Be My Fool

Chapter Eleven

D: I don't own Alex Rider.

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Well I'm going to be busy from Friday 6th to late on Monday 9th so I will not be updating this story then (I have prom and Duke of Edinburgh things to do). I'll also warn in advance about my 2-week holiday coming up in 3 weeks, so I also (probably) won't be able to post then. Other than that I should be okay :) Without further ado... read on!

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I probably shouldn't have said it was going to be a good day, because I swear somebody up there has it out for me. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched again. It had disappeared for a few days, but it seems to have come back with a vengeance. It made me twitchy, which was started to grate on the others' nerves.

"Honestly," Tulip hissed at me as I looked around once again, "What is up with you?"

Farah kicked her under the table, "What's up with her? What's up with you? What have you got your knickers in a twist for?"

"Me-ow," Leah said, rather loudly after the small silence, "Why have the kitties got their claws out?"

It had the effect she wanted; we all laughed and looked at each other apologetically. Nobody really knew where that came from, but I had a feeling that they were on edge as well – they just didn't recognise the feeling.

All the things that had happened so far... It was impossible for them all to be connected, but it would be too much if they weren't. It made my head throb trying to think it over, so I left the idea alone. I couldn't prevent whatever was coming.

"Guess what my brother told me," I started, noticing that nobody else knew what to talk about.

Leah's interest was immediately spiked, considering she'd had a long-time crush on my brother for as long as I could remember, and the others seemed a little interested too.

"Do you guys remember Adam?"

Chloe started laughing, as in proper full-out, belly-moving laughter, "Oh my God, what's happened now?"

The others looked a little confused, but I guess that was because they'd never met him before. Chloe was really the only one who had been to my house a lot.

"He's my brother's friend," I elaborated, rolling my eyes at the still-chortling Chloe – even if my lips did twitch a bit in amusement, "Well, apparently, he's here - under the codename Lion."

"And, let me guess, your brother asked you to find him or something?" Tulip said as she sipped on her drink.

I grinned, realising she was hiding a smile and not angry at me, "Something like that. So I was sort of hoping, since it's Sunday, that we might get a little time to look out for him..." I trailed off, looking over my shoulder at the group of talking men who were deciding what to do with us.

"You might be right," Farah nodded, "About the whole getting more time thing. They might want a break from looking after us."

I laughed, shaking my head slightly, knowing it was true.

"So what does this 'Adam' look like?" Leah inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Chloe sighed heavily, batting her eyelids, "Oh you know the type, tall, dark, handso- UMPH!"

I smacked her over the head, glaring, and the others laughed, "Please shut up, otherwise I fear I may be scarred for life. That's practically my brother."

"You haven't seen him in ages though, so he might be fit!"

I just glared at her, which seemed to amuse her more, before rolling my eyes and fighting the urge to smile. Just like old times.

"Tell you what, if you spot him – make sure to point him out – then we'll form a plan of attack to abduct him do you can talk to him. Does that sound fair enough?" Leah smirked, leaning back in her seat.

"Deal," I nodded, and Farah was just about to say something when Wolf yelled over the noise for us all to shut up.

Grinning, I tried to ignore the faces Chloe and Leah started making at each other – no doubt their impressions of Wolf – and turned to face the man in question.

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As it turned out, they had given us Sunday as 'study day' – which basically meant that they'd told us to fuck off and do whatever for a day.

Some people had headed off to the lake, others to quiet spots in the woods, and others back to their dorms. We decided to head back over to the dorm, and were going down to explore the cave again. Of course, we had just nicknamed it 'the cave' so it was hard to get the message across to Chloe what the code 'sleep' meant. Eventually she caught on though, and we dragged her out of the mess hall before she could loudly exclaim what we were going to do.

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POV SWITCH: 3rd person

The room, although rather large, was crammed to the brim with soldiers waiting for the arrival of Deputy Head of MI6 – also the woman who was running this op. Tulip Jones was rarely late, or early, for any of her meetings; but right now she was running about half an hour behind.

In the room already there was the Sergeant, and all the units involved with the kids. It had been five days, and they wanted to get rid of them. They wanted to know exactly what was going on, and that is why the meeting had been called.

The door to the side flung open and a few MI6 operatives stepped in, including Crawley, and then Tulip Jones.

A small hush had hovered over the room, and there was a sudden scraping of chairs as the soldiers took their seats. The Sergeant remained standing though, glaring fiercely at Jones.

"What's the deal Jones, we aren't keeping the brats here for much longer without an explanation." He ground out, gritting his teeth.

Jones didn't even flinch, "It's a little more complicated than that Sergeant. If you would kindly take a seat."

It wasn't an offer, it was an order. He sat slowly, glaring.

"We have started discussions with the threat, but they are adamant to get what they want. We are, however, unaware of where or what this is. We also believe that the target is unaware of this as wel-"

"And just who is the damned target?"

"Here," Jones handed him the file, and he flicked it open a school photo and a small fact file underneath, "Jennifer Gray, she's the daughter of deceased SAS soldier William Gray. I believe you know who that is?"

