Operation: Scorched Earth – Radioactive

WARNING for a super long authors note.

Because Tyz requested it (psst, hi, hey you! I haven't seen you in a while!), I'm writing up a summary of the road thus far, since I know it's been a long story, and a long time since our last update. So, literally, this is where we are, minus a few details (ALSO holy crap a lot has happened in this story, like where do I come up with these plot twists and how do you guys keep this stuff straight does less stuff need to happen this is a problem help)

Red Crescent: A threatening note left on MI6's doorstep inspires Alan Blunt to send Alex to Egypt along with Ben Daniels and a Mossad agent accused of treason for sharing top secret military intelligence. Alex is forced to pick up a series of skills to help hide out as a terrorist, as he and Yedit are using the identities of a married couple that were infamous for terror attacks in the Middle East, and later learns that Yedit was actually the woman whose identity she has taken, having worked for Hammas for some time. Alex and Yedit are captured by insurgents after making their way across the border into Gaza, and Alex breaks out only to nearly die after being shot, and finding out that the stolen military secrets are nuclear launch codes. Yedit goes off to hold the Prime Minister hostage, while Yassen helps Alex escape Scorpia. The arc ends with the discovery that Yassen is working with a renegade group led by an assassin from South Africa, named Evert Zaaiman, and the Taliban hijak's Alex's plane to Heathrow.

Bury Your Dead: When Alex learns that his next assignment for MI6 will take him to Uganda in order to pose as a child soldier to get intel on a dangerous warlard, he and Jack make plans to flee the country. Jack officially adopts him through some less than upstanding legal loopholes, but before they can leave, Alex is kidnapped by Ian Rider, who hadn't been killed after his last assignment, but captured and tortured by Scorpia. Ian is attempting to forge an alliance with the renegades to take down MI6 and Scorpia together, but it falls through when Yassen declares that Alex won't be a part of the bargain. Alex is dropped (literally) at a local police station after Yassen shoots Ian, and only barely manages to escape from the CIA headquarters in Langley VA, after finding out he is wanted as a criminal after going MIA before his mission. He goes on the run, discovering that his uncle is buying up large stores of weapons – enough to fund a private war. Ian is being kept controlled and pliant through the means of an opiate drug developed by Scorpia's board. Minor skirmishes are taking place across the globe as the civil war inside of Scorpia comes to a head. Meanwhile, Jack Starbright meets police Captain Donny Walsh, with whom she forms a love connection. However, on their first date, she is kidnapped by Scorpia as leverage for Alex's cooperation with his own demise. Alex, who is staying at a safehouse set up by Mossad Agent Yedit Shalom, manages to fight back, and a team of FBI agents breaks into the warehouse where the battle is taking place. Alex once again escapes, this time by threatening MI6 with suicide. He returns to London, planning on using what he knows to stop Ian and Scorpia from destroying his homeland. Ian Rider is captured, and Tulip Jones, who has been increasingly against what her superior has been doing to Alex, hopes to find a way to prove the older Rider's innocence and save Alex from any further harm. She sends a discrete call to a friend at another agency, and then takes a long vacation. Meanwhile in London, Alex stumbles upon Scorpia's base and tricks them into trusting him. Alex steals top secret files from MI6 as leverage for his own protection, and bait for the remaining board of Scorpia, who are assassinated by the Renegades at the drop point, led by Zaaiman, Yassen, and the board member known only as the Australian. They offer Alex immunity from harm by them, as well as a new identity, if he kills someone who owes them money – the same warlord MI6 wanted him to kill. Alex performs the deed and ends the arc in the company of four mercenaries sent as a team to protect him once he'd finished the kill. Meanwhile, MI6 has decided to send an elite team into the field to capture Alex Rider, known terrorist and traitor.

Scorched Earth: Alex and the four mercenaries hop across a few national borders, attempting to evade their pursuers. MI6 catches up with them in France, after Alex has already been sent out to the airport, and only two of them leave the building. One (Anish), is gravely injured, and spends the next few months living with Alex as a roommate performing a simply job for Scorpia while still on downtime. Alex finds employment at a pub called the Queen's Apple, but after a few months of employment, Alex is concerned something strange is going on, especially after waking up after being 'drunk' with no memories of the previous night. While investigating, Anish assigns Alex to babysit the twins Maddie and Michelle Bernard, the children of two assassins that Alex grows very close with. Once Alex figures out that the Queen's Apple is a front for a child slavery ring, he is accosted by three of his coworkers who believe he is a garden variety gangster working for Piper, the head of the operation. Anish leaves to return to his work with the renegades, and Alex agrees to work with the mercenaries – who make fools of themselves and get themselves killed when the actual operation goes down. Alex swoops in and saves the day by trapping the buyers in a secure basement while helping the children – and Agent Shalom, taken prisoner by the ring for investigating their activities – escape through the vents before blowing the building up with a homemade explosive you should absolutely not try building on your own no matter how graphic a description I gave you. Alex is injured in the process, getting shot and scraped up before he returns to his flat where he pulls the bullet out of his side and goes to sleep.

