Disclaimer: I do not own the Alex Rider series.
This chapter is dedicated to Izzy-I.R.T. whose reviews make up almost thirty percent of all my reviews. Thanks to everyone else who reviewed my story too! I've personally replied to you, unless you reviewed anonymously and didn't leave a way for me to contact you.
Chapter 10!
Alex Rider, teenage spy for the MI6, sat down in the canteen for breakfast with a barely muffled groan of pain. His muscles were extremely sore, after yesterday's Bullet Runs, then the evening sprint-for-you-life that Jake called a jog. Now he was in pain. He couldn't remember the last time he was in so much pain. Muscles he hadn't even known existed were screaming. And to make matters worse, the forecast for that day was thirty-nine degrees Celsius. Great.
Then Desiree Swan dropped into the seat next to him. And if he was in pain, she was in complete agony. After last night's sprint, coupled with the morning's double-run-in-the-time-of-one punishment she and Terry had had to do, it took all of Dessi's self-control not to hit Jake in the face for revenge. Or to throw up. Whichever one came first.
"You okay?" Alex asked, wincing as he twisted in his chair to look at her and aggravating another muscle.
The girl forced a smile, however tired it may have been. "Yea, I've felt worse."
"Dessi, you look like hell!" Anna exclaimed, hurrying over to their table with some pre-buttered toast and two glasses of milk.
"Are you okay?" She asked, setting down the food in front of Alex and leaning over to feel the girl's forehead, "You feel fine, but your face is so flushed! Here, I'll get you some water," and so saying, the motherly figure rushed away, coming back a minute later with a glass filled to the brim.
"Drink," she ordered, setting the glass firmly in front of Dessi, and the girl had no choice but to obey, though she did it with a grimace.
"Stop coddling her, Anna," Jake ordered from his table.
"I wouldn't need to if you didn't half kill her every morning," Anna retorted, giving a Jake a glare that the tired Wolf would've been proud of.
"Please don't start, you two," Desiree groaned, finishing the water, "I can't deal with anything else right now."
"Don't worry. Just have some food, and you'll feel better. Here," Anna said, shoving a piece of toast into the girl's hands. "Eat."
"Anna, we have training next, and if Jake kicks me in the stomach again, I'm going to vomit all this up," she said, although she started eating anyway.
"Well the, Jake had better NOT kick you in the stomach then, had he?" Anna said, rounding on the unit leader.
"I wouldn't have hit you if you had kept your guard up," he said.
"And I would've kept my guard up if you didn't set two entire units on me at the same freakin' time!" Dessi retorted.
Anna froze.
"You made her fight eight people by herself?" She exclaimed, giving the leader a glare. And boy, if looks could kill…
"Technically, it was only seven," Jake said, though he was quailed slightly under the intense look Anna was giving him.
"ONLY SEVEN? HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF ONLY SEVEN PEOPLE WERE ATTACKING YOU…"
So all in all, it was a pretty normal breakfast.
After the seemingly daily routine of Anna's explosion, the group headed for the AIS gym, while K-unit left for the shooting range again, to train under the direction of Wolf. Ben had decided to join his old team, rather than risk another morning with Jake. Apparently, the unanimous decision was that Jake was a whole lot worse than Wolf.
The location of the AIS gym was actually just a few metres away from the DB. The outside of the building, like so many others at the AIS, was made from bricks in a deep red colour favoured by many buildings in Australia. The inside had highly polished (and highly scratched) wooden floorboards. Though it was a relief to be out of the sun, what really made Alex's day was the discovery that the gym actually had four reverse-cycle air cons installed.
The gym itself was huge, the size of four basketball courts arranged in a two by two formation. Although it had the appearance of a normal school gym, it was missing some pretty essential equipment. Like basketball hoops. Or the lines drawn on the floor to show different areas of the court.
Unit one weren't the only ones in the gym though. It looked like they would be sharing it with about five other units. Oh well, Alex thought, there's plenty of space. And indeed there was. The units could spread out as far as they liked, but the gym was so huge there was never a chance that another unit's space would be imposed upon.
Upon entering, Jake, Terry and Dean headed over to what looked like a storage room situated on the far left wall of the gym. Desiree led Alex over to a spare space in the right corner, where she promptly sat down on the floor and started stretching her legs.
