Hi! I'm sorry it's taken me so many days to update. I haven't had a lot of time but I wanted to post this chapter before going to bed tonight. Time to see what's in store for Alex!
Cuby18: that's exactly why Ben felt the need to defend him against the accusations. This time he truly didn't go finding for trouble, trouble found him. Let's see if he'll be able to get out of it in time! Thanks for your review and let me know what you think of this new chapter!
Also, I've gotten a lot of notifications about new readers following and favoring this story and I wanted to say THANK YOU! I'm really happy you like this story so far!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 8: Training
It turns out Alex had to wait until morning for someone to come back to the room he had been locked into.
He had used the time to wander around, familiarizing himself with the room, even if he was still blinded to actually see it. He searched the place carefully and methodically, pressing himself against one wall and then following the path always keeping a shoulder pressed to it. His hands were tied behind his back, but that didn't mean he couldn't run his fingers over the surface of the walls to try and discern what type of room he was in. He made sure to always test his next step carefully in case there could be something lying on the floor that could make him trip. In the end, he determined there was nothing in there; the room was absolutely bare.
It wasn't that big either, almost the size of his own room back at Ben's place. Even though he knew the door would be locked, he had to try it, but gave up after a few minutes when his shoulders and his wrists were protesting the abuse from the restraints.
'Great', he thought. All he could do right now was wait, and God knows how much he hated that. If these people were trying to get under his skin… well, they certainly knew how to begin. He dozed off at some point, given that he had been taken practically at midnight, and it must have been nearing 3:00 a.m. now. He didn't get much sleep though since his mind couldn't stop wondering about what he had been taken for and what they would do to him.
It had been a little bit more than a whole year since he had finally left the life of a teenage spy behind, having absolutely no direct contact with MI6 other than just Ben working for them. For all intents and purposes, he had been one normal teenager for a complete year, and then, this happens! He cursed whoever was up there that had a grudge against him because they certainly went way out of their way to make his life a living hell. How on earth was he going to get out of this one?
It was a few hours later when, sitting with his back against the wall, he was woken up by the sound of the door opening and footsteps coming inside the room. He was roughly pulled to his feet and guided outside, back up the flight of stairs they had gone down the day before and then up to the second floor of wherever they were. His initial assessment of the place had been right: it was huge! He knew at some point he would lose count of how many stairs he had gone up or down if they didn't remove the blindfold soon, which happened immediately after they entered another room and he was made to sit on a chair.
When his eyes came in contact with the light, he squinted, willing his blurry vision to come back into focus quickly because there was a man sitting opposite him in front of a desk who was regarding him intently and he wanted to be able to look at him straight in the eyes and show him that he wasn't scared. When he finally managed to look at him, fear wasn't an emotion he had to be worried about concealing, it was surprise.
"You?" Alex asked, having recognized the man instantly but not understanding why he would have gone to all the trouble of abducting him "I bumped into you at the hotel" he said, to let the man know he had been recognized. The other man smiled evilly.
"Yes, you did. My name is Serhiy Gryglewicz. You are Alex Rider" his accent was prominent.
"I don't know you. You don't know me. So what the hell do you want me for?" Alex asked, ignoring the introductions and going straight to the point. Before running into him at the hotel, Alex had never seen this man before and he never encountered Ukrainians in any of his missions, which only led him to believe that this may have nothing to do with his time as an MI6 agent at all. But, if not that, then what?
"I would suggest you watch your language when speaking to me" he responded, a flash of something dangerous appearing in his eyes. Alex did his best to control his temper. He wasn't known for being very patient and his snarky remarks had gotten him into trouble in the past, so he bit his tongue and waited to hear the other man's explanation before showing an attitude from the beginning. If this man indeed didn't know who he was, then there was no sense in showing all his cards on the first hand.
"I just don't understand. Why am I here?" Alex asked, with a calmer tone.
"You're here to get trained" Serhiy replied and the look of utter surprise on the teen's face was undeniable.
"Trained? As in…?" he left the question hanging, intent on finding out exactly what kind of training this man had in mind.
"Perhaps I should explain myself better" and Alex suppressed the need to snort. 'That would be helpful!' he thought "Two days ago, when we met, there was something about you… The way you apologized for nearly making me crash to the floor. Your apology, your voice, it was so…" he trailed off, trying to find the perfect word to describe it "submissive" he concluded, and this time Alex did have to snort.