Oh, and if any of you are interested, I've been going through all the chapters of Red Crescent, cleaning up the story, patching some random plot holes, smoothing over the worst of my grammatical and spelling errors, that sort of thing, so the whole arc is starting to look much better now.

Anyway, go forth and read fiction! Thanks for sticking with this for the long haul!

A loud knocking at the door woke Alex with a jolt.

Suddenly fully alert, the teenager grabbed the gun on the bedside table as he stood, wincing at the pull on his gunshot wound.

Alex's torso was covered in bruises and scratches from his intimate meeting with an asphalt street, but he was only a little worse for the wear, all things considered. He was definitely on top of his game enough to move silently from the bedroom and into the main kitchen area, already completely alert and ready for a fight.

"Would you just get over here and open the damn door?" A woman's voice called impatiently from the other side of the door. "I'm freezing out here!"

Rolling his eyes, Alex lowered the gun and tucked it into the back of his pants. Yedit. Right. He should have known that she'd find his flat.

"I should leave you out there!" Alex called back. "It would serve you right for stalking me!"

"Open the door Alex, or I will shoot you through it."

Alex pulled open the door, admitting the Israeli assassin into the flat. Her hair was an alarming shade of red that had to be a recent color, since it had definitely been a much more normal shade of dark brown last night. He glanced around outside, checking to see if there was anything out of place, or if Yedit had been followed.

"I'm not even going to ask how you found me, because I'm reasonably sure I don't want to know," Alex said, turning to face the other agent. "So what's up?"
Yedit grinned at him, before turning to rummage through his cupboards.

"I wanted to thank you," Yedit replied. "The son of one of our diplomats had been grabbed by that slavery ring while he was visiting Britain, and if you hadn't shown up, we'd both be in a lot of trouble at the moment."

"He make it out okay?" Alex asked, the painful memory of the shot children flashing before him. He hadn't had much time to dwell n it before he'd crashed, but now the guilt came back to hit him full swing.

"Yes, he is fine," Yedit nodded, grabbing a box of cereal. "I'm hungry," she said when he gave her a weird look. "I haven't gotten the chance to eat since I got my charge back to his father."

"Use the paper bowls, we were never able to figure out which dishes had been used to cook up Nitroglycerin or plastique," Alex decided the fight wasn't worth it and settled on a smirk. Yedit gave the porcelain bowl she'd just grabbed a speculative look, gently sniffing the inside before putting it back on the shelf delicately.

"So, you are still alive," Yedit said finally, settling into a chair by the table with her paper bowl of Captain Crunch. "Congratulations."

Alex snorted.

"Is this the part where I have to warn you that if you start working freelance, you should avoid any jobs that take you near Israel, so that I'm not obligated to shoot you?" Yedit asked curiously.

Alex shook his head.

"Nah, I'm not freelance," he answered. "Going day by day mostly, though I seem to have lost my only legitimate gainful employment yesterday."

Well, he still had babysitting, Alex supposed, and though he was very well paid, he doubted he could get Claire to pay him a good enough hourly rate to be able to afford things like rent and groceries and bullets. He did have plenty of money saved up, stored in liquid assets around the flat. Idly, he thought that he should store some of it elsewhere in the country, have a few places he could go to pick up some quick cash if he ever had to run. He put that on his 'to do' list for the afternoon before returning his attention to the killer eating cereal in his kitchen.

"So you came back here… to say thank you?" Alex asked. "How very… uncharacteristic."

He probably wasn't aware of the fact that his eyebrow arched in a perfect imitation of the gesture Yassen Gregorovitch had borrowed from Alex's own father as he spoke.

Yedit smiled.

"I need a favor," she said. "Well, technically, I'm calling in a debt, since you currently owe me."

"I think you'll find that I don't owe you shit, seeing as how you letting me go was your way of canceling out my pulling your ass out of hot water with Mossad," Alex said, just to be contrary.

