AN: Well, hello. It's been awhile, hasn't it? I hope you all enjoy this. It's just over two thousand five hundred words. I'll start on chapter eleven shortly. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Alex Rider, nor any of the plots. All things Alex Rider related belong to Anthony Horowitz. Danke
3:30
It was still raining. The rain had started went they were coming down the other side of the hill. Shadow and Alex had made good time getting over the plateau. He'd fallen a few times on the way down, probably straining the muscles in his wrist a bit more then he would have liked. It hurt to put pressure on it. A look at the sky told Alex that the weather would probably be continuing on through-out the morning.
It was wet, cold and he was miserable in his soggy combat boots. They had an hour and thirty minutes left to retrieve the flag. There hadn't been any sign of Ikan, and Sair nor had they seen their hunters. Things were quiet.
"I think the flag is after this next clearing, down that slope and in the forest a fair ways. We should be able to make it in time." Shadow broke through his thoughts. He stole a quick glance at Shadow, what had her file said her real name was? Kair, Keire? Something like that. If he was honest with himself he'd admit that she was rather beautiful, and if he was a bit older he might have tried something.
He wasn't older, and he wasn't going to try anything with her. Besides, if Sabina found out. Well, that would be that. He grimaced slightly at the imagined anger that Sabina would direct at him.
They hiked in silence. Shadow pausing every so often to look at their surroundings. Alex kept his ears peeled, readying himself for an attack. The consistent awareness needed for their task was draining.
Perhaps it was because of this awareness that Alex heard the snap of a branch behind him.
The sound of the cracking stick was ominously loud in the rain. It wasn't natural. Alex reacted before he thought. He launched himself and Shadow, who not expecting it. Flipped him up and over her shoulder. Alex who was surprised at the move, for he had been trying to help and forgot that person he was helping was also a spy, and any good spy had good would react when someone unexpectedly threw themselves at them. Alex let his body become dead weight, boneless. Which made him harder to throw.
He went over her shoulder slowly, and she fell with him. Thankfully both of them managed to miss the paint balls that flew there way. Alex landed under Shadow with a large THUMP. The air was knocked out of him, and he could feel two sharp objects digging into his back. Shadow who landed on top of him, made it hard breathe. Alex could tell she was annoyed at him by the way her eyebrows drew together, and the corner of her mouth scrunched up a bit.
"You could have yelled!" She growled out between her clenching teeth. A paint ball hit the ground to the left of them.
"Fuck." Shadow hissed. Alex shared her sentiments. They were in a sparse, wide forest with young trees. There wasn't much cover to be found.
Foot steps came closer. B-Unit had found them, that also meant they were near the flag. Probably. Alex really hopped that was the case. The wind rushed its way through the trees, making them bend at extreme angles. The branches were whipping about. The weather was getting sever. Why had they been allowed to preform the night exercise if the forecast had shown this?
Maybe someone had it out for the group of spies, or one of the units. It was possible. Alex couldn't think much about it at the moment. With the wind driving rain into his eyes it made it hard to see, it was also hindering the unit behind him. He could tell by their curses and stumbles, they were stumbling over the same fallen branches that he had. It made the fleeing, and chasing harder.
" Shhh. Found two of the spies, got them pinned down come'n down the hill. Shh." The radio contact was broken off by a large clap of thunder. The thunder rolled and groaned together for a few long seconds before rumbling away.
Alex and Shadow stumbled away from the unit behind him, and by the time the rain had let up enough to see a few feet in front of them, they discovered that they had lost the unit, and their sense of direction. They were lost, and didn't have a map to point them in the right direction.
It may have been the fork of lighting that showed them the way. Or it may have been that Shadow's watch had a small compass on the face of it. Secretly Alex liked the idea of navigational lightening. He'd talk to Smithers about the idea. After a few whispered conversations* under the small coverage of a leaning tree, they re found their way to capture the flag.
The two cut through some more woods, happened upon a small clearing which they would cautiously edge around or cross if it was big to keep to the treeline. The wind was constantly changing. The weather would die down and then buffer them at full force the next minute. Alex was soaked to the bone. His pack was water logged, and now weight several pounds heavier then it did at the beginning of the excursion. His clothes were sticking to his skin constricting his movement. They stopped twice, once for a caffeine pill, and another time for a few sips of water while they discussed where to head next.
