Right, so as you all know I lost all my work...this is my attempt to pull all my half done chapters back and make them into full ones I can post. Hopefully this one will work out, I have the plan for it anyway...Oh and I sorted the whole uncle thing in the last chapter – I think...

Thanks to Demicat for the idea towards the end of the chapter :)

...

Tom and Alex's new campsite was, amusingly enough, merely a 5 minute walk from K Units hut, meant they had to be pretty quiet but with Wolf off tormenting the other kids there wasn't that much danger of them being caught. Only Fox cared enough to go looking, and no one ever thought to look in these sorts of places – he'd survived hiding under Major Yu's bed after all. So far K Unit's hut had had some interior decorating done and a bit of a sort out, namely a clothes swap. Alex had no doubt they knew it was him but they still hadn't started looking for him properly. He knew about the two that had been sent on the first day, they weren't hard to hear, and there'd been a couple out every day since then, but never for long and never even close to the unit huts.

The only thing he was concerned about was how they'd found out about his bullet wound. He'd edited his file from MI6 getting rid of any mention of that and his time with SCORPIA. The only other thing he wanted to know was what MI5 had to do with any of this. They'd never used him before, and why send two schools just to cover for him? Surely Brooklands alone would have been enough, a class trip to cover him getting some more, rather pointless, training. Although there was something about that school, even if they were a sports academy or something they shouldn't be able to keep up with him. He didn't know of anyone anywhere who ever had, more so now that MI6 had gotten hold of him.

"Tom?"

"Yeah?" He replied, groaning as he put his leg into the puddle he'd been trying to avoid all morning.

"Do you think there's something funny about that other school?"

"Not really, why?" He asked still moping about his now wet, as well as cold, leg. Honestly, why Alex couldn't have found a drier spot was beyond him.

"They're just so damn secretive, and Blunt mentioned MI5 the other day, they've never had anything to do with me until this and they can keep up with me. As in they don't actually struggle they just manage, heck one of them can match me stride for stride when he tries,"

"So?" Tom shrugged, "Maybe they're sporty or something, it's not really worth worrying about, they don't know anything about you do they?"

Alex sighed, "No, but there's something fishy about them,"

"Al, you're always paranoid, just leave it," Tom laughed, "besides, it's not like you're gonna be seeing much of them anymore is it? There's what 3 days left before we all leave?"

"Point taken – so, feel like losing again?" Alex smirked at the look on Tom's face. "You know I have a point, you've not won once the entire time we've been here."

The other boy glared in reply and grabbed hold of his best friend's hand vowing that he would not lose this time.

He did.

...

******* 2 days ago *******

The first expression on Wolf's face when he walked into his hut was shock. The second was disbelief. The third was anger. And the fourth, pure unadulterated rage. Behind him his team mates craned their necks to see around the older man into the hut. Their beds had been pushed to the very back wall creating two doubles, the sheets stitched together and a spare blanket folded into a heart on each of them. Fox suppressed a smirk recognising Alex's work and glanced around the rest of the room. Rules for strip poker had been taped to the wall, thank god it was only 5 more days till they left, none of them could take much longer with 60 bratty teenagers. Although the bets better have been resolved before the end. Too much money had been entrusted to Eagle to let them all leave without finding anything out.

At least this resolved the question of whether Alex was still on the grounds. No one else would have the balls to do this and if he'd left he wouldn't be coming back, even to prank them. Although looking at Wolf's face the boy could probably have found a different way to let them know he was alright. Unless he was suicidal. Then he'd probably gone about it the right way. 5 more days. They only had to get through 5 more days. They could live with that. He hoped. Although Wolf surviving 5 more days of Alex's pranks, maybe it would be a good idea to get out of here, at least until the end of the week...it might be safer for both his body and his sanity. Especially his sanity.

********Now**********

The bets placed about the intelligence of the spies were making many of the soldiers, who had yet to see a move towards either group, were understandably getting nervous and tensions were high as men started worrying about whether they'd had too much faith in Double 0 Nothing. Eagle's bet on MI5s miracle children was starting to look more and more idiotic as none of the 20 teenagers had shown any inkling of realising that Alex wasn't just another school kid. None of the kids had picked up on any of the tension though, they were way too eager to just get home and forget about all of this. The soldiers' attitudes to them were taken as the men being desperate for the kids to leave and just generally sick of their presence. This was only by those that paid any attention of course, namely James and a few of the other CHERUBs – the kids from Brooklands just couldn't give a damn.

