When Ben found them, he had to restrain himself from blatantly running out there and whisking Alex to safety. There were two reasons that this was a stupid idea. The first reason was that his team mates would probably never forgive him for going in alone, especially if something went wrong. The second reason was that he was armed with only a single gun and there were two of them. He could get a shot at one of them but then either he or Alex was in danger from the other one. The risk at going leaving Alex be was unfortunately lower than the risk of exposing himself.
Alex seemed relatively unhurt from what he could see, which wasn't much as he was at completely the wrong angle. There were two men with him that he could spot but there was always the chance there could be more. Despite this, Ben was fairly confident that it was just the two of them. He wondered why they were hanging around as it would surely make more sense to get as far away as possible, but he wasn't going to question it too much. This gave him and the others the chance to rescue Alex.
Ben took a few silent steps back so that when the others arrived, their presence wouldn't alert the men and they could come up with a plan. Luckily, the arrived only a few minutes later and Wolf scanned the area.
"We need to go for the one with Alex first," Wolf murmured, keeping an eye on the kidnappers to make sure they didn't leave. "Ben and I will handle that. Snake and Eagle, you two stay back so they only think it's the two of us. Come out if we need you. These men will likely shoot to kill so we need to be careful. It's best if we can take them alive so MI6 can interrogate them and hopefully give us some more information on the people who keep coming after Alex."
Wolf outlined a few more details of the plan and they confirmed they understood. Ben and Wolf moved forward until they were a few trees away from the one Alex was leaning against. Wolf was to the right, Ben to the left.
Ben lifted his gun up and aimed it. There was no point going for the chest, not only did they want the man alive but there was a high chance he was wearing a bullet proof vest. He angled it down and fired.
The man collapsed with a pain filled curse. "Shit, I told you!" He growled at his companion as he raised his own gun in the direction of the shot. The other man also raised his gun but he appeared far less concerned.
"Come out," the shot man ordered. He changed the direction of his gun. "Or I'll shoot the kid."
"I wouldn't if I were you," Wolf appeared behind the man and butted him in the head. He wasn't knocked unconscious, but he fell forward and Wolf was able to take the gun from him, kicking it a good few feet away. He pressed a foot onto the man's back and pinned him to the floor, not that he'd be able to get too far with a bullet in the knee.
Wolf quickly glanced at Alex who was pretty calm and gave Wolf an exasperated look as if saying 'Finally, you took your time'. Wolf rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the other man who hadn't made any move to help his partner. His gun was set on Wolf, but he made no indication that he was going to shoot any time soon.
"I would shoot you," he said after a moment's silence. "But I assume that your friend would shoot straight after, and if he did not then one of your other two comrades would."
Knowing that they'd all been spotted, Ben, Snake and Eagle all came out from behind the trees with their guns raised. They had the disadvantage that they weren't wearing any protection, in fact they were still in their pyjamas, but they outnumbered him.
Snake slowly made his way over to Alex. He didn't make a move to untie him, but if a shot was fired at the teen, he would easily be able to protect him from it.
"It seems we have a dilemma. I do not want to shoot the boy and my boss would be most displeased were I not to fulfil her order," the man said thoughtfully. He sighed and his shoulder's slumped marginally. "I suppose I know what I must do."
Faster than any of them could anticipate, the man fired a bullet. There was no time for his victim to move and they slumped down, a shot in their head.
Ben stood stunned. None of the unit had been hit, and Alex was fine. The guy had killed his own partner.
"Care for one last guess of my name, Alex?" The man asked conversationally.
Ben looked towards Alex confusedly and the boy shrugged. "I didn't know if Yassen had any family, but that's all I can think."
The man nodded, pleased with his answer. "You would be correct. For a long time, Yassen did not have any family for I was not supposed to be alive." With a free hand, the man pulled off his mask.
"My name is Kirill Gregorovitch."
Alex was able to see the family resemblance. He had blonde close cropped hair just as his brother had, but Kirill's had streaks of brown. His nose was crooked, suggesting it had been broken more than once and his face shape was very similar to Yassen. He looked much younger than Yassen though, so much so that Alex thought he couldn't be much older than his early twenties.
"You're his brother." It was a statement, not a question, but Kirill still nodded.
"Yes. Now, I would suggest you get out of here before my associates come. I hope to not see you again, Alex."
Before any of them could make a move to stop him, Kirill ran from them to the road nearby. Wolf tried to get a shot at him but all of them missed and they were left alone with a dead body.
"I get the feeling we've missed something," Eagle said slowly, twisting to face Alex who was being untied by Snake.
"It's not important," Alex dismissed but Wolf wasn't going to accept that.
"It obviously is Cub," he said. "I get the feeling that whatever just went on between you two had something to do with the fact you're safe and we're unharmed. I want to know what it is."
"I said it's none of your business" Alex replied, getting angry. "Look, he gave us a warning that people are coming and you know what? I'd really rather make sure they don't find us."
