Wow! Long time no see! Long, as in... a year... that's a new record for me. And I'm really sorry. I want to put something out there- the reason I'm publishing now is because I got some pretty great reviews from people urging me to update. Every time I got one, I would write a little more, sometimes a lot more depending on how sweet the message was, and here we are! I'm saying this to let you guys know that reviews matter. More than you think they do. if i get two or three for a chapter, I'm normally pretty bummed and don't get to writing for a while. but, if I get something like six or more, I usually get really excited and get started on the next chapter right away. So if you want me to update faster, review! :)
I expect most of you don't remember much about the plot of this story, so I'll provide a quick summary of the last few chapter to get you all up to speed:
Alex, after getting caught smuggling himself in a plane headed to London, holds the plane hostage until he gets a parachute, and he jumps out to make his escape. Henry, one of the officers stationed on the plane who was mediating the whole hostage situation, jumps out right after him. Alex is sure he has gotten away because of his serious head start on the man, but he comes across a river and tries to get to the bank, which causes a minor rockslide that buries his legs in the rock. Now all he can do is wait for henry to find him and get him out. Meanwhile, K-Unit, after formulating the perfect plan, sneak into an SAS hangar and steal a Black Hawk helicopter, and are en-route to America to get Alex out of the absolute mess he's got himself into. And that's what you missed on Glee. ;)
previously...
Henry raced through the stretches of cornfields, hoping against all hope that he was still on Rider's trail. He had seen him land (rather roughly, at that), and he had seen him run. But with the plane going as fast as it was when he jumped, the mere 30 seconds it took Henry to strap on a parachute and leap put a solid three miles in between them.
He relied heavily on footprints in the dirt, but who could say that they didn't belong to a farmer? For all Henry knew, Alex Rider could've taken a sharp turn and ended up in another state by now. Nevertheless, the footprints were his only lead, and a very solid one at that, despite his irrational doubts.
Henry saw a change in the soil in the distance. It looked as if the ground became grassy for a moment, then went back to its normal state as quickly as it had changed. As the man got closer, it made more sense. The grass bordered a small river that cut straight through the land, with steep, cliff-like banks on either side. Henry cursed his luck. If the Rider boy had any sense, which Henry had no doubts about, he would have gone down the river, eliminating any tracks that Henry could follow.
But, as he got nearer to the river, he noticed that his luck wasn't so bad after all. In fact, it was incredible. There he was, Alex Rider, thigh-deep in a rockslide at the riverbank.
"Hello, Henry." Alex whipped out his gun before the cop had a chance to. "I could use a helping hand."
Chapter 10- Small Town, Big Deal
"I have to say, this isn't where I expected we'd meet." Henry mused while he slowly raised his hands.
"Stop stalling, start moving." Alex put a stop to the chitchat before it even started. "I want you to make your way down here. Be careful, the rocks are loose." He said sardonically as he gestured to his buried feet. Henry found a spot made up mostly of dirt with minimal stones, and slid down to the bank.
"Great. I'm going to block the rocks from sliding down any further, and you're going to dig me out." Alex gave Henry the next command. Pieces clicked into place in Henry's brain, provoking a bold response.
"No." Henry stared Alex in the eyes. His serious look vanished, replaced with irritation.
"Henry, do you want me to shoot you?" Alex raised and eyebrow. The cop had been so compliant with his orders on the plane, what was different?
"You won't shoot me." Henry stated with rather concerning confidence. "You're stuck real good, and you can't get out without my help. If you shoot me, then I won't be able to free you. Isn't that right?" He locked eyes with the spy. Alex clenched his jaw and stared right back. Henry refused to back down.
"Damn it." Alex broke the silence and lowered his gun.
"Hand over your guns." Henry repressed a smirk, feeling rather satisfied. Alex tossed the gun he had taken from the cops' supply over first, then followed with his fake gun. Henry picked up the latter, and widened his eyes at the weight of the weapon.
"What is this?" Henry held the gun in his palm, demanding an explanation.
"It's a squirt gun." Alex shrugged.
"You held a whole plane hostage… with a squirt gun?" Henry would've laughed if the situation weren't so serious.
"The wonders of black spray paint." Alex chuckled. "I saw it in a TV show once."
Henry looked Alex up and down. He had to remind himself that this kid, short for his age with lingering baby fat in his cheeks, was the most wanted fugitive in America. He was only two years older than his eldest son, for Christ's sake. "You're really something, aren't you?"