"I suggest you do the same," she said. She had stretched her right leg flat out in front of her, and had leaned over so her nose was touching her knee. Alex winced just watching her. He would never be that flexible, not in a million years of training.
"Dessi," he started hesitantly, while sitting on the floor, "Are we going to talk about what happened last night?"
The girl straightened up and stared at him.
"Not here," she replied, before leaning over to her left leg and resting her nose on her knee, "I don't want to take the chance of being overheard. Besides, there's not much left to tell, unless you want to know about all my missi-"
She broke off suddenly when she heard the approaching footsteps of the rest of her unit. Alex turned around, wincing as his neck screamed in protest.
Jake, Terry and Dean carried between them a rather long rolled up object that appeared to be a mat of some kind. Dumping it on the ground, the three then proceeded to unroll it, forcing Alex and Desiree to scramble out of the way.
"Just squish us while you're at it, why don't you," Dessi grumbled, massaging her back. Jake glanced at her with a slightly raised eyebrow, and the girl promptly shut her mouth.
They spent the morning going through complicated drills to keep up their speed and coordination. Then they went through a highly complex pattern, slowing it down at first so Alex could get the hang of it, then speeding it up until the kicks, blocks and punches present in the pattern appeared nothing but a blur. A very vicious blur at that.
It was quite obvious that the unit were at a high level of karate and God knows what else. But Alex had a strange, uncomfortable feeling at the bottom of his stomach. It wasn't until two hours or so later, when they'd been given two minutes for a breather that he realised what it was. They hadn't asked, ever, if he knew karate. He'd never told them he had a black belt. And yet they'd just shown him the world's most complicated set of drills and patterns, then expected him to keep up. Almost as if they knew about him…
Alex's thoughts drifted back to that building, with the rooms full of files. What had Dessi called that building? The ISB. He thought to the room he went into. Full of files and compact hard drives on MI6. What if one of those files was about me, Alex thought, concerned, or worse, what if one of those rooms had my file? Did they know about my past?
Before he could think anymore on it, Jake called them back to training. He paired them up, Alex with Dessi and Terry with Dean. Alex couldn't help but notice the sliver of relief in her eyes when the girl found out she wouldn't be facing Jake.
The unit leader then got them to work. They would be sparring each other, and Jake had moved the teens to the opposite side of Terry and Dean to minimize the chances of anyone getting hurt. He himself would be darting from group to group, pointing out mistakes and jabbing at openings if he found one.
Alex eyed Dessi, and noticed that she was doing the same. Suddenly, she wasn't the girl who'd confided in him about her rather distressing past, and who'd cried out her grief on Alex's shoulder. Suddenly, Alex found himself facing a nameless opponent. More Scorpia training, he thought dryly as he launched the first attack, Never identify with your opponent, otherwise you let down your guard.
They had three bouts. All three ended in a draw, because both of them kept going and refused to give up. Jake ended up 'supervising' all three of their fights, because he "didn't want an injured agent who wouldn't be able to go on the mission". It was he who decided that the three bouts were all draws.
When Jake announced that it was time for lunch, it couldn't have been more welcomed. Alex ached all over; Dessi somehow managed to keep darting under his guard, and no matter how fast he was he couldn't match the girl's speed. She may have been shorter, thinner and less trained, but he could learn a thing or two from her. It irritated him to no end, how the girl managed to get around him, strike him with a few well delivered (and extremely painful) blows, then dart away before he could react.
The only thing that made him feel slightly better was when he'd managed to grab her by her pony tail, and use his weight to his advantage as he threw it all behind a lower aimed round-house kick, straight to the outside of her knee. Though it made him feel slightly sadistic, he couldn't suppress the slight feeling of triumph as he watched Desiree limp away to lunch in front of him.
"Swan! What's wrong with your leg?" Jake asked, grabbing Dessi's wrist and forcing her to stop.
Dessi scowled. "Oh like you didn't see what happened."
Jake glared at her until the girl lowered her eyes, then bent down next to her and began prodding her injured leg. When he reached the knee, she gave an involuntary gasp and tried to hobble out of his reach, only for her leg to give way. She would've fallen had Alex not caught her at the last minute.
"T-thanks," she said, leaning on the boy to right herself. Alex's feeling of triumph diminished when he saw that she had trouble putting any weight on her leg at all. Dessi sensed his feeling of discomfort, and gave him a small smile to show that there were no hard feelings.
