Disclaimer: Don't own Alex Rider or anything else you recognize.

I have written a few more chapters the last couple of days. If you want to read them sooner (aka like today) I will post them IF I get at least six more reviews on this chapter. Alright? Do we have a deal?

Enjoy!

Chapter 14: Phase Two (1,635 words)

Alex pulled the black baklava in front of her face and left her hide-out.

Time to cause some havoc.

Eagle's knuckles, hands clutching a combat knife, were white, solely giving away how tense he really was.

His breathing was steady at a normal rate and he wore a concentrated expression on his face, very unlike him. Serious. Focused. And worried. But still somewhat calm. (He trusted Alex and her abilities to help her come out of this alive.)

Until they heard the gunshot ring out through the speakers and saw the hidden camera close in on the floor.

Then, his heart stopped.

– earlier –

Alex climbed skillfully over the gate, opening it from the inside and leaving it ajar for the others.

Then she put on one of the fallen guard's jacket and stole his key card. She kept, silently creeping onwards, to the shadows, to avoid being detected by someone from inside, coincidentally looking outside.

They needed the surprise effect on their side.

Where was the alarm again? Oh, I remember...

Cautiously she went up to the door, ignoring all her instincts screaming at her to run away.

She opened the door carefully, but not too careful, with her 'credit card' from the R&G so it still seemed like she had every right to be there. Well, I have.

Checking for anyone in the hall way, she went in.

At first glance this was just a regular warehouse.

However, experience dictated that there would be a secret basement or jib doors to hide what the public eye/government shouldn't see.

Alex walked in the same manner she had seen other Scorpia agents walk in seemingly safe buildings.

One person, a man in his late twenties, early thirties, came down the corridor, but didn't spare her a second glance.

She recognized him but refrained from talking. He hadn't recognized her after all.

She could hear the sigh of relief from the others in her ear.

What did they think she was? Some FNG?

She planted a hidden camera in the hallway for surveillance by the techies before entering a small office. That way, they could give her a heads up if anyone suspicious went in her direction. Or something happened.

There was only one Scorpia techie awake and working in the small room.

They had to feel safe.

She knocked him out before he registered her presence.

Idiot. Freaking carelessness.

The spy planted another bug and hidden camera in the surveillance room, then went over to where the alarm system was operated.

She hacked the system easily and switched it off.

After all, practice makes perfect.

Afterwards, she turned to the monitors the techie had looked at, searching for any signs of Ben or his cell.

"Devil to Base. I'm in. Do you have eyes on the corridor and the surveillance room?"

Is he still there? Did he remember my face?

"Base to Devil. Affirmative."

"Devil to Base. I need you to hack in their system."

"Base to Devil. Doe Eyes is on it."

"Devil to Base. Roger and over."

Alex left the security room. She had seen the empty cells but found no trace of Ben.

There were few options left. Not every room in the building was under surveillance and the simmering cold rage boiled at the thought of what the options were.

She needed to find Ben before they could use him as leverage.

Wolf and Eagle both tensed as soon as Alex was over the gate.

She was climbing like she did this every day – and probably she had to.

Eagle's eyes followed her movements as she slipped the slightly too big jacket on from the downed guard.

No one from Scorpia had noticed her so far.

Everyone held their breath when they saw the guy come down the corridor in her direction, but he didn't seem to think there was anything amiss.

'Alex is too good for that.', a voice whispered in his head, sounding suspiciously like Taipan.

Nonetheless, everyone let out the breath they had held in when the man passed the spy without attacking.

She opened a small room that was apparently their surveillance room, only manned by one guy. Before he could react, Alex had knocked the Scorpia techie out.

'Good job!', he cheered her on.

"Devil to Base. I'm in. Do you have eyes on the corridor and the surveillance room?", she radioed in.

The Germans seemed to respect her even more now.

The techie checked something and answered her: "Base to Devil. Affirmative."

"Devil to Base. I need you to hack in their system."