They continued on for fifteen minutes. Ambling along an animal path. There was a clearing ahead, and Shadow who was in front of him slowed down, and made a 'come here' motion with her hand. Alex walked up besides her, and looked where she was pointing. Ahead, in the clearing was a white..pole. It was a flag pole. They'd reached their final destination. The two of them slowly moved forward, careful not to step on branches that would crack under their pressure. They eased slowly into the shadows of the tree line where Alex took stock of the situation.
The white flag was trying to flutter. The heavy rain, and driving winds that made the rain drops fall with great force was dragging at the flag, making it wrap its self around the flag pole. It looked more like it was being strangled. From his position Alex could see Ben, and Tamara circling the flag post. They were covered by a wooden barricade that looked to be just under a meter and a half tall. He could see no opening, which meant he and Shadow would have to jump over it with out getting smacked by a paint-ball. Alex hadn't seen B-Unit since their run in on the mountainside a good half an hour ago. He wondered if they were hiding in the clearing edges waiting to take a pot shot at anyone who ran towards the flag. Perhaps the flag was bait.
He hadn't seen Sair or Ikan either. It was always a bad idea to split up, hadn't he learned that in any of the horror movies that Tom made him watch? They needed a plan.
"Hey, Shadow. Do you have any ideas?" Alex asked, gesturing towards the flag. The Mossad agent turned from the clearing to look at him before replying.
"I had hoped you had one."
"Oh." Alex breathed. "Well." He began, then stopped to think. "Here's my idea.."
It took less then five minutes to outline his plan, and when he was done explaining his idea Shadow's eyebrows had reached her hairline.
"You think this, this" She waved her hand in the air, trying to indicate his general plan, "will really work?" Shadow sounded dubious.
Alex gave a little shrug in reply. "I don't see why it won't."
"Alright then, if this fails I'm blaming you." Shadow whispered, poking Alex squarely on the chest, hard enough for the teenager to rock back on his heels.
"Fine by me, but-" Alex was interrupted by Shadow's fist connecting with his face. Grimacing slightly, Alex touched his upper lip. His lip, and nose were bleeding, and nose bleeds tended to bleed a lot.
"Sorry Devil, I just thought that-" Shadow said, inspecting the amount of blood that was now gushing out of Alex's nose.
"Naw, it's good. 'Elp me owt here." Alex managed to say, smiling as he wiped his bloody nose with the sleeve of his uniform.
Tamara Knight shook her head trying to get the rain that was consistently falling, out of her eyes. It made her hair that was plastered to her face, well out of her face, she imagined she looked like a wet dog. It had been raining for a few hours now. She was cold, wet and wanted hot food badly. Being out in the open wasn't helping, heck nothing in her situation was helping her stay warm. She had been on high alert since Agent Daniels had thought up this plan. The whole idea was folly.
Her ear piece crackled. "Shhh. Found two of the spies, got them pinned down come'n down the hill. Shh."
Tamara let her eyes linger on the south side of the clearing. She couldn't see more then a few feet in front of her, the rain had been coming in waves making seeing anything past a arms distance hard. She was finding she didn't like the weather in Wales, she enjoyed the warm sunny atmosphere of Washington D.C. Although, in D.C it could get ridiculously muggy the air could clam up and be thick like soup. Things could certainly be worse, they could be in the arctic, or the hot jungles of South America. No, she was rather happy to be in Wales. Well, at least happier.
She couldn't lie to herself, she would to others if asked. Alex being here did make a difference. The short time she'd know him Tamara had found herself grudgingly admiring the boys' spying ability. She was some what delighted that he looked almost happy to see her. He had certainly grown. Tamara shook her head, letting water dribble slowly down her back. Now was not the time to linger on such matters. She had to focus on making Agent Daniels' plan better. Honestly standing behind the flimsy excuse of a barrier did not make her feel safe. Even if this was just a training exercise.
She was also a bit miffed at Agent Daniels. She was the senior agent, and she had a much better plan then his. Hell, he didn't even have a plan, no. He thought standing out here like sitting ducks was a great idea. Daniels hadn't even asked her what she thought! It was just like a man not to consider that she had a voice. And yet, it was partly her fault for not speaking up. Tamara frowned she had gone along with it, and now the plan had to be followed. It was too bad mutiny was looked down upon.