Wolf didn't like to admit it, but Alex had a point. Any discussion he wanted to have could wait till they'd left the area.
"Are you hurt?" He asked Alex and the teen shook his head. "Not badly."
This concerned Wolf slightly, and Snake by his expression, but Wolf trusted that Alex would tell them if any injuries he sustained would hinder their movement. They quickly made their way back to the tents and only bothered picking up their belongings. Putting down the tents would take too long and Wolf wanted them out of the forest and back home as soon as possible.
In the car, Ben called MI6 and explained to them what had happened. They promised they'd send some agents out to see if they could find the people Kirill had been talking about and asked if they needed any further assistance. Ben told them they didn't and hung up.
"This is ridiculous," he grouched, sliding his phone back into his bag. "I'm going to see Blunt tomorrow and get him to tell me what's going on. We need to know what we're dealing with here if we're going to be able to protect Alex."
Alex rolled his eyes. "I'm still here and voluntarily seeing Blunt 3 times in the span of a week? You're either brave or mad."
"Mad seems like a good description," Ben muttered.
They made it back to the flat without any problems and Alex headed straight to his room. Or at least he tried.
"Not so fast Cub," Wolf called out to him. Alex stopped and grudgingly turned around.
"I'm tired. Can't this wait till the morning?"
"No cos otherwise you'll just try and get out of it again. Much like you've been doing to all our other questions. Now sit," Wolf commanded, pointing to the sofa.
Alex looked longingly in the direction of his room for a few seconds before doing as Wolf said and slouching in his seat with his arms folded. His chest hurt from the kicks and he was tired as hell from his impromptu kidnapping. Was going to his bed too much to ask? According to the four men in front of him, it apparently was.
"So, we'll start of easy. Who's Yassen?"
Wolf obviously wasn't going to let him go without some answers so Alex was determined to be as vague as possible.
"He worked for a criminal organisation as an assassin. He turned up in a couple of my missions. He's dead now."
"Ok. What's so important about him that his brother decided not to kill any of us?"
Alex shrugged. Honestly, he wasn't completely sure. He didn't know how much Yassen had told his brother about Alex, or what Kirill's motives were.
"I don't know why he didn't kill you. He didn't kill me because he doesn't kill children. Yassen said the same thing to me. It sounds like some sort of family code," Alex said, rubbing his wrists. The skin had been rubbed by the rope and was now irritating him. Snake noticed this and went to get him some cream for it.
"Do you think Kirill could be working for the same people as Yassen?" Eagle asked.
Alex grimaced. The name had never been said during the time he'd spent in captivity previously, but he'd suspected it. They said SCORPIA never forgive, SCORPIA never forget and they were right.
"I think so," Alex admitted.
"So then you know the people trying to kidnap you," Ben said hopefully and Alex gritted his teeth. He absolutely refused to talk about SCORPIA in the off chance that they wanted to know how he knew about them in the first place. That would then open a whole new can of worms he wasn't ready to deal with yet.
Fortunately, Snake came out at this point with the cream and they gave him some time to apply it. He sighed in relief when the pain immediately started to ease.
"Yassen never said who he worked for," Alex lied, hoping they'd buy it. Sadly, with the strain he'd been put under and the fact he was extremely tired meant his lying ability wasn't up to scratch and Ben saw this.
"You're lying," Ben said, his tone wasn't accusing but Alex closed off.
"So? You said you wouldn't force me to answer anything I didn't want to and I don't want to answer this," Alex said, standing.
"Woah, let's calm down here." Wolf raised a hand. "I get you not wanting to tell us everything but you're in danger Cub. Don't you understand that? Anything you have to tell us could be valuable and I think MI6 would need to know it as well in order to stop them. Give us a break here Cub."
Alex clenched his fists. "Give you a break? How about you give me one! All you've been interested in since I came here was my life and when will you get it that I will only tell you stuff if you don't force me and prove that I can trust you! Just because you've saved me a couple of times doesn't mean I owe you. If anything, MI6 owe you for keeping their precious spy alive. You know what, I don't even care anymore. I'm going to bed and you are not going to stop me."
Alex walked to his room without looking back. Wolf blinked owlishly, wondering how it had all suddenly gone out of control.
"That could have gone better," Eagle acknowledged quietly and Wolf glared at him.
"Well, if you thought you could have done better why didn't you say anything?" He snapped and Eagle leant back with his palms raised.
"Hey, don't get mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you," Wolf muttered sullenly. "I just want to protect that kid and he's making it damned hard."
Ben sighed. "You can hardly blame him Wolf. These things take time, but I do see your point. When I go see Blunt tomorrow I'll ask if he knows who's after Alex and what details he can give us. I know Alex will hate me for doing it but right now I want to keep him alive to hate me."
"It's a better plan than none," Snake conceded. "Now, I don't know about you but I think I may follow Alex's example and go to bed. I'm shattered."
And so the four worn out men went to bed, each wondering if they'd ever get Alex to open up to them.
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