing Alex's point completely.
"No," Alex replied his voice calm. "I shut you out because you didn't have the skills I needed for this bust. Like I said yesterday, you're a human listening device and nothing more. I needed a little more. Most of the work on this mission has fallen to me; I'm sorry, but you guys just aren't as good as people keep telling you."
"So, what do we do?" Lauren asked. She seemed to have gotten what he was trying to say. He hadn't left them out of the loop because of some kind of power play. He was trying to keep them out of the line of fire. Blunt had been ready to pull them out completely; Alex had been able to convince his boss that the Cherubs still had a place on this mission.
"All I need you to do for now," he told her. "Is to wait here until I get the go ahead for the next part of the plan."
"Can you tell us what's happening?" Lauren asked and Alex shook his head.
"Not entirely," he said.
"Why not?" James asked exasperated that, for the first time in his career, no one was fully telling him what was happening on a mission.
"Because you don't need to know," he replied.
"Oh, come on," James exclaimed. "First you tell us we don't know what we're doing, and then, when we turn into your subordinates you won't tell us shit. Why?"
"Because the decision to keep you out of the loop still stands," Alex told him.
"Is it that dangerous?" Lauren asked him.
"Actually, it's fairly simple, and it's quiet," Alex said. "Had this been left up to you, we'd probably have soldiers all over the place."
"And that's bad, because?" James asked mockingly.
"Because this situation is a lot more delicate than you think," Alex said.
"How so?" Lauren asked.
"Caraway is high profile," Alex started. "Brookland needs his money and the press is here to cover the donation. A mass herd of SAS soldiers would cause a panic. The school would end up on the news, Caraway's businesses would be thrown into the spotlight, and we could potentially put an even bigger target on his back than before. I was given some of the nastier details about Caraway's biohazardous waste plants and let's just say the government does not want certain details to get out about this guy. An influx of coverage in the media could tear down several high powered politicians, who haven't done anything illegal, but would fall under moral persecution."
"What's so bad about this guy?" Lauren asked a little shocked at the amount of information Alex knew.
"Sorry, but that's classified," Alex said. "All you need to know, is that this has to be handled quietly. Nobody can know but those directly involved. MI6 wants this to disappear and that's what's going to happen. No press stories, no high profile arrests, no government brownie points. Understand?" Lauren and even James nodded their heads looking a little flabbergasted.
"We've never really done anything that top secret," James admitted.
"I know," Alex replied. "Now do you get why you were shut out?"
"Yeah, I get it," James said then they all fell silent. At exactly twelve-thirteen, two minutes before the students were supposed to report to the auditorium, Wolf came back on to their comm link.
"We're good to go, Cub," he said. "Sound the alarm."
"It's show time," Alex said out loud and the Cherubs looked at him. He reached out and pulled the fire alarm.
Next Chapter: Alex's plan fully explained.
