A/N – It has been absolutely ages since I've updated and I'm really sorry.

GCSEs are weighing down and I'm taking a load of them in the next few weeks; my head may implode with the pressure.

Nevertheless, I have managed to get Word back, so now everything should be ok. In this chapter, we meet a new character. I went through several stages of trying to work out who they were and there were two alternatives to the character introduced here. I hope you like them: feedback would be fantastic. Reviews are greatly appreciated as always and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Seven – Four In the Morning

Sophie Gelder had never been a particularly subtle woman and now, at fifty seven, she was conscious of the fact that her shrewdness and blunt attitude towards everything and everyone, was probably the reason she had very few friends. However, this didn't particularly bother her. In fact, she was rather thankful for the distance that had been set between herself and the general public, as she didn't really like most of them anyway.

Life hadn't been easy for Sophie. At three years old, her mother had died, leaving her in the care of her work-obsessed father. Sophie learned from an early age that if you want something to happen, you have to happen to it.

Sophie wanted to be a journalist, and now she happened to be one.

Of course, being a journalist isn't a job for the faint of heart. Sophie's job required a permanently shrewd attitude and an even more permanent thick skin: two things she happened to have in abundance.

Over the years in the profession, she'd exposed MPs as liars, businessmen as frauds and several well known TV presenters as womanisers, although this all meant nothing to her. The kind of story she wanted, what she looked out for, involved bigger, better things.

Her first 'real' story as she put it, was written roughly forty years ago, when she had posed for three days as a resident of a known terrorist safe house.

It was then that she had met Alex Rider.

Having been posted on the case, Rider worked together with Sophie to expose the truth about the safe house and had also discovered the plans of the next terror attack. Alex had done his job and Sophie had written the story. Simple.

Since then, Alex and Sophie had kept vaguely in touch, often asking for help on either a cover story or a journalistic story; both their existences seemed based on lies. Apart from these professional meetings, neither really associated themselves with the other.

And so maybe it was for this reason that Sophie Gelder felt a little shocked when Alex Rider arrived at her doorstep at roughly four o' clock in the morning gripping the arm of a teenage, thuggish looking young man.

"What in Christ's name are you doing?" She grumbled, rubbing her forehead.

"I'm sorry to disturb you..." Alex checked the dark street behind him before adding, "Do you mind if we come in?" Sophie raised her eyebrows before stepping back into the hallway.

"Sure," She muttered. "Why not? Walk all over me. You've done it before..." She moved into the lounge. "Shut the door." She called back and Alex ushered Dylan in before shutting the door firmly behind them. Alex ushered Dylan through the open doorway, into the sitting room, where Sophie was waiting for them expectantly, hands on hips.

The room was small and slightly dated, flowery furniture disguising the yellowing wallpaper and a wilting vase of lilies in the far corner. Sophie surveyed the two men through squinted eyes.

"Sit." She said, motioning towards the settee. Alex obeyed. Dylan couldn't help finding this a little odd. After all, not seven hours earlier, he had witnessed this man threaten someone with a gun. Now he was obeying this greying, flimsy looking woman in a pink, fluffy dressing gown. Nevertheless, there was something slightly scary about this woman with the pointy, shrewd features. The way her small, grey eyes slid over him, obviously assessing his appearance, made him feel uncomfortable and after remaining standing for a second longer, Dylan sat down on the settee next to Alex.

Sophie folded her arms.

"What. The. Hell." She said, each word punching through the deathly silence. It wasn't spoken like a question, more like a statement and Dylan found himself looking at Alex, expectantly; he wanted an explanation too.

He didn't know anything about this man. At all. Whatsoever. All he knew was his name: Alex Rider. Even that could be fake.

Dylan and Alex had spent the last few hours sitting on a bench outside a seedy looking pub. It had been boring, but necessary, according to Alex anyway. They wanted to make sure they weren't being followed. Exactly what they would have done if it turned out they had been followed remained a mystery to Dylan, but he suspected that the answer was fastened up in the holster underneath Alex's overcoat.

During these few hours, Dylan had tried to wheedle out some sort of explanation from his strange saviour, although hadn't got very far. Alex seemed to be one of the 'strong and silent' types and Dylan had got nowhere.

Alex was old. Very old. Possibly even eighty and yet he was unbelievably agile. Dylan reckoned this must be due to some sort of military career, like the Marines or the S.A.S. He had actually asked Alex about this but had got no answer. This strange, middle aged woman might just be his ticket to the truth.

Alex's brown eyes met Sophie's grey ones.

"Ever heard of a man called Bruno Markenbury?" He asked her. Dylan felt slightly miffed about the way he was addressing the woman and not him, even though he had more to do with whatever was going on than she did. Sophie shook her head.

"No." She said. "Who is he?" Alex's eyes flickered over to Dylan.

"A colleague." He said, fixing his eyes back on Sophie's. She raised her eyebrows.

"I see..." She said slowly.

"I don't." Dylan said, tired of being quite for so long. He stared at Alex, frowning. "You've just kidnapped me, driven me through London and taken me to the house of...this woman." He jerked his head over to where Sophie was standing. "I think I deserve an explanation."

Alex raised his eyebrows.

"Oh do you?" He asked, his tone icy and unforgiving. "Well here's your explanation..." With that, he socked Dylan in the jaw, knocking him out.

Dylan fell to the floor with a thud.

"Jesus Christ, Alex." Sophie whispered, staring at the unconscious body of the young man, now crumpled on the floral carpet. "Was that entirely necessary?"

"Yes." Alex said, putting his leather glove back on. "He can't know what's going on."

"Why not?"

"I don't trust him yet." They stared at each other for a few seconds.

"Who the hell is he?"

"His name..." Alex began. "Is Dylan Chambers. He's a thug. Bruno Markenbury was found dead a couple of nights ago. Haynes is trying to frame him."

"Who killed Markenbury, then?" Sophie asked.

"I don't know for sure, yet." Alex said. "Although I'm betting on Haynes."

"Haynes?" Sophie exclaimed. "Why on Earth would Haynes kill his own man?"

"Money, power..." Alex trailed off. "Before he died, Markenbury told me about a deal. An important one. I think that he somehow got mixed into it and Haynes though that the goods were more important than a man's life." Sophie was silent for a minute.

"That's not it, is it?" She said after a while. "There's something else you're not telling me..."

Alex glared at her.

"I was tracked down." He said, after a moment. "Someone tried to kill me."

"Oh." Sophie raised her eyebrows. "Do you know who?"

"No." Alex looked down at Dylan's crumpled form. "I need to ask a favour."

"Oh god."

"Will you let him stay here?" Sophie groaned.

"Why me?" She moaned.

"Because I trust you and you have your wits about you." Alex stared at her and Sophie stared back, unfazed. "Look Sophie, people are going to come looking for him. He's not going to last two minutes on his own. He needs someone to look out for him, you're the only person I know that'll do the job properly."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere, my friend." She smirked before studying his soberly. "You're really serious about this aren't you?"

"I am." Sophie frowned.

"Alright..." She said, after a moment's pause. "I'll look after your Mr Chambers, although I expect to be able to cover the story when it's over."

"Deal."

They shook hands, both fully aware it would not be that simple.