"I then proceeded to lie to my father and your director, after giving you a key to one of my few most valuable safe houses," Yedit replied.

"In the process of saving your ass, I died," Alex replied. "Twice. And I used my one gadget to clear your name while I was getting tortured. Which, by the way, also happened twice."

"You took my laptop and my phone."
Alex just smiled back at her.

"Fine, a favor then," Yedit answered, rolling her eyes. "Mossad is officially denying involvement in this operation, so I need to lay low for a while. Since my funds are unreachable and the department isn't going to let an expense like this appear on their logbooks, I'm stuck for a few days."

"You could have just asked," Alex said practically.

"I did, and then you… nevermind," Yedit said, scowling.

"The couch is yours," Alex told her with a grin. "Avoid the dishware, pretty much all of it was used to make explosives or some kind of horrible poison."

"Thank you," Yedit sighed, sagging in the chair.

"You haven't slept since I saw you last either, have you?" Alex asked critically. Yedit shook her head.

"Go sleep," he told her. "I have to go check on something. Plant anything in my flat, and I will hunt you down and kill you. I'm not kidding."

Yedit stuck her tongue out at him, but stood up and headed over towards the couch, scowling at him.

"Oh come on, how am I supposed to get my entertainment?" she demanded. "Daytime TV can't be half as interesting as the life and times of Alex Rider: Spy on the Run."

"It's Michael while I'm here," Alex replied, heading back into his room to grab a shirt and more weapons. Pulling the garment on reminded him that he'd been shot not a day ago, and he winced again at the ache in his side.

"Michael, huh?"

"New identity," Alex said, coming out of his room with a jacket over one arm.

"Aw, why'd you have to go and put a shirt on?" Yedit pouted. Alex stared at her.

"You are either seriously sleep deprived, or on some kind of drug," he said finally.

"Actually, it's both," Yedit grinned, using her hand to motion shooting a bullseye at the teenager while she leaned against the arm of the couch. "Valium is really awesome, y'know that?"

How Yedit had tracked Alex down in this state was now actually a really interesting question he figured he'd examine later. He swiped his laptop off the kitchen table and shoved it into his bag, along with one of his exam prep books.

"You're going to be so mad at yourself if you remember this when you wake up," Alex told her with a grin. "In the meantime, do try not to blow up my flat, yeah? You don't want to know what I had to do to get it in the first place."

Yedit saluted him, and passed out backwards onto the couch, her legs still bent over the side arm.

"You're gonna-"

Alex paused, realizing that Yedit was completely out.

"Goddamit Shalom," he mumbled, picking her up from where she was sprawled half on the couch, half off, and settling her smaller frame down onto the cushions. Honestly, he was rather touched that the Israeli spy had chosen to come to him when she was like this – drugged up and vulnerable. She trusted him more than he could have guessed.

It was a heady, kind of terrifying feeling.

Spies don't trust people. They don't know people whose couches they can crash on for the night, and they don't have friends they're not trying to manipulate, kill, or steal from. They didn't have people that they could go to for help without having to offer something in exchange, or come up with a suitably violent threat in order to make sure they were safe.

Spies don't know many people who they'd be willing to be unconscious in front of.

So what did that make Alex and Yedit?

People that crash on each other's couches, apparently.

Alex took his bag and headed out, locking the door behind him and going for his bike. Before he got on, he grabbed his phone and dialed the Bernard home phone.

"Hey Alex, what's up?" Claire asked.

"I just wanted to check on you and the twins, make sure everything was alright," Alex said as he bent down to unlock his bike. "I would have called before, but you know… work."

Claire chuckled.

"The girls are fine," she told him. "Still recovering, but they're already more bored than sick, and ready to get back on their feet. The doc says they should have a week or so more of bedrest, especially Michelle, since there were some complications in her surgery, but they'll be okay soon."

"I'm really glad," Alex told her honestly, stuffing the lock into his bag. "I was worried about them."

"You're sweet," Claire told him. "You alright? You said you just finished a job…"

"Little beat up," Alex said. "I've had a lot worse."

Claire snorted over the line.
"Haven't we always?" she asked.

"True," Alex conceded. "Anyway, I just wanted to check up on you guys, but I'm headed out. Give me a call if you need me to swing by anytime soon, you know the drill."

"Sure. Bye Alex."

Alex hung up, and looked around. He had the persistent feeling that somebody was watching him, but the street was entirely empty. It was still too early for most people to be moving about, and a chilly fog hung in the air.

