A/N: I am so,so,so very sorry! I have had to deal with three birthdays in the past week. Four, if you count the twins as separate people. My older brother has been taking over my computer to search for cars, because my dad said he has earned one. Well, that wasn't a good idea on his part, because that's all my brother has been going on about. The twins won't stop with Miniclip and I have had no time to update this! So please, on behalf of me, curse my older brother. My baby twin brothers are cute, so they escape. I'll start the ball rolling: Aaron, you heartless bastard.

Sorry. I have a lot of pent-up anger :)

Disclaimer: NO.


Alex was woken very suddenly by the ringing of her phone. Grumbling obscenities under her breath about the caller ringing her at four in the morning, she picked up.

"Hello?" she mumbled blearily, her voice slurred with sleep.

"Alexis Rider, I presume?" asked the voice. Alex resisted the temptation to reply with "Yes. Dr Livingstone, I presume?"

"Yep, that's me."

"The head of the bank would like to talk to you about your… account, I think…?" trailed off the voice. Alex frowned.

"Sorry, why the hell do you want me in at four in the morning? I'm pretty sure that Barclay's doesn't open till at least nine."

The voice swore. "Um, sorry. It's the Royal and General Bank, miss. I'm new to the job, see, so I haven't quite got used to the whole spying business."

Evidently, thought Alex. She's just given away the secrets of MI6 to a person she doesn't know, in a matter of five minutes.

"Okay. I'll be there in a few hours."

The phone was cut off. Alex glared at it, as if the whole situation was its fault. Then she traipsed over to Wolf's room. From the deep snoring being emitted from the room, Alex guessed that he would not be in a good mood in the knowledge that he had to escort her to London before dawn.

She hesitantly opened the door and padded softly towards the lump on the bed. Holding her breath and praying that Wolf wouldn't be completely furious, she pulled back the duvet covers.

Only to find something much worse.

A very beautiful, very voluptuous, very naked woman was lying on top of a boxer-clad Wolf. Alex immediately threw the covers back on and made hastily for the door and, boy, was she thankful she hadn't woken them up. Outside the room, she took a few deep, calming breaths, before shaking her head, trying to rid herself of the image she had just witnessed. Then she lifted her hand and knocked heavily on the door. As far as she was concerned, Wolf being angry that he was woken up early was miles better than Wolf being caught post-shag.

She distinctly heard some swearing, before the rustling of clothes covering the husky sound of a woman's voice. Then the door swung open, revealing a very sour Wolf. He was wearing his pyjamas, thank God.

"Morning, Wolf!" she said in a much too cheery voice for the morning. Wolf groaned.

"What the fuck do you want?" he growled.

"I was wondering if you can take me to London."

Wolf looked astonished. "At four?"

Alex nodded decisively. When he asked why she couldn't just get the train by herself, she said, "I have to visit the Royal and General".

Understanding crossed Wolf's face. He opened his mouth, but before he got a chance to speak, he was interrupted by a woman in a silk, red dressing gown.

"Hey, sexy. Wanna come back for another round?" she drawled. Alex nearly gagged. This woman was giving Wolf dirty talk. In front of Alex. She swallowed down the nausea and turned back to a flushing Wolf.

"Alex, this is Chelsea. Chelsea, Alex. She's my…"

"Ward," supplied Alex. "Slept well?"

She winced as soon as the words left her mouth. Wolf blushed even more, if that was remotely possible. Chelsea ignored Alex and asked Wolf why she was here.

"Her, uh, Uncle, one of my mates, died. I'm doing it as a favour."

"My, oh, my, Di. Generous, fit and good in bed. What more could a woman want?" she purred.

"Why don't I go downstairs and make breakfast?" asked Alex abruptly, nipping that conversation in the bud before it began. Then she ran down the stairs, leaving two very confused adults behind.


Suffice to say, the train journey to London was filled with awkward silence between Alex and her guardian. Wolf was crammed into a small space, next to two children. The children looked terrified of him, to put it mildly. Alex was squeezed between the children's parents, who looked rather concerned with their safety.

Finally, Wolf exploded. "'Slept well'? Was that not slightly obvious? Not to mention completely fuckin' embarrassing!"