"I'm all that, and innocent." Alex claimed as Henry bent down to begin digging his legs out. Alex refrained from using his left hand, and hoped Henry wouldn't take notice. The last thing he wanted was for him to exploit the weakness if he had to.
"We'll leave that to the judge." Henry put an end to the teen's lies before they even started.
"So you aren't even remotely interested in hearing my side of the story?" Alex baited as he helped Henry move the rocks.
"I'm interested in your silence."
"Come on, humor me. You've got nothing better to do." Alex pushed.
"Fine." Henry sighed, giving in. He was sure that Alex would've explained his side anyway, even if Henry had refused.
"That video about me was created by a terrorist organization named Scorpia." Alex dove into the story as the pair had nearly freed his right leg. "I got on their bad side by stopping a few of their operations, and killing their reputation in the process."
"So all this," Henry gestured, "it's a revenge plot? Why wouldn't they just... you know..." Henry stopped, unable to talk about the assassination of a kid.
"Shoot me? Oh, they tried that already." He said flippantly, throwing Henry for a loop. "Right in front of the MI6 headquarters, even." Alex tapped his chest, right over the bullet wound. "Didn't work."
"So you do work for MI6- or claim you do, I mean." Henry corrected. The video had claimed it as well, but with no proof, and MI6's relentless denial, Alex had been classified as freelance.
"Did." Alex clarified. "But Jones'll deny that 'till the day she dies." With a grumble up colliding stones Alex's right leg was free. "Ah, there it is."He shook it around to regain circulation.
"Why won't she just bail you out?" Henry asked.
"The short answer is blackmail. Scorpia has proof that MI6 sent me to Cairo, and they'll release it if the agency tries to help me." Alex explained as he sat down to make the job of releasing his left leg easier. It helped tremendously- the pair were able to shake it free in seconds. Henry gestured back up to the farmlands with his gun, signaling to Alex that he needed to climb. Alex complied, then Henry followed.
"And... the long answer?" Henry asked once they were both on solid ground.
"Scorpia knows that Mrs. Jones would choose the agency over anything else. She could easily publish my case file and come up with a few satellite images proving my innocence, but then MI6 would have to deal with all the legal and political backlash of hiring a fourteen-year-old. The blackmail gives her an easy out, and forces me to fend for myself."
"Tragic." Henry spat, putting an end to his sympathy for the terrorist before it could start.
"I know, right?" Alex ignored his blatant sarcasm.
"Can you shut up now?" Henry sighed.
"No, why?" Alex continued to push, while Henry continued to get irritated.
"Because you're not getting to the point." He answered coldly. He had been warming up to the kid, which was the exact opposite of what he was trained to do. He was a fugitive. A criminal. A murderer. His age didn't change that. "We're going to start walking now. Stay in front of me and follow the river. Don't stop or look back without reason"
"Yikes, now we're getting serious." Alex joked lightly as he complied with Henry's orders. The pair began their walk alongside the stream. "So, you said I wasn't getting to the point. What point would that be?"
Henry sighed. It looked like wasn't getting out of the storytelling. At least it gives me something to do, he thought while promising himself that we wouldn't let the lies get to him. "Well, let's say you are telling the truth, and you did work for MI6. That doesn't explain why you were in Cairo, and it definitely doesn't prove that you didn't attempt to kill the Secretary of State."
"Be patient, I was getting to that." Alex clucked. "I was sent to Cairo because MI6 found out that Scorpia might be planning an attack at a school in the city- tons of rich and famous kids with equally rich and famous parents. Getting that school under their control would give them some of the most powerful bargaining chips out there. They wanted me to attend the school and investigate any security leaks or anything else that looked suspicious. They made it out to seem like a very casual mission.
"It was uneventful at first, until I noticed one of the security guards was acting odd. So, I found some evidence in his office, and followed him one day after school to some gift shop boat on the Nile. He went into the back room where he met some old guy. This guy sold the guard a sniper rifle, then the guard shot and killed him. I ran back to the front of the boat before he left the room so I wouldn't be seen, and that's when the boat blew up.
"No one was hurt- besides the old man. I jumped out of an open window into the river and swam out. I ran into the CIA after that. They accused me of the same thing I'm being accused of now- that I was sent by MI6 to kill the secretary of state. I told them I had no idea what they were talking about, but they didn't believe me and until an old CIA contact of mine showed up and backed my story."
"Who was the contact?"
"Joe Byrne. He was the head of the undercover division of the CIA."