He took a second, more careful look. Nobody was there. He was very nearly certain of that. Shrugging, he headed out towards the local library. He'd been neglecting his chemistry studies, and wanted to check out a textbook or two on the subject, since his in-home tutor had left him without a human resource on the subject.

Alex wondered what he was really trying to prove, keeping up with his studies. It wasn't likely that he was ever going to find any kind of permanent legitimate employment, not when he'd be hunted by MI6 wherever he went.

He sighed. Maybe he just liked having something to work towards that was for nobody but himself, that was essentially constructive and had next to nothing to do with killing anyone?

Either way, it was too early to psychoanalyze himself, and his side was hurting again. He'd need to change the bandages on his gunshot wound soon. He'd do it when he got back from the library.


"So, any sign of this Michael Cooper?"

"Well, he was employed on the books of this pub, some small local place," Snake said, looking up from his laptop. "Word is the woman who ran the place was killed in an explosion in some residential neighborhood. Turns out she was running some kind of child slavery ring."

"Do you think Cub was working for her?" Eagle asked.

"No," Ben said tightly. "I went down to the scene this morning and asked around. The only survivors were some of the kids. A teenager matching Alex's description was seen by all the kids there, but he helped them escape after locking the buyers in a vault downstairs which he proceeded to explode with some homemade TNT."

He left unsaid his personal opinion, which was that the Alex he knew would have willingly cut out his own heart than work for someone like Piper, not when she was hurting kids.

"Seriously?" Wolf asked, a half grin spreading over his face. "Our Cub, really?"
"He's not ours," Eagle said disapprovingly. "And he may be a teenager, but he's defected, and whatever his motives for getting involved here, Alex Rider is a dangerous liability. I don't like it any more than you guys do, but I'm not going to deny it just because it's convenient."

There was a tense moment between the four soldiers. Their tempers were running thin, mostly because they had all slept in the same van, sharing space among the tech equipment in the back. They had traced Cooper's location to a flat in Manchester, and were waiting outside for him. Well, technically they were waiting around the corner, having set up a few cameras on the street (courtesy of Ben's know-how), and were watching Cooper's street on the screens inside their surveillance vehicle.

"Hey guys, look!"

A sleek black car pulled up in front of the flat, and a small redhead stepped out. The car zoomed off as the redhead staggered up the steps to the flat door they were watching, seeming to have a bit of trouble. A few moments later, the door opened, admitting the woman and a dark brunette poked his head out cautiously before closing the door.

"Is it him?" Ben asked.

"Can't tell, we're too far down the street," Wolf said. "Could be. Hair's the wrong color, but that doesn't mean anything."

"So, what, we wait?"

"And follow him," Wolf said. "At least we know he's there, not like Singapore when we spent a week and a half watching an unoccupied flat."

A few minutes later, the brunette stepped out the door, locking it behind him.

"Well, so much for my theory," Snake spoke up.

"What was that?" Wolf asked.

"Early morning booty call," Snake replied, not removing his eyes from the screen. "But they definitely know each other. Well enough that he's leaving her alone in his apartment. If it's Cub, she might be an accomplice."

"Well, right now what this means is that we can't search his flat," Ben said. "So we split up, half stay on the flat, half follow Cooper?"

"Good plan," Wolf said. "I call not staying in the damn van."

"Seconded," Snake said, closing his laptop and shoving it aside. "Fox is probably better at breaking into places unnoticed anyway."

Eagle and Ben mock glared at the two men who jumped out the back of the van and headed for their second vehicle, the rental MI6 had provided for them along with the van.

"I hate this job," Eagle groaned, stretching out into the extra space vacated by his two teammates. "Goddamn SIS."

Ben chuckled.

"Yeah, they have that effect on people," he muttered. He cast around for another, better topic.

"So, bets on who the girl is?" he asked.

"Drunken bugger," Eagle replied, leaning back into a position where he could comfortably keep an eye on the monitor

"You think?" Ben asked.

"I started out doing clean up in national parks," Eagle said flatly. "I can recognize a drunk from ten yards in the dark with nothing but my ears and a flashlight, and she was off her tits."

"Huh," Ben said. Alex hadn't ever shown any major proclivities towards that sort of indiscretion while they were on the job. To be honest, he'd kind of figured Alex to be batting for the other team.

"How many drunken buggers you know that show up the morning after?" Ben finally settled on asking.

Eagle turned his head to the side, contemplating that.

"It's seven thirty, so she's been up all night drinking," he said finally, making eye contact with Ben. "It's too early for her to have started after she woke up. Which means she thinks this Michael is safe, safe enough to go to when she's vulnerable, anyway. Think she lives with him?"