The Sergeant glared, if he could, even harder at her and spat out, "I don't think I'd forget attending a funeral no more than a few weeks ago."

Jones acted as if she hadn't heard him and continued, "So, as the target is unaware of her current predicament we want all eyes on her at all times. We don't want to frighten her, of course, so it should be done secretly. None-the-less, still 24 hour protection."

A few soldiers, or rather the majority, sent dark looks in her direction – it wasn't their fault that the brat was in danger, why did they have to be bloody babysitters? And they could hardly believe that MI6 didn't want to 'frighten her'.

With a resigned sigh, still furious though, the Sergeant asked, "So who is the threat?"

Avoiding his eyes, Jones shuffled her files, "All further questions can be answered in the file, however I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep this child safe."

It was a clear end of discussion, and with that Jones walked swiftly back out – flanked by her MI6 agents.

Wolf had already found his way to the front, and glared at any soldier who dared to get closer to the Sergeant before directing his gaze towards said man, "Sir, in order to protect Gray we will have to know-"

"Wolf, I am not an idiot. All Unit leaders will be informed, when I find it fit to do so, of the threat." The Sergeant stood up and walked purposely out, leaving the soldiers to find their way out when they were ready.

During the short conversation, the rest of K Unit had gathered around their leader and Eagle was first to break the silence.

"Well damn, I sure as hell didn't see that coming."

Glaring at Eagle, Wolf ignored his remark before saying gruffly, "C'mon, may as well go do something useful while we're waiting."

He stormed out, looking mightily like the Sergeant, and Snake sent Eagle a warning look before the four men walked out after him. Fox noticed a small change in Cub, but decided not to comment on it - they were already having a rough day.

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POV Switch: Jen POV

Laughter echoed around the cave as Leah, always the fierce one, chased Chloe around the room with a feather duster.

Snorting, I watched as they both fell over and stumbled around like a couple of drunks, before flicking on the torch and raking around for the picture. Even though it was still day time, it was still surprisingly dark in the cave. They probably shouldn't be surprised, considering there is practically no way for light to get into the cave, but they still ended up having to go back up for torches.

Finding the picture, I scrubbed off most of the dust before holding the torch close to the picture of the woman in her wedding dress. She was absolutely beautiful, no - stunning. Perched on the edge of a handsome wooden stool, the fluffy white material of the dress floated around her body elegantly, and she clasped a bouquet of flowers on her lap; her hair was pinned up, with a few loose curls framing her delighted face. The woman had very dark hair, but since it was a black and white picture the colour of her eyes couldn't be seen. There was nothing at all that gave me a clue as to who the woman was, considering she would probably a lot older or possibly even dead from how old the picture is, but I still couldn't shake the familiarity that the woman had.

Tracing my fingers across the golden frame with intricate patterns, I gazed at the picture. My frustration mounted and I sighed angrily before placing it roughly on the floor. It was getting me nowhere, and after already feeling paranoid this morning it wasn't helping my stress levels.

Groaning, maybe a bit too loudly, I hit my head with the palm of my hand and closed my eyes for a minute.

"You okay over there?" I raised my head to see Farah and Tulip looking at me from the computer.

I nodded and changed the subject, "What's the computer found?"

Tulip sighed, clicking something, "Honestly? Absolutely nothing."

"Nothing?" Leah demanded, looking up from her rather compromising position with Chloe. She seemed to realise this and just shrugged before moving to sit on her fully.

"Yes, I believe that's what I just said," Tulip said calmly, though I could see the hint of amusement in her eyes.

Farah sighed, "Whatever important down here must be on paper, because all we've found are emails that were sent to and from here and... some place in Cornwall. And reading through one of these, it seems all very innocent – just some friends talking. Nothing interesting at all."

"What if it's a code?" Chloe suggested, her voice slightly muffled from Leah sitting on her, and coughed a bit, "Ugh, God Leah you're killing me!"

Leah snorted slightly and I grinned.

"Well that is very probable, but since we – wait... did you guys hear that?" Farah's voice lowered slightly and we all turned to face the tunnel entrance, absolutely silent.

A faint sound of footsteps could be heard, and some yelling. It was time to get back up, and fast.

Rushing to the tunnel, I pushed Leah to go first since she was the fastest. The others quickly shuffled up and I went straight after Tulip, shoving her slightly to get her to move faster. We got up after a few seconds and we collapsed on the floor while Leah covered the hole with a box and just as we were ready the door burst open.

Fox appeared, and I made an effort to not look like I've just had a heart attack.

"How could you not hear all this commotion? Honestly..." He shook his head slightly before continuing, "There's a meeting in the Mess Hall now. You need to get there right away."

Leaving for the next cabin, we looked at each other in relief before grabbing our jackets and heading out into the drizzling rain.

That was a close one.

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By the time we got to the Mess Hall, we were jogging to get out of the rain thrashing down. Running through the door, we took the spots next to Nate and his friends. He grinned at me and I realised I hadn't seen him in a while now. I flashed a smile back, slipping into the seat on the other side of his.

I noticed him sporting a fierce-looking bruise on his forehead, "What the hell happened to you?"