Ignoring the disapproving looks that they were gaining by the other passengers in the cabin, Alex said, "Well excuse me for trying to diffuse the tension. It wasn't my fault that the bank wanted me in so early."

Wolf grunted. "At least you didn't walk in on us," he replied. Catching Alex's expression, he asked, "You didn't, did you?"

Alex gave a weak smile, shaking her head. Wolf gave her a disbelieving look. Then he shook his head.

"What do the bank want?"

Alex shrugged. "They didn't specify. I'm guessing that it's about the… hack."

Wolf nodded. Alex reached into her bag and got her Ipod. After putting on her head phones, she leaned forward, paying no attention to the open stares she was attracting.

"So, Wolf. How was she?"

Wolf's cheeks turned pink.

"Jonathan," whispered the woman in the carriage, "I think we should move now."


Alex stormed into Mrs Jones' office. She was extremely tired and two hours in Wolf's presence did not do much to improve her mood. The same could be said for Wolf.

"Mrs Jones, is there a particular reason that I am two hours away from my house at six in the morning?" asked Alex. But when she got a closer look at Jones' face, she saw the haggard expression.

"Our mysterious 'AG' has escaped."

Alex was stunned. This wasn't adding up at all. "AG" was completely pathetic as an assassin. He couldn't even aim the gun at her properly, let alone shoot her. How in God's name did he escape? There was only one explanation.

"He had outside help?"

Mrs Jones nodded. She picked out a disk from the pile on her desk and slotted it into the DVD player. An image of "AG"'s cell appeared on a TV screen. "AG" was apparently sleeping in the corner. The video showed the time to be 11:00pm the night before. Mrs Jones picked up the remote and fast-forwarded the tape.

"We have shots of 11:00 and fifteen minutes later," she said while she paused the DVD. The image was almost identical. The only difference was the fact that the prisoner had escaped.

"The thing that has surprised us the most is the speed at which this was accomplished. It took only fifteen minutes for someone else to get past the guards, open the cell, get the prisoner and get out. We believe that such a task could have only been accomplished with help inside."

Mrs Jones switched off the screen. She turned to Alex.

"I believe that you and your Unit mates have talked over who we're dealing with."

Alex didn't bother worrying over how Mrs Jones knew that. She always had a way.

"Yes. We went through all the people that have been… killed by me. We shortened it down to those whose surnames started with "G". We didn't bother with extended family, as we decided that they wouldn't be so bothered. The only people we had were the Grief's, but they don't have family."

Mrs Jones nodded. "So what did you do after that?"

"We went through all the people who we didn't know the surnames of," supplied Wolf.

"Who did you come up with?"

"Nile was the only person, Mrs Jones."

Mrs Jones frowned and turned to her computer. She quickly tapped out a few words into the system. Then she sighed, absent-mindedly reaching out to her side. When her hand didn't touch anything, she sighed again.

Alex grinned, knowing that Mrs Jones was craving her peppermints. She had been warned against them because of the damage they were doing to her teeth. Mrs Jones pushed a button on her desk, asking for Smithers.

A few minutes later, a portly, cheery looking man bounced into the room. It was Smithers. The last time Alex had seen Smithers, he had stepped out of his skin, revealing himself to be a young, wiry man. Smithers walked past Alex, winking on his way.

"What seems to be the problem, Ma'am?"

Mrs Jones gestured towards the computer. "We are trying to access the files of the SCORPIA operative known as Nile. This machine informs me that I do not have the authorization to access them. Would you please let it know that I am, indeed, the head of MI6, and so I am able to view these files?" asked Mrs Jones. Smithers sighed, walking around to the computer with an "of course, Ma'am".

Smithers quickly typed something into the computer, and then spread his hands to Mrs Jones in an ironic fashion. Mrs Jones thanked Smithers and dismissed him. She continued to type away into the machine. All the while, Alex and Wolf sat in uncomfortable silence.

Finally, Mrs Jones turned the screen to the two, very bored people in front of her.

"Nile Griffiths. Born 16th October 1983 in England. One of four siblings and lived with his mother. The father disappeared from the picture at his birth. His mother gave him over to SCORPIA, believing his future would be better over there. Nile was trained at a very young age to be an assassin. He was brilliant in stealth, secrecy and the ability to kill."