"No," Ben said. "She didn't have keys, and Cooper seemed suspicious of her coming back now."

"So, drunken friend then," Eagle said. "How many of those do you reckon Cub has around?"

"Not many," Ben sighed. "It's not his guardian, right? She was a redhead."

"Jack Starbright is still in Washington," Eagle supplied. "In a happy relationship with a detective, from all appearances."

Ben fell silent, and the two of them kept a careful watch over the moniters.

….

Mrs. Jones was just arriving home from her prolonged vacation when she got a very interesting phone call.

"Tulip?"

"Virgina!" Mrs. Jones said in surprise, a smile spreading across her normally stoic face. Here, in the safety of her home, there was no need to hold herself back, to pretend what she was and what she was not. "To what do I owe the pleasure? I'm just returning from holiday at the moment."

"Yes, and I'm just as shocked as your entire department, I'm sure," Virginia teased. "You haven't taken leave in ages!"

"Yes, well, the time was right," Mrs. Jones sighed.

"Indeed. Did I tell you I've been promoted?"

"No, you didn't," Mrs. Jones said. Her voice didn't reflect it, but she was surprised.

"Yes, they made me head of internal affairs," Virginia said, and Mrs. Jones could tell she was smiling. "I've officially taken over as of last month, and there's actually a file my predecessor left on my desk that I'd like to talk to you about."

"I see."

"It would seem Nathan had logged a certain phone call you'd sent in, and was in the process of beginning an investigation into the matter," Virginia said, her voice turning official and calm. "Indeed, with the change in administration, I'm only just caught up with all the paperwork that fell by the wayside, with the change in administrations, and this went quite under my radar. Luckily, my assistant found it."

"Lucky indeed," Mrs. Jones said. "Unfortunately, I cannot make any official trips to your office, as the nature of my observation might suggest."

"Damn it Tulip, you need to be seen to be standing on the right side of this," Virginia said, sounding frustrated. "This kind of scandal… Our entire SIS department may be held culpable for what has happened. Do you understand me? You will be ruined if you maintain your anonymity."

"It is far more important to me that the matter be resolved to the best of our ability," Mrs. Jones said stiffly. "If it is understood that I do not stand with the administration on this issue, even more extreme measures will be advocated without my ability to alleviate them."

"Tulip-"

"I will make no official statements or documents on the matter," Mrs. Jones said sharply. "If you require any more information, you already know where to look. Good day."

She hung up on her friend, staring into the fireplace.

This would ruin her, but at least it would allow her to finally get rid of the guilt that had been following around her for a very long time.

By the time Alex got back to his flat, Yedit was still passed out. Alex smiled in her direction. It was late in the afternoon, so he decided to actually cook some food, not having eaten all morning.

Yedit was roused by the smell of curry simmering in the skillet Alex and Anish had picked up and very carefully labeled as a "food only" cooking instrument.

"Is that food?" Yedit groaned from the bed.

"Yep," Alex replied. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Yedit groaned. She sounded rough, as though the last few days had finally caught up with her.

"You hurt anywhere?" Alex asked. Yedit shook her head as she ambled into the kitchen to help Alex shop vegetables.

"Nope."

"Are you lying?" Alex asked.

Yedit gave Alex a glare that told the teenager to back off. Alex figured that Yedit was a big girl and could handle herself, and berated himself for not having asked while she was still loopy from the painkillers.

"Whatever," Alex said. "First aid kit is under the sink in the bathroom, either way."

There was a companionable silence filled with the sound of their knives hitting the cutting board as they chopped the vegetables.

"So, you and painkillers, not a great mix, huh?" Alex asked, searching around for a topic of conversation, and Yedit snorted.
"You've got five inches and what, eighty pounds on me?" she asked. "I can still kick your ass, but it just so happens that I'm small. Me and alcohol and drugs generally aren't a good match."

"Lightweight," Alex grinned.

"Whatever," Yedit rolled her eyes. "At least I make good life choices."

Thinking of how the Brazilian mercenary's had used alcohol to get the drop on him, Alex decided to drop the issue in favor of putting more of his brainpower to sue trying to ignore how bizarre this whole situation was.

Though, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that making lunch in his kitchen with an assassin while chatting casually about football wasn't really the weirdest thing to happen in his life, and let it go.