"Submissive? Are you joking? I assure you, I can be anything but that"
"But you have such potential! That's what training is about. My people investigated you under my command and I know you've had a difficult life" for a moment, Alex feared this man knew about his involvement with MI6, but his doubts were soon squashed "growing up with no parents, losing your uncle and more recently your guardian. You're a very good athlete and you are a black belt in karate. You've had to learn how to be independent from a young age but, your voice, that day; trust me, you've got potential"
"Potential for what!?" what was this man even talking about? His voice? He had kidnapped him because he had heard something in his voice? Why did all the crazy people in the world always managed to find their way to him? Why?
"Like I said, for training. I'm curious to know how long I take to break away your bravado and turn you into the perfect subject" Serhiy stated and that just made the hairs at the back of Alex's head stand on end.
"What, you're going to torture me?" Alex asked, now ready to let out his snarky personality. If this man thought he had abducted a compliant scared teenager, then he was in for a surprise. Serhiy eyed the teen suspiciously, noticing how he could talk about something like torture in a position where he might as well be facing it, and not show fear but defiance.
"It is a part of the training, yes" he confirmed and Alex did his best to keep his apprehension out of his voice.
"You're wasting your time then. I've been tortured before and I haven't been broken by it" he stated.
"I'm sure you haven't faced what I have in mind"
"Unless you can think of something other than being almost dissected alive, swimming with sharks, hanging above crocodiles, getting shot, beaten, falling from a building, burning inside a building and I could go on, and on, and on… then I assure you, I've faced it all. So why don't you let me go and you can find yourself another less experienced victim?" if this man really wanted a submissive person, then he wouldn't fit the bill, by far. He would do everything in his power to show the man he had messed with the wrong teenager and maybe that would buy him time to plan his scape. He realized his mistake though, when he glanced into the smiling face of his captor; excitement written all over his face.
"Breaking you is going to be a lot of fun. You'll be taken back to your room. You'll eat and rest as much as you can, for training will begin at midday. After lunch, I'll introduce you to Mr. Boyko. I have a feeling you two will get along" as he was being guided out of the room, Alex didn't waste the opportunity to let his thoughts out of his head.
"Your plan won't work! It doesn't matter what you do to me, it won't work" he said.
"We'll see" was the only answer he got before he was completely out of the room.
On the way back down, his captors didn't blindfold him again, so he was able to see the place he was being currently held captive in and couldn't help but be amazed at it greatness. Was the man who had abducted him rich? It certainly seemed like it, since Alex was standing inside a small castle rather than a house or a building. To be fair, it could be called a mansion, but it was huge! He could see that the place had at least another floor above the one where the 'meeting' had taken place, and then there was the underground level they were heading towards now, where he was supposed to eat and rest before his 'training' could begin.
When he was left alone inside the bare room, this time with no restrains and a sandwich on a plate, he began to worry about what kind of 'training' that man had in mind. Alex hadn't been exaggerating when he had told the man about some of the things he'd had to face during his year as a spy, but saying that he had been tortured before was a bit of a stretch from the truth. He had been beaten before, yes, but mostly he had been tasked with facing dangerous and almost impossible situations, not plain and old fashion torture, like in the movies he and Tom liked to watch together. Is that what the man had in mind for him? Things like electrocution, breaking fingers and the like?
Just thinking about it made his stomach roll, and he had to force the rest of his sandwich down; he would need his strength. He also decided that he would make his scape the moment the door in front of him opened again.
On his way back to his room, he had been able to glance out of the windows and, despite a big portion of land around the mansion, there didn't seem to be a tight security system. The only guards he had seen were the ones accompanying him to and from the room upstairs and although the man in charge was well built, he didn't strike him as someone who could put up much of a fight. If he acted fast, he could use the element of surprise on his favor.
He wasn't going to let this crazy man torture him just because he liked his voice. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to hold on through physical torture for a long period of time, but he would do everything in his power to not let this man break him. He hadn't been broken by anyone through physical pain before, and he wasn't going to start now.
Two days later though, he wished he only had to deal with the pain. Serhiy had been right, he had never faced something like what would happen to him at the hands of his captors and later he wished with all his might that torture was the only thing he'd had to worry about, because what Serhiy had in mind was much, much worse.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Any guess as to what that might be? I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter, I actually had some trouble trying to express the scene as I had seen it in my mind. I don't know why my English wasn't flowing to well, so I apologize if the writing seems off and kind of forced; I just didn't want to let too many days go by since my last update.
I would still love to read some reviews… what do you think will happen next? How is Ben and K-unit going to find Alex? Or will he be able to escape before Serhiy's plan can come to life?