Alex pondered over this information, picking out the relevant parts. She suddenly spotted something.

"One out of four siblings, you said? Do we know much about them?"

Mrs Jones shook her head.

"Then I guess we'll have to find out."


Alex was sitting in the kitchen, finishing the remnants of her holiday homework, while a pot of chilli con carne simmered on the hob. She groaned as she moved onto the huge English essay that she had been putting off for days. Well, I have been a bit preoccupied, what with people trying to kill me and all. Deciding on the ways that Fitzgerald tells the story in chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby was definitely not her idea of a good pastime.

A God-sent interruption finally entered the room when she was on her fifth paragraph in the form of Matt Cullen. Strangely, he walked straight past Alex. Alex sensed what he was about to do and slapped his hand before he could even touch the lid to the pan of chilli.

"Nu-uh, Matt. That's for dinner. Patience is a virtue," she mocked. Matt pouted.

"But I'm hungry!"

"Tough, hun. You'll only have to wait for half an hour, anyways."

Matt sighed, pretending to be upset. Then he perked up.

"Well, if I can't have the chilli con carne, I can at least have you," he smirked, leaning in for a kiss. Alex took a step back and raised her eyebrows.

"That has got to be one of the cheesiest lines you've used on me," she said.

"Did it work?"

She bit her lip. "Yes," she admitted.

Matt's smirk deepened as he leant in again. Alex met him halfway, reaching up to him because he was so tall. She gave him a ghost of a kiss and sighed. Matt was grinning now. He grabbed her hands and hung them around his neck, then moved his own hands around her waist, while deepening the kiss. Alex was really getting into this, considering that she hadn't really experienced something as passionate as this. She sucked on his lips hungrily and he coaxed open her mouth. He was about to slide his tongue in, when:

"Ahem".

Alex and Matt broke apart quickly to see who had interrupted them. It was Wolf and, unsurprisingly, he looked pissed off. Alex stepped to the side, averting her eyes and rubbing her lips.

"Cub, believe it or not but I'm quite lax with you. However, snogging in my kitchen in front of my dinner is unacceptable! If it weren't for the fact that it's Eagle you're dating…" Wolf threatened. Alex blushed.

"Well, at least it was only kissing and nothing else, eh? I mean, we wouldn't want a repeat of this morning, would we?" mocked Alex. This time, Wolf flushed.

"What happened this morning?" asked Eagle.

Before Alex could speak, Wolf looped his arms around Eagle's waist and chucked him into the living room. Then he calmly walked back in.

"Leaving aside our personal lives, we need to talk about what we learned today," he said. Alex immediately sat down and pulled out a chair for Wolf. She absent-mindedly drummed patterns on the table.

"I don't really see what we need to talk about. We need to go back to London, investigate that cell and find out as much as possible about this man. Simple."

"Ah," said Wolf, bringing out a letter. "We can't do that."

He pushed the letter to Alex, who picked it up and scanned through it:

To Miss Rider,

We understand how personal the recent attack on you may be for you. However, in the light of the recent occurrences, we feel that it would be best for you to refrain from investigating. Unlike many of your previous missions, this is an attempt on your life. It is our wish, for your benefit, that you stay in the presence of your guardian, Diego Montez. We are advising you to let the situation be dealt with by trained men.

Yours Sincerely,

Mrs Jones, Head of MI6, etc,.

Alex read through the letter and with each sentence, fury spread further across her cheeks. Trained men? She had trained a whole lot more than any of the other men in MI6. And how dare Mrs Jones act like she was worried about Alex's safety when that had been a minor concern when she was fourteen?

"We're still going to go there and investigate," stated Alex. "Mrs Jones will not stop us."

"I thought you might say that. That's why I've asked for some help," replied Wolf.

"Who?"

Wolf gestured at the man who was standing at the door: Ben Daniels, AKA Fox.


Et voilà! Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter. Can we get this one up to 50? I might be able to update earlier...

Also, please let me know if the Eagle/Alex moment was overdone or underdone. Please remember to curse my older brother to the deep depths of Tartarus. Finally, what do you think of the plot? Are there any gaping holes?

Ta ra from your favourite banana xx