They ended up staying in the flat for four days, watching old movies, cleaning guns and sharpening knives to pass the time. Alex was pretty sure Yedit had a few busted ribs, but she hadn't asked for his help as a matter of pride, and he wasn't going to offer it because he knew it wouldn't be appreciated. They were both thankful for the downtime.

Alex had spread out some of his funds – partly electronically, across a few accounts, and partly in liquid assets, to be mailed to specific PO boxes that he'd memorized the addresses and codes for.

Yedit was impressed with Alex's education in Arabic language skills, and spent some time trying to help him master Hebrew – which, Alex was convinced, was nothing more than Arabic viewed through a funhouse mirror. Some of the words and grammatical rules were exactly the same, some were very similar, and then some didn't seem to have any connection Alex could draw.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered under his breath whenever Yedit tried to push him to learning more, but he always ran through the drills with her anyway because there was no chance in hell Alex was going to let himself get dragged into a mission without knowing the language again.

Yedit had gone out looking for some sweets – and seriously, Alex had never had such an intense argument over flavors of chocolate, for gods sake ("In Israel, we have this chocolate that they put pop rocks in, and it's absolutely amazing!")

Alex snorted and replaced the bullet cartridge in the Desert Eagle Anish had given him. Apparently sweets were compulsory for making ones way through Star Wars (the originals, of course). Not that Alex was arguing, but sometimes he couldn't believe that Yedit Shalom was a bloodied assassin.

The sound of his phone ringing cut through his thoughts rudely. Alex checked the ID and picked up with a grin.

"Hey Claire, what's up?" he said.

"Sorry to bother you Alex, but do you think you could come watch the twins this afternoon?" Claire asked. "I can't stay the whole game and they need a ride back and a cheering parent in the stands. I'll leave the van so you can take them back and forth."

Alex chuckled.

"Always up to watch football," he said. "And I'd be happy to go keep an eye on the girls."

"You're a blessing Alex."

"Not like you don't pay me well enough," Alex smirked. Both of them knew that Alex was hardly working for the Bernards' because he was paid very well. Yes, he was compensated for far more than any normal babysitter probably earned, but there was no mistaking the fact that he worked for Claire mostly because he loved the twin's like his own sisters.

In just a few months, he'd begun to understand how Jack had been driven to adopt him as her own without reserve. He felt a wave of love and gratitude swell in his heart, and he hoped that wherever Jack was, she was safe. He hadn't so much as called her or tried to contact her in the last few months, because he knew the truth – wherever Jack was, she was far better off without him. He loved her dearly, and he couldn't bear to pull her back into danger because of him.

Alex, well, time had proven that Alex could take anything life threw at him and lob it straight back. He had the luck to beat the devil and the skills to out it to good use.

As far as he was concerned, protecting those girls was pretty damn close to the best use he could think of.

He called Yedit to let her know he had something to do for the afternoon, and wouldn't be back until late, and then headed off towards the Bernards.

The former group of SAS soldiers had been taking turns watching Alex and the flat, following him out when he stopped at a post office and keeping an eye on him as he returned.

"He's going to ground," Ben said thoughtfully.

"Do you think he knows we're here?" Eagle asked.

"No," Ben smiled slightly. "Trust me, we'd know if he knew. Alex doesn't do subtle very well."

"Or he's still planning something horrible."

"Or he just saved the lives of what, twenty kids, but blowing up a building and would like to stay away from anyone looking for someone with a face like his in case someone recognizes him," Ben cut in reasonably, cracking his knuckles. "Either way, we're still stuck here so there's no use whining."

It was several days later that they finally caught the first sign of movement from the flat.

"The redhead is leaving," Wolf said. "We got an ID on her?"

The woman pulled up a hijab and put on sunglasses before Snake could get a decent shot of her face.

"Damn," he hissed. "Well, anyway, this leaves Cooper on his own right? Let's go in and grab him!"

"No, wait," Ben said. "If this is Alex, and I think we're all pretty damn sure of that, we need to be cautious. No way we're challenging an armed, highly trained and dangerous rouge agent on his own turf. I'd like to go home eventually, thanks."

"Helpful Fox," Wolf griped. "Got a better plan?"

"Wait," Ben insisted with a tight glare.

Less than a minute later, the teenager emerged.

"Right, Fox, Snake, go search the flat," Wolf said. "See what you can find. Eagle and I will tail this kid, see where he goes."

"Don't let him see you," Ben warned Wolf. "Use the second car and tag team him, or he'll figure it out in no time."

"Right," Wolf said. "Eagle, get up front, stay on him."