"The man arrested for two counts of waterboarding? In Cairo?" Henry began to connect the dots.
"Yes, and I was there- I saw the waterboarding happen both times. He shouldn't be in jail right now; he didn't partake in either and even put a stop to the first incident."
"It was you, wasn't it?" He stated.
"What?" Alex was taken by surprise.
"Byrne's case report said the first victim was an unidentified allied operative. You said that he backed you up when the other agents didn't believe you, and you also said that Byrne put a stop to a waterboarding incident. You're the operative."
"You know, I'm starting to see the appeal of shutting up now."
For the next mile, the roles were reversed- Henry wouldn't stop asking Alex about his interrogation by the CIA in Cairo, and Alex wanted nothing more than for Henry to drop the subject. Finally, the pair arrived at what looked like civilization. Their first glimpse of the place was made up of a few houses to the right and a perfectly trimmed, bright green golf course to the left. Alex stole a glance at Henry, who had put the mysteries of Alex's mission in the back of his mind and was now focused on his new goal- find the police station and bring the fugitive to justice. Alex couldn't let that happen.
Henry shifted from walking further from Alex to being directly behind him with his gun pointed right on his back. "You're not going to turn around, move your arms or make any noise." Henry got extremely serious. Trekking across farmland with a teenage spy was unfamiliar territory, but escorting a criminal through a public place- that was something he was trained for. He normally hand handcuffs on hand, but he could deal.
Alex got serious as well. His search for a way out became much more frantic. He was mere minutes from being put in custody that would be much harder to break free from than Henry's. Suddenly, a woman came out of one of the houses and watched them move down the street. He assumed it must be unusual for the locals to see anyone they didn't know walking around. She stuck he neck out and narrowed her eyes at them, not even bothering to hide her suspicion.
Alex knew her type. Plenty of his old neighbors back in London were the same way- wanting to be a part of every little bit of drama or excitement. He got more than enough of them at his doorstep when his uncle died, and another wave when his "gangster" reputation spread from school to local families. Although this type of person usually bothered Alex, then and there, she was a godsend. All he needed to do was cause a minor ruckus and she'd come right over.
Keeping his hand directly in front of his torso, he made direct eye contact with the waved at her as much as he could without being noticed by Henry. He made himself look small and afraid, which wasn't difficult in comparison to Henry's bulkier build. Help me! He frantically mouthed.
It didn't take long for the woman to spring into action. Instead of calling the police, which would be the safe, rational thing to do, she stepped off her porch and strolled over to the pair. Alex had been relying on this. After all, the story she'd undoubtedly tell to her book club the next day wouldn't be as exciting if all she'd done was make a phone call.
"Shit." Henry muttered. "Keep quiet, Rider." He took a step back and slipped his gun under his coat so that it was still pointed at Alex's back, but not noticeable unless you were looking for it. He didn't want the sight of a weapon to send the woman into a panic.
"I haven't seen you two around here before, are you visiting anyone?" She innocently inquired. Alex had to admit her acting skills weren't too shabby.
Now was the time for Alex to make his move. Henry had no reason to hide the fact that Alex was a fugitive under arrest, and could prove it easily by whipping out his badge. So, he wasted no time in seizing Henry's distracted moment by kicking his leg back, catching Henry's ankle, and yanking it forward, sending the man crashing to the ground. Alex spun around right as Henry stuck his hands out to catch his fall, leaving the gun in plain sight. Alex shot his foot out and kicked the gun out of his hand, causing it to fly off and skid to a halt twenty feet away.
Upon seeing the gun, the woman screeched and ran back to her house, finally choosing the safe option of calling the police. Alex ran in the opposite direction, towards the firearm. Henry jumped up and followed suit. Despite Alex's head start, they reached the gun nearly neck and neck. Alex snatched it up a split second before Henry had the chance, but the man didn't miss a beat. Before Alex could get a strong grip on the gun, Henry had grabbed the barrel and lifted it above both of their heads.