It had been thirty minutes since their last radio contact with B-Unit, and K-Unit and reported in before that saying they had lost two members to the spies, and were now in pursuit.
"Shh, this is K-Unit to base. shhdftk Do you copy?Shh." The rain made communication hard. The radio signals were struggling the few miles between walkie-talkies. Agent Daniels had heard the radio crackle and had come over to listen.
"Shh, this is base, we copy. Shht." Tamara responded, sending a raised eyebrow to Daniels, for he wasn't paying attention to the clearing. Not that he could see anything, but the point to keeping watch was to watch for threats. And that meant looking outside the barrier, not at her radio. He gave an impish grin and continued to walk around the muddy circle they had made behind the wooden barricade.
"Shh, this is Wolf reporting in. We've got two of the spies down, but they managed to get us as well. It's just you two and B-Dfssshtsfht." A large rolling thunder cut off the rest of the transmittance from K-Unit.
So there were two left. Tamora wondered if Alex was one of the ones left standing. Time would tell. There was an hour left in the time limit. Tamora brought the radio back up to her face.
"Shh, this is base to B-Unit, do you copy? Shft." Tamora brought the radio up to her ear to hear the response.
"Shhd-ft." The connection failed. Damnit, this weather is horrible.
"Shhhh, Thi shhh is B-Un shshsdf." The reply was crackled, and hardly coherent enough to understand.
"Shhf This is bashhstdf" A fork of lighting arched through the sky and lit up a tree to the south of the clearing. The rain put it out quickly.
"Shhf, B-Unit what is your ETA to base?Shhft."
"Shh, With this weather? About twenty minutes, we're going as fast as we can. Shhhf." The answer was prompt, and the man behind the radio sounded annoyed. In regular weather they probably would have already been there. A gust of wind set the rain falling at a different angle then it had been before. Tamora shivered. It was going to be a long hour.
~~!
Alan Blunt stepped out of his office, quietly shut is door- double checked that he had locked it. The gray man nodded at his receptionist before stepping out into the all,shutting that door behind him as well. He seemed to float down the hallway, seamlessly he turned to face a door. He knocked once, then twice in repetition, before laying his hand flat against the glace. If he was anyone else he would have smiled at the secret code, but he was Alan Blunt, the Gray Man who ran the special operations unit of MI6.
"Come in." Said a monotone voice behind the heavy set door. Alan stepped into the office, closing the door behind him softly. The inhabitant of the office was sitting behind her desk. The office was gray not to large, and not small enough to be stuffy. The only spark of color the room had was a picture on the owners desk. The photograph was in a neutral light gray pastel color frame, which stood out slightly from the shiny dark surface of the owners desk. Alan Blunt, adjusted his glasses and breathed, letting out a breathe that wasn't quite a sigh. They gray man took out a manila envelope and dropped it on the desk in-front of him.
"We have a problem." He stated, bringing a hand up to his glasses to fiddle with them. He was nervous.
"Oh?" The woman behind the desk queered, one eyebrow quirked up. She was still looking at her computer screen.
"Yes." Blunt paused for a moment, "a very serious problem."
The woman behind her desk finally looked up at her boss, her slightly . "Oh." She breathed out, one hand was brought up to rub viciously at her face, before collapsing back into her chair. "Shit."
"Eloquently put Mrs. Jones." Alan replied, sitting in the chair opposite of her. He controlled the slight twitch his lips wanted to do, he would not smile. This was not a smiling matter. Although, sometimes Mrs. Jones made it hard not too. Best damn deputy he ever had. It was a shame really.
AN: So, there it was. I have a few personal opinions bellow this Author's Note.
*( As a side note, yelling and talking in a forest carries quite a ways. Really any noise does, things become surprisingly loud in a forest. You'd be surprised, I'll be walking in the woods and the path would be a few hundred yards/meters to my right and I can here people laughing, and talking. It's always best to err on the side of caution. )
Another thing, it would be a good thing to remember that when making a plan you should ask people's opinions, and take their suggestions seriously, even if they seem stupid they might highlight a flaw in your plan. It is always good to listen, always. There are more sides to a story then just two. Us humans think is two dimensional terms, so linear! I don't mean to preach, I just think this is good advice to follow, and it's saved me from quite a few arguments.