The two cars followed Alex to a residential neighborhood where he met a woman outside a house, exchanged words with her, and received a set of keys.

"Is he fleeing?" Wolf asked Eagle through their connected phones.

"He doesn't look like someone who's running away," Eagle offered hesitantly. "Let's stay on him, we can alert the right authorities if he tries to flee the country."

They followed Alex… to a local park? Wolf was getting more confused as they watched the teenager pull over and let two girls – twins, roughly ten or eleven, from the looks of them – both wearing football uniforms out of the car. He grinned at them as they passed a soccer ball between them. Wolf stared in astonishment as Alex knelt to fix the bow on one girl's shoe, and adjust the shin guard on the other.

"Can we get sound?" Wolf asked.

"I think so," Eagle said, and a few moments later, the garbled sound of the last bit on their conversation came through the speaker.

"Lets get going then, don't want you late," Alex was saying, and though his voice was deeper, more mature, Wolf would have bet anything it was Cub.

They kept eyes on him as he took each girl to a football field, where they met up with their teams – from what Wolf could tell, there were two games going on and each girl was on a team in one of the games.

Alex moved between the two fields, watching each of the girls compete and cheering them on.

"Kids football?" Wolf asked uncertainly as the games drew to a close and they were watching Alex stand around with the parents of players. "This can't-"

"ALEX!"

Twin squeals came from two of the players, each wearing a different color uniform (the only way to distinguish them given their identical features), came running out of the crowd and threw themselves into the teenager's arms.

"There's my two heroes," Alex grinned down at them. "So, Maddie, I didn't catch the tail end of yours, did you kick their butts?"

"Yep!" Maddie nodded proudly, and the girls high-fived each other, each one a member of the winning team from their bracket.

"Well done, both of you," Alex beamed. "Your mum's not gonna be home for a few hours, want to go get chips or ice cream to celebrate?"

Two cheers sounded from the smaller girls, and Alex took one of their hands in each of his own and walked them towards the cars. He was stopped a few times by parents that recognized him, and they chatted for a few moments, obviously on good terms.

"This changes things," Eagle said quietly, pulling his headset down. "We can't grab him if those kids are in the way."

"Agreed," Wolf said, staring at the screen with something akin to determination. "We'll follow him, grab him tonight."

"Yeah," Eagle agreed. "That's the best plan we've got. Wait until we can get him away from any potential hostages, and then go in."

Alex ended up taking the girls for ice cream to celebrate their victories, and their last few moments of companionable friendship, before their teams faced each other in the finals two weeks from now. Alex was looking forward to watching that, though not the fights that would surely break out between them in the interim.

Of course, as soon as the timer ran down on that last game they'd be best friends again, regardless of the score or who won.

They were at home, taking turns competing against each other in Halo, when Alex got the call.

"Alex?" Yedit's voice sounded out of breath and just a little freaked out. "Alex, your flat was broken into. Your identity is compromised, wherever you are, you need to leave, just get out now and run, you have agents watching you!"

Hell.

Oh bloody hell.

Bloody buggering hell.

Alex closed his eyes, thinking fast.

"Wreck my flat," he finally said. "Make it look like you were keeping tabs on me, that you came to me because you recognized me and wanted to get under my guard to see who I'd been working with. Rip apart the couch, everything, do you understand?"

"Got it," Yedit said.

Alex snapped his phone shut with shaking fingers, holding it in a tight, white fist.

MI6 had found him. They'd probably been following him for days, which meant that the Bernards were in danger too… oh shit.

He pulled up speed dial. Claire answered on the second right.

"Alex, love, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Are you working?"

"No, just a dinner date, it's alright-"

"How fast can you get back here?"

"Alex, what's wrong?"

"I've been compromised," Alex said. Everything felt like it was happening far away, through some sort of glass. "I've had enough interaction with you that you might fall under scrutiny, so you may need to leave. But right now, I have a target on my back and while I swear to you I will do whatever it takes to protect your daughters until I can get them back to you, they aren't safe with me anymore."

Silence.

"Right," Claire said, all business. "Are you under attack at the moment?"

"No, I've just been warned that my flat has been broken into, and here may be the next place they'll hit."

"You're sure it wasn't a common burglary?"

"It's MI6, I'm all but certain."

"Dave, dear, get the check and call a cab, I'm leaving now," Claire said, and he heard the rustle of movement as she began to leave whatever restaurant she was at. "Can you get the girls out unseen?"

Alex glanced out the window, looking through the blinds.

That van.

He'd seen it before, outside the girl's game this morning.