'Find Ben.', his brain translated for him. 'Why isn't he on their screens? Apparently they haven't installed cameras everywhere then...'

However, that command put a gleeful expression in the other techies eyes. "Base to Devil. Doe Eyes is on it.", the first one replied.

"Devil to Base. Roger and over."

Alex left the security room and headed towards a cul-de-sac hallway.

Or so it looked like.

The teen spy seemed to know what she was doing or where she was going. Somehow she opened a hidden door and just stepped inside when there were footsteps coming her way.

They had no idea where exactly she was now or what happened. There was no camera in this hidden corridor except for Alex's.

She turned and the waiting soldiers caught the face of the same man they had seen walking down the corridor earlier.

Eagle's knuckles, hands clutching a combat knife, were white, solely giving away how tense he really was.

His breathing was steady at a normal rate and he wore a concentrated expression on his face, very unlike him. Serious. Focused. And worried. But still somewhat calm. (He trusted Alex and her abilities to help her come out of this alive.)

Until they heard the gunshot ring out through the speakers and saw the hidden camera close in on the floor.

Then, his heart stopped.

Alex turned around to face the man who had followed her here.

Walker.

Of course it had to be him.

She sighed mentally and prepared herself. This was not going to be a pleasant encounter.

"Who do we have here?", the man sneered. "A stray puppy? A lost daughter perhaps?"

She did not dignify that much arrogance with an answer.

"I know who you are. He told us what happened to you last month. Hunter would be disappointed. His only child..."

Alex tensed minutely but kept herself together.

"You have no idea what 'Hunter' wanted or not.", she shot back. Well, apparently not as together as she should have.

Inwardly, she cursed her sharp tongue and loose mouth.

"Are you alone?", Walker asked, not waiting for a reply. "Of course you are. They never remember to send in back up. You could have done so much better with us. We at least get paid and have health insurance."

"The down side is the success policy, isn't it? Who fails dies.", Alex retorted in a casual voice, seemingly undisturbed.

It would have been too good to be true if everything went like I planned.

Walker sighed. "I warned them about you. But nobody could believe what your little traitor told us happened to you. He also said that you were pathetic in the field these days which one of our contacts confirmed. Losing it because of spiders, etc."

"It was a very large one. Black. Fat. You would have lost it too.", Alex retorted acting aloof, as if that was a normal reaction from a spy to finding a spider.

Jason, she and Ben knew it were bugs.

She heard someone snort in her ear. At least Eagle got that she wouldn't really freak out over a spider.

"So it's true? Pathetic. You used to be so much better than this."

"You guys too. Seriously? Only three guards outside? Where is the rest of the army? Playing hide-and-seek?"

"Don't act like you wouldn't know! They sent the newbies out, after you. Thought it would be an easy job." Walker snorted.

This reaction actually surprised Alex, even if she didn't show it. He thought they had underestimated her after hearing about the spider?

Damn. I did not give him enough credit.

"I knew you would fight back, pathetic or not. You never give up without a fight, especially after all that happened in the last three years. They were stupid not to kill you on the spot. Your partner or protégé or whatever he is, fueled their belief that you are a pathetic waste of space. Nobody listened to my warning."

Now Alex snorted. What did he expect from them? Worship? "So you are still a low-level mercenary?"

Maybe it wasn't the smartest idea to provoke a Scorpia assassin in his territory.

But she couldn't stop herself.

Or her tongue.

Walker's patience – or curiosity – snapped. He shot at her, aiming for her heart.

She fell down, on the floor.

"You used to be so much better.", Walker mourned. He had hoped for an exciting fight. Nothing like those idiotic trainees started every now and then. "Honestly, Alex, where did you lose your talent? When you returned from the States to go back to MI6 voluntarily? When you were transformed? When we captured your little 'adoptive' father through a set up thanks to the traitor to the last person on earth that still means something to you? Or did your talent die with that housekeeper of yours in Egypt, what, three years ago?"

Maybe he shouldn't have mocked her, even though he shot her.

Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned Jack.

Maybe.