AN: I'm having one of those days where I don't know what to say. Although, I did get a 29 on my ACT. For those of you who don't know what that is it is a test that determines what college I can get into. The valedictorian of our junior class only got a 27, so there!

Disclaimer: Call me Anthony Horowitz at your own peril. Read at your own risk. You may suffer from painful stomach cramps due to laughing.

Thank You's:

2whitie – Mrs. Jones should start her obituary now. I can see her tombstone in my head. It does not say, She will be greatly missed. I'm glad James is still funny. I was worried that as I aged him you, the readers, would like him less. It's not so much that he has lost his humor just that his humor is changing. By the way, how's K-Unit doing? Are they staying in character?

Albany – Well, MI6 is notorious for putting people in bad situations. It would not surprise me that the conspiracy has put a leash on the deputy himself. Ben, I always thought, liked Alex. Now that he's a part of what is being done to Alex I can see him trying to protect him. I really hope that you love to hate the new MI6 and not hate the idea of it.

Getsumen Kage no Mai – Of course Alex has fans! And his fan club isn't to-be…it's reality. It consists of me as the president….you can be vice president. Everyone in the entire world is the followers. And we will have our cult and take over the world and train our OWN teenage spies and…cough, cough. What was I saying? Oh right, I would so take a shot at Mrs. Jones if she was real.

Jellie Smiff – I'm glad you personally like this chapter because it is a pretty awesome chapter. I'm not sure how awesome my grammar is but I'll take the compliment anyways. Thanks for your review, hope you keep them coming.

MonssterUnderYourBed – I figured that if I put the little fact in there about it being Rose's phone he stole some observant people like you would get it and if other people didn't, well, that was okay. I'm impressed that you caught it though. As for chapter endings, Chapter 6 came out as a total of 4000 plus words. I'm not sure I could have pushed it any farther without people getting annoyed. I usually total out at 3000 to 3500 for chapter length. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter though.

James POV

James woke up with the cell phone gone from his pocket. A part of him had expected the phone to be gone. You could only count on gorillas to be stupid to a point, not patting down prisoners would be that point. He rolled his heel around in his shoe and felt the little piece of paper. Searching shoes was not at that point apparently. Good. He didn't want to open his eyes. As long as he was seemingly asleep he could obtain information about his surroundings without having to deal with his captors. Dad had taught him that. The room was mostly silent with the soft sound of breathing and the pitter-patter of rain outside. The air was chilly but not cold and whatever he was laying on had the flexibility of a bed without the comfort. "He's awake."

James recognized that they spoke about him and forwent his sleep act. He popped open his eyes and sat up. The two men in the room with him were immediately recognized despite the two years. "Cheetah! Panther! What are you doing here?"

Cheetah looked at Panther and then back at James. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Actually, we could ask the same about you."

Rose Harper POV

"How are you Agent Crawley?" Rose asked. Her friends and fellow rookies stood behind her trying to maintain the image that this had nothing to do with them.

Richard Crawley looked at her over the rim of his glasses. "Agent Hopper right?"

Rose blushed. "Harper actually."

"Of course." Richard said. There was silence. "Well?"

"Where is Agent Rider staying?" Rose asked.

Richard arched a brow. "I would think that now that you're an agent, Miss Harper, you could abandon silly legends."

"I know he's here Agent Crawley sir. I spoke with him." Rose said hesitantly.

Richard waved her off. "Likely a bored agent pranking the rookies. I wouldn't think anything of it."

Rose chewed her lip. This felt off. It all felt off. She nodded. "Of course, sorry to take up your time."

Rose walked into the hallway and the three men trailed behind her. Martin sighed. "I'm really glad you've decided to give this up Rose."

"I haven't." Rose replied.

"You haven't?" Martin asked.

"I haven't." Rose affirmed. "Agent Crawley is lying."

"How can you tell?" Anthony asked.

Rose ignored him. "I've got another idea."

Duncan POV

By the time Alex returned Duncan and K-Unit had found their way back to the gym. Tom was with them but Ben hadn't come back to join them. Duncan wasn't surprised. Will and Luis were on the mats, sparring, and Tom and Duncan had taken to taking turns with the punching bag. Little was spoken. Nothing was said about the conversation in the Ghost Room. The gym was strangely quiet with only the sound of fist hitting flesh and fist hitting leather, heavy breathing and a rare curse when a punch landed. The door to the gym opened. Will turned to look allowing Wolf's fist to connect with his jaw. Duncan ran over. "You fine?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Will said. He glared at Luis. "You sucker punched me."

Luis shrugged. "It was too late to stop at that point."

"I see you've taken to beating the shit out of each other since I left." Alex said.

Tom laughed. "They have, but they're all too scared of me to try."