It didn't belong to anyone on this block, or any of the parents at the game.

"They're here," he said, and his hands were shaking again. "I… Shit. No, I won't be able to get them out without them being marked as accomplices or hostages, which will just make things worse for everyone."

He knew of only one way to keep the girls out of this.

"Right," he said quietly. "I'm going to protect the girls at any cost, Claire. I may not see you again, but it has been an honest pleasure, and I am sorry for bringing this to your door."

He ended the call and removed the sim card from the phone, throwing it down the drain.

"Girls, go upstairs and hide under your beds," Alex said firmly, coming into the living room. "I have to leave, but everything is going to be okay, do you understand? It's going to be okay."

He stayed calm, knowing from experience that panicking would cause the children to pick up on the fact that something was wrong. He kept his posture natural and his voice at normal speaking levels, giving absolutely nothing away. There was no need to distress the girls, ever all.

He glanced out the window again as the girls turned off the game, knowing better than to question an order given in the interest of safety. The van was stationary. Waiting for backup?

Probably.

Alex was, after all, a dangerous criminal known for evading arrest.

He had a minute, maybe, at worst. Five or ten at best, if they were coming from his flat. He'd go with the worst case scenario, which would leave him time to work with.

Alex Rider could do a hell of a lot in a minute.

Claire Bernard kept smoke grenades in a box on one of the bookshelves, and Alex grabbed that as he shooed the girls upstairs.

"But will you be alright?" Maddie asked, pausing on the stairs.

"I'll be fine, but I need to go now," Alex said.

"Will you be back?"

Twin pairs of bright green eyes fixed on him, and Alex felt tears welling up behind his eyes.

"I don't know," he said quietly. Calmly. He needed to stay calm because there wasn't time to panic, no time to sit and make himself feel better, he needed to move. "But everything will be okay, do you understand me?"

Maddie rushed forward and hugged him, and Michelle followed suit.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Alex murmured when they hid their faces in his shirt, holding on to him tightly. "Everything is going to be okay, I promise. Look at me."
He tipped their heads up, meeting their teary eyes with confidence and sincerity.

"I will be fine, and you will be fine, and your mum is going to be home soon, but I need you to get upstairs and hide, can you ladies do that for me?"

They giggled, presumably at being called ladies, and curtsied at him before running up the stairs.

Alex set his jaw and turned back to the door. He turned off all the lights downstairs, and jammed a handful of grenades into his pockets. They were a no-heat brand, and could be set off with a pull and a twist. Alex hoped they could cover him.

He walked over to the door, pausing behind him.

So this was it.

This was the end of Michael Cooper, the end of the man that could make his own way in the world, the end of the man ready to take his tests and pay his own rent and work a normal job…

This was how everything was to end.

Alex tried to breathe passed the block in his throat.

Tonight, he was going to die.

It didn't matter if MI6 executed him, or put him in prison for the rest of his life, or blackmailed him into working for them again, his life would be over the minute he was brought into their custody.

I can't do this, Alex thought desperately, looking up at the ceiling. I can't work for them again. I can't do it.

And yet the idea of letting them ambush him here, where he was putting the girls at risk… that was more than abhorrent. It was unthinkable.

So he pulled open the door, locking it from the inside before he shut it behind him. He put his hands into his pockets and headed towards the side of the house, where his bike was leaning. He heard an engine revving, and his heart jolted.

Son of a bitch.

He paused, pretending to be adjusting his bag so that he could jump onto his bike. In reality, he was priming as many smoke grenades as he could, getting ready to make a run for it.

When the car was ten feet away, Alex turned and lobbed three of grenades. They hit their mark, breaking the windshield and exploding a moment later. He heard a muffled yell and a line of curses (one occupant then, which left an unknown number coming his way at any given future point, and took off as he heard a door slamming open and the general chaos as the agent found his weapon. He had maybe three seconds to get out of sight before they started firing and –

There was the alley, coming out halfway down the Bernard's street! Alex took a hard left, spraying gravel in every direction and skimming the ground with his leg, but the bike remained upright, and Alex put everything he had into pedaling as hard and as fast as he could.

The chase was on.

So the name for this chapter is based on the song by Imagine Dragons. It's actually amazing, and I think that it's going to be the theme song for this entire fic.

On a side note, I'm thinking of making a fanmix for the entire three arcs. Would anyone be interested in something like that?

Love,

~InK

((PS: The chocolate Yedit is talking about does exist, and it's fabulous and delicious and your first time eating it is not one easily forgotten.))