"It was just an accident," she said, "I mean, I hit you plenty of times too. Most of them are going to bruise an awful lot."
"Enough," Jake said, standing up again, "I think it's a mild sprain. When you were hit, your leg was probably planted firmly in the ground. Your knee moved inward as a result, and that probably sprained medial collateral ligament. Here, I'll take you down to the medical centre, and get them to give you a check-up. And probably an ice-pack for the bruising. Rider, go get yourself some lunch. The rest of the day you can have off. We're still doing an evening jog, though."
Alex looked on worriedly as Jake helped his field partner hobble away, though he had to admit that for all the man picked on and threatened the girl, he really did care about her. He probably didn't know how to express his concern too well though.
With a sigh, Alex headed off to the canteen with a mental note not to tell Anna that he was the one who busted Dessi's knee.
On his way, he passed an agent heading in the same direction as Jake and Dessi, and nodded at him in greeting. The agent didn't even notice him, but suddenly Alex stopped and stared. The agent just moved on until he was out of sight and did not once look at Alex, but Alex had seen his all too familiar face. It was the same person he'd recognised at the ISB yesterday, the man with extremely short dark brown hair.
Why did he look so God-damned familiar?
"So, Cub. How's your training going?" Eagle asked as the five made their way back to the DB from their lunch. Jake and Desiree hadn't returned yet, presumably still at the med centre.
"It's alright. Jake's a lot harsher than Wolf was though," Alex grinned, and everyone turned to the scowling Wolf.
"What? I can be nice if I want to."
"Yeah, of course Wolf! And Eagle can act like a mature adult instead of an idiot if he wants to," Ben grinned back. Eagle darted over and punched the MI6 agent in the arm.
"Hey!" Ben shouted as Eagle took off, "What was that for?"
"Insulting my honour!"
"What honour?"
Alex rolled his eyes as Ben took off after the fleeing SAS soldier, and found himself walking next to Snake, who was staring at him with a strange expression on his face.
"What?"
"Have you," Snake hesitated, then looked around to make sure no-one was paying them any attention and dropped his voice, "Have you reported yet?"
Alex stared at him. Before they'd left England, Smithers had given each of them a way of communicating directly to MI6, so they could report to Mr Blunt. The head of the SO had been very clear that anything they found out about AIS or Desiree Swan must be reported immediately. He also expected reports at least every other day.
"No," he whispered back, trying not to move his lips in case any of the agents knew how to read lips. He honestly wouldn't put it past them, "Have you?"
"Yea, last night when you guys were doing your evening 'jog'," Snaked grinned.
"I'll do it now. Jake gave me the rest of the day off."
"HEY! Rider! Hold up!"
Alex and Snake turned around to see Terry and Dean running towards them. Dean gave Snake a curt nod to acknowledge his existence, through Terry just pretended that the SAS soldier was invisible.
"We're going down to the assault course," Terry said, "You want to join us? Of course, you'd need a partner, but one of us could substitute. It's good practise for agility and stuff."
"Uh, Jake said I could have the rest of the day off," Alex said cautiously. He wasn't really looking forward to the day he had to face the assault course. He definitely would not be going because he himself volunteered to do so.
"Yea, we know," Dean replied, "We were just down to see Dessi at the med centre and Jake told us. You busted her knee up good, you know?"
"Uh, thanks?" Alex said, unsure of the man's tone. It was strangely proud, almost congratulatory.
Dean chuckled slightly at that.
"No, that wasn't really what I meant," he said, "What I meant was that, it's been a long time since Dessi got hurt in the gym. I mean, from one on one, not like group on her," he added, "So, I thought you'd like to know that the last person to have the, uh, honour, of hurting her was Jake. He broke her arm once about two years ago. I don't think he's ever been forgiven…So anyway, what do you say about the assault course?"
"Um, no thanks. I'd rather use this time to rest, if you catch my drift," Alex said.
"Okay, then," Terry smiled, "See you 'round!"
And with that the two agents sprinted off again. A loud huff close to Alex's ear made him whip his head around in surprise. He'd completely forgotten Snake was still there, and the look on the man's face said that he wasn't very happy about being ignored by the three of them.
"Come on, Cub, let's go."
Alex lay down on his bed with a content sigh. Then he picked himself off it with an annoyed groan. Going over to his bag, he rummaged inside for the small felt pouch that had come with Smithers' communication device.