Alex laughed heartily and then gave them a confused look when none of K-Unit did. He frowned. "Did I miss something?"

K-Unit was not a bunch of spies. They were soldiers, damn fine soldiers but soldiers nonetheless. Unlike Alex and Tom they were not used to hiding emotions. They looked away and scratched their necks and fidgeted and gave away just about every sign of guilt possible. Tom kept a smile plastered to his face. "Nope, except the six or seven hits Eagle got on Wolf before you came in."

The lie was smooth, Duncan had to give the agent that much. Unfortunately, Tom could have all the confidence in the world and K-Unit would still look guilty. Maybe Alex assumed the problem was between K-Unit or maybe he assumed it had something to do with his earlier conversation or maybe he was just rowing the river of denial but whatever his reasoning he slapped on a smile and shrugged. "Wish I could've seen it."

"Yeah, and I got them in fair and square. Not when he was looking away." Will said getting into the new mood.

Luis snorted. "You looked away when a door opened. A real soldier could've assessed threats."

Will crossed his arms over his chest. "The more imperative threat came from something I couldn't see and not my Unit leader."

"Never assume anything." Luis replied.

"We are in MI6 headquarters." Tom said.

There was a pause and then Alex said. "Is that supposed to make us feel better?"

Alex POV

"Are we all in?" Mrs. Jones asked.

Alex nodded. "Every single one of us. Well, except Tom."

Tom shrugged. "That's cool. I'll stay in the outpost by myself. As long as I don't have to deal with Alex's snoring."

Alex scowled. "I do not snore."

Tom snorted. "Right."

Mrs. Jones cleared her throat to regain control. "Anyways, we're going to send Luis down to Smithers for some mission preparation and then you'll be free to spend your remaining time here doing whatever you like until, you said the day after tomorrow right?"

Alex nodded. "Yep. He'll have someone to meet us and take us to the base."

Luis frowned. "Why am I the only one who needs mission preparation?"

"This is a white supremacy group." Mrs. Jones replied. At Luis' blank stare she explained further. "You look like a Spaniard, not Aryan."

Luis glared at Alex. Alex arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"You're perfect." Luis replied.

Alex choked a little and gave him a boyish half-smile. "Um, I appreciate the compliment but I'm already married."

Luis didn't even blush. "You're blonde and blue eyed and pale."

"I am not pale. And my eyes are grey, not blue." Alex replied.

Tom examined his face. "They're kind of a bluish-grey."

"And you are kind of pale." Will said.

"I was tan in Los Angeles." Alex grumbled.

Mrs. Jones' eyes rolled heavenward as if seeking guidance. After a moment she looked back at them. "Luis, go to Smithers. The rest of you report to dinner where Luis will meet you. After that do whatever the hell you want as long as you stay out of my office and off of the top floor."

They all stood up and filed out of the office. Only one thought ran through Alex's head.

What was on the top floor?

Eve POV

Eve had never been a particularly heavy drinker. She'd been so busy getting through college and then moving up the ranks in her career to ever focus on partying and when she decided to get out of the workforce and stay home to take care of James she'd decided she was too old to party. However, there had been that party with her friends on her twenty-first birthday where her friends had demanded she drink until she passed out, and she had. It had been tons of fun that night but the headache she received in the morning for her troubles just hadn't been worth it. That was how she felt now, though; like she had the headache from hell. Her last moments awake filled her head. Mrs. Jones and her threats and James and getting shot with the dart.

Eve opened her eyes and sat up. James was on a cot similar to her own talking with two very familiar looking people. "You two!"

Cheetah jumped out of his chair. "Mrs. Rider! You're up!"

Eve glared daggers at him. "What the hell are we doing here?"

Cheetah looked around, possibly assessing potential ammunition she might use against him. Panther laughed. "Don't worry Cheetah. We don't keep the Harry Potter books here."

"Look Mrs. Rider, this wasn't our idea." Cheetah said. "We're just following orders."

"I don't give a shit what your orders were." Eve said. She thought about that and sighed. "Actually, what exactly are your orders?"
Alex POV

"Whose brilliant idea was this?" Will asked.

"Mine." Luis replied. He'd returned from Smithers' office already shades lighter although it would continue to grow lighter with the second treatment. His hair was a dark tan color but far from the original coal black color. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Will sighed. "No."

"I have a problem with it." Alex mumbled, but no one heard him. The SAS had their own version of team bonding activities, one of which had been the Killing House. A horrible idea made worse by horrible Unit mates. Luis had thought it a brilliant idea to kick Alex onto a trip wire so that he caused them to lose. Alex was wary of a repeat. Louder he said, "I don't like this."

"Don't like what?" Duncan asked.

Alex didn't like any of it but he was currently speaking about one thing specifically. "I don't like this layout."

"You picked the layout." Luis said through grated teeth.