A few of the soldiers who had bet on Alex to win were considering launching a search party – if he wasn't there he wasn't exactly gonna be working out who those spies were no was he? There were plans for a few of them to go searching later on that day, maybe drop a few subtle hints the teen's way, let him know that the other kids were, well, not exactly your bog standard teenager. It's not cheating unless you tell him, well that was the rule they were sticking to and they'd swear down that's what they all agreed to at the start if it came down to it.

...

In the huts that night 58 teenagers griped and moaned about the two in their group that had caused them to be running the assault course for 4 hours straight because they hadn't come back. Not to mention Alex's history becoming a hot topic amongst the CHERUBs and the others in their hut. So far all the 20 spies knew for definite was that the boy was an orphan, his Uncle had died a year ago, although as pointed out he could have another, and he lived with an American called Jack. Everything else was still up in the air – including his druggie status.

The next morning rolled round with the customary fire hose wakeup call and still no Tom or Alex. With only 3 days left however nobody really cared, whatever they had left to throw at them it wasn't worth worrying about the two idiots who if they forgot when they were supposed to come back, which James knew they didn't, were hardly going to remember to get on the buses to leave. They'd be in for hell when the SAS got hold of them and it would be more than everything they'd been put through.

For lack of anything else to talk about the CHERUBs set about discussing the mystery of Alex. Just when you thought you'd figure him out he changed. When you got to grips with that something new happened. Alex Rider was something of an anomaly.

"Don't you think he's a bit off though? Nothing about him matches up,"

"That or these kids just hate him – he's not exactly your typical teenager is he?" James wasn't entirely sure why he was defending the other boy, they were never gonna see each other again in 3 days time, what was the point? Something about him had obviously made an impression on the blond teen, whether that was a good thing would remain to be seen.

"Well yeah bu-"

Whatever was about to be said was cut off by screaming SAS men ranting about stupid, immature kids who think it's funny to disrupt the only rest time they got and who the hell did they think they were throwing smoke grenades at this time of night? Didn't they know that they had better things to do than deal with snotty nosed kids who shouldn't even be here? If this was the youth of today then God help this country come the next war – there'd be no one capable of fighting in it! They were all idiots with no brain cells who'd never get anywhere in life if they didn't get their acts together!

"Shut up!"

The presence of this new voice took most everyone in the room by surprise and quelled even the SAS men's screaming as they all turned to look at one pissed off Wolf, flanked by the rest of his unit with a glare that looked as if it could kill. No one was stupid enough to carry on talking.

"Stop shouting at the kiddies, it was the Rider kid, it's his favourite hobby, well that and hitting on Eagle here," the man in question let out an indignant snort which was all but ignored by the rest of the room, "he's in the woods somewhere – we've gotta go find him. Orders from SO apparently. Anyone that doesn't help is on punishment duty, and that one came from a bit closer to home – he's sick of Blunt getting on at him,"

The men just stared at Wolf with expressions ranging from anger, to shock, to disbelief.

"Do I have to say it again? Get gone!" Wolf roared, sending the SAS men running into the woods to prevent the notoriously ferocious K Unit leader away from them. The teenagers stood around uncertain of what to do, only relaxing when the man stalked out with the rest of the unit following him. Conversations immediately broke out amongst the teenagers as the implications of what Wolf had said just sank in. Alex Rider had pranked the SAS.

"Bloody hell, there's definitely something up with that kid," Murmurs of agreement rippled throughout the room as similar conversations took place with the Brookland teens drifting towards sleep after only a few minutes.

"You're telling me, is he suicidal or something? Maybe he is a druggie – you'd have to be off your head to screw with those guys,"

And so Alex was once again the hot topic of discussion, although James for his part stayed out of it, SO, where had he heard that before? And more importantly why did they care about this Rider kid? There's not much you can get mixed up in to the degree that Alex appeared to be, spying was one, and drugs the other. But if Alex wasn't a druggie then...no, he couldn't be, they were the only ones...weren't they?

...

"Hello? Who's this? How did you get this number? Hello?"

"Tell me why I'm here,"

The secretary gave a nervous gulp as Alex's venom filled voice came through to her. The inevitable had occurred. Alex Rider wanted answers.

...

Demicat gave me the smoke grenade idea and lead to the last thousand words so thank you very much and have some cookies! *grins* Although I still needed upwards of 200 words to get it to a decent length but you got me out of a rut so thank you! xxx

Please review!

Ldf x