Finding it at the bottom, Alex pulled it out and opened the pouch. Inside was what appeared to be a digital photo frame keyring, about the size of an iPhone. If someone had found it and turned it on, the thing would have just started flashing photos of Alex's skiing trip.
Turning the keyring around, he carefully opened the battery compartment, took out what appeared to be the battery which was connected to the main frame with a couple of wires. However, this was no battery.
There was a small switch in the side, which Alex pulled after much difficulty. The top half of the 'battery' came off, to reveal a full keyboard. By pulling the switch, he'd also activated the communication section of the device.
The frame now showed an empty page, with a single "send" button at the end. It had also become touch-screen sensitive, so Alex gently tapped the screen and began to type.
Not much to report except that there's some guy here that I seem to recognise but have no idea of who he actually is. Any chance you could look him up? He's about thirty, maybe thirty-five, with really short hair that's a really dark brown.
There's a building here called the ISB. Not sure what it stands for yet, but pretty sure the 'S' is for surveillance. How do I know? I went in. They have rooms full of files, all alphabetically ordered. It might interest you guys to know that they've got an entire shelf dedicated to MI6. They have all these compact hard drives, and one of them says 'Skeleton Key'. Oh, and there was something about 'SK Arms' on there too.
Now Alex paused. What Dessi had told him about her past last night he'd sworn not to tell anyone else. He didn't really want to break that promise, so he slightly compromised by telling them something trivial that would be of no use whatsoever.
The girl, Desiree Swan, she's only been to school for a couple of months before she got pulled out for throwing a bike through the principal's office. Don't know where to get more info.
Well, that wouldn't tell them too much about her, but at least it made him look like he was following his orders. Gently he tapped the "send" button, and watched as the page dissolved into the skiing photos again. He had been reassured that the sending signal would be scrambled to different locations, the information bounced so that no-one would ever trace it back to Alex. He hoped that the technology worked.
A few minutes later, one of the photos flashed red. Tapping the photo, Alex found himself reading a reply signed by Jones.
Alex. First of all, well done on finding the ISB. There's a rumour going around agencies that the AIS has such a place where they store intelligence on other agencies, as well as data on their own targets. I don't know if we should be happy that the rumour is true.
Secondly, I'm sending you a couple of photos of all the people we've got in our databank who is around thirty and has dark brown hair. Some photos were taken from satellites such as the SatInt and blown up, so the faces may not be too clear. They are also not in colour, so we sent them anyway just in case. If you see the man, let us know the picture title, and we'll send you back an ID.
Finally, try going into the girl's room if you have to. She lives there permanently so there has to be some information you can gather. Keep working on it, Alex, and try to find out what their mission is about.
Jones.
A few seconds after, the photos began to pop up onto the screen. Scrolling through, he found that there were at least a hundred, if not more. Damn, he thought, why didn't I give a more precise description?
After studying and disregarding the coloured photos, he moved onto the satellite ones.
Too tall, too short, face not long enough, he found himself thinking as he flicked through each photo. Each photo was wrong in some way, from not having the same facial features, to different bone structures. Disregarding the length of hair in each photo, after all it could have been cut, he continued to look through the black and white pictures, getting more irritated by the second.
Too thin, too gangly, too long-a nose. Alex had only seen the man's face for a few brief seconds, but he had trained his mind to memorise details.
Too chubby, definitely not this guy, too many scars, too-wait. THAT'S HIM!
Quickly, Alex checked the photo's ID; 'MV 302'. Pulling up a new blank typing page, Alex quickly wrote to MI6, telling them he'd found the man and typing out carefully his photo ID.
It seemed like a million years, when it was closer to about seven minutes, later that the screen flashed red again. Eagerly Alex pulled up the message and read it.
Alex, are you sure? We trust you, but are you really sure it is him that you see? Like, absolutely sure, not maybe sure?
Scowling, Alex sent Jones a blistering reply about how they themselves had made sure he was able to memorise the exact features of peoples' faces. He didn't have to wait long for the reply.
Alex, that photo was taken last year by the SatInt (Satellite Intelligence), from an island. Like each photo in our data base, that one's ID is based upon the position of where the photo was taken. The 'MV' part on this particular photo's ID stands for Malagosto, Venice.
Alex, that man was training with you as an assassin for Scorpia…
Oooh, suspense! Sorry for the cliff hanger guys, but it seemed pretty decent time to put one in.
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