"I don't like this layout and this group." Alex clarified.

"Then why did you pick it?" Will asked.

"Because I liked the other layouts and this group even less." Alex said.

"What don't you like about this layout and this group Alex?" Duncan asked.

Alex shot a quick look at Luis and then looked back to Duncan. "Tripwires."

Will laughed and shrugged. "It's okay. SAS trains us how to spot tripwires."

Luis looked away and Alex forced a smile on his face. "Of course. No biggie."

Duncan frowned. "You wouldn't have brought it up if it wasn't a big deal."

"No, it's cool." Alex pushed.

Will frowned as well. "Hey, if something's wrong you can tell us."

"I just, don't like tripwires." Alex said.

"Well no one likes tripwires, but you had to have known we dealt with tripwires." Duncan said.

"In fact, we dealt with tripwires back in training when you were there." Will said.

Duncan laughed. "Yeah, the Killing House. Didn't you trip on a tripwire and lose for us?"

Alex shifted. "Yep."

Will laughed. "Yeah, I can see why you don't like tripwires."

"He didn't trip." Luis said.

"Of course he did." Duncan said.

"I knocked him into it." Luis replied. "He didn't trip."

"You knocked him-Jesus Christ Luis! What the hell for?" Will asked.

Luis shrugged. "He was a snot nosed kid and I felt he didn't deserve to be there."

Duncan shook his head. "We were all kids back then."

Alex shrugged it off. "It's not a big deal. It was a long time ago."

"It is a big deal Alex." Luis said. "You're supposed to be able to trust your Unit. We sure haven't shown you a reason for you to trust us."

Alex sighed. "I trust you guys."

"Why?" Duncan asked.

"Why?" Alex repeated. "Because I have to. Whether I like it or not, we are all about to go undercover together and I won't be able to do it all on my own."

Alex looked down. "And as you all now know, MI6 isn't giving me the choice to pick and choose anything right now. So I will get over my issues and make this work so at the end of the day I can go home."

"Look Alex-" Luis started.

Alex stopped him with a hand motion and a grim smile. "Don't ruin it. Let's just get through this and be done. I really, really don't want to talk about any of this with you guys. No offense."

"Sure." Will said.

Eve POV

Cheetah and Panther had explained the best they could having only been given orders and not information.

"That's all that soldiers get." Panther had said. "Orders."

Eve had not been thrilled to find out that for the duration of Alex's mission she and James would be stuck in Breacon Beacons or as Alex called it, Hell. Panther and Cheetah had been brutally honest about everything. Their orders had been vague about the process but the goal was specific. The original SAS training process would be tailored to be better for a woman and a ten year old boy and by the time Alex got back from his mission Eve and James were to be able to fully take care of themselves in a fight.

Eve collapsed into a chair. "This is…insane."

"Look, I won't lie. This kind of training is difficult for grown men. Men who joined the army and were the best of the best." Panther said. "I can't baby you along. It would go against orders. I can't change the process they set up for you. It would go against orders."

Eve looked at Panther through watery eyes and glared. "So the SAS is just as bad as MI6."

Panther sighed and looked away. Cheetah put his hand on her shoulder. "These orders came from MI6."

"What?" Eve asked.

Cheetah sighed. "Right now MI6 has the SAS by the short hairs. No one knows what they've got on them and no one knows why but for right now, MI6 is running things."

Rose Harper POV

Rose had travelled four blocks on foot, ten by cab, and then walked another three on foot to get to a pay phone in the middle of nowhere. MI6 had taught her that she had to find a secure phone that people wouldn't track; her father actually showed her how to do it. She dialed the number and waited for it to ring. She looked around her and found no one there. Empty street. Her fellow rookies following her would have made too much of a scene so she decided to come alone.

Her father picked up on the second ring. "This is Harper."

"Hi Dad. It's me." Rose said.

"Rose! How good to hear from you." He said.

"I need some help." Rose said.

She could hear him frown on the other end. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine. I need some information that I'm hoping you can get from your job." Rose said.

"There's only so much I can give you." He said. "But what can I do for you."

"Well, you're the Sergeant in charge of SAS. Surely you know something about Alex Rider." Rose said.

AN: So, a couple things to mention. First of all, my mother inspired me with an idea last night that would make a great sequel to this. Would anyone be interested in a third story? Also, I've come up with a fair compromise. I will always no matter what every time post weekly. That's going to be a given. However, if I get thirteen reviews (because thirteen is my lucky number) I'll post the chapter that day. I can do that this time around because I am ahead by two chapters and plan on staying that way. So remember, always weekly updates but thirteen reviews will get an update faster and tell me if a sequel sounds good and for Peter, Paul, John, and Lupe's sake…tell me what you thought of the chapter! That is all.