A/N: So, took longer than it should've, ah well. But LAST CHAPTER! There will be an epilogue after this, though.
All four men had been hunched over Cub's dining room table for hours, pouring over every bit of information they could get on the terrorist cell that had taken the table's owner. It just didn't make sense. All the evidence pointed to the cell not having the money or resources to break into what, after much investigation, proved to be one of the most secure places in London. The sheer amount of security measures was astounding, their genius even more so.
The problem was, they hadn't been on.
Not to mention that the location of Alex Rider's home was one of the best kept secrets in the business. And MI6 put a lot of effort into keeping it that way. All the neighbors had thorough background checks and were constantly under surveillance, all evidence of the address being linked to the name Rider was erased completely from the internet, if it had ever been there to begin with, no pictures of him existed. Cub was a man who truly left no trace.
So the question was, how did one terrorist cell that specialized in bombing and not much else even find the house? And how did said terrorists manage to disable the security system?
The more they dug, the more questions to be answered surfaced.
Even more unfortunate, in addition to bombing, these particular terrorists were very, very good at hiding. Very, very, very good.
Finally, Wolf made the call.
"Okay. We've been awake for over 36 hours. We haven't really gotten anything done in the last two. I say-"
"We are not giving up!" Eagle exclaimed, ink smudged on his jaw from taking notes and a hint of desperation in his eye. "I don't bloody care what the statistics say!"
Silence.
"What?" Eagle snapped. "We were all thinking it anyway."
There was another roaring silence and then Wolf picked back up.
"All I'm saying is that we're no good to Cub if we can't function. We need to get some sleep. Come back with fresh eyes, a couple hours, and some protein."
Snake sighed, not looking happy, but not arguing either. Fox ran a hand through his hair moodily, but just nodded slowly. Eagle rubbed his eyes, managing to get more ink on his forehead. Wolf stood. Then Fox, then Eagle, and finally, Snake, wincing as his slinged arm bumped the table. Satisfied that his unit wasn't going to drop dead of exhaustion before they made it to their beds, Wolf walked tiredly up the stairs to his room and dropped onto the mattress. He was asleep in seconds.
His dreams were troubled. They were hazy and confusing, but Cub was in there, alone and bleeding. And they didn't make it in time. He woke to the vibration of his cell phone, still in his pocket.
"'Lo?" he said blearily, squinting as he flipped on the light, the sun had set while he was asleep.
"Hey there Mr. Carter. This is Dr. Bauman from St. Dom's."
"Jim?"
"Yeah. Hey, listen, is Alex home?" Wolf's stomach dropped. What was he supposed to say? They had seemed pretty close. "He left before I had the chance to give him his prescription. I swear, that kid's a ghost! Nobody even saw him on his way out-" Wolf let out a strangled sound.
"He's okay?! You saw him?"
"What, he didn't call you guys? Jeez, kid can be a real asshole sometimes. But yeah, he was fine, for him. Not very pretty at the moment, but he'll live-" Wolf hung up, already racing out of his room, straight to Cub's. Empty.
He ran down the stairs, whipping around the corner to the kitchen to see-
Cub. Leaning against the counter sipping at a cup of coffee.
Wolf's whole body sagged in relief. Cub quirked an eyebrow at him. Wolf just started yelling. For getting kidnapped, for being missing for so long, for not calling them as soon as he was in the clear.
"I had to hear it from your bloody doctor!" A thundering behind him signaled the arrival of the rest of the unit.
"Cub!"
"What happened?!"
"Are you okay?"
"Did you escape?"
The questions came much too fast for Cub to even attempt to answer them. He just leaned against his counter, sipping his coffee. He was exhausted, Wolf could tell. There was a slight tremor in his hands and his muscles were ever so slightly tensed. He leaned against the counter carefully, as if trying to avoid leaning against his ribs. Bruises scattered his face, there was swelling around his jaw and his right eye. The shadows under his eyes were more pronounced than ever. He looked like hell.
Finally, the questions stopped.
"Everything's fine. I'm going to bed." Cub stated, setting down his mug and trudging towards the stairs. It was then that Wolf realized that for the first time, Cub hadn't been drinking coffee. It was tea. "You guys can leave whenever you want. Don't make too much noise while you're packing."
"WHAT?" four voices shouted in unison.
"There's no way-"
"Not after what happen-"
"If you think-"
Cub had a puzzled look on his face. Slowly, they all shut up to hear what he had to say.
"They didn't tell you? I mean, I understand why they didn't before, but-"
"Tell us what?" Wolf asked loudly.
"It was a set up." he said, like it was obvious.
"What was a set up?!" Fox exclaimed.
"The whole thing. It was a brilliant plan, I couldn't believe it when Blunt told me."
Silence.
"What." Wolf said.
Cub laughed.
"No, okay, listen. So this terrorist cell, they've been planning to bomb an office building downtown, but we couldn't find them, and we didn't know what building it was.
"I humiliated their leader about a year ago, before he was with this group, and he's got this grudge against me. So, Blunt thinks, if we could just get someone inside their base, we could take them down. And voila, the plan was born."
"I think I know what you're saying, and I don't like it. Explain." Wolf growled. Cub frowned, his earlier tired contentment gone.
"Blunt leaked my whereabouts to the terrorists a couple months ago. He brought you guys in to make me seem like I needed bodyguards. That way they'd think I was injured more severely than I really was. Where they got the idea to use you guys as leverage, I don't know, but it worked out fine. Morons didn't even bring you guys with, that would've been a mess. All's well that ends well, I suppose."
Silence.
"And you knew this," Eagle started, his eyes dark. "the whole time?"
"No," Cub said shortly, catching on to the murderous looks being thrown his way. "Blunt didn't tell me until after you were here. They were already watching the house, so my reaction had to seem as normal as possible."
"So all that shit about suicide and keeping an eye on you, that was all an act?" Snake asked, scowling. Cub's frown deepened.
"Of course."
"This is exactly why I left MI6." Fox said, his voice bitter with disgust.
"I don't know why you guys are so upset. It was a great plan, it went smoothly, what's the problem?"
"The problem is, you didn't fucking tell us!" Wolf yelled.
"That's ridiculous! One hint that you guys were okay with me being taken and we would've lost everything!" Cub responded loudly, starting to lose his cool.
"You still should've told us! You owe us that!" Wolf shouted. Cub snapped.
"I don't owe you anything!"
"Snake got shot you little brat! We've all been going crazy for the two days searching for you!"
"That's your loss, now isn't it?" Cub said after several beats of ringing silence, his voice like ice. "We're not friends. We're not teammates. Get it through your head." He turned around and started up the stairs. "I expect you to be gone when I wake up."
A/N: So, kinda really short, just kinda wrapped up like that. I currently have two versions of the epilogue written, one from Wolf's point of view and one from Fox's. I like them both, but am leaning towards Wolf's, since the majority of the story is from his POV. Any opinions? Fox's is shorter, if that makes a difference, and they can't coexist.