"Well hello to you too," he chuckled, "Miss me?"

I lost the battle in trying not to grin back, and replied, "You haven't answered my question."

"Well you haven't answered mine, have you?"

"Well I asked first, didn't I?"

"I don't know, did you?"

Laughing, I shook my head as he batted his eyelids, "You're an idiot."

"OI! Brats! I suggest that you all shut the fuck up so you're not all on kitchen duty for the rest of your miserable stay!"

Silence rung out after looking up to see Wolf's angry, red face in the midst of everything.

"Oi, you! Sit down and shut up!" A soldier pointed to Leah and she made a 'what the fuck' face considering she was absolutely silent, and was sitting on the bench because there was no other room.

She met my eyes and I shrugged, feeling the eyes of the soldiers on us.

"Bloody hell," she muttered under her breath and I winced, recognising her mistake.

Wolf looked livid when he marched up to her and yelled in her face, "Bloody hell? Bloody hell? We are well within our rights to tell you lousy maggots to shut the hell up!"

Leah, being Leah, opened her arms up with her palms facing upwards and her eyes widened, "I didn't bloody do anything!"

Stop talking Leah. Please, stop talking.

I kept completely still as Wolf's jaw locked in place, and I could tell he was itching just to smack her one – but that was out of his range. So he had to settle on punishment.

"Just for that, you," he looked around at us, settling on me for a second, before turning back to Leah, "and your little gaggle of friends for that matter, can help the kitchen staff for the rest of the week."

Leah opened her mouth indignantly but before she could get a word out he yelled over her, following through with the threat he'd previously yelled, "Actually, scratch that, for the rest of you bloody stay!"

I elbowed her sharply before she could get us into any more trouble, and she settled for glaring at him. After a second, when I saw his mouth about to open again I elbowed her a bit more sharply and she uttered, "Fine, sir."

Finally backing off, Wolf went back to his original positions and started on why we were called here.

"Due to recent events," he started calmly, "Security of the camp, and therefore you lot, is being increased..."

And that was all I could hear before there was an uproar from the students, all babbling about what 'recent events' were and what 'increasing security' would means. They didn't get very far though, because Wolf decided to yell, "If you all don't shut up in 2 seconds then you're all joining your friends with kitchen duty!"

That, fortunately, shut them all up quickly and we sat completely still – frozen.

I knew that I'd moved slightly, but it was coming back – the feeling of being watched. I looked around, and again found nothing. I had to resign to listening to Wolf, and hoping to God that he'd just shut up and move on already. I hated feeling hopeless, and that's exactly how I felt right now – like a bug under a microscope.

Shuffling slightly, I listened in to what Wolf was saying, "..so, before I was interrupted – security is being tightened. That means that you brats can't go places by yourself without a soldier with you, and you are confined to the room that you are in until you are told to move. This means that there will be schedules toilet trips," he sneered the word, and I tried not to snigger, "during classes, morning and dinner breaks. If you are found without a soldier with you, you will be severely punished. Have I made myself clear?"

There was a round of nods before he continued, his voice not as deathly as before, "After lunch is over, you will be returned to your cabins and you will not be moved until dinner. Tomorrow classes will re-start."

He turned away and went to angrily speak with Fox, which was an obvious dismissal.

"I wonder what happened recently..." Tulip muttered, breaking the silence of the students and the conversation slowly started up.

"Who cares? Do you think he was serious about us five being on kitchen duty for the rest of the stay?" Chloe said, looking horrified at the concept.

I nodded, sighing, before Nate drew my attention back to him.

"What's his deal?"

I looked at his expression, surprised to see such dislike there, "It's Wolf, what d'you expect?"

"Not him, him," he nodded to where he was looking and I turned to look.

It was the rich brown eyes that I'd grown accustomed to over the past few days, stared right back at me with such intensity that I could already feel the blood rushing to my face. Spinning away, I turned to face Nate but instead chose to look at my lap rather than back at him.

"Jen."

His voice was much quieter this time, but also a lot nearer. If I was in my right mind, and not fluttering like a pansy, I probably would have known he was going to kiss me as soon as I looked back up. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with the skill to act un-pansy-like and stumbled blindly into my first kiss.

I was surprised I didn't freeze up really, but my sub-conscious seemed to know what it was doing without my brain interfering. I wouldn't say that I didn't feel nothing with Nate, but I was glad to get it over with. He was a nice boy, and I couldn't ask for anything better... But it just wasn't like that.

So pulling back, and looking into his eyes, I knew exactly what I wanted – and I knew it wasn't him.

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Well... Okay, I'm not entirely sure what I was going to write here... There was something I was going to say but I've forgotten O-O If only you knew how bad my memory is. Oh well :P

I wrote this chapter in just over a day and I'm quite proud of that (: But I am sorry if it isn't up to par :L It's just if I didn't update now then I wouldn't have updated until Tuesday which I thought was too far away. Anyway, I'm 16 tomorrow (YEY! *party*) and my prom as well so I'm really hyped about that at the moment :D

Please leave a review! Constructive criticism is welcome (:

InsignificantBlimp

5th July 12