It had become a battle of strength, one that a fifteen year old had no chance in against a full grown, six-foot-plus officer. Not to mention Alex's left hand, which was screaming in protest. Knowing this, Alex quickly broke the deadlock by throwing his body weight forward and twisting his hands inward, sending Henry into a 180 degree turn. With Henry's back to him, Alex closed the gap between the two, and lept onto the man's back. Henry tried everything to get Alex to throw Alex off, but he stayed wrapped around his torso for his dear life. While Henry struggled, Alex took his right hand off the gun and wrapped it around Henry's neck, squeezing at his carotid arteries. It wasn't long before Henry's grip weakened on the gun, allowing Alex to seize it. He quickly shoved it in the back of his waistband, well out of the man's reach. Alex took his now free left hand and used it to wrench his right arm tighter around Henry's neck, wincing at the pain it caused. The extra force finished the job, sending Henry straight to the ground, unconscious. Alex fell with him, sandwiched between him and the ground, and got the air knocked out of his lungs on impact.
Trying his best to shake off the fall, Alex wriggled out from underneath the cop and sprinted away from him, chest heaving. He knew the effects of the chokehold wouldn't last long enough for a clean getaway, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try to get as much distance between them as humanly possible before Henry came back to his senses. Sure enough, Henry was back up and running only seconds later. The shock of the fall had likely helped him regain consciousness faster.
It wasn't ideal, but he could make it work. Alex looked for a side street to duck into, or a block to zigzag through, but the little town was just too damn small. Every piece of property had enough surrounding land to qualify as a small park- the buildings were far too spread out to lose a tail. Henry was still hot on his heels. Suddenly, Alex remembered the woman. There was no doubt she would've called the police, and in a town this small, it wouldn't take them any time at all to arrive. He really needed to get out of there, and fast.
He cut through someone's lawn and lept a bright white picket fence, then another, then another. This truly is small town USA, He thought as he glanced behind him to see that Henry had barely lost any ground behind him. He swore and plowed on, desperately searching for something to help him get away.
He emerged on another street and saw a large midwestern style home at the end of the block with a stable nearly just as large to the left, holding the answer to his prayers. Horses.
Hoping no residents were watching, especially no gun-toting ones, Alex approached the stable without slowing. It was extremely roomy with a large area full of food and water containers and plenty of open space. It held three horses, each very similar in size but different in color- two mono colored, dark brown animals and one speckled white one, which was tied up closest to the front gate.
Once he had reached the stall he lept over the gate and went to work on the restraints of the white horse. It was nothing complicated- no locks or difficult knots- just a carabiner connecting the horses' rope to a support beam of the stable. Alex quickly detached the horse from its beam and threw himself atop the horse without hesitation. He had spent up his head start and now Henry was entering the stable himself.
"Stop, Rider! Stop!" He yelled, but it was no use. Without daring a glance behind him, Alex gripped the reigns of his horse, turned it around, and prompted it to run. It responded to his command and galloped to the back end of the stable and cleared the fence. They sped off, past the neatly trimmed lawns and nice houses, and into the open fields.
There you have it! This chapter takes place in a very real town called Newell, if anyone is curious. I don't have any affiliation to it, I just happened to find it on google maps in the exact spot where I wanted this to take place. There's even a river to the east of it and everything! So if you want a visual of this chapter, check out a satellite image of it on maps. And, If you know what TV show the fake gun is from that Alex references then you're my new best friend. if you do let me know in a review! Now, for reviewer shoutouts!
Firstly, to Sungaya for a fantastic review! Although I wrote a tad with each review, this was the one that prompted me to actually finish, revise, and publish this chapter. So you have them to thank for this!
To Ava Simbelmyne for two consecutive, very detailed and very sweet reviews! i really appreciate the specifics, and I'll definitely have to check out your story sometime soon!
To Andipxndy once again for another great review. That helicopter scene took a hell of a lot of research to make sure it so I appreciate the mention! Also, thanks for calling me out on the timeline, someone had to do it, because it's completely whack. This story so far spans literally two days!
To Angel of the Honey Bees for all the enthusiasm! it made me feel soooo warm and fuzzy seeing that someone likes my story that much. I remember sitting down and writing a lot more of this chapter after reading it.
To DreamAddic for saying that my fic is similar to the books, because honestly, can you get any better compliment on a fanfic? Thank you so much!
To Ikspires for mentioning that my writing evoked emotion. That kind of feedback means sooo much to me because it's impossible for me judge on my own whether or not I'm actually causing an emotional response, and it's something I really strive for. So thank you!
Thanks to everyone for still sticking with this story after a year hiatus. I'm going to try harder to keep up with it. No promises, because I'm a senior in the midst of college applications, but I do promise it won't take a year again. The Pain Game is also in the works, for those of you who read that one as well! Now for my little sneak peak for those of you who've read this far: I don't have much, since I haven't actually started the chapter, but our Alex is headed for the windy city!